#vacation adventure society

[one-half-guy]

How would Blaze and Gold handle going on vacation? I figure they would go to Sonic's dimension for the peace and quiet... if it weren't for Eggman XD

It would be a very bureaucratic process imo LOL: firstly they would need to be convinced to take a (somewhat long) time for themselves, free from every responsability each one has, focus in enjoy and relax only... Not something they're used to think of, it sounds very much like a jump off their comfort zones (too stressful for comfort of course, but the zones they're used to *fingers guns*)

Then comes something that happens to be a lot harder than they could ever predict: define a destination, after all they have 3 worlds to choose (4 if we count Gold's world being somehow restored), each one with breath taking views, exciting mysteries and charming enviroments of their own, which one should they choose?? It's not like they know when they'll be able to do it again, so they are deadset in choose the best dimension for vacation (They could as well do some Dimension Hoping Vacation™ XD... ...but then by which one to start??)

Maybe in the end Sonic's world seems to be the best option for their first vacation as a couple: more landmasses than Blaze's world, there are more civilizations around than in Silver's world and the majority of their friends live in there (lots of bias favouring that dimension LOL) and can suggest places to visit + it's not the world where they have all their responsability, it seems all win, what could go wrong? (Eggman... They forgot Eggman... And he showed up... And is always happy to torment an enemy XD but it's not like a mad doctor would be enough to ruin their time together <3) (Maybe if he unleashed some new eldritch being maybe 👀👀)

[eu-nicola]

via part 1

summary: In the dazzling world of high society, you are a young woman who lives an apparently perfect relationship with the pilot Pierre Gasly. However, when you discover that your boyfriend of years Pierre was unfaithful to you with one of your best friends you decide to walk away and what better idea than a vacation in the break of Formula 1 in Italy with one of your friends, Charles.

warnings: tension, infidelity

word counter: 8718

author's note: english is not my first language, btw i'm writing the third part of Max's story

You had grown up with them, in those endless summers in the south of France, where the sun seemed brighter and the air was filled with laughter and promises that seemed eternal. Pierre and Charles were like brothers to you, always there, on days of adventure and days of calm. All of your families knew each other well, and every year the summers brought you together in the same coastal corner. Sometimes, Camille would arrive, that inseparable friend with whom you shared secrets and dreams.

Pierre was the center of calm in the group; observant, with an easy laugh and a confidence that inspired trust. He was the boy who always had a logical answer to every problem and calm advice for each of you. You got used to feeling safe when he was around, to trusting in his loyalty and relying on that serenity he conveyed. He had dreamed of being a driver since he was little, and his tenacity in reaching Formula 1 did not surprise anyone; you always knew that he had the discipline necessary to go far.

Charles, on the other hand, was a whirlwind of energy, the first to jump into any challenge, no matter how reckless or absurd it seemed. Always on the edge, he was the friend who made you laugh until your stomach hurt, but also the one who could drive you crazy with his impulses and ideas. But that intensity of his, that boundless passion, was also what made him unique. He and Pierre shared the same dream, and although their personalities were opposite, they were both united by that common goal, by that desire for speed that made them talk about races all the time.

Over the years, you witnessed their triumphs and falls. Sometimes, childhood summers seemed like a distant dream; the pressure, the training, and the anxieties of the future began to infiltrate those vacations that used to be just fun. But the friendship between you remained solid. Although life took you on different paths, the connections remained strong, and there was always a message or a call to remind you that they were there.

Pierre had been more than a friend in the last few years, and that spark that had emerged sometime in their teens had grown into something more solid and deeper. The shared laughter and knowing glances had transformed into a relationship in which both found refuge amidst the demands of their lives.

You remember how it all began, almost without realizing it, like a gentle current in the sea that slowly drags you along until you are completely immersed. For years he had been your friend, your confidant; the boy who was always there. But, at some point, something in him changed, or maybe it was you who had changed.

It had started on a spring afternoon in Monaco, when both of you attended a Formula 1 event. You clearly remember what he looked like: hair messy from the wind and an expression of excitement at seeing the drivers gathered together, his idols. That afternoon you noticed how good he looked, how much he had grown and how much he meant to you. A mix of emotions washed over you, and when Pierre looked at you, holding your gaze a little longer than usual, you felt something in the air, something you hadn't felt before. And in that moment, your relationship changed.

The days that followed were filled with small details, knowing glances, and words that seemed to contain hidden meanings. Sometimes, a simple shared laugh or a silence at his side made you feel something different. Pierre began to appear in your thoughts at all hours, and, at first, you tried to ignore him, because you didn't want to risk the friendship you had with him. But it was impossible.

The first kiss was at sunset on the coast, on a beach where you both used to go when you were younger. You hadn't planned anything, you didn't even know how you had ended up there, in front of him, feeling the breeze and the scent of salt in the air. Pierre looked at you with those warm eyes, and without saying anything, he shortened the distance between you. The kiss was soft at first, as if both of you were measuring the intensity, the newness of it, until it became deeper, more real. In that moment, you felt like a line had been crossed, and although a part of you was afraid, another part knew it was inevitable. Pierre held you with a tenderness you had never experienced before, and in that instant you felt safe, as if you were exactly where you were supposed to be.

From that day on, your relationship evolved with a naturalness that surprised you. The transition from friendship to love was so fluid that, at some point, you couldn't remember what your life was like without him. Pierre became your partner in every sense. He was that constant support in difficult times, the one who listened to you patiently when you shared your fears and your dreams, and the one who always had a smile for you, even after his hardest days on the slopes.

On one occasion, after a particularly exhausting race for him, you both sat on the terrace of your apartment, looking at the sky full of stars. Pierre was exhausted, his shoulders tense and his expression more somber than usual. Without saying anything, you approached and began to massage his shoulders. He sighed, grateful, and let his head fall back, relaxing under your hands. That night you talked for hours, about his career, about the future and about how you saw the world.

The days passed and, little by little, you realized that Pierre had become an indispensable part of your life. His way of seeing the world inspired you, his patience taught you, and, above all, his love made you feel complete. When he held your hand, looked at you, or said sweet words in your ear, the rest of the world seemed to disappear, and there were only the two of you.

It had been almost a year since your relationship with Pierre began, and things between you seemed to be going better than ever. The trust between the two of you was unbreakable, and you felt that he understood you better than anyone else. Pierre was present in every aspect of your life, and you, in his. It seemed like a solid love, a relationship based on years of friendship and respect. But there was something, a detail hidden between the corners of his life and yours, something that would soon emerge, transforming that feeling of security into a wound.

The first time Camille appeared again in your lives, it was on one of your weekend getaways. You had invited your childhood friends, as you did every year, to spend a few days in a villa near the sea. Camille joined the group near the end of the trip, saying that she had been away on a trip and hadn’t been able to make it earlier. Her presence made you happy, as always; after all, she was your lifelong friend, and sharing those moments with her made you feel like everything was in its place.

Pierre and Camille seemed to get along, and that had never worried you. They had known each other for a long time, as had Charles, and they all had a unique bond, one that you had come to value greatly. But what you didn’t know was that, months ago, during one of Pierre’s trips, something had happened between them, something that had become the darkest secret your relationship kept.

It was one night in Monaco, when Pierre was at a team dinner and Camille was visiting the city. Camille had always had a weakness for glamorous nights, clubs, and the freedom to be whoever she wanted. That evening, without thinking twice, she wrote to Pierre, and he, without thinking twice either, agreed to meet her for a drink after dinner. What started as a reunion between friends quickly turned into something more.

That night, Pierre and Camille shared not only laughter and memories, but also glances that went beyond friendship. They both knew it was wrong, that crossing that line was betraying the trust of someone they loved. But, between the intoxicating atmosphere of the place and the complicity they had shared for years, they let themselves go. Pierre felt an attraction he had forgotten, and Camille, who had always had a spark with him, encouraged him, letting herself go as well.

It was a mistake, one they both knew should stay in the past. After that night, Camille returned to her normal life, and Pierre returned to you, convinced that you would never know what had happened. They swore not to talk about it and to carry on as if nothing had happened. Camille continued to be your close friend, and Pierre, your partner.

In the following months, Pierre did everything he could to act as if nothing had happened. His attentions towards you increased, the small details with which he showed his love and the constancy of his affectionate words. With every glance he took at you, he tried to redeem the guilt he felt inside. But even though he seemed to have put it behind him, the shadow of that night still haunted him in his darkest moments. At night, in moments of silence, that guilt tormented him, and he knew that if you ever found out, his whole world would fall apart.

Camille, for her part, came back into your life without showing any trace of remorse. She was skilled at hiding her emotions, and although sometimes her glances at Pierre had a trace of complicity, she managed to remain distant, as if nothing was different. She was still the same Camille as always, with her contagious laugh and carefree attitude. When you were with her, you couldn't even imagine what she was hiding behind her smile.

A few months after that meeting at the villa, something began to change. At first, it was just an intuition, a slight feeling that crossed you from time to time, like a shadow that made you frown for no apparent reason. Pierre was still affectionate, attentive, almost as if he was trying to make up for something, although you didn't know what.

One night, while you were looking through some photos from that getaway, you noticed one in particular: Pierre and Camille, sharing a somewhat peculiar smile. It was a harmless image, but, without knowing why, it made you uncomfortable. You kept telling yourself that they were your friends, that they had known each other all their lives and that it was normal for them to get along. However, something inside you kept doubting.

The weeks that followed increased that uneasiness. You noticed how Pierre looked away when you mentioned Camille, or how Camille, in a conversation, avoided giving details about some nights in which, according to her, "everyone just had fun." You began to analyze her words, her gestures, her looks. You felt trapped in a spiral of mistrust, and you couldn't help it.

You couldn't keep those concerns to yourself; you needed to vent to someone, someone you really trusted. That's when you decided to talk to Charles. After all, he knew Pierre, Camille, and you better than anyone else. You knew he would be honest with you, without trying to sugarcoat things.

One afternoon, while Charles was back at his house, you decided to call him. He answered on the second ring, in that warm, relaxed voice that always managed to calm you down a little. It didn't take you long to convince him to meet you at a secluded café, away from the eyes of anyone who might recognize you.

Charles arrived shortly after you, and upon seeing you, he immediately noticed that something was wrong. He sat down in front of you, looking at you with a mix of concern and curiosity. You tried to smile to lighten the moment, but you barely managed to keep it. So, without further ado, you blurted out what you had in store.

“Charles, I need your help. I feel like… something is going on between Pierre and Camille. I’m not sure what, but… I have this feeling that they are hiding something from me. It’s just a suspicion, but I can’t get it out of my head,” you said, your voice a little broken, trying to control your emotions.

Charles looked at you silently, evaluating every word and every expression of yours. He knew how important Pierre was to you, and the seriousness of your words made him realize that this was not just a passing doubt. He leaned forward, getting closer, and gently took your hand, as he usually did in those moments when you felt lost.

“I don’t know what to tell you… I mean, Camille and Pierre have always been close, but I never thought that…” he paused, as if he didn’t want to feed your fears. “Look, I don’t want you to be hasty. Sometimes, the mind plays tricks on us, and it’s easy to get carried away by insecurity.”

However, your words had awakened something in him, a kind of doubt that seemed to invade his mind as well. Charles knew Pierre and Camille, and, although he had always trusted them, he had never ruled out that a spark could arise between them. After all, he knew what Camille was like, how impulsive she could be, and he also knew Pierre, and how much he hated dealing with conflict. And now, seeing you so distressed, he couldn’t help but think that maybe your suspicions had some truth.

“Do you want me to talk to Pierre?” he finally asked you, looking at you seriously. “Maybe I can get something out of him, try to see if there’s something he’s hiding from you.”

You stayed silent, considering his proposal. You didn't want this to turn into a confrontation, and you didn't want to put Charles in an awkward position either. However, the idea that he could get some truth that was hidden from you seemed tempting.

"I don't know... I don't want Pierre to feel like I'm distrusting him," you murmured, lowering your gaze. "But I can't keep this doubt in my head either."

Charles nodded.

"Look, I'm going to try to find out something, in a subtle way. And if there's something you need to know, I'll tell you. But promise me that you won't do anything until we have some proof, okay?"

You promised Charles that you would be patient, that you would wait before doing anything. At that moment, you felt a mix of relief and fear. At least you weren't alone in this anymore; now you had someone on your side, someone who was willing to help you discover the truth.

The days that followed were long and heavy. Every time Pierre took your hand or looked at you with his affectionate eyes, you felt a pang in your chest, a doubt that went beyond what he could see. Meanwhile, Charles did everything he could to find out something and, in a casual conversation, try to get some clue. You didn't reveal your suspicions to him, but you watched him, attentive to any gesture or word that could give him away.

Finally, one day, Charles called you again.

That call from Charles came when you least expected it. You were at home, in your kitchen, with a cup of tea in your hands, trying to stay calm. The sound of your phone brought you out of your thoughts, and seeing Charles' name on the screen, you felt a knot in your stomach.

You answered quickly, trying to hide the fear that was eating away at you inside.

"Charles?" you asked, your voice a little hesitant.

It took him a moment to answer, and his tone, serious and slow, gave you no reassurance.

“We need to talk. It’s about Pierre… and Camille,” he said, bluntly, and you felt as if the air was being knocked out of your lungs.

You fell silent, knowing that this was the moment your suspicions were either going to come to life or fade away completely. Charles continued, with a tense calm that only increased your anxiety.

���What I suspected about you… it’s true. Pierre and Camille were together, a couple of months ago. It was… it wasn’t something they wanted you to know, and they tried to hide it, but… the pieces don’t fit, and I found out.”

Confusion and pain hit you hard. The teacup in your hands shook and nearly fell, but your fingers tightened around it, as if that small sense of control could keep everything from falling apart.

“It can’t be…” you whispered, unable to process what you had just heard. Charles’ words echoed in your head like a distant echo, but your mind didn’t want to accept them. You couldn’t believe it, not after everything you had shared. Somehow, you hoped this was just a mix-up, a cruel joke. But the seriousness in Charles’ voice left no room for doubt.

“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry,” Charles said, a mix of frustration and sadness in his tone. “I know how hard this must be for you, but what I’m telling you is the truth. Pierre… I don’t know what he thought, but he wasn’t being honest with you.”

Pain gripped you immediately. You slumped into the chair, your hand still clutching the cup, which now shook as if your entire body was trying to hold on to something that was about to break. Images piled up in your mind: Pierre, so close, so loving, and Camille, your lifelong friend. It all seemed like a cruel game, a lie that was woven with invisible threads until now.

“How did you know?” you asked, your voice barely a whisper. You needed to understand how something so destructive had gone unnoticed for so long.

Charles sighed, and in his tone there was a hint of helplessness, as if it hurt him too to be the bearer of bad news.

“I knew because when I was with Pierre last week, I couldn’t help but notice that something wasn’t right. He… was behaving strangely, and when I started asking him questions, everything fell into place. It wasn’t easy for me, but… that’s what I found.” I didn't like having to do it, but I did it for you.

A lump formed in your throat, and you felt the weight of everything you had taken for granted fall on you, crushing you. Everything you had lived with Pierre, all those moments of love, of complicity, suddenly seemed unreal, as if you had been living a lie.

"I... I can't believe it, Charles," you finally said, your voice cracked, full of pain. You felt like the ground beneath you was no longer firm, that everything you had built with Pierre was crumbling into a thousand pieces.

There was a long silence on the other end of the line, and Charles, although worried, knew he couldn't say anything to ease the pain that was now overwhelming you.

"I'm so sorry..." he murmured, not knowing what else to say. He was also sad for you, for the way things had happened, and for what you knew you would have to face.

The words seemed to flee from you. All you wanted to do was scream, to run away, to run away somewhere where no one knew you, where all of this wasn’t real. How could Pierre, the man you trusted, the one you’d put all your love into, have done this? And Camille, your friend, the one who’d always been there, how could she have crossed that line, betrayed you like that?

“Thank you, Charles,” you said at last, your words cold, automatic, as if you were somehow trying to keep some control over yourself. You knew you needed to process it, but you didn’t know how. You didn’t know how to move on when what you thought was your life had been shattered in front of you.

You hung up the call, and for a moment, everything was silent. The pain washed over you like a wave, and you felt empty, as if the betrayal had ripped a piece of yourself out of you. The space Pierre had occupied in your life suddenly seemed like an impossible void to fill, and Camille, your friend, became a distant, unrecognizable shadow.

While you were sinking into your pain, your bewilderment and the whirlwind of emotions that Pierre and Camille had unleashed in your life, the two of them continued with their own secret. Far from what was happening with you, in the distance that you could not see, Camille and Pierre

were together at an event and, as on so many previous occasions, when they crossed paths in the hallway, there was an instant clash of glances. Memories of the past came back, like ghosts that had never left. Camille, like him, felt the tension between the two of them, a tension that seemed unable to dissipate, even with the passage of time.

Pierre, with his mind full of contradictions, had managed to calm down after his return to you. But now, again in front of Camille, the old emotions invaded him again. He remembered the moment when their bodies met, the touch of their lips, the sensation of something he had not been able to reject. Camille, aware of what had happened, stared at him, and although her expression seemed relaxed, her eyes betrayed the mixture of regret and desire she felt.

“I don’t know why, but… I haven’t been able to forget you,” Pierre told her, his voice lowering in tone, as if he didn’t want anyone to hear them. The confession came out without her being able to avoid it, like a truth that had been pressing against her chest for weeks.

Camille didn’t say anything at first, she just stared at him, with a slight smile on her lips. She couldn’t deny what had happened between them, even if she tried to act indifferent. After all, she had been the one who had made the first move that night, she who had accepted the kiss, who had taken him to a place where neither of them thought about the consequences.

“Don’t forget it,” she replied, her voice soft, but with a tone that Pierre recognized as dangerous. There was something in her words that caught him, something that made him feel as if he were at a crossroads. Camille hadn't let him go, and deep down, he knew she didn't want to either.

Pierre stayed silent, watching her. There was something about her, that intense, direct gaze, that completely disarmed him. He realized that, despite his relationship with you, something with Camille was still alive, something that refused to die out.

"And what do we do with that?" Pierre asked, his tone full of uncertainty, but also of an emotion that he couldn't hide. The words tasted bitter, but also necessary. He couldn't continue living with the guilt, with the weight of what had happened between them.

Camille took a deep breath, looked around to make sure no one was around, and then whispered, almost as if she were revealing a secret truth.

"I don't know what to do with us... with what happened," she admitted, and for a moment, Pierre felt time stop between them. Camille had always been direct, and though there was regret in her words, there was also something deeper, something that kept them connected beyond betrayal.

Pierre took a step closer, a movement that was driven by a need he couldn't control.

"I should never have let this happen… but I can't ignore it, Camille. I can't ignore you," he confessed, this time bluntly, as if the words were slipping from his control.

Camille didn't back down. On the contrary, she moved a little closer to him, and although remorse was present in her eyes, there was also a spark that she couldn't hide.

"I can't forget you either," she replied, with a smile that, although bitter, was sincere. There was something in her voice that, although full of contradiction, showed that, deep down, despite the betrayal, there was still something between them, something they couldn't just leave behind.

The conversation between them ended with a heavy, but not definitive silence. They both knew that what they felt, what had happened between them, wasn't going to disappear immediately. Although Pierre had returned to your side, his mind was still caught between the love he felt for you and the temptation of what he had experienced with Camille.

When Pierre returned, everything seemed to be in its place. At first, he tried to be the same as always: caring, attentive, the kind and loving boy you had been with. But something in him had changed, and you knew it.

That evening, after he arrived at your apartment, you found him in the kitchen while you were making dinner. There was something different about him, and you couldn't ignore it anymore. You knew you couldn't keep living with the doubt and the pain in silence. You had to face it, even if it meant losing him.

You approached him decisively, your heart racing, but determined that, at last, you would have answers. You couldn't keep up with that feeling of betrayal that was eating away at you inside.

"Pierre, we need to talk," you said, trying to stay calm, but knowing that your words sounded much colder than you wanted.

Pierre looked up, surprised by the tone of your voice. He tried to smile, but the smile didn't reach his eyes, and for a moment, everything seemed to collapse between you.

"What do you want to talk about?" he asked, with that typical calm of his that used to reassure you, but now only irritated you.

You knew what you had to say, you knew there was no turning back now. You had the proof, you had the truth. It was time for him to face what he had done.

“I know what happened with Camille,” you said suddenly, and the air between you both grew thick. The words came out with the force of something that had been bottled up for too long. It was as if, as you spoke them, the pain you had been carrying around with you for weeks began to release, but at the same time, it intensified.

Pierre was silent for a moment, his face expressionless. Then, you saw him tense, his jaw set. His eyes shifted for a second, as if he were looking for a way out, a way to evade the truth.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he finally answered, but his tone was no longer the same. There was something uncomfortable, something you couldn’t ignore.

“Don’t lie!” you exclaimed, feeling the rage and pain explode inside you. The truth burned you, and you needed him to accept it, to stop hiding it. You knew you couldn’t continue with someone who was lying to you so openly. “Charles told me everything, Pierre. I know what they did, I know you were with Camille.”

Pierre tried to take a deep breath, but he couldn’t help the slight trembling in his hands, the anxiety that invaded him. He knew he couldn’t continue denying the obvious, but he also knew that if he admitted it, he would lose everything he had built with you.

“It’s not what you think…” he said, his voice now lowering, trying to control the situation. But you weren’t going to let him manipulate you anymore. You knew him too well for his empty words to convince you again.

“How is it not what I think?” you asked, unable to contain the sarcasm and pain that seeped into your words. Do you think I'm so stupid that I don't realize what happened? You lied to me, Pierre. You lied to me! I can't believe you did this to me.

Instead of apologizing, Pierre tried to turn the conversation around, like he always did when things got tough. He tried to find an excuse, a justification for his behavior, as if that could make everything go back to normal.

"It was a mistake, something that happened, but it doesn't mean what you think it does. Camille… Camille has always been a close friend, and that night, it was just a moment of weakness. I love you, not her. What happened doesn't matter, what matters is that I'm here with you."

But those words had no power over you. They weren't enough to erase the betrayal you felt. He had overlooked it so many times, ignored so many signs that now they became crystal clear. And now, in front of you, Pierre was trying to downplay it, as if it was all an accident, something weightless, when what he had done had broken everything you believed in him.

You took a step back, unable to bear it any longer.

“I can’t go on like this, Pierre,” you said, your voice shaking, but firm. Each word was another nail in the coffin of what had been your relationship.

Pierre seemed surprised, as if he hadn’t expected you to get to this point. He tried to get closer, to take your hand, but you pushed him away roughly, not allowing him to touch you.

“Don’t touch me. You won’t.” You felt empty, but at the same time liberated, as if a heavy layer of pain and disappointment had suddenly been removed.

Pierre tried to speak, but the sadness in his eyes was evident. Now he saw that everything was crumbling before him, that the lie had come to light, and that nothing could save what was left of you.

“I don’t know what to tell you… I don’t want to lose you,” he said, his voice cracking, but the words no longer held the power they once had. No matter how sorry he felt, the truth was there, and there was no turning back.

“Then you should have thought about it before,” you answered, with a calm that surprised you. It was as if, finally, all the pain you had been accumulating had transformed into something more solid, something that strengthened you. “I don’t want you around. Not after all this.”

And without giving her any room to say more, you turned around and walked to your room, heartbroken, but with the feeling that at least you had done the right thing. You had reached the end, and even though it hurt, you knew that your life had to go on, away from lies, away from betrayals.

Pierre stood there, alone in the living room, watching as everything he had had with her faded away, unable to do anything but accept that he had lost what he loved most.

After the confrontation with Pierre, the weight of the situation did not fade away. On the contrary, what had started as a broken hope, was transformed into an urgent need to escape. You needed to disconnect, to get away, to find peace away from all that. And there was no better way to do it than taking a breather somewhere where no one could touch you, where you could recover a little of yourself.

That was when you thought of Charles. You knew that his impulsive personality and desire for adventure fit perfectly with what you needed right now: an escape.

The idea of ​​traveling to Italy came to you as a perfect way to unwind. Italy had everything you were looking for: beautiful landscapes, tranquility, history, and culture. You called Charles, who was in the middle of training for the season, but you knew that if anyone could understand what you needed, it was him. At first, you took him by surprise, but upon hearing your voice, he immediately recognized the anguish you were trying to hide.

“Charles…” you said, hesitantly at first, but with the determination of someone who had already made up their mind. “I need to get away from all this. I want to go to Italy, to a villa in the mountains, away from everything. Away from Pierre, away from everything that happened.”

There was silence on the other end of the line. You knew he was processing what you had just told him, but you also knew that he would never leave you alone in something like that.

“Of course,” he finally answered, without a moment’s hesitation. “If that’s what you need, let’s go. To Italy then.”

The relief you felt upon hearing his answer was immediate. Charles never questioned your decisions. He had always been there for you, and his unconditional support gave you the strength you needed at that moment.

“Thank you, Charles,” you said, unable to stop your voice from cracking a little.

The idea of ​​traveling to Italy began to take shape quickly. Charles took care of everything, from flights to accommodation, looking for a secluded place in the mountains, far from the hustle and bustle of tourist cities. A place where they could rest, explore, and above all, unwind.

As soon as you had everything ready, the anticipation grew.

The day of the trip arrived quickly. You packed your things with more excitement than ever, relieved to finally get away from the pain and Pierre’s constant presence in your life. It was clear that you needed this change, and, although you knew that the wound Pierre had left would not heal immediately, at least you could give yourself the space to heal, without the pressure of the media that already knew about the crisis between the two of you stalking you every day.

Arriving in Italy, the beauty of the landscape enveloped you like a warm hug. The mountains rose majestically, covered in green, the villas scattered among the vineyards gave a feeling of peace and tranquility that you had not felt for a long time. The villa in which they would stay was hidden between hills, and the rustic and cozy decoration made you feel as if you were in another world, one in which the past had no place.

You and Charles spent the first few days exploring the place, walking through the small towns nearby, tasting wines and eating fresh pasta at local restaurants. Every day was a respite, a chance to unwind, to forget about the pain for a bit and focus on the present.

Although Charles was his usual impulsive and lively self, he sometimes surprised you with his more reflective side, the one that appeared when he noticed that you were pensive, that the shadow of what you had experienced with Pierre had reached you.

“You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to,” he told you one day while you were walking through a small medieval town. The narrow streets, full of flowers and color, gave you a sense of calm that only Italy could offer you.

“I know,” you answered, smiling slightly, although it was evident that you still had a hard time letting go of what you had experienced. “It’s just that sometimes I think about everything that happened, and I think I should never have let it go so far.”

Charles looked at you and approached, placing a hand on your shoulder. He didn’t need to say more, because his gesture said it all. He was there for you, not just as a friend, but as someone who wanted to see you happy, free of any kind of emotional burden.

“Don’t worry about it. What matters is that you’re here now, and we’re in this together,” he said, and the sincerity of his words gave you the strength to keep going.

As the days passed in Italy, things between you and Charles began to change in subtle, but inevitable ways. The first day was just an escape, a respite from the pain Pierre had left behind, but you soon realized that being with Charles in that environment, without the shadows of everyday life, was making you feel something new, something you hadn’t anticipated.

Charles was excellent company, with his sarcastic humor and contagious energy, always ready to make you laugh even when your thoughts wandered to pain.

One afternoon, as they walked down a path between olive trees, Charles began to talk about his life, about his unfulfilled dreams of becoming a world champion, as if he was truly enjoying the company, as if the noise of the world had disappeared. When dinner time came, they sat together at a small table in the garden, with candles lighting the atmosphere and a glass of wine in their hands.

“Did you know that when I was a kid, I thought Italy was the perfect place to live?” Charles said, looking out at the landscape, as if he was reliving his childhood. There was something in his voice that made you think that, although he was always the impulsive and fun-loving boy, there was a side of him that he never fully showed.

“Really?” you asked, intrigued, and smiled at him as you took a sip of wine.

“Yes,” he replied, smiling back, but now with a softer touch on his face. “My family used to come here during the holidays. Italy has something magical, don’t you think?”

You nodded slowly. Something about the atmosphere, the tranquility that enveloped everything, was certainly special.

Every day passed so naturally. On the walks, the comfortable silences, the shared laughter, the deep conversations during dinner or at the end of the day, when you sat on the terraces to watch the sunset, everything seemed to fit together, as if you were both in the right place, at the perfect time. Charles' presence calmed you, made you feel protected and, for the first time in a long time, you felt like you could breathe without the anguish that had been drowning you.

On one of those afternoons, after a long walk in the hills, when the light of day was already beginning to fade and the fresh air was felt on your skin, Charles moved closer to you.

“You know, I’m glad we made this trip,” he said, walking close to you, with a look you couldn’t quite read. “I want you to know that even though I’m a little… unpredictable at times, you can count on me for anything.”

There was a silence between you as you walked together, as if the words had become more meaningful, heavier. At that moment, you realized something: Charles had been an unconditional friend.

The tension in the air between you was palpable, but not in an uncomfortable way. It was more of an attraction that grew little by little, unhurriedly, but inevitably.

Despite the serenity that Italy brought, there was something you couldn’t avoid, something that kept stalking you. Camille’s messages were starting to become more and more frequent. At first, you ignored them, thinking that maybe it wouldn’t be the right time to deal with what had happened between her, Pierre, and you. But, as the days went by, the messages became more persistent, more urgent.

Camille: "I need to talk to you, please. I know things aren't right, but we have to talk."

Camille: "I miss you, can we fix this? I don't know how to fix this, but I feel so bad..."

The messages were always similar, asking for a chance to explain herself, to tell her side of the story. You knew it wouldn't be easy, that nothing she said could erase what she had done, but at the same time, you couldn't help but feel guilty for not giving her the chance to explain. The problem was that, deep down, you knew you didn't want to talk to her. You had been so devastated, so broken by the betrayal, that it was impossible for you to find the right words to forgive her, or even to listen to her.

One day, while walking through a nearby villa, Charles noticed that you were staring at your phone, distracted. You didn't give it much importance, but he, as always attentive to your gestures, came a little closer.

"Everything okay?" “He asked softly, stopping beside you.

You looked at the phone in your hand, seeing Camille’s latest text. The temptation to respond, to end it all, was rife, but then you remembered what Charles had said: “You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to.”

You took a deep breath, feeling like even if you wanted to work things out, this wasn’t the right time or place to do so.

“It’s Camille,” you said, trying to sound calm. “She’s been texting me all the time. She wants to talk… but I don’t know if she should.”

Charles didn’t say anything at first, but his look said it all. He didn’t need to explain further.

“I understand,” he replied, his voice firm, but also soft. He moved a little closer, walking beside you. “Sometimes people do things they can’t undo, and even if she wants to explain herself, I don’t think that will change what happened. I don’t want you to feel pressured to do something out of responsibility or fear. You have every right to decide what’s best for you.”

You were surprised by how Charles had handled the situation. It wasn’t just a matter of being there for you; he seemed to understand you beyond words. You felt cared for, supported, and that was something you had never experienced so clearly. Camille’s words seemed to fade away in Charles’ calm presence.

‘What if I just stop responding? What if we never talk again?’ you thought to yourself.

“Sometimes when someone hurts you, it’s best to let it go,” Charles said, not looking at you, but his confident voice made a shiver run through your body. “You don’t need to solve everything. You don’t have to heal the wound right away.” Just do what makes you feel better.

His words resonated within you. For the first time in days, you began to feel like you could truly let go of Camille and Pierre without feeling the pressure of having to face it all. The relief of taking control of the situation spread like a wave of calm.

You decided you wouldn’t respond to Camille. Not right now. You were learning to set boundaries, to recognize what really mattered at this point in your life.

The next night, after dinner, Charles sat next to you on the terrace, looking up at the stars, and broke the silence with a smile.

“Have you?” he asked, knowing what he meant.

You looked at him, a little surprised by his question, but the answer came easily, as if you had been waiting for that moment to finally make a decision.

“Yes,” you said, looking at your phone one last time before putting it back in your pocket. “I’ve decided not to respond. I need to focus on myself now.”

Charles nodded, satisfied, and moved a little closer.

“That’s good,” he said, his tone making it clear that, in his eyes, you had done the right thing.

And even as Camille continued to text, your mind and heart were beginning to free itself.

The atmosphere in Italy had already changed by then. Everything felt different, more intense. Although it had all started as an escape, a simple respite from what you had left behind, now things between you and Charles were clear. There was something else in the air, something you couldn't deny, even if you tried.

That evening, the villa was particularly quiet, the fresh mountain air caressing the skin, and the dim lights on the terrace creating an almost magical atmosphere. They had spent the afternoon touring a small nearby town, exploring local shops and enjoying Italian cuisine. It had been a day full of laughter, of shared glances, of small gestures that, although not obvious to the rest, were clear as day to both of them.

After dinner, in which everything seemed to happen with overwhelming naturalness, they retired to the living room, where the fireplace was already burning softly. The villa was silent, as if the outside world had been left behind. Charles approached you, offering you a glass of wine as he sat down beside you, closer than he usually was. Your breathing quickened a little, as if a fate you couldn’t resist was drawing nearer.

The words trailed off little by little. The silence between you two was filled with a palpable tension, an energy that only the two of you could understand. You realized that, in all that time, what was between you two wasn’t just friendship, it wasn’t just support. It was something much deeper, more visceral. And, for the first time, fear didn’t invade you. There was no doubt in your mind, only an overwhelming desire to be closer to him.

“You know, sometimes I wonder how we got here,” Charles said, his voice deep and low, as he looked into your eyes. There was something in his tone that made you understand that, just like you, he already knew. You already knew that tonight wouldn’t be like the others.

Without thinking, you took a sip of wine, trying to calm the racing heartbeat in your chest, but you knew it wasn’t just the wine that was affecting you. It was Charles’ closeness, the warmth of his body beside you, the way his eyes kept scanning your face, like he was searching for something, like he was waiting for your permission, or like he had already crossed that line without either of you saying it out loud.

“Maybe…” you whispered, staring at him. “Maybe this was all meant to be.”

Charles’ response was immediate, and before you could say anything else, he moved a little closer. His breath, warm and slightly intoxicating, mingled with yours as his hands, gentle but firm, settled on your shoulders. At that moment, you knew. There was no turning back.

The contact between the two of you was subtle at first, almost like a test, a check to see if you were both willing to move forward. But the desire, that raw, unadorned desire, became unstoppable. He didn’t say anything else. His mouth moved closer to yours, and when your lips finally met, it was like all the weight of the world melted away. It was a soft kiss at first, but with each second it intensified, as if the touch of your lips was just the beginning of something much deeper.

Your hands slid to his neck, pulling him towards you, as you gave yourself over completely to that moment, to that connection that had been slowly building over those days in Italy. The barrier between the two of you was completely broken. There was no longer room for doubt or the past. There was only the now, the shared present in which Charles and you were no longer just two friends, but something more, something that could not be ignored.

The intensity of the kiss increased, and Charles gently laid you down on the couch, his body now closer to yours, almost merging. Everything you had been holding back, all the pain, doubts and uncertainties, vanished in the electricity of the moment. There were no words, only the sound of labored breathing and the beating of hearts in unison. Each touch was more urgent, more demanding, as if the world around you did not exist and only the palpable desire between you remained.

Desire took hold of both of you without reservation. The connection you shared went beyond physical attraction; There was a deep need to be together, to explore everything you had been holding back, to take that friendship to a whole new place. And, even though you knew things would never be the same again, you couldn't do anything but surrender to the intensity of the passion you shared in that instant.

When the kiss finally broke, you were both breathing heavily, but with a feeling of having crossed a line that could no longer be erased.

Charles, with a mischievous smile on his lips, looked at you and, with his voice heavy with desire, whispered:

“That… wasn't just a kiss, was it?.”

The sparkle in his eyes reflected the same thing you felt deep within your soul. You knew that what had happened between you two wasn’t just a passing desire. It was something that would change the dynamic between the two of you forever. But at that moment, in that villa, with the cold wind blowing outside and the fireplace burning softly inside, it didn’t matter what the future held for you.

All that mattered was the desire you shared and the fact that, for the first time in a long time, you felt completely alive, completely present in what was happening between you and Charles.

The night dragged on, but time seemed to have stopped, as if the universe itself had been suspended between the accelerated heartbeats of both of you. The air in the villa, permeated with the mixture of your perfume and the woody scent of the fire, seemed to envelop you, making you feel closer to Charles, more connected to everything you had just shared.

You lay back in the chair for a moment, staring up at the ceiling, still processing what had happened. The taste of his mouth was still on yours, and the warmth of his body was still there. Despite the unexpectedness of the situation, there wasn’t a hint of regret.

Charles, for his part, was also silent, his eyes fixed on you. He seemed so serene, so calm, as if everything was natural, as if you had both been waiting for this moment. Finally, he broke the silence.

“Do you regret it?” he asked, his tone soft but with a slight tension, as if he was searching for any sign of doubt in your eyes.

You turned to him, looking into his eyes, and felt a warmth run through your body. You could see in his expression that he already knew the answer. There was no need to talk about it, but something inside you needed to confirm that you were both on the same page.

“No,” you answered, the word firmly coming out of your lips. “I don’t regret it.”

Charles smiled, his expression relaxed, as if he had dropped an invisible burden that you had both been carrying for days. He leaned back, his body close to yours, as if he didn't want to separate for even a second.

"Me neither," he said in a deep voice, his hand sliding towards yours and intertwining it with yours, as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

Time passed without you noticing, between soft conversations, shared laughter and knowing glances. There was no need for more words, just the feeling that the moment was flowing in a way that neither of you had anticipated, but that, somehow, both of you wanted.

[amelee23]

Natural | Lee Minho

Genre: FLUFFFFFF fluff fluff, romance

Pairing: Lee know x gender neutral reader

Word count: 3k

Warnings: going on a forest vacay to escape society, SUPER sappy cheesy stuff, SOFT, walks at 6 am, kisses and hugs and everything nice, a chokehold as a joke, humour, metaphors galore, he's cat dad, reader gets called kitten once, I love lino very much, promises for the future 🤭

Summary: You and Minho go on a vacation to a forest cabin. As he wakes you up at 6 am for a walk, you can't help but get sappy and admire him alongside the landscape. Your love for him makes Minho say something that might change your perspective of the future.

You were gently shaken awake a little too early for comfort. First thing you felt was the heft of your eyelids and a subtle throbbing in your forehead; but the first thing you remembered, though, was the way you have probably fallen asleep having extremely soft conversations with your lover, about how far the both of you have come, the things you've accomplished, how proud you feel of each other and also of your friends who you grew up with.

"The sun's not even awake yet." You grumble to him, and he gives you a silly smile.

"But I am!" You can't help but snort, still pushing your nose further into the pillows. You didn't want to get out of bed, really. "C'mon, get up. Go on a walk with me."

"At this hour? Ugh, you're so random sometimes." You say, grumbling, but you start moving out of the bed.

It probably wasn't random at all. If you were to make a guess, it was probably premeditated and he had some sort of intention for taking a walk in the woods at 6 in the morning.

Well, he hoped it would be 6 in the morning but your drowsiness didn't allow for it. He had to be patient, make you coffee and a light breakfast, or else you'd turn blue like the cookie monster and eat him alive without food and caffeine in your system.

You looked out the window as the two of you were silently enjoying breakfast. It was such a beautiful sight, and if you just allowed it, the cherry chirp of the birds in the morning was enough to block the demons inside your head.

Although he had woken you up at ungodly hours, this was the vacation you both dreamt of. You rented out a cabin in the forest, and it was, for once, just you and him. The last people you've seen were in a different cabin 10 minutes down the road, and the center rental establishment that had groceries and necessities was 20 minutes away. Of course, it could prove to be a pain in the ass if you didn't prepare well, but you made sure you had everything you needed - so that you could truly disconnect from the world and let yourselves be swallowed up by nature.

You should have guessed Minho was always planning to go on this walk, considering how serious he seemed about it. While you were eating and trying to awaken your brain cells, he got dressed in a cozy shirt, loose pants and a backwards cap and he was already arranging a small backpack with water bottles and his Polaroid camera. He went as far as packing an external phone battery, too. Then he sat down next to you and waited.

You've gotten to know his array of expressions so well, you thought. He was looking at you, and to an outsider his expression would tell them close to nothing. But no, his expression looked gentle, kind, patient, impatient, exasperated and excited all at once. You could see how eager he was to move, almost as if his body was half-way already bolting out the door. Still, he was trying to maintain his calm, since there was no point to the outside views that awaited him if you weren't seeing them with him.

Your eyes met as you were admiring him, and almost like a kitten pawing for attention, he gently pulled at the sleeve of your pyjama shirt.

You were so in love with him, it wasn't even funny.

He began your little nature adventure by holding your hand and guiding you to the forest path, but as soon as you could hear the crunch of pebbles and branches under your feet, Minho was gone. He walked far ahead of you, as if he was caught in a trance. It was so weird, because in reality all you could see was his slumped back, his sluggish figure trudging through the forest, but in your mind he was running, he was twirling, he was opening his arms large to welcome the sun into an embrace. If only he would let the freedom that guides his soul be seen, without the fear of being judged or the weight of society pressing down on him.

You weren't mad he left you behind. In fact, you were having a blast just watching him: trip over a rock when he was too occupied looking at the height of the pine trees, taking pictures with his phone of every and any flower he deemed pretty or interesting, whispering "squirrel" and "hello little buddy" whenever he saw a critter.

He would turn around and look at you once in a while to reassure himself you're there and that you're safe. (And weren't stolen by some forest goblin.) Whenever he'd make a pit stop to take pictures you'd catch up with him and he'd ask you if you're okay, if you're bored or if you want him to slow down his pace. You'd tell him no, you'd tell him he's so endearing being in his natural element. And he'd smile, but it wouldn't be the kind of smile that shows a collection of pearly whites or spreads from one ear to the other. Not even his bunny teeth would show; it would be a closed-lipped, subtle smile, that you found was the most meaningful of them all when it came to Minho. It was the smile of "I feel content", it was the smile of "I feel at peace". Put in simple words, it was the smile of "I'm happy." His happiness was quiet, that was what you observed. And this smile, the truest of them all, showed in various situations: when he was taking walks in nature, when he was preparing a meal, when he was playing with his feline babies, and when he was spending time with you. You were part of his silent happiness, and you were perhaps, one of the only ones who knew what it meant.

And understanding one's personality, one's inner workings is not exactly an easy feat. Just how it took millennia for humanity to understand the laws of the universe, Minho thought it would take decades for someone to understand him. That is, if someone ever did.

But when you arrived, it was as if you were an enforcer fighting for the preservation of nature. A flower is most beautiful when it is on the field that it belongs to, rather than being plucked and put into a bouquet, forced to look beautiful for someone else. You preserved the flower where it was. You didn't uproot it. You gave him water, nourishment and talked to him in such a loving manner, that now he blooms so beautifully.

He's become much more beautiful than a human being should ever be.

Minho stopped one more time to take a picture of the path, and the shadows the trees were casting on the ground. A ray of light sneakily made its way through them, casting itself on a ladybug that was climbing up the tree bark. Minho took a picture of the ladybug, then turned towards the stray light and offered his hand to it. He played with the light between his fingers, let it roll along his palm, and then he put his hand down. He looked up, towards the sky, more golden strands of the sun dancing along his face, and he took a deep breath. When he exhaled, his chest looked lighter, and he seemed to begin to shine, a light sparkle dusting the skin of his arms, as if he was really becoming one with the sun.

He was breathtaking.

Having finally caught up with him, your arms circled his waist and you embraced him tightly, cheek smushing into his shoulder blades. It was an urge, an instinct, to do so.

He seemed a little startled, but he didn't complain. He patted your hands gently and then he took a picture of your hands woven so tightly around his torso, without catching his or your face in the picture. You knew that because it became his lockscreen after that day.

As softly as he could muster, as if to not scare you off, Minho held your hand and spun around to face you, his eyes sparkly and curious.

"Everything okay?"

"Mhm." You respond, holding him by the waist as if to show you didn't want him going anywhere. Minho loved the warmth that enveloped him. "You just looked so natural, so genuine." You smile at him, and he instantly knows by your grin you were having a poetic, sappy moment. "You always look like you belong right in nature. Had to touch you to make sure you're real." You emphasize your words by squeezing a little bit at his hips and the skin above his ribs, and he lets out a cat-like yelp that makes you giggle.

You become an entanglement of limbs when Minho decides to cup both sides of your face as you're holding him. Your face slightly mushed together, he angles your eyes to look into his, and none of you would win the competition of who's more enamoured than the other.

"Sometimes I really can't help but wonder... what are those pretty eyes of yours seeing when you look at me?" He asks in the softest way possible, and you're suddenly caught in a trance. His eyes pull you closer, his skin continues to sparkle, and a gentle warm breeze seems to circle the two of you.

"Magic." You answer, promptly, with certainty, still bewitched by the portrait of him among the trees. He lets out a puff of hair as he chuckles, but he doesn't mock you. He caressed your face with his thumb and you too feel warm.

"Magic?"

"It's like the magic of nature is coursing through you..." You begin to rant, but figure out finding the right words is quite a challenge. But Minho was patient. "It's hard to explain. It's like you're out of this world ... and yet the most human I've ever seen someone be... The most natural." Minho has heard this song and dance before. Countless of times you've called him a forest fairy, a fae, a nymph...but to him the most fascinating part of it was how you were able to tell. You could see where he belonged, where he shone the brightest. You allowed him to realize when he was happy and not be scared of that happiness; therefore, there was only one thought forming at the back of his mind. A thought, that was of course, completely random and not something he's thought about hundreds of times before while you were sound asleep.

"Marry me." He blurts out, and you blink at him, awaiting a grin, a laugh, a smirk, a signal of a joke. But there was none. He was solemn and focused as he watched the slight panic in your gaze.

"Do you really mean it?"

"Yes. I mean, not now. Someday." He answers in a split of a second. But then, he backs out as if burnt. Maybe, just maybe, he let his impulses get the better of him. "Why, do you not feel the same? It's okay, you can tell me if I'm being too pushy-" He's panicking, and panic doesn't fit his handsome features. So you grab him by the shoulders and kiss him with passion.

Kissing Minho was addicting.

"You're the first person I've ever liked kissing this much." You confess to him after you break apart. Then, you wrap your arms around him yet again and rest your head on his chest, your ear prying in to listen to the alarmed pace of his heart. You squeeze him tight, so very tight, almost like he was a teddy bear. "The first person I've liked holding so much." His heart continued to drum, for he was confused about what you were saying. Was he getting an answer to his question or was this your subtle way of switching the subject, saying that you weren't ready yet? Minho tries to calm down in order to focus on what you were saying. "The only one for which romance made sense." You begin to explain, your cheek still tightly pressed into his chest. You're calm and you speak in what is almost a whisper. "Feelings aren't supposed to be logical, I know, but... being with you is. It's logical... it just makes sense, being in love with you. I can never blame myself for it, never hold myself accountable. Because falling in love with you ...came to me as naturally as breathing; like it was always part of my DNA."

There is a nature in all of us. Cells, stardust, but mostimportantly, love. To love is human nature, fact discovered ever since medieval times. Whether you loved God like Dante, or loved humans like Boccaccio, it is destined for all of us to love.

"Because I'm nature...?"

He was human, he was nature, and towards him you felt only that which is most natural.

"Because you're nature. And I love nature." You pull back to look at him and are startled to see the ocean of his eyes, the reflection of stars in the sea. He was trying not to cry, and looking at you with the fondness of a thousand families.

"Nature loves you too, kitten." Once more he holds your face close, but this time around he leans down to kiss you on the forehead. It is a long kiss. It is a warm kiss. It is a meaningful kiss. "The whole world does. And I do even more." Words like these touched chords inside your heart you didn't even know could be touched. Minho always told you so, that you weren't just worthy of his love, but the love of every single person on this planet.

"Yeah, I bet the world loves me if they gave me you." You say, and Minho thinks you are joking. You weren't, but there was perhaps a limit of how sappy a moment can be until it gets truly too much.

"Ew." He jokes back, scrunching his nose to fake disgust. A grin appears on his face, which you mimic.

And that's all you do for a while. Like a movie panorama, you stay there to look at each other. The clouds, the trees, something must have moved with the wind since the sun starts to line both of your faces. One of your eyes starts to squint because of the light, and suddenly it hits you.

"So, are we married now? Where's my ring?"

Minho didn't expect that, and there were a number of reasons why you were sure of it; one, because he starts to blabber and two, because his ears turned red.

"Well, I uh, I uh, don't- I said someday... Not this exact moment! Uhm...Hold on." It's a good thing Minho was a boy scout when he was young, although he would have never thought his skills would come in handy in a situation like this.

You're confused about what he was planning, but you let him do his thing. He squats down next to a group of small, white flowers and plucks them out from the ground in such a manner that their stems remain very long. Then, he picks a strand of grass and takes your hand in his to measure your finger with it. After he has your measurements, he begins to wrap the flower stems around the grass strand with such craftsmanship, almost as if it hasn't been 15 years since he last made a ring out of flowers.

When he is done, he gingerly slides it up your ring finger and he's proud like a child. The ring is cute, tiny and light, and it tickles your finger softly. It's not gold or diamonds, but it is a promise, and it is so much more natural than forged metals and stolen minerals. So much more Minho.

"There you go." He beams proudly. Truth be told, he is flabbergasted he managed to make the ring actually hold without falling apart. "Now we share all of our assets and you are legally obligated to feed my cats when I'm not at home and clean out their litters." He speaks matter of factly, and you slap him on the chest.

"You only want me so I can do your chores! Tsk, I think our marriage is already falling apart." You joke, pretending to turn around and pout. Minho finds you hilarious, especially as he envelops you from the back and holds you in a pretend chokehold.

"The only thing falling apart is gonna be my wallet when I buy you that ring." You don't know if it's the light of the sun or you're blushing, but your face grows hot. Getting married was, of course, the natural order of progressing things in a relationship. But a part of you has always wondered if you are someone to deem worthy of marriage; if that's something that would ever happen to you. Now that such reality was approaching, it did really feel like magic.

Minho released you from the tight hold and decided to walk with your hand in his instead. He was looking at your finger, at the hand-made flower ring, and his quiet, peaceful smile came back to his face.

"I promise I'll get you a real ring soon. You'll have it on your finger by the time we come here again." He speaks softly, in a murmur, but you hear him. You stay quiet, but he sees you nod. You acknowledge his promise, and a completely harmless anxiety mixes in with the excitement that comes with thinking of that day.

"Does that mean we're not gonna have a vacation here for the next 5 years?" Minho rolls his eyes at your question, and the sappiness finally seems to come to an end; you're back to your lighthearted vacation.

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

"Or perhaps I'll make you live in the wild with me for the next five years. If we never leave we can't come back." He wiggles his eyebrows at you, gives you his trademark serial killer look, and there was never a moment when you've loved him more. Never a moment when you've loved him more naturally.

.

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[takusan-no-ai]

My star darling, made of metal

PAIRING: Grace/Koleda/Anton/Ben x Female Reader (Familia) (Fluff)

SUMMARY: Grace’s new daughter android, (Y/N), is truly a piece of work.

Grace finally made her newest daughter, you, her pride and joy. You weren’t like your older siblings, big machines that cause the very ground to shake. You were an android. A cute, small girl, that could blend into society better than your siblings.

Grace just loves to spoil you rotten, covering up any issues you cause. Want a new upgrade? Just give her a few days and you’ll be even better than before. As much as she loves you though, Grace won’t hesitate to scold you if even she feels you’ve gone too far.

Koleda almost finished chewing out Grace for making another living machine when you suddenly exploded a boulder; it had been blocking the path for Belobog to continue construction, and you removed it in a matter of seconds. Suddenly, you were promoted to being a member of Belobog Heavy Industries Destruction Team.

Thanks to having bombs constantly ticking inside you, you’ve developed a hyperactive personality; always running around in hollows alone and blowing up stuff as you go. Those bombs also work as great self defense tools.

If an ethereal, or hollow raider, tried to destruct the team or even kidnap you, its bombs away! Kabooms heard from far off into the distance. And everyone at Belobog already knows what had happened.

Between the loud noises, broken machinery, high costs, and stressed workers…Koleda needs a year long vacation. She’ll nag at Grace for days on end to reprogram you; make you more docile, follow the rules, more self conscious, anything! Koleda has had a vein pulsating on her forehead and just waiting to burst. On top of that, you’re so patronizing; treating her like a fellow kid. She just knows you’re doing it on purpose.

Your explosions never fail to scare Anton just a toe nail out of an early grave. He’s had more chest pains since your arrival. The worst one being when you took his bro to go on an adventure and he came back almost half broken. Since then Anton has put locks on all important equipment and has his eyes on you like a hawk!

The costs…the bills…the damages…Grace really outdid herself this time. For once, Ben couldn’t figure out how to break even this month thanks to your “demolition abilities”. Which, in reality, was just you throwing grenades, bombs, even firecrackers, at rundown buildings and hoping for the best. It’s gotten so bad that Ben’s starting to gain bald spots where his once fluffy fur had been.

- Fin

[redflagshipwriter]

Nest Swap chapter 5 progress

In which Tim flirts with the sad thoughts but is not committed to them.

masterpost

Probably the best thing to do was to make sure everyone was happy with him. If he did everything that everybody wanted, there would be no issues. 

So, Tim finished his experiment for Miss Fox and sent her his report. The groceries arrived while he was finishing up. After he put it away, he made a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and ate it one-handed while he looked up the address that Jason had told him about. 

“That's pretty far away,” Tim mused. Some grape jelly dropped onto the keyboard. He swiped it up with his sleeve. He was a little less careful about the apartment now that he knew it was Big Tim’s place and not someone important or mean. 

Huh.

Tim paused mid contemplation. Speaking of important people, where was Mom? (And also Dad.) He turned his head around looking for the most recent post card. He usually kept that on the fridge.

Apparently, Big Tim had lost the habit. The dig post card tacked to the fridge was years old. Tim took it down and read it anyway, smiling at Mom’s handwriting. It was neat and precise, just like her. 

He felt better. He'd figure it out later. Tim put a pin on the thought and went back to focusing on his- on Jason's request. He squirmed in his chair while he thought it through.

The address was in a residential neighborhood, the kind with separate houses and not apartment complexes. The suspect himself lived in a duplex. The other half of the duplex was registered to a retiree who Tim didn't find any digital trail of, other than that her Social security checks were being cashed and her bills were paid on time. Oh, neat, she had been part of Gotham’s historical recreation society. She seemed kinda cool.

She had crazy huge electric bills, though. Tim frowned at that. He wasn't absolutely sure. But he thought that most people didn't have electric bills in excess of $600 monthly. How was she even affording that off of her Social security income? 

“Maybe the neighbor killed her and is using her apartment for nefarious purposes,” Tim reasoned aloud. “He's chasing her check and concealing the death. Maybe he uses her apartment to store his industrial sausage making machines.” 

It was a bit of a reach but it seemed a little more likely than his follow-up idea: her hobby was running every appliance in her house at the same time for all the hours that she was awake.

Focus, Tim! How was he going to surveil this place?

It wasn’t like there were any nice big buildings with dramatic awnings and gargoyles to creep around. It was suburbia. 

Tim spun around on his chair miserably, hands on his head to help him think.

Were there any abandoned homes in the area that he could use as a viewpoint? He checked on that. No. No, there weren’t. Dangit. He looked up everyone who lived in the neighborhood, wondering if there might be like, a family on vacation or someone whose second floor was unoccupied. He didn’t see anything useful like that. There were just a bunch of families with little kids.

He spun faster. Maybe the centrifugal force would somehow jar his brain awake.

“There’s nothing for it,” Tim decided ruefully. “I have to go undercover as a child.”

He put on the light up sneakers that he had ordered, washed his face, and made sure he had enough money for the bus. Then he set off on an adventure with a little notepad in his pocket. When he got to the apartment lobby he realized that he probably should have brought Big Tim’s phone, but oh well. It was too far now.

He took three buses and walked twenty minutes. He arrived in the right neighborhood in the early evening, around 5 pm. He looked for rogue groups of playing kids to join in. He’d do whatever game they were playing, then subtly interrogate them.

Unfortunately, it seemed like everyone was inside eating dinner. Tim frowned at one window. He could see a table being set.

Weird.

Alright, new plan. The old lady neighbor was probably dead, so he could just sneak into her half of the duplex, find a place to hide, and observe whatever sick and twisted stuff Jason’s bad guy did. Then he could tell Jason about it later, and he would like Tim.

He tried the backdoor. It was locked. Tim skulked around the house and tried windows until he found one that was open. He had to scramble a bit to climb up the siding to get into the house but he managed it. He hit the floor with a tumble.

“I have a mace!” said a female voice. “I am prepared to use it upon you!”

Tim rolled over to see the retiree. “Oh,” he said. “Hello.” He was a little disappointed that he was wrong about her being dead, though of course it’s always nice when someone isn’t murdered.

Mrs. Henderson yanked open a drawer and withdrew her mace. She pointed it at him steadily over her walker.

“Whoa,” said Tim. “That’s really cool. That’s Gothic, right?”

She looked at her mace. “...I believe so,” she said. “Get out of my home!”

“Yeah, I’m sorry,” Tim said, deliberately not agreeing. He sat up and crossed his legs. “I didn’t realize that you lived here.”

Mrs. Henderson slowly lowered her Gothic mace, which was probably a replica of one from Western Europe and weighed about 2 kilograms. “...Did you mean to go next door?” she said, sounding more confused and less hostile. 

“Yeah, I got mixed up,” Tim lied like a champion. “I accidentally locked myself out and no one is home.”

Although that really wouldn’t be true for much longer. Hm. Maybe Tim should have waited until tomorrow to come by.

[cookie-nom-nom]

I think it would be really great if the first to realize they’re a mind reader on Athos also realized she was trans after accidentally reading Ethan’s mind and going. Wh. That’s a woman?? And then when Terrence tried to do a little chill mentoring and be like hey :) I know your secret :)) she absolutely PANICKED that she’d get revealed as a secret she devil trying to corrupt the lives of innocent brothers or whatever Athos propaganda was like on that front. And obviously bolted.

It’s part way Terrence and Ethan sighing and realizing Adventure tm found them anyway. Like I figure they intended to be very hands off on the grand experiment, a little nudging at most, but also the kid was obviously FREAKED out and having things go very badly very publicly for the first new mind reader could be a bad misstep for the whole project. So they rangled up their gaggle of sons (who were taking an awful lot after Elli for maximum chaos) and declared a manhunt family vacation. It’s a cute look into their domestic life, but also Terrence was obviously feeling really bad about spooking her bc it felt like a ghost of some of his own trauma what with the being hunted down bit.

Meanwhile mind reader was desperately trying to figure out what triggered the sudden ability and how to replicate, if all women were telepaths, and if maybe she could be exorcised??? Could a priest help???? Dealing with a metric ton of internalized transmisogyny and the terrifying idea that maybe people can sense it?? Since that Terrence fellow knew before she did???? And is now hunting her down?!??!????

In proper Bujold fashion she’d probably fall in love with one of their sons, who in his rebellion and desperation to be seen as an adult decided to take the initiative and find what his dads were looking for before they could. He makes her feel like maybe it’s okay to break the mold, she makes him feel seen (and do some introspection on why he’s really acting out). Plus being heterosexual is basically peak rebellion on Athos, though that’s more of a lucky side effect.

It culminated in Terrence and Ethan finally cornering the pair, who are luckily more on the ‘nana can’t catch me’ and ‘oh crap im grounded’ side of things than the previous ‘I’m going to be burned at the stake’ level of catastrophizing. At which point Terrence delivered a long and ambiguous speech of solidarity, lots of ‘I know what it’s like because im the same’ and ‘you’re not a monster or scourge of society’ and enough confusing references to biology and genetics that she cried “thank god the father there’s another woman on this planet!” and started asking a million questions in the trans direction.

only for a very confused Terrence to go “what? No. I’m a telepath like you.”

“oh that….I kinda forgot about that part.”

[radiolore]

MY VENTURE HEADCANONS!!! :3

copy pasted from my tiktok plus some :3

AAAAA I LOVE THEM SO MUCJ U DONT UDNERTSND

~☆~

• wants to take care of plants but cant due to their job

• forgets to drink water a lot

• one time passed out due to dehydration, the wayfinder society found them in a cave and they had to be in the emergency room for a day

• since then, they got an app on their phone that buzzes when they should drink water and itll water a virtual plant :3

• unironically loves classical music

• likes to scour the internet in their spare time to listen to different music genres from different eras

• wishes they could learn intruments, especially ancient ones that people dont typically play anymore but cant cause of the time their job takes, but they still admire people who do play those intruments still!!

• their parents are missing and are pressumed dead and they hope that by being an archeologist they can find them one day

• used to cry as a kid when people would squish ants :(

• they think they dont have time for a partner, so theyre not really looking for one, but wouldnt be opposed to having one if they met the right person

• if they did meet someone they were interested in, would be super estatic and friendly, talking to them a lot, looking for them when they enter a room, etc

• would prefer an in-person relationship, they would be willing to try long distance but with how much they travel for their job, they will end up not being happy because they feel like they have to choose between their partner and passion :((

• they would end up romantacising the person theyre interested in and get disappointed when they dont live up to their fantasies

• really good at coming up with art n crafts ideas, bad at executing them

• autism

• used to be super interested in internet history as a kid, like random events that went down on the internet n stuff, but not so much anymore since theyre an archeologist now

• fav ice cream is rocky road (who would've guessed)

• messy eater

• love language is gift giving and quality time

• speaking of gift giving, if they liked someone they would def research crystal meanings and give them specific crystals based on their meaning

• need some extra luck? they're giving u aventurine, got into trouble recently and need protection? boom amethyst, they like you but they're too scared to say so? they're giving you rose quartz daily and hope you get the hint

• LOVES those shark tooth necklaces and wears one under their sweater (mostly just cuz they don't want it to get caught on something while working and have it fall off)

• any vacations they get from work, they always make sure to visit their grandma and tell her all about their adventures and findings !!

• thinks people with crooked teeth are the absolute cutest (totally not a self insert for me cuz I got crooked teeth ahahahaa nope)

• when they paint their nails they always just do it messily and just let the excess nail polish on their fingers to fall off ☠️☠️ (same)

• can def carry a conversation if ur shy or just don't talk a lot

• has a social media platform where they post cool things they find, after becoming associated with Overwatch, it gains traction

• after their profile gains attention, it actually becomes an in-universe meme/rumor that they chipped their tooth eating a rock

• Sloane thought it was funny, but they eventually come out and make a post saying they chipped their tooth after a rock came flying at their face while drilling 😞

• asexual cuz I said so

• u know that one dinosaur death pose fossil? they have something like that tattooed on their body

• also a compass tattoo probs

• is the BEST hugger

• when they're excited to see you, they'll hug u n pick u up n spin u around n everything

• is the type to see smth random and go "so-and-so would like this" and just get it without seconds thoughts

• used to draw in high school, but kinda stopped after joining the wayfinders

• is incredibly embarrassed by said drawings and would only show you if you either also showed something equally embarrassing or if yall are extremely close....

• had a lego phase

• Sloan and Junkrat send each other random cryptic texts that wouldn't make sense to anyone else looking at them, but it makes sense to them (it'd be stuff like random images or words or gibberish that'd make u go "what ☠️") (and it'd be at such random intervals like a random text from junkrat at 2am and Sloan doesn't send anything back until 3 days later at noon like???)

• I'm sorry but they're a bad texted lmfao they forget to check their phone all the time

• but they're def not a dry texter tho, they'd use faces like :D D: :p :) :3 >u< ): and type in all caps when they're excited with typos

~☆~

I COULD WRITE MORE BUT IF I CONTINYE ILL LITERSLLT BE HERE FOR HOURS SO I HAVE TO STOP

ANYWAYZ THAMK U FOR LISTENINGN TO ME RAMBLE ABOUT VENTURE BECUZ I LOVE THEM SO MUCJ IM SO OBSESSED WITH THEM N IM LIKE AAA AAAAANAAA AAA

anyways

yea

:3 eeeee

[autumngracy]

October Movies Watchlist

Cozy Autumn Vibes

When Harry Met Sally (1989)

You've Got Mail (1998)

Mona Lisa Smile (2003)

Good Will Hunting (1997)

Clue (1985)

The Good Witch (1999)

Autumn in New York (2000)

Legends of the Fall (1994)

Dead Poets Society (1989)

October Sky (1999)

Big Fish (2003)

The Lake House (2006)

Rip in Time (2022)

Little Women (2019)

Knives Out (2019)

Anne of Green Gables (1985)

Cider House Rules (1999)

Remember the Titans (2000)

Nostalgic & Kid-Friendly:

The Halloween Tree (1993)

Matilda (1996)

The Iron Giant (1999)

Halloweentown (1998)

Halloweentown II: Kalabar's Revenge (2001)

Halloweentown High (2004)

Return to Halloweentown (2006)

James and the Giant Peach (1996)

The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)

Monsters, Inc. (2001)

Monsters University (2013)

Pooh's Heffalump Halloween Movie (2005)

Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)

Pagemaster (1994)

Into the Woods (2014)

Howl's Moving Castle (2004)

Don't Look Under the Bed (1999)

Spirited Away (2001)

Mary and the Witch's Flower (2017)

The Corpse Bride (2005)

A Monster in Paris (2011)

The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1949)

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (2022)

Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio (2022)

Coraline (2009)

Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971)

The Karate Kid (1984)

The Last Unicorn (1982)

Jumanji (1995)

Earnest Scared Stupid (1991)

Hotel Transylvania (2012)

Hotel Transylvania 2 (2015)

Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation (2018)

Hotel Transylvania: Transformania (2022)

Edward Scissorhands (1990)

Twitches (2005)

Twitches Two (2007)

Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005)

Little Monsters (1989)

The Witches (1990 or 2020 remake)

Labyrinth (1986)

The Gate (1987)

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (2019)

Mom's got a Date with a Vampire (2000)

The House with a Clock in Its Walls (2018)

The Little Vampire (2000)

Haunted Mansion (2003)

Muppets Haunted Mansion (2021)

The Dark Crystal (1982)

Beetlejuice (1988)

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (2024)

Five Nights at Freddy's (2023)

It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown (1966)

Hocus Pocus (1993)

The Addams Family (1991)

The Addams Family Values (1993)

The Addams Family (2019)

The Addams Family 2 (2021)

ET (1982)

Return to Oz (1985)

Paranorman (2012)

Monster House (2006)

Toy Story of Terror! (2013)

The Scream Team (2002)

Double, Double Toil and Trouble (1993)

The Secret of NIMH (1982)

Ghostbusters (1984)

Ghostbusters II (1989)

Ghostbusters (2016)

Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021)

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (2024)

Wolfwalkers (2020)

The Secret of Kells (2009)

Song of the Sea (2014)

Goosebumps (2023)

Goosebumps 2 (2018)

The Goonies (1985)

Casper (1995)

Disney's Tower of Terror (1997)

Alvin and the Chipmunks Meet the Wolfman (2000)

Mad Monster Party (1967)

Wendell & Wild (2022)

Under Wraps (1997)

Under Wraps (2021)

Phantom of the Megaplex (2000)

Scooby Doo and the Ghoul School (1988)

Scooby Doo and the Reluctant Werewolf (1988)

Scooby Doo on Zombie Island (1998)

Scooby Doo and the Witch's Ghost (1999)

Scooby Doo and the Alien Invaders (2000)

Zombies

Zombieland (2009)

Zombieland: Double Tap (2019)

Autumn (2014)

The Wailing (2016)

The Night Eats the World (2018)

The Dead Don’t Die (2019)

Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse (2015)

City of the Living Dead (1980)

The Beyond (1981)

The House by the Cemetery (1981)

Rec (2007)

Rec 2 (2009)

Quarantine (2008)

Quarantine 2: The Terminal (2011)

28 Days Later (2002)

28 Weeks Later (2007)

Train to Busan (2016)

Seoul Station (2016)

Cemetery Man (1994)

World War Z (2013)

Night of the Living Dead (1968)

Return of the Living Dead (1985)

Dawn of the Dead (2004)

Shawn of the Dead (2004)

Zombi (1978)

Zombi 2 (1979)

Zombi 3 (1988)

The Plague of the Zombies (1966)

Resident Evil (2002)

Resident Evil: Apocalypse (2004)

Resident Evil: Extinction (2007)

Resident Evil: Afterlife (2010)

Resident Evil: Retribution (2012)

Resident Evil: The Final Chapter (2017)

Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City (2021)

Vampires & Werewolves

Dracula (1931)

Dracula's Daughter (1936)

Horror of Dracula (1958)

The Brides of Dracula (1960)

Dracula: Prince of Darkness (1966)

The Empire of Dracula (1967)

Dracula Has Risen from the Grave (1968)

Taste the Blood of Dracula (1970)

Count Dracula (1970)

Dracula A.D. 1972 (1972)

The Satanic Rites of Dracula (1973)

Scars of Dracula (1970)

Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992)

Van Helsing (2004)

Last Voyage of The Demeter (2023)

Renfield (2023)

Vampyr (1932)

Mark of the Vampire (1935)

Only Lovers Left Alive (2013)

The Vourdalak (2023)

A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014)

What We Do in the Shadows (2014)

Interview With the Vampire (1994)

Queen of the Damned (2002)

Dark Shadows (2012)

Abigail (2024)

Blade (1998)

Blade II (2002)

Blade: Trinity (2004)

Vampire in Brooklyn (1995)

Fright Night (1985 or the 2011 remake)

The Last Man on Earth (1964)

I am Legend (2007)

Daybreakers (2009)

The Lost Boys (1987)

Salem's Lot (1979)

30 Days of Night (2007)

Underworld (2003)

Underworld: Evolution (2006)

Underworld: Rise of the Lycans (2009)

Underworld: Awakening (2012)

Underworld: Blood Wars (2016)

The Howling (1981)

Ginger Snaps (2000)

Werewolf of London (1935)

An American Werewolf in London (1981)

Silver Bullet (1985)

The Company of Wolves (1984)

Howl (2015)

Moon of the Wolf (1972)

Dog Soldiers (2002)

The Wolfman (1941)

The Curse of the Werewolf (1961)

The Wolfman (2010)

Slashers

Psycho (1960)

Candyman (1992 or 2021 remake)

Pearl (2022)

X (2022)

Child's Play (1988)

Child's Play 2 (1990)

Child's Play 3 (1991)

Bride of Chucky (1998)

Seed of Chucky (2004)

Curse of Chucky (2013)

Cult of Chucky (2017)

Scream (1996)

Scream (2022)

Happy Death Day (2017)

Happy Death Day 2U (2019)

Friday the 13th (1980)

Friday the 13th Part II (1981)

Friday the 13th Part III (1982)

Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (1984)

Friday the 13th: A New Beginning (1985)

Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives (1986)

Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood (1988)

Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan (1989)

Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday (1993)

Jason X (2002)

Freddy vs. Jason (2003)

Friday the 13th (2009)

Children of the Corn (1987)

Halloween (1978)

Halloween II (1981)

Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1986)

Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988)

Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers (1989)

Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers (1995)

Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998)

Halloween Resurrection (2002)

Halloween (2007)

Halloween II (2009)

Halloween (2018)

Halloween Kills (2021)

Halloween Ends (2022)

Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)

A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge (1985)

A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987)

A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (1988)

A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child (1989)

Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare (1991)

Wes Craven's New Nightmare (1994)

A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010)

Black Pumpkin (2020)

Hauntedween (1991)

Dark Harvest (2023)

Monsters

The Invisible Man (1933)

The Mummy (1932)

The Mummy (1959)

The Mummy (1999)

Frankenstein (1931)

Bride of Frankenstein (1935)

Son of Frankenstein (1939)

The Curse of Frankenstein (1957)

Creature From the Black Lagoon (1954)

The Monster Club (1981)

The Monster Squad (1987)

Hellboy (2004)

Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008)

Hellboy (2019)

The Gorgon (1964)

Gremlins (1984)

Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990)

Little Shop of Horrors (1986)

Pumpkinhead (1988)

Pumpkinhead II: Blood Wings (1994)

Pumpkinhead: Ashes to Ashes (2006)

Pumpkinhead: Blood Feud (2007)

Cloverfield (2008)

Jurassic Park (1993)

Jeepers Creepers (2001)

Jeepers Creepers 2 (2003)

Jeepers Creepers 3 (2017)

Jeepers Creepers: Reborn (2022)

Don't Be Afraid of the Dark (1973 or 2010 remake)

Tremors (1990)

Tremors 2: Aftershocks (1996)

Tremors 3: Back to Perfection (2001)

The Mist (2007)

The Descent (2005)

The Descent Part 2 (2009)

Bird Box (2018)

Aliens

The War of the Worlds (1953)

War of the Worlds (2005)

Annihilation (2018)

Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)

Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)

Slither (2006)

Forbidden Planet (1956)

Signs (2002)

Mars Attacks (1996)

Evolution (2001)

Color Out of Space (2019)

Cowboys & Aliens (2011)

Paul (2011)

A Quiet Place (2018)

A Quiet Place: Part 2 (2020)

The Faculty (1998)

Prey (2022)

Predator (1987)

Predator 2 (1990)

Alien vs. Predator (2004)

Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem (2007)

The Predator (2018)

Predators (2010)

Alien (1979)

Aliens (1986)

Alien 3 (1992)

Alien: Resurrection (1997)

Prometheus (2012)

Alien: Covenant (2017)

Alien: Romulus (2024)

Nope (2022)

Apollo 18 (2011)

Dreamcatcher (2003)

The Thing From Another World (1951)

The Thing (1982 or 2011 remake)

Evil & Hauntings

Annabelle (2014)

Annabelle: Creation (2017)

Annabelle Comes Home (2019)

Sleepy Hollow (1999)

The Curse of La Llorona (2019)

Ghost (1990)

Ghostwatch (1992)

The Uninvited (1944)

Hellraiser (1987)

Spawn (1997)

WNUF Halloween Special (2013)

The Lady in White (1988)

The Deep House (2021)

Ready or Not (2019)

The Woman in Black (2012)

The Woman in Black: Angel of Death (2014)

The Haunting (1963)

Ouija (2014)

Ouija: Origin of Evil (2016)

The Others (2001)

La Llarona (1960)

Gothika (2003)

Poltergeist (1982)

Poltergeist II: The Other Side (1986)

Poltergeist (2015)

The Shining (1980)

Doctor Sleep (2019)

The Brothers Grimm (2005)

The Conjuring (2013)

The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It (2021)

The Conjuring 2 (2016)

The Exorcist (1973)

Constantine (2005)

The Frighteners (1996)

1408 (2007)

Mama (2013)

Crimson Peak (2015)

The Grudge (2004 or the 2020 remake—OR, Ju-on, the og Japanese 2002 version)

The Sixth Sense (1999)

The Devil's Backbone (2001)

The Evil Dead (1981)

The Evil Dead 2 (1997)

Army of Darkness (1992)

The Evil Dead (2013)

The Evil Dead Rise (2023)

Skinamarink (2022)

Kill Baby Kill (1966)

Burnt Offerings (1973)

The Tomb of Ligeia (1964)

As Above, So Below (2014)

A Haunting in Connecticut (2009)

Shutter (2008)

The Mist (2008)

Pulse (2001)

The Eye (2008)

Ringu (1998)

The Ring (2002)

The Ring Two (2005)

Sinister (2012)

Insidious (2010)

Insidious: Chapter 2 (2013)

Insidious: The Last Key (2018)

Insidious: The Red Door (2023)

Grave Encounters (2011)

Grave Encounters 2 (2012)

Paranormal Activity (2007)

Paranormal Activity 2 (2010)

Paranormal Activity 3 (2011)

Paranormal Activity 4 (2012)

Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension (2015)

Paranormal Activity: Next of Kin (2021)

Aterrados (In English: Terrified) (2018)

The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947)

High Spirits (1988)

Veronica (2017)

The Omen (1976)

The Omen 2 (1978)

The Omen (2006)

The First Omen (2024)

Thirteen Ghosts (2001)

The Babadook (2014)

Phantasm (1979)

Phantasm II (1988)

Phantasm III: Lord of the Dead (1994)

Phantasm IV: Oblivion (1998)

Phantasm V: RaVager (2016)

Devil Dog (1978)

Jennifer's Body (2009)

Lights Out (2016)

Kwaidon (1964)

Ghost Ship (2002)

House on Haunted Hill (1959)

The Devil Rides Out (1968)

Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight (1995)

Witches & Magic

Pan's Labyrinth (2006)

The Witches of Eastwick (1987)

Practical Magic (1998)

The Witch (2015)

The Blair Witch Project (1999)

Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 (2000)

Blair Witch (2016)

The Wicker Man (1973)

The Wicker Man (2006)

The City of the Dead (1960)

Bell Book and Candle (1958)

The Witches (1990 or 2020 remake)

Black Sunday (1960)

El Espejo de la Bruja (In English: The Witch's Mirror) (1960)

I Married a Witch (1942)

The Craft (1996)

Apostle (2018)

The Love Witch (2016)

Burn Witch Burn (1962)

Horror

Creepshow (1982)

Creepshow 2 (1987)

November (2017)

The Pit and the Pendulum (1961)

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007)

Trick r Treat (2007)

Bad Candy (2020)

The Barn (2016)

The Barn: Part II (2022)

Tales of Halloween (2015)

Willy's Wonderland (2021)

Eyes Without a Face (1960)

Frankenstein Created Woman (1967)

Valerie and Her Week of Wonders (1970)

The Midnight Hour (1985)

The Curse of Bridge Hollow (2022)

The Birds (1963)

Cape Fear (1960)

Horns (2013)

M3GAN (2022)

The Phantom of the Opera (1925)

The Phantom of the Opera (1943)

The Phantom of the Opera (1962)

The Phantom of the Opera (2004)

Viy (1967)

Haunt (2019)

Diabolique (1955)

The X-Files: I Want to Believe (2008)

Rosemary's Baby (1968)

The Lodge (2019)

The Mask of the Red Death (1964)

The Premature Burial (1962)

Dark Night of the Scarecrow (1981)

Dark Night of the Scarecrow 2 (2022)

Buried Alive (1990)

Midsommar (2018)

Island of Lost Souls (1932)

Honeymoon (2014)

Session 9 (2001)

The Blood of Satan's Claw (1971)

Black Death (2010)

Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983)

Pet Sematary (1989 or the 2019 remake)

It (1990)

It: Chapter One (2017)

It: Chapter Two (2019)

Hereditary (2018)

Tales from the Darkside: The Movie (1990)

Re-Animator (1985)

Bride of Re-Animator (1990)

Beyond Re-Animator (2003)

Lisa Frankenstein (2024)

V/H/S (2012)

V/H/S/2 (2013)

V/H/S: Viral (2014)

V/H/S/94 (2021)

V/H/S/99 (2022)

V/H/S/85 (2023)

V/H/S/Beyond (2024)

Eyes of Fire (1983)

The Red House (1947)

Deadly Blessing (1981)

Dark Water (2002 or 2005 remake)

The Substance (2024)

Thinner (1996)

Cobweb (2023)

The Happening (2008)

Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933)

House of Wax (1953)

House of Wax (2005)

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931)

The Devil-Doll (1936)

The Man They Could Not Hang (1939)

Black Sabbath (1963)

Cabin in the Woods (2011)

The Ruins (2008)

Summer of Fear (1978)

Fear Street: Part One, Two & Three (2021)

The Ritual (2017)

Dr. Terror's House of Horrors (1965)

The Black Cat (1934)

Teeth (2007)

Late Night with the Devil (2023)

I Saw the TV Glow (2024)

Freaks (1932)

The Old Dark House (1932)

Mr. Sardonicus (1961)

I Bury the Living (1958)

Plague Dogs (1982)

Watership Down (1978)

Ringing Bell (In Japanese: Chirin No Suzu) (1978)

Felidae (1994)

Psychological

Lake Mungo (2008)

Shutter Island (2010)

The Dead Zone (1983)

Donnie Darko (2001)

Us (2019)The Village (2004)

Carnival of Souls (1962)

Carnival of Souls (1998)

Deus Ex Machina (2014)

The Lazarus Effect (2015)

It Follows (2014)

Get Out (2017)

Comedy/Satire

Arsenic and Old Lace (1944)

Young Frankenstein (1974)

Death Becomes Her (1992)

Hubie Halloween (2020)

Scary Movie (2000)

Scary Movie 2 (2001)

Scary Movie 3 (2003)

Scary Movie 4 (2006)

Scary Movie 5 (2013)

[lunarw0rks]

Old Bones | Chapter Eight

Summary: After fleeing a toxic relationship, you fear for your safety and hire a bodyguard. He's masked, impassible, and damn good at what he does.

Warning(s): toxic/abusive relationship, PTSD themes, blood and gore, violence, death, gun mention, hurt/comfort, strong language

Word Count: 6k

A/N: long chapter for u guys<3 (not proofread in its entirety)

꒦꒷ MAIN MASTERLIST ꒷꒦ GHOST MASTERLIST // have a request? ♡¸.•*' ⋆ ⚘ 🕊 ˚✧ ₊˚ʚ prev. chapter | next chapter | ao3 ver. | playlist ꒦꒷ O.B MASTERLIST

Quatervois

You waited at the counter until the hum of his truck was far into the distance, then removed yourself from the stool, dumping out the untouched cup of tea.

It was time to get everything you prepared together.

The truth was, when you stormed up to your room, you hadn’t slept a wink. First, you laid out the only warm outfit you had left; that thick pair of jeans, and one of your sweatshirts. The coat Simon lent you was downstairs, so you would wait until morning for that.

It felt like an eternity—waiting for the brooding bodyguard to finally hit the hay. He spent longer reflecting on the argument than he actually did work, which you’d see when you occasionally poked your head around the landing to spy on him.

When his bedroom door finally closed, you crept down the stairs and found yourself seated in front of his laptop, still up and running, displaying a search image of the location Cal had messaged.

It was one of the old offices used by his employers—a large, no longer operational building. Neighboring it was the progression of building a strip mall; vacated or bulldozed structures.

With its vast dimensions and emptiness, the location became an ideal spot to get cornered.

You clicked on the navigation icon and purchased a ticket departing from the nearest train station. A few streets over from the meet point, that’s where it would drop you off.

The walk was manageable enough, and you already made up your mind the second your phone buzzed that day.

You squatted below the sink, reaching in the under cabinet for the pack you packed during the night. If Simon spotted you in those warm clothes, his suspicions would get the better of him—so, it was better to change now, in the kitchen, so you could be out the door behind him as soon as possible.

After you slipped them on, you folded the ones you were previously wearing and left them on the countertop.

The clock loudly ticking displayed the time you were running out of—6:48. If you were going to make it to the train station by eight, you needed to get moving.

When you reached the front door, a smaller bag slung over your shoulder, you cased the place again. One, to make sure you hadn’t left anything behind; two, in case this adventure went horribly wrong.

Though plagued by solitude and adverse weather, your time here proved to be warmer than any day spent with Cal, and that counted for something.

With swiftness, you reached for the coat rack and put on that thick coat. If you had any chance of making the walk, you were going to need it. You palmed the pistol residing inside the bag, then the ticket receipt you printed off folded in your pocket.

Everything was in order, in spite of this being a fresh, completely reckless plan.

Your crunching steps continued seamlessly, off the porch and onto the snow-hidden dirt path. Your own sense of direction was the sunrise, guiding you along the well-trodden path. The tree branches above form a natural archway, like a portal leading from solitude to society. 

The cabin behind them grew smaller and smaller, eventually disappearing from view, swallowed by the dense trees.

The chilly embrace of winter wasn’t much of an embrace at all. It stung at all your uncovered skin as if pricking you with a thousand tiny needles. Each breath expelled into a small cloud in front of you, increasing when there was a steep incline.

With each step, the snow deepened, but you pushed forward, following the trail that would eventually take you to the nearest town. Lights from the distant buildings began to pierce through the forest's darkness, beckoning like beacons of civilization.

That is if you could call it a town—it was a truck stop and a diner off an exit. You thought ahead several hours before, scheduling a taxi to take you to the train station. It was the only logical way to make it there ahead of Simon.

Alas, after a few minutes of waiting, the driver pulled into the icy lot of the rest stop. Neither of you made an attempt for conversation. He was most likely disgruntled making the trip out here, and you were on the way to face your past.

You let out a loud sigh finally resting your fatigued legs in the backseat, slipping him the last of your pocket cash.

The journey from the cabin had been more than just a walk; it was a journey from seclusion to your next chapter, a possibility of putting an end to this hell. If not, maybe it was that twisted fate catching up to you, just like you thought it would.

—

The rhythmic clattering of the train wheels was the only overbearing noise as you were peering out at the passing landscape. The scenery was a blur, much like your thoughts. Too chaotic for the memories to resurface, and too quick to grasp what you were walking into.

That morning, there was no speech in the mirror. You’d only thought of getting there, not what you would do when this train came to a stop.

Clammy hands fidgeted with the hem of their jacket, then placed a reassuring hand on the gun in your bag, as if to be sure of its presence all over again.

When it went through a tunnel, the low hum of conversation from fellow passengers only served as a reminder of the forthcoming confrontation that you couldn't avoid any longer. There would be no time to hesitate, or force yourself into silence—it was all going out in the open.

As the train approached its destination, you felt like your heartbeat synchronized with the slowing rhythm of the wheels. The minutes felt like eternity, each tick of the clock amplifying their unease. This was utterly insane, but you couldn’t back out now.

Finally, the train came to a halt, and the station name flashed on the windowpane. You were the first passenger to scramble with your luggage and hurry onto the platform.

Though trains were faster than cars, you never made the mistake of underestimating Simon’s determination.

You strolled through the narrow aisle, faces of other passengers passing by in a blur. You were on autopilot until you reached the neighboring streets, then you were agonizingly lucid.

The winter chill gripped the city streets, leaving a thin layer of frost on the pavement. You pulled their coat tighter around your frame, the cold seeping through the fabric and sending shivers down your spine.

The city seemed to hibernate under the winter's grasp. The streets, probably once bustling with activity, now wore a quiet and somber demeanor. The bare trees stood like sentinels, their branches reaching towards the gray sky, and the occasional snowflake drifted gently from above, adding to the melancholic picture.

As the destination drew nearer, your steps became slower, hesitant. The heart in your chest pounded loudly, and each breath felt shallow. It was as if the city itself sensed your trepidation.

Once you had made it through the suburbs, you were encroaching on the meeting spot. You could spot the height of the building from down the dead street. Not a construction worker, or even a jogger in sight.

In comparison with the demolition, it looked nearly abandoned.

Then, you laid eyes on the office building. Its windows were fogged up from the warmth inside, and its stature was backlit from the risen sun.

One car in the lot, and it wasn’t Simon’s truck. It was a black SUV, probably the very one Cal came here in—rented, just for this meeting.

You could’ve been walking into anything—dead before the door closed, but that was an outcome you were already well prepared for. It wouldn’t be the first time you stared death in the face, either.

Your first look at the interior wasn’t a half-demolished office space, or a dark and abandoned one. It looked to be freshly un-operational, given the fact that the fluorescents were on, and your shivers were soothed with a running heating system.

The design was bland and contemporary, with an absence of decorative clutter. Polished marble tiles covered the floor, their smooth surface reflecting the soft glow of recessed ceiling lights overhead.

The walls were adorned with tasteful and artistic decorations, such as abstract paintings, which hadn’t been removed yet. Beside them were nails still embedded in the walls, most likely where the employees once hung their achievements.

There was a dedicated cubicle for security, cameras and a buzzer to access the upper levels. You ran your fingertip over the dust coating the top of it, though the access buttons wouldn’t be of much use. 

There was an elevator already waiting, with a box placed in the door so you could board it. He’d already thought of everything, naturally, though the mere thought of him made you chunderous.

When you stepped inside, your fingers hovered over the buttons until you remembered the signs. If you were to take a guess, he had probably chosen the CEO floor for himself. With a few hesitant clicks, you were on your way up.

You took advantage of the time, removing the pistol from your bag and into your waistband. Within a minute, the doors opened to an even more luxurious floor than the ground. A long hall leading into the CEO’s office. A rug ran the course of it, only blank side tables and a fake plant filling the numbing space.

Your guess concerning the floor was correct, given the fact you were faced with an assistant as his. Much like him, only more tweedy and straight to the point.

Your wired expression did little to phase his blank one. He outstretched a hand toward your coat, slipping it off your shoulders for you, and then taking your bag for you. You pondered, if he knew what was in store for you, if he was a part of this plan, if he even knew who he was working for?

He took the leading position, guiding you to the office. The hallway seemed to stretch infinitely, prolonging the inevitable confrontation ahead of you, if there was one. A logical person would think he would’ve killed you a long time ago if that’s what he wanted, but Cal's temperament was anything but logical.

The cold metal of the gun provided a feeble reassurance, icing against the anxious sweat running down the curve of your spine.

The assistant's free hand reached for the metal knob, twisting it with ease. When the door revealed tre office to you, it was dripping with bleak grandeur; large paned windows on the north wall, meeting chairs in the corners, empty floor to ceiling shelves, and the large desk in the middle.

Once you spotted the man seated in that CEO chair, the once confident and brave facade you had constructed now felt fragile, on the verge of shattering into a thousand pieces.

Approaching a year, this was the first time you had seen him face to face. His face remained blank, but not emotionless, like he was just as perplexed seeing you. Still, the eye contact wasn’t any less imperious.

The room's atmosphere was heavy with tension, an agonizing ten seconds before he said a word.

“Set her things outside, and leave us. It won’t be long.” Your pulse was thundering in your ears, but his voice knelled nonetheless.

You turned your head, giving the assistant a pleading look, but he’d already made his journey to the door again.

His feet, which were propped onto the desk in conceit, had now been placed back on the floor. Before you could do anything about it, he was standing a good five feet from you, and it was just the two of you now.

The gun, hidden under their shirt, served as a reminder of the darkness that led you here. All the things that went right, all of them that went wrong. Though the visible wounds had long healed, your inability to move or speak were a visible enough reminder.

“Relax, I’m here to talk.” Cal tongued the inside of his cheek, taking a few steps closer to you again. 

When his arm outstretched, you half expected to already be on the ground with the wind knocked out of you, but instead he was grasping for the bottle of whiskey on the table behind you. The moment he’d leaned in, reached around you, that familiar lump in your throat came back.

Though in your mind you were reassuring yourself, your body remembered him; the way your hairs stood up, how your fists clenched at your sides in apprehension.

But he hadn’t done anything. He removed the cork, and poured the malt into two small glasses, reaching one of them out to you.

Your body did the work for you, as if you were watching the scene from an overhead view, not truly the one standing there in front of him. Your fingers gripped the glass, your legs carried you toward the chairs in front of “his” desk—all without a single thought.

It wasn’t until he talked again, that you were forcing yourself to be present in the moment.

“Did you take the truck here?” All the buzzing of the fluorescents, the hum that came from his throat—it was all so overbearing, like your mind hadn’t caught up to sitting in front of him yet.

The traumatic memories resurface with an intensity that made it near impossible to speak, as if the wounds of the past had been freshly reopened.

It took a few seconds to process, before you couldn’t finally open your mouth to reply. “Yes.” Your throat had a dryness to it, leaving your speech weak and aching with hesitation.

Cal's eerie sense of calm had an uncanny ability to make you feel like a cornered small animal. If you could sink further into the chair, you would. Every stare, every movement his hands made, rekindled the nerves you had tried so hard to suppress.

“You should’ve reached out to me sooner,” he scoots the chair back out, making a slow lap around the desk, as if he were a relentless shark, circling its prey in the water.

His drink remained in his hand, but he hadn’t taken a drink from his glass either—it was nothing more than a prop. When he moved from the chair to his feet, yours moved as well, as if acting on an instinct. 

You slid your glass across the desk and took a few steps counterclockwise around the desk, but his sluggish rotation continued, and an amused chuckle left his lips as you maintained the distance.

“Do you have any idea what it was like, cops at my door on Christmas Eve? I was worried sick, had to clean up that mess myself.” He only continued his point from before, both of you halting the circle you’d made around the large desk.

When you failed to answer him again, you failed to keep moving as well. Your eyes followed him from top to bottom, the placement of his feet as he glided, the position his fists were in.

And now, he was a foot from you. “You took the truck here?” He questioned again, his tone dripping with mockery toward the lie you’d told him.

“It was me.” Your last trace of your determination surfaced alongside the lie.

A wicked beam spread across his face as he detected the lie woven into your words. You studied the chilling glint in his eyes as he savored the moment.

Cal stepped closer again, examining your dwindling confidence, feasting on it. No matter how loudly your mind bellowed to move, to get out of there, your legs remained rooted in the spot.

With a low, mocking chuckle, he leaned in closer, so close you could smell the intoxication on his breath. “I would believe you,” his arm shot out, making you jolt in surprise.

He reached around your waist, pulling the revolver from your waist band, “but you were always a shitty liar, Babe.” The iron in his hand was sent flying across the floor, landing somewhere by the door, now too far for you to reach for without attempting to run.

You couldn’t conceal how you flinched when the piece hit the wood floor, echoing off the walls and replaying in your head just like his taunts—how he was speaking now, how he did then, all composed into a head-splitting, taunting symphony.

All the words you had rehearsed, all the things you wanted to say to him, evaporated like mist before you could utter another syllable. He was relishing in the power, how he’d caught you in his grip again with just a few words.

The once fierce voice within you, which had screamed to run, now echoed with a sense of despondence. Why had you come here? What made you believe you could confront him?

The world around you blurred, like you were still watching this unfold from above. The past plagued you, as if you were still the same you from a year ago. He’d reduced you into something so small, without laying a hand on you.

Deep within, a voice pleaded for escape, for you return to reality. Cal’s arrogance was like a suffocating thundercloud, building and building until he found the weakest spot to strike. His words were like sharp daggers, aimed to wound and control, slicing through your healed scars like a relentless storm.

The blizzard howled around Simon’s truck, swirling snowflakes obscuring visibility like a relentless white curtain. The snowflakes danced wildly in front of the headlights, creating an otherworldly scene of swirling white.

Inside the car, his heart pounded with a mix of nerves and adrenaline, as well as self-reproach for how he behaved. He left you behind to finish the job, at least what he was telling himself was “just a job”. No matter what he told himself, or how many times, his deep regret was his motivation to finish it.

He had to, because it was for you. Even if it was his last act of service before he dropped you off in town, collected his last envelope of cash, he had to do this.

The road stretched ahead, an endless tunnel of white, and Simon pushed forward, trusting the sticky note he pasted on his dash with the address scribbled on it. With every passing mile, his mind was focused on the task at hand, the gravity of the situation weighing heavily on his tense shoulders.

The snowfall threatened to obscure any landmarks or points of reference, but he spotted the tall building through the low-visibility, nonetheless. It looked like the images he pulled up, only without the decor on the outside, or the plague above the double doors.

The blizzard wrapped the area in an eerie silence, which was what Simon noticed next. One SUV in the front; he brushed away the ice coating the windows, finding it empty.

He kept his head down as he advanced up the entrance, placing a firm hand on the entrance door’s handle.

Whether it was an army, or just Cal, he was well-prepared for whatever he was walking into.

The silence was wrenching among other things; how long he stared into your eyes, but you couldn’t divert yours from his, the way he ran his thumb over the rim of his glass before setting it down, still an uncomfortable inch from your face.

“Did you come here to kill me?” He queried, licking along his bottom lip as if he already knew the answer. Cal didn’t need your answer, your face already was one.

“Do you have any idea what I’ve done for you?” He just kept going, increasingly losing his composure the longer you were cornered before him. For once, it wasn’t wrath, it was his faux tenderness. His fingers found the hem of your shirt, then ran up to your shoulders to place his palms on each of them.

Your murmur was pathetic, finally ripping your gaze from his. “Cal…”

It wasn’t that he made you pity him, but it was how close he was to you for so long, whether he treated you badly or not. He was still a piece of you, legally your other half. How the both of you changed so much, during and after the marriage—it was arcane.

The months of pent up emotion had begun to pool corners of your eyes, spilling down your cheeks. How close he was, the familiar feeling of his breath on your neck—a disturbing reminder of all the sensations you tried so hard to bury.

When his fingers began to slide down your arms, it was taking every bit of your being not to headbutt him in the nose, just like Simon had taught you.

Next, his hands engulfed yours, running over the small nicks and scars that littered them. “I forgive you, for leaving me. I just… Let my feelings for you get the best of me sometimes, you know that?”

Unfortunately, you did understand, in more ways than one. With no lifeline in reach anymore, all you could do was stand there, hoping whatever end to this would come soon.

Whether it was you, or him with blood drawn, wasn’t your concern anymore. You only concerned yourself with never having to do this again. All those things you thought of saying to him, all the fury-driven plans you once had; null and void now.

It felt mortifying, how he so effortlessly diminished your credence—that he was, in fact, the problem.

“Do you forgive me?” As he shifted his hands to your waist, his grip intensified, enough to leave visible imprints even through the fabric. He began to lean in closer, his alcohol-soaked lips brushing against your cold-chapped ones.

Instincts took over, a primal force pushing you into a state of defense. Your muscles tensed, fisting the glass of whiskey on the desk in front of you. When you found it, you used every ounce of your force to smash it against his temple.

It hit his skull with a sickening thud, releasing a cascade of whiskey that splattered in all directions. Tiny fragments of glass danced in the air like deadly confetti, glinting maliciously under the dim light. Some landed on you, as did the amber liquid.

When your eyes released their squint, he was still keeled over, holding the impacted skin.

“You fucking bitch…” His speech came out a pained growl, prompting you to hasten in the direction of the door, where the gun was still laying.

His stomps were close behind, nearly making you lose your footing before you reached the piece. It found your sights, iron glinting in the light where he’d thrown it.

Your fingers touched the cold metal only a few moments, before his hands clasped your shoulders and jerked you back. The snow on the bottom of your shoes made you slide, causing you to land on your back, scrambling for the gun again.

But he was quicker, always, and now blinded by agony-induced rage. “After everything!” His eyes were still winced, his teeth still gritted, but his hands found you again quickly, practically bolting your body below him.

“I lied to the cops, to protect you.” You batted at his chest, his throat, attempting to claw at his weak points, but he pinned your wrists next with just one of his hands. “All I asked, was that you fucking listen to me!” He showed little struggle, his other hand finding its way to the collar of your shirt, which he used to plummet your head into the ground a few times.

All while he did it, his voice was anything but a yell—it was a low, calculated grumble, like he had stewed on his plans for months.

Your head was spinning, too cloudy to do anything after the impacts, though the strength of your struggling limbs did little in opposition. This was it, the day he would finally catch you, do what he’d always planned on doing.

His actions mirrored that of Christmas Eve; you, below him and helpless, while his hands leave you battered and loathing. It was like you were watching an instant replay of that night, all over again—his brows furrowed in sinister concentration. You blocked out the sight with closed eyes, refusing him to be the last thing they see.

It seemed he had an unshakable hold on the situation, as he always did. You were trapped in an inescapable hold, unable to do anything more than pray it be quick and painless.

Simon already had his pistol drawn as he cleared each room, eyes sharp and focused on any sign of enemies. The lobby was empty, only a few signs of melting footprints leading him to the elevator, which did not respond when he pounded on the buttons.

After a few smacks, it dinged, as if he had been granted access to it. There were no spare minutes for questions, he needed to find Cal, and now.

If he wasn’t on the ground floor, he was probably on the top.

The ride was agonizing, with no sounds of people, only the grinding of the track as it went up the elevator cables. When the doors slid open, he raised his pistol in front of him, in search of the target.

The hallway leading to the grandest office was empty, but someone had been there recently. He next examined one of the side tables, still with an idle steaming cup of coffee placed on it. And next to it, items that made his heart race; the coat he lent you placed next to your backpack.

He couldn’t believe his eyes, or his racing thoughts. You had somehow gotten here first, or worse, been abducted from the cabin after he left. Simon was already cursing himself for betraying you, if he was the reason Cal found you too, he would never forgive himself.

A hand found his shoulder, but it wasn’t an attacker. Nonetheless, he whipped around, expecting it to be Cal. It was a suited man, probably the one who collected your things before you were taken to the next place.

He thought he was angry before, but that was nothing. He could practically feel his throat burn as he shoved the man into the wall, the barrel deep into his stomach.

“Where did he take her?” He hissed, his other hand an iron grip on the assistant’s shoulder. The man took too long, still stunned and overpowered. “Don’t have bloody time for this.” The silenced pistol moved from his stomach to his head with swiftness, and he pulled the trigger just as quick.

His body, now dead weight, slid down the wall with a trail of blood following him. The only remaining door was the CEO office—his last hope of finding you.

The sound of a struggle was hard to miss; a glass breaking, a thump, and the muffle of an irate male voice.

Simon lost all semblance of stealth, thumping down the floor of the hallway until he reached the door, kicking it just below the lock with all of his force. It split open on impact, but the scene in front of him didn’t change.

He recognized Cal from behind, wearing one of his signature suits, but it was now scuffed and stained with crimson. With only seconds of studying, he spotted your shoes peeking out underneath him, kicking about as he gripped your throat.

You were losing your vision, eyes only catching glimpses of Cal’s concentrated expression as began putting pressure on your windpipe, using all of his force. It was a scalding, stinging sensation from your throat to your eyes, sending the taste of blood on your tongue as you gasped for the oxygen already lost.

The smacks you were giving, the tugs on the fabric of his suit, they were unsuccessful at releasing his ever-tightening grip.

A loud buzzing filled your ears once the ringing muffled itself; dark spots clouded your vision one by one, like rain droplets engulfing you. Once again, for the last time, he had overpowered you, only this time the window of opportunity had long closed.

Your once trembling limps had begun to go limp, vision nearing that final close of unconsciousness. The grunts and pleas were long squeezed out of you, only a rattling breath now as Cal used the last of his remaining strength to finish the job.

The fear had long disappeared, as did the anger and pain; it was the absence of feeling—your last few glances of him, blinded by his temper, sputtering inaudible curses toward you.

And then—the pressure ceased in an instant, though his hands remained. Without your vision, your other sensations that were dwindling had now gone into overdrive; the pounds of pressure on top of your chest, as you took in a wheezing breath again.

When your eyes forced themselves open again, it was still the same view of the office ceiling, still with that same weight on you.

Disoriented, you craned your aching neck down at yourself, seeing Cal slumped on top of you, his head spurting blood all over you, running through the creases of your skin and down the fabric of your shirt.

It was like your muscles had gained consciousness as well, allowing you to shove the dead weight off of you. His lifeless body rolled itself onto his back, a bullet hole still smoking through the middle of his head.

It was too fast to process yet, how one second you would’ve been laying there, but it was him. Him, who you hated with every fiber of your being, but yet, it wasn’t a feeling of closure.

Your hand reached for your damaged throat, placing a hand on the tender flesh. “Cal…” You said it, just as you did earlier, only so much of a croak the only place you could hear it was your own head.

Now knelt beside his body, you allowed yourself to take in the sight of him—one you knew would never leave you now. How his hands felt around your neck, how gruesome he looked now, and how his blood had covered every inch of you.

The hand once on your throat, you moved it to touch his chest, indeed feeling no beating heart inside it. If it weren’t for Simon’s determined grip pulling you away, you would’ve stared at the sight all night, unable to separate on your own.

His hands were gentle, despite how you attempted to pry them off of you, still in a wide-eyed state of shock. “Don’t look.” You heard him say, through the faint ringing in your ears.

Your body didn’t have the strength to fight him, ending with your head shoved into his chest as he guided you out of the room. He ignored his own advice, giving Cal’s corpse one more lasting look, before he turned his attention fully to you again.

One hand held kept your head buried into his chest, while the other kept his pistol ready just in case, though there were no signs of an ambush coming. Cal had truly set this meet with only one person on his side, intending on the meet ending with you choked out.

When he reached the hall again, he turned your stumbling figure to face the wall, to not see the assistant still slumped over by the elevator. He grabbed the hanging coat and draped it over your shoulders.

As soon as the elevator doors opened, he ushered you inside, concealing your view of the carnage until the doors closed, though he wasn’t sure you were lucid enough to notice, he couldn’t help but shield you.

Simon allowed all of your weight on him as your legs nearly buckled during the ride, keeping you steady for its entirety. When the doors opened, his eyes scanned through the large windows facing the entrance.

Still, only the SUV and his own car remained parked. From what he could tell, this place was dead.

Each guiding step, his eyes were trained on the path ahead, but the coast remained clear. Through the tinted windows, the blizzard had worsened since he arrived. Only the black paint of the two cars through the flurries remained, being his only guide to his truck once he pushed the double doors open.

He palmed the handle to the passenger side, scooping you up and buckling you into the seat with tenderness. Once he took another look around him, spotting nothing but snow in front of him, he climbed into the truck and turned the key again.

You had already passed out in the seat next to him, probably in a mix of shock and fatigue. How you ended up here before him, or why, he didn’t know—what mattered to him was that Cal was dead, and you still had air in your lungs.

He cringed at the thought of nearly being too late, nearly finding lifeless with no sign of Cal—he had found you in time, and your husband was dead and alone, just like he deserved.

—

The headlights illuminated the path up to the cabin, now sometime in the middle of the night after his long drive back. He’d left you in the truck, still dormant with your head against the window.

Simon stepped inside the cabin, only flicking on the hallway light to not overwhelm his eyes, which were exhausted, and well-adjusted to the darkness now. His soaked boots squeaked against the tile as he reached for the faucet, turning the knobs until it was the right temperature.

While the faucet ran, he retreated outside again, lifting you into his arms again.

Your eyes reopened at the sudden disturbance, but you allowed yourself to be carried into the cabin again. You were in no position to fight him, and quite literally couldn’t speak against this pampering.

He used his foot to close the passenger door, then the front door. His carrying continued, holding all of your weight with no strain on his muscles. It was nothing to him; even if it was, he owed you this at the very least.

The remaining energy you had left was put into keeping yourself upright when he set you down. He cut off the faucet, putting his fingers in the water once more to test its warm temperature. 

Your eyes remained half-lidded, bloodshot from their lack of oxygen hours ago. His fingers remained gentle, merely brushing against you as he lifted the hem of your shirt until it was off your head.

He kept his eyes trained on the wall ahead as he undressed you, getting you out of the blood-soaked clothes clinging to you. He tossed each piece to the side, then allowed you to get into the bathtub on your own.

When you lifted each sore leg over the edge, he kept his arm out for grabbing. Still, his eyes roamed anywhere but you, allowing you the privacy to sink deep into the water without his prying eyes.

You lowered yourself into the warm water, an audible sigh of relief when it soothed your muscles. The transparent liquid slowly turned a deep merlot the deeper you sank, slowly soaking off the blood stains that littered you.

Limp hands gripped each side of the tub, a blank stare up at the ceiling of the room—the only part of you he did pay any attention to.

“Do you need my help?” He muttered, about to turn and leave you to bathe on your own.

You only responded by a slow head shake, though, it was clear you wanted to say something. At first, he only nodded and reached for the knob, respecting your need for isolation right now.

“Simon,” he heard you croak, prompting him to turn his head again, “stay in the room.”

He dropped his hand, only giving you one more look of reassurance before he returned to his place by the tub. He heard the sound of you scrubbing your skin, the water sloshing around.

Simon waited patiently with his back turned as if it was second nature to him. It wasn’t—this tenderness was new to him, and he didn’t want to stop.

TAGLIST: @random-thot-generator @littleobsessionsandlifeslessons @illyanam1011 @stunkbiggu @bi-witch-bxtch @warm-milk-with-honey @xheera @kiamewrites @01trickster10 @m0chac0ffee @tizylish @midwesternwitchery

[howlsmovinglibrary]

Simp-to-lovers book recommendations please! By the way, you have excellent taste in books!!!

lmao, thank you, I've been a reader a long time. :')

now we're more in my ballpark, so i've separated them by genre!

Fantasy

Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones (the OG, how could I not?)

King of Scars by Leigh Bardugo (Nikolai Lantsov you will always be famous, and what a woman you chose to be obsessed with)

The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo (this is her newest book, and the love interest is basically the Darkling if he was more into simping and less into warcrimes. Is this reductive? yes. It is also truth.)

Emily Wilde's Encyclopedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett (truly. just the book of all time.)

The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna (what if not only a man but an entire household simped for you?)

Ten Thousand Stitches by Olivia Atwater (Cinderella but the fairy godmother is an emotional support himbo)

!!!!The Witchwood Knot by Olivia Atwater (my favourite book of the year so far AND THAT ASTARION-CODED MAN IS DOWN BAD!!)

The Scholomance by Naomi Novik (not my favourite Novik and rightfully criticised as problematic, but oh dear lord. SIMP BEHAVIOUR.)

House with Good Bones by T Kingfisher (I think Kingfisher's men are mostly just 'very nice men' but this one simped hard enough to participate in a horror novel)

Thornhedge by T Kingfisher (tell a lie this man simped hard enough to fall into a situationship with a frog-presenting woman)

Cress by Marissa Meyer (this is the 3rd in a series, but is a rare example of a female simp)

Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty (the man in this simps so hard for the milf pirate protagonist and so do I)

The Falconer by Elizabeth May (this is enemies to lovers that is actually simp to lovers).

Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke (is this vastly underselling the themes and concerns of a 1000 page novel? yes. is jonathan strange a massive simp? also yes. he becomes a magician literally to impress his wife.)

Romance

The Bodyguard by Katherine Center (this man simps from the moment she tackles him, he is so valid)

The Room-Mate Risk by Talia Hibbert (this man has been in love with the female lead for years)

Take A Hint, Dani Brown by Talia Hibbert (not my favourite in this series, but the biggest simp)

Kiss the Girl by Zoraida Cordova (contemporary little mermaid retelling that has vaguely believable love at first sight)

People We Meet On Vacation by Emily Henry (simp-to-lovers, friends-to-lovers, unhealthy decade of pining)

[docgold13]

Heroes & Villains The DC Animated Universe - Paper Cut-Out Portraits and Profiles

Elseworlds Addendum - Hawkgirl / Kendra Saunders 

Kendra Saunders had been a young woman who suffered from severe depression.  In a rash moment of desperation, Kendra attempted to take her own life.  The young woman was technically dead for a moment and, within that moment, the spirit of Shiera Hall entered and occupied her body.  

Shiera had been the Golden Age Hawkwoman and, similar to Hawkman, was trapped in an endless cycle of reincarnation.  In this instance, however, rather than being born into a new body, Shiera entered the seemingly vacated body of Kendra.  Although it did not prove to be a seamless process in that the now revived Kendra possessed both her own soul as well as that belonging to Shiera.  Initially this unified entity possessed all of Kendra’s memories but only a flickering portion of Shiera’s memories.  

To make matters more confusing for Kendra, she had suddenly become a fierce and accomplished combatant, with enhanced strength, speed and dexterity as well as a great proficiency in the use of a Nth metal battle mace.  Compelled by forced she did not yet understand, Kendra sought out Hawkwoman’s Nth metal flying harness and used it to become the new Hawkgirl.  Her adventures quickly led to her becoming a member of the contemporary iteration of The Justice Society.

As time went by, Kendra began to recall more and more of Shiera’s memories and experiences; as well as an increased anxiety that Shiera’s personality would dominate and ultimately subsume her own.  Kendra left the Society and accepted a role as a member of the newly reformed Justice League.  Around this time, Kendra met Zauriel, an angel of the Eagle Host who possessed mystical abilities and knowledge.  Zauriel helped Kendra cope with her worries and forged a more unified sense of self.  Not long thereafter, Kendra entered into a romance with Hawkman, continuing anew the cycle of the pair’s destiny to be together.  

The Kendra Saunders version of Hawkgirl first appeared in the pages of JSA: Secret Files #1 (1999).        

[thedrowsydoormouse]

Ok I don't know if I'm sleep deprived or if this actually makes sense but bear with me because I think I've figured out the backstory for Finetime! Spoilers for Dot and Bubble below the cut.

Ok so what do we KNOW about Finetime?

It's on a different planet than the Home World

It is literally in a bubble that is cut off from the outside world

Everyone there is between the ages of 17-27

It's filled with all the rich (racist) kids who could afford to go there

They "work" for two hours each day

The weather is controlled by a satelite

The home world was also overrun by the slugs

So what can we hypothesize from that information? (Side note, anything you are about to read that is racist, classist, or both are not my actual words but what I would assume someone from that society would think or say. I do not hold those beliefs and I do not wish to associate with anyone who does.)

The grown ups back on the Home World (an already racist, classist society) had already started to drive their Dots insane and they knew their days were numbered. So they gathered up a bunch of their "least valuable" (to them) citizens to Boldy Go and find a new planet that won't immediately kill them and build a new settlement, not really caring how many of them make it back, if any, because again, racist and classist.

While the new settlement is being discovered and built, the people back on the Home World got to work planning. They knew there would only be so many spots available in the new community (think like lifeboats on the Titanic) so the easiest way they could think to secure those spots is to have people pay for them and they needed to make sure every person going could fend for themself (more or less) and was within reproductive age, thus the 17-27 year age limit. But that creates a problem. If your entire population is made up of a bunch of rich 20 somethings who have no marketable skills, how will society continue to function? So they automate everything with computer programs and AI to handle the nitty gritty and the 2 hours of "work" are basically games that keep the AI running smoothly. Then construction of Finetime is complete, the "undesirables" leave the bubble and move out into the jungle (I'm assuming. We never really find out what happened to the people who built everything because the only person we meet who would know is Ricky and well ...........), the bubble is sterilized because poor people cooties, and the stage is set for our "adventure".

So off they go, a rocket full of Rich White kids who, if they were told they were going to be the last of their kind, they either weren't paying attention or didn't care. They assume it's going to be a long holiday and once they turn 27 they'll all head back to the Home World and back to Mummy and Daddy. So they continue on, business as usual. They play their little games for two hours every day to maintain the status quo then spend the rest of their time living like rich kids on vacation. All the while their Dots are plotting to wipe out all of them the same way they started (and eventually finished) back on the Home World because nothing has fundamentally changed. The problem is the computers that run everything need above a certain population to continue functioning normally, so the first few slug victims (#allhailthegloriousslugs) didn't really make that much of a difference. But as more and more of them get eaten, the computers start to struggle to keep up and things start to go a bit haywire, like the weather satellites having issues (I know that was a real world issue and not meant to be part of the plot but it works so well in my backstory theory that I'm going with it).

TLDR: a bunch of rich, racist assholes did what rich, racist assholes do and basically destroyed their planet, used a bunch of working class people and people of color to find and build a new society on a new planet, sent their obnoxious, self absorbed trust fund babies to go live in that society, and the the completely expected thing happens when the problems continue in the new community because nothing about the society itself fundamentally changed. Any of the people who managed to escape Finetime who also manage to not drown when the boat their on inevitably runs aground (because they can't even walk without arrows, no way in hell they'll know how to drive a boat) are either going to starve to death or have to contend with countless wild animals and potentially even the people who built the bubble city in the first place. Not a single person on that boat will live longer than a week.

[auxryn]

So I'm watching one of this season's many isekai animes. The main character (who arrived in this fantasy world after dying of overwork as a salaryman in Japan, another victim of Japan's famous 'Black Companies') encounters a group of striking workers.

A strike? Ooooooh... how is this going to go?

The strikers have taken over their workplace and are demanding higher payment for the piece-work they are performing. The work is not only very dangerous, but is skilled labor requiring official licensing.

On his way to see what the fuss is about, the main character runs into a powerful rival adventurer who has been hired to murder all the strikers. He convinces the murderer to wait and let him talk to the strikers first.

This is interesting. How do the author and Japanese society as a whole view this situation?What will our intrepid hero do?

The strikers demand he stop and declare the area off limits. He pulls a gun. The strikers gather to repel him. He knocks them all out, ties them up, and hands them over to the police. They are essentially treated like bandits.

NANI THE FUCK?

What the hell is this hall monitor bullshit? Didn't you learn anything at all from your previous life and more importantly death?

Later in the episode the main character encounters a woman who is literally fainting from overwork and endeavors to help her.

We will need to wait until next week to find out what amazing advice he has for her, but so far his attitude seems to be:

'I worked too hard because I only focused on my job, but now I have a cute isekai girlfriend who wants me to come home on time so she helps reign in my workaholism and take it easy.'

PUSSY DOESN'T CURE LABOR RELATIONS, SHITHEAD!

You weren't working too hard, you were being exploited! There are people who were enriched by your work and your death! Keeping a healthy work/life balance is relevant only to business owners who can set their own hours. If you are employed by someone else then they are determining your workload and your hours. If you are working yourself to death it is because they asked you to!

Scandal and regulation have not ended unpaid overtime, unused vacation days, and death march schedules in Japan. What will? Organization. Solidarity. Strikes. You need to change work culture.

Not treat activists as if they are somehow thieves.

[thgfanfictionlibrary]

Friends to Lovers Fics Masterlist (11)

Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3 / Part 4 / Part 5 / Part 6 / Part 7 / Part 8 / Part 9 / Part 10 / 

Created: June 6th, 2024

Checked:---

Not the Last Time-Peetabreadgirl (ao3) Summary: A vacation between friends leads to more than what they expected. Taken from the famous episode of Friends when Ross and Rachel get drunk in Vegas. Okay. Sure. If You Want To.-endlessnightlock (ao3) Summary: “You’ve never even touched yourself?” One For the History Books-hutchabelle (ao3) Summary: Katniss Everdeen’s broken the gender barrier on her university’s football team, and she’s about to make history. She’s also caught the eye of fellow teammate, Peeta Mellark, and both are very, very important to her. Over an Open Field-jeeno2 (ao3) Summary: Seventeen-year-old Peeta Mellark is looking to escape an abusive home. Katniss Everdeen is just looking for an escape. When the two friends set off in her pick-up truck on a cross country road trip, the last thing they expect to find is each other. Modern day AU. Photograph-JLaLa (ao3) Summary: Inspired by the prompt: "When you were seven, you held a fake wedding by the swings with a kid you met at the park. You never saw your childhood “spouse” again after that day. Today you received a letter summoning you to a foreign country… where your wedding to the heir to the throne twenty years ago is seen as valid." Katniss Everdeen receives a letter that changes her life. Who knew that a letter and a photograph could wreak such havoc? Prospects & Propriety-juniebugg (ao3) Summary: Miss Katniss Everdeen and her younger sister Primrose are the adopted daughters of Mr. Haymitch Abernathy; a wealthy countryman with no biological heirs. By the rules of Panem society, an older sibling must be married before the younger can wed. In a time when women have no means of making their own living, an advantageous marriage is the only way for Katniss to save herself and her sister from destitution. She sets her sights on Mr. Hawthorne, a wealthy man who recently moved to the township of Whitley and who seems to have his eye on her, but what is she to do about the poor baker’s boy who once suffered a beating to save her life? Pumpkin Spice(x)-papofglencoe (ao3) Summary: I hate that somewhere in between childhood and now we’ve learned to keep secrets from each other. Like: I’m hopelessly in love with you. Or, in her case: I’ve been shopping at the Brown Bag It for sex toys and condoms to use with some dickwad boyfriend who is not, and will never be, you. A Modern AU Puppy Love-Pookieh (ao3) Summary: Katniss and Peeta's childhood friendship takes an unexpected turn when they visit a shelter to pick out a puppy. Modern AU. Written for Day 7 of Prompts in Panem. Visual Prompt: Choose your own adventure - Puppy in a cage. Quote Prompt: Nothing takes the taste out of peanut butter quite like unrequited love. - Charles M. Schulz Roses and Pearls-HalfHope, thesweetnessofspring (ao3) Summary: Peeta Mellark is the sole victor of the Quarter Quell. With District 12 nothing but ash, he rebuilds his life by moving to the Capitol and falling in love with Rosalia Snow, granddaughter to Coriolanus Snow. Then people Peeta thought long dead kidnap him and Rosalia, including the one person he hates more than anyone: Katniss Everdeen. They say he's been hijacked. They say that he used to love her. Locked away in District 13, Peeta is determined to protect his mind and his fiancée from the rebels. But while imprisoned, videos disprove his memories and his feelings toward Katniss grow confusing. Who can he trust, and what really happened in his past? Screw West-hutchabelle (ao3) Summary: With the entire summer in front of her, Katniss decided to take a road trip across America. Thankfully, her best friend since college agreed to go with her. Hopelessly in love with her, Peeta struggled to keep his feelings secret as they shared countless hotel rooms and sometimes a bed.

[richincolor]

We've got a little something for everyone this week! Have you checked out these new releases yet?

I'll Be Waiting for You by Mariko Turk Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

Natalie and Imogen are inseparable, and wildly different—Imogen is infuriatingly humble and incredibly intelligent, while Natalie is brave, jumping into danger and new adventures. Still, one thing ties them their love of the supernatural. Every summer, they vacation with their parents at the famously haunted Harlow Hotel. Imogen is a true believer, while Natalie sees ghost stories as nothing but pure fun. Then, Imogen suddenly passes away from an undiagnosed heart condition that no one saw coming, and Natalie is left to take on the summer before senior year alone. Without Imogen, Natalie throws herself into her senior project. Her passion is still horror, so she plans to spend her summer back at The Harlow Hotel recording fun fake footage that will get her on the teen ghost hunting show of her dreams. And her plans would be a lot less complicated if Leander, her irritatingly attractive arch rival from school, wasn’t working on his senior project at the very same hotel. The longer Natalie stays at the Harlow Hotel, the more she realizes that Leander might be helpful for her project. After all, she could use an extra hand to help record her fake footage. But, when strange things start happening at the Harlow, Natalie wonders, could there really be something to these ghosts after all?

The Notes by Catherine Con Morse Crown Books for Young Readers

Claire Wu isn’t sure that she has what it takes to become a successful concert pianist. It’s the fear of every student at Greenwood School of Performing becoming a washed-out performer who couldn't make it big. And Claire's no Rocky Wong, the ace pianist at their boarding school. Then Dr. Li shows up. She’s like no other teacher at mysterious, sophisticated, fascinating. Under Dr. Li’s tutelage, Claire works harder and dreams bigger than ever. And her crush Rocky finally seems interested. Maybe she’ll even be "Chinese enough" to join the elusive Asian Student Society. Everything is falling into place until eerily personal notes about Claire’s bond with Dr. Li appear. Claire starts to feel the pressure. But she isn't the only one. Everyone is feeling the strain. Especially Rocky, whose extreme perfectionism hides something more troubling. As the Showcase tension crescendos, Claire must decide if she’s ready to sink or swim. She may discover who she really is as a Chinese American and learn if she’s ready to give her all for a shot at greatness.

The Poisons We Drink by Bethany Baptiste Sourcebooks Fire

In a country divided between humans and witchers, Venus Stoneheart hustles as a brewer making illegal love potions to support her family. Love potions is a dangerous business. Brewing has painful, debilitating side effects, and getting caught means death or a prison sentence. But what Venus is most afraid of is the dark, sentient magic within her. Then an enemy's iron bullet kills her mother, Venus’s life implodes. Keeping her reckless little sister Janus safe is now her responsibility. When the powerful Grand Witcher, the ruthless head of her coven, offers Venus the chance to punish her mother's killer, she has to pay a steep price for revenge. The cost? Brew poisonous potions to enslave D.C.'s most influential politicians. As Venus crawls deeper into the corrupt underbelly of her city, the line between magic and power blurs, and it's hard to tell who to trust…Herself included.

Prom Babies by Kekla Magoon Henry Holt and Co. (BYR)

A compelling, multi-generational novel from the Coretta Scott King and Printz Honor-winning author of How It Went Down, Light It Up, and The Minus-One Club, Prom Babies chronicles the stories of three teen girls who become pregnant on prom night. Eighteen years later, their three babies, now high school seniors, are headed to prom and facing their own set of complicated issues and questions. Mina, Penny, and Sheryl have the typical expectations of prom night in 2005: dresses, dancing, and of course some coming of age moments. None of them plans to get pregnant, but when all three do, they band together as they face decisions that have the power to shape the rest of their lives. In 2024, their three children--Blossom, Amber, and Cole--are high school seniors, gearing up to go to prom and facing some big decisions of their own. As they seek to understand who they are and who they want to be, they grapple with issues that range from consent to virginity, gendered dress codes, and the many patriarchal, heteronormative expectations that still come along with prom. A generation later, will this prom night change lives too?

Sound the Gong (Kingdom of Three #2) by Joan He Roaring Brook Press

From New York Times and Indie bestselling author Joan He, comes the dazzling and sweeping conclusion to The Kingdom of Three duology, Sound the Gong, the breathtaking sequel to the critically-acclaimed Strike the Zither. All her life, Zephyr has tried to rise above her humble origins as a no-name orphan. Now she is a god in a warrior’s body, and never has she felt more powerless. Her lordess Xin Ren holds the Westlands, but her position is tenuous. In the north, the empress remains under Miasma’s thumb. In the south, the alliance with Cicada is in pieces. Fate also seems to have a different winner in mind for the three kingdoms, but Zephyr has no intentions of respecting it. She will pay any price to see Ren succeed—and she will make her enemies pay, especially one dark-haired, dark-eyed Crow. What she’ll do when she finds out the truth—that he worked for the South all along…

The Vanishing Station by Ana Ellickson Amulet Books

Eighteen-year-old Filipino American Ruby Santos has been unmoored since her mother’s death. She can’t apply to art school like she’s always dreamed, and she and her father have had to move into the basement of their home and rent out the top floor while they work to pay back her mother’s hospital bills. Then Ruby finds out her father has been living a secret life as a delivery person for a magical underworld—he “jumps” train lines to help deliver packages for a powerful family. Recently, he’s fallen behind on deliveries (and deeper into alcoholism), and if his debts aren’t satisfied, they’re going to take her mother’s house. In an effort to protect her father and save all that remains of her mother, Ruby volunteers to take over her dad’s station and start jumping train lines. But this is no ordinary job. Ruby soon realizes that the trains are much more than doors to romance and they’re also doors to trafficking illicit goods and fierce rivalries. As she becomes more entangled with the magical underworld and the mysterious boy who’s helped her to learn magic, she realizes too late that she may be in over her head. Can she free her father and save her mother’s house? Or has she only managed to get herself pulled into the dangerous web her father was trapped in?

What's Eating Jackie Oh? by Patricia Park Crown Books for Young Readers

Jackie Oh is done being your model minority. She just hasn’t told her second-gen Korean American parents yet. They would never understand her unconventional dream to become a professional chef. Just ask her brother Justin, who hasn't heard from them since he was sent to Rikers Island. For now, when she isn’t avoiding studying for AP World History, Jackie is improving her French cooking techniques and working at her grandparents’ Midtown deli Melty’s. Then the most unexpected thing Jackie gets recruited for a casting audition for the teen edition of Burn Off!, her favorite competitive cooking show. Even more unexpected, Jackie becomes a contestant. Jackie is thrown headfirst into the cutthroat competitive TV show world filled with psych outs, picky mom critiques, and dreaded microaggressions to lean into her heritage. All Jackie wants to do is cook her way. But is her way to cook traditional French cuisine? Lean into her heritage? Or is it something more? To advance through the competition, Jackie must prove who she is on and off the plate.

Where Was Goodbye? by Janice Lynn Mather Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

A teen girl searches for closure after her brother dies by suicide in this breathtaking novel from the author of Learning to Breathe and Facing the Sun. Karmen is about to start her last year of high school, but it’s only been six weeks since her brother, Julian, died by suicide. How is she supposed to focus on school when huge questions Why is Julian gone? How could she have missed seeing his pain? Could she have helped him? When a blowup at school gets Karmen sent home for a few weeks, life gets more things between her parents are tenser than ever, her best friend’s acting like a stranger, and her search to understand why Julian died keeps coming up empty. New friend Pru both baffles and comforts Karmen, and there might finally be something happening with her crush, Isaiah, but does she have time for either, or are they just more distractions? Will she ever understand Julian’s struggle and tragedy? If not, can she love—and live—again?

[adarkrainbow]

Another fairytale park... Mirapolis (1)

We have been talking about Disney a lot - and of course, with Disney comes Disneyland. I have made reblogs aboutt the Efteling park (and maybe more posts shall come in the future). But today, I want to invite you to an amusement park that doesn't exist anymore, and yet remains a part of France's history, and a part of the history of French folklore and fairytales. This is... the defunct amusement park Mirapolis.

Mirapolis was opened on the 20th of May 1987, in the city-group of Cergy-Pontoise (more specifically it belonged to the town of Courdimanches. It was a complicated situation as Cergy-Pontoise was one of the "new cities" built in the 60s/70s by sticking various existing small towns together as a way to deal with the population boom in the Ile-de-France region/Parisian area... Its the convoluted ways of French territory delimitation). It lasted for only five seasons, closing on the 20th of October 1991. The name of the park was explained as such by its creator, Anne Fourcade: "mira" is meant to evoke mirrors, the infinite, the eternal, while "polis" reminds of "the greatness of cities and of ancient kingdoms". It is thus meant to bring in people's minds ideas of adventure, of fabulous, and of future... Too bad the park didn't live up to its name and was a big failure.

The project of Mirapolis is tied to the arrival in Europe of Disney - more precisely, the appearance of the Euro Disney Resort (current "Disneyland Paris"). The Walt Disney Company was on our ground, the Americans against the Europeans, and Europe had to fight back. [Another complicated thing: Euro Disney Resort only offically opened in 1992, but the project existed and had been going on - though secretly - since 1976, and in december of 1985 it had been publically announced that France would be the country welcoming the first European Disney park.] Mirapolis was an attempt to create a counterpart to this American implantation: it was to be the greatest, largest and first French amusement park.

And large and great it was! Too great probably... Mirapolis was agreed to be an excessive project, truly bigger than life - a lot of resources were given to the project, and they didn't hesitate to consume every last drop of it and even more. The park was 55 hectars in terms of size - something unheard of in France until this point. Created by the collaboration of Anne Fourcade (architect and the creator of the park) and of Ghaith Pharaon (a wealthy businessman), the park's main problems were an ever-growing debt and a series of constantly changing owner and staff. The park was first owned by the Paris-Parc society - until the society went bankrupt. It then became the ownership of the Cergy-Parc society, and the original gestion and maintenance team was replaced by staff coming from the Club Med (the most famous French holiday-club/vacation-company ever), but THEN they were replaced by a group of carnies (carnies who funnily originally were against the project and had loudly expressed their opposition... but they still were hired and ran the park until it went bankrupt, and their presence made the park half-funfair). Because while the first year was a good year that met its mark (500 millions of francs invested, no loss), the second year started going flawly (700 millions of francs invested, 85 millions of loss), and then the third went bad (140 millions of loss) - and so on and so on until the park clearly wasn't profitable in any way anymore.

Now, why would this park be interesting for this blog? Because its themes was "French legends and French fairytales" - it was an amusement park entirely centered around French folklore! Again, since Mirapolis was about counter-attacking the "American invasion", it makes sense the park would be focused on glorifying the local heritage and culture, and proving that you could do a fully French park instead of having Disneyified verson of Perrault and Grimm's fairytales. A very admirable project... that unfortunately failed. Why? There's a big debate as to what was the exact cause (or causes, in plural) of this park's downfall - we'll get into this another time. But all in all, beyond being an amusement park trivia, and the background of current urbex explorations, the story of Mirapolis is one of the chapters of the massive wave and passion for amusement parks in France in the 80s-90s. Plus, the park still technically "lives on" as a lot of its attractions and elements are currently in use by other European amusement parks... But I'll get into the more historical details later.

For now let's focus on...

WHAT THE PARK LOOKED LIKE

The park was organized in eight zones, whose names were only fixed by the second year of the park's run. Each zone was a mix of rides and food-sources. When the park opened in 1987, there were only 20 attractions in total - but when the park closed, it had a fifty or so or them.

1 ) "La Grand'Place" (The Main Square/The Great Plaza)

This area was called "Le palais des merveilles", "The Palace of Wonders", during the park's first year. While it was renamed the "Grand'Place", the name "Palace of Wonders" was kept for the theater in the area - a building for theater plays, special-effects shows and other ballets that could welcome up to 800 people and have different shows playing simultaneously. In 1987, René-Louis Baron (a famous name of musical experiments in the 70s and 80s) created there a show based on La Fontaine's fables, called "Partir à point", with costumes by Yves Brunier. It was also within the Palace of Wonders theater that the first episodes of the "Juste Prix" (the French "The Price is Right") were recorded, between 1987 and 1988. In the second year, "Le Palais des Merveilles" became "Le Château des Visions" (The Castle of Visions), and became the first and only permanent 3D movie-theater of France - sponsored by Fujifilm, and decorated on the outside to look like a medieval castle.

Other buildings of the area included "Le théâtre de verdure" (The Greenery Theater), an open-air theater of 900 places ; and "La Navette aux milles sensations", a small-sized moving movie-theater that was carried across the area. Finally when the carnies arrived in 1989, they prepared a karting course there. The Grand'Place area was also where "La Grande Parade" (The Great Parade) was organized, a big parade with roughly 200 characters/costumes - among which many were the characters of La Fontaine's Fables.

2 ) Le jardin de la Belle Epoque (The garden of the Belle Epoque)

[For those of you not in the know, "La Belle Epoque", "The Beautiful Era", is the nickname of the era of French history located between the end of the 19th century and the First World War]

Located north-west of the park, The Garden of La Belle Epoque was originally called "Les Impressionnistes", in homage to the titular artistic movement/group. The three main attractions of the area were Le Ruisseau fleuri, les Tacots-Chapeaux and Le Manège de chevaux de bois. Le Ruisseau fleuri (The Flowery Stream) was a boat-travel in a canal surrounded by animated scenes based on impressionist paintings (it was renamed Rivière fleurie, Flowery river, in 1988). Le Manège de chevaux de bois (The wooden-horse carousel) was, as the title says, a carousel of fifty-four wooden horses - and it was renowned for being the first traditonal carousel created in France since 80 years... It was later moved to the "Land of Legends" when the carnies arrived. The third ride was the Tacots chapeaux (Hat-cars), little cars you could drive around which wore eyeglasses, mustaches and hats. There was also a fair-organ/band-organ playing music for the guests.

In 1988 new attractions were added - but clearly designed with a medieval theme, which clashed with the Belle Epoque one (for example there was "The Knights' Poney-Club", which was a medieval-theme poney-ride). Among the novelties there was a small maquette of the Port of Deauville, a faithful miniature reproduction in which children could drive around mechanical boats.

3 ) Le domaine du Moyen-Âge (The Middle-Ages domain/area)

North of the park, the Middle-Ages domain used to be called "Gargantua the giant", because its main attraction was the huge statue of Gargantua - it was a "scenic route in height". Basically you could climb inside the giant and look at the park from within him - this statue was considered to be part of the "duck architecture" (l'architecture canard) where buildings were made to look like objects or people (for example you could have a building looking like a giant picnic basket).

This area also contained a miniature train station where the park's train, the Mirapolis Express, went. In 1988 they created there "Le Chapiteau de l'épée magic" (The tent of the magic sword), where there was a laser show of medieval theme ; but it was moved to the Legend Land in 1989. Meanwhile, the same year, this medieval area was invested by most of the funfair and carnival-attractions and stands, brought by the carnies: there was a UFO ride (called... UFO) for 48 people ; La Pieuvre (an octopus-ride) ; La Chenille (a Music Express), a Buggy ride ; and "Godbille", a children carousel.

4 ) Le royaume de l'illusion (The Kingdom of Illusions)

Its original title was "The Castle of Spells" - because the titular castle was the main ride of the area. There was also a restaurant called "Les Sortilèges" (Spells, The Spells), and a building called "La tour de Léonard de Vinci" (Leonardo da Vinci's Tower). Within this tower, which was meant to recreate Leonardo's workshop, there was an animatronic show created by Pascal Pinteau: the show was about a painting of king François Ier suddenly coming to life and presenting to the audience Leonardo da Vinci, while making parallels between his inventions and modern day's technology. (There was also a "futuristic character" named Alpha apparently?). The special effects were overseen by Jacques Renoir (the great-grandchild of the painter Auguste Renoir), Leonardo da Vinci was voiced by Jean Topart, and Roger Carel made the voice of the other characters of the show. The animatronic of Leonardo da Vinci was renowned for being very complex and advanced - it was moved by three hundred different motors, which allowed for things such as the animatronic's eybrows to move to mimick emotions.

To the back of the Castle of Spells, there was a rollercoaster named "Le Dragon des sortilèges" (The Dragon of Spells) ; and north to the castle there was Le Labyrinthe - a two-hectar maze inspired by an actual labyrinth of the Middle-Ages. In 1988 a hot-air balloon ride was added.

Now you know how it goes: in 1989, as the park became half-carnival/funfair, a lot of carnival rides were added in the area: Le Grand Huit (Galaxi-type rollercoaster), "Télé Combat Avion" (a plane-themed ride), a ghost train "Geisterburg/Train Fantôme", a "Tagada" (a sort of horizontal platform with a bench all around it facing the inside, and the platform jumped and turned around) - and "Les Cygnes Blanc", a water-ride in swan-shaped boats (once Mirapolis was closed, it moved to the parc Saint-Paul, renowned the Pédalos cygnes).

5 ) La terre de l'aventure (Adventure Land)

West of the park, it was originally called after its main attraction, "La descente des rapides" - going down the rapids of a river on 14 meters-logs (the ride was another spnsorship of Fujifilm). There was a lot of boats-and-water based rides: there was a "tow boat ride" called "La Rivière des Castors" - Beaver River. It took the guests on a water-ride onto thriteen boats, with the shores decorated by beaver figures. There was also a "balancing boat" ride, called "Le bateau pirate" (The Pirates' ship).

When the Club Med took over Mirapolis in 1988, a lot of attractions were added - twelve hot-air balloons ; an inflating castle (La Montagne molle), a gravitron-ride (Le Galion) and a "Bateau pirate junior".

But the most striking part of this area was the Nesquik sponsorized area. It was originally just one specific ride, the "Quick Cup" (also called "La Chocolatière de Groquik"), your usual spinning-cup ride, but with Groquik on the sides of all the cups. However in 1988, the "Groquik area" expended with three more children-rides: Le Mille-Pattes, Le Chemin des tortures (a kiddie train" shaped like turtles), and the Mini-dragons (a plane-jet-ride shaped like dragons - it survived the closure of Mirapolis by becoming the "Manège dragon" of the Parc Saint-Paul before being retired for good in 2009). If you are confused by my mention of "Groquik" let me explain: before Nesquik brought over in France its chocolate-colored bunny as a mascot, France had its own Nesquik mascot called "Groquik". Created in 1978, it was a big, jolly, large yellow hippopotamus with a straw hat (he also doubled as the Greek Nesquik mascot as "Kouikaras") ; but he got officially retired in 1990 because Nesquik realized having a big, fat mascot for their products could mean their products made children fat or obese... So he was replaced by the fit, trim and athletic Nesquik bunny.

6 ) Le Pays des Légendes (Legend Land/ Legend Country)

Its original name was "La ville d'Ys", "The Town of Ys" - once again, because it was the title of the main ride, The City of Ys. [When the name Land of Legends was brought, the attraction became "Voyage sous la mer", "Travel under the sea"]. It was an omnimover scenic-ride that went fourteen meters down below the earth, and made the guests explore the legendary city of Ys - this fabulous lost city of Bretagne supposed to have sunk below the waves. The SFP society designed the monsters and animatronics encountered during this ride, from gigantic invertebrate to a ten-heads hydra. And of course, Dahut was there too - princess, witch and mermaid all at once!

There was an area called "La forêt de Brocéliande" (Broceliand forest), which contained a replica of the Round Table, and a "potager des fées" (The fairies' vegetable garden). There was a lake, and on its shore a tent - a large circus tent that actually welcomed the shows of Annie Fratellini (one of the most famous female clowns). Annie Fratellini also had there a "circus school", that presented to the guests the story of clowns from the 18th to the 20th centuries. In 1988, due to the lack of food-areas, this tent was transformed into a restaurant - it was called le "Camp du Drap d'Or" (The Field of Gold Cloth), in homage to the historical event of the same name. But in 1990, it became once again a clown-area that doubled as "Le Musée des Arts forains", a museum dedicated to funfairs and the art of carnivals.

From the second year of the park onward, there was also a Viking-theme area prepared: a Viking village built near the lake's shores, with a drakkar within the lake's water ; and a "Viking Farm" with farm animals in it. (Plus a Palace of Mirrors/Mirror maze was added there, for some reasons).

7 ) Le paradis des comptines gourmandes

(This one is a mouthful to translate... "The paradise of tasty nursery rhymes" ; "The heaven of sweet-toothed nursery rhymes")

Originally called "Le domaine des enfants" (Children's domain, Children's area), the main building of this zone was "Le Palais de Dame Tartine" - inspired by the French nursery rhyme "Dame Tartine" (Lady Toast, with her "palace of fresh butter"). The Palace itself was divided into several unities, the two most important being a two-hundred places theater ; and a "Gallery of Automatons".

The theater could be reached by going through the sleeve of a gigantic reproduction of Mister Gimblette (Dame Tartine's husband in the nursery rhyme, here crowned with a "galette des rois", the typical dish of the Epiphany). The main show of this theater was a show depicting the four seasons, and partially created by the SFP - it also had René Clermont voicing an owl who told not just the cycle of seasons but also how the world was created ; there were also other automaton-animals, as well as an enormous luminous tree of 450 kilos, made with ten thousand optic fibers. It was due to this tree that the area was sometimes called "Le théâtre de l'Arbre Lumière" (The Theater of the Light-Tree).

As for the Gallery of Automatons, it was also called la "Balade des contes" (A walk through fairytales) - going all around the Theater, this gallery was filled with animatronic animals that activated themselves when a guest came nearby, and these animatronics sang the various legends and folktales of France. Other areas within Dame Tartine's palace included a gigantic kaleidoscope, a pool of plastic balls, and another theater of 500 places.

Outside of the palace, there was also a Music-Express ride called "Caravelles", and "Le Petit Train des comptines" (The Small train of nursery rhymes) - a children ride with two little trains, whose wagons were shaped like rabbits and elephants, and which rode through a vegetable garden with giant vegetables. After the closure of Mirapolis, the Caravelles ride was moved to the Jacquou Parc (Dordogne) and renamed Gabarots.

There was also a later inclusion of a "robot" shaped area added later, during the "funfairification" of the park.

8 ) Le sommet de la grande frousse (The top of great fear / The summit of big fright)

This was actually one of the first areas of the park, just west of the entrance. In fact, during the first year of the park it was called the "Entry zone" and grouped together with the park's entrance - before the entrance and this area were divided. Its main attraction was a roller-coaster called "the Miralooping", famed for being the French roller-coasters with the most loopings at the time. Some newspapers and advertisement also called this roller-coaster the "biggest roller-coaster of France", able to rival the biggest roller-coasters of Europe (though this was apparently not certain and put to doubt?).

There was also a troika-ride called "Le Tourbillon", and most importantly a train station called the "Mirapolis Express", with three trains leaving it to go around the park (with the second train station being located at the foot of the Gargantua statue). There was also a bike-shaped ride opened in 1990 called "Les Vélos drôles" (The funny bikes).

(This picture is not of the Mirapolis park, it is the Saint Paul park - but the white swans you can see were originally those of Mirapolis)

And before leaving you for now, I will share another weird trivia about this weird park. The official logo and symbol of the park was this:

But on all the merch the park sold (such as official Mirapolis clothes), a different logo and symbol was used, and it looked like this:

The idea was that the three faces would embody the three emotions guests were supposed to go through: surprise, joy and wonder.