#verse // we are such stuff as dreams are made on and our little life is rounded with a sleep

[my-timing-is-digital]

Starter for @intergalaxial

Distant stars scintillated timidly in the tenebrous patches of the evening sky. As dusk settled progressively over the Coppelius planet and the sun slunk behind the summits and meandering ridges of the vast mountains, a gentle breeze swept down, writhing frivolously around them. The susurration of the exotic, alien vegetation that ensued, interpolated by the occasional vocalisations of avian and mammalian species were the only factors responsible for disrupting the silence.

The wind tugged diligently at strands of his brown hair while the two androids sauntered down a path that had frequently been utilised by the others, and headed for an undetermined destination. The life he had lived in the quantum simulation had been uneventful and prosaic; it had evoked a perpetual sense of disconnection, of slipping in and out of evanescence... Fortunately, those atrocious days were behind him, and as the harrowing memories bubbled back to the surface, he managed to repress them by glancing at the android walking along side him.

They were the facsimile of the portrait called “Progeny” which he had painted back when he served aboard the Enterprise ⸺ almost three decades ago now. It was compelling Maddox and Altan had derived inspiration from his art and consequently implemented it into a living, sentient being, and not a day would go by wherein he would not be eternally grateful for their attainments.

‘I can imagine the last several days have... confounded you. I know that they have confounded me,’ Data eventually broke the silence, his yellow eyes darting down to Soji. ‘And it is... strange, but even though we have never met, I get the impression that I know you better than any of my dearest friends.’

He contemplated his own statement for a moment.

‘I have been told that they created you with my salvaged memories and a singular positronic neuron, that is ⸺ for lack of a more suitable adjective ⸺ intriguing. However, I am curious... Where do I stop and where do you begin?’

[my-timing-is-digital]

A nod of appreciation followed Arcana’s concurring to educating Data on the subject that constituted the secret handshake. Although he was relatively positive he would never utilise it himself, he was looking forward to acquaint himself with the other androids’ customs.

At, what he inferred was, in all likelihood, an idiom of sorts — one with which he was unfamiliar, obviously —, his light brows huddled together. Despite his upgrade, he had retained the essence of his initial programming — his ineptitude to fathom human speech, something these androids clearly had no trouble with —, and he was grateful that Soong had not meddled extensively and unnecessarily with his original design.

Brand new enquiries were boiling on his tongue, but they were annulled by Soji’s response, by her laughter. His yellow eyes darted to her when she broke the silence with tones of gaiety that carried a smidge of incredulity spurred by the unanticipated turn of events. He was glad that she had managed to derive at least an ounce of humour and perhaps amusement from these unusual circumstances.

‘In due time, I would like to learn more about you,’ he eventually said, his eyes finding Arcana’s again. ‘About all of you,’ Data added, glancing at the others that had gathered around them. ‘Until now, I have never been in the presence of more than one android. However, I have always wished to live among my own kin, to not be alone in the universe anymore.’

Data took the cookie and, after what qualified as a lengthy pause among androids, gave an exceedingly polite answer and asked for instructions. It was absurd, as was the cookie in his hand and Arcana's beaming expression. "Of course, Data," Arcana replied brightly. "I would be happy to instruct you about the secret handshake." "Secret?" Soji repeated, her voice lifted half an octave with her shock. Her head tilted, then, as Data's had and she gave Arcana the most confused look. Arcana, without missing a beat, beamed back at her and politely retrieved the plate of cookies. "Oh yes. Mum is the word," Arcana clarified and that--that was it. That was all the absurdity that Soji could withstand. She tried to stifle the laugh that rose out of her and ended up making a rather unflattering nasal sound as she failed. She didn't care, she couldn't do much apart from laugh. Whether it had been Arcana's intention to do something silly to improve Soji's mood or not, it was impossible to say, but between Picard surviving, Data waking up, and this reception, Soji had run the full spectrum of emotion. She giggled (an act that she would not admit to if pressed) and was abruptly caught up in a bout of it. It was fortunate that Data didn't need her to explain. She couldn't if she tried.

[padfootagain]

Love in Verses (XIX)

Chapter 19: ‘I knew winter cold like the nuzzle of fjords at my thighs’

Hi! Here is new chapter! Today's chapter contains... an update on Saoirse and Sean, a man a little controlling in the kitchen, poetry, and our best boy Elwood!

I hope you like this chapter! Tell me what you think!

****

Pairing: Hozier x fem!reader (professor!AU)

Warnings: slow burn, angst, hurt, hurt/comfort, tooth-rotting fluff in later chapters, some scenes in later chapters will have heavy sexual themes even if it’s not explicit nsfw description, so minors here

Summary: Your life seems perfect. You're engaged, your career is thriving as you become an assistant professor at Trinity College, and this Andrew Hozier-Byrne you're sharing an office with seems to be a nice guy you hope to call a friend soon. Life seems to be smiling at you... until everything goes sour. When your fiancé breaks up with you, your perfect world shatters. And when your colleague also gets his heart broken soon after, your shared office seems to be a curse rather than a blessing. But Andrew seems determined to mend your broken hearts... Will things finally go according to plan?

Word Count: 3119

Masterlist for the series – Hozier’s masterlist – Main masterlist

Bog Queen

I lay waiting between turf-face and demesne wall, between heathery levels and glass-toothed stone. My body was braille for the creeping influences: dawn suns groped over my head and cooled at my feet, through my fabrics and skins the seeps of winter digested me, the illiterate roots pondered and died in the cavings of stomach and socket. I lay waiting on the gravel bottom, my brain darkening, a jar of spawn fermenting underground dreams of Baltic amber. Bruised berries under my nails, the vital hoard reducing in the crock of the pelvis. My diadem grew carious, gemstones dropped in the peat floe like the bearings of history. My sash was a black glacier wrinkling, dyed weaves and phoenician stitchwork retted on my breasts' soft moraines. I knew winter cold like the nuzzle of fjords at my thighs– the soaked fledge, the heavy swaddle of hides. My skull hibernated in the west nest of my hair.

Which they robbed. I was barbered and stripped by a turfcutter’s spade

who veiled me again and packed coomb softly between the stone jambs at my head and my feet.

Till a peer’s wife bribed hil. The plait of my hair, a slimy birth-cord of bog, had been cut

and I rose from the dark, hacked bone, skull-ware, frayed stitches, tufts, small gleams on the bank.

Seamus Heaney, North, 1975

Saoirse reckoned that at this stage, there was more caffeine in her organism than blood, or water, or any other normal component of her body. She was made of cheap coffee, her brain buzzing with chemicals and lack of sleep. At this point, her entire body was trembling…

By her side, Sean wasn’t much better. He had been procrastinating, and now he was paying the price with too much to be done in too little time.

Damn, exam season was something else… A new kind of hell, no doubt…

The library was about to close, that was how late it was. They gathered their stuff five minutes before closing time, and headed for the night. The cold burned Saoirse’s cheeks, although for once it wasn’t raining. It was snowing, instead… how great… she could get frozen and wet…

“Christ’s sake, don’t tell me it’s fucking raining again,” Sean complained behind her.

“It’s snowing.”

“No better. God, my feet are gonna be soaked.”

She looked down at his old boots, the leather visibly tired.

He heaved a sigh.

“Want to eat something before we go to our dorms?”

“A burger. Something that will give me diabetes and cholesterol just by looking at it.”

“Fuck yeah… extra fries too.”

“Of course!”

She almost slipped as they climbed down the few steps leading to the library, and Sean held her hand to steady her. They were both wearing gloves, and yet she felt warmth spread through her fingers as he held her. At the bottom of the steps, they didn’t let go, merely walked across the campus in silence, their feet making the thin layer of white snow crack under each of their steps. It was late, barely anyone was around anymore. Streetlights were tainting the snow a yellowish white, and the world was quieter than usual. It was a special power of the snow to make the world slow down, to make everything quiet. Saoirse was thinking about her exams though, about the book she had to finish for your class, about the notes she had to read again about Yeat’s poetry, and there was this essay she had to finish…

Both of them looked up when a voice rose over the stillness of the night.

“ANDY! LOOK! IT’S FUCKING SNOWING!”

Saoirse recognised you instantly, you were hurrying out of a building, arms spread open and face up to meet the falling snowflakes. You were laughing.

And then another silhouette came out of the same building as you, so tall it was easy to recognise Pr. H-B. He was laughing too, watching you enjoy the snow, his deep voice rumbling through the night.

“I see that,” he nodded, readjusting his man bun under his beanie.

“I hope it won’t melt too fast,” you pouted, looking at the white that covered the grounds, the leaves of the bushes, the empty branches of the trees, the wooden benches. “I want to make a snowman. And a proper one!”

“I want to send a snowball right into your face.”

You exploded with laughter, and he broke into a teasing grin.

“And I thought you were a peaceful lad!” you teased, reaching up to pinch his side, which made him giggle more like a boy than a grown man.

“Never said that I was!”

“You softy…”

You shook your head at him, let the snow fall on your cheeks and your closed eyelids again. Nor you nor Andrew seemed to have noticed Saoirse and Sean though, as they slowly kept on walking across the grounds, looking at their professors’ silly behaviour from afar.

“Christ, I’m freezing… let’s go! I’m starving.”

“So, you’re really going to cook for me tonight?”

“Yeah, I can make you something decent,” Andrew nodded, already turning in the direction of the carpark.

He groaned.

“God, I have to take Elwood for a walk. Fuck…”

“We can go together! It’ll be fun!”

“It’ll be fun to freeze our arses outside? Don’t worry, I’ll do it. You’ll catch your death.”

Saoirse saw you bending over a bench to gather snow in your hand. Not much, but a handful. You crept behind Andrew, went on your tiptoes before pulling on his scarf and pressing the snow against the back of his neck. He yelped, jumping in surprise and cursing like a sailor while he wiggled to get as much snow out of his scarf as he could, while you laughed so hard you were bending over and losing your balance.

“Fuck you!” he groaned, and yet there was a breathy laughter in his voice. “I’ll pay you back for that…”

He hurried towards the nearest bench, gathered some snow as well, but you were running off already, laughing. He ran after you, laughing as well, and managed to throw his snow ball to hit the back of your head. You yelped and doubled with laughter at the contact, but then you slipped, were falling on the icy ground.

Saoirse and Sean both gasped as they saw you falling, but heaved a relieved sigh when Andrew bent down and managed to catch you before you would hit the ground.

“Christ! You’re okay?” he asked with genuine worry, and you looked up at him as he pulled you upright again.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Thanks,” you mumbled as you found back your footing. “That was a nice shot, by the way.”

“One of my many talents, I’m a killer in snowball fights.”

“Your tall arse also must make for a very good target.”

“Depends, I can easily disappear. I just pretend to be a scarecrow, nobody notices me.”

You laughed at that, and so he smiled.

“Let’s go home,” he spoke in a softer tone.

Saoirse noticed that he was still holding onto your arms, she noticed the longing that appeared across his features for a moment when you pulled away, the way he stared at you as you started walking again, babbling about dinner and hoping he wouldn’t poison you. And then he blinked, seemed to find back the use of his muscles, and followed you.

Saoirse stared at the pair of you walking away, a smile forming on her lips.

“What are you thinking about?” Sean asked, noticing mischief in her eyes.

“He likes her.”

“What?”

“H-B. He has a crush on Y/L/N.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Haven’t you seen what just happened? The longing?!”

But Sean blinked, and she heaved a sigh as she pulled him further across the grounds, aiming for the large portal and the busy street of Dublin.

“Men…” she mumbled, shaking her head.

“ELWOOD!”

You had barely passed the door that you knelt to greet Andrew’s dog, generously petting him and complimenting him for no other reason than the fact that he was an incredibly good boy.

You didn’t see the grin on Andrew’s features as he looked at you, the warmth that made his cheeks turn a brighter shade of pink.

“Yes! I’m so happy to see you too! It’s been weeks! I’ve missed you!” you cooed, scratching him behind his ears, and Elwood happily wiggled his tail.

He excitedly licked your hands and cheeks, making you laugh.

“Alright, alright, that’s enough,” Andrew chuckled, bending to scratch his dog’s head as well, diverting his attention so you could stand again.

You made a mental note to buy Elwood a toy, next time you would come over. He was too adorable, deserved all the treats and gifts…

“Alright, I’ll go cook us something.”

“What have you planned?”

“Erm… I can do a decent pasta dish if you want. Like… with a sauce and everything.”

“Hmm… sounds nice!”

You followed him inside, but he stopped as you were ready to enter his kitchen, and turned to you with a serious look on his face.

“I have a rule though. You stay away from the kitchen.”

“What?”

“I don’t like it when people cook with me.”

“Oh… so you are a control freak,” you teased, but he seemed more offended than you had anticipated.

“Of course, not… just… don’t cook with me.”

“So, you’re a control freak, but specifically in the kitchen, then…”

He rolled his eyes, but yielded.

“Alright, maybe I’m a little controlling in the kitchen. I just… like things to be done a certain way. Or maybe I simply have terrible friends when it comes to cooking. You should see the look of those poor vegetables after Alex had ‘cut them’. An outrage, really.”

“I have a special skill though. It’s my superpower.”

He raised an eyebrow, intrigued.

“I can cut fruits and vegetables in perfectly even pieces.”

“What?”

“Like… if I cut an apple in half, it’s almost perfect!”

“So… your superpower is decently chopping fruits and veggies?”

“It is,” you nodded with fake pride, making him laugh.

“I mean… at least, it’s a useful skill!”

“What’s your hidden skill?”

He looked at you for a moment. You could see that he was hesitating, you gave him an encouraging nod. He blushed as he spoke again, his voice growing quiet.

“I can sing.”

You rolled your eyes.

“I already know that! I know you used to write music, I know you still like it. You’ve told me you used to sing in a choir too.”                    

“I sang at Trinity. Anúna.”

“Really? That’s high-level stuff!”

“I still play gigs sometimes.”

Your eyes widened. You couldn’t control your brain as you imagined Andrew standing on stage, singing, looking hot…

You pushed the thought away. Reminded yourself that you were colleagues, friends, and nothing more and this was out of line…

“That’s awesome!”

“Hmm… yeah… I’m playing a gig on Saint Patrick’s day, in fact,” he added, growing increasingly nervous as he went on, he actually turned away from you and started picking up plates and knifes and vegetables throughout his kitchen. “With Alex and the old gang. Erm… and it’s also my birthday, so we’re having a little party about that, nothing fancy, just… a barbecue if the weather allows. You… you could come, if you want to.”

Your heart felt warm at his words, at the thought that he wanted to share this passion of his with you, that he wanted to spend his birthday with you too. You tried to hide how excited you truly were, refusing to look too much like some kind of creep…

“I’d love to come!”

He froze, threw you a side glance, but there was a hopeful smile tugging at his lips.

“Really?” he asked, voice almost a whisper.

“Of course! Sounds like a way to get free beer and get hammered at your expense. Sign me up!”

He laughed at that, but the grateful look he gave you let you know that he wasn’t fooled by your joke.

“Also… are we going to mention that you were born on Saint Patrick’s Day? Like… that is disgustingly patriotic of you,” you teased, leaning your back against the sink so you could stand next to Andrew and look at him.

“Hey, it’s not that bad! Always a day off work, everybody is available, and if they’re not, then they’re just lying gobshites,” he beamed up as you laughed. “Also, my dad pretended the parades were for my birthday as a child.”

“Ha… that explains the size of your current ego…”

He laughed at that, washing tomatoes and stepping closer to you to do so. You didn’t budge though. You tried to ignore that you kind of longed for that sudden proximity…

“Right… I bet I’m insufferable.”

“I mean… you are… just not because of an ego problem,” you smiled at him.

“Because of what kind of problem then?”

You noticed a shift in his tone, and you hated it. You knew he was kind of serious now, that he was growing anxious. You saw it in the way his shoulders bent, how he tried to look smaller than he truly was. You gave him a mischievous grin, made sure he knew you were still joking around.

“You won’t let me show you my unbelievable skill!” you answered, dissolving any trace of stress that was left in the room.

He laughed, standing straighter again, before handing you a knife.

“Alright, show me.”

You made a show at placing the knife on the nearest tomato, and Andrew stared at you with glee, highly entertained by your antics.

“AND…”

You cut the tomato in two fairly even pieces, and Andrew dramatically inspected the fruit. You tried hard not to laugh, but quickly failed.

“Not too bad,” he admitted, poking his tongue against the inside of his cheek.

You threw your fist in the air in victory.

“So… does that mean that I can cook…?”

“Nope!”

You laughed at him, finished cutting the tomato you were still holding. Andrew eyed you for a moment, before sliding some vegetables your way.

You gave him a cheeky grin in return, one that coloured his cheeks with red.

Andrew shooed you out of the kitchen after all the ingredients had been cut though, claiming that you didn’t have a special skill in cooking, but only in cutting, and you yielded after some further teasing; you set up the table, then aimed for his living room while he busied himself with his food, claiming it was almost done. You played with Elwood for a bit, then busied yourself with a meticulous inspection of Andrew’s bookshelves.

A tender smile formed on your lips at his extensive collection of Heaney’s poetry. You picked up North, the collection you had been reading lately. You were not surprised to find traces of many reads on its cover and alongside the pages, with sticky notes here and there. You were not surprised to find the extensive notes slipped between the pages enclosing ‘Come to the Bower’ all through to ‘Strange Fruit’.

“It’s ready!” Andrew called after you, stepping into his living room to bring you back to reality while your eyes travelled through the first verses of the ‘Bog Queen’.

You looked up at him while he approached, tilting his head to the side. There was no animosity in his voice when he spoke, it was soft and warm, on the contrary.

“It’s impolite to snoop around.”

“I’m only assessing your taste.”

“And? Your conclusion?”

You smiled up at him.

“Not too bad.”

He chuckled, but there was something tender in his gaze. Something that made your heart skip a beat.

He bent a little to see what book you were still holding, he hummed as he nodded.

“I do love Heaney a lot,” he admitted.

“I know. I’ve started reading his poetry again, you know?”

“Really? What made you pick it up again?”

“You.”

His relaxed smile faltered, and for a moment, you cursed yourself, thinking you had been too direct, that you had spoiled everything. But then you noticed that he was blinking, saw his eyes shining a little while he averted his gaze.

When he spoke, his voice was so soft you could barely hear it, deeper than usual too, it made your heart beat faster, shook your frame with a shiver.

“That’s… that’s really fucking nice, Y/N. That… that you did that.”

“I saw the books sitting on my shelf the other day, and I know how much you love these poems. It made me think of you. So… I’ve started reading them again.”

Slowly, Andrew nodded, before he would clear his throat.

“Thank you,” he repeated, although you weren’t too sure of what he was thanking you for. It seemed natural to you.

“I see you have a lot to say about bog bodies, and I am not surprised,” you added, showing the pieces of paper tugged safely between the pages.

Andrew chuckled, rubbing at his neck as he grew a little uncomfortable.

“Right… yeah… I do love those an awful lot.”

“Hmmm… I had guessed. Actually… we should discuss them! That would be fun!”

It was your time to avert your eyes now, though, to grow uncomfortable. Fun? To you, perhaps, but Frank had showed you time and time again that nobody else was interested in talking about these things…

“God! Yes! What do you want to talk about? Like… the macabre aspect of it? The political side? The mythical side?”

When you looked up at Andrew, he was grinning, excited like a little child in a candy store. His hand was slightly shaking when he pushed his glasses up his nose again.

“Oh, and… you know, I’ve bought the Divine Comedy too!”

“What?” you asked, taken aback by the sudden change of subject.

“Yeah, I just… I… saw it at the bookstore the other day, and you love it, so I wanted to give it another try, and we have so many points to discuss! I’m almost done, not quite though, but there are so many elements that I want to go through with you… Like…”

He stopped his rambling as you blinked up at him. You must have looked stupid, while you tried to register what Andrew meant.

He had bought that book to read it… because you loved it. Just so he could… talk about it with you… without you recommending it to him or lending him the book, he just… He saw it. Thought of you. Bought it simply because of you. Read it because of you. And now he wanted to discuss it with you…

You blinked tears away. It was ridiculously simple and yet… no one had ever done that. Frank had definitely never done that for you…

“I… I’d love to talk about that with you,” you spoke in a softer voice, a grin slowly forming across your lips.

You were staring at each other for a moment, your hands still holding one of his favourite books, his eyes fixed on yours. God, his eyes… the green that dominated the brown tonight, like leaves on a summer afternoon, vivid and bathed with gold… you couldn’t look at anything else in the room, in the world, in your life…

You noticed that the space between your faces was slowly diminishing. You noticed that Andrew wasn’t that tall anymore, or rather, that he was bending closer. Closer. Closer…

You felt something bump hard into your leg, making you lose your balance for a second, although you recovered almost instantly. When you looked down, Elwood was staring up at you, waiting for your attention.

You laughed, scratching his head.

“The food is going to get cold,” Andrew mumbled under his breath, and you tried to ignore how much he was blushing now. You carried the book in the kitchen as you followed him, Elwood in toe.

God, had you dreamt this? Had Andrew tried to kiss you? Were you… were you ready to let him?

[bellaturner]

I Wanna Be Yours

I suck at titles, sorry 🥹

i'm not sure what this is, it doesn't have smut but its also not fluff (?)

Summary: you always had a crush on Alex, but he's your big brother's friend so you try to hide your feelings.

Warnings: none? (soft dom Alex if you squint a lot)

1,1k words (it was supposed to be a blurb, help)

Part 2 ✧ Masterlist

*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

The final verses of "R U Mine?" reverberated through the venue, creating an electric atmosphere. As the lights dimmed, you joined the rest of the band at the side of the stage, soaking in the energy of the crowd.

"Hey, Bear!" you exclaimed, jumping into your brother's arms and giving him a tight hug. "Congrats, Matt. You killed it!"

"Thanks, little demon," he chuckled, hugging you back. Matt, your older brother, was always close to you.

Having graduated from high school the previous year, you were still figuring out your path in life. So when Matt offered you the opportunity to join the Arctic Monkeys on their AM tour, you jumped at the chance. Who could say no to traveling the world, experiencing new places, and immersing yourself in live music almost every night? It was a dream come true, and the best part was being close to Alex, the man who made your heart skip a beat.

"You guys rocked it too!" you yelled, offering a smile to Nick and Jamie, who were enjoying a well-deserved break with cans of beer from the minibar in the corner.

You noticed Alex was missing. It was his habit to disappear for a good twenty minutes after shows, needing time to decompress.

Matt led you to the private rooms at the back of the venue. "Come on, trouble," he grinned, guiding you. "We need to gather our stuff. The bus leaves in an hour."

"Roger that, Captain!" you playfully responded, eagerly following him. Every second of this experience felt like a thrill, and you were grateful to Matt for bringing you along. The entire journey was incredible, but being able to spend time close to Alex was undoubtedly the highlight for you.

Your heart had always belonged to him, but you knew the boundaries that existed. Alex Turner, the charismatic front man and sexiest man alive, was older than you and one of your brother's closest friends. In reality, he was unattainable, being your only in dreams.

As you opened the door to the room, ready to gather your belongings for the next destination, you froze. There, seated on the sofa, was Alex. He appeared lost in thought, his hair styled back with a single strand teasingly falling on his forehead, adding to his undeniable appeal.

"Oh, fuck! I'm so sorry, Alex," you stammered, preparing to leave and give him his space.

"Don't worry about it, Y/N," he reassured you with a warm smile.

"I'll just grab my things and be out of your way in a second," you said, hurrying to pack up your makeup, which had been scattered during the band's final rehearsal.

"Well, take your time. You've already ruined my night," he joked, breaking the tension in the room.

That had become your dynamic over the years. Playful banter and teasing served as a mask for the feelings that simmered beneath the surface. It was a coping mechanism, a way to hide your emotions and maintain a sense of normalcy.

"That's for not playing my favorite tonight, mister," you shot back, a mischievous grin forming on your lips.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Is the little Helders' princess upset?" he retorted, mockingly pouting.

"Shut up, Turner!" you laughed, attempting to finish packing your makeup bag. However, your clothes were scattered all around the room.

You plopped down on the floor, gathering the articles of clothing and stuffing them into your bag. Your eyes wandered the room, searching for the dress you had worn earlier.

"Alex, have you seen my dress?" you asked.

"This one?" he said, holding up the fabric from the sofa beside him.

"Yep, that's the one," you replied, extending your arms toward him. "Throw it over, will ya?"

He playfully balled up the dress and tossed it in your direction, making you giggle.

"Found this as well," Alex whispered, his voice low and filled with an intensity that sent shivers down your spine and made you look up.

Your eyes widened as you saw him holding your bra by the strap in his hand. Heat rushed to your cheeks, a mix of embarrassment and arousal. You got up and reached for it.

"Not so fast, miss," he teased, pulling his hand back.

You let out an exasperated sigh, trying to regain your composure. "Alex, seriously? Can you just give it back?" you muttered.

His gaze held a mischievous glint as he got up and closed the distance between you, his hand still holding your bra captive. You could feel his breath on your face, sending a tingling sensation down your spine.

"Beg for it," he whispered playfully, his voice filled with a seductive undertone.

Rolling your eyes, you decided to play along. "Oh, please, dear sir, may I have my undergarment back?" you exaggeratedly pleaded, adding a touch of theatricality to your request.

He chuckled, his eyes sparkling with amusement. "Well, since you asked so nicely," he said, relinquishing your bra and handing it over with a flourish.

You snatched it from him, attempting to maintain a composed facade. "Thanks," you mumbled, turning away to pack it into your bag, hoping to hide the flustered expression on your face.

Alex's playful nature always sparked a connection between you, blurring the lines of your friendship. Though you enjoyed the light-hearted banter, it sometimes made you question the true nature of your relationship.

With your belongings finally in order, you glanced at Alex, who was standing there with a lopsided grin. The tension between you was palpable, a mixture of unspoken desires and hidden emotions.

"Are you done teasing me now?" you quipped, trying to regain your composure.

He leaned in closer, his voice dropping to a low, husky tone. "Teasing you? Oh, love, you have no idea what I'm capable of."

"Come on, Alex, cut it out," you said, flustered.

"Baby, I've noticed the way you look at me when you think I'm not watching," he confessed, his breath warm against your skin. "All this playful rudeness? Do you think you can fool me?"

"I don't know what you're talking about, Alex," you protested, your hands trembling slightly.

"But I think you do, sweetheart," he whispered, his voice filled with desire.

"Alex, I can't. You're Matt's friend and…" your words trailed off as Alex's lips crashed onto yours.

His lips were soft yet demanding, and without hesitation, his tongue explored the depths of your mouth. You responded eagerly, letting all the suppressed feelings for him surge to the surface. There was no denying your desire.

Caught up in the moment, Alex's grip tightened, his fingers tangling in your hair. A soft moan escaped your lips as the kiss deepened, and all rational thought faded away.

"Hey, Y/N, have you seen my—"

Matt's voice abruptly cut through the air, freezing both you and Alex in your tracks. The room fell into an uncomfortable silence as Matt's gaze locked onto the scene before him. His expression turned from confusion to anger in a matter of seconds.

"What the fuck is going on here?" his voice was filled with disbelief.

*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

Hiii!

Sorry for taking forever to post a new fic, I've been having a rough time lately (I have a thousand drafts but can't finish any of them lol).

This was a request by 💐anon, I hope you like it babee 💕

~ Bella

[jeweledstone]

The Labyrinth-verse aka In which my Peppino plush goes through a several dream long character arc that has a lotta bizarre and kinda disturbing implications

DATE(S) FORGOTTEN

Okay, for context, here’s a pic of the boi, he exists, I bought him off of Fangamer a few whiles back, look at him.

He didn’t have the ribbon on his hat during the events of these dreams tho, that’s a more recent edition.

Now onto the dreams and stuff.

This…”series” takes place over 4 or 5 different dreams and takes place in a universe I’ve come to call “The Labyrinthverse”, named after a backrooms like area that was in said verse called The Labyrinth. There were many entrances to The Labyrinth hidden in multiple locations around that specific part of the universe I was in, the first of which was found in a fancy restaurant I went to with my dad in the first dream (which was the only Labyrinth dream that didn’t have Pep in it, mostly cause I didn’t have him yet at that time.)

The Labyrinth itself was made up of many levels full of these zombie-like people who would try to attack you if they found you, with said zombies becoming more dangerous the deeper in you got. Luckily, you could also find various weapons and resources in The Labyrinth that could help you survive, and maybe even escape.

For some reason a lotta people in that verse would actively seek out the entrances to it for reasons I still am not sure of. Maybe they believe some sort of treasure or reward laid in its depths, or perhaps they just did it for the thrill of it all.

Anyway, going back to the plot summary bullshit. A few months or something after this first dream when my Peppino plush was still new to my plushie hoard (as well as the whole traveling with me to other universes via my dreams thing, which he was at first a little reluctant towards but soon warmed up to). This was when I found another entrance to The Labyrinth inside a dying mall. I remember Pep being extremely anxious about being in The Labyrinth and wanting to leave as soon as possible. I remember there were these unreasonably complex puzzles that were blocking our only way out and having to use my reality warping powers to solve them. (Would’ve taken hours to finish them the “vanilla” way and ain’t nobody got time for that)

It was around then when we encountered these two women who turned out to be the kinda-sorta “final bosses” of the Labyrinth who basically controlled the entire place. I guess something about me “solving” the puzzle so quickly got there attention, cause usually you can only find the controllers at the very depths of the Labyrinth, which looks like a combination of a theatre and Hell itself.

And to make a long story short, this ritual of sorts ended up happening that created these fucked up clones of me and my Peppino plush called Bent!Neo and Bent!Peppino who ended up becoming the new “rulers” of The Labyrinth.

Idk why or what my reasoning it was for it, but for the rest of the Labyrinth Arc my goal was basically to find my way back to the very bottom of the Labyrinth and kill Bent!Neo. I think it was cause I thought doing that would destroy the Labyrinth, thus freeing anyone trapped in it but I’m not quite sure.

I remember that a few dreams later in the series, my Peppino plush’s soul ended up getting “stuck” inside the Labyrinthverse and I ended up having to go back to sleep to retrieve him. During this dream, Bent!Peppino started helping me behind Bent!Neo’s back, telling me where my Pepp was and helping me find him so he could “go home” so to speak. The reason for this was because while the Bent versions of us were in control of the Labyrinth, Bent!Pepp began to remember things.

Things that definitely weren’t from the Pizza Tower verse.

Things… from a past life in the verse The Labyrinth is in.

Turns out that (according to the dreams I had) before my Peppino plush existed, his… soul? Consciousness? Existed as the spirit of this guy who lived in the Labyrinthverse and ended up dying and eventually “possessing” the plush, thus giving Pepp sentience. Apparently the reason Bent!Pepp was able to learn this before the regular Pepp did was because his former self’s SON, named Benny ended up in the Labyrinth, where I guess they somehow crossed paths, thus causing him to remember his past life.

Bent!Peppino insisted on helping me defeat Bent!Neo as long as I promised to help my Peppino remember who he used to be and also make sure Benny would make it out of the Labyrinth alive.

It all reached a climax when I ended up teaming up with Benny and basically defeating Bent!Neo once and for all. Because of this, the Labyrinth was put into a dormant state of sorts, regular Peppino finally remembers his past life, and blah blah blah happy ending, you get it. For some reason, even though Bent!Neo and the Labyrinth were gone, Bent!Peppino was still around, and ended up deciding to stay in that verse with his kid.

For a while, that seemed to be the end of The Labyrinth arc and my journeys in it, until a more recent dream where I ended up back in that verse. Turned out, Bent!Neo wasn’t completely destroyed in that final battle, but instead was now left as an unstable blob of sorts, hellbent on getting their revenge against me. Luckily for me, I haven’t seen anything of him or that verse since then, so I guess that’s all she wrote so to speak.

But yeah, that’s all I have to say. I procrastinated on finishing the draft of this post WAY TOO HARD so it’s now been months since this arc of my dreams has ended. Hopefully y’all still enjoyed it nonetheless! :)

I have a bit more dream lore stuff to catch y’all up on, so be sure to stay tuned for more of this in the future if you enjoyed this little rambling

[vangold]

As promised here comes the first chapter - or better said actually the Prologue Chapter of The Grand Escape :3

Heh, been a while since I did this bit. Yet I'm still rather satisfied how the coloring turned out. Not perfect, but I think I hit the pattern pretty much on point. Color patterns and the drawing medium in general are gonna be a big part of this comic series. We're gonna hopp through quite a few Universes during Syrus' story and I must say I always loved this idea of each Verse having a bit of a different color pattern, medium or even drawing style. I was already experimenting around a bit with this kinda stuff during An Ideal Brother - giving each Verse a major color. Here however I'm going a few steps further, as you can see both on Jazztale at the end - where I mainly used it's usual good old ink and Farber Castel-Pit Marker combo and Blue Falls, that was just almost only made with my good old vibrant af Ecolines. Yes, I said Blue Falls. This actually isn't just Gravity Falls with Bill Cipher masquerading as Sans it is its very own Undertale/Gravity Falls crossover verse. We might get to see a little bit more of this in the future ;)

For now, you might wonder what Bill did there anyway to our unfortunate Star Sanses? In terms of Ink easily explained. As you probably know as 'em Undertale Multiverse veterans you are Ink basically is a Hollow who however is able to experience feelings by absorbing colors of ink. This can be easily abused tho, just like Bill did here be throwing WAY too many different, unfitting colors at once after him. In other terms, he has to fight down an overstimulation over there.

In terms of Dream in the meantime: While he needs the happy and positive sentiments like we need food, those feelings usually don't affect Dream. Otherwise he would be constantly high on an overdose of serotonin.......which is the situation we have here. Which is why he ends up puking out his own life source.

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Main Cover

Chapter 1

Chapter 2 - Coming soon (You can get early access to the already done pages on my patreon!)

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--- Other Comics related to this one: ---

An Ideal Brother

Jazztale

Much Ado About Nothing

The Trial

--- Wanna support your humble artist? ---

| Deviant Art | Ko-Fi | Patreon | Instagram | Bluesky | YouTube | Cara | IO |

[sleepsonfutons]

20 questions for fic writers!

Ope it's double tag time >:D thanks @spockandthings & @bazzybelle for the tags~

This one's got length to it so get the scoop under the cut lol

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

Shoot, how many do I have... let's see now... ooooh, that'd be 18!!

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

Eyyyy 104,261 since I started posting last year :3

3. What fandoms do you write for?

The Sandman and The Witcher, though mostly Sandman so far lol

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

hmmmm, those would be...

In Awe, I Stand -> 370 kudos

Dream of the Dark -> 226 kudos

My Comfort. Your Touch. -> 216 kudos

Every Inch of Me -> 161 kudos

Starlight, Star-Bright -> 139 kudos

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I do my best to, yes indeed! That doesn't always means it happens though cuz life and energy and honestly attention-span...but I read every single comment I get and cherish them. They are bright spots in my day and I like to share the joy I've been gifted with the person who gave it when I'm able 💖

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Ohoho that's gotta be Don't Ask Me To Say Goodbye!! I have Plans for that AU, but as it currently stands it's angst-central with only heartbreak~

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Most of my fics have happy endings I wanna say, but happiest has got to be a toss-up between Starlight, Star-Bright and My Comfort. Your Touch. They're both super soft, self-indulgent delights :3

8. Do you get hate on fics?

*knocks on wood* nah

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

I do [hellmo.gif] How do you feel about potatoes? (but also like relatively "normal" stuff: butt stuff, mouth stuff, touching stuff, eldritch stuff, basically a variety of different stuff >;3 LOL)

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?

Not so far, though I'd not be opposed to writing one.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

*knocks on wood again* not that I know of!

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

nope, but open invite to anyone who might want to! Just give me a shout when you're done cuz I'd love to see~

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

HECK YE!!!! @phinofthestorm is outstanding and I literally can't say enough nice things about writing with her! The amount of time we've spent on the same brainwave with our collab fic As a Stranger I Know Myself has been mindblowing and fantastic!

14. What’s your all time favorite ship?

Honestly, I'll never get over GrimmIchi (Bleach) I don't think lol. The nostalgia factor is unbeatable at this point.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

Truss Me Up But Never Leave Me Hanging probably fits the bill best, much to my chagrin. It was meant to be a canon-verse Dreamling shibari fic, but *vague handwaving* I wound up getting in my head over whether I could write it to the level of accuracy/quality I feel it deserves

16. What are your writing strengths?

Setting the scene? aka "purple prose" and metaphors

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Concise, "non-flowery" writing in general and dialogue

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

I mean if it makes sense, idk why not. Only caveat to that is if it's not a language you speak yourself, definitely get someone who does speak that language to proof it!

19. First fandom you wrote for?

The Witcher with the bday fic I wrote for my bestie: Where You Least Expect It

20. Favorite fic you’ve written?

Dang, twist my arm why don't'cha... Sheesh favorite fic I've written... I love 'em all honestly, but I reckon Along the Garden Path, We Meet. It's just a short little thing though Dream being a lil shit to Hob early on, before even their first centennial meeting in 1489, absolutely sends me every time.

Woooo we made it to the end! Now to torment tag to join the fun with 0-whole pressure @seiya-starsniper @phinofthestorm @mentallyinvernation @certifiedbisexualdisaster @blueberrymffn @gabessquishytum @delta-pavonis @aquabluejay

[my-timing-is-digital]

A nod of endorsement intertwined with a sliver of appreciation proceeded the Captain’s statement. Simultaneously, his mind wandered off to his best friend, Geordi. How would he respond to the inexplicable regeneration of the android’s holographic facsimile? And the others. How would they respond?

    ‘Thank you, Captain,’ Data replied softly, his voice filled with gratitude.

    While his auditory sensors perceived and his subroutines processed Picard’s elucidation regarding his reactivation, albeit holographic in nature, the android shuffled the cards with exquisite dexterity. Diligently, his pale, slender digit slithered in-between the deck of cards, dividing it into two equal stacks. When the edges of the cards were adequately interlaced, his sinewy hands pushed them upward, until they assumed a bridge-like formation. His thumbs pressed down on the arch and maintained their position while the rest of his fingers released the tension exercised on the cards, which fell down in a cascade pattern. The technique he employed was commonly referred to as the “riffle shuffle”; a most effective method, one he frequently utilised — oftentimes in combination with other shuffling techniques — when he had been appointed or volunteered to be the dealer. He shuffled the cards with celerity and precision —two salient hallmarks of an android —, and repeated the sequence seven times before he was positive the cards were sufficiently randomised. 

    ‘That is a remarkable story, but the course of events is most improbable. I find it difficult to believe that my engrams were successfully salvaged from among the debris of the Borg ship. Although my positronic brain and cranial unit are protected by a layer of secondary shielding, which is initiated in the event of a power surge, an explosion of such a magnitude should have disintegrated even the most infinitesimal components of my design. It is peculiar that it somehow did not,’ he said sceptically, but the mystery pertaining to the restoration of his sentience evoked an unquenchable determination to investigate this conundrum and ascertain what precisely had transpired.

    After the establishment of the ante, the android dealt the cards — five per person. His hand was not in his favour, but he had developed an immaculate poker face, one that was capable of defeating Commander Riker; a feat that was the pinnacle of his poker-related accomplishments.

    ‘Sir, I am curious. Why do you prioritise a game of poker over updating the rest of the crew regarding my condition?’ he enquired, a smidge of genuine curiosity lingering in his words. ‘Is there a particular reason why you have opted to postpone this revelation?’

and to find just one other seems to be the goal of everyone

[autisticempathydaemon]

hi!!! here’s my responses to the ask thing lol

have fun!! tyt <3

* ceilings- lizzie mcalpine: verse 2, the chorus and outro! because first of all, the second verse is so pretty and it reminds me of the listener of the verge accident; the chorus because it’s so relatable to me for personal reasons; the outro because it’s so beautiful and i love how it feels like a coming of age moment out of a movie

* type six- the loyal guardian

* kind of, i don’t know if these count but i love watching long documentaries on true crime or the life of artists who passed away

* i’m not sure if i had one tbh; i did. have a great imagination and played outside a lot as a kid, but i don’t remember having an imaginary friend

* i need some sort of sound and a little bit of light to fall asleep; i hate total silence and i don’t like being in complete darkness; as of over a year now i usually fall asleep to redacted sleep aids if i’m not tired enough

* interesting question; idk if i’d change my name now, but if i did it would probably be something unique like Aline (which is my lovely’s name actually!) fun fact when i was younger i did wanna change my name to Skylar for some reason

* THIS IS TOO HARD I HAVE SO MANY FAVORITES- ughhhh my top favorite is a tie between probably huxley’s confession audio, and the recent avior audio; huxley because the bridging and relationship is beautiful, and avior because i love the storyline and relationship too

* blake. like i see so many blake apologists and i’m like w h y ? i ofc listen to his audios because of the plot, and the sleep aid is actually good, but i just don’t understand the hype about a dude who kidnapped people, whether it was to save his friend or not.

* it’s a mix of the maze runner and the hunger games, i grew up with it so of course i know it. also all of the hsm movies and most og disney channel movies- i love them to this day.

* i would LOVE to be friends with asher, he just seems like the kind of guy you’d go to for ANYTHING, whether it’s to hang out or to rant about the bad stuff going on in you’re life; i’d love to have him as a friend!

* this is something i haven’t thought about- i think i rant about the kind of day i’m going to have tomorrow?

* coca-cola slurpee, a water and a sweet and salty combo, like a kit kat and these guac chips i love

* my fav playlist is one i made with all 5sos and 1D songs…

* tiktok, i gave into it in quarantine and now i’m addicted.

* well, i’m an aries, i’m 5’7, i love video games and musicals, and my love language is a mix of physical touch and quality time :)

Everything here- the enneagram type, the movie choices, the music taste, even the boys you don’t like- wants me to point you in the direction of our favorite best friend turned boyfriend, dreamwalker, Elliott.

I don’t know about you, but, for me, DCOMs and One Direction are so wonderfully nostalgic; they remind me of, like, youth and high school and all that comes with it. Elliott also gives me that vibe, of something slash someone that’s comfortable and joyful and timeless, that continues to brighten up your life. Your relationship would be so full of love and long car rides screaming What Makes You Beautiful and sending silly Tiktoks instead of good morning texts and outdated Cadet Kelly references only the two of you understand.

That’s also why I like him for you as a Type Six, as Sixes tend to desire support and security in life and a partner, someone they can rely on. Elliott, both as a friend and a partner, is immensely dependable and caring. He would always be looking out for you, and honestly? Man’s was- what, the top of his class at Dream Manipulation something or other? He’s a big shot. He could support you emotionally and financially, and that’s attractive.

Song:

Soft shock, put a spring in my step/ We touch and it's static/ This love's cinematic/ Where does dreaming end and waking begin?

I thought really hard about choosing a 1D song for this, but I wanted to pick something new. Also, I’ve been holding onto this song, just waiting for someone to get Elliott, and I will not let this opportunity pass me by. It’s a little lofi, a little pining and sweet… it even mentions dreaming. It was made for y’all!

Runner-Ups:

Huxley works really well with both your Ennegram type and love languages; I stick by him being a fantastic match for a Six, and I can’t imagine anyone better to receive Physical Touch from than him. Guy, I like for you because I one hundred percent believe that man genuinely, unironically loves a good boy band and isn’t ashamed to admit it.

Note: tiktok got us all during quarantine I feel that

Read this post and send me an ask if you’d like a match-up of your own! 💌

[my-timing-is-digital]

@elaleph continued from [ x ]

Despite his ostensible reprimand, the android scratched the synthetic feline affectionately behind the ear, ruminating over Agnes’ issued concerns; constructing accurate interpretations relative to human rationality far exceeded his field of expertise, regardless of having co-existed with them for approximately 40 years, prior to his destruction in the Bassen Rift. Perhaps Altan’s threat was, indeed, depleted of substance, of solidity, but on the other hand, if Spot’s acute hunting propensity was propelled by a deficiency in her algorithm, Altan might take her offline until he had resolved the problem...

A soft melodic hum vibrated in his vocal processor, diverting his attention to Agnes.

‘That is difficult to determine — I have discovered that Altan has a proclivity for utilising ambiguous semantics. However, it is a conceivable probability,’ Data mused softly, glancing back down to the feline. ‘But that is the thing, Agnes, it is not; she is an artificial lifeform programmed to emulate the behavioural patterns of an authentic feline. Her algorithms can easily be... tweaked if desired.’

Frankly speaking, he did not approve of his own phrasing, but it was true, and the only way to circumvent such modifications that would deprive Spot of her feline qualities was to prevent her from obliterating, from mauling Altan’s valuable butterflies. Data liked the synthetic cat precisely as she was; she frequently initiated evocations of the Spot he had had back on the Enterprise, and who had exhibited a similar impulse to cause deliberate destruction...

Agnes’ reminder regarding the challenge, and the subsequent proposition regarding the time limit, momentarily distracted him from Spot’s irrevocable penalty should she violate Altan’s directives one more time.

‘That sounds like a reasonable time window,’ he agreed, nodding his approval. ‘Spot, you are coming with me — no more chasing after butterflies for you today,’ he added definitively.

He looked down at the cat, her pupils were dilated and fixed on a focal point that resided outside the android’s peripheral vision (another butterfly perhaps?). A small smile, barely discernible, lingered on his lips for a fraction of a second before he pressed a soft kiss to Spot’s cranium.

‘I sincerely hope our new or altered inventions will appeal more to her than Altan’s butterflies,’ Data said, his chartreuse eyes darting back up to Agnes.

[phoenix-of-jade]

69 daddieeeee @angelxai

In honor of SPOTIFY WRAPPED,  send me a number 1-100 and I’ll write you a starter based on the song.

Song number 69: Din cauza ta (Eng: Because of you) by Nicole Cherry feat Carla's Dreams

(Verse 1) It's not because of you, but thanks to you That I want to experience what love really is and not just its theory So much, so much, so much, I loved you so much, more than I can show

Looking out the giant windows of the study, whiskey glass in hand, Xuan couldn't help but think back to his harsh words he used earlier in the argument with Ai. He didn't like it and he hated himself more than anything for the way he acted and reacted towards her, for having made those beautiful black orbs of her fill with tears. But it couldn't have been helped... It was too late to take things back now, especially now that everything was said and done: he'd gotten angry out of his own stupid frustration and lashed out at her for Ai having came to him yet again to complain about her suitors, even if at the end of the day it wasn't the poor girl's fault that he still wasn't brave enough to tell her how he truly felt about her.

I'd rather have you as a mere spectator To applaud those tears that hurt, And I did wish for us to be the main actors of this story But now...

In fact, given their friendzone status, Ai couldn't have known that bringing up her love life would piss him off, since friends do this kind of stuff all the time, asking each other for advice. But what she didn't know, or at least hadn't realized yet, was that Xuan didn't really view her solely as a friend. In fact, the man was madly in love with her, and that ever since they were in University. But given his stubborn and cocky nature, he was too proud to admit to his own feelings, and thus, Xuan kept everything to himself in the hopes that they'll just fade away. After all, he was a criminal and this life wouldn't have allowed for them to be together happily in that way. It was too risky for her, too dangerous! And yet....

(Verse 2) We wanted to go our separate ways I want loud days, you want whispered ones Your sand is like quicksand I'm slowly drowning in it, but we end up drowning together (...) You don't dream of me, but I want to appear in your dreams

For the most part it worked, ignoring his own feeling that is, until little by little his own jealousy started to get the better of him... The desire to reclaim what was rightfully his growing with every little recollection Ai would tell him about about her dumbass boyfriend wannabes who, in Xuan's opinion, did not deserve her. Not to mention the conflicting feelings and desires she constantly managed to awaken in him with her teasing. Even if he didn't show it openly, Ai's naughty ways of playing with his limits and attempts at turning him on were like a fucking torture for the green eyed man. It only made it harder for him to oppose the urge of acting on his own feelings.

After all, who else could've been a better suitor for her than him? In the end, Xuan was the one who had her first and even if she didn't fully remember that night back in Uni, he did... And he thought of it ever since...

But at the same time, Xuan was aware that if Ai didn't love him back, which he was truly unsure and confused about, given her contradicting behavior, trying to pull advances on her would've risked ruining their friendship, which he didn't want. It was soo goddamn frustrating!

(Verse 3) Free, or shackled in chains, yeah Without me you've forgotten how to sigh in pleasure You've chosen for me to stay an echo about us and for you Free, or chained firmly by our hands, yeah Without me you've forgotten how to sigh in pleasure You've made mistakes again and again But I can't fix myself without you

Back then it all felt soo clear and simple when it came to getting what he wanted. All it took was for Ai to get drunk and she was at his fingertips, begging on her knees for his touch and professing her undying love for him. Maybe he did wrong too back then by taking Ai up on her request, just like that knowing fully well that Ai wasn't sober, but they were both young and stupid and he was a fucking jerk back then. But damn! That must've been one of the best nights in Xuan's entire existence! Ai was perfect, sublime and sensual... The best woman he'd ever had and who knows, maybe he loved her even back then and that was what made it even better?

Xuan sighed and downed another glass of whiskey, trying to dim the pain and frustration. If only she could remember it too and make things easier for him... Xuan sucked when it came to anything that had to do with feelings and love because that was uncharted territory for him and now, because of his own weakness and incapability, he ended up screwing things up. If only he wasn't this broken inside... If only... He could actually tell her how he felt...

(Chorus) Because of you, something is happening In my body's chemistry and in my life I'll bear your name At the cost of hurting my own lips Because of you, The glass is full to the brim I've dreamt for too long and lived far too little Biting my own lips Wishing for those wounds And what if you're telling me isn't what you truly feel Then we aren't together, we aren't together

A bitter-sweet chuckle escaped Xuan's lips, as he placed his fist against the window, frowning at his own reflection. "Hah... I guess you've truly ended falling in love with her in the end... You stupid idiot." He reprimanded himself and bit his lip. He was too far gone to pull back now: he wanted Ai and he was tired of holding back in the fear that he could've lost her. This wasn't a way for Xuan to live anymore: if he kept reacting like this because of his feelings of jealousy every time he'd see Ai with another man, he was going to end up hurting both her and his own feelings more than if he were to simply put an end to it all by confessing his love and being rejected. "I guess it's all or nothing... I can't keep on doing things like this! I've reached my own limit..." With that said, the man turned towards the table, placing the empty glass on the desk, and with a deep breath, Xuan took out his phone and dialed Ai's number.

"Ai..." Her name slipped like a whispered prayer off his lips once he heard her tearstained voice on the other end. "I'm sorry... We... We need to talk. I need to tell you something important... Face to face... Soo, can you come over, please? I promise I won't scream at you this time or ever again for that matter..."

Now the ball was rolling and all he could do was wait and see the result.

[my-timing-is-digital]

Despite the late (or early, depending on one's preferred interpretation of time) hour, Data explored the station's vicinity. An electric storm was bellowing in the distance; dark clouds shrouded the ridges of barren mountains that had been discernible minutes ago. Coppelius had some interesting weather patterns; the condition of the sky overhead was pristine and littered with billions of stars, starkly contrasting the violence rampaging in the mountains.

After sauntering around the facility for more than 30 minutes, and evaluating on all the events that had proceeded his reactivation, the android caught his mind drifting off to his daughter. Instinctively, his gaze lifted up to the unostentatious establishment, genuinely wondering whether she had successfully managed to render herself in a state of unconsciousness, or that she was still struggling to rest. They had had extensive conversations regarding the incidents that had transpired, and he was aware that these incidents would pester her for many nights to come. A superficial furrow grazed his forehead in a contemplative manner. Perhaps Soji was still awake, unable to fall asleep? Would she appreciate his company? But what if she was asleep? He did not wish to rouse her from the rest she so desperately required... But what if she was haunted by nightmares? He had experienced nightmares, and he had not been particularly fond of those either... He could check up on her, quietly. Just to confirm that she was alright.

Deftly, he ascended the stairs to the station's ground floor and continued to climb up, utilising another staircase in the hallway. When he arrived on the landing and crossed the stretch of grey concrete to her room, a glance outside informed him that the storm was drawing near. Although it was a fascinating sight to behold, he did not linger to observe the natural phenomenon and proceeded to Soji's room. However, the door to her room stood ajar and, upon closer investigation, the room itself was empty, apart from the furniture — not even Spot had taken the liberty to remain unified with the pillows... Curious...

A moment of deep rumination passed. He could, of course, search the entire station for her, or he could try to extrapolate her whereabouts on the basis of her personality and customs. However, activating his infrared sensors would prove to be much more efficient and beneficial. Within a fraction of a second, Data switched to infrared and commenced scanning the floor for residual traces of thermal inconsistencies. He found footprints originating from two sources (three if he included his own). Infinitesimal flecks of discolouration indicated the light tread of a small, four-legged creature — Spot, no doubt. Another pair of feet, indicated by an elongated, yet structured smudge, occasionally intertwined with the much smaller flecks, and were distinctly android. Both had ventured downstairs.

Data followed the virtually transparent footprints, which eventually led him to the kitchen. He emerged out of the scarcely illuminated hallway and entered the kitchen, his arrival coinciding with a dramatic rumble of thunder. At the sight of his daughter reaching for a discarded spoon, and her subsequent response to her perceiving him, eventuated in a habitual tilt of the head. Several chapters of confusion meandered across his pearlescent features, prior to determining that curiosity would be the most accurate one to employ.

'It was not my intention to startle you, Soji, apologies. Are you alright? Perhaps I should have... cleared my throat to announce my impending arrival,' he said softly, his yellow eyes analysing the scene before him — she had been here for some time, judging by the semi-frozen ice cream she had replicated. Then, his eyes landed on the discarded spoon and he squatted down to pick it up, completing Soji's failed objective. 'I assumed you were asleep, but when I went to check on you, your room was unoccupied and I — would you like me to replicate another spoon for you?' he interpolated himself, holding the metal utensil in-between thumb and index finger, scrutinising it. 'This one has... cat hair on it.'

Speaking of cats, when his gaze fell on her again, he noticed a fluffy, orange blob lingering in his peripheral vision; Spot had invited herself to their impromptu midnight meeting and was indulging herself in the vestiges of Soji's melted sustenance.

'Spot, that is not for you,' he lectured the feline, but Spot did not care — she even opted not to raise her furry face and glare at him. She ignored him, deliberately, and proceeded to feast on the bowl's contents, which, had she been an organic cat, would have caused serious complications with respect to her health.

A sigh of disapproval escaped him while he watched her, defeated.

'Cats...' he eventually muttered, shaking his head. 'May I enquire after the reason why you are here?' he added inquisitively, addressing Soji now. 'Were you unable to sleep?'

Sleeping awake.

There were three people who required sleep in Coppelius Station--four if she counted Spot II. Most of the androids had spaces they called their own, but almost none of them had anything resembling a bed. Arcana had helped her set up a room when she got there, and it was a perfectly acceptable, if unfamiliar, bedroom in the end. Spot II had even taken to sleeping on her pillows to make sure they were warm (probably).

The bed was fine, the blankets were fine, the room was removed enough that she could only hear the distant murmurs of all the other androids, but still she couldn't sleep. In fact, the longer she lie there just staring at the ceiling, the more wound up she felt. Soji pet Spot II to occupy herself. At least, until the synthetic cat grew tired of her keeping it awake and meandered out of the room. At that point, alone and unable to sleep Soji resigned herself to exhaustion, dragged herself out from under the covers, and headed downstairs. Her aimless wandering eventually carried her to the kitchen and she groggily debated the merits of a midnight snack. She wasn't particularly hungry or anything, but the replicator was right there. Peppermint ice cream wouldn't help her sleep, per se, but it couldn't hurt, so Soji clearily synthesized a bowl of it. She didn't bother turning on the lights once she had her snack, the replicator menu was bright enough to see by. She maneuvered through the room and dropped herself down at the table. She must have been more than half asleep because the moment she sat down, she drifted. As she sat there, idly prodding her ice cream, her eyelids were impossibly heavy, blinking became something of an endurance trial. She struggled keeping her eyes open and started losing little bits of time in between with only her ice-cream as reference. One moment it was all there, a nice little scoop of ice cream, the next there was a bite taken out and it was half melted. Her eyes drooped again as she had another spoonful. They were just closed for a second or two before a clap of thunder snapped her into the moment. The boom startled her awake so sharply that she dropped her spoon. When she bent to pick it up, she was unexpectedly confronted with a pair of feet and startled again knocking back into the table as she reeled away. Had she always been this jumpy? "Oh my god," Soji breathed and her eyes darted up. The sight of Data's face, even in the half-light of the replicator menu, put her instantly at ease. His pallor in the dim light made him look more than a little like a ghost, but his expression was all polite interest. Soji exhaled a sound like a laugh and leaned back in her seat, spoon forgotten.

"Sorry, I didn't hear you come in," Soji said, despite having the objectively best hearing of anyone in Coppelius. She hadn't heard him because she had been mostly asleep, ready to drop face-first into her melted ice cream.

@my-timing-is-digital

[georgiapeach30513]

How about a floof with Mimi and Papa alone? Just them looking at their family photo albums and reminiscing over the photos of their babies and grandbabies with their “remember this/remember when…?” and iconic “i love you, our life was worth it.” 🥰

Well, you know that today is the one year anniversary with the one shot, Desperate Affairs 😂 who knew that this little one shot was going to spawn into a series, but also a GIAGANTIC AU? I still remember coming back from Dollywood and just brainstorming what was going to happen in a one shot featuring Ransom and Andy. And never did I imagine all this a year later. Two days after the one shot, I got sick with covid, and was out of commission for 9 days, fevered the whole nine days, and just binged watched Chris Evans movies, I slept most of the time. But I had these crazy fever dreams with all the Chrises, thus, the Desperate Verse was born.

So without further adieu, lets look into Ransom and Kitten having a moment, with just Ransom and Kitten. No dogs, no kids, no babies. We know that Kitten went through a lot of pain to get to where she was, but she loves reminding her baby, that she would do it all over again to get this life.

Also in celebration of the one year anniversary, drop me an ask about ANYTHING in the verse. I'm hoping to get a lot more of my asks out this week. I miss my babies!

🖤🖤🖤🖤

Hugh Ransom Drysdale Was Worth It

Summary:  You and Ransom reminisce 

Pairings:  Ransom X Reader

Rating:  🥺😢😂😏😍

Warnings:  language, some touchy subjects (if you’ve read about Ransom and Kitten’s life, you already know) Ransom just being his ridiculous self, 18+ ONLY

Word Count:  2.7K

Desperate Lives AU Masterlist

Desperate Love Masterlist

You head towards Ransom’s favorite sitting room.  You had looked for that man for what felt like an hour, it was your least favorite thing about this big house.  Stopping in the doorway, to see him leaning over a photo album.  He takes a deep breath sighing, and you walk over to your pretty boy.  Still as handsome as the first day that you saw him in he-who-must-not-be-named’s office.  

Sure Ransom had a few more lines on his face, but most were around his eyes from the happy life that you guys had made for yourself.  His hair was thinning, he had bits of gray in his hair and beard, but you found him more attractive than ever.  When you thought about forever with someone, it was always with him.

Stepping up behind him, he leans back to look up at you, and you give him his favorite, upside down kiss.  Walking around the sofa to see him looking at pictures from the day that Iris Jade Barber became Iris Jade Drysdale.  Ransom had never hesitated to adopt your sweet, sleepy girl.  And in a short time, she became his sweet, sleepy girl.  You might have had a good relationship with Iris, but her daddy was her hero.

“I remember this day like it was yesterday.  I was so nervous.  I was afraid that Frank would contest it at the end.  He didn’t  You know, I don’t know if I’ve ever thanked him.  I couldn’t have done it.  I didn’t even want to share him with Icy, and she’s not mine.”

“Yeah, she is,” you assure him.  “She became yours the moment you felt her and Aster move in my belly.  I saw your eyes, Ran.  You wanted them.  Both of them.  Aster definitely has your outgoing personality, but Iris is your tender cuddle bug.  Remember when I told you I wished that neither were yours?” 

His head whips over to glare at you, “You gotta bring up the bad stuff?”

“The bad stuff is what lead us to this,” you say flipping over a few pages to you and him on your wedding day.  Aster on your hip, and Iris on his, while the two of you are lip locked, and Aster is making a gagging face.  “If we didn’t have that bad stuff, would we have even met?  If you weren’t getting in trouble with the law, would I have met you at his office?”

“No.  You would have met me at that bar.  The first night that I made that kitty cat purr.  How many times did we fuck?” you shove an elbow in his side, and he laughs, “I thought I was going to have the best sex of my life with no strings attached, and now look at us.  Five kids later, and too many grandkids to count.  By the way, your daughters are too fertile.”

“My daughters?  They’re mine when it’s something negative, huh?  My son also seems to be quite fertile, you don’t see me complaining do you?  I like the woman that made him settle down.  Our daughters could have done a lot worse than what they have.  Hell, a few of them did.”

“Yeah, my spawn didn’t settle down until Christopher.  God, I wish I could have taken away all of their pain.  All of it.  Aster’s need to feel like she had to get married, had to have babies.  And then that partying phase with the sperm donor.  The only good thing about that relationship was Ellie.  But man, the many times I wanted to fucking murder Mickey.  We could have done it.  Carter almost...nothing.  Carter doesn’t like him either.”

You cock up an eyebrow at him.  You knew that him, Blade, Carter, and even his arch nemesis Curtis had a bit of a mafia type friendship.  People who crossed them, or mostly their women, well it didn’t end well for them.  

“Or our Icy,” you sigh.  “If I could have taken away some of that pressure she put on herself.  Her perfectionist personality, and that constant feeling of not knowing who she was or where she fit in.  That nearly two years without the only man she will ever love.  I know you say you hate that boy sometimes, but you love James so much.  He’s a good daddy, good husband, he’s been so good to our other babies.  We don’t deserve James Carter in our life.”

“Ugh,” Ransom shakes his head, “Don’t remind me.  I love the kid, I just didn’t want him so romantically involved with my baby.  She finally told me she wished her and ‘Jamey’ would have waited until they were older when they started messing around.  She feared that Posie was going to be like her.  She wasn’t until that Numb Skull.”

“Or Blade and his speech.  I know your mother ragged on him about it, but there are days I wish I had it back.  When Otto popped out with the impediment, but not the stuttering, it was like having my baby back,” your finger traces over an infant picture of Blade.  Ransom looking so proud, and overcome with joy.  His face a red and blotchy mess, and he couldn’t take his eyes off of the baby.  Your son had been carved out of Ransom’s ass, but got more of your personality.  “And then he became a dessert loving whore.  I’m glad I didn’t know all those hussies.  Even though, I’ll take his Boston Cream Pie any day of the week.  God, she’s perfect for him.  I didn’t want to like her, because she was taking my baby away from me.  My only boy.”

You have to stop, wiping your tears away when the next photo is an ultrasound of Anders.  One of the only photos you have of your sweet baby boy.  His thumb in his mouth, and you swear that he favored Ransom as well.  “Do you ever think about him?”

“Everyday, Kitten.  But would we have had Story or Lucy?”

“I think, we would have had more.  Blade and Lucy were my only pregnancies that weren’t traumatic.  I wanted him, so much.”

“We have an AJ,” Ransom smiles at you.

“We have an Anders Jefferson.  That little rolly baby,” Ransom gives you a big hug.  You adored all your grandbabies, but there was something special, and kindred with Anders Jefferson.  When you were around, there was no one else.  It was like you finally got your chance to have your second baby boy.

“What about my Princess Story book,” Ransom stares at a picture of the two of you standing over her incubator.  Her tiny little body looking cold as she cried for someone to hold her.  The nurses could never get in their fast enough, and you ached to hold that tiny baby against your chest always.  “I never thought that she was going to be the one that gave us trouble.”

“Your dad,” you giggle because it was never Richard that made the comment, “Harlan.”

“He was my dad.”

“Well, Harlan always said she was so much like you.  If you had been given the chance to be as free as she was.”

“My itty bitty baby got my addiction.  Sex, drugs, alcohol,” you hated thinking about that time of Story’s life.  Your baby just up and missing for over a year, and you saw her again as a withered shell of her former glory.  She was always the happiest of your babies, and her light was dull.  

“Yeah, but she had my taste in men.”

“Shut up.”

“You gonna deny it?  Let’s see, Carter is like you.  Dayton, well he’s his father incarnate, and I don’t even want to know what all that asshole was doing to her.  Nate, he is like Frank.  She did love Nate, and he loved her, was good for her, but in the end he did what needed to be done for her to be with Carter.  Chase, good lord he was just like Bryce.  Pompous and needy.  He was rich and he knew it.”

“What about her Frank? Or Beau?  Or Jefferson?”

“Well, she was never in love with Beau.  She did that boy wrong, but they’ve worked through it.  Jefferson was her Jake Wyler,” Ransom snorts, and makes a mental note to bring that letterman jacket back out.  “Frank, I don’t even know.  Story was broken in that time.  I don’t know if she considers him a boyfriend.”

The two of you glance through some more of the photos of you as a family of four, and then there’s a picture of your feistiest child.  Your fallen angel, Luciana Violet Drysdale.  The one that kept you on your toes, was a wild one with everyone, but you saw that sweet side come out.  The prettiest baby with hair as dark as Ransom’s.  Your honey eyed beauty.  

“That is your chunkiest birth baby,” you laugh because she was too big.  It’s funny to think that she was now your shortest baby.  Even shorter than Iris with the biggest personality.  “God, she was beautiful.  It was like I knew that was in fact my last little Drysdale.  I never wanted to stop having kids with you.”

“I know, baby.  I felt like she completed us.  And just think, Posie came only seven years later.  We had us another pretty baby.”

“Everyone thinks she’s this strong and opinionated child, and she is, but,” he flips over to Story and Lucy curled up in Story’s canopy bed together.  One of the few ways to keep Story out of your bed, was Lucy.  Flipping around another page, Lucy was on the ground of the garden, while Harlan told her a story.  Her drawing always reflected whatever it was that he was telling her.  He was always amazed at the imagination she had.  

Your favorite, was Lucy, and her tiny little hand, in Harlan’s wrinkled one, walking through the garden.  Him telling her all about the special flowers that he put in there.  And Lucy’s favorite napping place was on Ransom’s chest.  Ransom had taken more time off from working to spend time with Lucy and Harlan.  He knew how fast those precious moments flew by, and knew that Harlan was reaching the end of his days.  Those three were always together.

Harlan never let a day go by without telling Ransom how proud he was of him.  The two of them would sit in his study playing Go, while a baby Lucy chewed on Ransom’s signet ring.  So many times after Harlan passed, Ransom wished he could hear him say he was proud of him again.  Or use Go as a way to work through life’s problems.  Harlan was always good at things like that.  Ransom always questioned his parenting skills, but he had five happy kids to show he did something right.

“Oh baby, look,” you show him a picture of Ransom giving Carter his signet ring, the very ring that now rested on your youngest Baizen grandson’s finger.  The ring that was worn by every Baizen boy, and soon will be retired and into the vault until Otto had a son.  Carter’s silvery blue eyes looking up at Ransom with tears in them, while Ransom tried to be the man that acted like he didn’t care.  He cared too much for Carter sometimes.

"You had to show me a thing like that didn’t you?”

“You made him so happy, though.”

“He made me happy,” you wipe off a bit of your tears, and want him to proceed his train of thought.  “I didn’t have to be in that kid’s life.  He didn’t have to like me, but he valued me over his own parents.  I know, I am definitely better than them, but Kitten, we gave that boy a childhood.  God, he drove me crazy sometimes, with his Mr. Drysdale, refusing to call me Ransom.”

“It was a sign of respect, baby.”

“It was a sign of fear.”

“Wrong.  He never feared you,” he turns to glare at you, and you laugh.  “Okay, he feared you a few times, but growing up he didn’t fear you.  See,” a picture of Ransom with both Carter and James asleep on his chest makes you wish for these moments again.  “I had brought the girls back from gymnastics.  I had to take Blade with me, but look at you.”

Carter and James’ face both messy with ice cream, and a half eaten pizza on the table.  “You loved those boys.  If Carter Baizen feared you, he wouldn’t have fallen asleep on you like that.  That chocolate cheek getting your shirt dirty.  He was always going to be in our family.  Just like James.  The boy you went behind my back, and helped Stevie get full custody.”

“The one I also paid for Marta to adopt him,” just like the picture of Ransom and Iris, a sweet picture of a five-year-old James hugged up to his mama, and Marta was a crying mess.  She had littered kisses all over James’ face, but he couldn’t get enough.  “Yeah, those boys were always going to be in our lives.  Story and Iris could have done worse.”

“They found men that reminded them of you,” Ransom shakes his head starting to cry.  Mentioning his daughters growing up always hurt him the worst.  “Aster, too.  The man that she fell for, you hand picked for her.  Remember the months we had to listen to Beck did this, Beck did that.  Beck is so amazing.  And our sweet Ellie belly fell for him first.  Beck was falling for a woman he didn’t even know because of you and Ellie.  Even Chris.  Did you ever think you would let your twenty-year-old daughter move a boy in this house?” 

Ransom shakes his head no.  Chris was far from anything like Ransom.  “He doesn’t look anything like you.  What with the tattoos, and piercings.”

“I’ve got piercings!”

“Yes, baby, you’ve got piercings.  Chris has everything pierced.  I’m sure there’s holes in his body with no piercings.  But I’m talking about his ease at comforting Lucifer.  I knew he was the one, when she stopped coming to me, just to be held for an hour.”

“She still did that?” you nod your head at him.  Just like Ransom and Harlan had a tender relationship with Lucy, so did you.  

“She’ll still do it every now and then, but typically it’s Chris’ arms she wants.  That big man just has to wrap his arms around her, give her a little squeeze, and she breathes easier.”

“That’s what you were doing?  You were squeezing our daughter to death?  And don’t you dare call me ridiculous.”

“You’re ridiculous.”

“I love it when you talk dirty to me.”

“I’m not.  You’re just ridiculous.”

“I’ve got a new bottle of blue pills.  How long you wanna go?”

“Ransom Drysdale!  Are you never gonna stop wanting to have sex with me?”

His lip curls up in disgust and he shakes his head no, “Looking at these photos kind upset your baby, and he needs comfort from your pussy and your boobies, please give me that.  I just want, no, I need comfort, Kitten.  Please, let me make her purr.”

“Sweet moments are always ruined by your horny self.”

“You know, sex isn’t just for me.  I don’t hear you being all flat, it’s always, ‘Yes, baby.  Ran right there.’ I have had you screaming my name for one hundred years.”

“We’re not that old.”

“And we’ve been married for ninety.”

“That number is wrong, too.”

“And right now, I just want to play with my Kitty Cat.  Please, please, please?”

You roll your eyes laughing.  Getting up to go make you a cup of coffee, “What are you doing?”

“Giving myself some energy so I can have sex with you.”

“Oh!  Let me take my blue pill, that I don’t need, I just want to make sure things are nice and long lasting for you.”

“You know, sometimes ten minutes is plenty.”

“What is wrong with you?”

“Ran, we have had sex for...” you stop to count on your fingers how long it had actually been.

“Eh,” he raises his eyebrow smiling really big at you, “Just say it’s been a hundred years.  I don’t need to know the actual number, I just need to know that you’re the only cunt that I’m sinking my cock into until the end of time.”

“Okay, yeah.  Until the end of time.  Your cock, my pussy.  You want some coffee?”

“Yeah, bring some cookies and snacks in here.  We’re having a marathon!”

“You’re so ridiculous, baby!”

“But you love me!” he says as he rushes into the bedroom.  And you really do.  You love every part of Ransom.  Every moment with him.  And if you had to do it again just to have these sentimental to sexual moments, you would do it again and again.  Because Hugh Ransom Drysdale and your family was worth it.

Masterlist

[robininthelabyrinth]

CQL-Verse: Wen Ning did a whole lot of risky stuff saving JC and the bodies at Lotus Pier. What if NMJ hears and gets talked into helping protect him and the Wen remnants by the Jiang bros, because even if he's a wen, he still 1. whole ass poisoned wen chao 2. straight up commited treason and was punished for it to protect sect heirs and 3. is extremely baby brotherable. you can fit so much h/c into this bad boy

ao3

Untamed

1

Wen Qing was angry about the trials, but Wen Ning thought they made a reasonable amount of sense.

After all, how was the rest of the cultivation world supposed to know what they did in the war without a proper trial? It was only reasonable for them to make certain assumptions about them based on their surname, the same way everyone assumed that those surnamed Jin were rich, those surnamed Lan were beautiful, those surnamed Jiang were bold to the point of arrogance…

The Nie were supposedly known for their tempers, but Wen Ning hadn’t seen much evidence of that so far.

In fairness, his only experiences with a Nie were, firstly, with Nie Huaisang at the Cloud Recesses, which he was fairly sure didn’t count, and now, during the trial, with Nie Mingjue.

Nie Mingjue laughed the entire trial.

“You poisoned the wine,” he sniggered. “At their own celebratory feast…! And then you just went straight to Yiling, where your sister was in charge. And it still took him how long to find you?”

“Weeks,” Wen Ning meekly admitted.  

“Can we go back to the bit where you saved Wei-xiong from the giant dog beast using stolen needles?” Nie Huaisang asked.

“No, we cannot,” Nie Mingjue’s deputy – a somewhat long-suffering looking man that they all called Meng Yao – said. “He’s already gone over it four times, Huaisang.”

“But –”

“No.”

“Spoilsport! Look at how much fun da-ge’s having; it’s not fair.”

“He’s the sect leader. If he wants to hoot like a shrieking monkey, he’s entitled to it.”

“I’m not hooting,” Nie Mingjue protested. “I am recognizing talent.”

“Talent.”

“Exactly. Talent.”

“At…what, exactly?”

“Causing trouble,” Nie Huaisang volunteered. “I recognize it from Wei-xiong, I could spot it anywhere.”

“Could we possibly proceed with the trial?” Meng Yao asked, obviously deciding not to continue with that discussion. “We have six more to finish today. Can I assume that given the evidence of Wen-gongzi’s subversive activities and his subsequent imprisonment throughout much of the Sunshot Campaign, he is absolved of all crimes and allowed to go free?”

“You spoilsport,” Nie Mingjue said, rolling his eyes at him. “Yes, I think so. Wen Qionglin, you are free to go your own way – though if you wish to stay here in Qinghe as a guest cultivator, we would be glad to have you for however long you wish.”

Wen Ning thought that sounded all right.

2

The Nie sect were known for their tempers, and justly so, but Wen Ning quickly figured out that he didn’t need to be afraid of Nie Mingjue’s occasional outbursts (quickly roused, quickly doused) or Nie Huaisang’s temper tantrums (petty) and occasional grudge-holding (rarer but much more dangerous).

No, Wen Ning figured out very quickly in his first weeks that the one to be afraid of was clearly Meng Yao.

Wen Ning had been weak and sickly his whole life in a sect that valued strength above all; he had survived hiding behind his sister, but she couldn’t always be there for him, no matter how she tried. He’d soon learned that surviving on his own meant being quiet and obedient, never making trouble or drawing attention to himself, and it also meant being extremely attuned to the minute expressions that might signal the difference between Wen Chao being angry enough to throwing a teacup at his head and being angry enough to order him to be taken outside and beaten until unconscious.

The same skills helped him in the Nie sect, where people were very often angry. Wen Ning could tell the difference between Nie Mingjue raging to let out steam (moderately common and generally innocuous, easily ignored) and being actually upset (typically only dangerous to the furniture, which was a nice change, but more worrisome in the sense that he might go and do something stupid afterwards), and he could tell that Nie Huaisang’s true anger, so rarely triggered, tended more towards the cold and hidden (definitely a sign he was going to do something, but unfortunately for everyone involved it’d invariably be far more malicious - enough to make you long for stupid).

He could tell that Meng Yao was, despite all his smiles, very often angry.

Like Nie Mingjue, Meng Yao’s temper was easily roused to the point of fury; like Nie Huaisang, his anger lasted a long time and usually called for some malicious action before it could be properly assuaged.

“Senior Meng,” Wen Ning tentatively said one day when his curiosity got to be too much for him. “Could I ask a rude question?”

Meng Yao’s temper, hidden deep in his eyes, flared at once, preemptively, and Wen Ning shivered and looked down at the ground. He had known what he was risking, but he hoped that asking permission in advance might allow him to get the question out with minimal reprisals – cold meals for a few days, perhaps, or being assigned to the training yard only when the most sadistic training-master was supervising, but only for a week or so.

“Of course, Wen-gongzi,” Meng Yao said, and he sounded nice and pleasant and like no question could possibly be rude enough to cause him any disturbance. It was a little frightening how good he was at that. “I can’t imagine what you would want to know that would be rude.”

“Are you related?” Wen Ning blurted out. “To Sect Leader Nie, I mean – his family –”

Meng Yao stared at him. His mouth was slightly hanging open.

“…it’s a stupid question,” Wen Ning concluded, feeling ashamed. Of course Meng Yao had been promoted entirely on merit; it was only his imagination getting away from him. “I’m sorry. I’ll go –”

“No, wait,” Meng Yao croaked. “Related – to the Nie sect – forgive me. How did you reach that conclusion?”

“I mean, you’re obviously treated as part of the main family,” Wen Ning pointed out. There were plenty of Nie cousins that weren’t treated anywhere near as well; both Nie Mingjue and Nie Huaisang were not only protective but almost possessive over Meng Yao’s time and dignity - surely by now everyone knew that the surest way to get them each angry in their own ways was to slight Meng Yao. “You wear Nie braids like them – you wear clothing like them – you have a temper like them –”

Meng Yao started laughing.

“…did I miss something?”

3

“I’m surprised you didn’t go to the Lotus Pier after you’d been absolved,” Nie Huaisang said, tapping the weiqi piece on the board a few times before making a move. “Given your fondness for Wei-xiong and all that.”

“Wei-gongzi’s very nice,” Wen Ning said vaguely, staring down at the board. He’d played a lot of weiqi in his life – including against Wen Ruohan when the man had still been remotely sane, mostly because he’d been the only one stuck back at the palace with him more often than not – but playing against Nie Huaisang required all of his attention. The first time he looked away, he’d get lured into a trap. “Very kind.”

“And yet you stay here,” Nie Huaisang prompted. “In Qinghe, with us, when even your sister picked the Lotus Pier.”

Wen Ning had never been without his sister this long before. He knew that she still expected him to come to the Lotus Pier. She hadn’t expected him to last the week without her; she’d said as much when she first went, huffing at him for being ridiculous – a Wen as a guest cultivator in the Nie sect, of all places? – and telling him, in between reminders to take his medicine on time, that she’d prepare a place for him there so that he would be comfortable when he arrived.

Her letters, in the weeks and now months since that time, had never overtly asked when he was going to finally get around to moving there, and had recently developed an almost quizzical tone, as if she’d finally realized that he wasn’t.

“I like it here,” Wen Ning said, and moved his piece.

Nie Huaisang moved his own almost immediately in response, which meant that Wen Ning had made a horrible mistake that played straight into Nie Huaisang’s hands. Not an uncommon occurrence. 

“I’m glad to hear that,” he said. “We like having you here, too.”

Surprised, Wen Ning looked up.

Nie Huaisang was smiling at him – he smiled nearly as often as Meng Yao, but unlike Meng Yao, he never smiled if he didn’t want to, so his smiles were actually sincerely meant each and every time. He had a wide range of smiles: nervous smiles, cheerful smiles, devious smiles…

Wen Ning was good at reading expressions, but he had to admit he’d never had to work as hard at it as he did with Nie Huaisang.

“We’re a very nice sect, really,” Nie Huaisang said, and even seemed to believe it. “We’re always open to people who are like us. The only thing we can’t tolerate is injustice and betrayal; as long as you stick with us and put us first, you’re ours, and we’re yours.”

That sounded nice, Wen Ning thought, and moved a piece blindly. “You think I’m like you? My sister doesn’t think so.”

“I think you fit in very nicely,” Nie Huaisang said, and his smile had teeth to it. He moved quickly, again. “You’re angry and resentful, but you don’t let it get in the way of what you want - just like us. Your sister probably doesn’t think that about you, either, but then again, that’s why she’s in the Jiang sect, with their heads in the air, dreaming of the impossible. I bet she never even noticed that you had a temper.”

She hadn’t. Wen Ning had been her baby brother and nothing else for a long time; he never had to defend himself as long as she was around. 

He’d never had the chance to defend himself.

(He didn’t resent her for that. He didn’t. She was his big sister, his favorite person, and he loved her so much that he didn’t mind the way that all her fussing sometimes made the world feel cramped and small, as if he were being forced into a place that he’d long since outgrown.)

“Do I have a temper?” he asked, and moved another piece.

“Oh, yes,” Nie Huaisang said. “You’re like me – slow to boil – and like Meng Yao, hiding it behind your eyes. You’re even a bit like da-ge: you don’t need to be the one get the frustration out as long as something deals with it, but if nothing does, it nags at you and wears at you, like a thorn stuck in your flesh, until you can’t be silent any longer. Until you have to do something, or else you’ll explode.”

That sounded about right, Wen Ning thought. He’d never really had a chance to explode in the Wen sect, out of fear of what they’d do to his sister if he did, and he’d been sick with it – he’d limited himself to little rebellions, nameless pranks, right up until he met Wei Wuxian, who was kind to him, and couldn’t stop himself from helping him. He sometimes thought, in the days he’d spent in the dungeons, that if he died he’d come back as a fierce corpse, soul-calming rituals or no, and he’d might even enjoy it if only for the opportunity to finally vent his feelings – to finally pay back every single injustice that he’d ever seen, each one marked down in his heart in an indelible list of regrets.

Maybe Nie Huaisang was right. 

Maybe that was why he stayed here, in the Nie sect, the sect of do not tolerate evil instead of the Lan sect’s chivalry and righteousness or the Jiang sect’s attempt the impossible.

Maybe he wanted to fight back for once. To have a temper, to have rage, to be something more than Wen Qing’s shy, stuttering shadow.

“I like it here,” he said again, but if his words were the same then the flavor was different: he meant it this time.  

He understood, this time, what he meant by it.

Nie Huaisang smiled at him and moved another piece. Winning the game, Wen Ning noticed.

“Good,” he said. “Now move over – sit in front of the mirror. I’ll show you how to do your hair right.”

“Really?”

“Really. Also, Da-ge’s been practically champing at the bit to teach you saber, and Meng Yao has been making grandiose plans about redoing the way we recruit and train doctors with you leading the charge, so if you’re not up for either of those, now’s the time to say something.”

Wen Ning settled down in front of the mirror.

“No,” he said. “Those sound good to me.”

[blazingstaro]

Random post from a tag algorithm blessed be, this post randomly appeared on my dash today

Hi, I'm one of the Magoverse people! I've come to sate your intrigue, and give you an inside scoop! A bit of history to answer your questions!

It initially started as a joke, and in fact here's the post that started it all:

Check out the reblogs for all the crazy additions made from amazing artists and creative folk all over to help one beloved, socially awkward Magolor babysit a baby Meta Knight. It got unhinged SO FAST. It was great!

The-Spam-Specialist is the one you can thank for coining the term "Magoverse"! We all adopted it pretty much immediately because it was hilarious and catchy. Spam's responsible for sparking this entire thing, in fact, and bringing us together!

All-in-all, Magoverse is satirical and purely for fun! We've all taken an oath to not allow it to become.... Sans-verse. Here's proof of our oath, and check reblogs for everyone:

We established this very early on after the first post blew up in the fandom! I kid you not, it has stayed this way. We're keeping our promise, nearly a year in strong. If you see anyone go against this, know that they're definitely not part of our community.

Additionally, a little insider info:

Magoverse has become a small, close-knit community, and the reason why you see the tag a little less active is because we're much more active in our Discord server, so y'all have been spared the raw shenanigans that take place First few weeks of that server was pure, hilarious insanity. "Just another day in the Magoverse" has become a running inside joke ever since because of that It's also become less active due to many of our members being in school/college/have jobs, so you might see a jump of activity come Summer (Late May, early June; Winter if you're in the Southern Hemisphere). We're planning more events, including something for Easter, and I apologize in advance for what whackiness it may bring

You probably see posts most from our little group in the Magoverse. Particularly me, @otterronpas, @puffballwarrior-blog, @pastille-pain, @cherry-blossom-qf , occasionally @opal-owl-flight (she's been doing a lot of Splatoon stuff lately- sorry for the tag homie) and @theeclipsedcrown ! We have fun, and it's a blast exploring crazy "what-ifs" for funsies! You can find us under #magoverse gang easy, we populate that tag the most. I'm so sorry— there will be more. Our little group is always cooking something creative and wild LOL. Our Magolors have become a found-family, and they're very close. It's really sweet! That's why you see our little Mago-gang together often.

Iro is my boy! Shorthand for his full name in my AU— Magolor Irioma. He's the one with the red and gold scarf, circle gold buckle. He's taken over my life alongside my OC, Orpheus LOL

I've had my own Kirby AU for nearly 6 years, a whole comic series in fact, but I decided to give Magolor a bigger role in early 2023 during my massive rewrite of my story. If anything, Magoverse gave me the chance to develop my AU's Magolor and his accompanying (and very important) lore among others, and it's helped me figure out who my Magolor is and his key part to play in my comic

Skyswap/Skye is my latest AU and just a little thing on the side; not a series. Dreams of the Stars (DotS), however, is my main AU and comic/fanfiction series, which is a collaboration alternate universe between me and my sister, @starlightfyre — It turns 6 years old on March 30th!

In conclusion: the Magoverse is a bunch of artists/writers that like one silly egg-shaped guy, and have some good, honest, wholesome fun! We're very friendly, and we do our best to support one another, be kind and considerate towards others Throughout my 10+ years of being in and out of fandoms, this has genuinely been the nicest one. (I'm ex-Sonic, ex-Zelda fandom for reference of my past experiences, both taking place during the 2010s)

Your kind words and intrigue both flatter and honor me! So too I salute you, Paintpanic

Feel free to hit me up anytime if you have any more questions, or wanna touch base with our tiny subculture of the fandom! I'm happy to give you the scoop anytime! 💖 Drop by my ask box anytime, any day! Have I endless tales of adventure to share, haha!!

You keep on doing your thing! <3 Be you, be awesome! 💜 Thank you for your curiosity and pleasant commentary! It's crazy to see how far word has spread of our little village of sillies!

And thank you for making it this far in! That is all from me! <3

little did you know there is a sansverse in the kirby fandom but it's with magolor

Oh, I'm absolutely aware of the Magoverse LOL. The closest thing I have here is this little freak.

Anyways, while I'm not an active participant in all that, I'm totally fascinated by the Magoverse people. It's a weird little niche subculture of an already niche fandom.

Some people over there are making whole AU worlds for their AU Magolors to live in, and some people are just making standalone alternate Magolors. It's entirely focused on this one character, though. The best comparison is obviously the Undertale AU fandom. Some AUs are whole fleshed-out worlds, and some of them just exist so an AU Sans can exist and interact with other Sanses.

I'm curious as to what about Magolor specifically is so compelling to folks. He's obviously super popular, but what aspect of him led to the creation of so many AU versions? With the Undertale AU fandom, there's a basis in the game. Several characters talk about alternate timelines, which very naturally leads to AUs.

My guess is Clash stuff? We see in Magolor Epilogue that alternate timelines do exist and that you can travel to them. As far as I know, this Magoverse stuff only popped up in the last year or so, after the release of RtDLDX. Just speculation.

Also like the Undertale AU fandom, it seems like there's a strong sense of community in the Magoverse crowd. The tag's got a lot of folks drawing each others' guys, and it looks like they had both a Halloween and a Secret Santa event.

Something I have no idea about is how this all started. Who made the first AU Magolor? What inspired them? Who were the folks that saw that and were inspired to make their own? Who coined the term "Magoverse"?

I feel like this is stuff that's important to know for fandom history. This subculture is noteworthy and should be documented. It'd be a real shame if this stuff wasn't preserved and we end up losing information about it. Maybe a Magoverse heritage posts archive blog should exist? I dunno.

At present, the Magoverse tag seems a bit inactive. I wouldn't call it dead, but the last post was about three days ago as of writing this. It's certainly not as active as it was mid-2023. I think folks will keep posting about it, at least for a little while, unless there's some kind of big revival.

All this stuff is weird and niche and not my thing, but I respect it. It's nice to see a friendly community of folks doing their own thing in their own little corner of the fandom. I salute you, Magoverse people.

[darkandstormyart]

Xicheng fic recs

(figured i might make a list of my own)

(to be expanded as i dig out more treasure/remember stuff)

in no particular order:

Deep as the Yearning Night by FreckledStarKnight

“At first, it was pure chance. The second time was accidental. And the third time? Well, they say the third time’s the charm, after all. Lan Xichen discovers that Jiang Wanyin sings beautifully and is immediately enamored by it. His pursuit of Jiang Wanyin’s secret talent leads to a discovery and a series of events that he did not anticipate at all. Not that he’s complaining, of course. He got what he came for and more. Or, how two sect leaders get together through the song called love. CQL-verse.“

post-seclusion lxc

trying to get jc to sing

bonus lxc & jin ling feels i hadn’t considered before

cute

Always use protection by hesselives

“In which Lan Wangji attempts to hire a new bodyguard for his older brother, a well-known traveling exorcist. Jiang Wanyin doesn’t even make his carefully considered list of Top Ten Candidates, and yet here he is.

Lots of wandering in the countryside, distant yelling, and mildly inconvenient spirits.”

bodyguard au

honestly just really intersting worldbuilding

Rewrite the stars by Arashii

“Five great kingdoms have been fighting for years and when the kingdom of Yunmeng is destroyed, the Crown Prince Jiang Cheng vanishes.In Gusu, Lan Xichen makes an offer impossible for Jiang Cheng to refuse. His life or revenge? There’s only one option and Jiang Cheng swears loyalty to the man he hated the most his whole life, the Crown Prince of Gusu, Lan Xichen himself.Written for XiChengFest2020 - Day 4“

ROYALTY AU ROYALTY AU

enemies to lovers!

flashbacks! i love flashbacks so much ohmygod

No paths are bound by Arashii

“In seclusion, Lan Huan has the support of a ghost no one has seen since the massacre of Yunmeng Jiang. His feelings start changing with the often visits and conversations they share. Before Lan Huan can confess though, he ascends, leaving everything and everyone behind him.

Two hundred years later, back to the Human Realm and without powers, the Martial God Zewu-Jun has a mission to uphold. His Heavenly Calamity started. The clues are little and the support comes in the most unexpected form, the current Ghost King: Sandu Shengshou. Now they need to stick together to contain a menace that is slowly growing.“

TGCF AU TGCF AU

ghost king jiang cheng come on

doesn’t follow tgcf plot, just the setup so no spoilers

jiang cheng gets the dogs and the xichen he deserves

once upon a dream by cafedeolla

“Xicheng soulmate AU

An au where your dreams are small snippets of your soulmate’s day. They’d show small things like buying coffee, reading a book, or hanging out with people from their perspective.

The problem was that people always have expectations and Jiang Cheng knows he always falls short of them. Time and time again.“

soulmate au, but being soulmates is more a problem than a solution

misunderstandingssss all over the place

now with a squel (in progress?)

Lan Furen series by jagaimocchi

“Jiang Cheng leaves Lotus Pier before the Wen Internment Camp and before the destruction of his home. When he meets Lan Xichen on the run from the Wens after the burning of Cloud Recesses, his plan to live a peaceful life away from cultivation sects is quickly derailed. Now, free to make his own choices, he cannot find it in himself to leave the other man's side.

With love, patience and time, Jiang Cheng finds his own happiness and peace with his past.“

have you ever wanted a fic where jiang cheng peaces out from home in search for a better life, bc he’s Had Enough??? jags got you covered

adorable xicheng

good uncle-dad-figure Lan Qiren

ongoing <3

Just around the riverbend by JungleJelly

“One day.

Jiang Cheng just wanted one day of peace and quiet, away from home, away from his responsibilities, away from his idiot brother and his nutcases of a mother and father. Just a few hours alone — him and a boat and nothing else.

Clearly, that was too much to ask for.”

now with a new story in the series which is adorable too!!!

mermaid!lxc need i say more?

Bad ideas (where they lead) by JungleJelly

“Jiang Cheng is a busy man. Fortunately, he is also a huge pushover when it comes to his sister, so when she recommends that he start doing yoga, he agrees pretty easily.Featuring Lan Xichen in yoga pants, Jiang Cheng’s inability to handle a crush, and, perhaps most importantly, a big fluffy dog.“

done for 2020 MXTX MiniBang

yoga instructor Lan Xichen

Jiang Cheng is: struggling with a crush on the yoga guy from youtube & very angry about that

If there’s a price for rotten judgement by TheWanderingHeart

“All Jiang Cheng wants to do is, well... his job, really. Other than that? Keep the city safe, keep his nephew alive, keep his sanity intact (if possible).

So when his brother calls with unexpected news, he knows all of that is about to fly out of the window.

***

[Every instinct is telling him don’t ask, you don’t want to know. By this point, Nie HuaiSang has scooted closer to listen. Jiang Cheng takes a steadying breath and pulls out his antacids. “What did you do?”]”

superhero au, come on

jc just trying to do his job in peace

(he can’t)

i love it so much oh my god *sobs*

The Form of Boneless Ice by TheWanderingHeart

“Mythical beasts have long ago been driven to extinction by the gentry — hunted for sport, but more importantly for their magical cores. Since then, there remains only one creature that has never been caught. The Jiang’s retreated a long time ago. Abandoning land altogether, they sought safety where the humans could not reach.It all comes to a head though, purely by chance. (Or is it by fate that a spontaneous decision allows for them to meet? If fate were a rock!) Jiang Cheng suddenly finds his whole life balanced on the head of a pin — on the flimsy promise of a human boy. In his opinion, things cannot possibly get worse!(But then they do when the Wens decide it’s finally time to search for the elusive merpeople, and suddenly nowhere is safe.)“

there she goes again, with another beautiful xicheng story full of awwww and mythology

actually one of the first xicheng fics i read

i chose it because there were mermaids

painfully accurate takes on Jiang family dynamics

kids! lots of kids!

Let me Slytherin to Your Heart by TheWanderingHeart

“Jiang Cheng never thought he'd return to Hogwarts, but in hindsight, he probably should have known that someday he would.With his nephew about to start school, he reluctantly takes his good friend's bad parenting? career? advice and ends up tumbling head-first back into the madness that he hoped he'd left behind... and rediscovering some feelings he thought he'd left behind too.“

Harry Potter au!

just really fecking cute

lots of snakes

[I am not going to link all of Jo’s fics, though I probably could, just my 3 favourites. UOSB is there by default]

Talent Hunt Crew Finds Angry Guy Shouting On College Campus, Recruits Him For Vocal Projection Abilities by oh_fudgecakes

“Jiang Cheng, resident Angry Guy and heir to a conglomerate empire, has never been the apple of his father’s eye. Quashed under the shadow of his brilliant brother, the music prodigy Wei Wuxian, Jiang Cheng sees his chance to turn things around when he is recruited by the All-Stars Lan Talent Hunt. One problem: he can’t sing to save his goddamn life.As he struggles to develop his nascent singing abilities, Jiang Cheng finds himself sucked into the whirlwind drama of reality TV, helped along by his adoring siblings, his irritable vocal coach Wen Qing, and strangely enough, the unfairly attractive host of the All-Stars Lan Talent Hunt, Lan Xichen. Somewhere in the glare of the stage lights and an unexpected first love, Jiang Cheng stumbles upon the thing he was searching for all along: the courage to dream — and to attempt the impossible.“

done for 2019 MXTX Big Bang

uuuuuuuuuuh i might have cried maybe

heartwarming? painful at times? lots of family love?

slowburn xicheng being lovely

The Provenence of Hope series by velithya

“A chance meeting on a night hunt sets a course of events into motion that will change everything. Featuring Xicheng getting together, recovery for Lan Xichen, healing for Jiang Cheng, and always, always, hope.“

got everything. feels. hope. love. ~~healing~~

A Small Measure of Peace by Sandstone112

“With his brother in seclusion, Lan Xichen finds himself in temporary custody of his nephew with little to no expertise in the child-raising department. Uncertain and alone, Zewu-Jun is willing to do everything to be the person Yuan needs—even if it means inviting Sandu Shengshou to a playdate.“

a loooot of adorable family times with jc and lxc taking care of their nephews

good grandpa lqr!

canon but fixed and less painful

🍋🍋🍋🍋🍋if you wish to avoid scurvy:🍋🍋🍋🍋🍋

Some day I’m gonna make you mine series by locketofyourhair

xicheng getting together through the years

friends with benefits but the real benefits are the friends we made along the way

Take me over (take me tonight) by velithya

jiang cheng has a tattoo and lan xichen doesn’t stand a chance

i'd be the sweet feeling of release (mankind now dreams of) by piyo13

two bros, chilling in a cave, no feet apart because they don’t want to lose their cultivation powers what are you gonna do

haven’t read yet and shame on me, but AM GONNA:

Upon Our Silver Bridge by TheWanderingHeart obviously

““When the path ignites a soul, there's no remaining in place. The foot touches ground, but not for long.” ― Hakim Sanai

**

Lan Xichen's sorrows have caught the attention of something. Unlike the adventures and foes they have faced before, there is no obvious enemy here to defeat. If this is the same thing they thought had taken Nie Mingjue's life, then he believes it is fated for him to die as well. Nothing can stop the black fire when it wants to burn.Jiang Cheng is sure his part in this is over. Wei Wuxian is back, his grand adventure concluded, and he'd never been at the centre of it anyway. So what does it matter what happens to him in the end? Slowly, he will come to realise that there will always be a battle to fight, a story to tell, a choice to make, and there is no such thing as an end to anything.“

it was difficult to do things in 2020 and few i regret not doing more than not reading uosb yet :’(

i will tho

Emergency Help Wanted by piyo13

“EMERGENCY HELP WANTED I lied when I got my job. I told them I had a kid so I could leave early from work to pick him up from daycare, take him to doctor's appointments, and occasionally miss a day when he's sick. Long story short, I'm in too deep. I didn't think it through. Looking to rent a kid for bring your child to work day. Must be a boy ages four to six, longish dark hair, likes soccer. Must also be artistic as the macaroni noodle paintings I made seem a little advanced for his age. Also, I will pay extra for someone willing to play the role of husband when dropping him off. He's a prosecuting attorney who often brings his work home. Message me for further details. Serious inquiries only.“

Running Our Hands Through Embers by MarvelousMar

“If asked, Jiang Cheng would compare falling in love with Lan Xichen to a moth inevitably drawn to a flame.It burned.***In which Jiang Cheng discovers that even death can't help him escape from his trauma, so he embarks on a quest to save the people he loves, fix what he can, make the love of his life fall for him, and maybe, somewhere along the way, do a little bit of healing.”

The Beginner’s Guide to Moving On by InvincibleMel

gone from ao3, but i think there’s a link with a pdf going around