#there is no medicine to fix that and there is nothing the school can do for me

[frogathy]

it’s frustrating knowing that i knew for two years that my adderal didnt make me feel any different and when i was asked by my mom or my doctor/psych i would always say “i have no idea”, shrug my shoulders, and usually i’d say “i cant tell” or “i have no idea how im supposed to know.” until now i didnt realize just how little it was doing for me. i havent done a single calculus assignment because he only puts the homework on google classroom, and thats just another step for my brain to process and become overwhelmed with. tonight i had so many things to do, but i just didnt do them. i cant function. and the thing is it’s not just things i don’t want to do, like write an annotated bibliography for my thesis or the other assignment that idek what it is—i love calculus, i love the teacher, i want to do the work. i want to do it because i know it will challenge me and prepare my brain to process things faster, and i simply enjoy the subject. i also just need to do it for my own understanding of whats going on. but i cant even check for the homework on google classroom because i get overwhelmed thinking about how i have to get my laptop out and then open GC and then write the assignment down and then open my book and get a paper from my binder and etc. every fiber of my being wants to do the assignment but i cant get off the floor and i am just constantly beating myself up about it because why havent i learned?? surely after nearly three years of knowing about my adhd i would have learned how to overcome that feeling somehow but no i havent

so anyways this post is about how i have a history term sheet due tomorrow that i havent done even though its jsut copying notes i Already took. as well as a quiz on the book we are reading in history except i havent read what was assigned! neither did i do so last week! im doing great and im definitely not fantasizing about dropping out again👍

[angelfic]

Howdy! Could I request a Theodore Nott, secret relationship, “don’t leave me… please”. ❤️

here u go!! i actually really like this idea and kind of wanna recycle it for a longer fic maybe.. 🤔 thank u for the request! 💌

theodore nott x reader + secret relationship + “don’t leave me… please”

➺ part of my 2k milestone writing game

You’re stressfully stirring sugar into your tea in the kitchen of 12 Grimmauld Place when Mattheo and Theodore turn up, bruised and bloody in the hands of Alastor Moody.

The Auror had sent a message in advance through his Patronus, alerting members of the Order that he was heading to headquarters with two death eater defectors. An hour of hoping it’s who you think, and three cups of tea later, you breathe a sigh of relief when you realise Mattheo and Theo are alive.

The way Theo is leaning his weight on Mattheo doesn’t slip past you, and as soon as he finds you among the others, you rush forward.

“Hi,” Theo whispers, the greeting reserved only for you despite the numerous others in the dining room. His eyes are drooping slightly as he sways on his feet. Nonetheless, he gives you a weak smile. “I’m okay. I promise.”

You nod slowly, brows furrowed in concern despite his reassurance. Ignoring Moody’s confused stares, along with the whispering happening behind you, you do a quick scan of Mattheo and find that he’s definitely had worse injuries from spontaneous fist fights during your years at Hogwarts.

“Are you okay?” you mouth at him, just in case. He winks at you in answer.

Moody, seemingly snapping out of his confusion, turns to you and raises a brow. “You know these two, then?” he asks gruffly, a hint of suspicion creeping into his voice.

“We all went to school together,” Dean Thomas pipes up, saving you from having to stumble over your words in an attempt to explain your relationship with Theo.

There’s no doubt in your mind that everyone in the room suspects you and Theo are more than just schoolmates, but you don’t move to address anything. The implications of you being in love with an ex-death eater aside, it’s none of their business. Moody doesn’t quite seem to accept this immediately.

”School,” he mutters, nodding begrudgingly. “And how well do you-”

“Alastor,” McGonagall cuts him off sharply. Peering at him over her spectacles, she purses her lips. “You can get to interrogating them about being Transfiguration partners after they’ve recovered. These boys need a healer. Now.”

“Yes, yes,” Moody replies grumpily, reluctantly letting them go to open the door to the hall. “We’ve got Poppy in the living room. She’ll fix them up, nice and quick.”

You step back to give the two boys space to make their way to the Healer, but Theo catches your hand and grips it tightly. “No. No, Y/N can do it. Just give her some of the medicine, I’m not seeing anyone else.”

You open your mouth to object, wanting Madame Pomfrey to assess him properly, but the pleading in his eyes has you hesitating.

“Don’t leave me…” Theo’s voice becomes lower, quieter and earnest. “Please.”

“Okay,” you exhale, cupping his face with your hand and stroking your thumb over his cheekbone. You look over at Professor McGonagall for confirmation and when she sighs and nods, you respond with a grateful smile before turning back to Theo. “I won’t leave you.”

Mattheo clears his throat, popping the little bubble you and Theo have found yourself in and making you look away, cheeks warm. Walking over to where Moody holds the door open, Mattheo gives you both a knowing look before speaking to the rest of the room. “I guess I‘ll be seeing dear, old Poppy alone then. Nothing she hasn’t fixed before.”

Taking this as your cue to leave, you wrap an arm around Theo’s waist to support him as you make your way out of the room and up the stairs to an empty room. You help him to sit on the bed and disentangle your hand from his, dropping a kiss to the inside of his palm. “I need to go get the stuff from Madame Promfrey, I won’t be a minute-”

“Not yet,” Theo pleads, hooking pinky finger around your own and tugging lightly. “I’m not that injured, just… come here for a second.”

Your resolve crumbles immediately due to not having seen Theo since school ended a month ago, during which he was trying to leave the other side of the war without getting himself killed. You sit next to him on the bed, but he immediately reaches over to manoeuvre you by the waist until your legs are wrapped around him in a straddling position. Theo presses a soft kiss to your lips and the pure love radiating from him makes your heart jump to your throat. When he pulls away, he looks more relaxed and content than he has in months.

“Hi,” he says, a gentle smile playing about his lips while he fingers the hem of your shirt where it sits at your back. Tingles run down your spine where his cold fingers brush against your skin and you end up leaning into his chest even more, causing his smile to deepen. “I missed you, darling.”

“What, Crabbe and Goyle weren’t good company?” you tease, tilting your head. Theo scoffs in disgust, lightly tugging on a lock of your hair and looking at you expectantly. “I missed you too, Theo. So, so much. I’m glad you got out.”

“Me too,” he sighs, dropping his head to rest on your shoulder. You both stay in silence for a few minutes and you bask in the warmth of Theo’s breaths fanning over your collarbone. He nestles his face into your neck and seems perfectly happy just to stay there when he speaks. “It was torture staying away, you know. I’m never leaving your side again.”

You run your fingers through Theo’s hair, lightly scratching at his scalp and biting back a smile when he lets out a sound halfway between a sigh and a groan. “You being glued to me is probably going to make it clear that we’re more than ex-Transfiguration partners, by the way.”

“I bet you anything they all already know,” Theo murmurs distractedly. You frown and sit up straighter to look at him, raising a curious brow in questioning. He looks at you like it’s obvious. “Mattheo is downstairs, unsupervised. If he hasn’t told everyone by now…”

You shake your head, shifting to move off Theo’s lap. A pout forms on his lips, but he reluctantly lets you stand. “I better go do some damage control while I go get the stuff from Pomfrey. Merlin knows what embarrassing things Mattheo is telling them right now.”

“I can think of a few things,” Theo says, his innocent voice contrasting with the devious smirk on his face. “Like the time we were in the Astronomy Tower and you were too loud, so-”

“Right, okay!” you interrupt loudly, screwing your eyes shut in embarrassment as you try your best not to relive that particular memory. Taking a deep breath and ignoring the way Theo is cracking up, you smile sweetly at him. “You haven’t had any injuries to the head, have you?”

“No, love,” he replies, grinning. “Why?”

You grab a pillow and swing it into Theo’s face, knocking him backwards on the bed. Crossing your arms in satisfaction, you falter when he stays laying down and moans in pain.

“What’s wrong? Did I hurt you?” you rush out, panicked as you move the pillow out of the way to climb onto the bed and hover over him. Theo cracks his eyes open slightly, his face scrunched up in discomfort and your stomach drops. “Theo, where does it hurt?”

“Here, come closer,” Theo winces, gesturing you forward, closer and closer and you furrow your brows in confusion. When you’re close enough, he snakes his hand around to the nape of your neck and pulls you into a deep kiss, burying his fingers in your hair. You don’t bother admonishing him, your head getting dizzy from the feel of his lips moving against your own. You only pull away when you hear sudden laughter coming from downstairs. Theo doesn’t look ashamed in the slightest when you do. “All better.”

“Not yet, you’re not,” you say, rolling your eyes and sitting up again. You make sure you put all of your weight on the mattress to do so, just in case you actually do end up hurting him. “I’m actually going downstairs now, okay? The idea of Mattheo talking to McGonagall is driving me crazier by the minute.”

“Come back quickly?” he asks lightly, but there’s a hint of pleading in the way his hand circles your wrist. You give him a reassuring smile and another quick peck on the lips.

“Always.”

[wakkass]

💜Teenage Sofia💜

On the right is some hairstyle searches

AU itself

Sofia sleeps through her first lessons and cannot concentrate on her homework, which is why she makes mistakes.

For some reason, Sofia’s energy is becoming less and less; she cannot easily join the busy rhythm of life as in childhood.

She considered it an uneven start to the school year, and therefore didn't tell anyone about anything.

Despite this, Sofia tries very hard to work, but the problem is that she never begins to accomplish anything.

The amulet began to behave strangely: it loses color and turns gray. And most importantly, it doesn't work as it should, sometimes completely switching off and depriving Sofia of her powers.

This causes problems with her missions: she cannot respond to calls for help in time and cannot talk to her friends. It also reminds her of the helplessness she felt when she was stuck inside the amulet.

Sofia is caught between her old responsibilities and her new academic demands, causing her to fail at both.

This begins to put pressure on her, and as a result, Sofia's emotions become uncontrollable, for example, she may suddenly cry or get angry.

It got to the point where Sofia yelled at Miranda and ran away in a fit of rage, not understanding why she was even angry.

At first, Sofia believes that the amulet is to blame for her strange condition. Something happened to it and it needs to be fixed. This is a reason to turn to Cedric for help.

However, when examining the amulet, it turns out that it doesn't affect Sofia, but vice versa. That is, the amulet reacts to her burnout due to permanent stress.

Sofia doesn't know the nature of her condition and how to fix it. If this is a curse, then it must be removed, and if it's a disease, then it must be cured, and who else but the royal sorcerer will help with this.

The more Sofia describes the symptoms, the more Cedric realizes that this is not an infection or a curse, but something that he himself once went through - depression.

To avoid this, Cedric does what Sofia once did for him: shows care and attention.

He tries to repeat the same actions that Sofia did for him many years ago, because this is the only way to deal with depression that he knows.

This doesn't always help, since she could suddenly cry, and he didn't know what to do about it. But Sofia felt better from the very fact of understanding and caring for her. What's important is that she was able to let her feelings out.

Sofia asked Cedric for medicine and he took her to the throne room where her parents were sitting. A friend nearby can help in difficult times, but there is nothing more healing than family support.

Sofia was scared to talk to her mother, because they parted on an unpleasant note. Sofia was afraid of making this worse, because she reacted extremely unpredictably to things.

I see their dialogue as somewhat awkward at first, which is why Sofia has a lump in her throat. But Miranda is not angry with her, although it's difficult for her to ask about what is happening. I think this will put pressure on Sofia and she will utter her words of apology quickly and incoherently.

It was amazing how much easier it became for Sofia when she didn't face her mother's anger, but her mother's support. What's happening to Sofia is complicated, but she's still loved and understood. No one will ever leave her alone, no matter how much she changes.

The amulet remains gray until Sofia deals with the amount of work she has to do, causing her to burn out.

In the future, Amber helps Sofia with her schedule and organization of things during the day.

Appearance info

Hairstyle:

I knew that Sofia's hair texture needed to be soft and light, so I was looking for a simple and full hairstyle. I chose between a ponytail and a half-ponytail, and in the end I settled on the hairstyle that I could feel best.

I like how in animation the movement of the tail reflects the personality and mood of the character, this is ideal for a pubescent AU, where emotions and feelings burst out.

Meg and Thumbelina are not only a great visual reference for hair movement, but also reflect facets of personality that Sofia might have at her age. And the hair in a high ponytail emphasizes this perfectly.

Cloth:

Amber and Sofia's costumes are similar because they wear school uniforms. They study together in a specialized educational institution, so I think there is a certain dress code there. It's different from the public school setting that was in the original series, and I wanted to highlight that visually.

At the same time, the palette is different for everyone and reflects the individuality of each student.

I took inspiration from Pinterest where I was looking for simple yet elegant clothes. Asian uniforms have the most variety in silhouettes, so I mainly focused on them.

A small example of the cut I relied on

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[im-so-normal-iswear]

helloooo, can we have shadow x a reader who tends to get sick a lot maybe?

A/n: I really wanted to make this angsty, but then I remember I'm really bad at writing angst 💔💔

Shadow x reader who gets sick often

"Hmph, you ahould take better care of yourself"

Shadows voice rang as he turned the corner with medicine and water in hand. You got sick often. Today you were immobilized in bed from how sick you were.

"I try to." Was all you could say before going into another coughing fit and sighing.

He set the water down, opening the medicine and shaking some out onto his hand.

"Take this"

He handed them to you, shakily you took it with one hand, grabbing the glass of water and taking a sip as you swallowed the pills, before slumping back on the bed.

He gave you a short glance before turning away, muttering under his breath.

Not that he would ever admit it, but he really did hate how you seemed to always be sick. Sure he cares enough to help you out but it irritates him.

It reminds him too much of her. Maria.

Don't get it wrong, he doesnt view you as her, but he cant help but note how similar you are to her in those ways. Small comparisons here and there.

Its not even you getting sick so much that truely bothers him, its how nonchalant you are about it that irks him. Thats the real similarity he makes internally alot.

When your sick, wether or not its on the more serious flus, or just a common cold, youre always insisting your fine, waving off any and all questions, or concerns unless you cant get out of bed. It really irritates him.

He knows. He knows that not a single time your sick will amount to how serious marias illness was, but he still finds a bit of comfort in being able to take care of you when your like this. Being able to help you get better, something he couldn't do for Maria.

Shadow sat down on the chair beside your bed, arms crossed and his gaze fixed firmly on the floor. He wasn’t one for lingering, but he wouldntvoeave, not yet at least. The sound of your heavy breathing filled the room, and despite how many times he’d heard it before, it still made something in his chest tighten uncomfortably.

He told himself it wasn’t a big deal. You were stubborn, yes, and entirely too casual about your health, but you’d get better. You always did. He was here to ensure tthat though in the back of his mind he saw Maria there in that bed, just for a moment.

It was Maria all over again. The way she’d insist she was fine. The way she’d laugh, even as her hands trembled. The way her light was slowly extinguished while he could do nothing but stand by and watch.

His fists clenched.

"Shadow?"

Your voice broke through the haze of his thoughts. He looked up, startled, and immediately schooled his features into something neutral. You were watching him with a tired expression, your head tilted slightly.

"You’re zoning out," you murmured, pulling the blanket up higher as a shiver ran through you. "What’s on your mind?"

"Nothing," he replied curtly, his tone sharper than he intended. "Just… rest."

You didn’t argue, though your brows furrowed in concern. Closing your eyes, you nestled further into the covers, your breathing steadying as exhaustion overtook you.

Shadow watched you for a moment longer before standing abruptly. He needed air.

The hallways were quiet, the faint patter of rain against the windows the only sound accompanying him as he paced. His mind raced, memories he’d long since buried clawing their way to the surface.

"Shadow, it’s okay! I’m fine, really.”l"

Maria’s voice echoed in his ears, so vibrant, so full of life despite the context. He remembered the way she’d beam at him, even when confined to the cold, sterile walls of the ARK. Her insistence that she was "okay" had been both infuriating and inspiring, her strength something he admired and resented in equal measure.

He knows your not maria. But seeing you in bed sick and unmoving...

He couldn’t let the past repeat itself.

[mujeans]

I LOVE THE PLAYERS (YOU LOVE THE GAME) ✦ HTS (TEASER)

SYNOPSIS ✦ han taesan's a notorious name on campus; the resident playboy. with a long list of girls he's hooked up with, your best friend ended up being the latest unlucky addition - so you swear revenge on the boy by giving him a taste of his own medicine. after all, what's the best way to get back at a player? by playing their own game, of course!

TAGS ✦ taesan x f!reader, one-shot, playboy!taesan, player!reader, ft. minji, leehan, jungwon ++, no warnings

WC ✦ 868 words (teaser); full fic may be 10k+

TAGLIST ✦ comment, dm, or send an ask to be added! not sure when it'll be posted, it might be a while bc i only really started it and school's keeping me busy...

"is it just me, or is everyone staring at us today?"

that's the question you ask minji as you two settle down in the lecture hall at nine in the morning on a monday. god, living an hour away from school is not for the weak, but at least it's not an 8 a.m. not that it's much better anyway.

"um, i don't know," minji says worriedly, biting her lip. you can tell there's something wrong.

"what's up? you're not normally this anxious this early."

"nothing, nothing."

you purse your lips, wondering what she's hiding, but leave the matter alone for now. if she wasn't ready to talk about it, then you'll wait until she is.

that doesn't stop the people looking over and whispering however. and it's starting to piss you off when you can no longer hear yourself think as the lecturer drones on. clearly, no one was listening.

the girl in the row in front of you two turns and motions for minji to lean closer; she complies.

"hey, i heard what happened. you too, huh?"

you fixed them both with a perplexed look, one that was ignored by both parties. or maybe they didn't notice.

"oh god. does everyone know already? this is so embarrassing," your best friend replies, hiding her face behind her hands.

"i don't..." you mutter, still confused.

"don't worry. you're not the only one."

minji rolls her eyes at that. "i think we all know that. i just didn't think i'd be another girl who fell for his stupid antics."

now this started to ring alarm bells in your head. minji? 'falling' for someone's 'antics'? was this about...

"wait-" you tried to butt in, but was cut off.

"there's a group chat, by the way. of all the girls he'd played with. here - add your number to my phone, i'll add you."

you watched as minji was invited to a whatsapp groupchat, and held back a scoff when you read the name: TS's victims.

turning to look at minji with a raised eyebrow and a little shock, she looked sheepish.

"minji. no you didn't."

"you see-"

"oh my god. you hooked up with taesan??"

"no! i didn't. at least, we didn't get that far..."

it clicked then. "is that why you were sneaking out of the dorm so often these past two weeks?"

"guilty," the other girl, hanni, says simply.

taking the phone from minji's hand, you look through the members.

"23 girls. are you serious? he got with that many girls?" you look at hanni incredulously.

"look, it's not like this is anything new."

"yeah but, i didn't know there were this many. all in the two years we've been here?"

minji nodded grimly. "there's probably more too."

groaning, you lean back on your seat as she takes her phone back. a quick surveillance of the room locates taesan in one of the far corners, trying to look mysterious and cool as if there aren't tens of girls who already know what he's like in bed.

"i swear. i hate that guy. he thinks he can just go through girls like water?" you tell minji.

"if i looked like him, i'd go through girls like water too."

"shut up, dani."

"sorry!"

"it's guys like him why my mother always told me to stay away from boys," you say, scorn laced in your tone.

"what can you do?" minji shrugs her shoulders. "he'll find a new girl later this week. or maybe next week."

but you know that minji wasn't that kind of girl. she wasn't a one-time use and throwaway; a sentimental when it came to firsts and relationships. and now she had to act like she wasn't totally affected by whatever her and taesan had been doing the past two weeks.

noticing the look on your face, minji pats your arm.

"don't worry, we didn't go any further than making out."

"but that was your first kiss! wasn't it?"

"it was," she sighed. "i had to give it away eventually, didn't i?"

"yeah, but to someone who deserved it. not the guy with a roster of girls dated."

she just smiled appreciatively at you, and you knew you couldn't say anything else.

tuning back into the lecture, half of your mind was thinking of some way to make it better. you had to do something - it was getting ridiculous. taesan can't keep on hooking up with girls and throwing them away like it's nothing. you knew most of them held a lot of importance in romance, only to succumb to his looks and charm.

you had learned to dissociate from it all, though. growing up with strict parents, dating and boys were simply a no-no. so you somehow learned to be repulsed by the idea of ever dating at all. you'd never fall for someone like han taesan, you think his name in disgust.

and that's when the idea popped in - get him to fall for you and leave then leave him hanging. you were immune to romantic advances, so it wouldn't be too hard to turn the tables on him, right?

barely keeping your smirk to a minimum, you started devising a plan to play the player.

PERM TAGLIST ✦ @squiishymeow

[yurozo]

resident evil (university au headcanons)

a/n: this is purely based on the beginning of my last year :( feeling bittersweet

chris redfield: a third year sports medicine/kinesiology student. if you're looking for someone who almost always has a water bottle full of creatine in his bag, chris is your guy. he's never the type to dress up, especially because he insists on 8am lectures to 'increase his productivity', so he's usually in sweatpants and under armour compression shirts. he joined the rock climbing club at claire's insistence of getting involved around school, but is unfortunately still getting the hang of it. it's hard to lift all that bodyweight, so the majority of the time he just hangs there. has very little social life. he'll go to a party, drink a single beer, then leave. turns women down because it would mess with his schedule. he's paying a lot of money to be there, and save for a bit of attitude towards his professors, he takes his studies seriously. diet-wise, this man preps like a mfer. protein peanut butter shake at 7.30 am no exceptions, within a 20min time limit of his workout. the dorm fridge has an ungodly amount of boiled eggs. toxic trait: does that white man hand raise when he has a question, and usually only thinks about what he's going to say after his hand goes up. jill valentine:

sociology major, criminology minor. has her schedule perfectly planned out so nothing is before 10am. she can and will ignore chris' pleas to meet her on campus beforehand, usually preferring to go for a coffee before a lecture. is never seen without some source of caffeine in her hand. jill isn't a huge fan of sociological theories, instead choosing to focus on the statistics aspect of it.

her dorm room is an absolute nightmare. there is not a single space on her floor that is not covered in clothes, but has no shame in bringing people over despite this. she'll just kind of awkwardly shuffle them away with her foot to make a pathway.

isn't part of any clubs, mostly because she can't be fucked for that kind of socialization. people always hit on her during class anyways, so it's not like she's hurting for company. she usually hangs out with chris or claire on campus, goading chris into doing something with her or letting claire drag her along into studying. toxic trait: has a windowsill full of empty monster energy drinks. leon kennedy:

a math major, criminology minor. has absolutely handed in multiple sheets of homework with tear stains in the corners. for how nonchalant he seems to be on the outside, he really does take his studies seriously, and always shoots for a perfect gpa. he's primarily seen haunting the third floor library, always looking like he's in a perpetual state of agony.

despite all the silent attention he gets from people during lectures, he does not entertain it whatsoever. the man is there to learn. he has one class with jill where they sit in complete silence together save for a couple of witty jokes at the professor (or other students) expense. the professor both loves and hates him. he's a frequent visitor of office hours, but his assignment is always printed and crushed in his fist. he's had a few short-term girlfriends in university, but nothing long-term. he firmly believes that he has rizz, but he does not. most people just let it slide because he has that attractive weird aura around him. toxic trait: unironically shushes people during a lecture. claire redfield: engineering major, communication minor. another person who takes her studies fairly seriously. the fortunate thing about claire is that she doesn't particularly have to try, the good grades just descend on her from the heavens. it makes chris furious. however like jill, she is not a fan of mornings and is usually seen frowning angrily at the board.

has a friend with a house off campus to store her bike so she can fix it up on her days off, using her engineering notes of course. she's part of a few clubs, but isn't fond of being part of leadership or anything. claire goes purely for the vibes.

goes on a couple strings of dates with guys, but always refuses to go out with people from her classes. she's seen it crash and burn so many times that she's not doing herself. will, however, recommend other people to her brother. toxic trait: pulls up to campus at 9am with the loudest motorcycle engine known to man, and always slams her helmet down on her desk when she sits down.

[lightnotyagami]

hiii!! Do you write on aether?? If yes, can you write a dom!aether x fem reader where the reader is just fucking bratty with him and he decids to punish her? With a breeding kink if possible! Have a good day and take care of you!

" Untrust us. "

Aether x fem reader smut

A/n: you have every right to kill me anon im MONTHS too late for this cuz i was studying to get accepted into my dream school☠️but i did it & had time to reopen this acc so heres your FF!

Summary: your Professor is making you go insane and aether knows just the right medicine against the stress

Tw/cw: breeding kink, school stress, bratty? Reader (im not very good at writing bratty fems im so sorry) , dom aether, harsh smut, could be considered modern au but i thought of sumeru akademia😭 + correct me if i missed anything !!

"Im gonna go fucking- ahh!" you stormed into the apartment kicking off your shoes and walking into the bedroom without even greeting aether. You threw yourself on your bed, face first, letting out an uncharacteristic groan. you got into a fight with one of the Professors, he was makibng you go insane since the beginning but straight up loosing your project and claiming you never gave it to him?? what the hell is wrong with this man?? you thought to yourself as you felt the weight of the bed shift , aether appeared next to you softly brushing your hair out of your face, or at least trying before you hit his hand back "aether do NOT." you growled out. aether simply chuckled lightly, and pulled his hand away from your face, you sat up quickly glaring at the aether in front of you."What's so funny?" you asked as you leaned forwards, placing your hands on your knees."nothing" he responded, giving you a quick smile which you didn't return. You weren' t in the mood to be happy right now. you grabbed a pillow throwing it towards aether who caught it, not saying anything more you laid down again

"you know, i can fix this."

"what the hell do you mean?"

....

"n-ngh~ aether" you moaned out, arching your back at his harsh thrusts into you "aww come on~ wheres that bratty persona now?" he mocked you as he moved faster "i-m sorry~" you whined out to him , pushing yourself against the sheets as he continued to thrust into you kissing your neck and leaving marks along the way "that's better~" he grinned and pushed deeper inside your body.A sharp pain shot through your stomach causing you to let out a loud scream, tears forming in your eyes ."oh baby! i'm so sorry! did I hurt you?" He asked mockingly now kissing your chest "no..feels good~." you whimpered out, clutching onto his shirt, feeling the familiar wetness dripping down your lower abdomen, you knew thus feeling. You could feel it building up in the pit of your stomach, your stomach was burning and your core was clenching uncomfortably "p-please~" you begged him holding onto his shoulders tighter "shh its alright~" he moaned hiding his face in your neck as you felt a sudden wave of heat burst throughout your body and aethers thrusts slowing down to a stop and pulling out "wha-wait i didnt finish yet!" you cried out

...

"i know, thats a luxery you get only when behaveing."

[oneforthemunny]

can't hurry love |older!dilf!eddie munson x reader|

prompt: a little blurb about older!dilf!eddie and reader adjusting to life as parents, which includes learning to have quickies where they can.

contains: domestic fluff. age gap relationship. reader is thirty-three, eddie is forty-nine. dad!eddie x mom!reader. fluff and smut. minors DNI 18+. quickie p in v sex.

Eddie was sure if he heard 'Let It Go' one more time he was going to scream, rip his hair out and shove it into his ears so he didn't have to hear the song ever again. He thought Strawberry Shortcake was bad, but it was nothing compared to this- a new level of hell that Delilah insisted on playing on a loop over and over and over. He figured it was probably because of her new Elsa dress, a costume blue replica of the character's that came with all the accessories- including a very tangled and tattered wig that you were "fixing". He had Wayne to thank for that, the old man could never say no to either of his grand babies.

Eddie was going to make sure he put the idea in Lilah's head to make Poppa watch the sing-along version the next time he dropped her off, give him a taste of his own medicine; but he knew deep down Wayne wouldn't mind.

"Delilah," You called carefully, padding into the living room with a basket full of her clothes on your hip, ready to be washed from the week before. "I think it's time for us to go lay down."

Eddie cringed, the soft whimper of shock, rounding eyes and a pout that made his heart lurch in his chest, followed by the expectant whine, loud and shrill. "Noooo..." Delilah stomped her foot. "No, Mama, we're not done with the movie!"

You looked at Eddie, lips pursed. You knew he'd cave if she begged too much, and you wanted to stop it before it started. "Delilah," You warned lifting a brow. "You gotta have a nap, baby. You'll be so mean and cranky if you don't."

"Daddy, tell her no." Delilah whined, climbing into Eddie's lap, curling into his chest. Your lips twitched, biting back a smile. You wanted to be irritated, but you couldn't. Three years old and already knew exactly how to play Eddie so he'd bend to her every whim. You wished you were surprised, but between you and Brielle, she was bound to learn the ways of the women around her.

Eddie's eyes softened, cradling her head into his chest, stroking her soft curls. He looked up at you pleadingly. "Just a few more minutes," He said, face melting. He looked down, Delilah's tiny fist rubbing her eyes as she fought back a yawn, easing into his chest and relaxing under his touch.

You tsked, lifting a brow at him. "Eddie, we talked about this." You warned quietly. You had been trying for weeks to get Delilah to go to sleep on her own, starting to ween her out of long snuggles and holding her until she fell asleep. She would start school in only a few years, and didn't need to be coddled like that and make it worse on herself.

Eddie had been less than thrilled. He loved nothing more than cuddling with his baby before she went to bed, reading her a story, his readers perched on his nose doing animated voices that riled her up more than soothed her. Often, especially if he was working at the shop late, it was the only time he got with her. He was so pouty when you talked to him about it the first time, petulant with huffy grumbles and protest, but he knew you were right.

"Just give us a few minutes, please?" Eddie's face contorted into a small smile. "The troll songs about to come on, then we'll go nap after that. Right, Pickles?"

Delilah giggled, half her face still resting on her dad's chest, her eyes still trained on the movie. You narrowed your eyes at him. "Fine, I'll go start this load and then you're going to take a nap, missy." You pointed at Delilah, who huffed and whined. Eddie's gruff, soothing voice peppering words and kisses into her hairline.

You dumped the clothes in, bending over to see a pair of your panties had dropped between the washer and dryer. You shimmied your hand down to snatch the clothing piece, blushing and rolling your lip between your teeth when you held it in front of you. It was a lacy black pair, part of a set you bought for Eddie's birthday, that you must've dropped, seeing as it was still covered in your release and his, dried and crusted on the black fabric.

Your legs squeezed together at the memory. You'd taken Eddie to the bar, meeting all his friends for his birthday, even bringing a cake to share at the small booth you rented out, everyone drunkenly serenading the birthday boy. The real surprise was when you got home. Madeline had offered to watch Delilah for the night, ecstatic to see her niece and spend time with her, so you had the house to just the two of you. As soon as you'd shown Eddie the lingerie set, he'd bent you over the arm of the couch, pounding into you relentlessly, not even bothering to take the panties off.

That had been over two weeks ago.

The shift from fucking each other anytime you wanted to with no worries, to having to sneak and worry about being interrupted by the baby monitor or tiny feet padding to your room was a hard adjustment for both of you. Even for Eddie, who had done it once before, it was still hard.

You poured the detergent in, tossing your panties in the wash, before starting the machine. You placed the basket on top, lips twisting in thought before walking back into the living room.

Delilah was heavy lidded, curled into Eddie's chest nearly half asleep when you stepped in front of the TV, hands on your hips. "Nap time, sweet girl." You cooed, turning off the television.

Delilah cried, angry and irritated, burying her face in Eddie's chest. "No, Mama, no!" She wailed, clinging to Eddie tightly. "Tell her no, Daddy!"

"I don't think that will matter, baby cakes." Eddie snorted lightly, running a hand down her back. "You know Mama's the boss lady around here. You better listen to her."

You bit back a grin, shaking your head at him. "Lilah, let's go. C'mon, Mama will go tuck you in."

Delilah cried, fat, crocodile tears streamed down her little red face. You knew it was probably from exhaustion more than anything else. She always got so cranky after lunch. "I not tired!" Delilah lisped, her 'r' sounding more like a 'w', and it made Eddie's heart swell, holding her closer to his chest, pressing his cheek against her head sweetly.

"Here, baby, I'll come lay with you ok? Just until you go to sleep, and then when you wake up we can play with your toys some more, ok?" Eddie cooed sweetly, avoiding your hard gaze.

"No," You said, shaking your head. "I'll go put her down, and I need your help in the bedroom, please." You eyed him carefully.

Eddie's brows knitted in confusion, twisting with a questioning look. You blinked, eyes flickering to your room down the hall. "Just go wait for me, please." You grit though your teeth. "I've got a really bad itch and I need you to scratch it, please."

Eddie's eyes flashed in confusion before widening, bulging in realization. The euphemism wasn't great by a long shot, you were trying to talk in code in front of your toddler, who was more interested in crying and screaming than whatever you two were discussing. Eddie blushed, mouth running dry. He pressed a quick kiss to Delilah's cheek, muttering a small promise that soothed her a bit before her nap, then handing her off to you.

You looked at him over the top of Delilah's curls, nodding down the hall before going into her room.

Delilah went down fairly easy, too exhausted from the constant running and excitement of the day to whine and protest too long. You'd tucked her in before sitting outside her door to make sure she stayed in her bed, listening until her little cries turned into sniffles then silence, the noise machine drowning out her little snores. You peeked in the room, illuminated by the soft glow of the night light and the sun peeking through the drawn curtains, before tip toeing down the hall to yours and Eddie's room.

Eddie perked up when you walked in, eyes lighting up when you shut the door behind you. "Did you get her down?" Eddie asked eagerly, standing up.

You nodded, shimmying out of your sweatpants and pulling your shirt over your head. "Yes," You muttered, feeling his eyes gawk at your bare body. You didn't wait for whatever lewd and suggestive comment was on his tongue, pressing yourself against him, your lips catching his, tugging him in deeper and deeper into you.

Eddie's hands found the small of your back, calloused skin skating down towards your ass, cupping and squeezing the fat of it until you moaned into his mouth. He dropped lower, hands tucking between your legs, swiping through your wet folds. You could feel him smirk into your mouth.

"Dirty girl," He tsked, pulling his shining fingers out with a dimpled grin. "What's gotten into you, huh?"

You rolled your eyes, huffing and reaching for the band of his sweatpants. You could see his growing erection already tenting the soft fabric, rolling your hand over his cock, squeezing it lightly before shoving his pants roughly to the ground.

"Shut up." You muttered with an eye roll, feeling his arrogant grin on you, mouth watering at the sight of his cock, thick and veiny, practically touching your nose. You wanted to bury your face in his groin, smother his dick with wet kisses, that's how much you missed it.

You pumped him a few times, silken skin soft in your hands. Eddie groaned, tipping his head back and you huffed. "Be quiet, you'll wake her up." You pouted, swiping your tongue over his tip.

"Then don't do that-fuck." Eddie groaned, hands finding your hair, gripping it lightly. You swallowed him easily down your throat, hands gripping his hair thighs to steady yourself, bobbing up and down on his shaft. "Shit, bunny, that-that's so good, but I need to be inside you."

You pulled off him with a small pop, eyes lifting to his in amusement. You wiped the back of your mouth with your wrist, his hands guiding you to stand up. "Never thought I'd here you say that." You smirked.

Eddie snorted with an eye roll. He smacked your ass playfully, hard enough to have you yelp and squeal, thighs rubbing together for friction. "Just get on the bed." He muttered. "Let me scratch that itch." He grinned.

You blushed, turning and climbing onto the bed, crawling into a table top position. "What? I didn't know what to say." You laughed with a small shrug, bending your front half to sink onto the mattress.

Craning your head to look over your shoulder, Eddie smirked, eyes rolling over your body, your presented ass and glistening pussy, ready and needy for him. You wiggled your hips, ass jiggling in front of him.

"C'mon, hurry up, before she wakes up and interrupts us, again." You groaned, watching him pump his length before situating himself behind you. "Gotta be quick."

Eddie exhaled slowly out his nose, smirking and rolling his tongue over his bottom lip. "I gotcha, bunny, I know." He grinned. "I'll get ya there, just slow down." He swiped his fingered over your folds, pushing his pointer finger into your sopping hole. You shoved your face into the mattress, muffling your loud, desperate moan that tore from your chest.

Eddie moved, positioning himself behind you. "Ready?" He asked, and you nodded. Eddie pushed in slowly, cock splitting you open, the burn from the stretch of his length against your walls made you whine, simmering out with the familiar mind numbing pleasure that always left you complacent and dizzy.

Eddie groaned lowly when he bottomed out, hunching over so his bare chest was pressed to your back. "Holy fucking shit, bunny." He ground his hips against the meat of your ass. "Been too fuckin' long, baby. Way too fuckin' long."

You moaned when he pulled out, hips snapping against yours, a rhythm building and pleasure pooling deep in your belly. You knew you'd be cumming in no time, the overwhelming pleasure mixed with the fact that you hadn't had him in so long, your legs were already beginning to shake, abdomen clenching and fists grappling at the sheets.

Eddie huffed, hot breath on your bare shoulder blades, pressing sloppy, wet, open mouthed kisses to your hot skin, nuzzling the scruff of his beard into you. "God, fuck, 'm not gonna last long." He warned, hand snaking between you, fingers expertly finding your clit, rubbing tight circles that had you crying out.

"Should be a fuckin' crime to not fuck you for as long as I did, shit." Eddie hissed. "A pussy this sweet? And I've gone too long without it, haven't I?" Eddie cooed into your ear, a little taunting and mean. Your legs clenched around his hand. "You've just been a little pent up, haven't you, bunny? So needy for me, and I didn't even know, huh?"

"Fuck," You whimpered, tears pricking your eyes. His hand on your clit pressed down harder, cock jabbing your g-spot so hard you were sure you'd be spilling over him in no time. "Too long, 's too long." You babbled.

Eddie felt his stomach clench, cock twitching deep inside your velvety walls. His hands gripped harder on your hips, thrusting deeper and harder, sloppy and sharp thrusts that took your breath away. "Fuck, baby, I'm gonna-" Eddie's fingers worked faster on your clit, jaw clenching when he rocked harder into you, bed squeaking, mattress springs creaking with every harsh snap of his hips.

You whimpered, the pleasure building so closely you could feel yourself tipping closer and closer towards the edge of ecstasy. Eddie could feel you clenching, his hand still working on your puffy, sensitive clit, thrusting harder, while his other cracked down on the side of your ass, a resounding smack that left you crying out- a bit too loudly- a final thrust sending you reeling falling into the mattress with a fucked out cry.

"Thank fuck-ugh!" Eddie groaned, his own cock spilling deep inside you. He moved slow, pushing farther and farther into you until you'd collected every drop of him. His head fell forward, curly tendrils tickling your back, his hot breath ghosting over your skin.

You could feel him, warm inside of you, filled with every drop of his rather large load. Eddie rested his cheek, stubble skin pressed to the skin of your back, eyes closed and breathing in your scent, calming and grounding while he caught his breath.

You grinned, eyes fluttering at the feeling of him, his weight on top of you, still buried deep inside of you. The house filled with an odd moment of silence, the ceiling fan above you spinning was the only sound other than the labored breaths of you and Eddie. If you listened closely, you could hear the very faint sound of Delilah's sound machine, muffled to a small buzz down the hall.

Eddie moved his hand, tucking it so it cupped your cheek sweetly, tilting to bring you closer to him. He didn't say anything, slotting his lips over yours in a tender, sweet kiss, full of love and passion, like after a date night and a few glasses of wine. You smiled, his forehead against yours as you moved closer to him, content and basking in his embrace. He left you warm from the inside out, bubbly and happy, full of joy that he was yours; that this was your life together, a life you created that was far sweeter than anything you could've ever imagined- even if it started out a little unconventional.

The chirping sound of the washer singing and ringing rang through the house, signaling the the wash cycle was done. You sighed slowly, eyes meeting Eddie's through a glassy gaze. "I think I better go switch them over." You muttered, your lips brushing his, nose touching. "And you better go smoke now if you want to, before she wakes up."

Eddie sighed heavily, lips brushing against yours in a gentle peck, before he pushed himself up, groaning and the creaks and clicks of his joints and bones. "Agh," He hissed, pulling out of you slowly, his release falling in a puddle underneath you.

"Ed," You huffed, lifting your ass up farther to try and keep anymore from spilling. "Now I have to wash that too."

Eddie smirked, grabbing a wash cloth out of the bathroom and wetting it before coming back. "Sorry, baby." He muttered, wiping you slowly. You shifted, rolling over onto your back while he finished cleaning you, sucking in a breath at the sensitivity between your legs.

Eddie settled himself back between your legs, rubbing against your ass suggestively. "Think she'd stay down for another round?" He asked, scanning your naked chest.

You scoffed, pushing him back lightly by his sternum. "Please, we better not test our luck." You rolled your eyes, sitting up, legs hanging over the side of the bed.

You stood, bending down to shimmy back on your discarded sweatpants. You could feel Eddie's blistering gaze on your ass. "Besides," You smirked, biting back a smirk. "You couldn't get it up for a second round, geezer." You teased.

Eddie's jaw ticked, scoffing challengingly, arms crossing over his inked chest. You laughed, putting on your shirt with a small blush. "Alright," Eddie's tongue rolled on the inside of his cheek, eyes narrowing lightly at you. "I'll remember that, baby."

You laughed, wrapping your arms around his neck, lifting on your toes to press a kiss to his cheek. "'M just kidding." You giggled, batting your eyes lovingly at him.

Eddie's hands snaked down, cracking against your sweatpants clad ass before gripping your waist tightly. "You wait until tonight, bunny. We'll see how many rounds I can go." He growled threateningly, but his eyes twinkled playfully, lustfully and alluring.

You broke apart, gathering the blanket from the bed in your arms while Eddie got dressed. He caught your waist when you passed him, arms full of the blanket, pressing a sweet kiss to your lips, your head tipping back and reeling under his touch.

"Love you," Eddie muttered, kissing the tip of your nose. He fumbled in his top drawer for a cigarette and his lighter, winking at you when you dreamily repeated the phrase back to him, feeling airy and gooey, like a school girl with a second period crush. He still made you feel so important, so loved and adored.

[trustmypoison]

Calico - Act One

Choi Y/N is pretty, smart, and funny and she knows it - mostly because she hears it all the time from all the men (read: victims) she dates. She’s about to get a taste of her own medicine. 

You can find the masterlist here. 

Calico has a sequel called LMLY, if you’re interested.

Genre: (a little) fluff, (quite a bit of) angst, smut, college au, heavily inspired by John Tucker Must Die

Pairing: Joshua x female reader (with mentions of Mingyu x female reader, Woozi x female reader, Seokmin x female reader, Jeonghan x female reader)

TW/CW: MDNI!!, contains smut with no protection mentioned (be safe please!!), mentions of alcohol, food, a whole lot of cyber bullying.

Word count: 12k

This is a repost of a previous fic I did. It was one of the first fics that I ever posted on here and I wish I had made some different choices aesthetically. The content will be the same, it will just be a little prettier and more readable.

Joshua carefully ties the black apron around his waist. He’s in a pair of black slacks, a black button down shirt, and a black tie - the required uniform that’s way nicer than some of the ones he’s had to wear before. It’s only his third week at one of the many upscale sushi places in town. Minghao, his new roommate, had recommended him for a job and the manager had blindly agreed without really looking at Joshua’s resume. The manager said they needed the help since school was going to be back in session soon and they expected an influx of foot traffic. That worked perfectly for Joshua because while the hourly wage left a little to be desired as a lot of waiting jobs did, the tips were good here and he didn’t mind eating sushi everyday on his break. 

This wasn’t Joshua’s first waiting job, so he didn’t need a manager to tell him what to do when he arrived for his shift. On his first day, he’d had exactly two hours of training before the shift leader said he didn’t need it. He found out which section he’d be waiting on tonight and when the hostess led a couple to one of his tables, he was right behind them. 

With a practiced smile, he greeted them. “Good evening. I’m Joshua, and I’ll be taking care of you tonight. Have you been here before?”

The woman smiles and looks to the man she’s with. He shakes his head, an easy grin on his face. Joshua tells them about the specials and points out some popular items on the menu, before taking their drink orders. 

The thing is, this woman has definitely been here - just not with the man she’s with tonight. In fact, she was here last week and the week before with another man. He glances at them curiously while he waits for the bartender to fix their drinks. The man is handsome and clearly spends a lot of time in the gym. And the woman is beautiful, model-like even. Maybe they’re just friends, he thinks. Pretty people like that tend to flock together. Then he sees them reach out to hold hands across the table. They look like the picture perfect couple. Just like she did with the guy last week too. 

Minghao approaches the bar in a matching uniform and apron, giving his table’s drink orders to the bartender. Then he follows Joshua’s eyes. Joshua’s surprised when he chuckles. 

“Do you know them?” 

Minghao shakes his head. “Not personally. I’d kind of prefer to keep it that way. They go to school with us.” 

Joshua hums. Classes haven’t started yet, so he wouldn’t have known that. He’s a transfer student and knows next to nothing about his potential classmates, or campus yet for that matter beyond the dorm and the student union. He’s hoping Minghao will give him a tour in the next few days so he doesn’t look like a total freshman with a printed map from the Admissions office. 

“They’re cute together. Have they been dating long?” Joshua doesn’t mean anything by the question because he’s just curious and making small talk. Minghao’s nice but they don’t know each other well yet. He’s surprised at how amused Minghao looks at the question.

“Uh, no. And it won’t last either.”

Joshua gives him a perplexed look. “How do you know that?”

“Choi Y/N doesn’t stay with anyone for long. She even likes to see a few at once sometimes from what I hear, not that the poor bastards ever know it until it’s too late. I doubt that even Kim Mingyu will keep her attention for longer than a few weeks.” 

Joshua shrugs, gathering the drinks that the bartender slides him. As long as they were paying the bill at the end of dinner, he didn’t care too much who she came to dinner with. He delivers their drinks with the same practiced smile and takes their orders. He checks on them a couple times while they eat and when the time comes, he swipes Kim Mingyu’s card for the bill and they leave. He buses the table quickly and moves on with his night. 

Whatever Choi Y/N did was really none of his business, though he felt kind of bad for Kim Mingyu. The guy looked like he was already in love. 

“Are you out to ruin my life?” 

Y/N raises an eyebrow at Seungcheol in amusement. “Yes, literally since we were evicted from the womb.”

Her twin brother drops his back pack into a chair and slams the tray of food on the table across from her, plopping down. “First of all, you have to stop saying that. You’re a biology major, you know there’s a more appropriate way to say that.” 

“I’m just calling it what Eomma does! She reminds us every August,” Y/N says innocently. Their mother had even given them a cake with ‘Happy Eviction Day’ written on it in icing a couple weeks ago. It was their 22nd birthday and they were away for most of the year for school. She wasn’t kicking them out now because she’d already done that in the ‘most important’ way 22 years ago. 

Seungcheol is not impressed. “Second of all,” he says forcefully, “I’m trying to run a basketball team here! I’ve told you that you cannot mess with my players.”

Y/N rolls her eyes. Kim Mingyu had not taken her turning down another date very well. He’d taken her out a handful of times and he checked a lot of boxes or she wouldn’t have gone out with him otherwise. He was handsome, had a nice body, was intelligent, and was very giving in bed. But she didn’t really feel a spark, so Y/N declined to see him again this week.

“Is going on a few dates ‘messing with your players’ now? You didn’t complain before.” 

“That’s because he was a freshman. I wasn’t giving him any playing time anyway,” Seungcheol seethed, but Y/N knew there was something exaggerated about it. Call it twin telepathy. “Kim Mingyu, on the other hand, is one of my starters and he’s been sucking ass all week. Air balls every time, no defense to speak of, tripping over his own feet. You’ve ruined yet another one.”

“Ruined is such a strong word,” Y/N said lightly, picking at her lunch. It was spaghetti day at the student union and it wasn’t her favorite, but she didn’t have time to run back to the sorority house for anything between classes and office hours for her TA position. 

“Ruined what?” Jeonghan says, sliding into the seat next to Y/N with his tray. 

“She’s out to ruin my team again!” Seungcheol cries, putting emphasis on ‘again’, but he should know he won’t get any sympathy here. 

Jeonghan laughs, pushing his tray to touch Y/N’s. He plops two pieces of garlic bread on her tray before stealing half of her spaghetti. Y/N doesn’t try to stop him because this is such an old habit that there would be no point. They’ve been splitting meals since they first started eating solid foods as babies. Seungcheol had never been much of a sharer, but Y/N didn’t mind it. Plus, she really wants the garlic bread and Jeonghan knows it. He can sweet talk the lunch lady better than she can to get an extra piece every now and then. “Mingyu didn’t take it well, huh?”

“He did not,” Y/N answers in a sing-song voice. 

“I’m surrounded by monsters.” Seungcheol is full on pouting now, but Y/N and Jeonghan have known him too long for it to have an effect. 

“Eat your food, Cheol,” Y/N insists. He probably only listens because he’s hungry, but Y/N would like to think it’s because she’s a few minutes older. 

“What are you guys doing on Friday?” Jeonghan asks them. “I was thinking about going to see that new horror movie.”

“I’m free, but does it have to be a horror movie? Can it be literally anything else?” Seungcheol asked, swatting Y/N’s hand away when she reached across the table to pinch his cheek. Among them, Y/N and Jeonghan were the horror fans, and Seungcheol hid behind his hands the whole time. He had for years. 

“Yes, it has to be a horror movie. You picked a stupid romcom last time,” Jeonghan teased. “It’s my turn. Are you free?” He turns to Y/N.

Between bites of garlic bread, Y/N shakes her head. “No, I have a date. I’ll have to catch it another day.”

Jeonghan shrugs. “Suit yourself. We’re still talking about it after we both see it though.” 

“Who’s the next victim?” Seungcheol chortles. Y/N isn’t surprised that he’s already over his pouting. 

“You and these strong words,” Y/N admonishes. “Dating me doesn’t make someone a victim. Would you say the same thing about the girls Jeonghan dates?”

“Yes,” Seungcheol deadpans. Y/N and Jeonghan both show no reaction to the insult. “Now who is it? Please tell me it’s no one else from the basketball team. I already have to rethink my starters.”

“Lee Seokmin,” Y/N gives a dreamy smile. 

“Let me guess, he’s the one this time,” Jeonghan teases.

“Just like everyone else before him,” Seungcheol tacks on with a chuckle. “Where’d you meet the poor guy?”

Y/N is unfazed by their teasing. “Creative writing class. He’s so sweet, and funny, and have you seen his arms?”

They haven’t, but this sort of comment doesn’t surprise them. Y/N was a little bit of a hopeless romantic. She believed in love at first sight and seemed to feel it frequently, but she also seemed to fall out of love just as fast. But that pattern didn’t seem to matter because just about any straight man on campus would wait their turn patiently, and even some women. Seungcheol and Jeonghan both knew it. All she had to do is bat her eyes and smile sweetly and people were falling at her feet. She just had that sort of affect on people without even realizing it.

“Be gentle,” Seungcheol reminds like he knows where this is going to go. 

“No, I feel really good about this one, Cheol,” Y/N insists animatedly. “What’s not to like?”

“Whatever you say, angel,” Jeonghan placates. “I hope it goes well.” 

It did go well. Really well, in fact. Seokmin was a total gentleman as much as he was a total goofball. It looked like the waiter wanted to kick them out with how disruptive they were being during dinner, so they cut dinner short and went for a walk around the park. He held her hand and offered her his jacket when she got cold. When they arrive at the front door of the sorority house, he presses a kiss to the back of her hand and doesn’t move until she’s inside and has locked the door. Perfect. Gentleman. 

Y/N collapses into bed that night with a dreamy sigh. When her phone vibrates with a text from Seokmin, she immediately agrees to go out with him again. 

Lee Seokmin is riding on a high. Things are good. Classes only started a couple weeks ago, but they seem like they’ll be a breeze. This gives him plenty of time to prepare for his upcoming audition in the fall play that the Theatre department is putting on. He thinks he might actually have a shot at the lead role this time. His friend, Junhui, thinks so too after running lines with him. 

And then there’s Y/N. Seokmin sighs dreamily. She’s pretty, funny, and smart - the full package. They share a creative writing class this semester and when they were paired up to peer review their first assignment, he’s not sure what possessed him, but he just shot his shot. Amazingly, she said yes. And their date had gone so well that he didn’t hesitate long to ask for another one. And she’d said yes to that too! 

He’s been unable to wipe the dopey smile off his face as he walks into the library and finds his group members already there. They were asked to pair up for a semester long project in their psychology course and it was simple to look around and find the two guys sitting closest to him in the back of the class. Neither of them seemed to care who they were partnered up with either, so they exchanged numbers and agreed to meet this afternoon. 

He knew of Kim Mingyu, the star basketball player. He didn’t know of Lee Jihoon until this class. He was apparently a music major and spent a lot of time in the Fine Arts building. Both guys greet him as he sits down. They’re friendly, but not overly so, which makes sense because they’d never had a conversation before last week. “You seem way too cheerful,” Jihoon comments lightly, though Seokmin’s not sure he really cares for a response. 

“Just in a good mood,” Seokmin chirps. 

Mingyu is not nice, not today anyway. He sighs grumpily, opening his laptop. “I have some things to do in a bit. Can we get started?” 

They have to propose an experiment or case study in a couple weeks, which they will turn in by the end of the semester. It could be on any Psychology topic, which offers an overwhelming amount of options as they flip through the textbook. After a few internet searches, they start offering suggestions. Jihoon proposes that they do something with music - maybe how someone’s music taste correlates with their personality. He says there are already so many personality tests out there that they can use and they’d just have to build a simple survey for music tastes. Mingyu recommends something to do with testing short term memory, like a brain game of some sort which they can just recruit their friends for. Something easy to set up, time, and pop into a graph. Seokmin is intrigued by the idea of peoples’ perceptions of beauty and how facial symmetry impacts it. It’s admittedly less thought through than the other ideas because he doesn’t have any idea how to carry out an experiment like that - but give him a break! He’s a theatre major! He wouldn’t be in this class at all if it wasn’t a requirement!

“Do you have a model with perfect facial symmetry that we can borrow for that experiment if we choose it?” Jihoon asks and Seokmin knows he’s not asking seriously. 

Still Seokmin says, “Yes!” Then, he hums. “Well, I don’t know if she’s ever modeled, but I think she’d fit the bill. It’s the girl I’ve been seeing.” 

Jihoon and Mingyu don’t look totally displeased with the idea. “Oh? Let me see,” Mingyu insists. Seokmin feels really proud to show off Y/N’s latest Instagram photo. That is, until Mingyu takes one look at Seokmin’s phone and spits, “Oh, fuck no!”

Jihoon grabs the phone and Seokmin is hoping for a better reaction. He doesn’t get it. Jihoon scoffs, rolling his eyes so hard his head rolls back. 

“What? You guys don’t think she’s pretty?!” Seokmin says loudly, almost forgetting he’s in a library. It’s such a crazy concept to him because she’s not the campus it girl for nothing. He’s known her name for two years now for a reason.

“Yeah, she’s pretty, but she’s a raging bitch,” Mingyu says heatedly. Seokmin is taken aback. Y/N seemed so sweet, Mingyu must have the wrong idea. 

Jihoon snorts. “Yeah, something like that.” 

Seokmin locks his phone, confused. “Have you guys met her or something?” 

“Who hasn’t?” Mingyu rolls his eyes. 

Jihoon shakes his head, looking at Seokmin with pity. “Man, take my word for it. That’s going nowhere fast.” 

“No? She seems so sweet.” Seokmin sounds like he’s trying to convince himself. 

“Mhm,” Jihoon hums. “Tell me, where did she want to go for your first date?” 

Seokmin frowns. “What does that have to do with anything?” 

“Let me guess,” Mingyu looked at Seokmin pointedly. “That sushi place on the north side of campus? Near the hospital?” 

Seokmin frowns deeper, voice turning small. “How did you know that?”

“That’s where she and I went a few weeks ago, before she dumped me. I got exactly three dates with her,” Mingyu snapped. Seokmin couldn’t tell if this anger was directed at her or maybe directed at him for being the next guy she dated. 

Jihoon laughs coldly. “Same, except it was over the summer.” 

Seokmin huffs defensively. “There’s nothing wrong with dating around. Besides, things are going well. We really clicked!” 

“How many dates have you had?” Mingyu asked. Seokmin meekly answers and Mingyu nods, lips pursed. “Then you have two more at the most. Enjoy it while it lasts.”

“Needless to say, we can do your idea, but we won’t be using her as a model,” Jihoon tacks on. 

Now, Seokmin isn’t one to be deterred. He really likes Y/N, so he agrees with Jihoon’s experiment idea if only to move on with the day. He's sure that Mingyu and Jihoon have it all wrong. They’re just bitter that it didn’t work out with someone as perfect as her. Seokmin had forgotten to ask, but he’s so sure they must have done something to run her off. 

The next night, he picks Y/N up from the sorority house and they have a great time going to see a musical at the community theatre. She seems tired by the time they get back to the sorority house, so he kisses her on the cheek and lets her go in. After all, she said she’d had cheer practice earlier that afternoon. He keeps that in mind for scheduling future dates. 

For their third date, Seokmin finds himself at the movie theater watching the latest horror movie. He is not a horror fan by a long shot, but he’s not brave enough to tell her that when she suggests it. She seems totally unfazed by every single gory scene and jump scare, while Seokmin is doing everything he can to keep it together. Not his best night. 

But she’s sweet and holds his hand throughout the movie. He shyly apologizes when they stop in front of the sorority house and says that horror is not his typical choice. She shrugs and kisses his cheek before going inside. 

A few days later, Seokmin sends Y/N a message asking if he can take her out again. He’s walking to the library to meet his psych group members when the fated text comes through. ‘Hi Seokmin! Thank you for the offer. You’re so sweet, but I don’t think I’m interested in pursuing anything further with you. I’m sorry and I hope you understand!’

Seokmin hates how smug Kim Mingyu looks when Seokmin slumps in his chair with none of the cheerfulness he had last time they met. “We were right, weren’t we?” 

“I don’t want to talk about it,” Seokmin mumbled. He thinks he might cry so he busies himself with his laptop. 

Jihoon pats his back a couple times. “That’s tough, man. I wish we hadn’t been right, but you know…”

“No, I don’t know. I have no clue what I did wrong,” Seokmin lamented, frustration bleeding into his voice. 

“That’s just what she does,” Mingyu shrugs. He’s not so angry now, maybe because misery loves company. Maybe because the guy after him also got dumped. 

Jihoon cursed. “Speak of the devil.” 

Mingyu and Seokmin follow Jihoon’s eyes and Seokmin really thinks he might cry. Y/N is standing with Jeong Jaehyun near the History section half way across the second floor balcony, but they aren’t really looking at the books. He’s leaning way too close to whisper in her ear and Y/N’s hand lands on his chest. Seokmin hopes it’s to push him away, but it’s not. She gives him the same sweet smile when he pulls away from her ear.

“Damn, she moves fast,” Jihoon mutters. “When did she break it off with you?” 

Seokmin’s head is in his hands. “She sent me a message on my way here.” He doesn’t have to look up because he hears the hiss of sympathy both of them let out. They’d at least had a few days to breathe before they found out she’d already moved on to someone else. 

“Come on,” Mingyu says, standing up to pack his bag. “We can do this over drinks, right? You look like you need one.”

Seokmin doesn’t have much to say, even when a glass of liquor is put in front of him, along with a plate of greasy bar food. Mingyu and Jihoon have plenty to say though. 

Jihoon met Y/N over the summer at a bar. His friends wanted to get him out of the house and he’d begrudgingly agreed. He met Y/N while he was getting himself a drink and he thought she was gorgeous, but he didn’t say anything to her initially besides a simple ‘excuse me’. While he was waiting for his drink though, she gave him a heart stopping smile and introduced herself. Now, Jihoon admits that he’s not the warmest person, but Y/N is and it was totally disarming.

However, after three dates, she said he was sweet, but she just wasn’t interested in pursuing anything further with him. 

Mingyu knew her through his captain from the basketball team - she’s his twin. He had always been enamored with her but he saw a revolving door of men around her all the time and was just waiting for the right moment. That opportunity presented itself at the twins’ birthday party in early August. He gave her a little gift and she gave him a heart stopping smile. They hooked up that night and then went on three subsequent dates. 

But just like Jihoon, she said he was sweet, but she just wasn’t interested in pursuing anything further with him. 

Seokmin could openly weep now with how obviously he’d been played because she’d used that exact phrase in her text. Mingyu and Jihoon seem genuinely sympathetic. “Don’t take it personally. We’re far from the first victims,” Jihoon insists. “If it makes you feel any better, Jaehyun is just next in line for the slaughter.”

“You didn’t do anything wrong, I’m sure of it,” Mingyu adds. “Maybe one day she’ll get a taste of her own medicine.” At this point, they’ve all abandoned the idea of working on their project, backpacks sitting on the grimy bar floor under the table. This little therapy session is more important to them it seems. 

“Wouldn’t that be nice? Someone to reel her in only to toss her out?” Jihoon chortled. It seems unlikely given everything he’s seen and heard now. She seems to do most of the reeling in and tossing out. 

Seokmin’s not sure that would make him feel better anyway. He finishes his dinner and drink, agreeing to meet them again in a couple days to actually do some work on their proposal. Seokmin goes to bed early that night.

“Jeong Jaehyun, huh?” Jeonghan raises an eyebrow at Y/N as they eat a late lunch. They’re sitting in the courtyard today to get some sun. Seungcheol is in class, so it’s just the two of them. 

Y/N gives him a big smile. “Yeah. He asked me out earlier this week. Isn’t he cute?”

“So cute,” Jeonghan snorts. She knows he doesn’t give a shit about how cute Jaehyun is. “What happened to Lee Seokmin? Or are you doubling up again?” He doesn’t mean it unkindly, just curiously. It would be hypocritical of him to give her a hard time about it anyway because he’s been known to do the same thing on occasion. 

Y/N’s smile dims a little. “He took me to a musical and he doesn’t like horror movies.”

“Ah,” Jeonghan laughs at her misfortune. “Did you tell him you hate musicals? And that liking horror movies is kind of a requirement?” 

Y/N sighs. “I was hoping the musical would be tolerable. He’s such a sweet guy and seemed excited about it. And he didn’t say anything about it when I suggested the horror movie, but then he nearly broke my hand. It wasn’t even that scary, was it?!” This last part is plea for understanding. 

Jeonghan agrees instantly, though he doesn’t really need to. They’d already talked about how bad it was for hours. “No, it was very lame and incredibly predictable. 3/10 at best.”

“Right?!” Y/N scoffs. “Anyway, I’m going out with Jaehyun on Friday. Don’t tell Seungcheol.”

“I’m sure I don’t have to… Jaehyun has been bragging constantly about it, and you know how locker room talk gets around, particularly with the basketball team,” Jeonghan explains. After a beat, he adds, “Maybe you should be careful with this one. Don’t put out right away at least. Make him work for it a little.”

Y/N hums. “Maybe. You know it’s never really about that though. Plus, you know I don’t care about the locker room talk.”

Jeonghan pats her hand comfortingly. “I know, angel.” He does know both of those things. He knows how she gets swept up in the romance of it all at first, or at least the idea of it, and if sex happens then it happens. And he also knows that she’s great at ignoring the locker room talk later because she’s already moved on by the time it gets back around to her. But the locker room talk bothers him and he regularly runs interference to keep it in check. He’s definitely not above making a few threats for his best friend. But as long as she’s happy, Jeonghan is too. 

Seokmin joins Mingyu and Jihoon in the courtyard in the early afternoon because none of them wanted to be in the dark and stuffy library. He sits between them at the round table and they immediately pin him with a look. “Do you want to move?” Jihoon asks, pointing across the courtyard. “We were debating on finding somewhere else to meet.”

Seokmin sees Y/N a few tables away but her back is turned to him. Seokmin has to get over this sooner rather than later and ruminating over her or whoever the guy sitting with her is won’t help much. He shares a class with her - one that he needs for his degree so he can’t drop it.

So he shrugs. “No, we can stay if you guys are okay with it. It’s nice out. New victim?” Seokmin asks, gesturing to the guy she’s with. The question comes out totally neutral because he’s feeling pretty numb about the whole thing.

Mingyu shakes his head. “No, that’s Yoon Jeonghan. She and Seungcheol have been friends with him since they were in diapers apparently. Jeonghan is basically the male version of Y/N from what I hear.” 

“A match made in hell,” Jihoon chuckles darkly. 

They all get out their laptops and textbooks to begin the proposal. Not a single one of them care much for this class, so it starts to feel like pulling teeth to get words on the shared document. For the thousandth time, Mingyu is reaching to his keyboard again, when dings and buzzes echo across the courtyard. Many people pick up their phones, including Mingyu. 

Except, while others start excitedly whispering, Mingyu sighs. “Forgot I turned that on,” he mumbles, opening something on his phone.

“You good?” Seokmin asks, glancing around the courtyard. He’s clearly missed something, and so has Jihoon, because both of their phones stay silent.

“The university gossip twitter. I had notifications on, which aren’t important anymore.” He’s pressing a few things and then he slides the phone to Seokmin and Jihoon. “That’s why.”

It’s a picture of Y/N and Jaehyun in the library, the exact sight the three of them had seen the other day, just from another angle. The caption said, ‘Choi Y/N and Jeong Jaehyun? How does the captain feel about this?’

Jihoon chuckles. “Tasteless. Not like she has any shame anyway,” he says, pointing a few tables over. Y/N and Jeonghan are giggling at something on his phone, probably the same thing they’re looking at. 

“Yeah, she’s a popular topic on there. The comments get kind of weird sometimes though. Look,” Mingyu says scrolling through them. “Everyone seems to love them together already. They always do. They liked you with her too, Seokmin.” 

Mingyu scrolls to a couple weeks ago. There’s no image, just a basic text post that says, ‘Choi Y/N spotted with Lee Seokmin. Didn’t know she was into theatre majors!!’ Under that post, so many people were gushing either about how cute they were together, or how jealous they were of Seokmin. There are even a few positive comments about Seokmin individually and he had no idea he had any admirers before reading this. Everything about it feels strange considering the way she dates around.

Seokmin huffed. “That’s a case study in conformity if I’ve ever seen it.”

He means it as a joke, but he catches Mingyu and Jihoon glancing at each other. “You… have a good point. Not that I care to get a good grade - no offense, but I just need to pass - but this basically writes itself,” Jihoon says slowly. 

“Conformity in social media. I don’t hate it,” Mingyu shrugs. “But it would have to be a case study. I don’t know how we’d manipulate what’s on here to make it an experiment.”

“No one knows who runs this account?” Seokmin asks curiously. He doesn’t really care what they write this paper about, or care to know who runs such an account, but it’s kind of intriguing when he sees the follower count. Half the student body must keep an eye on this single account and yet it’s still anonymous?

“Even if we did, what would our game plan be? I mean, we can’t hack it,” Jihoon laughs.

But Mingyu is suddenly chuckling darkly. “We can’t, but maybe someone else could.” Then he’s standing and Seokmin’s about to scold him for abandoning their assignment yet again. Mingyu waves at them to join, tossing his backpack over his shoulder. “Come on. This counts as work for the assignment, I promise.”

Wonwoo wakes up to a kick on his leg. He grumbles, blinking slowly and picking the book up off his face. He had been reading while lying in the grass in the quad, but the book was also a great cover to keep the sun out of his eyes for a little power nap. He blinks in the glare of the sunlight and then groans because he recognizes who kicked him, or at least the general shape. He’s seen Mingyu loom over him like this to wake him up too many times in their two years as roommates. 

“What do you want? I’m busy,” Wonwoo puts the book back over his face. 

Mingyu gets right to the point. “What would you need to know to be able to hack into a twitter account or find out who owns it?”

It’s not the weirdest question he’s ever gotten from Mingyu, so he stays under the book. “The username and free lunch for a week to start.”

“Done.” 

Odd. Usually there’s more of a fight for the terms of something like this. Wonwoo lifts the book, but there’s a phone shoved in his face. When he spots the username, he laughs. “Oh, yeah. Not sure how much luck you’re going to have with that one.”

“Why not? You can’t do it?” Mingyu asked curiously.

Wonwoo is back under the book. “I’ve never tried, but plenty of my classmates have. The power that account holds around here is legendary and a lot of people want their hands on it, but whoever runs it has incredible password hygiene and knows how to spot a phishing email. And the account uses a dead-end email address that connects back to no one in particular, so tracing it hasn’t worked for anyone so far either.” 

“So you can’t do it?” Mingyu presses. 

Wonwoo sighs, closing the book to stare up at his roommate. So much for his nap. “I didn’t say that. I’d still want free lunch for a week if I attempt it - keyword being ‘attempt’. Plus, you need to tell me why you need it. I believe in ethical hacking, remember.”

“It’s for a group project,” Mingyu says vaguely. Wonwoo now realizes it’s not just Mingyu standing around him. Two other guys are with him and they look pretty confused. 

Wonwoo sits up. “What the fuck kind of a project are you working on that you need access to an account like that?”

“Psychology.” Another vague answer. 

Wonwoo decides it’s not worth it to ask anymore questions. “I’ll see what I can do. But I have to do it at home. There are some things you shouldn’t do on university wifi, you know?”

“Great, thanks! Enjoy your nap. See you at home,” Mingyu waves, turning away. The two guys follow him, still looking terribly confused. Wonwoo isn’t going back to sleep now, so he picks up the book again and starts reading. A problem for another time.

“Him? Are you serious?” Seokmin asked.

“Not sure why, but I kind of expected some catty sorority girl,” Jihoon frowned.

Mingyu stared. “Wonwoo insisted he was sure.”

Late last night, Wonwoo had busted into Mingyu’s room, announcing that he’d done it. He said it wasn’t easy and it had taken a couple days, but he looked rather pleased with himself when he shoved his phone in Mingyu’s face. An Instagram account was pulled up on it. Wonwoo rambles something about IP addresses, cloud accounts, and traffic on the same network, which means very little to Mingyu who is used to mechanical and architectural engineering. When asked, Wonwoo says he’s 99.9% sure, with the remaining .1% implying that someone else could be using the same device on the same account and network. He unfortunately has no way of being totally certain that that’s not the case. Good enough for Mingyu.

“Sure enough to walk up and ask Boo Seungkwan for his twitter account?” Seokmin asks skeptically. The three of them are standing across the way from the Journalism and Communications building, watching Seungkwan scroll on his phone while he sits on a bench. 

“Is this really necessary? Do we need control of the account to do this? Like Seokmin said yesterday, the case study kind of writes itself,” Jihoon argues. 

Mingyu’s given this some thought. Or a lot, actually. “Hear me out,” he starts, because his two group members look so doubtful. “This could have a dual purpose. We could just write the case study… or we could try to gain some control over the account to start manipulating what gets posted and create an experiment. Plus… it might be a little bit of revenge.”

Seokmin nearly walks away. “Can’t we just do the music idea that Jihoon came up with? I’m not interested in revenge, I’d just like to forget those three dates and move on.”

“What kind of revenge?” Jihoon entertains, ignoring Seokmin’s argument. 

“I’m open to suggestions, but I was wondering what the response would be if the tone of the account changes. I mean, it’s never written as a bad thing if she moves on fast. I can’t imagine why it would when the account gets the kind of interaction it does. But I can’t help wondering what would happen if it was painted as a negative thing,” Mingyu explains.

Seokmin frowns. “You want to start a smear campaign?”

Mingyu looks at him with a mixture of confusion and anger. “What? You don’t think she deserves it?” 

Maybe she does, Seokmin thinks. Because here she comes, hand in hand with Jaehyun. Seokmin can’t believe that he can’t just avoid her on a campus this big. They’re chatting and smiling as they walk past the three of them. She even makes brief eye contact with Seokmin and has the gall to smile. Seokmin’s eyes are still following them when Jihoon sucks in a breath, hitting Seokmin in the chest to get his attention. 

Boo Seungkwan has his phone up now, taking a picture of them as they walk away, none the wiser. He taps a few times on his phone and then Mingyu’s phone dings. Mingyu looks pleased because Wonwoo was absolutely right, no 99.9% about it.

Seokmin huffs. “Fine. Let’s see what he says.” 

Mingyu takes the lead and Seungkwan looks at them curiously when they approach. “Boo Seungkwan?” Mingyu asks.

Seungkwan’s smile has a layer of something unsettling to it. “Kim Mingyu. To what do I owe the pleasure?”

“We’d like to make a deal with you,” Mingyu says and Seungkwan looks intrigued. “We want access to your twitter account for a while. Name your price.”

“What twitter account?” Seungkwan says evenly. “I don’t even have one.”

“We just watched you take that picture and post it to the university gossip account,” Jihoon insists coolly. “I’d think you’d be more careful to not get caught since it’s anonymous.”

Seungkwan eyes the three of them carefully now. Finally, he says, “Say I knew what you were talking about, which I don’t; you’d have to make me a pretty incredible offer.”

“Name it,” Mingyu says simply. 

After a few more beats of silence, Seungkwan stands. “Follow me. This conversation needs to be more private.” 

Inside the Journalism and Communications building, Seungkwan closes the door behind them in an empty study room. “How in the fuck did you know it was me? It wasn’t because of the picture I just posted. You guys had been watching me for nearly ten minutes already,” he snaps, totally losing the cool facade from outside.

“I know a guy,” Mingyu answers lamely. Seungkwan looked less than satisfied with the answer, so Mingyu continued. “He said your password was too good to guess anytime soon, but he was able to trace it back to you with quite a bit of certainty.”

“You tried to hack me?!” Seungkwan seethes. “Why on earth would you do that?” 

“It’s for a project. We’d like to use it to take Choi Y/N down a peg.”

Seungkwan reels back and laughs at Jihoon’s explanation, all the anger from a moment ago replaced by glee. “Oh, I see now. A few bitter exes wanting to get their lick back.” He plops down in one of the chairs, looking smug. “You know, you’re not the first to ask me that, but you are the first to successfully track me down in two years. Usually they just DM the twitter account, begging for a mean post about her.”

“As they should,” Mingyu insists. “You’ve seen what she does to men over and over.”

“And that’s really none of my business outside of this account,” Seungkwan answers diplomatically. “Y/N is a sweet girl that just happens to gets a lot of attention. She’s a favorite for my followers. No other subject does as good as she does on the account. Why would I want to ruin that?”

“Because she doesn’t just date around. She treats people like they’re disposable,” Seokmin finds himself snapping. He thinks it’s ironic when he defended her the same way Seungkwan is just a couple weeks ago, but that’s when he still thought he might be different. There was nothing wrong with dating around. But there might be something wrong if you make everyone you see feel special before cutting things off out of nowhere. 

“And I’m sure she’s sorry it didn’t work out,” Seungkwan said with such certainty that it made the three men look at him like he was crazy. “But I haven’t heard an offer yet. Or what this ‘project’ is for, for that matter,” Seungkwan folds his hands on the table expectantly. 

A lot of it is off the cuff because their proposal document is still very blank besides the headers, but they all explain, eventually sitting down at the table with him. Seungkwan is quiet for a long time. Seokmin thinks he might even look conflicted or that he’s getting ready to turn them down. But they’ve promised to give him plenty of content to post and that’s what finally makes him sigh.

“I’ll pull the plug on all of this as soon as I think it’s getting out of hand. And you guys will not have access to the account, but you can have a say in what gets posted.” His expression turns sly. “In exchange for the cooperation of your hacker.” 

Mingyu frowns. He’s not sure he can talk Wonwoo into anything more since he’s all out of IOUs. “Why would you need that? What do you have in mind?”

“I can explain if you make the introductions. I take it this person has some development experience?” Mingyu shrugs in response to Seungkwan’s question, not quite ready to reveal his roommate’s identity. “I have a little project of my own that he could help me with. And I think it could be of use in your project too.”

Mingyu, Jihoon, and Seokmin glance at each other. Finally, they all nod. “I’ll make it work,” Mingyu promises, desperately hoping it wasn’t empty.

Wonwoo folds in half with tears in his eyes. He’s sitting in the engineering building between classes having a snack when Mingyu approaches him with another request. The two guys from yesterday are with him again, but they look less confused now. Wonwoo has since learned that their names are Seokmin and Jihoon. Wonwoo’s not terribly surprised that Boo Seungkwan is with them today too. He assumes he didn’t track him down for nothing. 

Mingyu looks annoyed. “You owe me one,” he reminds and Wonwoo calls his bluff right away. 

“I don’t. Finding him,” Wonwoo points to Seungkwan while wiping his eyes, “was your favor. We’re even now. Besides, I’m swamped. I can’t possibly pick up another project on the side.”

“It doesn’t have to be pretty. Keep it simple. I just need to have access to an admin account,” Seungkwan smoothly says. 

“You know I’ve never built anything like that, right? Existing vendors keep a tight lid on how their algorithm works for a reason,” Wonwoo argues. 

“It doesn’t have to be complex. Plus, that’s why the admin account is necessary. I want to manipulate the matches on occasion,” Seungkwan insists. 

Wonwoo blankly looks between the four men because he can’t believe they’re so serious, finally landing on his roommate. “Tell me right now why you’re asking me to build a dating app. Is this for your ‘psych’ project too?” He asks jokingly, but loses all humor when Mingyu nods. 

“We should just tell him,” Jihoon insists to Mingyu. “Surely he doesn’t like her either.”

Mingyu frowns for a moment. Eventually, he asks, “How would you like to help us take down Choi Y/N?” 

Wonwoo did not want to. Don’t get him wrong, he didn’t care much for her, but he didn’t hate her and didn’t really care to give her anymore attention. “Sounds like some project… I’ll pass - on both your psych/revenge project and the dating app.”

Mingyu scoffs down at his roommate. “Please? What do you want for it?” 

“Money, at the very least. I’ll get very little satisfaction out of whatever you guys are planning, I’m sure,” Wonwoo says. He’s hoping they’ll drop it now. They’re all broke college students after all. Money is such a precious commodity.

So he’s amazed to see all of them shrug. “Name your price,” Seokmin says easily.

Wonwoo’s eyes are narrowed skeptically now. “Pay my part of the rent this month. I’m saving for a new PC.” He wants to laugh when they agree again. Those that aren’t his roommate don’t even ask how much it is. “Now, tell me what you guys were thinking.”

In the next two weeks, Seungkwan had changed his tone on the twitter account. It was subtle at first. A few words like, ‘Already?’ Or ‘She moves on fast,’ were peppered into a post occasionally. They wanted to see how well each post performed and what kind of comments they got based on the tone and word choices used. 

However, it became apparent that it didn’t matter that she was already done with Jaehyun and the guy after him, already spotted with another guy entirely. It didn’t seem like they were even getting the typical three dates. But the interaction stats stayed about the same, as did the comments. Encouraging, begging, and overwhelmingly supportive. The group is forced to rethink their approach while Wonwoo finishes the dating app. 

“Why does everyone fall for it?” Jihoon laments, scrolling through the account. 

“She’s charming,” Seungkwan replies easily. He’s not stressed about any of this because his account is doing well and his app is on the way. That means that anytime now he can start on his own plan to set up as many horrible matches as possible. He’s going to be writing a ‘bad date’ column in the student paper and while there are surely plenty of those out there already, a few more wouldn’t hurt. “You guys fell for it too.”

“Who wouldn’t?” Seokmin said solemnly. He had already drafted up the alternative proposal for their project in preparation for all of this to fail. It didn’t feel great to talk so much about Y/N either since it was still a sore subject for him.

“I don’t know. There has to be someone impervious to her charm,” Mingyu sighed, long giving up on scrolling. 

Seungkwan laughed and it made the three of them snap their heads to him. “Just pay someone for it. It seems that you guys aren’t above that and surely someone wouldn’t mind to make a buck.”

Seokmin looks doubtful. “You think we should find a plant?”

“Sure. When I have my admin account I can even make sure they match,” Seungkwan shrugs. None of them really have to ask if Y/N will even download the app when it’s available. They know she will because she’s on all of the other dating apps.

“Who would we even draft for that sort of thing? She doesn’t go back to people after the fact, so it would have to be someone that has never dated her. That might be a short list,” Mingyu insists. 

“I’d say find someone new to the university, like a freshman, but that’s not typically her style. But a transfer could work?” Seungkwan suggests. 

Wonwoo slides into the seat next to Mingyu, interrupting them. “Some of the logic you asked for has been a pain in the ass, but you’ll be able to try it out tomorrow with some test data,” he tells Seungkwan, who immediately looks pleased. 

“Wonwoo, would you know how to find a list of incoming male students? Not necessarily freshman,” Jihoon asks.

Wonwoo looks at him blankly. “This is getting very expensive for you guys. But yes,” Wonwoo admits, resigned. “My work study is in the university’s IT office. It’s all in a database.”

“Would you mind pulling us a list?” Mingyu asks, giving his most charming smile. 

Wonwoo rolls his eyes, flatly saying, “Go get me lunch. I’ll see what I can do.” As Mingyu hops up, Wonwoo sighs, getting out his laptop. He’s beginning to regret whatever he’s agreed to and doesn’t wish to know anymore about what they’re using all of this for. 

But ten minutes later, he still slides his computer to them and they crowd around. He’s given them a spreadsheet with the student name, declared major, and current credit hours achieved. They’re meticulous about going through the list of approximately twenty people. They eliminate most for various reasons after looking them up and come back to one in particular. 

“Joshua Hong. He has enough credits to be a senior. Isn’t that weird to transfer so late?” Seokmin asks. They all agree, but Wonwoo doesn’t have access to anything prior to him being enrolled here at the moment so it remains a mystery as to why Joshua’s transferred so late.

“He’s a biology major though. That could work in our favor because Y/N is too,” Seungkwan adds. “Plus, he’s attractive enough to be her type.” He shows them Joshua’s Instagram account and they have to agree. He’s handsome. 

“Worth a try…” Mingyu murmurs, before turning to Wonwoo to grin again. “Do you have access to his class schedule? And Y/N’s for that matter?”

Wonwoo stares for a long moment before sighing. “Go get me an iced americano.” He watches Seokmin jump up this time and Wonwoo really is regretting what he’s gotten himself into. 

Joshua feels eyes on him. He’s in the courtyard near the Science building, working on an assignment between classes, but he keeps getting this tingle up his spine that he can’t explain. He’s glanced around the courtyard but doesn’t see anyone that looks particularly interested in him. 

Until there’s a tap on his shoulder, that is. There are few guys there and he has no idea where they came from or how they snuck up on him. Joshua tries to smile politely but he’s confused. It’s not like people had been unfriendly, but being new means most people don’t approach you first. Everyone already has their cliques and it’s unlikely Joshua will be invited into the fold of any of them. It’s a completely expected hazard of transferring as a senior. “Hi? Can I help you?” He asks. His eyes widen when the three of them sit down at the table with him without an invitation. 

“Joshua, right?” One guy says, but he doesn’t really wait for an answer. “I’m Kim Mingyu.” 

Ah. That rings a bell because Joshua was wondering where he’d seen him before. Joshua had waited on him at work once before. “Uh, yeah! Nice to meet you.”

Mingyu gives a charming smile. The guy is charismatic, Joshua will give him that. “This is Jihoon and Seokmin. We were wondering if you could help us with something.” 

Joshua is starting to feel a little suspicious, but he nods slowly, “Maybe. What is it?”

No one says anything right away and his suspicion is growing. Finally, Jihoon speaks up. Joshua thinks he also recognizes him from serving him at work too, now that he thinks about it. “Have you had the pleasure of meeting Choi Y/N yet?”

Joshua’s eyes narrow because Jihoon doesn’t say it like it’s really a pleasure. “Not personally, no… we have a couple classes together, but I’ve never spoken to her.” 

“What do you think about her so far?” Mingyu prompts.

Joshua must look totally confused but they seem to actually be waiting on an answer. So he shrugs nonchalantly. “She’s pretty and seems friendly enough, but she seems like a bit of a flirt.” That earns three scoffs and his eyes widen. “I’m totally lost, guys. Why are you asking me this?”

“Just trying to get a read on if you’ll be willing to help us,” Mingyu says casually. 

“I’d prefer you not beat around the bush and just ask for the favor,” Joshua insists. He doesn’t care for their riddles or quizzes. Plus, he really wanted to finish this assignment because he works tonight.

When Seokmin speaks, Joshua’s jaw drops. Then he laughs at how absurd the pitch is. He can’t help it. “You guys can’t be serious.”

“Very serious. She’s played all of us and she’ll keep playing people until someone does something about it,” Mingyu snaps and the intensity of it surprises Joshua. Mingyu must not have taken it well when she ended things, much like Minghao said she would. 

“And you want me to, as you say, ‘reel her in and dump her’.” It’s not a question because he’s just repeating what Seokmin said a few moments ago. “Also, why me? There are a ton of guys that would be all over the opportunity to spend some time with her. I’ve seen it myself.”

“You’re new and just her type. She doesn’t go back to someone once she dumps them, so it has to be someone totally new to the scene,” Jihoon insists. 

“Uh huh,” Joshua says, totally unconvinced. “So, what? I ask her out, take her on a few dates, and then tell her I’m not interested?” 

“Yes!” The three of them cry like they’re thrilled he gets it and Joshua’s eyes go wide again. 

“You didn’t even ask if I was single,” Joshua laughs humorlessly. He thinks they must be clinically insane. 

“Your Instagram screams ‘single’,” Mingyu deadpans. Joshua doesn’t really have an answer for that because he is, in fact, very single. But he is increasingly disturbed by the thought they’ve put into this, including stalking his social media to know that. “Look, what do you want for it? We’re open to making a deal.”

Joshua can’t believe they’re so serious. Their animosity towards Y/N is overpowering and totally toxic. “There’s nothing wrong with dating around. She must not feel like she’s found the right person yet.”

“Yeah, you kind of have to give it more than a few dates to be sure of that though. She barely gets to know anyone,” Jihoon presses. 

It makes Joshua laugh again. “Have you ever considered that the guys that chase after her are walking red flags and she can see that within just a few dates?” He recognizes he could be offending all three of them, but he finds he doesn’t care much. Yes, she’s a flirt and seems a little flighty, but what they’re talking about doing in response is so… malicious. 

“I can’t believe you’re taking her side,” Mingyu looks stunned. “You should see the way she’s done this since she got here. I wouldn��t be surprised if she did it before, too. She’s a wolf in sheep’s clothing and she deserves to be exposed for it.”

“And how are you going to expose her for that? If I do anything, which I haven’t agreed to, it would be a few dates before I cut it off. That’s it. I’m not out to publicly humiliate anyone. How badly do you want to tear this poor girl apart?” Joshua asks sympathetically and he can see it burns all three of them up inside. 

“Show him,” Seokmin demands. Mingyu opens his phone, sliding it to Joshua. 

He wants to laugh because it’s an account on twitter. This feels a little too ‘Gossip Girl’ for him. But the more he scrolls, he sees that Choi Y/N is the Serena Van Der Woodson and Blair Waldorf of the account rolled into one. The post dates are alarmingly close, even occasionally overlapping, between sightings of her with a different guy nearly every time. Posts about her go back to early last semester and he stops scrolling because he’s sure there’s more beyond it. 

Joshua pushes the phone back to Mingyu with a sigh. “Look, I’m not totally unsympathetic about this. Getting dumped sucks. But this can only go wrong. It might hurt her, yes, and we can argue about whether she deserves it. But this could easily blow up in everyone’s faces. The collateral damage isn’t worth this. Just stop worrying about her or giving her attention.”

The three are silent and Joshua is relieved to see he has to go. He tells them it was nice to meet them, which feels a little like a lie, and packs up his things. Minghao would certainly laugh about Joshua’s weird afternoon later. 

Not for the first time, Joshua thinks that the world works in mysterious ways. He’s in his Biostats class, still reeling from the conversation in the courtyard, when the instructor announces they’ll be doing an in-class assignment with a partner today. And what do you know? He’s been randomly assigned to Y/N. 

He has to admit she’s pretty charming when she slides into the seat next to him and smiles. “Joshua, is it? Are you new? I haven’t really seen you around before.” 

Joshua nods, giving a polite smile in return. “Yes. I just transferred.” He busies himself with pulling up the dataset they would be working with today. They get to work and he can totally understand why she has men lining up. He was already aware that she was pretty, but she was incredibly intelligent and quick witted as well. He keeps a polite smile on his face but tries not to feed into it. He might think that those three insane guys were a little too intense about their plot for revenge, but he doesn’t want to be roped in. 

However, they’re such an efficient team that they finish their assignment with nearly ten minutes left of class. He kind of expects Y/N to turn and talk to one of her friends or one of the many guys that are dramatically letting their partner down with all the staring they’re doing. Or at the very least, he kind of expects her to pick up her phone that’s been buzzing on the desk the whole time with notifications. 

Instead, she smiles at him. “So, are you pre med?” 

Another polite smile. “Yes. Are you?” 

She’s grinning now. “Yeah! I’m actually going to do an internship at the hospital next semester in the ER.”

Joshua is entertained by her enthusiasm and it could certainly be totally disarming. “I’m jealous. Not of the ER, to be clear. Just the internship.”

“You should apply!” Y/N encourages. “They have openings in a few departments. I can send you the link, if you’d like.”

He recognizes this for what it is immediately. He has his laptop open still and she could just pull it up for him in a new tab. Instead, she wants some way to contact him. 

But he knows how to ignore a message or block someone, so he slides her his unlocked phone. He could actually use the link anyway. She’s practiced at this sort of exchange, because she’s handing it back in moments. “I’ll send it to you later,” she promises. 

Joshua is relieved when the instructor dismisses class. He totally gets now why she has so much power. When she sends him the link with a short message later, he just responds with a ‘Thanks,” and a thumbs up, shutting down any further conversation. 

He’s met someone like her before and he won’t be falling for it again anytime soon. 

Jeonghan is holding Y/N’s head to his chest at their usual table in the library, and normally that would be nice of him to support one of his oldest friends and arguably his best friend, except for the fact that it’s totally patronizing. “My poor baby, I’m sorry you’re having a bad week.” 

Y/N scoffs in his chest but doesn’t push him away. There would be no point because then he’d start pinching her cheeks and cooing in her face. “You’re the worst. You don’t have an ounce of sympathy for me.”

“I do,” Jeonghan lies through his teeth, stroking her hair. “It’s just really funny and I wish I’d been there for all of it.” 

It seems that Y/N had pissed someone off. She wasn’t sure who, but in the last three weeks she’d been pranked on no less than five occasions. The firsts two were at the sorority house, so she hadn’t realized she was the primary target yet. Someone TP’d their house one night and just when the university’s custodial staff had cleaned it up and they thought they were safe, there was a smell creeping into the house. It was subtle at first, just small whiffs of it every now and then when you walk through the house. They clean the drains, wipe down the kitchen and bathrooms thoroughly, and take out the trash more frequently. But the smell begins to permeate every room. 

Pest control comes out and finds nothing, despite crawling through the attic and the unfinished basement which includes a crawl space. The tech thinks it’s coming from the vents but finds nothing there either. So the house mother calls an HVAC tech to come take a look. He crawls around in the vents as well and doesn’t find anything… before finally finding a dead fish in the AC unit outside, roasting in the heat of late summer. The girls have to keep the windows open with fans at full blast for days to get the smell out. Inconveniently, their security cameras didn’t catch anything for either event. 

A couple days later, Y/N meets Lee Chan in front of the Science building and they walk in together. She’s tutored a lot of people in her time here, but he’s her favorite after just a few weeks, hands down. They’re idly chatting as they walk upstairs and into the TA office, which is empty with the lights off. They get unpacked and Y/N’s butt barely touches the seat when an air horn goes off. She and Chan are totally scared shitless at such a sound at 8:30 in the morning, but sure enough, there’s an air horn under her rolling chair, set to go off as soon as she sits. Chan helps her remove it along with the duct tape from the leg of the chair and they laugh about such a juvenile prank despite their hearts racing. 

A couple days later, she comes in for her office hours after lunch. She’s greeting the girl she’ll be tutoring in physics today as she pumps some hand sanitizer into her palm. When she starts to rub her hands together, something doesn’t feel right. It’s sticky in a way that the alcohol content in hand sanitizer shouldn’t be and then it’s quickly drying in chunks. She’s horrified to realized that the container has been replaced with glue. Even though she washes her hands half a dozen times in the bathroom down the hall, she still can’t touch the poor girl’s paper or textbook without it sticking to her. Her sorority sisters tell her that night that nothing like that has happened to them and Y/N realizes she must be the main target. 

The most recent thing happened just this morning. Chan had met her again outside and when they flipped the light on in the office, there was a present sitting there. It’s wrapped nicely and it even has her name on it. She’s immediately suspicious and finds out quickly she had every right to be. Chan hands her a ruler from her desk drawer and she stands at arms length to flip the lid open - only to suddenly be covered in glitter. 

It occurs to her that Jeonghan might be dusting some of that glitter out of her hair instead of nicely stroking it to soothe her and she scoffs, finally pushing him away. She’d had time to stop by the house and change clothes, but not enough to shower. She sparkles a little every time she moves. “It’s not funny, Hannie. I don’t know what I did to deserve this!” 

“I don’t know. Maybe you pissed off the wrong person. Want me to look into it?” Jeonghan offers. She knows he’s serious about looking into it despite the hard time he’s just given her. He keeps glancing around them at the library every now and then and she’s getting a lot of looks. That’s because somehow all of these events have ended up on that stupid gossip twitter. She’s not sure how that’s happened, but people seem to be enjoying her suffering. Some of the comments have turned kind of mean and she’s getting tagged in each post dozens of times with laughing/crying emojis. Jeonghan had quietly taken her phone from her hands and closed out of the app when he found her scrolling through it earlier. 

“I think you need to find a new guy to take the heat off of all of this,” he says and she can’t tell if he’s joking or not. He’s never discouraged her dating, but he’s never openly encouraged it either. He usually says good luck like any good friend would when she announces she has a date and that’s it. 

She groans, swiping a hand down her arm to dust a couple specks of glitter off. “Yeah, that’s not going well either.”

Jeonghan gives her a perplexed look. “What do you mean? Just pick someone.” She doesn’t answer him so he raises an eyebrow. “Is there someone in particular?”

Y/N can’t help the pout that falls onto her lips. “There’s a guy in a couple of my classes but he doesn’t seem interested.” 

This intrigues Jeonghan because he’s never heard of such a thing before. “Have you asked him if he is? Maybe he’s just shy.”

“I don’t think so. He’s easy to talk to, but every time I drop hints he either misses them or ignores him, but I can’t tell which. Besides, I’m used to being asked rather than doing the asking. He’s cute and smart and totally disinterested,” Y/N says, totally deflating now. 

Jeonghan snorted. “Unlikely. Give it a little bit for him to warm up. Now, help me with this stupid math homework. I definitely didn’t listen yesterday in class.”

Joshua is paired up with Y/N again in class. She smiles when she sits down next to him but it’s not the normal thousand-watt smile that he and everyone else usually gets. He doesn’t ask and they start with their dataset. He’s having trouble with a formula when Y/N offers to help. He lets her pull the laptop to her and he watches her fingers fly over the keyboard. Her confidence at this is impressive, but that’s not what gets his attention. 

“Doing some art projects lately?” He muses lightly. She glances down at her hands and then huffs, wiping them on her skirt. 

“No, someone sent me a glitter bomb yesterday. I don’t think I’ll ever get all of it off. I’ll be sparkling for years to come,” she answers with much less enthusiasm than usual. 

Joshua can’t help but laugh outright because it sounds so absurd. “A glitter bomb? Why in the world would someone do that?”

Y/N glances at him and he can tell she’s clearly faking her amusement, kind of like she doesn’t just know how to let herself frown. “I don’t know, but it’s one of many pranks lately.” She slides the laptop back to him but he doesn’t take it back. 

There’s this nagging feeling in his chest and he’s not sure why, so he asks, “Does this happen to you often?” 

Y/N laughs humorlessly. “No. First someone TP’d the sorority house and put a dead fish in the AC unit. Then the air horn under the chair, and the glue in the hand sanitizer bottle, and then the glitter bomb yesterday. I’m not sure what I did, but someone’s having a lot of fun. It’s all ended up on that stupid gossip twitter account too.”

“A little overboard, huh?” He says sympathetically, and he might not be her biggest fan but he means it. Someone’s got a vendetta against her, that’s for sure. 

That nagging feeling doesn’t go away as he’s walking back to his dorm after class. On a whim, he opens twitter. Y/N didn’t lie, every single event she mentioned is on there, some with photos or videos in which she looks mortified. When he opens some of the comments, he thinks it’s no wonder she seems so miserable, even if these are technically harmless pranks. Some people are really enjoying this. He gathers that Y/N is usually pretty refined and put together, not a single hair out of place. She doesn’t look very refined walking out of an office covered in glitter or holding her hands out in front of her while they’re covered in glue. 

Joshua pockets his phone and looks around campus as he strolls. He spots some familiar figures in the courtyard and that nagging feeling is back. Enough for him to stop In the grass and watch them. They’re laughing really hard about something as they’re crowded around a computer. 

Joshua takes the long way to them, creeping up behind their backs. They’re watching the video of Y/N after the glitter bomb. 

“I should have known,” he says sternly. They wheel around to him fast and Jihoon slams his laptop shut. “Having a little prank war, are you? Actually, it doesn’t really count as a war if she can’t fight back.”

“She deserves it,” Mingyu says smugly, not bothering to deny it. “Didn't you see it?”

“Sure did, as well as the aftermath.” Joshua refuses to elaborate. “I think you’ve made your point a few times over. You have your experiment results.”

Seokmin shakes his head in confusion. “Why are you defending her? You’ve seen the twitter account.”

“Yeah, which is trash from what I can see,” Joshua insists. They look so put out by the statement that Joshua frowns. “Don’t tell me you’re behind that too.” Their silence is answer enough. Besides, they’re focused on something else now. Joshua turns to see what it is. 

Y/N is walking into the student union with yet another guy. This one looks at her just as adoringly as the others. Jihoon is cursing. “Oh, come on. A freshman?” 

“You know him?” Seokmin asks.

“He’s in the same department as me, just as a dance major. He’s a nice kid. She’s going to eat him alive,” Jihoon huffed. 

The other three are ranting about it, but Joshua watches the couple closely. Whatever defense he had for her is fading fast. He remembers being the innocent freshman three years ago. He remembers getting eaten alive over and over by one girl - a pretty upper class man who could smile and bat her eyes to get whatever she wanted. He remembers having to move across the world and transfer schools to keep it from consuming him. The poor kid looks in love and he knows the look because he wore it for nearly three years while he thought things were going to get better. 

He’s also remembering the way Y/N tried to worm her way into a conversation the first time they had to work together in class. The charm was undeniable and it kind of felt like twisting the knife now that he thought about it because she was really just like Lily in so many ways. 

Joshua grits his teeth, turning back to the three guys. “Tell me your plan again?”

They all look shocked. “I thought you weren’t interested in helping us,” Mingyu starts. 

“I’ll consider it, if your plan is any good, that is,” Joshua snaps, sitting down at the table, looking at them expectantly. 

Finally, Jihoon opens his laptop again, clicking a few things. Then he flips it to Joshua. “This isn’t the version that we’ve submitted for our psych experiment. This more of an… unofficial document.”

Joshua scrolls and they let him. About thirty seconds later, he flips it back to Jihoon. “Where do we start?”

[kimerawrt]

DP x DC: Reincarnation

(this idea keeps bothering me so I'm launching it into the void of tumblr)

Danny is the ghost king, has been for a hundred or so years, and had been working non stop to fix the mess pariah dark made. He did but he keeps working almost like an obsession (its not thankfully)

Cause working with no pause is not healthy even if one is dead, CW and other ancients decide to give their king a forced reincarnation vacation. Their king gets a rest of his duties by living a human life while they manage the zone, cause a human life is nothing to ghosts that have existed for millennia, they can wait for their king to return.

The high king of the ghost zone is born again with a new name. His name is Bruce Wayne.

(more under the cut)

Bruce is a happy child, and a very smart one. He understand machines in some strange way and is incredible good with physics (specially astrophysics). His parents are aware of how smart he is and encourage him to learn more things, Bruce learns a lot of how to manage a business from his dad and his mom teaches his about lots of things but mostly on how to think logically and deduct the truth

For some strange reason animals seem to like him, specially cats, dogs, crows and bats. When Bruce falls into the well he is scared by the bats but calms down enough to know the bats are also scared

Bruce is a happy child, until his parents are murdered in front of him.

Bruce feels like something in him breaks at that. his emotions are so painful that its almost physical. Alfred is the only one he has left and he becomes very protective of his butler

Bruce grows up with grief in his heart. He graduates high school with the biggest honors and goes to college. He tries engineering and leaves it. He tries medicine and leaves it too. He cant move past his parents murder and he cant unseen how his beloved city seems to get worse and worse.

Bruce decides to do something to fix all of that. He now has a mission. He drops out of college, makes a well thought plan and leaves to train leaving a letter behind to Alfred cause he knows if he sees the butler he wouldnt be able to leave. He needs the training.

For a year, Bruce looks for the best experts in a lot of fighting styles, offensive and defensive, things happen and he stars training with the League of Assassins. Bruce is good and learns fast but there is something in there that makes him extremely wary and make him work very hard to not get hurt

The Lazarus Pit

Those glowing green boiling waters gave him a bad feeling. Sometimes Bruce could swear the were whispering at him, calling to him to let them give him something he ought to have. Bruce was smart and knew that would be nothing good and he didnt ask the others if they too could hear the weird waters. He was sure Ra's would kill him for it. The guy was obsessed with the thing.

Unfortunately for him, in the final test to be an assassin, Bruce got hurt enough to need to be put in the waters to not die. Ra's saw potential in him and he was not going to lose someone that good in fighting.

In the waters, Bruce was being healed but something else was going on. The Lazarus Pit was made of a mix of ectoplasm, purified waters from long lost oceans and death magic. That combination made the waters heal all organic organisms in exchange for something, for sentient beings was their sanity and for non sentients was their will

Its a good thing that the ectoplasm in it recognized their king soul and the death magic was not able to take, but it could give as well.

That day Bruce Wayne remembered his last life and knew what awaited him after he died. That night, Bruce escapes from the League and returns to Gotham.

Once home, Bruce pass some time with Alfred telling little things about his travels. Alfred gives him a look that told Bruce that the butler knew he was not telling him everything. It doesnt takes long for Bruce to tell Alfred everything, the hidden parts of his travels, the League and his memories from a previous life. He could never hide things from Alfred for long.

Alfred believes him and declares that Bruce is his guard no matter what he had been or done. Bruce is happy to have Alfred with him.

Bruce had not forgotten his mission to fix Gotham and after searching for a place to train and build things he finds the Cave under his house. For some reason it feels nostalgic, as if one could build a portal to the realm of the dead in there. Of course Bruce has no plan of doing that.

While building his gadgets to fight crime in Gotham, Bruce also builds something he saw the Fentons do before the portal. It was a machine to gather ectoplasm in a passive way. He had a suspicion that the city was not only contaminated by smog but there was also something supernatural in it.

When the first drops of glowing green ectoplasm filled the vial he had left under the machine Bruce knew he was right. As it only took some days to gather it, it was clear that there was an unusual high concentration of ecto in the city. It would be too easy to open a portal in here.

Bruce then used the gathered ecto to power up his supercomputer and many more tools. He was also working on making a car powered up with it. Of course he was not going to let the bright glowing green be seen in whatever he is making.

Alfred had a slight suspicion that besides being the ghost king, his guard might be also a mad scientist

Bruce might have also kinda tamed the colony of bats living in the cave. Making sure all of them were healthy and vaccinated was a nightmare he was not willing to repeat.

Because of working with ectoplasm, Batman always gives an uncanny feeling to the criminals and makes most of them give up in fear. Batman becomes a cryptid very soon, though the police still tries to arrest him, Bruce gets a odd nostalgic feeling at being chased with guns shooting at him

it only takes a year after Batman is out fighting crime for a ghost to show up. Luckily that ghost is just Cujo. Now Bruce has a very good guard dog to protect his house and Alfred

Thanks to Cujo Bruce discovers the city has an spirit and its kinda cursed. Its too bad he had no knowledge of what kind of magic is affecting the city. And because his current human body is not magical he can do little to help. Having Cujo chase away maligns shades seems to help some.

When the rogues appear they remind Bruce of the ghosts he fought when he was a half ghost. Though, he knows they are alive and can change for the better unlike the dead that are stuck and need something too drastic to change. Although Arkham is so corrupt that Bruce has to fight another type of fight to fix that, one that unfortunately he cant punch away

When Bruce sees how the child in the circus is left alone after witnessing his parents death, or course he would want to help. He didnt expect that Robin would join him in his night job

Then another child tries to steal his wheels and ends up adopting him, he also didnt expect the new Robin and by know he would seen the pattern

When Jason is killed by the Joker, Bruce is devastated and seeks vengeance. Batman cant kill, thats a rule he imposed to his vigilante persona. But he didnt need to be Batman to get revenge and the teachings of the League of Assassins come in handy. He knew that if he killed the Joker his soul would belong to him and he would get a better revenge when he becomes the ghost king once more.

An unknown assassin kills the Joker

Twice

There is something strange in Gotham. Something that makes the Joker come back to life a little bit more unhinged every time. Something that made Jason Todd crawl out of his grave some months after burying him

Time passes, Bruce gets more children and gets in more fights. Then Jason comes back to Gotham filled with the Pit madness. But when he tries to confront Batman, the Pit calms down in the presence of its king.

Jason is happy to not having to fight the Pit all the time, he still becomes the crime lord/anti-hero Red Hood, though his relationship with his dad is not bad after they had a talk, mostly of Bruce killing the Joker more than once already (they probably go to kill the Joker again as a bonding activity or something)

-There would be other shenanigans in between all this like:

+the kids discovering you can bring food back to like with ectoplasm and making a mess in the kitchen, everyone but Jason gets a life ban from Alfred domain

+the other heroes of the League thinking Batman has a meta power to make him appear intimidating, tho it wouldnt explain where he gets the strange technology or why some could swear a green see through puppy follows the dark night even in the watchtower

+Batman and Deadman make a strange friendship in the eyes of the other, Deadman knows the bat has the soul of his king but as he is not king now its fine to be casual, the ghost adores Cujo and pets it all the time

[avatar-trash-ayyy]

Title: Tricks and Treats

Rating: G

Characters: The Sully Family and whatever Omaticaya the kids pester

Summary: Lo'ak is determined to embrace and practice some earth culture after learning about Halloween. Kiri and Neteyam don't stop him.

As always, cute family fluff for the lovely @nattikay <3 it’s nothing too crazy, and let me know if I need to fix any lingual mistakes with the Na’vi!

Every Omaticaya child knew how to weave -- at least to an extent. Especially after the loss of Hometree, weaving gathered materials was a necessity in order to create safe shelter, rebuild storage supplies of their food, and more. Lo'ak, though far from proficient, still wove away at his little child's loom with a thoughtful, furrowed brow and wild ideas coming to life.

However, his current project was not one of survival, but for fun. Or, more specifically, for treats, and perhaps for some tricks.

"That loincloth looks off, dude." Neteyam teased, lightly tugging at Lo'ak's ear. His concentration broken, the boy huffed and fumbled only a little before returning to his project.

"It's not a loincloth -- it's a costume!"

"What costume?" Kiri asked, coming up now. She held onto a Toruk figurine that she had successfully wrestled from her elder brother not long before. "It is for a play? Mom said that Auntie Sylwanin and her used to do plays when they had that human school."

Lo'ak rolled his eyes. At least he was nearing the end of his creation, tying up the ends. "It's NOT for a play. It's for Halloween!"

Neteyam crouched down and stared at the loom and fabric. "Halloween? That's just an earth thing."

"Yeah, a fun Earth thing. You dress up as anything you want and then people give you free food."

Kiri smiled and clutched the Toruk to her chest. "Oh! I see now! You're dressing like a Thanator! That's why it has extra arms there!"

The Thanator costume was cut off with pride. Lo'ak then took it and had it wrapped around his back, the hood falling over his face, and a connected string allowing the false arms to move with his real ones. "You got it! You guys should make costumes too. Then we can go round for the trick and treat."

The childhood stories that their father, Jake, would occassionally share, began to return to them. Neteyam was less enthusiastic than their sister, however.

"I dunno. I mean, about the tricking part. Dad said he used to throw food at people's buildings on Halloween too. If we did that Mom would pluck our eyeballs out."

"Ehhhh..." Lo'ak began to concide, doing a so-so gesture with one hand. "Fine. More treats than tricks. And the tricks can be fun ones, not mean. So go make your costumes!"

"Okay!" Kiri and Neteyam chorused together. Their costume designs were last minute compared to Lo'ak's, so they utilized the forest resources around them. His older brother decided to mimic the yerik, with large fern leaves tied to his head with twine. He even pursed up his lips, bared his top front teeth, and hissed like one, much to Kiri's delight. For her part, she gathered up as many atokirina' as possible, much to Lo'ak's chagrin.

"I still say you shoulda been a teylu." He insisted, holding out a worn-out rug to wrap herself with. Kiri shook her head with a smile.

"No way! I'm gonna be a soul tree. That way we can use the lights like with the...the..jack of..."

"Jack of the Latern." Neteyam said with a serious nod. "I suppose the Great Mother won't mind if we use her light for staying safe..."

"Yeah yeah, lets go get the treats and tricks then!" Lo'ak said, leading the way. Eclipse would begin soon and he wanted a head start. "First stop, mamaey!"

They did indeed marched straight to Mo'at's medicinal abode. There, they found her tending to a small child and her father, as she had a concerning though non-threatening infection on her scab that had not quite healed yet. As such, Mo'at was distracted.

"Hi! Can we have a treat?"

"Eh? Hungry? Ah..." Mo'at dabbed some essence or other onto the wound, yalna bark they saw. "I suppose Neytiri is busier than I thought! I can spare some nector. In the jar over there."

The forest hive nector was stored in a rather large jar, though not too heavy for them to carry out entirely. No one stopped them from doing so, as they were not being supervised.

"This is great! We should get some fruit next if we can." Lo'ak said with a happy grunt. Kiri perked up, the atokirina' glowing slightly in response.

"I know! We can pick for some just outside the village."

"Nah, we gotta ask for it, remember?" Lo'ak said. "Let's go ask someone else."

And that was how it was for the rest of the afternoon and evening. Given that their parents -- the Olo'eyktan and tsakarem -- were frought with recent responsibilities to attend to, few of the Omaticaya turned the children away empty handed. Those that could not spare anything were given harmless "tricks": some of their things shuffled around, or perhaps turning a few tools upside down at an odd place. The three Sully children would giggle as they did so before lugging away their goods.

They went back to their family tent and assessed their goods, as the darkness grew and the forest bioluminesce rivaled Kiri's collection of woodsprites. They floated away as she told them good bye.

"Alright! We got a lot of treats!" Lo'ak said, proud of their accomplishment. "Now we dig in!"

"Dig in? Like, eat ALL of it?" Neteyam said, looking wary again. "I mean, this is a lot of food. It was heavy to carry too. We should just eat a little at a time every day."

"What are you, a baby?"

“A fat baby if we eat it all.” Kiri said with a wide smile. However, a stern voice from the front of their home made them freeze with shock.

“How about a fat baby who plans to lug all that crap back where it belongs?”

All three turned, sheepishly taking off their costume pieces as they did so, to face their father and clan leader. Behind him was their mother, grandmother, and a host of other unimpressed Omaticaya. Lo’ak, the only one to struggle with his more elaborate Thanator costume, grinned sheepishly.

“Ah…trick and treat?”

[fortloser]

Hello again! Sooo kinda a personal question but what was yalls childhoods like?

(Also, hope u feel better snipes!)

-Terror

Hallo everyone! I finally got my hands on those portraits! Now most of the others became rather uncomfortable when I started questioning them about their youths. I got answers ranging from “why are you so bloody intrested in how im doing! There’s nothing special about me or my childhood, now bugger off.” to more reasonable explanations. I tried calling Scout on his cellular device but he seemed very preoccupied. Oh well, he’ll get back to you on that, onto the testimonies! Brace yourself friends this will be somewhat lengthy.

I first approached herr Demo, and getting him to open up was fairly easy. His favorite alcoholic beverage and a snack did the trick!

“ It must be me birthday if yer spoiling me rotten doc, I guess I can share something about me youth if yer willing to lend an ear. I grew up in Glencoe Scotland, a great place if you like trails and hiking. Me mum and dad were professional monster hunters and me being the wee little lad that I was wanted to impress em with the greatest catch any child could give their parents, the Loch Ness monster! I did it all on me own but it came at a cost,,”

After that herr demo just stared off in the distance and I made a mental note to ask him more about that later, The Engineer was also very open about his youth! I came to him shortly after dinner knowing he would be busying himself with one of his long-term projects and would enjoy some company, his leg was still a little stiff from a rather nasty fall and so movement was difficult at times. He was more than happy to talk while I assisted.

“Luckenbach Texas, everybody is somebody there. It was recently bought by a goat farmer. Can you believe that? He called himself an Imagineer and after that, a bunch of hillbilly musicians started moving in. Can't complain though, It breathed new life into my home, I hated going back and seeing the state it was in. My mom and pop own a small pig farm there, and I still try to visit though unlike my good-for-nothing twin with his stupid fancy job at “NASA”,,

I don't think I should share his personal frustration about his twin with the public so let's move on, yes? The next day I approached Heavy, he was last on my list and seemingly already aware of me interrogating the entire team, and as he was cleaning his minigun he told me to take a seat.

“You want to know about heavy, Da? Then I will tell you about heavy. Grew up in big town near mountain, you would not know it. Had big family, many sisters and brothers but Heavy was oldest. Family was poor but happy, loved summer, snow would melt and grass and flowers would show, heavy likes this. Went to good school had many friends, now heavy works to give family same life. Doctor is happy  with answer?”

I was surprised he was so willing to talk about his youth, I politely thanked him and left to prepare for that day's battle, I suppose that only leaves me left.

I was born in Germany, my mother was German and my father was Dutch and they both moved to Germany so my mother could be close to her family, he was a watchmaker and she was an artist, this relationship did not last and they got divorced. My motherstayed in germany allowing my father to raise me on his own back in the netherlands. I spent a lot of time in my father's workshop while he was trying to fix up old clocks. I didn't have many friends but who needs them when you have books and wildlife to observe? I excelled in all of my studies and pursued medicine, and eventually ended up here writing to you after I just finished up patching the last of my colleagues.

Stay healthy

With kind regards medic

[differenteagletragedy]

holy shit all your headcannons are so good, hi!! i saw the tags on some post of yours saying you would write for mentally ill mcs... could we see what the boys would be like with an mc that has depression? (totally not projecting lolol)

Thank you!! And I totally get you, I’m not projecting either with it, not even a little 🤫

— If you thought Cove was clingy before, boy howdy are you in for a surprise. When he realizes you’re depressed, he’s sneaking into your window all the time, and he’s trying all kinds of different things to make you feel better. He brought you a cool shell, did you see? He brought you a pretzel from the shopping street, do you want it?

— basically the boy is flailing around, losing his mind because he wants to help you SO BAD, and it’s really sweet but depression isn’t cured by sweet presents and sweeter boys (unfortunately)

— for better or worse, Derek wants to fix things. Did you take your meds? Do you need to see your doctor and maybe try new meds? He heard exercise helps, do you want to try that? He has the best intentions in the world and will listen to whatever you tell him you need, but his instinct is to take care of you, even when the problem isn’t that easily solved

— Baxter knows a thing or two about depression, so he’s just here for you. If you need to take another nap, that’s ok. If you don’t feel like eating a full dinner, he’ll grab you some food snacks so you don’t get sick on top of everything else. You can talk about whatever and he’ll just listen and probably play with your hair

— Cove is on his laptop going into research mode for this. What can help a person with depression, how should you treat a loved one with depression — he’s doing his homework and he’s taking it very seriously. Pops up with a few clinical terms when he tries to talk to you about it and you’re like “what” but he’s going for it.

— Derek hugs! He gives A+ hugs and he’s also one of those people who are always warm, so it’s very comforting to just settle into a Derek hug. He doesn’t have anywhere important to be, so get comfy.

— Baxter will try to cheer you up with a dance. Does it work? At least for a little bit, yeah.

— If you get to a really dark place, Cove won’t leave you alone. Like at all. If you’re living at your moms’ house they’ll go along with it just because they know he’ll probably be the one to reach you, so he’s just hanging out constantly.

— Do you also have anxiety? A fun double feature for your brain! Baxter can guide you through a panic attack like it’s his job

— Cove does literally anything in his power to ease your anxiety — we saw that when he tried to give MC his homework when they lost theirs. Are you stressed about work? Let him help, it doesn’t matter if he doesn’t know anything about it. You don’t have to do it alone.

— Basically Derek just making it his life’s mission to make you feel better. If he’s still in school, he’s blowing off extracurriculars because he’s worried. He tries to convince his parents to go for a week-long slumber party so he can be there for you all the time.

— have you been thinking about trying any kind of alternative medicine to treat any of this? Baxter’s got you.

— Baxter spending all weekend in his pajamas in bed with you while you don’t have the energy for anything else.

MC: Don’t you have something better to do?

Baxter: Nothing is better than being with you.

[perfectprofessorloverapricot]

Finding purpose | Male OC (or male reader)

Chap 1

Summary: In a world that is dying and there is no way of saving it, the humanity takes mater into their own hands. They flee from their home planet with hope of conquering another in order to survive. Among them, a couple of brothers with no idea what they’re doing.

Pairings: Jake sully x Oc (friendship), Tsu’tey x Oc (friendship), Neytiri x Oc (friendship). [No current love interest]

Warnings: Mention of violence, death, use of drugs or alcohol, bad ways of coping mechanisms and obscene language.

Note: - This is not a request and it’s the translation of the original story in wattpad. - My native language it’s not English - The Oc’s name is Eli Thompson.

Masterlist - Next part

Apocalypse

This is what the elderly people called the approaching age of the earth. Only those with memories of what life was like 100 years ago can agree with the idea.

Forests were cleared and replaced with concrete and metal buildings. The oxygen of the atmosphere was contaminated with carbon dioxide. People going about their day to day became more isolated in their own lives and what was known as mere courtesy to others was lost.

But it wasn't all bad. Science, technology and medicine made unimaginable discoveries that in the past would only be dreams.

This is how in the XXII century, genetic problems were nothing more than a simple matter of paying enough to fix the problem. Physical defects and most of the mental ones were easy to cure. But what happened when they were twins? After the year 2098, when the world declared itself over populated, a new law was declared where women had the right to give birth only once, the number of children that appeared at birth was irrelevant. For people of higher status it was no problem. They only had to choose to keep only one child or easily pay the economic expense of both. But for those without the resources, having twins was like a curse.

That was how Eli and Jonathan Thompson came to the orphanage. A careless mother with no desire to bear the responsibility of two lives left them at the door of an orphanage.

Luckily for the babies, orphanages are under the protection of governments. Their education is paid for and supervised by capable people. But the coexistence between the children is not the best. Fights that lead to loosening teeth are quite common since caregivers only choose to have a job that gives them money, not out of interest in the well-being of minors.

Eli, the older of the twins, grew up defending his younger brother. He wasn't afraid of having to break noses if someone messed with his family. As for his brother, Jonathan, he was a sweet soul, his strength was in his intelligence and his heart in science books. It was normal for the two of them to spend the afternoon together away from the others. While Jonathan reads aloud, Eli pays attention to whatever his brother says. Even though he often finds it hard to understand what he says. He even had to get a dictionary to understand the complex words in the books that his little brother loved.

Growing up was not a problem with the dynamics they had. It was like this, when leaving school, the 13-year-old brothers hit the road to the park to have their precious free time before returning to the orphanage full of children with testosterone to the maximum and desires to hit something to de-stress.

What they did not know was that that same day they would meet 2 other people. Thomas and Jacob Sully.

Another set of twins.

From the first sight, the 4 children were intrigued to meet the opposites. It was normal, twins were not common in a society as strange as the one they live in.

But what was unusual, was seeing how the children found a balance between themselves.

The oldest Sully, a kind-hearted and highly intelligent boy, instantly hit it off with Jonathan's desire for adventure and knowledge attitude. While the youngest of the Sullys, Jacob, found it amusing to have to face the older bother Eli in whatever they can think of. Sports, wrestling, food races, etc. In short, growing up was... interesting.

Difficult, without a doubt, but very interesting. The Sullys changed school to be with their new friends. It was easier that way.

Upon reaching 17, Eli and Jake made the decision to join the military and the other 2 brothers were going to fulfill their dreams by studying at the university in the RDA with the hope of entering the program that would take them to Pandora.

But not everything was going to go so well. Jake was discharged from the military due to a spinal injury that left him paralyzed, Eli opted to leave when there was a problem in one of his missions, which ended with a chest wound and returning with fewer people than they had gone. Jonathan was diagnosed with cancer, one of the few diseases that not even science has been able to cure, but he ended up giving his life in an attempt to save his best friend Thomas. But the result ended in the death of both and his twin brothers having to take their jobs as avatar drivers. Jonathan couldn't even break the news of his brother that he had cancer.

It was like this, that in the year 2149 both soldiers were put in a cryo-sleep with the purpose of taking them to Pandora. The most hostile planet known to man.

After almost 6 years of traveling in space at high speed, finally the ship that the soldiers got on began to slow down.

The scientists in charge of the voyages woke up all the passengers who had been put into a cryo-sleep to save resources and energy during the trip.

One by one, the passengers opened their eyes inside their pods. Two of them in particular are somewhat disoriented by the process. They had only been given a week of preparation to learn things about the journey that usually takes years for others. It was obvious that much of the information had not been given due to time constraints, but the essentials had been learned, and that was what mattered.

Eli blinked a couple of times to dispel that feeling of hangover and exhaustion that he still felt. Having to wake up from a long sleep in zero gravity was not pleasant at all.

Row by row, the pods opened automatically, allowing doctors to check each other's vital signs before unfastening the belts that prevent their bodies from floating out.

"Are we there yet?" Jake asked, still a little confused.

"Yeah, we’re there, sunshine." Answered the doctor who was checking his vital signs. He could tell that he was a little dizzy, but other than that there was nothing out of the ordinary. "Be careful in zero gravity." The man told him as he unbuttoned and continued with the next passenger.

Things were moving fast, they had to overflow everyone in the estimated time. The number of trips in and out of the atmosphere were counted.

"Jake" The soldier who had floated to the lockers turned around seeing his best friend floating in his direction.

He put a smile on his face when he saw Eli's appearance. "Wow. Who kicked you in the balls?" he teased him.

Eli rolled his eyes and huffed. Five years, nine months and two days frozen in capsules and that was the first thing he told him. "Yeah well, it's not like you look better. Have you seen yourself in a mirror?" replied the friend.

Hours and many protocol processes later, both soldiers boarded a large ship with turbines strong enough to go in and out of Pandora's atmosphere.

Their cryo-sleep clothes had been exchanged for simple T-shirts and army pants. Despite not having exercised for a year before the trip, the habit of wearing other clothing was not comfortable for them. They felt better using military clothes.

And as cherry on the cake, now they had to wear some masks that would help them breathe in the atmosphere of Pandora.

Speaking of...

"Exo-packs on! Let’s go! Exo-packs on! Remember, people, you lose that mask, you’re unconscious in 20 seconds, you’re dead in four minutes! Let’s nobody be dead today! Looks very bad on my report." Shouted the official soldier in charge of those who were on the trip. It should be noted that his attitude was so sweet.

Everyone present put on their masks and closed the seals to prevent Pandora's toxic air from leaking through cracks in the mask.

The rattling of the ship was enough of an indicator that they had finally landed. Just seconds later, they all unbuckled their seatbelts and lined up to exit the plane. All except two soldiers.

"What do you think our welcome will be like? Will they have cakes?" Eli said sarcastically as he waited for Jake to pack up to go out. At first Eli helped his friend to do many things after the accident with his legs, but he learned that it was unnecessary. His friend was capable and also he became a curmudgeon when he wanted to help him.

Jake let out a laugh as he sat in his chair and buckled up. "There's only one way to find out."

Eli made a face that he was right. He grabbed his backpack and walked after Jake when they were finally ready.

"Let’s go, special cases, don’t make me wait for you!" the soldier shouted again with an attitude of sweetness.

When leaving, to say that they were impressed by the view was an understatement. Despite the fact that there is a lot of concrete and that it is a cloudy day, there is more natural light than on a normal day on earth. And the trees were so huge that their tops could be seen even over the great concrete walls put up by the RDA.

They were both so in awe of the sight that they had to abruptly move out of the way of a guy in a huge robotic suit that nearly crushed them.

"Careful airheads" Said the offended the soldier inside the suit. But neither of them gave it much thought. A lap dog attitude was common to be found among soldiers. It was a bad way of trying to show superiority.

They barely walked a few more meters when they had to stop again. A bulldozer of out-of-scale passed in front of them, arrows stuck to its wide tires.

Jake and Eli exchanged glances. Confused by what they had just seen. It was obvious someone wasn't happy with the machine, but those things were huge. An arrow seemed to be the size of a person.

The rest of his walk to the barracks was not interrupted by anything else. Upon entering it was the same type of technology found on Earth, only everything looked more scientific.

Finally, after getting lost a few times, the soldiers reached the conference room where the welcoming speech had already started.

"Out there, beyond that fence. Every living thing that crawls, flies or squats in the mud wants to kill you and eat your eyes for jujubes."

'What a good start,' Eli thought as he entered the room and caught part of the speech of the one who hi has been instructed that his name was Quaritch. General Quaritch.

Since the room was full, Eli sat in one of the pews closest to the exit door, with Jake stopping next to him.

"We have an indigenous population of humanoids called na'vi..."

Eli leaned into Jake and whispered. "There's nothing like an old-school safety brief to put your mind at ease." The sarcastic tone was evident in every word.

Jake rolled his eyes and smiled at the reference to the general's less than comforting speech.

After the general's charming speech, both friends left the conference room to continue their way to their rooms. Taking advantage of the time to make some stops and familiarize themselves with the place. They didn't want to end up lost later, it would be embarrassing. Better now and not later.

"Jake. Eli" The attention of the two soldiers was brought to a tall guy who made his way a little clumsily through the people in the hallway, only to seemingly reach them.

"You are Jonathan and Thomas's brothers, right?" Norm asked as he finally reached them. Noticing their confused expressions, he held out his hand to shake him in greeting as he introduced himself. "I'm Norm Spellman."

"You were a companion of our brothers, weren't you?" Eli asked, recognizing the name that was mentioned on more than one occasion during the calls they had. He shook his hand, clearly noting the soft scientific hands.

"Yes yes. Have you heard from me?" He ask with a clear slight nervousness when talking to people who are not scientists. "I hope only good things."

Eli gave him a sly smile before turning and continuing to walk alongside Jake. "Don't worry. He just told us that you vomited the first time you entered a simulation."

Norm stood still in the middle of the corridor, opening and closing his mouth in a vain attempt to defend himself, but the laughter of the soldiers only made it more difficult.

“...into the bio lab." Announced Norm entering through the automatic doors of the place.

Taking advantage of the fact that the soldiers did not know the place, he took the opportunity to give them a tour and maybe be lucky enough to become friends. They will spend the next 6 years together so it was the best choice for him.

"Uh, link… here’s the link room-"

Norm's words faded into the background as the soldiers headed another way. A blue light practically hypnotized them and called them like kites to a spotlight. What intrigued them was not the light, but where it came from.

The huge glass containers that had just been unloaded from the ships were finally ready to be removed from their enormous packaging and connected to the laboratory instruments.

"Hey, welcome." One of the scientists present spoke when he saw us arrive.

He shook hands with Jake who was closer. "Welcome to Pandora. Good to have you"

"Damn. They got big." Jake said in surprise when he saw the bodies inside its capsule. The avatars.

Genetically engineered bodies based on human DNA and the DNA of the natives of the planet.

"Yeah, they fully mature on the flight out." Norm said, just as impressed by what science is capable of. But his surprise didn't take a second to turn into scientific fascination and bring out his brainiac side. "So the proprioceptive sims seem to work really well?"

"Yes, they’ve got great muscle tone."

The soldiers exchanged poker glances seeing how quickly they were forgotten for the sake of science.

With a slight nod, Jake motioned for Eli to follow him to the avatars on the other side of the room.

The closest one was Jake's.

"It has the characteristics of a feline." Eli mentioned as he approached the tank. He turn to look at Jake when he gets no response, just silence.

The younger Sully was in a trance, and Eli knew why. The avatar had the face of his brother. It wasn't strange since they used his DNA to create it, but it wasn't the same for twins. After spending your whole life living with someone who shares your characteristics, you find those little differences that make them unique. But what makes the situation even more strange is finding those features on the face of an alien.

"Looks like him." Jake whispered. He almost seemed to fear that if he raised his tone he might awaken the sleeping creature in its amniotic fluid.

Eli put his hand on his friend's shoulder and gave it a firm squeeze. It was a silent sign that he was not alone.

"Umm. Which one of you is Eli Thompson?"

Both soldiers turned around to meet the scientists. Max, according to the name tag on his robe, looked strangely nervous.

"It's me." Eli answered, raising an eyebrow.

"There is something you should know about your avatar." Max said, slightly lifting the tablet in his hand. "Please follow me"

A bit wary, Eli glanced over his shoulder at Jake. But the uncertainty in his gaze was enough of an answer to know that he didn't know anything either.

Without further ado, he followed the scientist into a glass-walled office that gave him a full view of the lab and avatar tanks.

"What's going on Norm?" Asked the man in the wheelchair to the scientist who looked somewhat insecure in his place.

"They had some problems with Jony's avatar when it came to DNA matching." When mentioning the being, they both turned around to see on the other side of the laboratory how they removed the protective packaging from the last tank of avatars, exposing the aforementioned avatar.

It looked normal. Giant and blue just like the others, with a tail and pointy ears, but nothing different or out of place.

What could be the problem?

“That Jonathan what?" Eli asked. Trying to process the information that is on the tablet and what he had just been told.

"Judging by your reaction…I guess he didn't tell you about his illness." Max said with a sad expression on his face. It didn't seem fair that the soldier found out that his brother had cancer that way. It could have been almost 6 years since his death, but for the one who just came out of the cryo-sleep, to him it is still a few days ago. It hasn't even been a month in the perspective of the soldier.

The silence in the room was thick. Eli still couldn't form a word, he felt trapped in a loop despite hearing how the others kept up with their own rhythm outside that office.

He took a breath of air to remove from his thoughts the gloomy thoughts that overshadowed his ideas and focused on what he had to do. He took the glass tablet and checked the information of his ( in all word extension) avatar.

"So…the avatar has my DNA." Although it was a question, his accent made it sound like a statement. But his gaze didn't take off from the graphics on the object in his hands.

"They were about to remove your brother from the program when they noticed his illness." Max began to telling, his tone almost unsure to follow. The expression on the soldier's face was incredibly serious. "They couldn't use cancer cells to create an avatar. But he gave a sample with your disease-free DNA and appealed to the elders to let him continue." Finally, Eli looked up to see the same empathetic expression on the scientist's face. "His cancer was stage 2 so they would let him stay on the project if he took his meds and got his chemotherapy but..."

Max didn't even have to continue anymore. The idea was clear.

The black-suited socks who came to tell him that his brother was dead were very tactful when telling him.

They needed him for work because the avatar was already completed and they couldn't waste the money invested. The avatar meant that his brother had accepted the deal, but had not even received a dose of medicine before his heart was pierced with lead.

When Max started to feel the silence getting a bit uncomfortable he decided to give him a moment alone. "If you need anything, I'll be outside." He turned to leave the office, but two steps later he was called.

"That won't be necessary. Let's get done with what needs to be done for today. Allow time for pity later" Eli said. He hand over the tablet, shoving it into the scientist's chest as he walk towards the door.

Max winced, both from the blow and from the man's heavy words. "O-Okay."

With nothing else to say, they headed off to continue the tour. The most important part was still missing.

[isekaisyouwithmyforearmlaser]

Hi. hate to be posting another donation post but im in a bad place. please only help if you can if you cant thats ok obviously im just at a point where im exhausting every outlet i have to get help.

cashapp is $pikman2, paypal is taylor.l.lockrem@gmail.com, my venmo is @funkymuscle

TLDR im poor and raise my little sister alone and my car broke down and im sick with strep throat and i have no way to get to my second job (my first job is doordashing so im out of half of my income entirely) and i am broke as fuck rn. im really just pressed about rent cause i need to keep a roof over my head and i can go without electricity /water if it comes down to it. i have food with assistance but no toilet paper so we are using pillow cases that i wash rn. literally any little bit helps. my rent is 1,300 , my electric is behind so its at a total of 600, and i already got "assistance" with that.

more context: my mother and father are dirt poor/out of the picture/unwilling to help, i raise my little sister alone and i already have a really hard time asking for help cause i am like hyperindependent but i lost my sales job because 1. sales sucks and also 2. my boss made a "work meeting" at a bar mandatory and ended up cornering me and stealing my phone, hr didnt care, and the situation was more complex than that but i clearly dont work there anymore. im a CNA now but cant do full time until my little sister is out of school for the summer which is at the end of this month. i start my 12 hr shifts from the 9th of june onwards but for now have part time hours and i doordash to make ip the difference. my car is totally beyond repair, ive had it since i graduated in 2017 and every 1 problem requires you to fix 4 other problems. literally if i had a car none of this would be a problem cause im this close to finally catching up on my bills, but alas. im also very sick rn like my throat feels like i gargled on a bag of rocks. i dont have insurance which isnt a surprise to anyone. im pretty much estranged from the rest of my family because theyre all super political and of course towards the right so me existing is like their least favorite thing.

i CAN take the bus TO work, but id have to walk 2 hours home, alongside a highway that crosses the mississippi that someone got beheaded on last year trying to do the exact same thing. i think im different though and nothing bad would happen to me so thats my current plan. i have no way to get my little sister to school and the school doesnt provide busing at all for where we live.

again, any little bit helps. even 10 dollars i can at least get medicine. thank you

[alkeneater]

man my parents are dumb af

wdym depression is not real and the real cure is walking outside on a sunny day (not joking my dad literally said that to me)

imagine seeing your kid struggling in high school, skipping uni almost every day, sleeping all the time, crying constantly, ATTEMPTING, spending a month in a psych ward, taking meds for a year and a half (prescribed by a fucking specialist) AND STILL THINKING THAT THERE'S NOTHING WRONG WITH THEM

I know they really want me to stop seeing my psychiatrist (they believe it will fix all my mental problems), so I started to lie to my doctor that i'm feeling better. I wanted to make my parents happy. I thought they would love to know I'm doing that. And you know what they said? "If you're feeling worse, why do you lie to your doctor? You want to get rid of depression or not?". Okay, guess I got them wrong. Today I told my doctor the truth and he renewed my treatment. Told my parents about that. Thought they would be proud. Guess what? I'm wrong again! They said smth like "It's because of that damn phone, just go outside and touch some grass, stop seeing these doctors for god's sake". Proper treatment = wrong. No treatment at all = wrong. I don't know what they want from me. Seriously. What the hell? What I'm supposed to do?

You see, while I was getting no real treatment, I tried to cure myself with my own methods. Compulsing overeating, sugar addiction (it boosts my mood), maladaptive daydreaming, hyperfixations, selfshipping (and then it became something more than a coping mechanism oops), self-isolation (when i'm feeling bad), bottling up my emotions, people pleasing, just distracting myself from being one on one with my sad thoughts. I did everything to make myself as happy as possible. But it doesn't seem to work anymore, I fear. I thought I have to finally get my shit together and get some real help. This is objectively better than whatever I'm doing right now. And I'm being judged for that. By the people who must take care of me. Sigh.

THIS SUCKS.

btw friendly reminder: my dad's pharmacist. He knows something about the medicine and was in some medical school before. And he says i can treat my depression with a simple "just stop being sad". BRO 😩😩 shut your bitch ass up

Honestly I just wish I was normal.........