#this was supposed to just be a casual writing side project but i actually made myself CRY with this one ;A;

[novelmonger]

Ed and Hughes (FMA) #17

Let Me Count the Ways ask game

(specifically '03 animeverse) Prompt: "Are you just going to keep walking by my house or are you going to come in?"

“Did he come back?”

Peering through the tiny slit of the curtains, Maes spotted the small figure standing under the streetlight. No red coat, no braid, no swagger. Just a twelve-year-old boy dressed in black, hands stuffed into pockets as he stared up at their house. “Yeah.”

“That's the third time,” Gracia yawned from the bed.

“It's like he's...too embarrassed to come knock on the door, but he wants to,” Maes murmured, watching the way Ed just stood there, scuffing his shoe against the ground and not moving on.

With a sigh, Gracia sat up. “Well, either call him inside or come back to bed.”

Maes looked over his shoulder at her and smiled, his heart warming at the sight of her. Even with tousled hair and huge bags under her eyes, exhausted from the demands of a certain little someone asleep in the next room, Gracia looked so beautiful. It was tempting to just crawl back under the covers and drift off to sleep again, but something told him he wouldn't be able to rest until he knew why Edward Elric was standing outside his house in the middle of the night.

Call it the Investigations officer in him. Or maybe the father.

As he passed by the bed on the way to the door, Gracia got up and reached for her housecoat. Maes held out a hand to stop her. “No—I can talk to him, hon. You need your sleep.”

Ignoring him, Gracia stepped into her slippers. “I'll make some hot chocolate.”

When she made to step past him, he stopped her with a kiss. “You're the best.”

With a sweet smile, she patted him on the cheek. “I know.”

And so, while Gracia headed to the kitchen, Maes opened the front door and stepped outside. Belatedly, he realized just how cold it was and regretted going outside in bare feet with nothing but his teddy bear-printed pajamas between him and the chill night air.

Ed was just on the other side of the fence now, frozen in place like a rabbit about to bolt. Maes couldn't read his expression from this distance in the dark. Raising a hand in welcome, he called out, “Are you just going to keep walking by my house, or are you going to come in?”

Slowly, dragging his feet the whole way, Ed opened the gate and slouched his way up to the door. “Sorry,” he mumbled. “Didn't mean to wake you up....”

“Never mind that,” Maes said, ushering him through the door. “Just get inside; it's freezing out there.”

Flipping on the lights to fill the room with a warm, cheery light, Maes guided Ed through to the living room and pushed on his shoulders to make him sit down on the couch. As Maes sat down beside him, he got a better look at the disheveled boy.

Huge circles under his eyes, like he hadn't slept in a week. Hollow cheeks, like he hadn't been eating right. His hair was tangled, not even held back in a ponytail. Instead of his usual brash confidence, Ed's shoulders slumped and he stared listlessly at the floor.

“Where's Al?” Maes asked. Best to start with the basics.

Ed shrugged. “With Winry.”

“Winry...oh, right, your girlfriend.” Maes waited for a reaction, but didn't get any. That concerned him more than anything yet. “They know you're here?”

Another shrug. “Went for a walk. Needed to clear my head.”

Maes nodded. Those boys had been through a lot lately, what with tracking down Barry the Chopper and also the whole Tucker situation. It made perfect sense that Ed wasn't his usual self. “Is it helping?”

Ed shook his head. A minute of silence passed while Maes waited for Ed to say more and Ed just stared at the floor.

Maybe he just needed more of an opening. “So how come you ended up on my doorstep tonight, Ed?” he asked softly. “It's a pretty long walk from your hotel. Did you...want to talk to me about something?”

“Yeah...no...I don't know.” Ed sighed, dropping his chin into his hand.

Maes's detective brain started whirring away as he looked at the slump of Ed's shoulders, the way he hung his head and didn't look Maes in the eye. Here he was, in the dead of night, clearly wanting comfort or at least a listening ear...and he wasn't with his brother or his childhood friend. Al and Winry were probably the two people he would normally turn to first for comfort and understanding, as they'd known each other their whole lives.

So why was Ed here, with a man he'd met just a couple months ago? What would Ed want to talk about that he wouldn't want to talk about with the two people who were closest to him?

Pushing his glasses up his nose, Maes asked quietly, “Is this about Nina?”

Ed jerked as if Maes had poked him with a fork, suddenly sitting up straight and staring at him with wide eyes. Maes's heart clenched. He's just a kid. He's twelve. And look at everything he's already been through....

“How'd you...?” Those golden eyes filled with tears and Ed hastily looked away, as if trying to hide behind his long bangs. But Maes could still see his chin trembling.

Maes put a hand on Ed's shoulder, and a choked sob escaped him. Ed pressed a fist to his mouth as if to stifle it, but Maes would have none of that. He slid across the couch and wrapped his arms around Ed, pulling him in close. “It's okay,” he murmured, patting Ed's back just like he always did with Elysia. “I've got you.”

Ed grabbed the back of Maes's shirt, his grip so strong but his sobs surprisingly weak, muffled in Maes's shoulder. Strange. Elysia's tiny hands were much weaker, but her cries were loud and piercing.

Maes felt the same desire well up in his heart—the desire to hold this child close forever and to never, never let go.

But Ed did let go. He pulled back, sniffling and rubbing his sleeve across his eyes with hasty, furtive movements, turning his face away as if embarrassed to have done something like that. But Maes kept an arm around his shoulders, and Ed didn't break his grip. If anything, even though he looked ashamed of his outburst, he leaned towards Maes, as if secretly longing to stay in his embrace.

So Maes settled close to Ed's side with his arm around him, an open invitation if Ed wanted more. “I know you've probably heard this so many times by now it's lost its meaning,” he said heavily, “but it wasn't your fault.”

“Yes, it was.” Ed's chin began to tremble again, but he clenched it and looked defiantly up at Maes through his tears. “I could've stopped him. I should've figured it out before he...he....”

“Hey,” Maes said, squeezing Ed's shoulder until he realized it was his metal shoulder and he wouldn't be able to feel it. “There's a lot of people who can say they should have done something. We all realize that, looking back. But you can't beat yourself up for it. We do our best with what we know at the time.”

Ed's mouth twisted into an ugly scowl. “Guess my best is just never enough, then. 'Cause I did my best...and I still failed her. Just like I always—“ He bit his lip, but that did nothing to stop big, fat tears from rolling down his cheeks.

“Hey, now.” Maes pulled Ed in close again, and Ed didn't protest. His shoulders shook with the force of his tears, miserable and broken. “Don't you go telling yourself that you've failed everyone. That's just not true.”

Ed made a garbled sound of protest, but it was muffled in his shirt, so Maes elected to ignore it.

“You're thinking about your mother, aren't you?” he said softly, rubbing Ed's back in circles. “Maybe I don't know the whole story, but one thing I know for certain is that she would never tell you that you failed her. I'm sure your mom wouldn't have wanted you to sacrifice what you did, trying to bring her back. But she would understand. Because she loved you. She knew that you did what you did because you were desperate, and you wanted to see her again.”

Edward drew a deep, shuddering breath, but didn't say anything, so Maes continued. “And I know for a fact that Al would never call you a failure for what you did for him. He looks up to you. He respects you. He's grateful for what you did, because it's kept you two together all this time. It's given you a second chance to make things right. The way he sees it, you saved his life.

“Now, you may not have been able to save Nina's life,” he murmured, absently stroking Ed's tangled hair, “but you brought so much joy to that little girl's life while she was still here. I could see it from the first time I laid eyes on her, you know. You were like a brother to her. And I know you tried your hardest to help her even after...what happened. She wasn't just a failed experiment to you, was she? She was still Nina.”

A little moan was the only response he got.

“Sometimes...there's nothing we can do. We can't prevent it, and we can't fix it. Unfortunately, that's the way life is sometimes. And I'm so sorry you've already had to learn this so many times.”

“It hurts,” Ed sobbed. “I-I don't want it to hurt!”

“I know.” Tears stung Maes's eyes, but all he could do was hold Ed close. “I know.”

Minutes passed in silence. Gradually, Ed's tears subsided into sniffles and shuddery, hiccuping breaths. Maes relaxed his embrace enough for Ed to sit back against the couch cushions, wiping the tears away. This time, he didn't look embarrassed. He seemed too worn out for any of that nonsense by now.

Gracia's timing was impeccable as always. She picked the perfect moment to walk out into the living room with a tray of steaming mugs and a plate of cookies. As soon as she set the tray down, before even serving the hot chocolate, she perched on the arm of the couch and pulled Ed into a hug, complete with kiss on the top of the head. Ed's cheeks tinged red, but he still lingered in her embrace as if reluctant to let her go.

Like any other twelve-year-old boy who'd been carrying a weight of grief and just needed loving parents to hold him and reassure him that everything would be all right. Maes had to bite his tongue to keep himself from announcing that they were adopting him and Al on the spot.

Just as Gracia got to her feet again, a baby's cry echoed down the stairs. Glancing at the clock, Gracia said, “It's time for Elysia's next feeding. Please make yourself at home, Edward. Maes can help you make up the couch if you want to stay the night.”

“Oh...that's okay,” Ed mumbled as she left.

“Here.” Maes passed him a mug of chocolate and positioned the plate of cookies within easy reach, snagging one for himself. After the emotional turmoil, he felt he could use a midnight snack too.

After a sip or two of the hot chocolate, Ed glanced up at Maes again. “Thanks.”

Maes smiled, his heart lifting to see the spark of something that had been missing in Ed's eyes before. “Anytime.”

[katatonicimpression]

Has Exodus been Redeemed?

So, I saw someone posting about this the other day, and they made two really good points. Summarised here:

Bennet being redeemed because of Krakoa is weird and bad.

Any redemption Bennet gets should involve children because of that thing when he kinda maybe sorta tried to kill Luna

And yes these are both good points but also... are we supposed to think of current bennet as redeemed at all?

Some thoughts on all the above:

Is Bennet actually doing anything different now than he was in Messiah Complex?

I mean, no. Right?

When it comes down to it, Bennet's moral failings are quite straight forward. He doesn't care who he hurts, who he kills, so long as he conceptualises it as a step towards securing the salvation of mutantkind. He is myopic, narrowly focused on whatever he's decided his goal is, and his thought process is (sorry babe) irrational. He is not stable. He's not able to recognise that instability. Neither is he able to recognise his own hypocrisy when it arises. His worldview warps to make sense with whatever he's decided he needs to do. And, when all is said and done, he'll say it was God's plan.

So, he's like any old cult leader or anti vax podcaster, really. He pedals dangerous nonsense and has the just the right combination of personality flaws and mental illness to still be a true believer and a moral crusader.

Or he's like, you know, a crusader.

In Messiah Complex - an almost incoherent sprawling mess of a crossover event from 2007 - Bennet is distraught and struggling after M Day and ends up taking his Acolytes to meet Mr Sinister because he has come to believe that the only solutions lie in mad scientism or something. Bennet gets on his knees for him (literally) and then he and his Acolytes team up with the Marauders to fight the xmen because something something Destiny's diaries something something baby something something ice-stique something something. Bennet straight up vanishes from the story before it concludes. Idk maybe he went out for lunch.

Anyway, I bring it up as an example of a time where Bennet is looking for direction is his Holy War, joins forces with other mutants/mutates, and tolerates an uneasy alliance because he is 100% devoted to the mission.

Psychologically speaking, is bennet really behaving any differently in the krakoa era? Is he making different kinds of decisions? I don't think so.

In fact, Krakoa challenges his character less than Messiah complex. Which is weird, because in the latter he's straightforwardly a villain. Krakoa era Exodus is not a villain, not even an antagonist.

(I guess he's Sinister's casual antagonist in Hellions, but a) that's a comedic role and b) Nathaniel is the villain of hellions so that wouldn't even count)

He's not a heroic character either. He's just kind of an entity. Protagonist of one issue of Immortal X-Men and primarily featured as an interesting member of the supporting cast.

Krakoa offers Bennet a course of action where he is able to do what he always does (throw himself wholeheartedly at a mutant supremacist project while thinking of himself as the good guy in all of this). He is a defender of Krakoa and an ally to their cause.

So, this is not an arc. Categorically, it is not a character arc of any kind because he does not change. So, in that sense it's not a redemption arc either. But of course he is a character who has gone from villain to "guy who's on the side you're rooting for"

I think it's not wrong, then, to argue that what we're seeing from Fall of X era Exodus is the presentation of an unearned redemption. He's good/better now, but no actual story arc is there to back it up. He's not grown or changed or learnt anything. He's not been challenged. There is nothing in the text to suggest that he would now see non mutant lives as valuable, worth sparing.

So... is this bad writing?

He has not changed or learnt anything, are we supposed to believe otherwise?

The Krakoa era contains many in-story critiques of the nation it depicts, and to mixed results. Interestingly, Bennet is not heavily featured in this regard. Throwaway comments about him being scary or insane are tossed around, but he is not meaningfully involved in a story that questions the ideology of Krakoa - or of his ideology specifically.

It's hard to tell, then, what we're looking at. Let's roughly divide it into two possibilities:

Bennet is being portrayed as nicer, somewhat redeemed, and the mission of Krakoa is understood to be a virtuous endeavour.

Krakoa is understood to be a morally flawed endeavour, and Bennet is just being his same old self and not redeemed at all.

2 seems closer to what Gillen is doing in my opinion, but I think there's room for debate.

It's not like immortal xmen is really about the moral implications in the flaws of Krakoa. It's much more focused on the psychology of the characters on the Quiet Council and their interpersonal conflict and intrigue.

But, of course, explosions go boom.

Despite the intimate themes of immortal xmen (and its adjacent minis and oneshots), its overarching plot threads primarily involve krakoa being threatened with annihilation (inferno, judgement day, dominion crap, miscellaneous orchis crap, etc). Because of this, bennet is primarily featured as a defender of the people of Krakoa when they are under attack. This absolutely does lend itself to interpretation 1, wherein Exodus' zealotry is position's as a (complicated) good in the necessary and just cause of Krakoa.

To me, it feels like gillen is telling a story featuring characters who are predominantly morally grey or outright villainous, and using a setting and plot backdrop that forces them into the same or similar boat, allowing the writing to explore their intricacies. If the setting and plot were too normal - if it were one where the heroes would refuse to work with the villains or one where the villains were constantly being antagonists - many of those more interesting character beats would be cut off.

However, I don't think he has fully succeeded in this regard. The overarching thread of the innocents of krakoa being in mortal danger and needing protection is one that has moral implications. It does end up framing Bennet heroically, even when the on-page material does keep reminding you that he's, you know, a deranged zealot.

There's more that can be said about how the fact that Krakoa is constantly under threat of total extinction undermines any attempt at nuance in its portrayal, and how it contributes to the greatest failings of this era. But I do plan to write that retrospective soon so I'll save it for later.

For now, I'll say that to me it feels like the intent was not to tell a story of redemption arcs at all. Instead, morality was not the focus and the storytelling deliberately steers away from the pedagogical. However, despite this intent, the shape of a redemption story remains, simply due to the nature of Bennets role in Krakoa.

Won't somebody please think of the children?

The one way in which we arguably do see change in Bennet is with The Children.

Bennet is shown telling stories to the children of Krakoa, teaching them and, also, protecting them. His interactions with Kafka in X-Men Forever are a good example of this.

The thing with Luna (he takes her from Fabian who was, unsurprisingly, responsible for all this mess) is a pretty bleak moment in Bennet's history. It also I believe leads to him being stabbed by Dane which I can't imagine him enjoying.

Bennets canon history is actually kind of weird. He's one of those characters with a lot of "idek how he got out of that but he turned up later on so he must have" in his wiki. The krakoa era is probably the most prolonged, stable period of his existence where the audience has had a strong sense of where he's at and what he's doing for the last five years.

Similarly, in universe the krakoa era could well be the first time Bennet's life has been anything close to normal for a long time. He has a home that isn't a supervillain lair, and actual down time for the first time since Mags woke him up. He is walking around in public and kinda sorta socialising for possibly the first time in his entire life.

He has that line about how he's old and wise, and that other line about how he's not naive (a repeat - he says it in the 90s and in krakoa) and both of those things are lies. Because he's, you know, a delusional cult leader. He is not literally old. He was a young man (which in medieval terms could literally mean still in his teens) when he went into that coma. And it's been 30 years real time since he woke up. But no characters who were adults then have aged in that time (and some (emma) have got younger) so whatever it is in universe it's not more than a few years. He's still in his 20s in my interpretation. Moreover, his life experience is extreme social isolation and a series of fanatical violent cults. He is naive. He's not wise.

He's also not really had a chance to just be and coexist with other people. So, in that sense it's not weird to see him be kind to children in Krakoa. Nothing we've seen technically contradicts the idea that he would be. Willingness to threaten a child in one situation and the ability to genuinely care for children aren't actually contradictory. But emotionally, there is resonance to showing this softness to him in this regard.

So, this is the one area where you could say there has been a meaningful change to Bennet, but again it has no narrative arc to it. Beyond simply the implication that if you let this guy chill for a minute, he eventually does mellow a bit.

But it is nice. And it is fitting.

Static characters and hypocrisy

Bennet is a character who fundamentally is incapable of seeing himself as being in the wrong. This is baked right into the type of villain that he is.

Redemption arcs can come in a lot of different forms. Sometimes the fictional universe has concrete concepts of good and evil, and a redemption is about aligning yourself spiritually with the good side (e.g. star wars) or by fulfilling some abstract metaphysical requirement (e.g. Buffy). Sometimes the emphasis is on doing the work to improve yourself (e.g. zuko), and sometimes it's a grand gesture at the right moment. Sometimes it's because a bigger bad came along, sometimes the redeemed one suffers a lot, sometimes they don't.

There's also the fun cartooney type of redemption arc where the bad guy is forced to just kinda hang out with the heroes and becomes part of the team by osmosis. Tgis is a personal fave but I don't think it suits Bennet - he should have an actual arc if it happens at all.

So, if there's an actual arc, it could vary a lot but one thing it requires is introspection and for the character's flaws to actually be confronted in the text.

Now, is it possible to write something like that for Bennet? Yes.

There are limitations, as with any character. He wouldn't suit an arc than evokes a grandiose good/evil darkside/lightside dichotomy because part of his problem is that he already thinks like that. Similarly, you would have to be careful when introducing a character foil (someone to be azula to his zuko for example) because he is not self aware enough to recognise his own flaws in the other. In general, he's someone who can very easily externalise any moral lesson he learns. It's doable, but difficult.

The example I want to evoke is Isaac from Netflix Castlevania. Isaac's storyline in s3 is basically him just travelling from A to B, and on the way he encounters these little vignettes. Some affirm his world view in s2 (aka "humanity sucks might as well help Dracula kill everyone") and some gently challenge it (e.g. "you should consider having friends") and he talks about it. He does philosophy. He reasons through his positions. And, eventually he starts to change. By the time he confronts Hector in s4, he's no longer here for revenge. He's moved on. He's now acting according to what he thinks will make things better.

I love this. I love that it's completely internal as an arc and I love how much agency isaac has. And I love that the dialogue is genuinely clever. Most philosophy dialogue in pop culture is written to just sound deep, but in castlevania they really managed to maintain meaning and coherence throughout.

And obviously the shape of Bennets arc would be different to this, but the idea of a well crafted "man does philosophy, sees the abstract concepts illustrated in narrative vignettes as he does so, and then eventually changes for the better". And a good writer could do this for him.

But should they?

So, this is that lingering thing. You redeem a villain in a comic book and now you've lost that villain. You let Exodus meaningfully improve and then he's no longer available to churn out as a big or medium bad. Maybe you might want to keep Bennet's delightful combination of flaws because it allows you to explore them. Maybe a redeemed Bennet isn't really Bennet anymore, or doesn't have what you want from him as a character. You make the unselfaware villain introspect then what are you left with?

A happier character, sure. But maybe not a good ingredient for a story.

And with bennet, the kind of introspection and self confrontation needed for a redemption arc would change him a lot. It would change him at his very foundation.

Does that mean he's doomed to be a static character? Not necessarily. I think it would be possible to bring shape to his storylines without shaking those foundations, but it is limiting. And also, they don't focus on him enough to do it.

Conclusion

The title of this section is a such a joke because I have nothing conclusive to say. I feel like if you read this far, you've been tricked.

I think Exodus makes for an interesting villain, and (imho) is actually best suited to be posed as not the only/main villain in a story. A supporting antagonist, if you will.

But that doesn't mean seeing him in a protagonist role isn't welcome. I loved it the one time it happened. And as for uncomplicated heroics? No, he's not there yet. And if he got there, it would involve a pretty hefty change to his character.

But it's not like I would be mad if it happens. We don't need a crusader villain (especially as I personally don't think Bennet's zealotry is well suited to paralleling modern religious extremism - at least not the mainstream stuff) and hell, I want to see what a fully sympathetic write of him would look like. Maybe he'd get to talk to Dane again. That could be fun.

But it doesn't look like that's going to happen. He'll probably continue to hover in this "villainous ally" space for the foreseeable future. He's in heir of apocalypse. I doubt he'll get a lot to do.

Anyway. Thanks guys if you made it this far. Hope you have a nice day. I'm currently spending billable hours sitting in a stairwell writing essays about comics. What a time we live in.

[autumnalwalker]

Writeblr Intro v3

Updating the pinned intro now that it's been a year and my (now previously) main WIP is complete as it's going to be.

Me:

I write as a hobby. It's something I do for fun and first and foremost for myself. But if other people happen to actually like what I write, that's pretty cool too.

I try to keep this main blog primarily writing-focused. I've set up the side-blog @traversedmiscellany for reblogging/posting any other random stuff that happens to catch my interest.

I tend to prefer to keep my online and offline lives separate so I rarely say much about personal details aside from what inevitably winds up leaking into talking about my writing.

I am open to tag games and ask games. Or just general writing-related asks.

If anyone would like to be added to a tag list (whether for WIP updates or tag games), please feel free to send me a message or reply to this post, specifying what you want to be on the tag list for.

My WIPs:

Completed (Is it still a "WIP" at this point? Either way, it's fully online and available to read for free.):

The Archivist's Journal:

A slice-of-life story about waking up on a fantasy tropical island told over the course of a year in the form of daily journal updates. Mostly fairly chill, just living life one day at a time, but with some occasional angst, social anxiety, and supernatural spookiness.

The whole story (just over 330,000 words) is posted on my side blog @thearchivistsjournal. Or if you want to read from the beginning, here's the chronological posting. Or if you prefer to read in a format other than Tumblr posts, it's mirrored over on my ScribbleHub.

Also, here's the post I made when the project was completed for some more meta background on it and what I mean when I call it "complete."

I may eventually make additional scattered journal entries as a sort of periodic epilogue, but Day 380 should be considered the end of the "main story," so to speak.

Ongoing:

Empty Names:

My current main project. Also freely available to read in full as chapters go up.

A bit of an episodic urban fantasy moster-of-the-week sort of deal that's mostly an excuse to have a cast of OCs that I like interact with eachother. The basic premise is a world-hopping adventurer attempts to set up a sword-and-sorcery style adventurer's guild in a modern world where "adventurer" isn't considered a legitimate profession. Has what I suppose one might call "genre-typical violence" with fighting monsters and such, and individual chapters are tagged with more specific content warnings where necessary.

Here's the masterpost for it with links to chapters and to several standalone side stories set in the same world/setting.

I'm much more casual with my update schedule on this project, but it seems to be coming out to posting weekly chapter updates for a month or two at a time and then taking a month or two off from posting while I rebuild my buffer queue for the next batch of chapters.

Also, while it's not exactly a focus, the five characters of the core cast are all some flavor or another of LGBTA+, if that's a selling point for you.

The Witches' Testaments:

A prequel to the currently-hiatused "Solarpunk Witch Story" below that I wrote the loose framework and beginnings of in a sudden fit of inspiration that I may return to sporadically.

The idea was to focus a bit more on the "punk" side of Solarpunk and paint a picture of the effort and rebellion that went into how that world transitioned from Cyberpunk dystopia to Solarpunk... well, not utopia exactly, but something better than it was and striving toward that dream.

And because that sort of thing is bigger than any one person and I had multiple worldbuilding concepts I wanted to touch on, I landed on the idea of writing it in the form of a series of interviews with various characters who lived through that period of change.

Here's the masterpost for it.

Indefinite Hiatus:

Untitled Solarpunk Witch Story:

A project that I absolutely intend to return to one day once Empty Names is finished, but that's going to be a good long while yet.

The story of a freshly-minted "witch" and her AI familiar traveling from town to town in an ecologically-recovering post-capitalism future, providing highly-specialized tech support and environmental consulting wrapped up in enough mysticism and aesthetics to blur the line between what's purely technology and what might possibly be some kind of magic. I only ever wrote a prologue and five chapters worth of an initial arc/town/problem to solve, but I liked what I wrote well enough to share all that online. Ultimately this project going on hold was a matter of it being one project too many for me to handle simultaneously on the time combined with a desire to get more experience at traditional prose writing (as opposed to the epistolary format of The Archivist's Journal) so that I could better do the concept justice when I do one day revisit it.

In the meantime, those initial rough chapter drafts are all up online here: Solarpunk Witch Masterpost

Miscellaneous other writing:

On most Thursdays I'll post small (couple hundred words at most) pieces based on various interesting dreams that I've had. Being based on dreams, the content is a mixed bag. Those are tagged under #my dreams. These now have a compilation Masterpost that I'll do my best to keep updated.

Alternatively, if you just want to browse semi-random excerpts and snippets from the above works, I post a lot of that under #tag game.

Some Standalone Short Stories:

(Stories that were either written to be standalone pieces, or appear within something else but worked well enough by themselves that I gave them their own separate posts.)

The Tale of the Merchant and the Blacksmith's Daughter: A sapphic fairy tale (and, in retrospect after writing, possible trans allegory).

The Melts: An attempt to shift what would normally be body horror into the genre of slice-of-life. "What if your body slowly melting over the course of the day were treated as no more serious than the common cold and you still had to go to work?"

Kindly Basilisk: A human mech pilot who wants to be a machine, an AI who wants to be human, and the relationship they form.

[lacomandante]

🧶 — any non-writing hobbies/interests?

munday asks!

Yes! I have quite a few, actually. I like to think I'm a jack of all trades. I do historical sewing, and atm I'm currently working on a pair of regency stays. It's a little annoying because I've been working on multiple dresses, only to have to stop because I don't have the correct undergarments to accurately measure if the dress fits or not. So I had to stop what I was doing and make these mockups...I'll get there eventually lol. I also make dolls! Which I never posted photos of when complete, I'll need to do that. Unfortunately I'm very easily fatigued, and sewing is easily one of the most exhausting hobbies I have physically and mentally, which means a lot of these projects take months or years.

Reading, but I feel like that's a given for most people in the rpc. I feel like it's very important to read in order to grow your own ability to write. Currently rereading the Witcher series, alongside Sharpe's Gold and Company. I've also been reading a lot of English accounts of travels through Spain, detailing the landscapes, customs, manners, etc. I think since January I've read over 8 books detailing these things...probably over 2,000 pages combined? I'm endlessly fascinated with historical accounts and I honestly can't get enough of them. Currently reading Letters written during a journey in Spain, and a short residence in Portugal published in 1808. There's a huge gap in the history of Spain during this period so it's been very helpful (although biased) filling in the blanks.

I also do drawing and painting, but this hobby has kinda fallen on the wayside this year. I find myself impatient, but I need to get back into groove of things, as I do really want to improve more.

I would say I do gardening, but...this year my plants almost instantly fried in the California heat, and every time I look into my backyard I just see their decayed husks so. Maybe attempted gardener is best...I have more houseplants than anything, and I struggle to keep my pothos alive, which are pretty easy to take care of....I think I have more of a hobby of buying plants...

Oh! I also do a lot of penpal writing. I joined a Jane Austen FB group and joined a pen pal group in there. I'm more of a casual fan and not really obsessed with her works, but I do enjoy them. I've got three pen pals so far, and they're all older women in England (one I was luckily enough to find that also writes/speaks Spanish so I get to practice!). Two of them are in Kent, and one is in Yorkshire. They're all very sweet and kind and nothing makes me happier than getting their handwritten letters in the mail. I also adore making fancy designs for the envelopes and stuffing them full of stickers and pretty things. Here's a few samples of things I've made (steadily improving lmao) - two for my penpals, and one for Sam :)

I suppose archival work also falls into this? I know how to pirate, burn and rip dvds and blurays, how to convert and preserve files, and I'm currently learning how to preserve and convert VHS. It's really fascinating to me, and I've even learned a little bit of coding and programming on the side for it.

Oh! I also like to make gifsets and photo manips- 10 years of being in the rpc with photoshop skills helps a lot with this. I LOVE making manips of Teresa in other Sharpe films, or in different scenes. I actually have quite a few but haven't posted many of them. Mostly for au's and rp's/fics Sam and I have written and explored.

I also play the guitar, but I say this very lightly. More like I can read tabs, and play some songs, but honestly I'm self taught and would say I'm very much a beginner at best. I really enjoy it but haven't had much time, nor the means to learn more sadly. But I enjoy plucking and learning chords to my favorite songs.

[princesscolumbia]

Another day, a little bit closer to a new chapter of Fission. I hope y'all enjoy this upcoming chapter as much as I'm having fun writing it, it's absolutely a blast to get these ideas out and show them to the world.

Usagi was doing something strange. Something totally out of character. Something so wildly beyond what her normal behavior was that, if they knew, her friends and family would be shocked and appalled and would have immediately taken steps to have her checked for mental or physical health issues (in the case of her family and friends) or youma possession (in the case of her fellow Senshi).

Usagi was laying in bed, unable to sleep.

In some unknown corner of the multiverse, on a world so close to it's own sun that the average temperature never dropped below 100 degrees and by a weird set of coincidences was a hive of evil, had flames and lava tubes gouting on a continual basis, and had somehow developed life and was host to a civilization that called their world "Hell" and the nominal leader/king/emperor was given the title of "Satan" upon taking the throne, they were suddenly, inexplicably experiencing their first ever snowfall.

Usagi adjusted her feet, being careful to not bump into Luna, who was gently snoring in a curled up ball at the foot of the bed. Sighing, she played over the battle from earlier in the day in her head. All in all, everything had gone well. The team was coordinated, effective, and kept the property damage and civilian casualties to a minimum. Cooperation with civil officials, like police officers, went well, especially during the post-battle cleanup, and Venus, ever the verbal klutz in a casual setting proved once again that she could play the press like a cheap fiddle. Even Usagi’s late arrival had not seriously affected the outcome, the others having taken out one youma and severely crippling a second by the time she had made it from Nerima.

What was bothering her was all throughout the fight she kept getting the notion that there was an attack she could have used besides her various staff attacks or her tiara. Throughout the battle the attack flitted about the edge of her consciousness, not wanting to come out into focus.

She had actually experienced this frustration before. When she and the other Inner Senshi were first activated, they all went through periods of escalation where their previous attacks were proving ineffective and the more advanced, more powerful attacks weren't manifesting themselves right away. Some of those fights were downright hell and they often were surprised to be alive afterward, but coming out of the battle with a new, more powerful attack sometimes made it worth it.

Screwing up her eyebrows, she lay in bed looking at the ceiling.  Mo...something? Mobisha? Fierce Tiger? Thoughts flitted around in her head as she tried to complete the attack mentally. She lifted her hands to examine them. Something with hands and...spirit? She cupped her hands together in front of her chest, then slowly pushed them forward until her arms were completely extended, spreading her hands apart as she did so until her hands were splayed so the fingers were pointing out and her wrists were together. Somehow she knew that there was supposed to be a shot of energy that would fly out at this point if she had done the move right.

When nothing happened for several heartbeats, she sighed and dropped her arms to her side with a light thump. Luna stirred slightly, but being far too used to Usagi's usual sleep patterns, that is to say an all out attack on the mattress to prevent it from returning to life, the Moon Cat didn't wake up.

Realizing that laying there trying to get the attack to form wasn't working, she decided that she should just relax and let the thoughts flow, and if she fell to sleep in the meantime, perhaps her subconscious would bring the knowledge out through a dream...

No, wait, she just decided she was tired and bored by trying to remember and fell asleep. This is Usagi, after all.

Ranma dragged her body into the Tendo household. She had purposely stayed away from all her usual haunts and eating joints in hopes that her fiancees would not be able to find her. While it had worked, it left her hungry and tired. She went into the kitchen and checked the refrigerator-freezer. Feeling a sudden urge for ice cream, she grabbed one of the pint buckets that weren't locked (Nabiki didn't trust even those locks she did put on, but since she didn't want to have a freezer equipped safe installed in her room just to store ice cream, she considered the locks sufficient for the investment), snagged a spoon and plopped down at the table. Only then did she notice her mother, who had apparently been reading by a small light by the TV. "Oh, hi mom. Didn't see you there."

Nodoka's mouth crinkled into a smile, "That's quite alright dear. Tell me, what kept you out so late?"

Ranma, having wasted no time, was already savoring her third bite.

In some unknown corner of the multiverse, on a world so close to it's own sun that the average temperature never dropped below 100 degrees and by a weird set of coincidences was a hive of evil, had flames and lava tubes gouting on a continual basis, and had somehow developed life and was host to a civilization that called their world "Hell" and the nominal leader/king/emperor was given the title of "Satan" upon taking the throne, the current Satan cursed rather foully and killed a servant to vent his frustration at the renewed snowstorm that was currently laying siege to his palace.

Nodoka can be forgiven for not noticing that Ranma wasn't inhaling her ice cream but was instead tenderly caressing each spoonful in a near erotic fashion with her tongue. She hadn't spent nearly as much time with her son as she would have liked, so didn't know that what Ranma was doing was in any way unusual. Besides, this being Ranma she was still doing it damned fast, so it just looked like a regular eating pace to Nodoka. "Oh, you know, the usual." Ranma said, digging her fourth spoonful out of the carton and proceeding to make sweet oral love to it.

"I'm afraid I don't, dear. What is 'the usual' for you?" replied Nodoka as she dropped a bookmark in her book and closed it.

Ranma was getting well and truly into a good ice cream-inspired endorphin high by this point. Small bursts of pleasure were popping in her brain, gently relaxing the verbal defensive walls that she had built over the years. Fortunately, there was no reason for said walls in this conversation, so no negative repercussions would occur due to her loose tongue. Speaking of her tongue, she noticed there was no ice cream on it, and proceeded to remedy that situation while responding to her mother. "Oh, well, usually there's two or more girls in the room then I open my mouth and stick my foot in it." Further sounds from her mouth would have been muffled by the spoonful of ice cream her mouth was now doing naughty, naughty things to, so she stopped talking to allow her mouth it's ice cream conjugal visit.

"I see," said Nodoka with an amused look on her face that Ranma completely missed, "I suppose that would explain Akane's mood when she came home from school today."

"Mmmm," was Ranma's reply. Less talky, more eaty of ice cream! her tongue screamed to her brain, her stomach agreed, and her lower nerve functions presently held hostage at gunpoint by the endorphin rush gave her brain a kick in the rear to get another spoonful in her mouth.

"Yes, she said something about you wanting to do something 'perverted' with all four of 'your girls?'" Ranma could hear the quotes in her mother's query.

"Mrm," Ranma swallowed, "I don't know what I said wrong, Mom. All I wanted was to keep the fighting from hurting non-martial artists is all. It looked like they were gonna really get into it..." she sighed and stabbed her spoon into the pint cup, noticing a bit forlornly that it was already 2/3 empty.

Nodoka wished she knew how to help her child more. As it was she felt she was playing serious catch-up to nearly everyone else when it came to dealing with her son. "Well, dear, perhaps it's your vocabulary."

"Muh wuh?" said Ranma around a mouthful of ice cream.

"Don't speak with your mouth full dear, it's not proper."

Ranma swallowed, "My what?"

"Your vocabulary, the words you use and the context you use them in."

"Ah," grunted Ranma just as she took another bite. She once again savored the cool confection and noticed she had, maybe, two spoonfuls left in the pint. Nuts, she thought. "What's 'context?'"

"It's the...shouldn't you have learned this in school?"

"Aww, man!" she whined at the combination of parental reproach and the realization that she had now consumed all the ice cream in the pint, and if she ate more she'd have to pose for Nabiki's camera to pay for it, "Not you too!"

"'Not me too,' what, dear?" asked Nodoka with curiosity.

"First I got Pops going on about, 'Honor the schools, boy,'" she changed her voice to produce a sarcastic imitation of her father that her mother giggled at behind a hand, "Then it's the teachers, AND Mr. Tendo, AND Akane, even Kasumi's gettin' on my case. Well," she amended, "She said, 'Oh, my,' when she saw my report card, but you know that's pretty bad coming from Kasumi." Once again Ranma did a vocal imitation, this time nearly dead-on for the eldest Tendo sister and once again left her mother giggling.

"Well, dear, there's one thing I've learned over the years."

Ranma absently tossed the ice cream pint over her shoulder, "What's that Mom?"

For a moment Nodoka didn't respond as she watched the pint bucket rebound off of no less than three surfaces before neatly landing in the kitchen trash. Smiling she focused on her son, "If one person calls you an ass, that's his problem. If several people call you an ass, it's time to get fitted for a saddle."

Ranma boggled at her mother, not expecting that kind of language out of the same mouth that continually spoke of "manly virtues" and propriety and whatnot.

Before either could say anything else, Ranma heard a distinct cry for, "Help!"

Ami's Mercury computer blipped on a warning light. Ami herself was passed out, her head resting on her AP Trig homework and, unfortunately, facing away from the computer who's light was on.

"Who was that!" said Ranma with alarm.

"Who was what, dear?" asked Nodoka.

"That shout, didn't you hear it?" snapped Ranma with surprise as she turned back to face her mother.

"I'm...afraid not..."

Ranma didn't hear the rest of her sentence as she heard, "Somebody, please!" the voice, a girl, screamed in fright.

"THAT! Didn't you hear that scream!" she looked in the direction it seemed to have come from, apparently the kitchen, but she knew there was nothing in there but pots and dishes and such. Ignoring her mother's concerned look, she stood and stepped through the back door out onto the patio. It wasn't coming from the kitchen, it was coming from a direction the kitchen just happened to be in the way of.

Nodoka followed her son outside. "Dear, what is it?"

"Someone's in trouble," responded Ranma. All thoughts of ice cream and school and fiancees flew from her head. She knew what she had to do, protect the weak. It was her sworn duty as a martial artist, after all.

"How do you know, dear?" said his mother.

"I don't know how I know, I just do."

"Should I wake your father?" Nodoka turned slightly to do just that.

"Nah," said Ranma dismissively, "I'll handle it." With that, she leaped to the roof.

"Call us if you need any help!" called Nodoka after her son.

"Sure thing, Ma!" came the fading reply.

Nodoka smiled gently as she sent good thoughts after her son. Nabiki's window opened and the mercenary girl glanced up and looked back down at the porch. "What was all that about?"

"Oh," replied Nodoka, "Just my son being manly again." Nabiki paused, not sure how to parse that sentence given the multifaceted definition of "manly" that Nodoka had, "And shouldn't you be in bed, young lady?"

Nabiki sighed, "Yes, aunty." She ducked back inside and a few moments later her light went out.

Nodoka smiled and re-entered the house to wait for Ranma to return to her.

A girl, perhaps 16 years old, paced in her bedroom. It would soon be time, her time! A time for revenge, a time to bring down the one person that had caused her shame and anguish for all these years! In fact, it would begin tomorrow, and her arch nemesis would RUE the day they crossed Mia Asagura!

"Soon, Usagi Tsukino, very soon you will look into the face of your worst nightmare and DESPAIR! MWA-HAHAHAHA!"

"Hey!" came a voice through the door to her room, "Keep it down in there, some people are trying to sleep!"

"Daaaaddyyyy! I'm being eeeeviiilll heeere!" Mia whined.

"Yeah, yeah, evil. Daddy's got a big meeting tomorrow, so pipe it down, OK, kitten?"

Mia hung her head, her glasses slipping down her nose slightly, "OK, dad, I guess..."

"That's my girl!" the slightly muffled voice replied.

Her rant ruined, Mia shut off her lights and went to bed.

Another girl, this one not at home even though it was way past her curfew, huddled against a wall as a...thing stepped closer to her. It was perhaps the ugliest thing she had ever seen, standing eight feet tall, wearing, of all things, a giant homework worksheet for a dress, and had pens and pencils sticking out of it's back like spines. That it looked vaguely female disturbed her quite a bit, but not nearly as much as the grasping tack shaped claws that were reaching for her head.

"Yo, ugly!" came a voice. Both the girl and the youma turned to see a short red-headed girl perched on a lamp post. "I normally don't hit girls, but I think I can make an exception for you."

The youma merely pulled one of it's pencil like spines out of it's back and threw it at the girl yelling, "DIE!" in a gravelly voice.

The redhead just leaped over the arc of the pencil-spine and landed neatly as the projectile fell to the earth and blew up. Ranma simply sauntered closer as a concussion wave fluttered her clothes and hair dramatically, "And my mom says homework won't kill me." she quipped.

The youma stretched it's hand out and papers shot out of nowhere. Cartwheeling to the side as the odd shuriken jammed themselves into the pavement, the martial artist said, "Awww, that's not nice, you shouldn't litter like that. Especially when there's a trash can real handy!" to demonstrate her point, she kicked the nearby trash can at the youma with enough force to knock the monster on it's back.

Growling, the youma tried to stand up, only to be knocked right back down with a well placed kick. The kick had enough force to knock the creature even closer to the victim, however, who was still frozen in fright. Without hesitation, the youma reached out to draw some energy from the girl and spread it's talons wide. Ranma panicked and shot off a Moko Tamabisha, knocking it's hand aside before the monster could complete it's attack.

Correction, knocking it's hand OFF. The ball of qi had completely severed the arm.

Boggling, Ranma watched as the severed arm turned to dust, then whisps of ash, then nothing. It took all of half a second, just one second less time than it took for the youma to regrow the arm.

"You're not human, are you?"

The creature responded with a howl and lunged at Ranma.

"Didn't think so," her visage turned grim, "Well, in that case, time to take the kid gloves off."

The Mercury Computer, not having it's light acknowledged for some time now, began to beep. Ami's head popped up and she said, "...don't eat the cosine!" she blinked, "Huh?" Getting her bearings a bit, she looked around to see what had woken her.

The Mercury Computer beeped again, drawing Ami's attention and pulling her further awake.

Luna awoke with a start. She felt a youma presence, low strength but still powerful enough to be a corporeal manifestation.

Rae sat up, woken quickly from a deep sleep. "Youma..." she whispered.

Artimis stirred slightly, but didn't wake. Lazy kitty.

"Why I'd love to be Mrs. DiCaprio..." muttered Mina in her sleep.

Ranma held the follow-through for her vacuum blade attack and watched as the blades tore an 'X' in the monster before her. With an unearthly scream the creature started to fall to the ground in four parts, but vanished in a puff of smoke, ash, and dust.

"Awww, yeah," said the redhead, "Who'da'man!"

The dot indicating the location of the youma in Tokyo suddenly went out, and Ami blinked at the computer. "Eh?" she grunted to herself, "I've never seen that happen before..." Her communicator chirped at her. She reached over with one hand and popped it open. "Mercury here."

Luna's face appeared on the tiny screen, "Ami, did you notice that?"

"Sudden youma indicator followed by the youma dropping off the map? Yes."

The tiny screen bisected itself and Rae's face appeared in the other half. "I felt it too. Any explanation?"

Before either Ami or Luna could respond, Makoto's face appeared on the screen, "This is Jupiter, what's with the all-call?"

"We have a mystery on our hands..." Ami began as the three who had sensed the disturbance filled in the tall Senshi.

"Do you have a location on that?" said Makoto. Ami nodded and read off the street intersection. Makoto scowled, "I think I'm closest, although Mina could get there in about the same time. Where is she?"

"Where's Artimis? He's supposed to wake her when this kind of thing happens." replied Luna.

"Speaking of waking people, where's Usagi?" said Rae.

Her answer came when Luna disappeared from the screen, apparently knocked over by a pillow. A moment later Luna leaned back into camera, "You wake her up!"

Rei rolled her eyes but didn't reply as Makoto spoke up, "I'll go check it out. No sense in rousing sleeping beauty over there unless we have to, or we'll never hear the end of it tomorrow."

Ranma once again entered her not-quite-temporary home. This time, she saw her mother reading and said, "Heya, Mom!" right away.

"Oh, well, hello dear. You look to be in a better mood. Did everything turn out well?"

"Oh, yeah!" spouted Ranma enthusiastically, "Kicked some monster butt!"

"Monster?" Nodoka ignored the slang, "What monster?"

"You know, it was one of the goofiest monsters I've ever seen, and I've seen some strange ones," she put her finger and thumb to her chin in a classic thinking pose, "It was attacking me with homework."

Nodoka smiled and said, "Homework? Are you sure you didn't go and attack one of your teachers?"

Ranma rolled her eyes, "Yes mom, I'm sure. Had some nasty attacks, though."

"Ah, yes, the dreaded participle." Nodoka couldn't help but poke some fun.

"Maaa! It was attacking a girl!"

"Oh," replied Nodoka, "Oh, my! You rescued her, I take it?"

"Yep! I think her and her family are new to the area."

"Why do you say that?"

"Well, she was out way late, which nobody in their right mind does in Nerima, and her parents didn't believe me when I told them how she'd been attacked."

Nodoka nodded, "Yes, it sounds like they haven't gotten used to the area. Perhaps Kasumi and I can pay them a visit tomorrow to welcome them."

"Eh," Ranma shrugged, "Break the news to them gently, Ma."

"What news?"

"Things like monsters and magic and all."

"Yes, good point," Nodoka pursed her lips, "And what of the monster?"

"Oh, when I beat it, it turned to dust."

Nodoka afforded herself another smile, "So, you rescued the girl and slayed the monster? Just like a knight in shining armor rescuing a damsel in distress?"

Ranma groaned, "Maaa! I wasn't exactly equipped to be a knight..." and I aint talkin' about armor! Ranma completed in her head.

"But you rescued her anyway, oh, my manly son!" she swept the smaller girl into a hug.

"Gak, Ma!" came Ranma's muffled voice from the vicinity of Nodoka's breasts, "I'm tired, I wanna go to bed!"

Nodoka released the hug but kept one arm around Ranma, "Now, dear, it's a parent's job to do things that embarrass their children. You're the only one I've got and I have to make up for lost time."

Ranma's chagrin evaporated under the beaming smile of her mother. "Yeah, I know, Mom."

As she guided Ranma up the stairs to the guest room, she said, "Did you want to take a bath to change back to a boy?"

"Nah," Ranma replied, "I'd prolly fall asleep in the tub. 'sides, 'round this house I never know if I'm gonna wake up from a bucket of water or landin' in the pond."

Ami finished another equation with a flourish just as her communicator bleeped at her. She tapped the Recieve button, "Mercury here."

Sailor Jupiter's face appeared on the screen, "I'm at the location you gave me." Jupiter hesitated for a moment, "There is evidence of a youma attack, but it's odd..."

"How so?" replied Ami. Rei, Mina, or Usagi might have snapped off a witty retort, but the thought never crossed the mind of the sometime Sailor Mercury.

"Well, there's property damage, and some youma dust, but there's no victim. I can see where the victim had been cornered, and there's a faint trace of magic to the area, but it's as if the youma was stopped by one of us."

"How do you mean, 'traces of magic?'"

"You know that feeling we get deep in your bones when we're close to magic, like a Silver Millenium artifact?" Ami nodded. All the scouts had those feelings at one time or another, Ami relied on it less, as her senses could be betrayed. Still, feedback was feedback and had to be considered. "Well," continued Jupiter, "I can feel that."

Ami thought for a moment, then said, "Well, if there's no immediate threat, I guess we stand down for the night."

"Right," said Jupiter, "I'll call the others and let them know, you look spent. Did you fall asleep doing homework again?"

"Yes..." muttered Ami hesitantly.

"Heh, figures. Get to bed."

Ami sighed, "I will, Mercury out."

"Jupiter out." The link went dead and the screen turned black.

Ami turned back to her homework to put it away, then looked at the problem she had just been working on. You know, I bet I can just do one more equation... her thought was interrupted by her communicator beeping again. She hit the Recieve button, "Mercury here."

"No," said Jupter without preamble, "You can't do one more equation. Go to bed." the line went dead.

Ami sighed and went to bed.

[proserpina-magnus]

Regulus Black dating a muggleborn

word count: 2863

[ warning; gender neutral reader, mention of death, description of crying, angst, no happy fucking ending, swearing, mention of lap sitting (none sexual), kissing, awkward teen love, regulus is kind of edgy and a dick sometimes ]

Fanon Regulus, not Canon. This doesn't line up with anything canon! So please do not take this seriously.

- Did I say dating? I meant secretly dating.

- Regulus spotted you studying alone at a table in The Three Broomsticks, he just couldn't hide the part of him that felt an intriguing feeling towards you.

- He asked a few people around, nudging them and gesturing towards you, asking a small "who are they?"

- It took him a few days to finally get someone to answer him and once he knew your name, he knew he'd fallen into a rabbit hole. he couldn't stop thinking about you, his mind twirling around your name in a constant spiral.

- Luckily, you had been partnered with him for a potions assignment. he couldn't talk to you, he couldn't even mutter a "hi" he was so nervous.

- He had never felt this nervous feeling in his stomach, it was coming to the point it was drowning him.

- Finally, the next day during potions he was able to gain enough courage and actually talk to you about the project, though his voice sounded so mellow and drawn out, like honey.

- He didn't try to engage in conversation other than the assignment, so when you offered that you and him could go to the library and do a bit more research, he said yes almost immediately.

- You both decided to go after dinner since the library wasn't as filled in the evening.

- So when he came back to his dorm after eating, he tried to change into something more casual than his school uniform. it took him a good 15 minutes to pick what he deemed was fit for the occasion.

- He was just about ready to step out the door with his books until his dormmate said something that caught his interest.

- "you're meeting up with your potions partner, arent you?"

- "Yeah, why?'

- "Nothing, it's just their a mudblood, you shouldn't be hanging around those types of people"

- "oh... I didn't know they were a... mudblood"

- 'yeah, nasty they are. you should just ditch 'em"

- So regulus did, he ditched you. he felt guilty, leaving you all alone in the library. you must had thought he was another pureblood prick.

- His conclusion was right, you waited for a good thirty minutes for him. When you realized he wasn't coming, you just decided to do the whole project yourself, it was better if you could just get this stupid assignment done yourself so you'd both could go your separate ways.

- The next day when he got to potions class, he saw you pass in a report to Professor Slughorn. He felt his stomach drop, he knew well enough you had finished the assignment last night without him.

- After class, he caught up with you, pulling you aside as he watched you stare up at him blankly.

- "what?" you had asked him, a hand on your hip as you gave an annoyed sigh.

- "I'm sorry I ditched you, I just didn't know you were a... muggle-born" he admitted, looking anywhere but your eyes as he caught a few of Slytherin boys looking at the two of you.

- "whatever, Black"

- " you didn't have to do the whole assignment, I would have helped you."

- Your eyes met the Slytherin boys who were watching you both, you gave a pitiful frown.

- " don't worry about it, I get it. next time, just tell the professor you don't want to work with me. don't lead me on for a stupid joke"

- He didn't get to explain himself as he watched you walk away, he felt horrible. he had never felt this deep connection to someone before, it made his heart sink when he watched you turn the corner.

- A few months pass, he hadn't gotten another opportunity to talk to you again. he felt like an idiot, he had a chance and he completely blew it,

- Late at night, regulus would stare at his ceiling and dream about what would happen if he had just done what he wanted if he had gone to finish the assignment with you. You both would meet up, exchange dislikes and likes, talk about your dreams for the future.

- He couldn't focus on quidditch, it was coming more frequent of his team captain yelling at him.

- Luckily, he had gotten another opportunity to talk to you again. both of you were selected to be a part of the slug club. Regulus was going to say no, but when he heard your name get mentioned, he joined.

- The first dinner party of slug club, was like a dream. his eyes scanned over your outfit and how it looked absolutely pleasing on your body. his eyes kept siding over to where you sat and when you caught him, he would just look away.

- After a few more meetings, he was done with the 'whole looking away whenever you looked at him' ,  there were only a few more months of Hogwarts left. his eyes met yours and he didn't look away, he gave a smile.

- When you had smiled back, he couldn't help but smile a bit wider, his cheeks glowing with a red flame.

- The next meeting, you had sat next to him. it didn't take long until you both had been exchanging words and stories, laughing at jokes and giving each other shy looks.

- After a dinner meeting during slug club, Regulus offered to walk you back to your house common room. (if you are in Slytherin, then he would just walk with you till you both had to go separate ways to your dorm).

- Once you arrived at your destination, it was awkward. He looked anywhere but you, his face was hot with red as he began to get flustered.

- You had said a quiet goodbye, turning to head back to your dorm but he grabbed your hand. Holding you back as he stiffened up and asked you out.

- "will you go out with me? This weekend, it's a Hogsmeade trip, I'll pay." His words were hard, but his body language was a complete mess.

- "you're not gonna ditch me again are you?"

- "no, defiantly not ." His words had still been raw and hard, he felt like he was going to throw up butterflies.

- "I'm a muggle-born, I heard you purebloods don't really like us very much. This kind of seems like a set-up"

- God you hoped it wasn't a set-up, ever since you've sat next to regulus at the slug club meetings, he had stolen your heart.

- "It might become an issue for some... people, but it doesn't bother me much"

- Regulus was defiantly not good at phrasing things, especially romantic feelings.

- You didn't take his words too seriously, you debated for a minute. You wanted to go with him, it felt like every nerve was alive.

- "Alright, one date couldn't hurt" with your words, you leaned up to kiss his cheek.

- "goodnight Regulus" ... and then you had disappointed out of his view. Once you reached your dorm, you screamed into your pillow with excitement.

- The date went well, you both had gone to the three broomsticks sticks and sat at a table near the very back.

- You had talked about everything you could, Though he made sure to stay away from the conversation of his family. He didn't want to ruin the date by mentioning his pureblood supremacist family. It's sorta a mood killer.

- You both stayed out of busy spots, even hiding and giggling in a bush as his dorm mates passed.

- That was your first kiss with regulus, tangled in bushes and twigs as you heard footsteps fading. His lips were soft, his hand coming to rest on your cheek.

- When you pulled away, both of you were flushed and looking towards the soil. He walked you back to Hogwarts, separating ways.

- You both couldn't see each other often, only giving each other looks in class or exchanging waves when passing each other in the hallways.

- It was fine for a few months, though the secret meetings were stressful yet fun. You didn't want to hide anymore, which resulted in your first fight.

- "don't you get it? I can't be seen with you! I've told you about my family. They don't like muggle-borns, this Voldemort guy doesn't either and I can't risk exposing our relationship! You'll get hurt!"

- "I don't care if I get hurt Regulus! Our love shouldn't be hidden because your afraid of what people will think! I'm tired of this sneaking around, I'm sick of it!"

- The fighting continued for minutes, both exchanging hateful words. At one point he had said something very vial, saying he couldn't be seen with someone like yourself.

- "What is that suppose to mean?" You sneered at him, eyes tearing up as your arms crossed over your chest.

- "you know damn well what it means," he said back, quick and hard as he just glared down at you.

- You huffed, turning away as you wiped at your cheek. You turned back, shaking your head at him before disappearing out of the room.

- He stayed in the room for a while, thinking about everything. He was so angry, his veins were about to pop from frustration. He hated his family, he couldn't believe that he would lose the one he loved because of his ratchet mother and father.

- He went to Sirius, which was a first in forever. He explained everything to him, he told him how he was sneaking around with a muggle-born and how he didn't want to stop loving you.

- Sirius smirked, thinking he had finally gotten Regulus to betray their spoiled family. Sirius talked his ear off, telling him that he was glad he was gonna change himself and come join the hated family member club.

- Regulus didn't just want to leave the family, he wanted revenge.

- He disregarded Sirius, telling him to piss off and leave him alone for a while.

- The end of 6th year was coming up and Regulus wasn't given any chance to speak to you. He knew damn well you both hadn't separated, just fought. Though he laid in bed at night and worried so hard he thought his brain was gonna rot.

- On the train, he made sure to pull you into a compartment with just you and him. Shutting the blinds so no one will disturb you both.

- "Regulus I don't want to talk to you"

- "I can't meet with you or write to you all summer, I'm not putting up with this break anymore. I only have 2 hours with you and I'm not wasting it."

- "aren't you afraid you're gonna be spotted with me?" ... Regulus wasn't quite good at sarcasm (HA! As if) but he knew well enough from the tone of your voice that you weren't too happy.

- Regulus sighed hard, watching you look out the window as you played with the bottom of your shirt; tucking it in and out of your skirt/trousers (or whatever you're comfortable in).

- "I'm going to do something crazy over the summer break and I don't know if it's going to work but all I know is if I can protect you, I will."

- "regulus what are you talking about?" You asked, you felt worry build up in your stomach. You reached out, grabbing his hand.

- He instantly interlocked your fingers together, he moved to your side as he stared deep into your eyes. His eyes always looked so cold, but right now in this moment, they felt warm.

- "I love you, honestly, if I could marry you right now I would"

- He denied to speak about what he said before, he didn't give you any more information.

- Halfway through the ride, you had been positioned on his lap. His arms looped around your waist as his head rested in the crook of your neck. He let you play with his hands.

- " I love you too" you mumbled in the quiet atmosphere. Regulus held you tighter at the words.

- "hmm?" He hummed, wanting you to say those words again.

- " you told me you loved me, I didn't say it back. But I do love you regulus, I love all of you."

- Regulus felt himself smiling, he couldn't stop the wide grin as he nudged his head into yours lovingly.

- "I can't wait to see you after the summer break" you whispered to him, kissing his forehead as you felt the train start to slow down.

- Dread filled the empty spaces as you hugged each other as tight as possible, not wanting to let go.

- "it's alright, I'll see you after summer. I promise" he whispered into your ear, before bringing your lips to his and kissing one last time.

- The kiss felt like fireworks, there was so much longing and passion mixed into it you didn't want it to end.

- Sadly, the kiss ended and regulus soon disappeared in the crowd of people.

- That summer, regulus had gotten the death mark, he reeked of anger and emptiness. All he wanted was to see you again, to hold you in his arms and kiss you until you both couldn't breathe.

- He had gotten close to Voldemort, he played all the deatheaters with his fake words and praises. He had learned about Voldemort's Horcruxes.

- Regulus had sat at dinner, fork pressed into his hand as he thought hard. His love for you was so strong, he would kill for it.

- He counted down the days until summer break would end.

- 2 more weeks.... 13 days... 11 days... 8 days...

- On the 7th day before September 1st, his plan came to action. He would destroy Voldemort's Horcrux and defeat him and after, he would live 7th year in peace.

- Though his plans didn't come to a win. It stormed and rages of rain came upon him as he made his way to the cave. All he could hear was his heartbeat and the sound of rain outside, along with the padding of Kreacher feet.

- He could hear his breath, his eyes casting over every edge and dark spot. He smiled, he was going to do it, he was going to defeat Voldemort.

- "Whatever I say Kreacher, don't listen. Just keep feeding me the water"

- Kreacher grumbled, "of course, sir"

- "for you love, all for you" regulus whispered before dipping the shell into the crevasse, bringing it to his lips as he took a sip.

- Drinking the liquid felt like poison, regulus had to fight himself to not throw it up.

- The liquid was almost gone, but Kreacher had to take regulus place and force-feed him. Regulus was begging and thrashing, saying whatever came to mind.

- Regulus couldn't finish the drink, weird slimy skeletons climbed from the water surrounding them. Regulus was in a horrid state he couldn't even tell.

- When Kreacher finally force-feed him the last of it, regulus mind came to stillness. His limbs too weak, but he was able to understand that the weird-looking skeletons were not friends.

- "Kreacher, take the Horcrux and go! Hide it! Try anything to destroy it! Go!" He had yelled out, voice dry and strangled.

- Kreacher had to obey by request, he snapped his fingers and disappeared with the Horcrux.

- Regulus tried to fight, his wand shook in his hand as he casts spells after spells. It worked for a few minutes, but there was only one of him and so many of them.

- Regulus was pulled into the water, he kicked and thrashed in spite of trying to get loose. He couldn't swim even if he escaped, his eyes stared through the muddy water as his lungs filled with it.

- Regulus thought of you, your smile, the first time you kissed him, the way your hand fit in his so perfectly, the way you would send him kind eyes whenever he passed you in the halls.

- He sank, and of course his body was dead, but his mind was still there. He was barely conscious enough, but he was there. His body limp and rotten as the years pass.

- His disappearance travelled fast, you had heard first on the train.

- The first years had wondered why a a 7th year was weeping so bad that they couldn't even stand properly.

- You shook hard, gasping and not even trying to grab anything as you sank to the floor of the train. You couldn't care that people were giving you looks, your boyfriend was gone.

- Regulus was gone.

[radexchangeprogram]

This is a random one but can I request head cannons of the Brothers and Dateables reacting to an MC that’s actually a half demon but was really great at hiding her demon side since she grew up in the human world? They see a demon man just bounding towards MC before the boys could do anything MC’s like “DAD! 😃” before jumping in his arms like a child. Around her Dad she gains fangs and horns like him but she reverts back to normal when she wants to. The boys are like “Why didn’t you say anything?” And she’s like “I’m just used to my human side” or “You never asked 🤷🏾‍♀️”

Of course! I love this idea. I didn’t get a chance to proof read this so I apologize for any grammatical mistakes.

Author’s notes at the end (marked by *s)

Spoiler warning for up to chapter 17 to be safe. Especially with Belphie.

Half Demon GN!MC Headcanons

General

Everyone noticed that you never seemed too bothered by the fact that you were surrounded by demons, but figured you were just rather good at adapting.

This theory was proven wrong at a party Lord Diavolo hosted.

As you chatted with the brothers, a large demon with griffon wings, a lion’s mane, and horns similar to a gazelle began to head in the direction of your group.

The demon, who the others instantly recognized as Duke Vapula, walked up to them with a cheeky grin.

The brothers were instantly on guard, Mammon even growling slightly, as it was extremely uncommon for anyone to approach them so casually.

Diavolo, Barbatos, Simeon, Luke, and Solomon all took notice and were prepared to intervine should something happen.

You turned around to see what the issue was and let out a loud gasp.

“DAD!”

Lucifer

Absolutely dumbfounded. How did he not know about this? He read your files to the point of practically memorizing them before you came here and he swears there was nothing about you being a half demon.

He was honestly a bit embarrassed that he didn’t know about something this major.

When confronting you, all you did was say that it wasn’t that big of a deal and that you figured they already knew.

You really give him a migraine sometimes.

He feels a bit relieved that he doesn’t have to worry as much about you dying, though.

If you wish, he may start teaching you demonic etiquette, such as having you shift form at formal events.

If you prefer your human heritage, he won’t pressure you to conform to your demonic ancestory.

Mammon

WHAT THE HELL DO YOU MEAN HIS HUMAN ISN’T ENTIRELY HUMAN?!?

The loudest about his displeasure about not knowing.

“I’m your first man! I’m supposed to know everything about you!”

When you explain to him that you’re more comfortable with your human half, he calms down a little.

Tries to call you ‘stupid half-demon’ but it doesn’t feel the same as ‘stupid human’ :(

You tell him he can just keep calling you ‘stupid human’ :D

Wonders if he can get your dad to pay him for ‘providing his child with such incredible protection’.

You immediately tell him no.

Leviathan

Holy shit this sounds like something straight out of an anime!!!

Very upset that you didn’t tell him, you’re his Henry! You’re supposed to tell him these kind of things!

When you shrug and simply say that no one asked, he gets even more pouty.

You make up with him quickly by offering to play games with him all night.

Extremely curious about your demonic form for the primary purpose of cosplay. Do you know how many more characters you can be if you have a tail or wings?!?

You might inspire some fanfiction. (half demon Henry x Lord of Shadows au slow burn 100k words, def not Leviathan projecting no not at all-)

Satan

He is extremely shocked. Not only did he have no idea, but half demons are extremely rare.

From what he’s read, most half-human half-demon offspring don’t survive past birth and all documented cases that have survived reside in the Devildom so that their powers can be better managed.

He asks you about this and you reply that you’re actually quite good at controlling your powers, but that you prefer living as a normal human.

He’s not upset that you didn’t tell him, but he has a billion questions.

How long is your lifespan? Do you take more after your demonic father or your human mother in terms of power?What are your weaknesses?

He really wants to learn more about human-demon hybrids and will ask you to help in his studies.

Also a bit excited as your father is well known for some for his knowledge and writing about the sciences. He wants to discuss some of it with you, assuming you’ve read what your father has written.*

Asmodeus

Oh he is so excited.

A bit relieved that his charm isn’t wearing off, it just doesn’t work because you’re the child of a demonic duke!

You know those boiling hot springs he talks about visiting? Well he’s happy to learn that you actually can join him without fear of your skin melting off!

He’s not upset that you didn’t tell him, getting mad over stuff like that can cause wrinkles.

He will absolutely want to help you groom your horns/wings/scales/tail.

He already has shown you a lot about demonic fashion trends, such as extra clothing that can be fitted around demonic extremities, but now he actually can actually have you try on some! Do you prefer gold tail bangles or jeweled horn cuffs?

Beelzebub

Relieved that Duke Vapula wasn’t looking for a fight.

He can’t help but smile a little when you hug your dad. It makes him happy that you love your family.

When you blush and tell him that it just slipped your mind to tell everyone about your heritage, he isn’t upset.

Happy that he doesn’t have to be so scared of accidentally hurting you with how strong he is.

If you’re able to safely eat some more demonic food, he will absolutely get you to try some of his favorite foods that normal humans would die upon eating.

Overall, you’re still the MC he has grown to love and doesn’t treat you too differently.

Belphegor

Is now more awake than he has been the entire evening.

Half demon? Nah this is just some dream.

Is understanding when you explain to him that you prefer being human and living as a human.

He’s happy he found out after making amends with you. He used to despise half-demons just as much as normal humans, seeing them as repulsive.

He still very much treats you the same, but is a bit annoyed with his brothers.

With knowledge of your demonic blood coming to light, they drag you out even more often and naps with you are becoming rarer.

If you get too overwhelmed with his brothers constantly wanting to try things they thought would previously kill you, he will be more than happy to lend you some of his hiding spots. He does charge the small fee of getting to take a nap with you though.

Diavolo

Similar to Lucifer, is shocked that he didn’t know before you came to the Devildom.

You aren’t the first half-demon he’s met, but he is surprised that a demon of Duke Vapula’s rank had a child with a human.

He’s actually very excited to learn that you’re a half-demon who is in more in touch with your human side. He feels a lot more relieved that you aren’t as defenseless as previously thought.

He does, however, make absolute sure that you have full control over your demonic powers. Every other half-demon lives in the Devildom for a reason and he can’t have someone who is technically one of his subjects accidentally cause mass destruction.

He invites you for tea more frequently, asking so many questions about how being raised in the human world as a half-demon was.

He likes to exchange stories with you about your younger years and the power fluxes you both struggled with as you grew.

Tells you that should you ever wish to live in the Devildom that he would be more than happy to make the needed arrangements.

Barbatos

He knew the whole time. When Diavolo asked him to look into the success of the program, he made note of your heritage right away.

However, he decided that keeping this information hidden when he saw that you were raised human and preferred to be seen as human.

When he explains this to everyone, you can’t help but feel thankful.

While some of the others make no effort to hide how annoyed this makes them, he doesn’t mind. He knows he made the right choice keeping this from everyone and doesn’t regret it at all.

Barbatos is actually a pretty good friend of your father’s and grew up with him. He actually met you when you were a baby because of this.*

Solomon

He has seen a lot in his years in the world of magic, but nothing like this.

Usually, half-demons were very easy to spot as they struggled to control their powers, but you practically had it down to an art!

You explain to him that you’re actually pretty good at keeping your powers under control. He’s rather impressed by this and will ask to see your spell work.

Thinks it’s a little funny that he has a pact with your dad.*

Like Satan, he wants to know all about you. Unlike Satan, he is going to actually conduct experiments instead of stick to interviews.

He has a new potion that he wants you to try almost every day now.

Can half-demons make pacts? If so, you have now been added to the list of demonic beings he wants to make a pact with.

Simeon

Very surprised considering he’s blessed you before.

Blessings aren’t supposed to work on anything of demonic nature so he’s baffled.

When you explain to him that you were raised human and prefer to live as human, he smiles.

He comes to the conclusion that you being a good person must be greater than the demonic blood in your veins.

He treats you the same overall, knowing that you’re still you no matter your heritage.

Luke

Absolute denial.

There is no way someone as nice as you is part demon! He refuses to believe it!

Gets upset and accuses you of trying to manipulate him, which you quickly deny.

When you explain to him that you prefer being human, he huffs.

Simeon gives him a bit of a talking to, about how you’re still the same MC who he sees as a big sibling.

He bakes you some apology cupcakes for being rude to you.

You sometimes shift form to mess around with him, it never fails to make him let out a shocked yelp before he snaps at you for picking on him.

Everyone (except Luke) thinks it’s funny tbh.

Author’s Notes:

*Duke Vapula is described as being able to bestow knowledge about all science contained in books.

*Barbatos is also a duke in The Goetia. I thought a fun nod to this would be to have them as friends.

*The Goetia talks about the 72 demons that King Solomon evoked. Vapula is one of the demons that he evoked. The game actually references this by talking about his 72 pacts. Asmodeus and Barbatos are both included in the 72 demons which is why he has pacts with both of them in the game :)

[brawltogethernow]

@mirrorfalls​ submitted: Came across this while searching for James Bond’s scrambled-eggs recipe (long story). Your thoughts?

~~

But did you find James Bond’s scrambled eggs recipe?

In this article, Scocca laments his inability to find accessible, lighthearted superhero comics suitable to read with his young son, while also demonstrating a mysterious aversion to looking at DC and Marvel’s lines of comics for children, which is where the accessible, lighthearted superhero comics suitable for reading with young children are. He wants his elementary schooler to be able to safely have the run of all superhero media so he doesn’t have to touch the yucky baby books.

This is not an industry-wide crisis. This is just one dude who got paid to write an article where he accidentally exposed one of his personal hangups.

The child headed toward the trade paperbacks of Marvel and D.C. superhero titles on the side wall […] a few steps in front of me. […] Is he with you? a clerk asked me. I said he was. You know, the clerk said, we have a kids’ section. The clerk gestured backward, at a few shelves near the entrance. I said, Thanks, we know and tried throwing in a little shrug, as the kid kept going.

You can’t just turn a seven-year-old child loose in a comic-book store to look at the superhero comic books. […] My seven-year-old really wanted to see that last Avengers movie […] that is, he wished it were a movie he could see, but he understood that it was, instead, a movie designed to scare and sadden him—a movie actively hostile to people like him.

They have a children’s section. Because comics are a medium suitable for stories for everybody, and they are sold in comic book shops, which have sections, like bookstores. You can use this organization to find books that you know in advance are suitable for children. What goes in that category is determined by industry professionals. This area will be bigger the bigger the shop is. These comics are not lower quality that titles from the main lines. They are actually slightly better-written on average.

Your local comic book shop has considerately wrapped Empowered in a plastic bag, so your child will not be drawn in by a colorful superhero and accidentally read a graphic scene. If you think your kid might find a memoir about internment camps upsetting, it is your job to notice them picking up They Called Us Enemy and read the blurb on the back before you let them have it. This comic adults are meant to read is in a comic book shop because that is where comics are sold. Not every public place is supposed to be Disneyland.

Movies have ratings systems. If you do not want your child to watch a PG-13 movie, you will find that most superhero cartoons are for children. They are about the same characters. Some are quite good! I really enjoyed Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. Your child may like Avengers Assemble. At least I think that’s right. I’m always mixing those titles around.

This is a deeply weird bias for Scocca to casually demonstrate, because he identifies in the article that real childishness is striving for empty maturity.

He compares an old comic,

[…]a 1966 Spider-Man comic in which Spider-Man meets, fights, and defeats the Rhino; participates in a running argument between John Jameson and J. Jonah Jameson about his heroism; buys a motorcycle; breaks up with his first girlfriend, Betty Brant; flirts with Gwen Stacy; and reluctantly agrees to let Aunt May take him to meet her friend Mrs. Watson’s niece, Mary Jane.

and a new comic,

[…]a 21st century comic book in which Thor, brooding in a Katrina-destroyed New Orleans, beats up Iron Man. He also yells at Iron Man a lot about some incomprehensibly convoluted set of grievances, including involuntary cloning, that he believes Iron Man perpetrated against him while he was dead(?), and then summons some other Norse god from the beyond somehow for reasons having something to do with real estate. I think. Where the 1966 comic is zippy and fun and complete, the whole contemporary one is muddled and lugubrious and seems to constitute a tiny piece of a seemingly endless plot arc—simultaneously apocalyptic and inert.

and concludes that the edgier comic is actually less mature. This is true. (This is not news about mediocre comics.)

It also has nothing to do with either comic being child-friendly, the article’s nominal thesis, except in the sense that ASM #41 (yes, I eyeballed that from that summary, yes I am just showing off now) is better written, making it more everyone-friendly. It also has practically more space dedicated to word balloons than art and is about a college student juggling girl problems and a part-time job with a tyrannical boss. But the immature one, as Scocca points out, is dour.

These are both teenagery issues, separated only by quality. It’s true that lots of new comics published by the big 2 are bad in the specific way Scocca describes here, taking themselves too seriously and hauled down by associated stories instead of buoyed by them. Some are not! Some titles from these companies’ main continuities are zippy, contained, and child friendly. Give your child The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl! Or if you like vintage comics so much better, why don’t you…buy some?

The books on the kid’s rack are good and fun and totally suitable for parents to read with their children without wanting to scoop their eyeballs out. Scocca cites the Batman ‘66 comics as the brightly colored, tightly written all ages solution to his problem about sharing superhero stories with his son. My local comic shop stores this title in the kid’s section. I am glad that Scocca’s does not, as he seems to have a peculiar aversion to looking for comics to read with his son there.

Scocca cites Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse as a superhero movie he could watch with his kids. (I was surprised when this line made it sound like he has several. I don’t want to assume the other one isn’t in this article because they’re a girl, but I very much am assuming that.) Great! Go to the kid’s section and look for Marvel Adventures: Spider-Man. It’s a fun, zippy title directly inspired by ITSV where Miles, Gwen, and Peter superhero together. It’s much more tightly written than most of the various Spider-Verse comics, which are ambitiously messy ubercrossovers. You may not want to give those to children because they include murder and so on, but also you just have the choice between the two as an adult reader deciding how much continuity you want to deal with. Adventures is one of the only titles I would buy on sight before corona. The kid comic rack is a reliable place to take a break from How Comics Get Sometimes regardless of how old you are.

This article makes me feel quarrelsome. Maybe it’s that it doesn’t seem like exploration of a single idea so much as a loosely grouped bundle of things to kvetch about. Maybe it’s that the experience of getting into superheroes that Scocca describes experiencing, projects his seven-year-old son will experience, and from which he extrapolates a metaphorical microcosm of the history of the genre is completely alien to me.

Comic books [and] comic-book movies—are […] trapped in their imagined audience’s own awful passage from childhood to adolescence. A seven-year-old has a clean […] appreciation of superheroes. They like hero comics because the comics have heroes: bold, strong, vividly colored good guys to fight off the bad guys and make the world safe.

But seven-year-olds stop being seven. […] They become 13-year-olds, defensively trying to learn how to develop tastes about tastes.

The 13-year-old wants many things from comics, but the overarching one is that they want to prove that they’re not some seven-year-old baby anymore. They want gloomy heroes, miserable heroes, heroes who would make a seven-year-old feel bad. (Also boobs. They want boobs.)

Not because of the boobs line, although that does illicit an eyeroll that this gloomy thinkpiece is fretting over preserving the superhero experience of little boys who resemble the little boy the writer was while casually dismissing everyone else. I was one of those unlikable little seven-year-olds with a college reading level and the impression that maintaining it was the crux of my worth. I only read Books - distinguished media you could club someone with. I have a formative memory of pausing, enraptured, in front of a poster for Spider-Man 3, preparing to say that it looked pretty cool, and being beaten to the punch by my mother making a disparaging comment about how the movie was trash. It wasn’t out yet, but it was a superhero movie. That meant it was for loud, brainless children.

That was the total of my childhood experience with superheroes, excluding being the unwilling audience to incessant renditions of “Jingle Bells, Batman Smells” that left me wondering why in god’s name Batman’s sidekick was named Robin. I certainly never visited a comic book shop. I got into TvTropes, which got me into webcomics, which got me following David Willis, who got me into Ask Chris at ComicsAlliance, which led to me rewarding myself for studying like a demon for the AP tests with three volumes of Waid’s Daredevil, pitched as a return to the character being colorful and swashbuckling. I was seven…teen.

This is of the same thread as Scocca’s point that immaturity is running from childish things. It leaves me baffled that he doesn’t follow that maturity is embracing them.

I will disclose here that while I think it was dumb I had to overcome my upbringing’s deeply embedded shame associated with enjoying arbitrarily defined lowbrow media and children being childish, I think it’s fine that I was allowed largely unchecked access to technically age-inappropriate content. In my limited experience, content small children are too young for is also content they’re too young to understand, so it kind of just bounces off of them, and what actually ends up terrorizing them is unpredictable collages of impressions that strike out at them from content deemed perfectly child-friendly. I would not forbid a seven-year-old I was in charge of from seeing an MCU movie unless I had a reason to believe that specific child would not take it well. These are emotionally low-stakes bubblegum films. It will probably be easier to socialize with other kids if they have seen them.

But then, when I picture being in charge of a hypothetical child, I usually imagine this being the case because they are related to me, and the pupal stage in my family strongly resembles Wednesday Addams. ALL children love death and violence, though, right?? This isn’t a joke point. I know it looks like a joke point.

The MCU thing seems especially weird in light of the article’s particular focus on Spider-Man, which is the kiddie line of the MCU, even if they refused to waver from their usual formula enough to get a lower rating. Though I am more inclined to describe it as “preying on the young” than “child-friendly”.

(MCU movies are increasingly dubious propaganda, but I would not judge them in front of a child who wanted to watch them for that reason, just in case this led to them partaking of them without me the second they were old enough to and then they grew up to run a blog about them while our relationship suffered because they didn’t feel like it was safe to talk to me about their interests…Mom.)

I tried to overcome the philosophy of letting anyone read anything while compiling this handful of mostly-newish superhero recs for the road that anyone can read. (Handily, I have been in spitting distance of being hired as a comic shop clerk enough to have thought about it before):

For actual children:

Marvel Adventures Spider-Man (the new one is reminiscent of ITSV, the old one is more like 616) any DC/Archie crossover, Archie’s Superteens The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl (for bookish children who think they’re too good for comics and adults afraid of the kid’s section) Teen Titans Go (even if you hate the show) Superman Smashes the Klan

For teens:

Ms. Marvel Young Avengers (volume 2) Unbelievable Gwenpool Batman: Gotham Adventures Teen Titans Go (the tie-in comic based off the old show was also called this)

Here are a bunch of relevant C. S. Lewis quotes.

[babyjamiebarnes]

Build-A-Bear

Part One

Featuring: Bucky x Stark!reader, dad!Tony, Peter Parker (platonic), background MCU characters

Warnings: [chapter] language; [series] language, smut, violence

Summary: The only people who knew she was actually a Stark were her dad, her step-mom Pepper, and her “uncles” Happy and Rhodey. A promotion within Stark Industries takes her from an already-sought after position in the Weapons Anaylsis Unit straight to the Avengers as a Weapons Enhancement Specialist... which means her dad is her new boss. There’s only one rule at work: no fraternizing with coworkers. There’s one more rule at home: no dating any Avengers. So what is she supposed to do when a grumpy super soldier becomes not-so-grumpy around her? At 25, do her dad’s rules still apply? Or is her entire livelihood at risk?

Author’s Note: I’ve written a decent portion of this but know I won’t keep writing it or post it unless I hold myself accountable and get it out there in the first place 🙈 I haven’t written much for Marvel yet but I’ve read plenty and have written for other fandoms in the past (not to mention the writing degree on my wall lol). I’ll try to post every 2-3 days to keep this moving! And if you like it and want to, buy me a coffee!

No one knew Tony Stark had a daughter. No one but Tony Stark and his daughter. Well, and her step-mom Pepper. And her godfather Rhodey. And her uncle-not-uncle Happy. But no one in their everyday lives knew. She was given her mother’s maiden name and kept a secret, even when she turned 17 and moved to a small apartment near NYU’s campus (with Happy stationed right next door, of course) to start life as a truly normal adult, or as close to normal as an undercover Stark could be. When she graduated with her PhDs in robotics and electrical engineering at 25 — proving brains really do run in the family — she moved into her own apartment in Manhattan, funded by her father under the pseudonym “Michael Myers.” Subtlety was never his strong suit.

Fortunately for you, growing up without the Stark name let you live a relatively normal life. It also allowed you to apply for a position within Stark Industries without being ushered past any red tape because of who your father is. Outside of the financial advantage you had, you worked for your spot in a STEM career. You suffered through every man in your field belittling your work despite knowing less than you. You dealt with the constant interruptions and “well, actually” because of your gender. You powered through late nights and early mornings when your mind was flowing too smoothly to quit.

The last thing you wanted to do was have all that work disregarded because you shared a name with genius billionaire playboy philanthropist Tony Stark. So you filled out the application, sent in your resume and cover letter, and attached three letters of recommendation from your professors. You went through hours of interviews, background checks (conveniently redacting your father’s name), and polygraph tests until that offer letter showed up in your email. You even had to sign the Non-Disclosure Agreements that would bar you from discussing *anything* work-related with anyone outside of your department.

You spent your first year in the weapons analysis department, evaluating alien weaponry and determining how it worked and how to disable it. You had your fair share of mishaps, of course. Holes blasted into walls, fried robot dummies, even burnt animal carcasses. By the end of your first year, your supervisor sent a commendation and proposal for you for an undisclosed promotion. After Pepper Potts “thoroughly examined your resume, cover letter, and accomplishments during your tenure with Stark Industries,” as the letter read, you were awarded a position working on the Avengers’ weapons as a Weapons Enhancement Specialist. You’d never see a fight in-person, but you were assigned to work on advancements and post-battle repairs for everyone, from the Winter Soldier’s arm to the Falcon’s wings to Vision’s... everything. The only heroes you wouldn’t work on were Iron Man and War Machine (those were your dad’s territory) and Spider-Man.

On your first day in your new position, the one and only Pepper Potts showed you to your new lab on the 47th floor. It took all your willpower to look your step-mother in the eye and say, “Wow, Miss Potts. This is amazing. It’s such an honor to meet you,” with a straight face to convince any passerby that you had no outside affiliation with her. Even if her eyes stayed steady on you, you could see her mentally rolling them.

Once you were alone behind the doors of the elevator, conversation changed course.

“You’re going to be sharing a lab with someone else,” Pepper said.

“Sweet. As long as they’re competent, that’s fine by me,” you shrugged. Part of earning your degrees was learning to share a workspace with others, even those who bumbled and fumbled with no idea what they were doing. You’d had more hair singed by nearby explosions than you’d like to admit.

“He’s still in college so he’s not here as often as the others. Most of his work will be on Spider-Man’s gadgets and suit, but you can use him for any help you need.”

Walking past the familiar faces of Dr. Banner and Dr. Cho in their respective labs, Pepper ushered you into your lab, where you were met by your father and put on the same excited facade you did with Pepper.

“Oh my god, you’re Tony Stark! This is incredible! It’s such an honor to meet you, sir!”

He shook his head at you and reluctantly accepted your outstretched hand. Oh, the jokes you’d be making at family dinners.

“Yeah, anyway, this is your new lab, Miss [Y/L/N]. Make yourself at home. This lab rat over here is mister Parker. If you have any questions, he can at least bullshit an answer for you.”

The young man on the other side of the lab perked up at the sound of his name. He tugged the goggles off his face and set down his soldering rod to rush over to you.

“Hi. Hi, I’m Peter,” he said, reaching his hand out to you.

“I’m [Y/N]. It’s nice to meet you, lab partner.”

He looked to be a bit younger than you and at least relatively smart, if the MIT sweatshirt peeking out from under his lab coat said anything. If your dad gave him an internship like this, you knew you shouldn’t question it. He had to be a genius.

The kid just smiled at you, continuing to shake your hand past what most would deem socially acceptable.

“Okay, enough of that,” Tony said, pushing on your joined hands to separate you two. “Mister Parker might be in and out of the lab from time to time. He joins the Avengers on the occasional recon mission for immediate repairs but since he’s on break from classes, you’ll see him more often than not. Play nice.”

When he noticed you surreptitiously looking Peter up and down, he added, “Remember, no fraternizing with coworkers.” He pointed a finger directly at you before he spun and pointed to your fellow lab mate, realizing he should warn Peter too to save face.

“All the blueprints you need for the Tin Man’s arm are in the system. We’ll have you start on that and see what you can do about minimizing the sound that thing makes. Any other questions, give Pep a call.”

“Thank you, mister Stark. I really do appreciate everything,” you said genuinely.

“Yeah, well… don’t let me down,” he replied, patting you on the shoulder on his way out. Pepper followed close behind, leaving you alone with Peter Parker.

“So Peter,” you started, sliding onto the lab chair next to where he remained standing, “tell me about yourself.”

“Uh… what do you want to know?” he asked as he shoved his hands into his coat pockets.

“How old are you?” you asked immediately.

“I’m 21.”

Only four years younger than you. So you’d probably get along just fine.

“I assume you’re at MIT?” He nodded. “What are you studying?”

“Biomolecular and mechanical engineering.” He said it so casually, you’d think he was talking about the last song he heard on the radio.

“Damn,” you responded, eyes wide. “I thought robotics and electrical engineering was wild but fuck, that sounds like hell.”

He laughed and nodded, letting a bit of the tension in his shoulders fall. “Yeah, it’s not easy. But it’s worth it.”

He shot you a small smile before gesturing back at his project. “I should probably get back to work and let you get started.”

For the rest of the day, you familiarized yourself with the Winter Soldier’s arm to figure out how to… turn the volume down? You assumed it was the gears inside causing the noise, but part of you wanted to outfit an audio jack and speaker just to fuck with your dad.

You and Peter worked in relative silence, aside from the playlist he had quietly playing through the lab sound system. When lunch rolled around, however, you finally spoke up.

“Hey Peter,” you called, his eyes flicking from the chemical beakers in front of him up to you. “First of all, what are you doing?”

“Um, it’s Spider-Man’s web fluid. Just trying to find more durable combinations.”

“Interesting.” As much as you wanted to touch the stringy substance, you knew better than to fiddle with someone else’s lab work. “Okay so second thing, in my last position, I’d just order food and have it brought to my floor but now that I’m on an exclusive floor, what do you do for lunch?”

“Oh, there are a couple security guys who have clearance to come into this floor. They just can’t get into any rooms so you’d have to meet them at the elevator. But I usually find something in the kitchen down the hall.”

“Oh, sweet. Thanks!” you said as you made your way out the door. Before you could fully exit, you turned back to see if Peter wanted you to grab anything. Once he promised he’d take his own break ‘once I get this one thing figured out,’ you continued to make your way to the kitchen.

As you drew closer to the doorway, you could hear three voices speaking over each other. They didn’t sound angry, but they were definitely arguing. You opened the door anyway and almost immediately froze in your tracks. The Falcon stood with one hand on his own head and one on the Winter Soldier’s head while Captain America rolled his eyes before those same eyes landed on you, along with the rest of the room.

“Perfect,” Sam started. “Hey new girl, between the three of us,” he said, pointing to himself, the Soldier, and the Captain, “who has the best hair?”

“First of all, my name is [Y/N]. Second,” you continued, making your way past them to the fridge you hoped your dad kept stocked with goodies, “that’s an unfair question.”

You grabbed a soda and popped it open before turning back to the three men. “Your hair suits each of you. Cap wouldn’t look good with Winter Soldier hair and Falcon wouldn’t look good with Cap’s hair.” You took a few steps closer, leaning against the island counter between you and eyeing each of them. Your eyes settled on the Winter Soldier, unashamedly flitting across his face and admiring the sharpness of his features. “You,” pointing at him, “could probably pull off either of their looks, though.”

Bucky smirked at you, but his rosy cheeks gave away a hint of embarrassment at your compliment. Steve and Sam, on the other hand, weren’t taking it quite as gracefully.

“What?!” Sam shouted. “Okay, now I know you’re lying. I could pull off Cap’s hair for sure.”

“You know, I think shaggy hair would really suit me,” Cap said, only half sarcastically.

You giggled to yourself as the three of them started talking over each other again, all dead set on their own hair being the best of them and positive they could pull off the others’ looks. While they bickered, you searched the pantry until you found a snack to at least get you through the remainder of the day.

“Alright boys, it’s been fun but I have work to do,” you said as you walked past them again. “Actually, wait. Bucky — can I call you Bucky?” He nodded even though you continued anyway. “If you could stop by lab six today, I’d love to check out your arm in person. The digital renderings aren’t quite the same.”

“Uh, okay. Sure. I’ll find you,” he said quietly.

“Sweet, thanks!” And with that, you skedaddled back to your lab.

[rostovs-lover]

dalí on tuesday

charlie dalton x reader | cursing, smoking, brief mentions of sexual things, charlie (probably) has daddy issues, cameron | she/her pronouns | fluff | wc.2562

i am in love with charlie, this is now a charlie dalton centric blog, also ignore how terrible the title is please

anon : Hi!! I love your blog! can I request a charlie Dalton x reader fluff where reader is an artist and he visits them while they're painting? (maybe they end up wiping paint on his face?) I don't know, something really sweet at cute <33333

Charlie Dalton had been resigned to relish in small pleasures to keep himself sane at school, never did he think the library would be one of those. More specifically, the painter tucked into the basement of the library. 

                            ───☮︎───

     Charlie Dalton was a connoisseur of many things. Pretty girls, expensive wine, shitty poetry, and hand rolled cigarettes - to name a few. His imprisonment at Wellington made only one of those things readily available. So he settled - boxes of cheap smokes bought through upperclassmen, bottles of grocery store wine someone would sneak in from a party, and the two girls that occasionally came with Knox. The shitty poetry was always on deck, he had that at least. It was a tragedy to be resigned to such a bland life, there was absolutely no carpe diem-ing happening in a school that held adolescent boys to uniforms.

      It was miserable, truly, but Charlie scrapped by on the thought that soon enough there would be no more stuffy Catholic school and he could finally have a taste of freedom. In the meantime, he would have what little fun he could. The meets in the cave were always the highlight of the week. A place where he could talk and people would listen, and not because they had to but because they enjoyed it. They enjoyed his words and thoughts and presence. No one else had ever really seemed to enjoy Charlie’s presence. They could tolerate it, handle it, but they always had more pressing matters. A business meeting to attend, a bill to pay, a dinner to go to. Always something just a little bit more important and never quite enough time for Charlie. But the other Dead Poets, they valued him. He wasn’t just a kid, a college tuition to pay and a life to layout. He was a person, with interests and hobbies.

      It had been there, in the safe haven of the cave, that the idea for the library first came up. Meeks had already talked Pitts into coming, Neil didn’t take much convincing at all, Todd was also easy to lure, Cameron groaned about leaving school grounds but refused to be left out, and Knox agreed to go but only if Nuwanda came too. Charlie had already started to cover what there was to do at a library, read?

      Meeks dove into the technical manuals and Pitts followed tentatively, cradling their science project in his arms. Todd had followed Neil to the S authors, Cameron was trying to chat up the woman at the register, and God only knew what Knox was doing. He had been stranded with few options. He could find the geniuses and be talked over for the next hour or third wheel Neil but that guaranteed intruding on something he probably shouldn’t. The polite thing to do would be to rescue Cameron from making a complete fool of himself, throwing bad pick up lines at a clearly uninterested college student, but it was amusing to watch.

      Charlie settled on trying to find Knox, at least then he could have some company. Said company was absolutely nowhere to be found. The rows of shelves wound in a confusing maze and Charlie was lost before he could even begin to look. Weaving around he did come face-to-face with a rather large picture of Charles Dickens that made him recoil. It was perched just at eye level above a short staircase and it seemed to judge his every movement. Charlie followed the carpeted stairs down to escape Mister Dickens’ strange little beard and beady black eyes.

      The further down the steps Charlie descended the brighter it appeared. The lower level was the children’s section. Considerably more fun than science books or Shakespeare. The big oak counter was abandoned but the lights were still on. He was alone, still.

      Charlie sighed, sitting down in one of the bright red wooden chairs. He was much too big for it but it held well under his weight. A sad stuffed bear stared dully into him from the green glossy table.

      “Well hello,” He mumbled, picking it up under the arms, “And you must be?” He cleared his throat to take on a gruff baritone, “Mister... Bearington,” Charlie sighed, that was bad. He dropped the bear into his lap, “This is so stupid,”

      “Bearington?”

      Charlie shot around in the chair, tipping himself off center and stumbling to his feet, bear still clutched in his arms, “Where the hell did you come from?”

      “A few blocks over, walked here actually.” You turned back to your work. A painting. Not just a painting, Charlie realized, a mural. It stretched the length of the wall, roughly sketched in pencil and waiting to be finished.

      He blinked, “That’s good. The wall I mean,”

      “Thank you,” Your face flustered and Charlie took notice, “It’s not much of anything yet, just an outline. It’ll look better painted.”

      He took a few steps closer, sidling up to you, “What’s it supposed to be?”

      “A forest,” You pointed to a rotund blob perched on a long line, “That’s an owl, and there’s going to be a fox somewhere down in the grass,”

      Charlie grinned, “That’s an owl?”

      “That-” you tapped the blob, “Is a shape, objectively. Subjectively, it’s an owl.”

      His brow creased, “Subjectively it’s an owl? That's like saying Mister Bearington is a rabbit, subjectively,”

      You stared at him, baffled. It was almost irritating that he could so casually come down to your domain and invade your creative bubble. And it was even worse that he talked to himself as a stuffed bear but now he was challenging your judgment on what was and was not subjectively an owl. But he had a wonderful smile and it lessened the intrusion. Plus, you had never seen a teenage boy develop an attachment to a stuffed bear as quickly as he had, “What’s your name?”

      “Nuwanda,” He grinned, setting his chin atop his bear’s plush head.

      “Nuwanda?” You blinked at him, “That’s… neat. I’ve never heard that before.”

      “What can I say? The only Nuwanda this side of Vermont. What’s your name?”

      As you opened your mouth to answer several sets of footsteps thundered down the stairs. Knox spun around the corner first, closely followed by Pitts and Meeks.

      “Charlie!” Knox called, “We gotta go before Cameron proposes to the clerk.”

      You looked at the boy in front of you, “Is Charlie short for Nuwanda, or just a nickname?”

      He shrugged, “I’m Nuwanda, subjectively. It was truly a pleasure meeting you. Can’t wait to see your thing DaVinci!” He set the stuffed bear back on the table as he made his way out of the room. With Charlie’s energy gone it became much quieter and you were plunged back into the impressionistic outline of your artwork.

      The next time a library trip was suggested Charlie didn’t completely dread it. Yes, it was still numbingly boring because it was a library and he didn’t have clerks to fall in love with, people to write love letters to, anyone to kiss in the aisles, or a spaceship to build, but he did have his own personal Van Gough to torment.

      The lower level was the first place he went, not even hanging his coat on the rack inside the big double doors. He made his way past Cameron’s preoccupied receptionist and under Dickens’ hard glower. Halfway down the steps, the smell hit Charlie. Wet paint.

      You had just picked out a brush when he pulled one of the wooden chairs next to your station. He sat in it backwards, holding Mister Bearington out in front of him, “Never got your name Monet,”

      “Well, it's not that. Or Da Vinci.” You stroked the brush up the grassy outline.

      “Do you want me to guess?”

      You had yet to look at him, “Nope,”

      “Are you gonna tell me?”

      “Should I?”

      “Obviously, I told you my name.”

      You set the brush down and turned to face him, “(Name).”

      “Pretty,”

      Charlie Dalton liked many things and the musty old library uptown had never been one of them. It had ancient red carpets and gaudy gold ceilings and it was trying too hard to look regal. So it was a sheer shock when he began to leap at the suggestion of going and even more so when he chose to go by himself one afternoon. Naturally, the other poets followed him, they had to.

      Charlie didn’t dally upstairs, waving hi to the clerk and rushing down to the children’s section. A sign was posted outside the entrance warning of wet paint but he stepped around it.

      “You’re making progress Picasso!” He set his hands on his hips and took in the wall.

      You turned back to look at him, “Did you not see the caution: wet paint, do not enter sign?”

      “Oh no I saw it,” He pushed his sunglasses up on top of his head, “It's bright orange, hard to miss, really,”

      “So you just chose to ignore it?”

      He nodded, making his way over to sit by you on the ground, “I choose to ignore lots of things, it really makes life easier,”

      You shook your head, “Are you just going to sit here and bother me?”

      “Yes, that's actually the whole reason I came today, believe it or not.”

      You blubbered in vague disbelief, “Please tell me you’re not serious,”

      “Dead serious,” Charlie grinned, leaning closer, “I had to see how your weird owl was going. And also make sure you hadn’t gone mad and cut your own ear off yet,”

      “You’ve already used the Van Gogh joke, Charles,”

      “Maybe I want your ear,”

      You paused, “You… what?”

      Charlie’s confidence cracked, “That was bad. Shit, that wasn’t supposed to sound that way. It was like, a bad pickup line? Because Van Gogh cut his ear off to send to his girlfriend,” He sighed, shaking his head, “Sorry,”

      “I mean if I had to pick someone to give my ear too I guess you would be my first choice?”

      Charlie looked at you, eyebrows pinched together, “Why?”

      You shrugged, “No one else has asked, first come first serve.” You dipped your brush back into the blue paint and went to work on a patch of flowers.

      “Huh, well I do appreciate it,” Charlie scooted closer, leaning over your shoulder. He was close, very close. When you took a breath you could smell his cologne and whatever it was he used in his hair and you could feel the edge of his sunglasses brush your ear. He brought an arm around to dip his finger into the soft sky colour on your palette. And then he wiped it on your nose.

      You gasped sharply at the foreign feeling, snapping your head to the side to glare at him, “Why?!”

      Charlie snickered, leaning back, “The opportunity presented itself, how could I just let that pass?”

      You reached back, squirting a touch of purple paint over the palm of your hand, “That was truly a horrible idea,”

      Charlie shot up just as you did, stumbling backwards, “I’m sorry-” He stuck his hands up in surrender, “I regret my actions and if I could take them back I would,”

      “Hmm, but you can’t” You took a step closer, “Surrender now and it doesn’t have to get any messier than this,”

      He pointed towards your paint coated hand, “Do not,”

      You grinned, “I might,”

      “I’m begging,”

      “Fine-” You offered him your other hand, “Truce?”

      Charlie mulled it over for a moment, “Fine, truce,” He grabbed your clean hand and you used it to pull him towards you.

          “Why on earth would you trust me?” You tugged him even closer as he shrieked and smeared your hand down his cheek, “There, now we’re even,”

      Getting distracted by your triumph gave Charlie the upper hand. He pulled you to him the same you had done to him and pressed his cheek flush to yours. The paint was cold against your skin and you jolted back, away from him.

      “Vile,” You hissed, “You are vile and evil. That's so cold. You will pay, I hope you know that.”

      Charlie snorted, “Oh please, what’re you gonna do?”

      “You underestimate me, you ass, I’ll figure something out,”

      “Will you?” Charlie grinned, “I will be waiting in anticipation,”

      “You better be,”

      Meeks elbowed back into Cameron’s ribs, “You’re going to knock me over,”

      Cameron craned his neck further to peek around the corner into the children’s section, “I just want to see, let me look,”

      “Nothing is happening-” Meeks snipped, “They’re just talking now and I might be able to hear if you could can it!”

      Cameron rolled his eyes, “Of course, whatever you say,”

      “Will you shut up?” Knox batted at Cameron’s shoulder, “They’ll see us, we’re not super well hidden,”

      “If you don’t stop talking they’ll realize we’re here,” Pitts mumbled, rolling his eyes. Cameron started to rebuttal, turning to look at Gerard but the motion knocked Meeks out of place and he gasped, stumbling forwards. This did indeed draw Charlie’s attention.

      “Meeks, what the hell?” Charlie snapped. He was in a state, sunglasses askew in his hair, paint smeared from his cheekbone down to the corner of his mouth, and his shirt was wrinkled away from his collarbone.

      Meeks stared, “Hi Charlie. Are there any textbooks down here, uh… the science ones?”

      Knox groaned, stepping out from behind the wall as well, “We wanted to see why you came here on a Tuesday afternoon by yourself,”

      Charlie blubbered, “Did you all come? Is Keating there too?”

      “He could be,” Meeks shrugged.

      Charlie rolled his eyes, “Will you leave, I’ll be upstairs in a second,” The other poets nodded, scampering up the steps to the first level.

      “Assholes, should have known they’d come,” Charlie sighed, adjusting the sunglasses atop his head, “I need to go before they decide to intrude again. I’ll see you soon though, anxiously anticipating payback,”

      He was almost out the door when you bucked up the courage to call out to him, “Charlie, wait.” You let him turn back to you before continuing, “Could I have your phone number?”

      He clicked his teeth, “Don’t have one, private school. But I’ll find the library number in the books and try to shoot you a call sometime,” He winked and started back up to his friends.

      Knox was waiting at the landing with a handful of tissues, which he shoved into Charlie’s hands, “So you’re gonna read your stupid poem about tits at a Dead Poets meet and then not tell us you’ve got a girlfriend?”

      Charlie grabbed the tissues, “Not my girlfriend, I meet her like two weeks ago,”

      “Didn’t stop Knox,” Neil elbowed him.

      Charlie wiped at his face, “Well I’m not Knox. I like her painting, she's good.”

      “It looks like she was painting you,” Cameron slapped at Charlie’s chest and he threw the tissues at him in retaliation.

      “Shut up, at least my library worker actually talks to me,”

      Cameron fumbled with the dirty material, batting it away from his chest, “You dick!”

      Charlie grinned, pulling his glasses down and starting towards the door. Something about it was thrilling, having this to himself. A little secret that he and you shared. His personal Salvador Dalí, something to look forwards to besides bad tobacco and Keating’s eccentric lectures. It was bright and exciting and he felt seen. He felt important. The blue paint he had stolen from your tray was still on the tip of his pointer finger and he wondered how long it would be until he could see you again.

 ( @interwebseriesfan24 )

[theodora3022]

Selfish Deeds (Yandere! Gojou Satoru)

Summary: Satoru just wants you to be free of danger. If you are so knowledgeable why can’t you understand that he only wish the best for you?

A/N: This is just one snippet of many out of a collection(haven't decide the name just yet)...Since I have not read the manga(anime-only for now) so I just got a vague impression of what Gojou has been through, but that does not stop me from writing him like the cocky bastard he is. Hopefully it is not too OOC(as if yandere variant itself is not OOC enough pfttt) The reader is a stubborn psycho because that is what I am :) Will there be some future pieces that involves nsfw elements? I got a few ideas but no promises.

I blame @popi-the-fatui for my Gojou brainrots. You got your revenge on me by making me attracted to this dubious man. Word count: 1.6k

Banner credit

Warnings: Female pronouns, Possessive behaviour, DELUSIONAL behaviour, non-consensual touching, power inbalance, general yandere content, slight mention of confinement and violence(This is not a healthy relationship dynamic!!!), reader is not a soft UWU girl, kthis is so self indulgent *buries myself into the bottomless pit of shame

It has been nearly fifteen minutes since the headquarter disconnected the call, yet you are still staring at your phone screen with disbelief.

You were supposed to travel to another city for a mission tomorrow, they had notified you of this mission a week ago.

You already got your luggage packed, and your theoretical research on the objective is thoroughly done. Then they dare to inform you: they have found a more suitable candidate! Right on the day before your departure too.

Your curse techniques have already limited you to more of a supporting role for most situations. There are not plenty of missions available for you to begin with. While you are content with educating the fresh blood of the community in classrooms the majority of the time, you still long for field actions every once in a while. It is an essential part of being a Jujutsu sorcerer after all.

Both you and the soft-spoken secretary who made the call know this is nonsense. The higher-ups recognize that you are one of, if not the best sorcerers available when it comes to reconnaissance and espionage.

Letting out a sigh of immeasurable frustration, you swore to yourself that you will find out who is the conductor of this humiliating turn of events. This is going to be difficult since you do not recall having any issues with any of the administration staff recently.

There is no reversing this misfortune, but at least you can be aware of who is responsible for such violation of conduct.

He is only doing this to protect you.

Gojou Satoru tells himself as such, at least.

He is aware of how unfair it is, to make someone less capable to take on the job. But he cannot risk your safety. The man has already got used to your company, and he is not willing to just let you disappear from his field of view for more than a week. Sure, you might have not admitted how much you like him yet, but it is just too endearing to see you flustered at his flirtatious words.

Although there have been some difficulties with rescheduling, he managed to use his connections to exclude you from that first-grade mission at last minute. On the bright side, the sorcerer cannot wait to lend you an ear to vent about how conservative and unfair the higher-ups can be. Maybe you will even say yes to a trip to the newest local bakery! You need some sweet treats to cheer yourself up, don’t you?

But Satoru has never thought about how you specialize in putting two and two together. (understandable since he never saw you in action before).

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

Strange, you are not near the usual area in the library.

Sensing his footsteps, you opened your office door before Satoru had a chance to knock.

“We need to talk, Gojou-san.” That expression is new. This is the first time he sees you genuinely angry, which is to be expected.

But somehow he got a bad feeling about this.

You did not even invite him to sit down, instead just standing next to the floor window, arm crossed, with your back turned to him.

“Why would you do such a thing?” You have to use up all of your self-control to prevent yourself from having a full blow-up right at Gojou Satoru. Maintain composure. But it is easier said then done.

Does he think this is funny? To sabotage someone else's sorcerer career like this? You knew you should have kept him out of your daily life, as he is nothing but trouble to you. But you made the mistake of choosing to tolerate him, and some superficial part of you might even enjoy his dallying words a bit too much.

To the extent, you overlooked some red flags. This is a grievous error indeed.

Shit, now that he vaguely remembers what role you play on missions.“(y/n)-chan, what are you saying-” He knows you always act in supporting positions, however, he has overlooked your actual abilities and curse techniques. You collect intel and spy on enemies, how could he forget that? “Don’t play dumb with me. You got your ways, I got mine. There is no use denying what you have done. I thought you out of all people would understand what it means to be a sorcerer.”

This is a violation of protocol, changing mission assignments at the last minute. However, you know this man would not be receiving any solid punishment should you decide to report this. They would say there is “no harm done” and you would just receive a pitiful apology. Suppose you cannot blame them though.

They need Gojou Satoru, the Jujutsu community needs his prowess to keep innocent people safe. He will remain in the system no matter what.

Why are you questioning his motives? Does he have to spell it out for you? Letter by letter?

“You are not a skilled combatant, (y/n)-chan. What if you got yourself hurt?” Or even worse, killed. It scares him to think that you could be gone one day, how he would walk by this office corridor and never sees you sitting behind the desk ever again.

Not much in this world could send Gojou Satoru a chill down his spine, yet the thought of you dying is now on the list. He knows how petty this is, you wouldn’t be the one doing the actual exorcising after all. But the if, the slight possibilty.

He cannot allow that to happen, not ever. Even that means angering you and getting yelled at.

“What am I, some normal lawful citizen? I am a sorcerer just like you, Gojou-san. Putting ourselves on the line for innocents is part of the deal.” You let out a few short, sarcastic giggles, narrowing your eyes at him with fury. “It’s funny that you, out of all people, fail to understand that. If I am needed I will do what I must. If this is some sort of sick joke, stop it already, not funny. ”

Blunt, unrelenting stubbornness. Not like that’s news for him, Satoru has lots of experience with that since the day your path crossed. Although he finds this quality to be adorable most of the time, it can pose major problems like the present.

Oh, he is not angry at you. Satoru is more outraged at himself, don’t you worry. On the contrary, he is rather intrigued by your sarcastic remarks! However…

Instead of walking towards where you stood near the window, the man decides to take a turn towards the door.

That flashing panic within your eyes did not escape his sight.

The illusion figure you were projecting near the window dissipated instantly once he got your left wrist in his hand. Concealing yourself and projecting illusions, a rare techique indeed.

“Clever tactic. Making yourself invisible, projecting a faux illusion to distract me, leaving the door open and staying close to the exit. Your curse techniques are impressive. I almost got fooled, job well-done (y/n)-chan.”

The grip on your wrist suddenly tightens, you have to bite your lip to hold back a hiss of pain. How can he still flash that casual, playful smile when committing such atrocity? Those damned cerulean blue eyes too, you are ashamed of how you tremble and (internally) swoon at it at the same time.

Efforts to get away would most likely be futile, but you have to try. “See, you underestimated your opponent. I do see why you are good with lurking in the shadows now. Do you have any idea what I am capable of though?” Such delicate hands, it would be a shame if they were to bruise.

It’s unnerving how easy it looks for him to maintain a solid grip on your wrist while you pull back with all of your might. You know Gojou Satoru is strong and all, but this simple demonstration of strength is devastatingly effective. “Let go of me, you bastard!”

To your surprise, he softens his grip and you finally distanced yourself from him, panting and guarded. “Who are you to decide what I should and what I should not do? I made it crystal clear on the first day that I do not like you for the slightest.”

You know the walls are thin and coworkers might heard you, but you will have to worry about it later. It is, sadly, a matter of fact that you are somehow attracted to him, but that does not give him the right to use it against you. You must not give in to the temptation.

“You are pretty slow on the uptake for someone so smart. I was thinking of doing this naturally, we can go on normal dates to coffee shops, amusement parks, or even the museum if that is what you wish for. But now I see you do not know how much you mean to me.” Do you think Gojou-san is only flirting with you for the fun of it? It might have been the case in the beginning, but that is not the case since...recently.

He did not stop you again when you turned away, giving him one last menacing look and disappeared from his sight, even if he could see the faint trace of your curse energy. You will return to him and apologize after you calm down, he is confident about that. You value your job way too much to quit.

Then he could finally pull you into his arms, saying he does not mind and forgive your childish tantrums. Satoru does not plan to lock you up in a cage or anything(yet)! The students adore you and they need your guidance. Your clan is insignificant compared to his, your influence? Does he even need to consider that?

Gojou Satoru would always achieve his goals by whatever means possible. You are no exception to this.

[belfrygargoyles]

*whispers* I would like to hear what you have to say on reader inserts in the SW fandom because I too have a problem with them and I feel like not enough people are calling it out 👉👈

I’ve made a few posts about it in the past but I think it’s high time I actually Do This and really get into it.

Before I start: 1) This will be in specific reference to fanfiction written for the Star Wars fandom, particularly tcw and the mandalorian eras, 2) A lot of the issues come down to racist fetishization of men of color by white women; I am white, so there is much that is simply not my place to make statements on. What I can speak most on is my take from the gender side of things.

I’d honestly recommend reading this post by @nibeul with addition by @clonehub first, as they discuss the core issue with reader inserts in the Star Wars fandom.

And 3) some of this will involve discussion of sexual acts (as they relate to fanfiction) and sexual fantasies. These discussions will be non-explicit, and no pornographic text or content will be displayed.

Also. I’m GNC and nonbinary. I’m also a very feminine looking person that falls under the generalization of “small and petite.” I don’t have dysphoria, I like my body and the traits I have, and treating them like inherently female sends me into a blind fury. This is, unfortunately, important.

For the sake of making sure I come across as clearly as possible, I will be writing as though the reader of this post has never read or is broadly unfamiliar with reader-insert fanfiction.

Without further ado.

Hey, Star Wars reader insert fic writers? Please get your shit together.

INTRODUCTION

I’ve been reading reader-insert fanfiction since I was a grade schooler waking up early to check Quizilla. I love it! It got me into fandom, kept me engaged, helped me make and develop some of my oldest OCs, and it’s just fun to read and write- it’s like a self-indulgent little gift you can give to a bunch of people all at once. Because who doesn’t like the idea of starring in their own little adventure, usually alongside some of their favorite characters? It can be fun, immersive, get you attached in ways other ways of fandom interaction may not, make you feel just a little bit special, or be a way to express some feelings you might have about canon and the way the story went.

Like any form of fiction, it ends up saying more about the author’s feelings than anything else, whether the author realizes it or not. For many, many authors of reader-insert fanfiction, the primary enjoyment comes from writing “themselves” into the story- before the readers, the author most often makes the “reader character” someone they, themselves, can relate to and substitute for themselves. They write to live out a self-indulgent fantasy they have, and their readers can come along for the ride.

Some writers do actually try to write as diverse or as vague of a reader character as possible- as few details about the body, identity, etc. as possible so anyone could superimpose their image without the narrative directly contradicting it. This is not the kind of reader insert author I will be discussing.

The kind of author I will be discussing is the one most common in the Star Wars tag on Ao3: White, AFAB, cisgender, gender-conforming, able-bodied women who assume all of their readers are also White, AFAB, cisgender, gender-conforming, able-bodied women. Yes, you can tell.

ISSUE: fetishization of men of color

Again, this post puts it in the best words, but there is a rampant problem with Star Wars reader-inserts, particularly those involving the clones, Boba Fett, and Din Djarin, fetishizing characters played by men of color as either “physically aggressive and threatening, hypersexual and dominant, big strong men who are scary because they do violence and fuck constantly when they’re not” or “completely inexperienced baby who doesn’t know anything about things and needs a gentle nurturing guiding touch to introduce him to the mere idea of a vagina.” The former is common across all of them, the latter most common among clone trooper fics or Din/Reader.

I went into the Boba Fett/Reader tag on Ao3, because I like him and hoped to find something alright. Here are some stats I tallied up (give or take some) based solely on tags, summaries, and warnings:

There are 284 works in the Boba Fett/Reader category as of the time of this post.

198/284 are rated E for explicit sexual content. 69.7% of all Boba Fett/Reader works are sexually explicit.

259/284 are in the F/M category. 91.2% of all Boba Fett/Reader works involve an explicitly female or AFAB reader.

24/284 are tagged with or mention “Age difference,” “Older man/Younger woman,” “Innocence kink” or “Virginity kink.” 8.4% of all Boba Fett/Reader works are written explicitly with an age gap, with Boba Fett as the older party

26/198 E rated fics are tagged with or make reference to “Daddy kink” or involve the reader being called some variation of “little girl” by Boba. 13% of all E-rated works under Boba Fett/Reader are daddy kink fics, or allude to Boba Fett being a daddy dom/sugar daddy.

102/198 E rated fics are tagged as, make reference to, or suggest in the summary that Boba Fett takes a dominant sexual role with a submissive reader involving rough or painful play, or make reference to Boba Fett being frightening, physically intimidating, having a power dynamic over the reader, or being possessive or violent. 51.51% of all E-rated works under Boba Fett/Reader portray Boba Fett as sexually dominant and/or enacting use of physical force or pain play.

Just using this as an example, because it’s the easiest stats I can gather and also what made me realize there was a pattern.

The problem isn’t even necessarily that people write explicit fic about Boba- it’s that 1) over half of all fics in the category are explicitly pornographic, and 2) the way those pornographic fics are written. The two things compound on each other. They’re dominance fantasies projected onto a character of color in which he becomes extremely sexual, physically rough with the reader, possessive, and demeaning towards a reader character who is always written as White, AFAB, and petite.

This brings me to the next issue.

ISSUE: The way sexual relationships are portrayed.

Let me clarify so there is no chance of me being misunderstood: sex is good. Liking and wanting and enjoying sex isn’t bad. It is not bad if you are AFAB and have submissive fantasies. It is not bad to be sexually attracted to a man of color. You can write about sex even if you haven’t had it. Writing about sex can be a good way to express some more complicated feelings you could have about certain things. It doesn’t even have to be realistic. It has its time and it has its place.

This being said.

Sexual relationships as they are portrayed in the vast majority of E-rated Star Wars reader inserts are… not great.

The reader is always AFAB. I can think of maybe one fic off the top of my head where an AFAB reader was written with they/them pronouns and not just she/her.

The reader is almost always submissive, the dominant character is almost always portrayed as cis male. Even when the characters are supposed to just be having spontaneous casual sex, D/S or BDSM aspects will be introduced with no prior discussion or talks about it afterwards. Sometimes characters will start using dirty talk and it just does not fit at all, but it’s what the author thought was hot.

Sometimes, it just reads like a quick smutty oneshot. More often than that, it reads like the author doesn’t realize that sex… isn’t always a dom/sub thing. Or that someone can take the lead in sex and that doesn’t automatically make them a dom.

It’s not bad to be inexperienced. It’s not bad to have preferences or kinks or specific turn-ons.

But it gets… tiring to read, over and over and over and over, because that’s all there is.

That and… I dunno, it just has me a little worried? It doesn’t make me feel good knowing so many people can only portray a sexual relationship if it’s dom/sub. I don’t know why it makes me so uneasy.

Vanilla sex isn’t a bad thing I promise. It's this feeling of insistence that something "spicy" absolutely has to happen for it to be worth writing that gives... some weird vibes.

I’m going to move on to the next Big-

ISSUE: Every “reader” character is exactly the same

By which I mean the following:

Always cis AFAB female

If a character is written with gender neutral pronouns they will always be AFAB and written like Girl Lite

I have never seen an explicitly stated nonbinary/gnc reader character unless it was a request specifically for a nonbinary reader

I have never seen a gender neutral reader insert fic where the reader was AMAB

I have seen a grand total of 1 cis male reader fic and 1 trans male reader fic. The trans male reader fic was about dysphoria.

The reader is allowed to have one of the following backstories: slave/runaway, mechanic, medic, ex-Rebel, secret Jedi, bounty hunter.

The reader is allowed to have one of the following personality traits: throws knives, babysitter, completely civilian, WOMAN, says curse words.

The reader is never written with any narrative agency- things only ever happen to the reader character or around the reader character, they are never written to take charge and actually affect things on their own. Essentially the sexy lamp trope.

Remember when I said the majority of people writing Star Wars reader-insert fanfic on Ao3 were White, cisgender AFAB women who are gender-conforming and able-bodied? This is how you can tell.

It’s at this point where you can tell they’re really not meant to be reader-inserts, but author-inserts with the names removed- they were only meant for a very narrow selection of readers.

I’m nonbinary, I’m gnc, and I’m a very feminine looking person, generally speaking. I’m used to people looking at me and assuming oh, girl. I’m at peace with that.

I can barely stand reading some of these fics just because of how much the author emphasizes that the reader is FEMALE shes a WOMAN with BOOBS and a VAGINA and FEMININE WILES. There’s barely ever even a chance to give myself room to mentally vault over all the “she”s and “her”s because then I’m getting hit with Din or someone calling the reader “girl” or “the woman.” It’s unbearable, and I even fall into the general description every fucking fic author uses for their generic protagonist!

Even with the “gender-neutral reader” fics, it is just. Painfully clear that they just wrote a female character and changed the pronouns- no, there is no such thing as “male behavior” or “female behavior,” and I quite heartily rebel against the concept of gender essentialism. And honestly, I can barely even begin piecing together how I know it and what it feels like, because it’s just one of those vague conglomerates of cues and writing patterns I can’t consciously pick up on but I know it’s there- it’s frustrating, it’s demeaning, and it feels like you’d have to threaten these authors at gunpoint to get them to write a reader character who was any major deviation from the same three cutouts they use every time.

It seems like they can’t possibly force themselves to write a reader character who isn’t meek and submissive or has the sole personality traits of “mean and can hit things”- you can actually strike a balance between “absolutely no personality” and “fleshed out oc” you know? And you don’t actually have to tell the reader what their hair looks like or how full their figure is

It’s like 2:20 AM and I started this at like 8something PM but.

I’m someone who loves reader-inserts. I enjoy them. I still check for new ones regularly. I’ve been reading them for well over half my life now.

So many of these authors are just locked in on exactly one way to write things and it fucking shows. It’s like a self-feeding loop, they just keep writing the same things and the same dynamics because they see each other doing it and they never think about taking a step back.

It’s… exhausting. I’m exhausted. If you’re a reader-insert fic writer and you want to improve your reader character inclusivity and have also read this far, you can DM me or shoot me an ask.

[obeymeluv]

Quick! Kiss Me! [Part 2 - Lucifer]

So originally this was supposed to be multiple brothers per part but this got unexpectedly long and I only had the energy to get through Lucifer. I’ll definitely get to the other brothers. This project may take priority over the others until I get them all out. I know what I’ll be doing for Mammon’s, sort of for Levi’s, definitely for Satan’s, definitely for Beel’s, and I’m not quite 100% on Belphie’s or Asmo’s. Honestly, they’re not all supposed to get this long, but this one had some lead up + Lucifer. The other ones will probably be a couple of paragraph’s, maybe a page at most.

Note: The Thrall/The Call is something that came up in a Diavolo piece forever ago. Can’t even remember which one because I had to go back and find it myself. It’s basically one of their tell-tale signs they’re trying to seduce someone or flirt with someone.

Some of these kiss scenarios will get a little NSFW because the bros get to kiss you, have a crush on you, and are excited dorks. Everything under the cut just to be safe.

Any bolded italics are your/MC’s thoughts since you can’t currently speak.

Quick! Kiss Me! [Part 2]

--

After a few awkward moments of the brothers standing around, their hearts squeezing in their chests as they tried to hold back their individual Thralls to make your choice more neutral, they realized their wouldn’t be a choice. There couldn’t be. The lip color was too scrambled to work in such a small space with that many people. You’d just barely blinked and the brothers skittered off at inhumane speeds that made your skin crawl; in your human brain it was very much those ‘distant echoes of horror movie noises one should never hear.’ Lucifer turned so abruptly his cape snapped; he melted seamlessly into the natural darkness hiding around the House of Lamentation.

That was the starting gun for the others to disperse.

Belphie exploded into black wispy shadows, sinking into the floor. Asmodeus stretched his wings again, flapping leisurely towards his room as he blew you a teasing kiss. Satan’s eyes, somehow greener and more bewitching than ever, hesitated to leave you as he retreated up the steps, made it about three before deciding to jog, and finally teleported towards the top and around the corner, hints of his horns and a brief whip of his tail following him. A skin-prickling rumble sounded soon after; the fourth-born had embarrassed himself.

Levi sought the privacy of his room, as to be expected. He would die if he kissed you ANYWAYS, but to kiss you in front of his brothers?! He’d rather have a conversation with a stranger! Gross! He was more than happy to get his red face out of view and mumble…whatever he was talking about…into his handheld console.

Only Beel and Mammon remained.

You looked at them curiously, brows raised. Beel gave you his casual smile, a little humming laugh at this situation, and promptly picked Mammon up by the collar of his jacket as they walked away from the foyer area. It was clear the second-born would lounge around and maybe try to sucker into kissing him first. You’d like to think Beel was forcing him to hide so the lip color could give you an accurate reading, but you’d always wondered if the kind, ever-hungry brother got jealous. If he did, he never showed it (and for a guy with six brothers, that was impressive).

Brain and body calmed by the emptiness, by the fact that they were somewhere in the house, you set off on your quest for a kiss. No one’s going to believe this, you rolled your eyes, starting towards the right wing when a gust of cold air overtook you. A chilly numbness set in, nipping at your fingertips and pulsing in your lips and face enough to give you a headache. Not that way, you turned away sharply, the cold receding as you moved in the other direction. Some people have really cute ‘how did you meet?’ stories and mine was getting tricked into magic demon makeup that my boyfriend had to free me from, as you found yourself in the middle of a random hallway an aggravating realization set in: the House of Lamentation was so ornate and old that all the hallways looked the same.

Same walls, same tone of polished furniture, same light fixtures, and the carpeting was a given.

Hadn’t you already been down this hall?! Why was it when you really needed to find one of SEVEN people, you couldn’t find any of them?! You felt like you’d walked the whole house! The House of Lamentation was far bigger than it looked on the outside (was that even possible?) and now you were beginning to think the brothers picked the very corners of the house! You were honestly surprised the brothers hadn’t come looking for you. Some small part of you was too amused and couldn’t help but smile at the fact that centuries-old demons were freaking out and pacing in their hiding spots like schoolboys fixing to go on an overnight trip with their crush.

You shuffled forward, wondering what a positive response felt like. Time alone to just think was really odd, especially with how chaotic the Devildom could be, but it led to some really interesting thoughts. No one would believe the ‘magic demon makeup’ part of your story but you could lie and say it was a really intense game of Hot and Cold. Any of them would make good boyfriends, you admitted to yourself, glad none of them were around to see the pink in your cheeks. If one of them popped up, you’d just lie and blame it on the warm tingle prickling at your lips.

A warm tingle?! That was a lot like what you felt when your lips were sealing shut! You spun in a startled circle, not sure when the feeling began, and desperately tried for a stronger reaction. A prickle became a tingly bubble, like a glass of champagne going to your head too fast, and soon your body felt like it was floating, rolling on waves upon waves of a butterflies-in-my-stomach that washed you up in front of a door.

Inside you found…

Lucifer sitting at his desk, half-heartedly pouring over paperwork. You pushed the heavy door open, feeling like you’d pulled the curtain back on a privacy charm, and wiggled past the old wood. The lazy tapping of whatever he was writing with stopped, the eldest perking up like someone had set him free of the eternal coil of paperwork. If you hadn’t been looking at him while trying to pull your other leg through, you would’ve missed the boyish glow of hope, the they picked me! It’s me!, that was promptly devoured by his blossoming pride.

Face propped up on a gloved wrist, now lounging confidently back against his chair as his other wrist dangled off the arm, Lucifer invited you in with a sly smile and a beckoning roll of his fingers. You rolled your eyes. We both saw your heart stop. You don’t need this ‘tall, dark, and dom’ fake allure, you waved your hands about to emphasize the ‘allure’ as you flashed him a well-meaning smile. You felt pretty confident knowing you could fluster the first born, the one with the sin of pride.

It was actually really heart-warming to know he was so eager to be yours.

“This is no act, I assure you.” Lucifer abandoned his cloak on the back of the chair, undoing it with one hand as he rose to meet you. His wings unfurled slowly and softly, ever majestic, and feathered out to their full length. They shuddered and fluttered, blowing a gentle air about the room. His eyes, normally a gradient of red and black, looked completely red. Lucifer’s pupils had taken on some slit-like appearance that had flecks of black rimming the sides.

A purr rolled in his chest, something quiet but confident, enticing, as he waited for your hand. You found yourself hypnotized by his eyes—maybe for real?—dropping your hand delicately into his. The leather folded around your skin and you couldn’t look away, even as he brought it close to his chest and then higher still, like he’d put it on his shoulder. To pull you into a kiss as dramatic as this—in the quiet only surrounded by the sound of his wings and a purr and the fire crackling in the back of the room—was very Lucifer.

You stood on tiptoe, looking up at him expectantly. Hell, you even batted your eyelashes to really get at him.

WHAT?! ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!

Lucifer’s lips brushed your knuckles again in a stuttering kiss. He placed a few more open-mouthed kissed up your finger before the laughter took over him again. He knew exactly what he was doing, just like he knew what he was doing when he smoothed his hair back away from his face. “Have I left you speechless, my dear?” he’d started to stand to his full height, shit-eating smirk on his lips. His voice was wrapped in a sultry purr that was undoubtedly the first sin mankind ever heard.

That cool façade was strangled in the grip you had on his folded collar, bringing the first-born nose-to-nose with you. Lucifer was hardly intimidated by your glare but oh you were very darling.

BECAUSE YOU CAN’T AIM! Your nostrils flared as you pouted a bit. You’re supposed to kiss me HERE! You pointed to your lips.

“I can’t aim?” Lucifer’s wings twitched, probably in indignation. Were you implying he couldn’t do something? His lips twisted upwards in a little huff, the beginnings of a sneer even. All of that melted away when that large hand cupped the back of your head, fingers twining in your hair. You’d just registered the sensation when he brought your lips to his, head tilted and savoring the kiss.

It was a long with a slight suckle, the eldest truly indulging in this minuet of a moment compared to the usual chaos of his daily existence. He felt you sag against him, hooking his other arm around your waist to stumble towards his desk. You were an awkward clatter of bones against him, chest-to-chest, and one leg falling out of the chair, but you managed.

“This was how it was supposed to be,” Lucifer confessed softly, sitting you in the space he’d cleared for you. Literally. You just now realized the scant space on his desk was big enough for you to sit. He dragged the chair forward, your legs naturally coming to rest against the padded backing on either side of his waist. Lucifer tucked some hair behind your ear, cupping your cheek. “I wanted to kiss you this way,” but my pride got the best of me, he didn’t dare finish saying it, but he thought it.

You felt your lips open, swollen and beautifully tender. To breathe through them felt weird. They still tingled with the after-effect of the enchantment. Lucifer watched you lick your lips experimentally, draw in a breath, and allowed himself to be drawn in, too. You shared a few more languid kisses before his D.D.D started to go off.

You saw Mammon’s icon pop up, then Asmo’s. The brothers were looking for you. “That reminds me,” Lucifer patted your thigh before pushing himself away. He stole another kiss before rounding the corner of his desk. He opened the door just slightly, stepped out of the room, and bellowed something in demon tongue that had a clear message of finality ringing in the house. Whatever he’d said made him lock the door to his study with a quickness, a crimson spell burning into the wood.

Looking very much like a smug older brother, Lucifer dropped himself elegantly back in his chair. One hand situated your legs just as they had been, the other one pulling you close for good measure. He coaxed you into a few kittenish kisses, flinching against your lips when the banging started. You could hear Mammon complaining outside the door. A spell fizzled against the door; seems like Belphegor or Satan had fired one off. Content and exhausted, he found purchase in the curve of your neck, enjoying the silence and your scent.

“We’ll get through this.” You combed your fingers through his hair. You’d have to face the brothers eventually.

“I look forward to it.” Lucifer kissed your shoulder.      

[luckysevenwrites]

I don’t want to keep things casual

Yuta is off traveling for work, Y/n is keeping busy with their job, and both of them are struggling with being apart from one another. When Yuta calls Y/n and Yuta have a conversation about their relationship and what they want from one another. 

Part of the long term couples series

           Walking through the house you have recently purchased you scribble down notes of parts of the home you are going to update, walls that are going to be removed, and any other ideas that filter through your mind as you pass each room. You could hear your partner in the front of the house talking to the rest of your team about when they should be here and if they would be working under you or him. Their voices fade as you enter the master bedroom. You loved this room it was the whole reason that you had wanted to buy the house in the first place. It was at the back of the house and had large French doors that led out to a patio.

           In your head you were picturing the future owner of this home waking up and walking through those doors and out onto the patio where they would sit in comfy chairs and eat their breakfast while sipping coffee. There would be lazy weekend mornings where they would spend their whole time out there enjoying the beauty of their yard and each other’s company. Your plan was to make the rest of the house feel as calmly as this bedroom and patio made you feel. It was going to be a lot of work the previous owner had not taken care of the place and let a lot slip. You could see the potential in this home and your partner could see it as well. That was why after walking through the home one time the two of you had put an offer in.

           This project had come at the perfect time. It was going to require a lot of attention and was the perfect distraction from Yuta. The two of you had agreed on just being friends with benefits. Yet, you found yourself wanting to be around him all the time and wanting to get to know him better and he seemed to be on the same page as you. When he had told you that he was going to be gone for a few weeks you had thought that it would be good for the two of you. It would remind you both that you were supposed to keep things casual. In reality all the separation has done is make you realize how much you want to be with him and miss him.

           “Y/n you done with your walk through?” Turning towards the doorway Alex stands there with his arms crossed over his chest. His eyes accessing the room before they land on you. “I sent the team home and told them that we would get started tomorrow on everything.”

           “Thanks, and I think I have everything down that we need. I might do one more walk through just to make sure we haven’t missed anything. Are you heading out or staying?”

           “I got to head out. I promised the boyfriend that we would have date night tonight since I canceled our last one and I can’t miss this one. He might break up with me this time if I cancel.” You laugh at that there was no way that Alex’s boyfriend would break up with him. They loved each other completely and it would take more than a canceled date to break up the two of them.

           “Alright, tell Jun hi for me,” you hug Alex and walk with him back to the front of the house.

           “I will and he told me to tell you that you are not fooling anyone, and he wants to meet whoever you’re seeing soon,” your mouth drops open at that statement. How in the world did he know that you were seeing someone? You hadn’t told anyone about Yuta and had made sure not to give anything away about you seeing someone.

           “Don’t ask how he knows. I’ve learned to stop questioning his skills a long time ago. Just talk to whoever it is and let them know that their time as remaining a mystery is numbered.” Alex bumps his shoulder into yours before heading down the walkway. You watch as he gets into his car and drives off before turning back to the house to do your final walkthrough.

           As your writing down some ideas that you have for the kitchen your phone starts to ring. Looking over at it you smile as you see Yuta’s smiling face on the screen, requesting that you facetime with him. Picking up the phone you answer the call and hold it up to your face. In a few seconds you see Yuta’s smiling face, hair fanned out as he lays on his bed. Just looking at him steals your breath away and you are once again reminded how much you have been missing him these past two weeks.

           “Hi, did you just get back to your hotel?”

           “Hmm,” Yuta nods, “today was busy and I’m going to sleep but I wanted to talk to you and see your face before I did.”

           “Ah have you been missing me?” you coo while leaning onto the counter.

           “I have a lot actually,” Yuta admits, and you smile back at him.

           “I’ve been missing you a lot as well,” the admission comes out easier than you thought it would. You hadn’t planned on telling him that you were missing him but hearing him say it made it easier for you to tell him how you were feeling.

           “So much for keeping things casual,” Yuta laughs, and you join him. The two of you were ridiculous for thinking that this was going to be casual and for only realizing now that you’ve spent weeks apart that you don’t want to be without the other.

           “I think we were doomed from the start. We should have known from the moment that we had breakfast together that we weren’t going to be able to keep things casual,” thinking back to that morning you remember how you had felt when you saw him in your bed and then taken him to breakfast. You didn’t want your time with him to end and that should have been your first clue that the two of you were never going to be able to keep things casual. There was already so much chemistry between the two of you and the more time the two of you spent together the stronger your connection got.

           “It’s your fault if you wouldn’t have shared your breakfast with me, I would have dropped you right then and there,” stresses Yuta, you roll your eyes at that comment.

           “No, you wouldn’t of. You have been falling for me from the moment we met!” A blush starts to appear on Yuta’s cheeks, and he looks off to the side avoiding eye contact with you. When he looks back at you, you raise your eyebrows up challenging him to say otherwise.

           “Where are you by the way?” Yuta leans up closer to the phone like he is trying to get a better look at your surroundings and effectively changing the subject. “That’s not your place.”

           “It’s not I’m at work,” you confirm.

           “Work is someone else’s kitchen? Just what is your job?”

           “Nope nice try but I’m not telling you anything. If anyone is going to win this bet, it’s going to be me.” You stress.

           “Come on you should tell me since I’m the one who admitted first that I miss you and can’t do the casual thing.”

           “You didn’t admit that you don’t want to do casual you just admitted to missing me and sucking at keeping things casual,” you point out not wanting to let him win this argument.

           “Fine,” Yuta sits up and brings the phone close to his face, looking straight into the phone and locking his eyes with yours Yuta says, “Y/n I miss you all the time and I don’t want to keep things casual between the two of us. I want to be with you all the time. I want to tell my friends that I’m with you. I want to go out on dates with you instead of just holing up in your place with you. I want more. How’s that for an admission?”

           Dam you should not have challenged him. How were you supposed to respond to that? You were not expecting him to just lay it all out like that.

           “Um it was pretty good,” you stutter, “but I’m still not telling you what my job is.”

           Throwing his head back Yuta laughs. You could watch him laugh forever you think, and you find yourself bringing the phone closer to you just to enjoy his face and laughter more.

           “Alright I’ll let it go for now. But I’m going to figure it out eventually. Especially since we aren’t keeping things casual anymore you can’t hide it from me forever.”

           “You can’t keep yours hidden forever anymore either! If we are really going to do this, I’m going to find out your job as well. And we can’t have secret between us anymore. Relationships are a completely different thing from hook ups.” You inform him wanting Yuta to know that if you two are really going to move from casual to an actual relationship that things are going to be different.

           “Oh, don’t worry Y/n I know that things will be different. I’m counting on it,” there’s a glint in Yuta’s eyes and you are starting to wonder what you have gotten yourself into.

           “Guess we’ll see who figures it out first,” you tell him not wanting to give in and enjoying the silly game the two of you are playing.

           “I guess we will! I should probably get going. I have another busy day ahead of me,” Yuta frowns and you understand how he feels. You don’t want to end the call either.

           “How much longer are you going to be gone?” You ask.

           “Two more weeks and then when I get back, I’m taking you out on an actual date,” you smile widely at that. An actual date with Yuta you couldn’t wait.

           “Hurry back then,” Yuta nods and right before the two of you end the call you remember what Alex told you and you get a wicked idea, “oh and before I forget you have to meet two of my friends, they already know about us!”

           “What?” Yuta practically shouts, his eyes wide. You laugh as you give him a wave goodbye and end the call. Laying your phone down you smile at it as you think over the conversation that the two of you had.

           When you answered the call, you had figured it would just be the two of you flirting with one another and making plans to get together when he returned. You did not think that it would lead to the two of you admitting that you miss one another and want more. You definitely did not think that it would lead to Yuta telling you that he wants an actual relationship with you and then him telling you that when he returns, he would be taking you out on an actual date. Your phone pings and you see a message from Yuta.

Yuta: If I have to meet your friends you have to meet mine. They were onto me weeks ago

Laughing you reply to Yuta and shake your head at yourself. How the two of you thought you could ever do casual was beyond you. You were both clearly bad at it, from hiding it from others, to keeping your feeling in check it was a failure a wonderful failure.

@readers-posts

[softluci]

aggressive affection (round two!)

[ part two of this, with the now dateables. guess which one(s) i have a crush on—i am actually so embarrassed because i'm getting shy trying to write this, but it's a must that i put this into the universe. if you want to read this first, rather than the one with the brothers, here is the preface: ] 

i’m not sure if this is something unique to younger people, but i am one hundred percent sure that younger people do it a lot, just going off of the behavior of my friends and i. (i’m gonna tell you now that this isn’t entirely sfw, so minors dni please and thank u)

but i’ve found that it’s pretty common for friends to be, like, aggressively affectionate with one another, for lack of a better phrase. if not aggressively affectionate, then just really flirtatious, often for no reason, and it is still meant entirely in a platonic sense. some examples of this that i have experienced include, but are not limited to:

“i’m gonna eat you,” “do u wanna make out,” “just remember, no matter WHAT happens, i will ALWAYS wanna make out with you,”  “i have literally wanted to fuck all of you at some point,” “let’s have sex,” “stfu before i kiss you,” [points to lap] “is this seat taken?” “every day i’m like, ‘wow, [name] is so cool, we should make out,’” and so on and so forth. 

so you can imagine the fun i’m about to have.

dia

you—why did you—look. 

dia is a very nice, social guy; very smiley, you guys get along great, that's great! 

he is still very much a demon (the prince of them, in fact)  and very much not one of your friends from the human world, no matter how much he wants you to treat him as such. 

you should've known better. 

he'd invited you to the castle for tea and a nice chat—a regular occurrence between the two of you so that he could see how you were doing, how the program was going, talk about lucifer, play catch up; nothing out of the ordinary. 

he complimented you on your performance thus far, telling you about how well you've done—which was just standard kindness—so would you like to explain to the class why your immediate response was, “so kiss me then,” ? 

he was totally fine with it, but he was also very confused, so it was only fair that he pulled you into his lap to get a better understanding of what you meant. if you do the math, it adds up, i swear. 

luckily, you don’t even have to explain yourself with this one because it seems like he already knows. this is good because, given his proximity to you at that moment, you wouldn’t have done a good job explaining yourself anyway. 

“is this how you talk to your human friends?” 

it was a simple question, with a simple answer, it’s just that you were nose-to-nose, and his eyes were hooded all of a sudden and his hand was cupping the side of your face so, naturally, you had some difficulty forming words—fortunately, you managed to nod instead of embarrassing yourself by trying to talk. 

“and do they ever do what you ask?” 

again, it would’ve been foolish of you to try and speak, so you just shook your head. you were doing a surprisingly nice job of maintaining your dignity, well done! this is nice compensation for the fact that you seemed to forget you were dealing with the demon of demons, but he was kind enough to remind you—

“well, i’m not one of them, so i’ll do as you say. you don’t mind, right?” 

do you have a saving grace with this man? meh. he doesn’t want to do anything in front of the others, but he can literally go somewhere private with you under the guise of wanting to talk. it’s not like anyone is gonna tell him he can’t. 

barbatos

you don’t make any sense. you watched black butler know that he’s the scariest person in the devildom, why did you think you could do this? he might be a menace not too far underneath that professional exterior, but that doesn’t mean you have to fuck around and find out. or maybe that’s exactly what that means. 

all he did was bring you tea. he saw you sitting in the castle’s library doing schoolwork—dia offered to let you study there to enjoy some quiet that you wouldn’t have gotten at the house, and because you aren’t one to forgo such a kind gesture, you accepted. 

he set it down on the table in front of you, much to your surprise. 

“oh, thank you! you really didn’t have to,” you said, looking up at him from your seat. 

“nonsense,” he started, smiling softly, “you’ve been working hard.”

you, for whatever reason, took this as an opportunity to pretend barbatos was one of your human friends. 

“you shouldn’t say that unless—” 

that’s all he let you say. what you were going to say was, “you shouldn’t say that unless you plan on making out with me.” trouble was, he already knew that. you must have forgotten who you were talking to. 

before you could finish, his hand was under your chin, and his other hand was resting on the arm of your chair, effectively caging you in, and effectively keeping you from looking away. 

his smile went from benevolent to teasing meaning you got the menace you wanted, as he asked,“unless what?” 

he took more joy in your flustered state than he would care to admit, but he’d recently learned that you had an affinity for trying to catch people off guard, so he thought it was more than fair to do the same to you—as a treat, for him. 

that said, it’s no surprise that you had to endure relentless teasing, him asking you what you wanted from him, why you were so shy all of a sudden, telling you not to be shy and that he wouldn’t bite, unless you asked nicely. what? he liked how warm your face made his hand. 

“what’s wrong? don’t you want to kiss me?” 

okay. that was the last straw. you never even hinted that you didn’t wanna kiss this man, and here he was, making assumptions about you as a person. 

you, in your infinite confidence and assertive nature, said, “i—i never said i didn’t want to.” 

and you know what, you really showed him because even though he laughed at you, even though he made a show of taking off his gloves, even though his hand moved from the arm of the chair to your thigh—even though he took every necessary step to remind you that he was in control, you still got what you wanted. and then some. 

your only saving grace with him is the fact that he breathes professionalism and he’s always busy. when he isn’t busy, however. well. 

simeon

you goddamn heathen. oh, you fucking freak. simeon has a reputation to uphold, you can’t treat him like one of your heathen little human friends, which means you can’t just say whatever pops into your head when you’re talking to him, which means—you should really learn to take compliments normally. 

simeon is a nice guy, and he likes you a lot, so it only makes sense that he compliments you whenever he can. in other words, he dishes out anywhere from one to four compliments whenever the two of you are together. he can’t help it, he just thinks you’re neat! 

the fact remains that you chose to be a menace to the angelic persona he is supposed to project at all times. 

it was a simple compliment. he enjoyed spending time with you, and he told you so, just telling you that your presence was a pleasant one. 

your response was actually normal—it was a simple, “i like being around you too!” 

in a way, this is simeon’s fault, if you think about it. he could’ve just said, “thank you,” and kept it pushing, but instead, he said, “really?”

why would he think you didn’t like being around him? that was unacceptable, so, really, what choice did you have but to give him the most solid affirmation he would ever hear? 

“of course! every day, i’m like, ‘wow, simeon is so cool, we should make out,’ you know?”

what you were expecting was for him to blush and laugh it off, call you silly, and maybe pat your head for good measure. that was a reasonable thing to expect, albeit that is not even close to what you got. 

since you were being so casual, simeon figured that he could—that he should—do the same. it was only natural that he stop being a model angel for a little while, right? 

oh, don’t look so flustered, it’s not like you’ve never been backed against a wall before. how many times has a demon done this to you? it’s only fair that an angel gets a turn. 

“actually,” he started, lips already brushing against yours as he spoke. “i don’t know. would you mind showing me?” 

if you are, understandably, too flustered to function, he will gladly make the first move, don’t worry, but if his first move happens to be taking your bottom lip between his teeth instead of kissing you, well… there’s not much you’re going to be able to do about it, so you may as well just enjoy. 

i mean, you tempt an angel, and you get what’s coming to you—that’s all there is to it. 

similar to barbatos, you will only be safe from this man when he’s in public or around a few of the others. if you’re alone with him and in private, he’s already under the impression that he doesn’t have to be an angel with you, so find joy in the side of him you’ve uncovered. 

solomon (derogatory)

you two deserve each other, really. both of you are public enemies. he was just as terrible as your friends from back home, except he was always walking the line like a tightrope. he was always on the verge of making his teasing into a reality, and to be quite frank, you were starting to get fed up—and you were right to be. but this is what you get for being a dirty solomon enjoyer. 

all of his empty threats and demands about kissing you, his lingering touches on your lower back or waist or thighs, his dumb little smirks on his dumb little face, his occasional bites wherever you were vulnerable, his habit of putting his hand around your throat for fun (or so he says)—those all came with the territory. he hasn’t had a friend to tease in ages (he can’t do it to asmo without it immediately turning into an hour long event), so you get it all at once, congratulations! 

don’t look so upset, he’s an attractive guy, so this is still a win. 

now, all of that said, you were hard pressed to find an opportunity to catch this man off guard, but once you got your chance, you latched onto it exactly as you should’ve. 

the two of you were in his room, studying (“studying”) for an upcoming exam. he was sitting in a chair, and you were on his bed a few feet away. you needed something from your bag, which was on the side of his chair farthest from you, so you decided to walk by him to get it, like a normal person. look at you, acting regular for once.

evidently, that was a mistake. as soon as you were in front of him, his hand was on your waist, and you were pulled into his lap. 

you turned to look at him, eyebrows raised and everything, and he seemed to have an explanation ready to go, paired with one of his signature smiles.

“i was wondering when i’d get to bother you again.” 

this was your chance—probably the only chance you’d get in a while, so it made sense that you took this opportunity to be heinous, even though you were in a rather compromising position. 

“either sleep with me or leave me alone.”

you did it. for a moment, you had him. the surprise plastered on his face was enough gratification to last you a lifetime, however fleeting it may have been. unfortunately for you, he had a wonderful recovery time. 

before you could fully enjoy the look on his face, it was gone, replaced by a more sinister expression that almost made you regret your decision. 

for what it’s worth, you didn’t have to see that menacing look of his for long because he turned you away from him to press your back into his chest. if that makes you feel any better. 

“i’ll never leave you alone,” he hummed, teeth already grazing your neck. his hand moved from your waist to your inner thigh, slowly separating one leg from the other. “but you already knew that.” 

you didn’t have a saving grace with this man before, and now you never will.

[gubler-me-up]

Old Friends, Old Habits (MGG Request)

Request: Can u write a cute smutty fic about mgg pls? Like seeing eachother for the first time in a while or something. Thanks! Love ya xx

A/N: Thanks for the request, anon! I know, I know, I said Thursday it would be published, but I was out and about my apologies. I stayed up until nearly 6 in the morning to get this out I’m actually so drained i’ll be in bed until 3 in the afternoon LOL that being said I hope it was worth the wait! 

Couple: Spencer Reid/Fem!Reader

Category: Smut

Content warning: Oral sex (male receiving), penetrative sex, fingering, unprotected sex

Word count: 2.1k

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

“Y/N?”

You heard a familiar voice call out. You had been walking the streets of LA by yourself the whole day. You didn’t know anyone from there. You were only down there for a quick business trip. That voice though. The last time you heard that voice was a few years ago after seeing each other at a bar in New York. The rest was history.

You turned around and saw Matthew as he stood there in surprise. He looked delighted to see you after so long though. You two had become friends in university, but hadn’t seen much of each other after graduation besides that night at the bar.

“Well, isn’t it the superstar himself,” you said as you leaned in for a hug.

He grabbed you up in his arms and hugged you tight. His touch hadn’t changed in all these years. The last time he held you this close was in his hotel room as he gave you a hug and kiss goodbye in the morning.

He chuckled. “Superstar’s an overstatement. From the looks of it you’re doing big things since the last time we spoke.”

“Yeah, I finally moved from New York to Illinois and got a job at this company that pays me well enough now,” you said.

“See, I knew since NYU you’d do big things,” he said.

You rolled your eyes. “Ugh, you’re too modest for your own good sometimes, Matt. If your face isn’t in a magazine, it’s on T.V. or on the silver screen.”

He laughed as he continued to stare dangerously at you. You could tell he was reminiscing about the last time you two had bumped into each other. A friendly meet up with a few too many drinks which led the two of you to an intense make-out session in the back corner of the bar. A few more drinks after that led to Matthew ramming you from behind so hard in the washroom stall you thought your back was gonna break.

“Well, I’m not too much of a star to blow you off. How about I take you to dinner tonight? Only if you’re not too busy for me,” he said.

You giggled. “How could I ever be too busy for the Matthew Gray Gubler? That would be a crime if I ever saw one.”

“For someone who took business, you sure have a knack for the dramatics, Y/N. Maybe we can star side by side in a project one day.”

“I don’t know, I don’t feel like upstaging you like that.”

He laughed. “You can upstage me on any show as long as you don’t stand me up tonight. We can go to Bestia. I know how much you love Italian food.”

“Aw, you remember that? You’re too sweet.”

He smiled as he leaned in to hug you. You took that as a sign of him having to go. You were glad you could see him again later on. The innocent-seeming hug took a turn when you heard him whisper in your ear.

“I remember every inch of you.”

As you two split from the hug you could feel your heart race with excitement just by those few words he whispered. What made it even better was he had such a casual look on his face while you looked at him dangerously. The night portion of your chance meeting would definitely be an interesting one.

————

Dinner had been going well for both of you. There was an extensive amount of catching up to do especially on your end. He wanted to know everything that had happened in your life in the past few years. You were more than happy to fill him in. Everything you shared with him you could tell he was proud of your accomplishments. You had to admit the both of you had come a long way since your university days.

He was still the same goof as you remembered him to be. Extremely hilarious and sweet wrapped in a perfect bow that was his physical form. You could still remember the feeling of his chest as you rubbed your hands up and down it the last time you encountered each other. Your mind couldn’t help rewinding that moment over and over again in your mind.

“Oh my God, do you hear that?” Matthew said.

You quickly snapped out of your thoughts. You were trying to figure out what he was talking about, but then you heard it. A big smile formed on your face.

“Is this Sublime playing?” You asked.

He nodded. “Yeah, it’s Doin’ Time. Remember in our freshman year of college we discovered Sublime and would just vibe to it?”

You laughed. “How could I forget? The easier days of procrastinating our homework and listening to music.”

“I wish we could still do that,” he said.

“Well, we kinda are. We’re putting off work to eat some pasta and vibe to Sublime,” you pointed out.

He smiled. “I guess that’s true. Doesn’t feel as good lazing around in your 30’s as it does at 18.”

“Nonsense, lazing around feels good at any age. If I could be laying in my bed every day with a margarita at my bedside I’d be content.”

“Make that two.”

You raised your eyebrow. “You’d be in the bed with me?”

“Of course. I’d be by your side more often if you were in LA.”

“Ugh, you know how much I hate LA.”

“I think I could change your mind about LA.”

“Oh? You sound so sure of yourself. I’d like to know how you’d make LA appealing.”

“Well, it’s beautiful.”

“Beauty? That’s all LA has? Beauty?”

“Well, yeah. I’m here, so it adds to the beauty of it all.”

You both burst out laughing. You had to admit he made a valid point. LA might not be your first choice to move to, but definitely a place you’d visit more often since Matthew made it worth it.

“Is there a second point?” You asked.

“Well, if you were down here we could do so many things together,” he said.

“Like?” You asked.

“Anything and everything.”

You placed your elbow on the table and placed your chin in your palm. You were interested in what he exactly meant by “anything and everything.” You decided it was the perfect time to see if you were the only one thinking about the last time you two meant. By his look early on in the day when you two bumped into each other you’d say he definitely still had it on his mind.

“What do you exactly mean by anything and everything?” You asked.

A smirk spread across his face. He licked his lips as he looked to his left before he looked back at you. You could see in his eyes he had something in mind. You looked over to where he looked and saw a hallway leading to the washrooms. At the end of the hall was the family washroom. It was confirmed, he in fact had thought about your hook up years ago.

“How about I show you?”

Before you could say another word he had gotten up from his seat and started to walk towards the washroom. You watched as he made his way to the washroom. He looked back at you before he entered and gestured you to come. You obeyed like a dog as you quickly walked towards him. He smiled as he opened the door for you. When he closed the door behind himself it was a matter of seconds before he grabbed your face and embraced you in a long, sensual kiss.

You broke away from the kiss and looked him in his lustful eyes. You smiled as your hands made their way to his belt buckle. He bit his lips before letting out a small laugh. He knew how eager your hands could get whenever he was near.

“Are you gonna show me why Illinois’s worth it?” He asked.

You giggled. “I’m gonna show you why I’m worth it.”

Without saying another word you dropped to your knees and pulled down his pants along with his underwear. As soon as you saw his dick you didn’t hesitate to put your mouth on it as you bobbed your head back and forth. He let out the most satisfied moan you’d ever heard from a guy. You were glad you still had power over him. You placed your hand on his dick and started moving it up and down his shaft.

“You’re too good, Y/N,” he said as he placed his hand on your head.

You moaned around his dick as you continued to bob your head on it. You forgot how exhausting it could be blowing him because he was a mouthful. The feeling of his dick in your mouth was worth it though. Every single inch of it.

He started to push your head for you so you let him take control. He pushed your head as close as possible to the shaft and held you there. You gagged as you looked up at him happily. He looked down at you happy you were enjoying yourself. He pulled your head off his dick and helped you off the ground.

“I wasn’t finished,” you said.

He leaned in and kissed you. “I’m supposed to be the one trying to convince you why you should come down to LA, remember?”

You laughed as you two embraced in another kiss. His kisses could be reason enough to move states. He didn’t even need to have sex to convince you, but you were glad it was leading to just that. He led you over to the mirror and stood behind you. He kissed down your neck as his hands found their way up your dress. You let out a desperate moan as you felt his hand rub your already soaked underwear.

“I didn’t know you were this excited,” he said.

“I’d be crazy not to be,” you said.

You then felt him move your underwear to the side and placed two fingers inside of you. You let out nonstop moans as he slowly moved in and out of you, watching you in the mirror as your face contorted in pleasure. In the mirror you saw him smiling to himself as he gave you a light bite on your neck. Those canine of his were a hot, dangerous force.

“You ready for the main reason you should be in LA?” He asked.

You smiled. “Been ready.”

You then felt his dick enter you. You instantly fell limp as the sensation overpowered any sense you had left. He made sure you felt every inch of his dick, so you knew what you were missing. Very devious of him, but he was doing a good job of convincing you.

“How’s that convincing you?” He whispered in your ear.

You moaned something incoherent and total gibberish as he continued to gently fuck you. He smiled at your answer though, satisfied you didn’t even have a straight answer for him any longer. He went back to kissing your neck as you continued to moan for him. You started to feel as if he wanted to fuck you slow, so he could save this moment in case he didn’t see you for another few years after this.

Soon you felt his hand rub your clit. Your eyes rolled to the back and your head fell back as you enjoyed the stimulation. His other hand was fondling your breast. He continued to run gentle kisses down your neck the whole time. This was the image of what heaven must be like. You could feel sweet butterflies running through you and knew it was time for you to meet your end.

“Matthew,” you moaned.

He just continued to do what he was already doing. You knew he knew you were about to cum. He wanted you to. His actions were almost demanding you to. So, you did. You let out a few breathy moans as your body seized as your orgasm ran through you. That’s when he started to pump his dick in you a bit faster. He moved his hand from your clit and placed it on your neglected breast. He soon came himself as he roughly grabbed your breasts as he did.

He pulled out, but didn’t move from his position behind you. He wrapped his arms around your waist and rested his chin on your shoulder as he looked at your flushed expression in the mirror. You smiled at him as he stared at you with a smirk.

“So, LA doesn’t seem so bad after all. Maybe I’ll move down in a few years or so,” you joked.

He chuckled. “I’ll help you move. Just don’t make me wait forever again.”

“I’ll try my best, superstar.”

—–

MASTERLIST