#which results in them usually being too large

[gadgetini]

i hate him because hes fun to draw but hes the worst

[the-cosmic-cauldron]

☽𝕐𝕠𝕦𝕣 𝕄𝕠𝕠𝕟 𝕊𝕚𝕘𝕟 & 𝕐𝕠𝕦𝕣 𝔻𝕖𝕤𝕚𝕣𝕖 𝔽𝕠𝕣 ℙ𝕒𝕣𝕖𝕟𝕥𝕙𝕠𝕠𝕕 ☾

Welcome to 10 Days, 10 Posts from The Cosmic Cauldron! Over the next ten days, I’ll be sharing a blend of astrology and tarot posts, each designed to spark your curiosity and guide your journey. If you find my content interesting, fascinating, or engaging, be sure to click the follow button for more! Ready to dive deeper into your personal journey? Head to my homepage and book a reading — you won’t regret it.

☾ 𝒜𝓇𝒾ℯ𝓈 ℳℴℴ𝓃

An Aries Moon doesn’t typically desire to have children due to their strong sense of independence and fast-paced nature. When it comes to their emotions, Aries Moons are not the most patient—they don’t like to dwell on feelings or spend much time processing them. They’re also not naturally inclined toward self-compassion, often being hard on themselves.

Because of this, an Aries Moon may feel they would struggle with the emotional demands of parenting. They might worry about being too tough on a child or failing to provide the kind of emotional support a child needs. As a result, an Aries Moon doesn’t usually see parenthood as a natural fit for their personality.

However, there are exceptions. Aries Moons are ruled by Mars, which governs passion and intimacy. When deeply in love, an Aries Moon may feel inspired to have children, especially since their Mars-driven energy often leads them to seek physical closeness and intimacy frequently. In such cases, if they believe their partner would be a good parent or that their partner balances their own emotional tendencies, they may decide to start a family.

Interestingly, Aries Moons are not naturally drawn to the nurturing, emotional aspects of motherhood. However, Aries Moon men may be more open to fatherhood. The idea of leading a family and taking on a protective, leadership role aligns with the fiery and ambitious energy of this placement. This makes fatherhood more appealing to them than the emotionally intensive aspects of parenting.

☾𝒯𝒶𝓊𝓇𝓊𝓈 ℳℴℴ𝓃

A Taurus Moon typically has a strong desire to become a parent, largely because they are natural nurturers who enjoy giving and caring for others. This nurturing energy often seeks an outlet, and the most traditional vessel for that is raising children. Taurus Moons, especially women, are often drawn to the idea of parenthood for this reason.

The energy of Taurus is ruled by practicality, which means many Taurus Moons view having children as a natural extension of a relationship or a fulfilling part of building a family. They may also see raising children as an opportunity to nurture and guide them into becoming healthy, well-rounded adults, or to provide experiences they themselves may not have had growing up.

Taurus Moons are especially likely to want children when they are in love. They enjoy the idea of extending the love they share with their partner to a child, creating balance and harmony within the relationship. For them, the connection between parenthood and love is deeply fulfilling.

In addition, Taurus Moons are drawn to parenthood when they feel stable. This stability doesn’t necessarily mean being wealthy or having every aspect of life figured out. Instead, it’s about being in a comfortable, steady routine where they are financially secure and content with their day-to-day life. Taurus Moons thrive when they are preoccupied with meaningful tasks, and raising a child fits perfectly into their desire for purpose and responsibility.

Men with a Taurus Moon also have a nurturing side and are likely to want children. They often see parenthood as a natural step in a serious relationship, thinking, “She could be the mother of my child.” Taurus Moon men are drawn to the essence of family and enjoy the grounding, fulfilling experience of building a close-knit unit of their own. The idea of having a family brings them a deep sense of stability and belonging.

☾𝒢ℯ𝓂𝒾𝓃𝒾 ℳℴℴ𝓃

Gemini Moons have a 50-50 split when it comes to wanting to be parents. Some Gemini Moons are not interested in parenthood at all, primarily because they value their freedom and love living in the moment. They enjoy the ability to be spontaneous and on the go, and they don’t want to feel confined by the responsibilities of parenting. For these individuals, the idea of having children just doesn’t align with their desire for independence and restlessness.

However, there are also Gemini Moons who find parenthood incredibly intriguing. They are curious about the process of raising a child and are fascinated by how their child will turn out. These individuals often see parenting as a unique experience and are interested in approaching it in an unconventional way. They may want to channel their own personalities into their parenting style, aiming to be unique or “out-of-the-box” parents. For these Gemini Moons, the idea of parenthood becomes appealing due to their curiosity and the desire to explore this new and exciting role.

☾𝒞𝒶𝓃𝒸ℯ𝓇 ℳℴℴ𝓃

Cancer Moons usually want to be parents because they are natural homebodies who love the comfort of their homes. They take pleasure in creating a beautiful and cozy environment and enjoy spending time there. Children often spark their interest because Cancer Moons are inherently nurturing. They have a deep desire to care for and nurture something, and children represent a traditional way to channel that nurturing energy. Many Cancer Moons also want to connect emotionally with their children, especially if they had their own emotions dismissed growing up or didn’t feel they were treated in the way they desired. For these individuals, parenthood is an opportunity to reinvent parenting and be the kind of parent who not only nurtures a child with practical support but also offers emotional care, protection, and a strong presence. They aim to listen to, connect with, and truly show up for their child.

However, some Cancer Moons may choose not to have children, especially if they feel emotionally unstable. Because Cancer Moons are highly emotional beings, if they believe their emotions are too unbalanced to provide the stability a child needs, they may decide against parenthood. A Cancer Moon desires to be a great parent, and if they feel their emotional state is not conducive to that, they will hesitate to bring a child into the world.

Both Cancer Moon men and women generally want to be parents, as they crave the deep emotional connection with their children. The presence of children and the idea of having a family often make Cancer Moons feel more complete and fulfilled.

☾ℒℯℴ ℳℴℴ𝓃

A Leo Moon will definitely want to have a family, as Leo is all about close-knit connections and feeling validated by those around them. For many Leo Moons, parenthood is a highly validating experience. It allows them to feel a sense of accomplishment, particularly if they didn’t succeed in certain areas of life. They often see having a child as an opportunity to support and nurture that child’s growth, helping them succeed, bloom, and feel creative. Leo Moons are naturally inclined toward parenthood because they want to guide their children to achieve greatness.

However, there is a small percentage of Leo Moons who may struggle with parenthood. Leo Moons can sometimes crave being the center of attention and might feel that a child will divert attention away from them or their relationship with a partner. In these cases, they might delay having children to fully enjoy their time with their partner or focus on themselves. They may fear that having a child without having these experiences first could lead them to preoccupy themselves with personal desires, rather than being fully present and supportive for their child.

Overall, though, Leo Moons do desire to have children. They view parenthood as a positive and fulfilling experience. Given that the Sun, their ruling planet, represents fatherhood, many Leo Moon men especially see fatherhood as a significant and rewarding part of life.

☾𝒱𝒾𝓇𝑔ℴ ℳℴℴ𝓃

A Virgo Moon typically doesn’t want to have children, and the reason is that Virgo Moons are not necessarily focused on service within the family context. They tend to be more service-oriented in their work, school, or other responsibilities. Unlike Cancer Moons, who are naturally nurturing and motherly towards children and family, Virgo Moons are more likely to show up and perform at a job or take on responsibilities. They are humble, adaptable, and willing to compromise in those areas, as they are a mutable sign.

However, when it comes to their personal lives, Virgo Moons are more introverted and detached at times, as they tend to be very analytical rather than emotionally engaged. A Virgo Moon would typically only want to become a parent if they were in a stable relationship and felt prepared for children. For a Virgo Moon, having the necessary stability in their life is essential before they would consider having a child.

Virgo Moons are also likely to become parents even if they don’t initially want to, simply because they are adaptable. If their partner wants children, they may be the type to go along with it, especially since they can have self-sacrificial tendencies and are generally inclined to be of service to others. However, they don’t naturally yearn for children. They are more preoccupied with their routines and don’t feel a strong urge to become parents on their own.

That said, if they’re in a good relationship and feel that having children is the next step, they will likely have children. But Virgo Moons are not typically drawn to parenthood as a natural desire.

☾ℒ𝒾𝒷𝓇𝒶 ℳℴℴ𝓃

Libra Moons are likely to want to be parents, and the reason is that they often see their children as friends. Libra Moons are very social beings, and in this placement, they are even more social because emotionally, they like to talk about their feelings and seek harmony in their relationships. Even if a Libra Moon initially didn’t want children, their verbal nature and desire for harmony would likely lead them to go along with the idea. If they feel that having children would bring harmony to their relationship or life, they would be open to the idea.

Additionally, because Libra is a cardinal sign, they are more likely to take the initiative and express a desire to have children. With Libra being ruled by Venus, which is associated with relationships, Libra Moons often feel more at peace when they’re in a relationship than when they’re single. This constant seeking of connection may lead them to want children, as they idealize the concept of family. Even if they were initially against having children, they might eventually decide to have one, as they crave the peace and balance that a family could bring.

Furthermore, Libra Moons are ruled by Venusian energy, which is centered around love, beauty, and giving. This energy makes them feel fulfilled when they can nurture and give to others. A Libra Moon might feel that having a child is a way to channel this nurturing energy and offer love and care in a way that aligns with their desire to give and nurture those they love.

☾𝒮𝒸ℴ𝓇𝓅𝒾ℴ ℳℴℴ𝓃

A Scorpio Moon can be a bit tricky when it comes to wanting children. Many Scorpio Moons may not feel ready for parenthood because they carry a lot of unresolved trauma and deep, intense emotions. Their life experiences tend to be very intense, and some may feel apprehensive about having children. There’s often a fear surrounding parenthood, especially given the vulnerability involved in pregnancy and childbirth. For many, the thought of holding a child and the emotional and physical shifts that come with parenting can feel daunting.

Scorpio Moons already deal with emotional imbalances, such as depression, sadness, and heavy emotions. As a result, some may be afraid of experiencing postpartum depression or the emotional changes that come with becoming a parent. There may be a fear of not being able to show up for their child in the way they want to, given their emotional complexity. For some Scorpio Moons, the idea of having a child might lead them to consider alternatives like surrogacy or IVF, as they might not want to carry the child themselves due to these fears.

However, there are also Scorpio Moons who are deeply passionate about having children. These individuals may feel that they haven’t experienced true love in their lives and see a child as a source of unconditional love, something they feel they’ve been missing in their own relationships. For them, having a child may fill a void and provide the deep connection they long for. So, for Scorpio Moons, it’s really a 50/50 situation—some may want children, while others may be more hesitant or fearful.

☾𝒮𝒶𝑔𝒾𝓉𝓉𝒶��𝒾𝓊𝓈 ℳℴℴ𝓃

I would say that Sagittarius Moons are also very 50-50 when it comes to having children. For some Sagittarius Moons, they are so on the go, always engaged in new adventures, interests, and traveling, that the idea of having children doesn’t really cross their minds. They are constantly stimulated by new experiences, and for some of them, the thought of having a child feels limiting to their freedom. They may even think that if they were to get someone pregnant, they wouldn’t stick around for the pregnancy because they’re focused on their own pursuits. For Sagittarius Moon men, they might prefer doing their own thing, while for women, some may feel like motherhood would be too restrictive, as they crave the freedom to enjoy life and travel.

However, there’s another side to Sagittarius Moons that really embraces the idea of having children. Some see themselves as children at heart and get excited around kids. They enjoy being around children, having fun with them, and often think of parenthood as a fun adventure rather than something serious or deep. For these Sagittarius Moons, having a child doesn’t require a deep commitment or a stable relationship with someone. They may not even feel the need to be married or have a traditional family setup, as they view having children as a source of joy and a new, exciting chapter in their lives. They see children as a blessing and an opportunity for more happiness and adventure, and they want to experience it.

☾𝒞𝒶𝓅𝓇𝒾𝒸ℴ𝓇𝓃 ℳℴℴ𝓃

With Capricorn Moons, it’s a bit of a mixed bag. While many Capricorn Moons may not desire to be parents, a significant number of them do. Here’s why: Some Capricorn Moons can be very dark, deep, and reserved. They carry a lot of wounds and trauma, and they often feel emotionally restrained. For these individuals, the idea of having children may not appeal to them at all—it can seem like just another responsibility to take on, which doesn’t excite them. They may prefer to dedicate their lives to themselves, even if it seems selfish, rather than take on the responsibility of raising a child.

However, for other Capricorn Moons, the desire to have children is tied to their drive for accomplishment. These individuals often seek a sense of fulfillment in life, and for some, part of that fulfillment comes from having a family. For them, having children aligns with their vision of a successful, traditional life. They may feel like they haven’t fully accomplished what they set out to do if they don’t have children. It’s not so much that having children is their main goal, but more that it’s an integral part of their overall life goals. For these Capricorn Moons, becoming a parent is something they may feel compelled to do in order to feel that they’ve truly achieved the life they desire.

☾ 𝒜𝓆𝓊𝒶𝓇𝒾𝓊𝓈 ℳℴℴ𝓃

Aquarius Moons typically want children when they feel surrounded by a supportive community. This is when they are most likely to desire parenthood, as Aquarians are independent but also enjoy being part of groups and communities. While it may not always be about family, they feel that a child can bring blessings to their environment. Aquarius Moons often see the bigger picture, thinking about how having a child could impact not just themselves, but others, such as making their parents grandparents or their siblings uncles or aunts. This sense of community and connection can inspire them to want children.

However, many Aquarius Moons may not want children because they tend to live somewhat erratic lives. Their emotional state can be unpredictable, which makes them hesitant about the consistency and stability required in parenthood. They value their freedom and may not want to feel tied down to the responsibilities of being a parent.

For the Aquarius Moon individuals who do decide to become parents, their approach is often unconventional. Their parenting style might be unique, and they may be somewhat disciplinary, as Aquarius is a fixed sign ruled by Saturn and Uranus. These placements can make them more rigid, but also prone to sudden shifts in behavior or unpredictability. Aquarius Moon men may be more likely to embrace parenthood than women, as women with this placement can come across as strict or cold, influenced by Saturn’s restrictive energy. However, the unpredictable nature of Uranus can lead to sudden changes in their parenting style, making it challenging to maintain consistency.

☾𝒫𝒾𝓈𝒸ℯ𝓈 ℳℴℴ𝓃

Pisces Moons are likely to want to be parents because they have an abundance of unconditional love to give. They seek a place where this love can be expressed, and they often feel that the innocence of a child is most deserving of their compassion, empathy, and care. Pisces Moons are deeply sensitive beings, and they tend to want to connect with their children on a profound level, getting into their children’s minds and hearts. For many Pisces Moons, the desire to be a parent feels like a natural extension of their loving, giving nature.

However, for some Pisces Moons, especially those who have experienced significant struggles, such as being escapist, dealing with addiction, or struggling with practicality in life, the desire to be a parent may not emerge. If a Pisces Moon is in a state where they feel lost, neglected, or stuck in a cycle of despair, they may not want children. In these cases, they might recognize that they cannot offer the stability or care a child needs, and the idea of neglecting a child would weigh heavily on their conscience. While Pisces Moons naturally have a strong inclination toward parenthood, when they are in a difficult space, it can make it hard for them to desire or pursue that outcome.

[rxmye]

" 𝐋𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓 𝐎𝐅 𝐌𝐘 𝐋𝐈𝐅𝐄 . . . "

𝐏𝐀𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐓𝐈𝐂 𝐘𝐀𝐍𝐃𝐄𝐑𝐄 𝐉𝐎𝐂𝐊 — Lucas Raine . . introduction | masterlist | requesting rules . . warnings : nsfw content / sixteen + content / gender neutral reader / yandere oc x reader / voyeurism kink / yandere jock / yandere content / pathetic / submissive(?) yandere /

Appearance: Lucas is pale (he's korean american) and a brunette, with light brown hair which is curly and cut in a mullet—which is almost always styled—he has a personal obsession with skin care (thanks to his ma) and he has glass skin. Lucas has vieny and large hands, along with a large physique that appears to be very overbearing to those around him—with a skinny waist—he stands at an outstanding 6,2ft. Lucas has hazel eyes, and during golden hour he'll stare at the sun and challenge it to a duel (he'll always fail), he often wears silver bracelets and has ears piercings, though he'll rarely wear earrings.

Character basic info: Lucas's birthday is on November the 3rd! He is bisexual, he has a hard time connecting with people, and has had a scarce amount of serious relationships, he usually loses interest fast, he's unamused and finds love repetitive and somewhat boring. Lucas is a possessive, obsessive, clingy, stalker type of yandere, who is somewhat dependent on you, not at much as Yoichi though.

backstory: Lucas is currently attending University for a degree in mechanical engineering and business, he got in through a sports scholarship, though he plans on becoming an athlete and is currently looking into it. Lucas is actually adopted, with two mom's, he calls them mom and ma respectively. His mom is a famous lawyer who is a perfectionist at heart, which seemed to have rubbed off on him as a result of observing her so much (he'd often read and do homework in her office). Lucas's ma on the other hand, put him in a whole lot of sports and afterschool programs, mainly because she wanted him to not be too feminine—and because she wanted him to try as many new things as possible. His parents can be a bit overbearing, but his childhood was decently comfortable, his parents were more than involved in his life and he couldn't be more grateful.

NSFW | 16 + CONTENT BELOW THE UNDERCUT . . .

Lucas is a switch, with an extremely high sex drive, he's a power bottom—he'll whine and nag as you have him pinned under you—he cries so easily, fucking into you, your insides so warm and soft—he's obsessed, he'll overstimulate you both, and leave you both a crying and sticky mess!!

As a top, Lucas is either rough or gentle, there's no in-between, he loves loves loves taking his time with you—savoring you—watching your face contort into pleasure as he has his way with you, his nails digging into your soft thighs, his mouth on your neck.

Lucas might have a small voyeurism kink—in the sense that he loses control around you, with you, to the sheer thought of you—you're like the off-switch to rationality, he seriously forgets where he is!! He can't help but grow—a little touchy, flirty, needy—the way your hands ghost over his own makes his knees weak!!—he really can't help it, if he's being a little out of hand . . if you didn't like it, you'd tell him to stop!!!

Lucas loves hickies, both receiving them and giving them . . . especially receiving them—mark him, make him your territory, he loves you, he loves being yours . . your hands on him are a delight, the feeling of your lips, teeth, saliva, on his skin is paradise, your marks—he wears them with sheer pride.

Kink-wise Lucas is into anything, he's very calm and open with anything, nothing is really a turn off for him . . spit on him, kick him, tie him down . . he doesn't mind!! . . Though he will be a bit more wary of doing the same to you . .

NON-NSFW HEADCANONS

Lucas's love languages are physical touch and acts of service, he'll have your favorite drink ready for you, every morning. He'll make handmade treats just for you—anything for you . .

Lucas collects small trinkets, and he has a special box filled with things he thinks you'd like—he's a bit embarrassed about it, it just seems very unlikely that someone like Lucas would collect trinkets, so he's a tinsy bit worried you'll judge him—which is weird since he's never really cared about anyone's opinion before you.

Lucas will get you to meet his parents pretty early onto any relationship, he just finds that if his parents like you, then it's a good sign beforehand, he's actually done this to all his friends and though he knows he'll marry you, and that you're the one . . . he wants you to meet the people who made him who he is now!

Lucas does have a note on his phone of the names of his future kids with you, and yes . . he does slightly plan on taking your last name . . . maybe. . possibly . . no comment.

want more, buy my limited time only advent calendar?

@ rxmye , do not repost, plagiarize, translate, or adapt my work/theme without prior permission and or confirmation.

[howtofightwrite]

So. There is no safe place (in the body) to be shot. There are places that are slightly safer than others to be stabbed (i.e. being stabbed in the meat of your calf is less likely to be lethal than your torso). For the purposes of an arrow wound, which feels like a combination of shot+stab for a swords n sorcery world, is there a “less lethal” place to take an arrow? My character is traveling with companions and gets into a fun little goblin skirmish. I need her to catch an arrow somewhere that will be concerning, but not immediately fatal. Magic Bullshit™️ will keep the wound from healing properly for a few days, but I’ve accounted for field wound care (cleaning and bandaging and such) as she’s being taken on horseback to get proper treatment.

Not deeply.

So, the problem with all of these is tissue disruption. If the injury gets deep enough, the chances that it will hit something vital (especially on the torso) increase dramatically. So, getting stabbed and having the blade catch bone, instead of getting in deeper is “relatively” safe. Similarly, getting stabbed (or shot) in the hand or foot is unlikely to kill you (though, those injuries are likely to result in permanent damage impairing the use of injured appendage.)

Arrows are a little different, in a couple of ways. First, if you get shot, you do not want to pull that off (nor break it off and push it through.) That will increase the risk of bleeding out. Arrows make fairly large holes in people, but if the arrow sticks in the wound (which, it should) it will actually limit the amount of bleeding. Effectively the wound has a partial plug in it. Pulling out the arrow means that plug is no longer there, and they can happily bleed to death on the spot.

The second thing about arrows is that they actually pin muscle together. Think of it a bit like holding two pieces of meat together with a toothpick. If the toothpick isn't there, the pieces can slide across each other without issue, but that's not possible when there's a wooden shaft running through them. Your muscles are a complex web of meat, that slide over each other as you move. Pinning those together means that part of your body will actually lock up. For example, if you're shot in the shoulder, you won't be able to adjust the position of your arm. It's been toothpicked, and it's not going anywhere.

Arrowheads can get wedged in bone. If it's a broad head, or hunting tip, that will be obnoxious to get out.

At the risk of reading too much into your setting, goblins often means poisons, or other nastiness. Though, really, even just getting a tetanus infection (it used to be called “lock jaw”) from their blades is a pretty horrific potential fate. Even if the wounds themselves were relatively minor (cuts and scrapes, maybe a graze or two), a couple days might still result in some pretty horrific harm after the fact.

Also, remember, it's unlikely that bacteria will be understood by the medical science of your setting. So, first aid would still run a real risk of secondary infections.

Depending on their skill in first aid, anything outside of a severed artery or catastrophic organ damage should be (technically) survivable, though the wounds could easily result in permanent impairments, depending on exactly what was hit. A punctured lung might not kill her, but it could result in permanent respiratory issues, such as a cough, and chronic pain while breathing heavily from then on. It could also result in pneumonia and death, which is also, usually, pretty permanent.

Some of this depends more on where you want to land on a spectrum between dark fantasy and swords & sorcery. The genres are similar (and potentially overlapping), but can scatter out into dramatically different works. But, you do have some options on how you want to proceed.

-Starke

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[flawseer]

Your thoughts on the wof characters have been really interesting and I'd love to hear your take on Starflight (your assignment of him being the 'designated sufferer' of arc one is both hilarious and tragically accurate). I've always liked him, cowardly though he is he still acts when he really needs to and the dynamic between him and Tsunami is super fun (the whole outwardly combative but inwardly just wishing to be as strong/as smart as the other).

I like Starflight and I relate to him a lot, as a fellow chronic worrier who annoys his friends with constant blathering about stuff only I find interesting, and often finding myself paralyzed in the face of decisions.

It’s funny how the story puts forward a black dragon, which in media are usually portrayed as mysterious, ambiguously malevolent harbingers of doom, and makes him into this adorable dork.

He’s also the plot’s chew toy, which I am at times less enthusiastic about. Especially when jokes are made at the expense of his misfortune.

Wings of Night and Sea

Starflight’s and Tsunami’s friendship is very engaging because, in a sense, both of them complete each other. For each, emulating the other serves as their last resort when faced with a personal crisis. Whenever Tsunami encounters a situation she cannot overcome with her usual blunt and direct approach, she asks herself how Starflight would resolve the situation. When Starflight becomes overwhelmed and too scared to move, his mind conjures an image of the strongest, bravest, most unstoppable thing he knows, which is Tsunami. Though either would be reluctant to openly admit it to each other, they both rely on each other’s strengths to cover their own weaknesses.

Through this you get the sense that, while their opposite personalities annoy each other to no end—if you locked both of them in a room for three hours, they’d be strangling each other when you open the door again—at their core they have only the deepest respect for each other. It becomes especially apparent when you realize that both of their stories in their respective books have them compare themselves to the other unfavorably.

If these two ever did a DBZ-style fusion dance, the result would likely be one of the most capable and balanced characters in their series.

Starflight's misfortune

CW: Discussion of blindness

One thing I have noticed (and have alluded to a lot in previous posts) is that the plot really likes to kick Starflight in the teeth. His own story arc puts him through the wringer, but he is not even safe in the two arcs past that, where he is largely out of focus. Most of the things that happen to him in arc 1 seem to occur for the sake of the story, but past that... it sometimes feels to me like the world has it in for this guy.

I started writing a list of every bad thing that happens to Starflight over all three arcs, but it got way too long, so now I’m just going to talk about a few select things instead.

One thing that stands out to me is that every other protagonist in arc 1 gets a specific moment. That kind of scene where they enter their tribe’s biome for the first time or connect with a particular part of their culture/physiology, and are overcome with a sudden burst of euphoria or deep resonance with their own nature. Clay gets it when he submerges himself in mud for the first time and then later again when he finds his siblings, Tsunami when she sees and smells the ocean, Glory when she’s in the rainforest and feels the sun, and Sunny when they go through the magic tunnel and end up in the desert. Starflight is the only arc 1 protagonist who doesn’t get a moment like this; when he enters his tribe’s home for the first time it’s a giant craphole that makes him feel upset. It only gets worse from there.

Then there is the big one; the misfortune that happens to him at the end of his book. I struggle to talk about this because... uh... How do I put this?

I opened this post by saying I relate to Starflight on a personal level. I wouldn’t consider myself as studious or well-read as him, so it’s not a direct comparison, but I do like to draw, write and dabble in visual artistry. This is a major part of my life; how I define myself as a person and what I think makes me “me”. The thing about this though is that all of this is tied up into one thing: my sense of sight.

It follows then that what ends up happening to Starflight is the realization of the one thing I fear the most. Thinking about the possibility of losing ones sight is deeply, personally horrifying to me. It messes me up internally just to consider it happening to me.

This, the subject of becoming blind, is a very difficult topic for any story to properly engage with. There are many pitfalls you can fall into and come off as insensitive, or ignorant. The way Wings of Fire deals with this subject is to... well... it doesn’t really. Starflight is blinded and then the story skips over most of his reaction to it because the next POV character gets separated from the group while they sort it out.

In a way, this is a good thing. I don’t know how this series—which often rushes through these really uncomfortable, harrowing events—would be able to show a realistic reaction to this development. Like, losing ones sight would be a horrifying prospect for anyone, but for Starflight especially this completely uproots not only his entire life, but his sense of identity. Everything he likes doing, everything he is and wants to be in life is rendered virtually impossible by this.

Consider who Starflight is. He is a thinker, and a worrier who is always inside his own head. He dreads and fears, he seeks out worst case scenarios, I daresay he is inclined towards pessimism. Whenever his neuroticism gets him too stressed, or emotional, or worried, he has one immediate response: bury his nose in a scroll. When he arrives in a new place, he usually asks where the scrolls are at. When he is under threat of being abducted or attacked, his first instinct is to go grab his scrolls to keep them safe. Like with me and drawing, reading is how he unwinds, how he balances himself. It is what keeps him sane and functional through dealing with adversity (and he's Starflight, so he deals with a lot of adversity).

Then this happens to him, and suddenly the one thing that makes this poor, battered boy happy, the one thing that never hurts him, is taken away forever. If I was in his place, if I learned I was suddenly blind, I would fall apart. I would cry, then scream, then cry AND scream and probably flail around in a panic. Clay would have to hold me down and restrain me so I don’t end up falling off the platform in a frenzied fit. Or worse.

So yeah, I get why the plot had to look away. Seeing this happen to Starflight—him going through this kind of anguish and then sinking into quiet despair as his world crumbles around him—would have been heartbreaking. In the end, we go on Sunny’s solo adventure and when she returns Starflight is already conveniently past the screaming fit phase and has adjusted to his new life circumstances—enough to talk and joke as if nothing happened. He then goes on to dedicate himself to bringing the wonders of literature to other blind dragons, which is a noble goal and good trajectory for his character—even if it’s a bit abrupt and I would have liked to SEE him do that instead of just being told.

Anyway.

This next one isn’t as notable because it doesn’t happen TO him, but I want to point it out to back up my claim that Starflight Ls can and will happen even in story arcs that have very little to do with him. In book 6 Moonwatcher and Darkstalker have a conversation where they discuss the concept of Nightwing powers and how they relate to the moons. The story very pointedly draws attention to the fact that Starflight nearly was born under three full moons and would have become the most powerful Nightwing of his generation if his inept caretakers had not decided to hatch him underground. While I don’t think getting these powers would have been good for Starflight in the long run, it is a bit sad considering he spent most of his childhood thinking he was born wrong because he didn’t have powers, and then Morrowseer further gaslit him about it throughout the arc.

And then we don't talk about what happens in arc 3. I am not the right person to discuss it.

My take on Starflight

I was asked to give my take on the character, so...

I already went into how I think he’s very introspective and prone to worrying. I see him as an introvert, which is something he has in common with Glory, and contrast him with Sunny, Clay, and especially Tsunami. He enjoys reading but also other activities where he gets to use his brain. He likes puzzles; I imagine he got very excited when they had to figure out the murder plot in book 2, or when he caught Blister in a lie. If he had a computer it would be full of adventure and puzzle games, and he’d hog the resident DS to play the Professor Layton series all the time.

When they found the academy, it is implied he teaches a literacy course and gives out writing assignments. That is right up his alley, but I’ve always felt he also has strong math/natural science teacher vibes. There should logically be a numbers class at that school and I can’t imagine any other character who would be more suited to teach it.

If I were asked where I would make changes to his story, I guess I would nix the part where he and Fatespeaker hook up in book 5. I have nothing against their relationship, it’s actually grown a lot on me over time. But I never liked how it started. Starflight gets rejected by Sunny and then immediately hooks up with Fatespeaker. This is really undignified for her because it takes their potentially intriguing romantic relationship and turns her into Starflight’s “rebound chick”. You really need to give yourself some time to move on from your previous attraction; rushing like this creates doomed relationships.

The original story implies that about half a year passes between the end of arc 1 and the start of arc 2. I like to pretend this gap is actually a bit longer, by like 2 or 3 years. It gives the old protagonists a bit more time to settle into the roles they’ll occupy during the next arc, and makes it more plausible to me that they could build and outfit an entire school, write the curriculum, designate roles, etc..

In that time, with things being more calm now, Starflight has opportunity to get lost in his own thoughts again. It turns out, now that the dangers of the war are no longer distracting him, he finds it difficult to cope with his blindness and sinks into a depression.

While this happens, Fatespeaker is there with him. She sees his condition worsening by the day, but refuses to give up on him. She reads to him; they talk, and they bond. Though serious self-searching and hard work, together they manage to pull out of the darkness eventually. This is how their relationship starts, and it’s also how Starflight gets the idea to invent the dragon-equivalent of braille.

Somewhere during that time, I also imagine Glory has Tamarin escorted to Jade Mountain so she can help Starflight adjust to his new situation and learn how to navigate his life without needing to rely on others. Perhaps this is what motivates Tamarin to attend the academy later.

What else is there to say? Hmm...

I think Starflight is really fond of hard candy. Jawbreakers are his favorite especially. Though given how prone to misfortune he is in the story, I’m hesitant to put him in proximity of anything with a name like that.

[hannieehaee]

hii!! i hope ure having a great day

i just wanted to request loser!scoups hehe I RLLY LOVED CHANS VERSION AND WAS HOPING TO SEE MORE 🫶🏻 anyways take your time to answer when ure free, thanku!

18+ / mdi

content: loser!seungcheol, afab reader, smut, dry humping, penetrative sex, etc.

wc: 2686

part 1, part 2, part 3

a/n: hii thank u for requesting <33 i never considered loser!cheol before but ngl i loved writing it hehe i hope u enjoy <3

masterlist

despite popular belief, seungcheol was actually a bit of a loser.

okay, maybe his appearance didn't necessarily fit the bill (with his slicked back hair and bulging muscles), but everything else about choi seungcheol truly screamed loser.

even with a large group of fratboy friends, seungcheol was still the loser of the friend group, being the only one who had opted out of joining the frat and who spent every day and night studying rather than ever attending any of his friends' parties.

this was all by choice, he swears! seungcheol was just far too serious about his education to let anything become a distraction. and it had always been like this, even dating back all the way to middle school (jeonghan could vouch for this, having known him basically since diapers). due to this, seungcheol had always been kind of a black sheep in any and every social situation he ever found himself in. as a result, seungcheol ended up becoming shy, awkward, utterly embarrassing in social situations, and as jeonghan liked to put it, a 'virgin loser.'

even if seungcheol wanted to disagree with his friend, he knew he was right. here he was, twenty-one years of age and still a lonely virgin who had never even felt the touch of a woman's hand in his. he'd had opportunities before, set ups orchestrated by his friends, but he always managed to fuck them up. due to jeonghan's outgoing disposition, the girls he usually set him up with were set for a surprise upon meeting a his friend seungcheol, who could not even hold eye contact for more then twelve seconds (he counted).

except this year that would all change.

now in his senior year of college, seungcheol had an epiphany.

on the very first week of senior year, upon being assigned a new dorm-mate due to his previous one transfering, seungcheol finally saw a mirror of himself.

his new roommate was, for lack of a better term, a fucking loser (the term being courtesy of jeonghan once again). seungcheol had barely met the guy, yet he could not stand one more moment of conversation with him. not only was he a know-it-all who could only ever talk about academics, but he was maybe even more of a loser virgin than seungcheol was (at least that's what seungcheol was able to assess from the three separate occasions in which he walked in on his roommate watching porn in the common area of the dorm). his hygiene was terrible and his wide-rimmed glasses made him look like the typical nerd in every high school movie. everything about him was what seungcheol feared to one day become.

this one week of torture had been enough for seungcheol to finally take jeonghan up on his offer to join his frat and subsequently move into the frat house. granted, jeonghan had to break a few rules to allow a new pledge with zero obstacles in the way, but jeonghan was just charming enough to get away with it.

seungcheol had already spent the past 10+ years with perfect grades and pristine extra curriculars, so he figured that even if he completely flunked these last two semesters, he would still be a shoe-in for the masters program he'd been eyeing since arriving to university.

so now seungcheol was immersed in the frat lifestyle, though he still felt a bit out of place, which unfortunately for cheol, was something his good friend jeonghan noticed immediately. but this would only be a problem for a short while.

unbeknownst to seungcheol, jeonghan had orchestrated a plan for seungcheol's first frat party. it all started with giving seungcheol a bit of a new look. jeonghan insisted on throwing out most of cheol's 'nerdy clothes' (admittedly, he did dress like an old man at times), traded in his thick-rimmed glasses for some better fitting specs and lastly, gave cheol a trim to better frame his face. after all these changes, cheol felt more confident but still did not feel ready to attend one of the frat's well-known parties.

the decision was, however, taken for him, as he found himself in attendance to one just a few days later. also unknown to cheol was that jeonghan had been playing cupid once more, scouting to see which one of his closer girl-friends would be a good fit for his friend. and of course, his attention immediately fell on you.

jeonghan had only known you since the last semester of his junior year, in which the two of you had partnered up for a project that took up the entire fifteen weeks of instruction. the two of you hit it off pretty easily, but you hadn't quite caught his attention in a non-platonic way.

but you had caught someone else's.

although it had only been a fleeting moment, jeonghan caught onto every single look and action that had occurred the day in which seungcheol had accidentally interrupted a study session between the two of you.

he had easily noticed the blush in cheol's cheeks upon seeing you for the first time, along with the way he shyly checked you out when you weren't paying attention. what had surprised him the most, though, had been the way you checked out his friend as he went to leave the room. that had been enough for jeonghan to decide to play matchmaker between the two of you if the opportunity ever arose. and that was now.

getting the two of you alone was not difficult, but jeonghan knew better. he knew that sending the two of you into an empty room, completely blind to whatever he was planning was just a bad idea. so jeonghan decided that for the first time in his life, he would not scheme. he would simply set up the scene and leave the rest to you.

when jeonghan first came up to you a few days back and let you know about his friend's crush on you, you had been pleasantly surprised. what had shocked you the most, though, had been the revelation that jeonghan's cute friend was actually an inexperienced virgin. jeonghan told you to please not bring it up to cheol, but that he felt it was best you knew so you didnt feel caught off guard should you ever try to hit him up (which he knew you would). what jeonghan didnt realize was that this fact excited you more than you'd like to admit.

planting that seed was more than enough to get you looking for cheol in the empty room jeonghan had said he'd be in (okay, maybe he did scheme a little), prepared to deflower the pretty nerd you'd been thinking about every time you started to notice him sitting alone in the library every other day.

you had dressed to the nines, donning a red slip dress that gave you breathing room but still accentuated every part of your body you wished to stand out. ready and confident, you quietly opened the door to what you assumed to be jeonghan's room, knowing you'd find his pretty friend inside.

sitting alone on the bed, seemingly trying to psych himself up as he whispered affirmations to himself, the boy jumped back upon your unexpected intrusion, with his hears instantly turning red at realizing who you were.

you were jeonghan's pretty friend. the one seungcheol had had some unbecoming thoughts about immediately after seeing you in jeonghan's room last semester (and subsequently seeing you around campus as his eyes would unknowingly always search for you). and you looked .... fuck. and you were alone in han's room with him .... and you had closed the door right behind you .... and now you had walked all the way over to where he was sitting at the edge of the bed, not shocked at all to see him there ....

"hi," you smiled at him.

"h– hey."

"are you okay? how come you're here all alone?", you sat next to him on the bed, damning all boundaries, apparently.

"oh, i ... just a little nervous, i guess."

"yeah? of what?", despite the unexpectedness of the situation, you seemed genuinely interested, so seungcheol responded.

"it's, uh, my first party as a member of the frat."

"oh, really? i had no idea you were a member of the frat. that's pretty cool, seungcheol."

"you know my name?"

you scoot closer, smile still on your face, "yeah, of course i know your name. do you now mine?"

"oh, i, uh, yeah ..."

"okay, so we know each other. do you maybe want a friend to go out there with? maybe that would ease your nerves," your hand had somehow made its way to his thigh, now invading his personal space a bit. except he couldnt find it in himself to complain.

"t– that's fine, i, uh, i have han and– "

"but arent i better company?"

"y– you're ..."

"can i be honest with you, seungcheol?", you didnt wait for a response, "hannie told me that maybe you needed some help. that i could maybe help you out?"

"help? what type of help do you mean?"

you leaned in even closer, "do you want me to show you?"

"i ..."

"all you have to say is 'yes', cheollie ...", you breathed out now close enough for him to feel your breath on his lips.

he nodded and made an embarrassing noise of affirmation, completely giving up on speaking.

it was embarrassing how easily he let you turn him into a puddle, not even bothering to question how or why jeonghan orchestrated this situation. but that didnt matter as he finally felt the lips of a woman against his own – your lips; the lips of the girl he'd been crushing on from afar, jealous that maybe you'd become more than jeonghan's classmate. this was a clear declaration that his assertions had been incorrect.

seungcheol wasn't sure what to do with his hands (or with his tongue) as he kissed you. he felt you smile against his lips at his whimper, making feel that maybe you were making fun of him. when you pulled away, he feared that maybe he'd been right.

"cheollie, let me show you, yeah? just let me– yeah, like that", you positioned him in a way that would allow you to straddle him as you said this, wrapping his arms around your waist, "okay now let me show you how to kiss me, okay? just open your mouth a bit for me and let me teach you. then you can try it on me."

with that, you leaned into his open mouth, sticking your tongue inside as you played with his own, sucking on it and causing his eyes to roll back, another embarrassing moan leaving his lips.

"do you wanna try it now?", you asked as you pulled away.

he feared his voice would betray him, so he just nodded before leaning in.

seungcheol mimicked your previous actions, though his were a bit sloppier and more desperate. he whined at the way you sighed and pulled at his hair due to the way in which he suckled at your tongue and squeezed his fingers on your hips.

eventually you began to also kiss him back, making it a battle between your tongues all the while seungcheol tried to keep up.

suddenly your hips began to move against his own, making him groan in pleasure. after that, you leaned over him, causing the two of you to lay on the bed as you practically rode him through your clothes.

cheol couldnt help his cries of pleasure at feeling you press against his now swollen member. he didnt want the feeling to end, so he grabbed onto your hips and helped you in your movements, even grinding his own hips upwards to match you.

"cheollie ... do you want more? hmm? wanna feel what its like?", you purred against his ear while pulling off your dress, leaving you in a tiny bralette and thin panties.

"yes! fuck, please. i'll take whatever you wanna give me, just ..."

"shhh, it's okay. i'll give it to you, pretty. you dont have to beg. want you just as bad," you kissed him again before he could reply.

without him noticing, you had thrown off your bra, something which made him completely blank when you pulled away and began talking to him. none of your words made it through his head. he was far too busy looking at the pretty nude girl in front of him. he salivated at every inch of naked skin, wanting nothing more than to lick and kiss at every curve. out of all parts of your body, his eyes were glued to your tits. the fleeting thought of suffocating in them flew through his head, making him shudder.

"cheol?", you grabbed onto his chin and pointed his gaze towards your own, finally breaking him out of his trance.

you giggled at his confused face, causing him to sheepishly apologize for dozing off.

"it's okay, pretty. i'd be distracted too if i could get all these clothes off you ... that's what i was asking actually, can i?" your hands began to teasingly pull at his top, mangling it a bit so it could expose some skin.

his nod was all you needed to rip off his shirt and pull off his pants with urgency that had seungcheol blushing. after getting him fully naked, you threw off your panties and finally sat against him completely bare. the heat of your skin against his was enough to have him burying his face against your neck and begging you once more to please give it to him.

"shhh. i'll give it to you, pretty. i– i'll give you everything," and with that, you sank down on him, throwing your head back at the intrusion.

meanwhile seungcheol was completely gone. the warmth of your body against his had been one thing, but feeling your heat wrap around him was what truly did him in.

it's not like he had stayed a virgin by choice. he had tried to hit it off with many of the girls jeonghan set him up with, but none of them showed any care for him. they'd all expected him to step up and fuck them. even when he would try to shyly explain that he had never done anything sexual before, he'd just be met with scoffs or laughter. but you had walked him through it. you had complimented him and made him feel comfortable. you had made him see pleasure for the first time in his life.

although these thoughts swam through his head as you fucked yourself on his cock, seungcheol's mind was otherwise completely empty. all he could think about was how good you felt and how pretty you sounded as you threw your head back and pulled at his hair. you were just the embodiment of pleasure.

all cares and worries were gone from his brain until the moment in which he felt all his pleasure reach a peak.

he didn't want to be a fucking loser and cum so soon, but you just felt so fucking good, he couldnt help himself. he cried a warning out to you, to which you encouraged him to let go and told him you'd follow him soon.

his orgasm was something he never couldve imagined. but your own orgasm soon trampled that experience. your tightness as you let yourself go while still wrapped around him had him delirious with pleasure. without meaning to, his nails dug into the skin of your pretty hips as he lost consciousness for a few seconds.

unable to fully process it, he felt a sweet peck against his lips before feeling you cuddle against him. he didnt have to think twice before wrapping his arms around you and pulling you closer.

"remind me to thank that idiot", he spoke up after some moments.

"who, hannie?", you giggled against his chest.

"yeah. he was onto something when he made me get ready in his room."

"oh? he sent me in here looking for you."

"that fucker", he chuckled, "owe him one."

[lanalace]

Gifts Given [Yandere Merman x FemReader]

Word count: 2,328

Summary: Nero Sol Nifan has waited for a mate for years while suffering from the madness that came as a side effect of the power he was bestowed. One day, he met you. His salvation. The only obstacle is that you were human. However, that was only an obstacle for you because he doesn’t plan to let you go.

Chapter 1 - Lost and Found

Life was a routine. Wake up, hunt, sleep and repeat. Occasionally the merman would share in song with the rest of his kind but that was it. He hated it. He was forever bored and life just felt mundane. Nero Sol Nifan was a 250 years old merman. He had reached maturity at 200 and had expected to find his mate within the first decade but no such luck. For a being so highly valued, it crushed his spirits. 

Most merfolk found their mates within the first decade of reaching reproductive age, so why hadn’t he? Every decade after that was just an insult to injury. It was an open wound that grew larger with each year that passed without finding his mate and he was becoming desperate, though he would never show it on the outside.

He was told by an elder that most unmated males felt this way at his age and that this was quite normal to feel anxious and desperate. But being unmated for years would start to dull the outlook on life and not a single female that has sought him out was his fated one. None so much as interests him. Every mermaid had a destined match, however that never stopped them from copulating until the day they found their mate.  He had both females and males fawn over him, within and outside of the mating cycles. But he rejected every single one of them. ‘If swimming to warmer waters was not ingrained in my biology, I would avoid it all together.’ Merfolk could enjoy each other's bodies whenever they pleased but only during mating cycles could offspring be produced and that's usually when most of his kind met their fated partner. 

He still held hope that he would be able to find his mate despite his age. So he made sure to always carry the betroval item in a white satchel around his hip, inside was a bracelet of brilliant large baroque pearls and shiny yellow gold spacers. It was of the highest quality and extremely rare/hard to acquire which is why he was the only merman to have such jewels grace his body and soon so would his person who he’d live out his days with. For now, having to watch the rest of his kind find their pair and their release in each other every year while he could not just enraged him. He was almost tempted to kill some of those pretentious merfolk. He could do so very easily but he decided against it. He could do it so very easily.

Nero Sol Nifan was the strongest, priding himself on becoming most desirable for when he found his future mate. Due to him not finding his mate for many cycles, he focused on honing his skill, reaching new heights that others previously could not. Now he was almost twice the size of a normal mermen, more muscular than the rest of his kind which would usually put him at a disadvantage for being so dense. It did mark him slower, however, that didn’t last long, he had trained his body night and day to be the fastest. Not only that, due to his intense training, he developed a power, a gift believed to be given from the great goddess of the sea. He had gained the ability to not only communicate telepathically with all sea life but he could also manipulate them freely to do his bidding. This made the fear, envy and love of him grow. He was like a God among his people.

Though his people viewed it as a gift, he couldn’t completely see it as such. Telepathy was a very useful skill to have but it was not within his control. It doesn’t turn off and more often than not, it was absolutely maddening. He was subjected to countless screams of pain, secrets he didn’t care to know, hatred, envy, unwanted depraved desires from unworthy mermaids. All of it was simply too much. As a result, he quickly began isolating himself, moving farther and further away from merfolk and into less populated waters. He was hoping distance might somehow help with the constant radio noise in his head. But he found it within an underwater cave, instead.

There cave was huge. It looked like an enclosed beach. There were bioluminescent fungi scattered along the ceiling and walls, giving the cave an almost magical feel. He looked at the beautiful glow of the cave, watching the pool leading to the ocean reflect off of the jagged walls. 

“Magnificent.” He said under his breath. He had never seen such a wondrous sight this deep under water. 

Nero Sol Nifan beached himself on the sandy floor of the cave, slipping his massive silver-white tail out of the water and curling it by his side. The moment he did that the noise in his head quieted down just a bit. It was still ever so present but it took the edge off. 

“Why is it that I was cursed by you, my goddess?” He spoke to the pool of water before him. He was expecting a response of some kind but was met with silence, the surface only reflecting his beautiful, milky face back at him. How he wished that he could go back to the time where he thought life was mundane. 

He sighed and laid himself down on a nearby rock that could pass as somewhat of a diving board. He was angry with the goddess, he cursed her name in his head and his hatred built for this deceitful deity who had taken his sanity. But he needed to rest. 

50 years later~

Nero Sol Nifan woke up to the sound of fish screaming in his head. He never got use to this day in and day out chaotic noise. He looked a little worse for wear since the days before his life became his own personal hell. His eyes looked dull, dark circles have taken up permanent residence under his eyes, tinged with red from the endless stress. His handsome face looked a bit haggard but that was not enough to take away much from his beauty. 

He dragged himself out of his cave and into the water. He hadn’t eaten in a few days, wishing to just parish within the walls of his cave. But today, something told him to go out. He didn’t understand the urgency amidst the buzzing chatter in his mind but he followed his instincts.

The white tailed merman swam out into the open ocean in search of his next meal. He felt uneasy today but brushed it off. It happened to be a rather dreary day, the waters were turbulent and a bit colder than normal while the world above was crying heavily. He knew that he could simply manipulate any fish to come to him and have an easy meal but he enjoyed hunting. It gave him a chance to release a small bit of the madness that he lives with daily on his prey. 

That’s when he spotted a school of red snapper fish. The bright color caught his sharp lilac eyes in an instant and he was off. Speeding quickly in their direction, with his large tail pistoling him forward. The smaller prey was easily more elusive than a larger catch but he made quick work of them. Keeping up with the fast changing paths of the snappers, he allowed the chase to go on a tad bit longer than necessary before slicing through the school with his massive claws, skewering 8 of them onto his claws. That was enough for a meal so he indulged right then and there as the rest of the school swam off. 

He was pleased, this meal would sustain him for the next two days. With a full stomach, the handsome merman lazily began his journey back to his cave. Had the water been steady today he would have basked in the rays of the sun instead. 

“Unfortunate.” He grimaced to himself.

He didn’t get more than a few feet away from his original position when he heard and unusual crash behind him. The white hair merman turned tin the direction of the sound and what he saw confused him

“A human?”

‘What was a human doing so far away from land?’ He thought to himself. There were no ships in the water, he would have seen it. Heck, he would have heard all the fish nearby chattering about it. His tired eyes landed on the sinking figure and his heart tightened. He felt something akin to panic start to take over him. It had been so long since he had felt anything outside of rage or pity for himself. He had the human in his arms before he even realized that he moved to catch her.And just like that, his world grew quiet. Nero Sol Nifan’s face grew into an incredulous look and his body trembled. 

“I can’t hear anything anymore.” His eye expanded in shock as he slowly looked down at the human in his arms and his grip tightened around the creature’s body. 

With a clear mind for the first time in ages, the merman blew a large bubble around the girl, encasing her within the translucent orb. He swam full speed to his cave, reaching there in record time. He pushed the bubble to the surface of the pool and burst it, catching the being and resting her on the crystal like sand. He brought his head to her face and listened carefully but no sound escaped those lips. 

“No!” He cried out. ‘I will not lose my salvation the moment I finally have it.’

 He gripped the creature's shoulder and shook hard a few times, noting how small and fragile you felt in his hands. Unfortunately, that did not work either. His panic rose because he thought that the human might have died so he placed his hand on its head.

“Still warm.” He whispered and that knowledge calmed him. Thinking quickly, he performed the maneuver that he had witnessed sailors use on their own kind on several occasions by pressing his palm on breast bone and applying pressure repeatedly. He was careful of his strength, knowing he could break such weak bones easily. It took about 30 seconds before the human's eyes flew open and it sat up, coughing up water.

‘It actually worked.  Thank goodness that I was able to preserve this human life.’ He sighed with relief. The merman eye the frail thing as it continued coughing and sucking in air, he could only see the back of its head from where he sat. ‘It looks so weak compared to the ship dwellers.’ His thoughts stopped there because that object of his quiet thoughts turned to face him and met his inquisitive gaze. 

The moment their eyes met, his cold heart froze. It was as if time stopped in that moment as he looked upon the tiny human. She was female, with thick, long h/c hair clinging to her face and back. Her dazzling e/c eyes sparkled like jewels with the tears she had yet to fully shed and a small coral pink lips that attracted he wished to touch. His heart started back up and it throbbed in his chest. He never thought his cold heart would beat for a human. His body felt so hot from the top of his cheeks to the base of his tail. 

‘What is this? My body feels so hot. Almost like it is mating season yet different. I feel drawn to this creature. Could this be my mate? Is this what all my suffering was for? To make sure that I was kept pure for this little human?’ It was uncomfortable but strangely pleasant. It was like nothing he had ever felt before but he decided he liked the feeling. It was exciting. ‘So this is my mate. I have cursed the goddess of the sea everyday for the past five decades because of this damned curse but she not only bestowed me with power, she also has gifted me this precious female. I am terribly sorry goddess I have wronged you and been ungrateful and undeserving. I will never look down on the blessing you have provided me again. I will never question you again.’ 

He was so caught up in his own inner thoughts that hadn’t even realized how terrified his tiny mate-to-be looked. She eyed him with fascination and great fear while she inched away from him. He didn’t like that one bit, narrowing his eyes, he yelled at her.

“Stay!” 

But the little female squealed in response, throwing her small hands out in front of her in defense. Her little scream sounded melodic to his ears. He found himself wanting to hear her talk to him so he spoke again, this time gentler. 

“Female, you are safe. I have saved your life. I will not harm you.” He reached a webbed hand out to her slowly, intending to wipe away the tears on her cheeks. But the girl flinched away and started speaking in a rushed manner. 

“Please don’t eat me. Please don’t eat me. I promise I don’t taste good. Even sharks don’t like people meat. So please just stay where you are.” 

He retracted his arm and gave a small smile endearingly. Due to all the excitement, he had completely forgotten the language barrier. He did not understand her at all but her voice was so pretty and soft that he instantly liked it. It suited her feminine appearance well. If she had had a tail, he wouldn’t even blink twice and acknowledge her as a beautiful mermaid just based on her appearance and voice. 

Fast as lightning, he snatched the human's outstretched wrist and pulled her to him. Before she could so much as scream, the merman pressed his lips to her. 

[Chapter 2 is out!]

[uvobreakmylegs]

The Long Route

Shalnark x female!reader

Warnings: stalking, creepy behavior, voyeurism, mentions of potential kidnapping, Shalnark abusing his ability

Word Count: 5.3k

At seven in the morning on a Wednesday, most people were still waking up, some trying to ignore the rays of the sun that peeked through the windows while others would be getting up reluctantly. As such, most people weren't out yet, leaving the streets free of the traffic for a short while. Even being at the height of summer, the early hour had the temperature outside being a moderate one, best described as tolerable bordering on being just okay, though that would change for the worse once the sun rose higher in the sky, causing most to head indoors to find relief in the AC units that worked overtime.

But for now, the temperature was fine and the mood was quiet.

Fifteen minutes after seven o'clock, Shalnark walked through a largely empty parking lot before he entered through the double glass doors of the local gym. Going through a second set of doors brought him to the inside of the building, which was just as empty as it had been outside. Few people wanted to be up this early, and fewer still felt inclined to go work out if they did happen to be awake. The people who would go out at this hour were mostly the ones who couldn't make a gym visit fit into their schedule in any other way or they wanted to have less company with them while they worked out.

Shalnark didn't consider himself to be part of either group. In all honesty, he would have much preferred sleeping in. Already, he could feel a yawn coming on as a result of another night where he'd gone to bed far too late to be up and about this early, but he kept himself from letting it out. As much as he wished he was back in bed, he wasn't here for his own sake.

The manipulator smiled as he greeted the lone employee who sat at the desk not far from the entrance. The employee in question remained stone faced as he walked past, not bothering to give a greeting in return or even fake being friendly at the sight of the blonde man. Shalnark didn't comment on it and the smile stayed on his face as he headed off towards the men's locker room.

He was pretty used to that particular employee's lukewarm reception to him, and since he had never cared about the way other people viewed him, he wasn't about to start that now for someone who was ultimately insignificant to him.

After leaving his things in the locker room and heading up the stairs to the jogging track that overlooked the work out area below, Shalnark took the time to stretch out as he looked at who else had arrived by now.

Four people were working out on the machines. More than normal, he noted, as the number usually tended to be two or less.

At least no one else was on the jogging track. Despite not coming this early to have the place to himself, it was nice to not need to worry about anyone else being in his general vicinity.

And while it was unlikely that anyone would notice or even care, it was just as nice to not take the risk that anyone might see the glances Shalnark would take out the long window that overlooked the indoor pool. The people below him never paid enough attention to see what he was doing, but anyone closer might take note of the way he watched the pool. Or rather, the person who was almost always in the pool at this time of morning.

Speaking of….

He'd already begun his jog, keeping his pace moderate and doing his best to keep himself from rushing to the window. Act normal and keep your head facing forward. He was used to it. As he rounded the corner and came to the window, he eagerly glanced to the side and smiled to himself.

You were there, as expected, swimming at the center of the pool. And once again the early hour resulted in you having the entire stretch of light blue water to yourself as you made your way toward one end of the pool. Once you reached it, you would turn and swim to the opposite and repeat the process once you reached that wall.

By no means were you a professional swimmer, nor were you trying to be one. You swam at your leisure through the water, not at all interested in even trying to swim the length of the pool the way the professional athletes would. You swam because you liked it, and you were often lost in your own thoughts as you went back and forth as you enjoyed the feel of the water.

He reached the end of the window just as you reached the end of the pool, and he was able to catch a glimpse of you turning around in the water before you were out of his sight completely. As usual, the time he had to look at you ended far too quick for his liking, and he returned his attention to what was in front of him as he continued his pace while he made his way around the track, eager to get another look at you once he reached the window a second time.

As much as he disliked how sudden his viewing of you would end, the anticipation of seeing you again spurred him as he went around the track. Though he made sure to keep his pace the same. As unlikely as it was, if there did happen to be anyone watching him, it would look weird if he always slowed down at the window and then sped up after.

You were closer to the opposite end of the pool when he saw you again, still going at that same leisurely pace. Your hair was wet, he noted. At some point you had dunked yourself under the water completely as he knew you were compelled to since you felt it would be strange if you entered the water and didn't go under at least once. It was an odd quirk of yours and you didn't even know why you felt the need to do so.

One could say that your need to come out at this time of day to swim was another quirk of yours. But unlike the first one, you and Shalnark were both aware why you came out so early.

It came down to an aversion to other people in public pools, many of them not having a sense of personal space, as well as you not trusting others to have clean habits while sharing the water with you. Your concern was largely children who didn't know any better, though there had been a few adults who had annoyed you enough that you never wanted to be in the water with them again. But the lack of other people and the fact that the pools were cleaned every night had the early hour of seven being the perfect time for you to go.

Maybe it was because of his own upbringing and the fact that he'd seen plenty of unpleasant things both in his youth and as an adult, but Shalnark felt that was a silly reason to go so far to avoid others. It made you seem a rather picky.

A little bit of pickiness was no big deal, though.

You were swimming towards the middle of the pool again before you were out of sight, and Shalnark again brought his gaze back in front of him. Another lap around the track before he would see you again.

And when he did see you again, you were no longer going back and forth in the pool, now hanging about in the middle as you floated on your back, your face and a majority of your chest sticking out of the water as you stared above you.

It was during times like these that he wished he could sneakily take a photo of you. But even if he were to be quick about it, that was likely to draw too much attention. The manipulator just needed to appreciate the image of you that was burning itself into his mind.

That was a new swimsuit, he noted. A light green one piece suit decorated with pink stripes, and from what he had been able to see when you were swimming earlier, the suit dipped down low in the back.

The colors were nice on you, he felt. And you looked cute in it. Though Shalnark would be hard pressed to criticize you in any of the suits he had seen you in previously. Any piece of clothing that had the fabric hugging so tightly around your body was one he was happy to see you in, but he did have to say that it was a shame you no longer wore two piece suits.

Although, it was his fault that you didn't wear them anymore.

His mind went back to that incident as he came to the end of the window, and with you out of sight, he thought of how he had almost managed to ruin this experience of yours completely.

When he first started following you and learned of the outings you took every Wednesday morning, Shalnark hadn't bothered with taking advantage of the jogging track to watch you at first. It had seemed smarter and less of a hassle to take control of one of the lifeguards while he watched you in private. You wouldn't question why one of them would be watching you, after all. That was literally their job.

Only he hadn't realized what would happen after he used Black Voice to take over that lifeguard; that having them watch over you, the object of his affections, would cause them to smile at you while Shalnark watched through their eyes.

It was an oddity of nen, no doubt. Something he hadn't been aware of because he'd never had such feelings for anyone until he saw you. How could he have known that would happen when he'd never encountered that issue before?

So for three different mornings, Shalnark was puzzled at the way you kept giving the lifeguard nervous glances while you tried to enjoy your swim, while all you could see was that lifeguard leering at you. On that third day you had clearly had enough as you got out of the pool much earlier than usual to complain to the management, and the lifeguard in question had been fired shortly after.

That had been an interesting thing to learn about his own ability, and Shalnark would have been more fascinated by it initially if he hadn't been so worried that you were going to stop this bit of your routine. The week after that incident you didn't come in, and he wondered if you wouldn't be back at all.

It was a nice surprise when, a few weeks after, he saw you head out for the gym before seven, your typical swim gear in hand.

But from then on it was one piece suits only.

That was too bad, but maybe in the future he convince you to wear them again. Maybe for him.

But he was getting ahead of himself.

He came around to the window again and his eyes once more darted to the side. You were still floating in the middle of the pool, still staring up at the ceiling.

What were you thinking about?

He wished he could ask. It would've been nice to go down and talk to you. Unfortunately his spider tattoo meant that wasn't a good idea as he would be bringing some risk to himself if he were to go out there shirtless. And even if he didn't have that problem, he was aware you might not appreciate someone trying to chat you up while you were in a space where you wanted as little company as possible. While you wouldn't complain about one or two others who might happen to be in the pool with you, you didn't want conversation.

Was it really that fun to swim around like that with no one else to interact with?

Evidently you thought so.

As the window ended and he lost sight of you again, Shalnark still felt that the effort you made to be alone in a public place made you picky. But still, no one was perfect. And after so much time watching you, Shalnark had grown fond of your quirks.

If anything, he found that they made you cuter.

Over the next hour, Shalnark watched you as you swam about, sometimes going back from swimming from one end of the pool to the next, sometimes dipping back beneath the water completely, staying under for a few moments before you rose back up and keeping your eyes shut as you brushed the hair out of your face.

And other times you were just floating. Even with the distance between you two Shalnark could see that your gaze was unfocused as you were more concerned with your own thoughts, and once more he wished he could know what was going through that head of yours.

Maybe at some point, you would tell him.

Not now, or anytime soon, but at some point in the future, when you would know him long enough to trust him.

That would be nice.

It was a little bit after the hour mark had passed that there were others coming into the indoor pool as well, setting up their towels on the long white chairs as they chatted with one another. Not too many, but a sign of what was to come. And as was usual during this time, you began to make your way out of the pool, swimming over to the shallow end before you were able to walk out, the water dripping off of you as you headed for the chair where you had left your towel.

Shalnark took that as his cue to leave as well, going around the track one last time and then making his way back to the door that led out into the halls.

But before he did that….

He glanced down at the people who were working out. Two of them had left since he had started, and the other two looking as though they were beginning to wind down. Though neither of the two who remained were women.

Shalnark frowned, feeling slightly disappointed. Ah well. He couldn't get lucky with that every day.

He was just about to leave the room when he heard the door beneath him open, and he paused for a moment, waiting to see who had entered.

It was a woman.

Within an instant he had one of his needles in hand, and with a flick of his wrist it was embedded into the woman's neck.

The woman stiffened for only a moment before Shalnark took over, his phone already pulled up to his face as he began to input his instructions. Just like that, the woman was continuing like nothing had happened, turning around and leaving the room she had just entered. With a click of a button he had her remove the tie she had put her hair in, letting it flow freely and hiding the needle in her neck.

In the time it took her to reach the women's locker room at the other end of the hall, Shalnark had descended the stairs and entered the men's, his eyes glued to the screen. You would probably have just entered the showers, cleaning off the smell of the pool chemicals. It was unlikely that you would've been done that fast.

It was also too bad that he couldn't record any images of you while you were in the shower. But with the way anyone under his control would smile at you, he needed to be careful whenever he used his ability to spy on you. Another incident like the one with the lifeguard and you'd leave this gym for good.

That would be a shame, as he'd truly grown to enjoy this routine. Both yours and his own.

He and his puppet waited as he heard the sound of water running at the other end of the locker room. The woman he was controlling was standing at the end of one aisle of lockers, opposite of the one that you typically used, staring blankly at the gray metal in front of her while he listened for a sign that you were returning.

When he heard the water switch off, Shalnark quickly set it so his phone would record the images seen from the eyes of his puppet, anticipating the state you would be in when you walked around that corner. He followed up by having the woman open the locker door in front of her and use it to hide her face while he made it appear as though his puppet was looking for something.

A few moments later, you were there.

Through the corner of the woman's eye, he immediately caught sight of you clad in only a towel. You glanced over at the woman once, to which Shalnark made sure she averted her eyes, and then you paid no more mind to her as you put in the combination on your lock. Once the door to your own locker was opened, you removed the towel that hid the sight of your body from him.

His mouth went dry as he saw your bare skin and the goosebumps appeared all over as those parts that had been covered up were met with the chilly air in the locker room. He saw the way your nipples had hardened as a result of that, and he double checked to make sure the phone was recording you. He saw the way the water continued to drip from your hair that was still damp despite your efforts to dry it, and the way the water dripped from one strand that fell onto your chest and rolled down your skin, traveling down past your breasts and stomach until it reached-

Shalnark took in a deep breath as he looked away from the screen, tapping his foot while he made an effort to control himself. As much as he wanted to keep his eyes on you as much as possible, trying to leave the building while hiding a tent would be awkward, even for him. This was what the recording was for; so he could view the video when he didn't need to worry about that.

From that point, he spared only brief glances towards the phone's screen, doing so just to make sure you didn't catch the way his puppet stared at you.

What he caught sight of were little snippets of you: a quick look at the way you pulled your underwear up your legs. How you looked from behind as you put your bra into place. Those few droplets of water that were still present on your exposed skin. The way that skin was then quickly covered up as you pulled your shirt over your head, followed by how you zipped up the front of your pants.

It was a constant back and forth from the view of his puppet, and Shalnark twirled his second needle in his hand as he kept himself from getting too excited.

He knew that the video he would have later wouldn't be very good. None of them ever were, as all he could enjoy were those snippets of your vulnerability sandwiched between the anticipation of being caught.

But there was a charm to them, something about them that he loved as he would capture these moments of yours. Maybe that was a quirk of his own, as he was truly enjoying the ways he tiptoed around you, watching your every move while you remained unaware of the fact that you were actively being stalked.

Besides, if he wanted a nicer quality video of you, he'd just look through the footage from the cameras he'd placed in your apartment.

Ah, but he was getting distracted.

Right now, he should be focusing on what you were doing.

And since you were nearly finished with tying your shoes, Shalnark gathered up the bag he had brought with him before exiting the locker room, his eyes glued to his phone as he saw you gather up all of your things before you turned to leave.

Once he saw that, he released the woman he'd been controlling and the screen went dark.

As he placed the phone and remaining needle into his pockets, he thought that today, it'd be nice if he could interact with you in some small way. Maybe to set the gears in motion for the relationship on your end.

Probably not that, but he at least wanted you to know that he existed.

You were several steps behind him when he began ascending the stairs that led up to the front desk area. Among the other noises that were within the building, he focused in on the way you walked and the sounds of your shoes upon the tiled floor that changed once you reached the stairs yourself. He sensed how far you were behind him, which wasn't far at all.

But he kept himself from looking back.

After climbing the last step and heading towards the doors at the front, Shalnark gave a brief wave to the employee at the front desk who was still present at their post. That time they made a sour face when they caught sight of him, and he saw the way they mouthed the word “prick” as they looked away angrily.

Shalnark personally didn't understand why that particular employee was still so mad about the fact that he wasn't paying any membership fees. After all, it wasn't his fault that a loophole in their guidelines allowed anyone with a Hunter's license free access to the gym and all its amenities. And really, why would anyone even bother still being mad about something so petty?

Ah well. It didn't matter. That employee couldn't do anything and the rage they radiated at him was amusing to him. For now, at least.

Then his attention shifted, away from the employee and back to you as he sensed that you also had reached the top of the stairs and were now heading for the doors as well.

As he had reached the exit before you did, he pushed one of the doors open and then looked back, pretending as though he had just noticed that you approaching. With a smile, he pushed the door open wider to step through and then kept it open, waiting to the side as he held the door for you.

On realizing that he was waiting for you, you smiled at him as you offered a “thank you” as you walked through the open doorway. He smiled and nodded in response. Quickly reaching the second set of doors in the entryway, you opened one and copied the action he had made previously, holding the door open for him. Just as you had, he thanked you in turn, to which you smiled again as you answered “no problem.”

Now out of the building, you began to walk over to where you had parked your car, only to notice immediately that he was walking in the same direction as you as the car that Shalnark was currently using not too far from where you had parked your own. Evidently you felt awkward saying nothing as the two of you walked side by side, especially with the previous interaction, and you made yourself speak up.

“The heat has been pretty brutal lately,” you commented as you looked up to the sky. The sun was higher now and there wasn't a single cloud present.

“Yeah. It's always the worst when you take one step outside and you feel like you could immediately keel over from heatstroke,” Shalnark replied.

You nodded along as you agreed with him, then added “I think we're supposed to get some thunderstorms this weekend, though, so that might keep things cool for a bit.”

“We can always hope,” he answered.

The meaningless conversation ended as quickly as it started as you came to where you had parked your car. You fished around your bag for your keys as you wished him to have a good rest of his day, to which he wished you the same.

That was it for today. Any further attempt at conversation wouldn't be received well, especially when it was clear that you needed to be somewhere. Right now the view you had of him would be one of neutrality – he'd been nice to you, you'd been nice back, and you had a conversation that was so boring that you'd likely forget about it within the next few hours, though hopefully his image might stay in your mind and you would recognize him the next time your paths crossed.

You probably hadn't noticed him on the jogging track, not today or any other. When it came to things like your surroundings, you could be incredibly oblivious at times, especially when you were too deep in thought.

He reached into his pocket as he went to pull out his own car keys, and his hand bumped against his phone.

…. He still had a needle he had yet to use, didn't he?

……

No one else was around and the opportunity was too good to pass up.

Before you could enter your car, he turned and threw his remaining bat needle at you, which promptly struck you on your shoulder. You were instantly frozen in place as you were put under his control, a puppet waiting for orders.

Shalnark didn't need to bother looking at his phone as he typed out your commands, and as he approached you, you turned to him, smiling as you waited patiently. He felt that the smile you were giving him now wasn't as pretty as it had been when you'd been speaking to him earlier, but it would do for now.

As would this.

Shalnark pulled you into his embrace when he reached you, tilting your head up with one hand as he leaned in for a kiss while his other hand continued to type in commands. You did as Black Voice ordered you, leaning in as well and reciprocating his kiss while your soft hands went to rest on his chest ever so gently, the way he imagined you would touch him if you were to do so of your own free will.

He got to experience just a little bit of you: the taste of your lips, the smell of your now slightly damp hair, the softness of your skin, the feel of your body being so close to his and the slight scent of pool chemicals that still clung to you despite the shower you had taken.

It wasn't perfect. There was a robotic feel to your touch that was caused by the use of his ability, and he knew that right now, all you were was just a shell of yourself.

But it was far to early to expect to get anything like kisses from you, and while he was determined to maintain the course to have the relationship progress as naturally as possible, he couldn't help but cheat in little moments like this.

Eventually, you'd be kissing him of your own free will, so what was the harm in making you do that a bit early? After all, if you didn't know about it, how could it ever hurt you?

So he kept his lips on yours as he held you.

Letting you go felt bittersweet; he wanted to have your touch on him longer, but he was already pushing it with how long he was keeping you there. He knew you had somewhere to be within the next hour and it wasn't time yet for him to deconstruct your social life. Things needed to be normal for now. So with some effort, he pulled himself off of you, and as soon as the needle in your shoulder registered the commands you pulled away, turning back to your car in the same position you had been when he took you over. It was once Shalnark had entered his own car that he deactivated Black Voice, and within an instant, the needle disappeared.

He watched through the rear view mirror as you came back to your senses, seeing a brief bit of confusion hit you, and you were confused as you looked about your surroundings. Clearly you sensed that something was off, but when you looked about further and saw nothing out of place, you stalled for a moment, keeping your hand on the open driver's side door while your head tilted down. You were thinking it over, no doubt, racking your brain as you tried to figure out why you felt like something felt strange. But with no evidence of anything actually happening and no sign of anyone near you that could be giving off such a sensation, you would be forced to concede that nothing had happened. And after a few further moments of stalling, you entered your car and shut the door, driving off not long after.

There was still a puzzled look on your face as you drove away, but by the end of the day, you would be over it.

As for Shalnark, his focus would be on getting home so he could jack off to the latest video of you before he saved it to his computer alongside dozens of similar videos and images that all featured you.

And maybe next Wednesday, he might find the opportunity to talk with you a little bit more.

As he began to head back to his apartment, he knew that he didn't need to go through all of this. All of the stalking and the filming and the ways he planned to insert himself into your life. Shalnark could easily take you away by force; he had proved that moments ago when he took control. You were powerless to stop him, and you wouldn't be able to protest until he had taken you to someplace of his liking, and even then there would be little you would be able to do. This charade he was playing wasn't necessary, and Shalnark was well aware that he was only making extra work for himself by playing with you in the way he did.

But that was what he liked about it.

Watching you from afar to find out your habits, seeing the different things you both liked and disliked, witnessing the good and the bad moments you would have on any given day, storing all of those moments on the hard drive of his computer so he could look them over in detail whenever he pleased. Seeing the way you had put your life together, just so he could come in and change everything and make himself the center of your world.

Others probably wouldn't have wanted to bother with a plan that took such a long time. And that was fair, to an extent. It really would be easier and faster to take you away. But he didn't think going about it the fast way would matter much.

Because no matter how it happened, the end result was that you would be with him. He would love you and you would reciprocate, and the two of you would live happily together. That was what Shalnark had decided, and therefore, that was the only way this could turn out.

And it was said that the journey was just as important as the destination, wasn't it?

Shalnark smiled to himself once again, his fingers eagerly tapping on the steering wheel.

Doing it this way was just more fun.

[judespoets]

dramatic | jobe bellingham

summary: this req

pairing: jobe bellingham x fem!reader

genre: angst/fluff

warnings: slight arguments and harsh words; not proof read!

Jobe and you were seatet next to each other on the large table, decorated with Christmas decor and filled with delicious food. You were celebrating Christmas together at the Bellingham house this year.

"Can you please give me the potatoes, (Y/N)?" you heard the familiar voice of your boyfriend, Jobe ask you, pulling you out of your daydreams.

"yup" you answered shortly, reaching for the potatoes in front of you and handing them to Jobe without giving him a look in the eyes.

The two of you had a fight earlier but were too late to communicate and solve it so you got to the Bellingham's pretty angry with each other, the harsch words you exchanged still lingering in the back of your mind.

It was a stupid argument about Jobe running late which resulted in you doing all the chores at home alone. You usually didn't mind but you were sad and angry at that moment, turning the conversation into a heated argument.

The tension was unbearable and you really tried to hide that you were mad at each other but you saw how everyone noticed. It wasn't the usual warm, lovely mood in the room and every time you thought about Jobe's words, your eyes started watering just a little bit.

The attention was currently not on you and Jobe right now as you felt a familiar hand placing itself on your thigh, making you shiver.

"(Y/N) please just stop being so dramatic about this right now." was what you heard him whispering inside to you.

And that was it. The room fell silent as they heard your chair scraping across the floor. You stood up as quickly as you could, excusing yourself in a hurry and quickly running up the stairs into Jobe's childhood bedroom.

Maybe you were overreacting but you were hurt, for you, Jobe’s words hurt, and he didn’t seem to understand that.

As you were sat in Jobe’s old room the dining room was silent until the older Bellingham spoke up.

“What happened man? I have never seen (Y/N) so sad and quiet.” he asked his brother.

Jobe sighed, “I came home much later than I told her I would today. We agreed to do the chores together and then just spend the day together. We had like this huge argument and I said some pretty bad things.” he said regretfully, burying his face in his hands.

“I don’t know why it’s such a big deal for her tho. I mean we are together now.” he said, looking at his brother.

“Jobe, she wanted to spend some of Christmas with you, only you. I would’ve been hurt too.” Denise popped in.

“What did you say tho? That she’s so upset?” Jude asked carefully.

Jobe sighed again, looking absolutely regretful. “I said that maybe we shouldn’t spend any time at all together anymore, since she’s so upset about me being late this one time, I don’t even know why I said that.” he added.

“That’s fucked man, even I wouldn’t have said that.” Jude said.

“Jobe, please talk to her. It’s early. Don’t ruin her whole Christmas.” Denise said, slight disappointment evident in her voice.

Jobe immediately stood up, coming towards the bedroom, knocking on the door carefully.

You didn’t say anything, you wanted to talk but at the same time you just wanted him to leave you alone, to not hurt you anymore.

As the door opened slowly, the oh so familiar face greeted you. He looked different tho, guilty almost.

“What do you want?” you snapped.

“(Y/N)-“

“No Jobe, if you just want to argue again, go away.” you admitted, looking down hurt.

“Baby, no. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said those things.” he answered, sitting down next to you.

“Obviously.” you answered.

“I want to spend time with you. I always do.”

“Didn’t seem like that when you were late today.” you told him, obviously angry now.

“I know. And I’m really sorry. I didn’t know that today was so important to you.” Jobe said, putting his arm around you, holding you as he saw the tears forming in your eyes.

“I just- you know that my family is not here. And I was alone the whole day, I love christmas and I just wanted to spend it with you, I really put a lot of thought into your present and I couldn’t even give it to you in private. Jobe, you really, really hurt me today.” You admitted truthfully, all that anger turning into sadness as the tears kept running down your cheeks.

Jobe’s grip around you tightened with your words, he felt really bad.

“I really fucked up today. I know that. And I was so focused on the fact that I will see my family today that I totally forgot you can’t spend Christmas with yours. I promise I will look after your feelings more. I’m sorry, baby.” He told you, placing kisses on your head.

“I know. And thank you, for apologizing.” You said.

“I love you, (Y/N). And I want to spend every Christmas with you, forever.” He said, kissing your forehead.

You closed your eyes at the feeling, finally feeling comfortable again.

“Do you want to go down again? Get some food in you, you didn’t eat a lot yet.” Jobe asked you, his fingers stroking yours.

“Yeah.” You said, wanting to get up again.

“Hey!” Jobe called out, pulling you down again.

He took his thumbs and wiped away the tears on your cheeks. Kissing both of your eyes carefully.

“I will never make you cry again, my love.” He told you, finally connecting his lips with yours.

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

what are leona's flaws if he has any?

Of course he has flaws, everyone—fictional and real—does. Leona’s are quite numerous and very blatantly out there in some cases, so this ask (which sort of implies he doesn’t have flaws at all) surprised me 😅 His are pretty hard to miss, no…? Of course, some of these flaws do improve over the course of the main story, but they are still largely present.

I’m not sure what prompted this question, but I hope it’s not because I somehow gave off the impression that I’m not cognizant of his flaws. I may occasionally sing the guy praises about being a good leader/big brother figure but I’d like to think that I also humble him just as much by bringing up his less savory personality traits (namely his laziness, underhandedness, and pride) and his shortcomings as a leader. I try to look at characters from all angles, regardless of how I personally feel about them overall.

That being said, there’s a slew of flaws to highlight, some of which I already mentioned earlier. Leona is:

Lazy, or, more accurately, unmotivated. If he’s not interested in it or feels he isn’t gaining something himself from acting, 9 times out of 10 Leona won’t lift a finger and/or will choose to nap instead. He frequently doesn’t even attend classes because he thinks there’s nothing they could teach him that the royal tutors haven’t. In many other cases, he ends up helping others because he’ll get something from it. For example, he may teach the first years how to properly mine magestones in his Camping Gear vignette, but only so they quiet down and he can have a quiet spot to nap.

Underhanded. He’s more focused on his desired results rather than the morality or ethics of what methods he uses to achieve those results. Lying, bending the rules, roughing up people who get in his way… Nothing’s off the table. All of book 2 basically illustrates this.

Seeking approval, often to his own detriment. This is usually framed as him wanting the crown, but it’s actually a consequence of Leona wanting to be acknowledged by others since he was without it for most of his life. These feelings lead to many self-destructive behaviors and sentiments, including the events of book 2.

Unable to take criticism. He tends to get mad and lashes out when people point out his flaws. Leona even OBs after Lilia says to his face that he has a rotten personality and could never hope to match Diasomnia’s king.

Selfish and spoiled. Let’s be honest, he just is 😭 He’s often ordering others around or expecting to be waited on and not thinking about how it could inconvenience them, yet he also acts really annoyed whenever others ask him to help out with something. Leona also rarely stops to listen to others’ sides of stories, he considers his own perspective to be the most important.

Competitive. His pride is easily wounded, especially if someone claims to be stronger than him in a particular area (even if it’s an area he doesn’t necessarily care about). For example, he argued with Vil about which of them would be the ideal suitor for the Ghost Bride and has a known grudge against Malleus, a fellow prince and skilled player in his own sport of choice.

Arrogant and prideful. This goes hand-in-hand with the other traits; Leona thinks highly of himself and his skills… perhaps too much so. Because of this, he has issues yielding his command to others or even considering opinions which differ from his own. This is why he doesn’t have a vice dorm leader; he’d rather rule unquestioningly. It’s his way or the highway!

Domineering. He doesn’t ask you to do things, he tells you to do things and you obey. This happens a lot between him and Ruggie, but also with other characters and even NPCs like the pixies in Fairy Gala (when he demands water to distract them from finding Yuu and co.).

Petty. This holds true for most of the NRC boys, but I think it’s particularly the case for Leona, who tries to beat up a magicless human for accidentally steps on his tail and then bullies that same human + some extras in a sportsball game 💀 He’s also infamous for his several harsh quips against Malleus and other characters that are just there minding their own business or existing.

Needlessly aggressive (in some cases). There’s no question that Leona would prefer to use his brains before his brawn. However, there are instances in which he resorts to magic or physical strength instead of scheming or talking out a solution. For example, the aforementioned attempt to attack Yuu (a defenseless, magicless human) for an accident. Dialogue in Malleus’s dorm uniform vignettes also implies Leona intended to put his hands on Malleus after a perceived slight. In his own dorm uniform vignettes, Leona is about to unleash his UM on second year students who are stepping out of line (Jack has to intervene and beg him to stop).

Defeatist. This stands in contrast to his usual arrogance, but I’m a strong believer in the “Leona uses his arrogance to mask for his own insecurities about being second best/place his entire life” thing. If he thinks there’s no point in trying, that he won’t be acknowledged no matter how hard he tries, he simply won’t. Instead, he’ll wallow in his sorrows and lament about things out of his control (such as birth order or life not being fair)—even though choosing to act or not is in his control. He also has a tendency to deny others’ love and respect for him, almost as if he believes it’s untrue or… he doesn’t believe himself to be worthy of those feelings.

Afraid of failure. For as cocksure as Leona presents himself to the world, he has a crippling fear of failing. That’s why he’s so quick to throw in the towel in book 2; if he deflects the blame to others or raises the white flag early, he can reason with himself that he didn’t really “lose”. There’s nothing more humiliating to try so hard only to not succeed in the end… just like he has his entire life. In the light novel, Leona also expresses that he’s afraid of having hope, because that makes it so much more soul crushing when that hope amounts to nothing. I believe it’s these feelings that also shaped his UM. Why is the identity defining magic he wields destructive? Maybe because Leona himself believes that this is his fate: the prince with naught, because everything he touches turns to sand.

[nxtaliaistyping]

Heyy I love your writing so much!! I was wondering if you'd ever consider writing for Harvey dent/ Two-face?? Maybe something based on what you said about the coin landing on the scarred side and him liking a girl with a softer/pink aesthetic? Thank you so much darling~🩷🎀🩷

Two-Face and his favorite girl

Authors note: There are multiple ways of interpreting the Harvey/Two-Face dichotomy in writing, I went with a more Arkhamverse inspired one. Hope it’s okay sweetheart <3

18+ nsfw, rough sex, degradation, spitting

“You’re too perfect f’us sweetheart.” Harvey mumbles, as his large hands come to rest on your hips.

Being with them both for a while now, you can always tell who’s fronting at any given moment. While the voice was usually a giveaway, Two-Face preferring to almost growl out every little sound that escapes his throat, whereas Harvey just sounds like a deep baritone. But it isn’t just that, it’s the way he looks at you. Which eye twitches when you say something, which side of his mouth curls more when you flirt with him, or wear a revealing outfit.

Much like the one you have on now, the pretty pink babydoll dress barely covering the cute panties you’d slipped on when he’d texted he was coming to visit. Whenever that happened, he usually needed a softer touch, a calming session, or a rough fuck to take the edge off.

“Needed to see you.” He continues, hands groping at the plush of your hips in time with his words.

“Always wanna see you.” You giggle in response, smaller hands coming up to grip his broad shoulders. He groans in response, the tension leaving his body at the slight massage.

Emboldened, you begin to really knead your fingers, although being much softer on his scarred side to avoid any pain or discomfort on his end.

At least he’s letting you touch him there, given the nights where Harvey is in control, his jaw clicking whenever you lean against his scarred side or caress it gently. It makes him feel like a failure, a reminder of who he once was. When he was whole.

But you don’t mind, both of them occupying a space in your heart. So you seek to prove it, kissing up Harvey’s jaw while your hands keep easing the pressure and tension out as best you can.

He relaxes underneath you, and you’re just about to climb onto his lap before his hand starts to twitch, thumb feeling that familiar pocket of his trousers. Noticing, you pull away and look at him, before he groans.

“No…fine.” He mumbles, and you realise he isn’t talking to you.

“You need to toss your coin Harvey?” You ask softly, moving away for a moment to look at his face.

“Need to decide…” he starts, before pulling the coin from his pocket and feeling the weight of it in his fingers. “We both want you in different ways sweetheart.”

Blushing softly, you think you’re starting to understand as you nod. “Do you wanna be more…gentle?”

Harvey nods, hand moving to your thigh to grip the soft flesh. “He wants to fuck you.”

Shivering a little, you can’t deny the appeal of either one as he readies the coin. “It’s okay, whatever happens happens.”

He grunts softly at your words, before flicking the coin up. Watching it skim through the air sets your goosebumps off to claw at your skin, time almost slowing as it begins its decent. Quickly he grabs it, covering it with his palm as you both eagerly anticipate the result. He lifts his hand…only to see the scarred side of the coin staring back at you.

At your catch of breath, his head moves ever so slightly, so much so any other person might not have caught it. But you did. So you stare at him with doe eyes until he speaks.

“Guess I’m the lucky one.” Two-face growls, moving you roughly onto his lap. You squeak, feeling the way he moved you as if you weighed nothing at all.

Immediately he’s kissing and licking up your neck, tugging on your hair to expose more of you to his hungry gaze. His other goes under your dress, feeling the lacy material of your panties before giving a soft slap to your clothed cunt.

“Wearing next to fuckin’ nothing.” His tone almost sounds like he’s mad, but the way his fingers grope and cup your pussy shows you how much he loves it, how much he can’t get enough. “Harvey’s right, you shouldn’t be with us. Far too fuckin’ pretty.”

You whimper, shifting on his lap at the feeling of his digits, before he rips off the material to push two fingers immediately inside. At your gasp, he shushes you and fingers you messily.

“Quit y’whining.”

Nodding as best you can, you try and gain as much pleasure as you can from him prepping you before he decides he’s just too impatient. With a slight huff, he throws you off him and manoeuvres you so you’re bent over the sofa.

You hear the sound of his belt unbuckling, so you go to take your dress off, but oh barely get it past your hips before he grips your wrist harshly. “No no no doll. I didn’t say you could do that.”

Before you can reply, you feel his cock head tapping against your clit, gathering up your slick before pushing in roughly, not giving you time to adjust. At your soft cry, he groans heavily, pulling your arms back to hold before starting to push in and out.

“Look at you, creamin’ around my dick. Wanted me to treat you like a whore all along huh?”

You whimper out a yes in between moans, his cock moving in and out at a brutal pace. Clearly he has a lot of steam to blow off, with you acting like the good stress reliever you are for him.

“Our pretty fuckin’ girl, always so dolled up for us. Bet you thought about this while putting on that short fuckin’ dress huh?” He grunts out, feeling the tightness of your walls wrapped around him.

“Yes…yes.” Is all you can say, your knuckles almost turning white from how hard you’re gripping the back of the sofa. Each thrust causes it to creak a little under your combined weight.

“Gonna corrupt your sweet ass for all of Gotham to see.”

His hand yanks your head back, gazing down on your sweet face, the mascara adorning your pretty eyelashes and the lip gloss on your kissable mouth. In that moment, all he wants to do is just ruin you. So he isn’t even surprised at himself when he spits on your cheek. And he certainly isn’t surprised when you moan like a paid whore.

“Dirty fuckin’ girl.” He grins, hips snapping against yours.

Feeling the spit drying on your face, you go to wipe it before he does it for you, rubbing it into your cheek and lips, smearing your lip gloss. The sight makes his cock throb inside of you, especially with how pretty those ruined lips look when he pushes his thumb between them.

You suck the digit and moan like it’s his dick, wanting to please him even now. He loves that about you, they both do. How eager you always are, how that innocent princess look hides such a depraved mind beneath.

Eventually, your cunt throbs with the sign of your impending orgasm, your fingers rubbing tight circles on your clit. Before you can alert him, the grip on your hair tightens to an almost painful degree.

“Gonna cum? Gonna cum at me fuckin’ you like a slut I picked up in the Bowery?”

At your desperate sobs of please and yes, he has the audacity to laugh at you before grunting out his permission. After a couple of deadly thrusts against your g spot, you’re cumming hard around him, whimpering pathetically.

But he isn’t done, no no he doesn’t even slow down. He keeps railing you, pushing as deep as he can into your cunt before ripping himself out and repeating. Your juices make a sinful noise with each thrust, the squelching reaching your ears and causing a burning flush to spread over your cheeks.

After what feels like a lifetime, he buries himself deep and cums, unloading the stress of the day practically straight into your womb. A guttural moan rips from his mouth, as he collapses onto you for a moment, coming down from the intensity.

"Good girl..." Two-face mumbles, and you bask in the rare praise from him as you keep laying boneless against the sofa. "Might have ruined your dress though dollface. Gotta get a new one."

[elefishwrites]

poly twisted! angrybeauty (shrimpo x glisten) x reader :3

:0 this fish just got his first poly request!! let's go!

shrimpo's got a really great twisted design, glisten too! i just love the way twisted shrimpo moves it's really creepy

i enjoy running circles around glisten significantly more than that shrimp though... pebble things ☆

"despite everything..." ★ twisted angrybeauty x GN reader hcs

pairing ❥ twisted shrimpo x reader x twisted glisten

relationship ❥ romantic

reader's gender is not mentioned!

dividers made by @/saradika-graphics ⊹₊⟡⋆

♡ How did you- How did you manage this??

♡ Two of the most volatile twisteds, and you're all in a relationship with each other-?!!

♡ Well, either way, you're in it now! Have fun!

♡ Shrimpo's basically a guard dog. He's very protective and will literally growl at anything he percieves as a threat

♡ Which is... A lot of things. He's somehow gotten even more angry because of being turned, and it's resulted in a very thin line between friend and foe for him.

♡ He will and has attacked things that aren't even alive, purely because they looked threatening.

♡ You and Glisten end up having to calm him down a lot...

♡ Which is a feat all its own, because the poor shrimp is almost always enraged thanks to how the ichor's corrupted his mind

♡ Both of them are glued to your side pretty much constantly. In Shrimpo's case, it's because he wants to protect you, and in Glisten's case, he's afraid you won't come back if he lets you out of his sight.

♡ Speaking of, you have to reassure Glisten a lot. He's very insecure about his current state, and there's a constant fear in the back of his mind that you, or worse, both you and Shrimpo will get tired of him and try to leave.

♡ Shrimpo was cuddly before being turned, and even more so now. The ichor's made him a bit more prone towards his base instincts, so there's none of the embarassment that would've stopped him before. He's the same touch-starved shrimp he's always been, despite everything.

♡ Glisten's also physically affectionate, but in the sense of just wanting to be near you and hold hands as you walk together. Being able to touch you and know you're there with him is comforting.

♡ Which sometimes ends up in cuddle piles where you're all snuggled up together in some isolated corner away from everything, away from the machines, away from any other twisteds on the floor...

♡ Glisten loves it. It makes him feel secure, which is rare for him. It's also a chance to see Shrimpo completely pacified for once, which is rare as well.

♡ ...There's ichor all over you. It'd be easy to mistake you for a twisted if it weren't for your eyes still being normal. Both of them have large patches of ichor on them that leak everywhere and get on you whenever you're in close proximity to them.

♡ It doesn't help that both of their hands are constantly covered in the stuff...

♡ You need to get accustomed to the feeling of ichor on you very quickly if you want to be with these two!

♡ Despite their respective current situations, they care for you a lot. Just existing as a twisted can be incredibly painful physically and emotionally, but you help make it just that bit more bearable for them! They appreciate you in their own ways, and they're grateful to have you by their side.

Footsteps echoed off the empty walls of Gardenview, the sound loud in the overwhelming silence that usually filled its hallways.

The source, you and your boyfriend, searched the corridors carefully.

Once again, Shrimpo had gotten aggressive with one of the other twisteds roaming the floor you had been exploring, and ran off after them.

So, as his very caring partners, it was up to you to figure out where he had gone, which had led you deep into the winding passageways of the floor, much deeper than any of you had intended to go.

Glisten held your hand tight, the other hanging limply in front of what remained of his stomach.

His eyes darted around, keeping a careful watch on every little patch of shadow within his range.

You, on the other hand, were trained to look for any flash of that shrimp. It was literally impossible to miss him, considering he was still Shrimpo and essentially allergic to the concept of stealth.

"Oh, [Name]... I don't like this." Glisten spoke softly, worry seeping through his tone. "What if something happened to him? You know how Shrimpo is..."

You turned to look at him, uttering a gentle assurance that your beloved partner would be fine, just like he always was, and that you'd find him soon enough.

He met your eyes, and you two held each others gaze for a moment before he nodded. "Right, yes. He'll be alright. Thank you..."

You offered him a smile, and with that, you set off on your search once again.

You two looked up and down the halls, behind every piece of cover, and even returned to a couple of places you had checked beforehand in the hope he had wandered into them while you were away, yet no such luck.

It was beginning to worry both of you; this was the longest yet it had taken to find him, even on the roomier floors.

Until Glisten paused suddenly. You stopped as well, asking him why he had done so.

"Look," He said, raising his free hand shakily to point. "There's... A trail of ichor..."

You directed your gaze at where he was pointing, met with a long smear of ichor that began a few feet in front of you. It seemed somewhat recent, as you could still see the light shimmering off of its wet surface.

You pointed out that it could have been left by Finn, although you hadn't seen him on this floor up till now, but the mirror simply shook his head. "No, it's too wide to have been left by him... He doesn't seem to be on this floor, either. Which means..."

It may have been left by Shrimpo. You were both thinking it.

You nodded, taking a deep breath before beginning to cautiously follow along the path, lead by the remains of the dark liquid.

It wound through the halls, taking a few turns and seeming to have lightly pooled in some places. You even happened upon the unconscious body of the twisted he had gone after at the start of the floor at one point, the shrimp clearly having beat them until they passed out. Ouch...

The trail tapered out into small droplets left behind from the remnants of the beatdown as it continued, slowly growing less frequent, before finally drying up altogether near the broken elevator.

Letting out a sigh, your gaze fell upon the end of the track, and as you turned to face Glisten, you saw it.

A flash of an ichor-stained shrimp tail.

It was your turn to point now, quickly shouting that you saw Shrimpo before sprinting in the direction you'd caught sight of him, dragging Glisten with you.

There he was. It didn't take long for the shrimp to take notice of you two, your footsteps thudding loudly against the floor as you ran. He appeared mostly unharmed, the only evidence he had attacked someone at all being a few extra splashes of ichor on his shirt.

Glisten sped ahead of you, and it was your turn to be dragged along.

He called the other's name, letting go of your hand to meet him with a tight hug. You caught up soon after, being invited swiftly into both of their embrace.

Shrimpo warbled something you couldn't make out, but what remained of his voice was clearly filled with something like joy.

"Oh, Shrimpo, we were so worried for you..." Whined the mirror, to which you voiced agreement. "Please, stop running off like that!"

The shrimp in question simply let out a huff. Obviously, he thought he was in the right for going after that other twisted earlier... Of course he did. Classic Shrimpo.

He was a lot sometimes, but moments like these where you three were happy and content together made it all worth it.

You love each other, and that's all that matters.

[leah-lover]

Crossover. Leah Williamson x reader.

Based off this request. Thank you.

Exiting, that's how you would describe your life as a model. Yes there were the occasional hiccups but you mostly got to do very cool stuff and hang out with cool people. Your work took you everywhere but your home base was London. You started your career there and a large number of your followers come from there too.

The thing you loved the most about your job was the parties. They allow you to meet very interesting people, pick their brain and develop interesting g friendships.

Today was no different. Nike had a pretty high budget launch party for their new show line and you were invited. These parties were a little less formal than what you were used to going to, so you decided against a suit or a dress and settled for a black strapless and backless jumpsuit, a pair of black heels and some gold accessories. Your make up was elegant and your signature red lip was at its center.

Nike as always sent you a car to your house and you headed to the location of the event on time.

Upon arriving there you said hi to some people, talked to others, took some pictures at the event with some guests and drank champagne. The night was as regular as most of most launch parties were. Suddenly you were approached by one of the managers of the event.

“ Hey, so I wanted to introduce you to one of the faces of this launch. Miss Leah Williamson.” he says.

“ hi, nice to meet you, Miss williamson.” you say offering her your hand.

“ Hey, just Leah please.” she answers, shaking your hand

.” a fellow Brit I see. I haven't seen many of those tonight.”

“ glad i was among the few.” she answers. You two talked for a little while over a small table, each one of you nursing a drink. You both were making jokes trying to get one another to laugh or at least smile. There was definitely tension in the air and you both were flirtatious with one another.

“So Leah this has been one of the best nights I have had for a while. Thank you “ you say, squeezing her hand gently.

“Yeah it was fun for me too.” she responds with a disappointed tone. “Let me walk you to your car.”

While leaving the venue you hear a photographer say “ Miss Williamson would you like a picture?”. She looks over to you and you get into your usual pose instantly. While getting ready her hand slips perfectly on the small of your back applying the right amount of pressure.

While the photographer's flash was blinding you, you looked over to Leah and she did the same to you. You stood there getting your picture taken with a hot blonde after flirting with her all night. She made you feel safe with her hand on your back which you appreciated.She then walls you too you car.

“Tonight was fun.” You say leaning on the door.

“We should do this again sometime soon.” She replies with a small smile on her face.

“House about you come to one of our games. We will play in the Emirates soon. I think it would be a good experience.” She added.

“ Maybe.” You respond before getting in your car.

This night was gonna be unforgettable.

—----------------

Fact forward a few weeks you were back in England after being in Milan, Paris, and Japan for work. Well there first two were work , the last one was for fun since the F1 Japan grand prix was one of your favorites on the race calendar. You could say that that weekend was well spent. You hung out on the Ferrari paddock and did a lot of social media work. This work backfired on you because all people were talking about the whole weekend we're done moment that happened between you and a driver. Romers never bothered you, now it was different. Leah had followed you on Instagram after the event and you worried that she would believe them. As a result you decided to go to the arsenal game she talked about. Getting tickets was a Hassle because they were all sold out. But you managed to find a seat right next to the bench, very close to the field.

You showed up to the Stadium early. You hair was down, your makeup was simple, you wore jeans, a black button down and a Jersey over it, one that says Leah Williamson on the back, and you added a few gold accessories again.

Like Leah said the atmosphere was electric. You went to the VIP section first, got some food and a drink then you headed down to your seat. Leah didn't know you were coming; you wanted it to stay a surprise.

As soon as the players appeared on the pitch the whole strain erupted into cheers and chants. Those cheers only got louder when Arsenal scored 3 goals in 20 minutes which you were told was impressive.

After the half time break some players were running up and down the field. That's when she saw you. She held eye contact with you for a long time, a wide smile planted across her face. She had a look of pride, joy, and reassurance. You smiled back at her, clapped as she came on and sang and chanted loudly.

After the game was done the players were doing a lap around the pitch and when she saw you again. Another wide smile was painted on her face. She looked happy to be there and happy that you were there too.

She was then signing autographs, taking pictures and genuinely talking to people. She grew immensely in your eyes because of her thankful and humble demeanor. She then asked for you to follow her inside the stadium which you did.

“You clean up nice. I like your shirt “ she said with a cocky expression on her face.

“Well I saw a charming young lady at an event a few weeks ago and she hadn't left my mind ever since. I missed her and I thought I would come and see her. Turns out she is the best person in the world.” You respond.

“ Well I hope this girl gets to go have dinner with you because you two sound formidable.” She added

“ Maybe.” You respond

You wait for her to get ready and get out of the locker room. When she gets out, a few girls follow her and appear to be teasing her.

“ I swear if I hear from anyone you shit heads you won't like practice anymore.” She said to them. You simply wave to them as you two walk by then to Leah's car too which she opens the door.

“ Such a gentleman.” You exclaim.

“Well I have competition. That girl you were talking about is a catch.” She joked.

Leah was fun. She made you feel at ease and safe.

This was going to be a fun adventure.

[drdemonprince]

I’ve only just read your Burnout piece on Substack and it made me think of the anon you answered awhile back about anti depressants and anti anxiety medications.

I’m Autistic and am on anti anxiety medication which basically masked all the warning signs and symptoms of Autistic burnout. Those usual indicators I usually can pick up on which indicate I’m doing too much and not resting enough weren’t present on the medication.

I felt good (although very numb like the anon said) so I kept on taking on more and more and initially thought it was great! I’ve never been able to commit to things or work on multiple projects at once even ones that super interest and excite me because I get overwhelmed and burnt out quickly.

But without the warning signs I kept going and going until I started to feel really weird. Disassociated, not sleeping, upset stomach, drinking a lot. I thought everything was great so it took awhile to piece together that this is maybe what Autistic burnout results in when it’s covered by meds.

I’m now slowly withdrawing from the meds. I figure the authentic anxiety is better than false measures of “success”.

So just a warning to Autistic people I guess, I don’t know if what I’ve experienced is common or just subjective but it’s worth being aware of.

This is pretty much how I feel about psychiatric medication for myself, as well. I want the warning signs. I want to notice my body and brain rebelling. A lot of psychiatric drugs are somewhat effective at making us feel more numb, for a while, which is why they are used as a stopgap when a person's situation is unmanageable. I'm a big believer in the "Affect as Information" Hypothesis: when we feel like shit, that means something about our circumstances simply has got to change. Often that means giving up responsibilities, letting people down, letting things go.

I even feel the same way about weed. I have a lot of friends who use weed daily to manage their overwhelm, and it seems to work great for them, and potentially I should be doing the same thing. But I am terrified of having a massive dependence on a large quantity of weed in order to function, and when I *did* use weed daily, it became a baseline need and made me dissociate even further from myself. I now take the desire to use weed or otherwise get blasted as a signal that something is amiss and that I'm overwhelmed and seeking escape -- that doesn't mean I don't listen to that desire some of the time. I get high and/or drunk on the weekends pretty often. But I don't want to lose touch with my body's warning system. AND I have the immense luxury of being able to change my life circumstances when things get to be too much. If someone doesn't have that freedom, well, sometimes substances are the best thing you can get - be that psychiatric or off market.

[asvterias]

𝘮𝘺 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦, 𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘦 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘦

part 1 || clarisse masterlist

clarisse la rue ✘ black!fem!demigod!reader (daughter of nyx)

summary: overwhelmed with her girlfriend's having a near-death experience, clarisse breakdowns in front of y/n.

word count: 1.9k+

author's note: also tysm for 1,680 followers, i appreciate every single one of you! i kinda thought this song related to this fic, lmk what you guys think in the comments! the song lyrics are bold and italics!

song playing — my love mine all mine by mitski

requested by an anonymous! (pairing ONLY!!)

TAGS BELOW:

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moon, a hole of light

through the big top tent high up

here before and after me

“you know what happens if you extort your powers too much.” she hastily reminded you. from her tone, you knew that she hesitated to remind you of that incident, and it was shaky leaving from her mouth.

“that was one time.” you sighed heavily.

by now, your existing abilities become stronger as you grow older. you managed to control your current powers, and clarisse encouraged you to discover your hidden powers.

shining down on me

moon, tell me if i could

however it’s not encouraged to extort your powers to full extent, liable enough to render you unconscious for weeks, not even days. as a result of your persistent stubbornness, unfortunately, it happened to you and clarisse was an emotional wreck without your comforting presence beside her.

she became more easily irritated and annoyed by anyone who even dared to look her way, almost threatening to kick their ass, surprisingly she’d just rough them up a bit, and stormed off afterward. spending hours at the sparring center, clarisse released all of her anger onto the sparring dummies, using her trust-worthy spear and being completely ruthless with it, rage consuming both her stability and mentality. everyone stayed out of clarisse’s way for their own safety.

all those times you kept her grounded felt like a big waste to her right now. she felt loved, and truly loved by someone blessed to cherish her until your last breath gave out. all of a sudden, you were harshly ripped away from her, without any type of warning, permanently leaving an invisible scar on her heart.

despite being stuck in a temporarily induced coma, clarisse still had a guilty conscience of unawareness, possibly having a chance to rescue you and prevent this from occurring. in other words, she wished that you didn’t intentionally overwork your powers to the core, but you did, and now you’re currently suffering the consequences of it.

send up my heart to you?

so, when i die, which i must do

for the two weeks, you were unconscious, clarisse visited you, kept quiet most of the time, muttered small incoherent words, barely even sentences. she held your hands tightly, they were lukewarm, temporarily not providing the warmth they usually do. she missed everything about you, your presence, your touch, and your love.

and when she’s staring at your face, a small smile litters her face, reminiscing on your wholesome shared memories. sadly, all of the radiation that your face once held was drained and a firm line took its place.

despite the large pit of despair in her stomach, clarisse felt you slipping away from reality with every passing day. your girlfriend was persistent, knowing that you can handle yourself, and often proud of your capability in those sorts of skills.

she couldn’t fathom what it was even like for you to endure the 2-week coma, forced into a dream-like state, hearing and sensing everything going on around you but unable to respond. it must have been torture for you, stuck with your thoughts endlessly on repeat, with no interruption at all. just you and your thoughts there all alone. nothing but you and your thoughts.

she prayed that you would somehow non-verbally assure her, confirming your well-being, not like that would have made a difference regardless, but still, your reassuring words would’ve lessened her worries, even if it was for such a short amount of time.

but the ares girl remained strong, at least for the both of you. clarisse mentally promised for her own sake, desperately clutching onto the small yet meaningful words of encouragement.

could it shine down here with you?

‘cause my love is mine, all mine

i love mine, mine, mine

with a devastated sigh, she’d depart with a forehead kiss before heading to her cabin for some rest, sometimes she’d forget to eat and one of her siblings had to remind her. at this point, it was a common routine for clarisse; wake up, teleport to visit you, complete her daily tasks, and train. and when she’s finished her task of the day, best believe that she’s with you, nursing you back to consciousness.

“yeah, and we both know how that ended!”

“clarisse…”

“no, please let me finish.” she shushed you with a shake of her head, “and i hope it doesn’t happen again, it doesn’t need to happen again!” clarisse whisper-yelled at you, “i almost lost you, and i refused to experience that wretched feeling again. you were unconscious for almost two weeks and we weren’t even in the same place. your mom teleported me to you almost every day since you were in that coma. i refuse to experience that again because i love you and seeing you there made me feel useless for once in my life.” her tone became shaky yet she proceeded on, wanting you to understand, needing you to understand what it was like for her, witnessing you in that comatose state. “i couldn’t stand the thought of you dying, of you leaving me here all alone. you only truly understand me, you love me despite all of my flaws, rather accepting them than ignoring them…nobody else but you…i didn’t think i could love anyone as much as i love you. and that terrified me before but now it doesn’t anymore, knowing you wouldn’t do anything to hurt me. sometimes i wonder if i’m ever worth loving…” a sob escapes her, continued by many heartbreaking sobs. that gut-wrenching feeling in your heart returned, growing larger when clarisse attempted to restrict any more sobs, terribly failing, allowing her emotions to run wild for once.

it’ll probably be the only time she can freely express her emotions without feeling judged within your presence. this was one of the many reasons why clarisse fell in love with you, your compassionate soul, a trait she strongly lacked but adored from you.

she loved that you made her feel comfortable, enough to express her emotions without having to look over her shoulder.

nothing in the world belongs to me

but my love mine, all mine, all mine

your girlfriend didn’t realize the tears freely falling down her face until you wiped the tears away from her eyes. clarisse seems betrayed by her own emotions once she realizes that she’s crying, expressing her vulnerability towards you. the curly-haired girl began to stammer out some words, attempting to defend herself but you kissed her temple and pulled her in for a hug. going off on instinct, she buried her head into your neck, harboring her labored breaths as she tightened her grip on you as if she was too scared to let go and lose you all over again.

“never again…never again…” clarisse mutters, repeating it like a mantra. “i don’t wanna lose you ever again…”

catching on to her rapid muttering, you cupped her face, steadying to your face level.

“i won’t leave you again, i promise babe,” you reassure her. your eyes connect easily, gazing into her glossy eyes.

clarisse looks up at you, a swirl of emotions flowing across her eyes. you pout at your girlfriend, reaching out a hand to gently touch her face, watching her melt by the simple touch.

her glistening eyes made you swoon at her gentleness and vulnerability, “you promise?” her voice was low, similar to a whimper of pain.

my baby, here on earth

showed me what my heart was worth

“i promise,” you clarify, tucking a loose curl behind her ear. “do you wanna stay here for a while, with just me?”

hiding her face back into your shirt, she nodded against the fabric, tightening her grip on you whenever you slightly shuffled in her embrace. your touch was required for her peace, and clarisse made sure that you weren’t escaping from her grasp. too much time was wasted, and clarisse needed to make up for lost time.

at times, clarisse felt extremely weak, exhausted, and defenseless which according to her father, any sign of vulnerability is also perceived as useless in his eyes. ares engraved that motto within his daughter, and you hated that it stuck with her that much! wanting to please her dad, her personality changed over time, and the lingering thought of displaying an ounce of vulnerability vanished. no surprise that you rekindled that thought during your relationship when she started opening up to you.

every time clarisse received surprise visits from her dad, you were always there, listening about him degrading her great abilities because of her gender. all those nights of her crying on your shoulder, wondering why she couldn’t be good enough for her father. from that moment, your hatred for your girlfriend’s father fueled with each passing day.

you taught her that being vulnerable wasn’t weak and that it was actually strong. to be honest, clarisse was skeptical because her girlfriend said the opposite of what she learned from her father. eventually, she got used to the idea, accepting only being vulnerable around you. that was good enough for her so it was good enough for you.

so, when it comes to be my turn

could you shine it down here for her?

clarisse laid on top of you, her head snuggled softly against your breasts with her arms around your waist. one of your hands held onto her head, scratching on her head softly as the other drew imaginary stars on her lower back.

“my beautiful beautiful, brave girl…” you cooed as you heard tiny sniffles from her, “you certainly are worth loving and you’re my entire world.

‘cause my love is mine, all mine

i love mine, mine, mine

“am i?” her lower lip trembles as she innocently stares up at you.

“you are my entire world,” you gently kiss her forehead as she places her head down onto your chest.

“you’re my whole world too,” she murmurs against your chest, either it was her sweet tone or that you were naturally ticklish which made you laugh wholeheartedly. clarisse’s face lights up, feeling the rumble from your chest as a smile erupts on her lips.

“nothing in the world belongs to me...” you sing softly into her ears, massaging her head, soothing her into a peaceful sleep alongside your peaceful embrace. “but my love mine, all mine...”

you lullabied her to sleep with your gentle singing, finally feeling at ease when you heard the light snores, smiling fondly at her. gods, clarisse was adorable. too adorable to disrupt her out of her sleep, resting comfortably on you, partially skin-to-skin.

“good night, my love.” you kissed her forehead, glimpsing at her small smile from the loving touch. turning off the lamp before refocusing onto clarisse, wrapping your arms around her waist and her head gently nuzzling into your neck, requiring very much close contact. soon enough, you drifted into sleep just as your beloved girlfriend did a few minutes ago, both content in each other’s arms, wishing to remain like that forever.

nothing in the world is mine for free

but my love mine, all mine, all mine…

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© asvterias, 2024. please do not copy, repost or translate onto any other platforms without my permission.

[leth-writes]

yandere hotd x reader scared of their dragon

AEMOND

Understandable.

Vhagar is the biggest dragon you’ve ever seen and it’s not even close. Massive, massive dragon, basically bigger than your entire castle. You’re the size of Vhagar’s foot, that’s the size difference.

Aemond usually isn’t upset by people being scared of Vhagar, it’s part of how he’s gotten such a fierce reputation, and part of how he prevents anyone from gossiping about his eye.

He hasn’t faced any sort of bullying since he lost his eye and gained his dragon.

Vhagar and him have bonded quite well, but Vhagar is still quite aggressive, with an incredibly strong personality. She doesn’t always do what he asks, so you have every reason to be terrified.

However, it’s important to note that (at least in my headcanons), there’s emotional bleedover from rider to dragon, and Vhagar can just feel the absolutely overwhelming emotions radiating from Aemond whenever you look at her.

The emotions are so strong, too strong for Aemond to fully contain, so Vhagar’s had to keep some of that protectiveness in herself, just to prevent Aemond from constantly snapping.

As a result, Vhagar’s incredibly gentle with you. She can’t see you all that well, you mainly just look like a fuzzy blur, but she’s known for curling up under your window in the castle, or even staring inside, her one eye larger than the window.

She just kinda… watches you. Makes sure no one is acting out around you, making sure you aren’t trying to escape. One snort, fire bellowing from her nostrils, and everyone backs away, or you climb back down that stone wall.

You don’t stand a chance. If Aemond wasn’t enough, now you have this big fucking dragon watching you at all times. No one wants to talk to you, they’re scared Aemond will feed them to her, Vhagar’s hoping that’ll happen. Who knows, maybe she’ll be eating a couple of your romantic interests before you learn the lesson.

AEGON

Listen. Sunfyre is big, really big, but nowhere near the size of fucking Vhagar. Sunfyre’s a lot less intimidating, being about the size of a particularly large van.

As a result, you’re still terrified, but it’s a lot less justified. Sunfyre can’t eat you in one bite like Vhagar could, but they could definitely maim you pretty badly.

You won’t even step foot near Sunfyre, which Aegon honestly doesn’t mind that much. Sure, he’s close with Sunfyre, but he isn’t going to force you. Besides, positioning sunfyre right outside the door to the part of the castle you frequent has you running straight for him, terrified the dragon is hunting you. He essentially is, he’s using Sunfyre to flush you out of your hiding spots toward where he wants you to be, namely his room.

He does use Sunfyre to intimidate other romantic interests, but honestly his position as king does a lot of that for him, so it isn’t too big of a deal.

yes, Sunfyre will be sad if you don’t ride them. Yes, Sunfyre will be sad if you don’t pet them.

Still, Aegon doesn’t work too hard to get you used to Sunfyre, he needs them to be able to intimidate you. So, you maintain a bit of healthy fear, treating Sunfyre like a particularly dangerous pet.

Daemon

Okay, Caraxes is pretty big. Halfway in size between Vhagar and Sunfyre. You’re about the size of their head.

Daemon wants you to be close with Caraxes. He wants to be able to ride with you, and see the way you stare in awe at the clouds, and laugh as you clutch him close to you out of exilerated fear. He’s just not very good about introducing you to them slowly. He basically forced you onto Caraxes for a long ride, waiting until you’re able to move your face from his shoulder to look at the jaw-dropping view.

He also wants you to be able to pet Caraxes, who really loves your affection, representing the more tender feelings Daemon usually stamps down to protect his reputation.

Caraxes also gets that ruthless possessiveness from him. They’re going to burn people who come too close right in front of you, no waiting for Daemon to show up. He pretends to scold them but secretly praises them, and they can feel the happiness boiling in his chest.

His goal is for you to eventually give the order to burn up your enemies; he wants to see that fire in your eyes, that confident gleam that can only come from having such a dangerous creature under your control. He has dreams about it.

If he ever walks in to you taking care of Caraxes, he’ll be ecstatic. He’ll tease you about domesticating his dragon, but don’t take it too seriously; he just doesn’t know how to show affection.