#yes they’re gay keep scrolling | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

boywriters-blog · 1 year ago

Note

Nathan Explosion x bio male reader (he/him)

I’d like something spicy but please keep it within your comfort zone !!

(if you don’t feel like doing something spicy you could do some like little cute thing)

thaaanks :3

Nathan/Bio!Male Reader

babes i am so sorry if this isn’t the greatest, tbh i haven’t written a lot of spicy content so just be warned !!

this is my favorite request so far omg thank you sm what

warnings: spicy, suggestive, basically smut, no sex

Tonight was like any other, you alone in bed, while Nathan was in his room. You started liking Nathan after a few months of working for Dethklok. You of course would never say anything, he’s too ‘brutal’ for emotions. Or so you thought.

You were kind of Charles assistant. Your job essentially was to make sure the band didn’t do anything too dumb. To watch over them when he wasn’t there. You liked to think you’d done a pretty good job over the few years you’ve been here.

You liked to. The boys did not make it easy. Sometimes you thought you didn’t do enough for the band. Whenever they put themselves in danger you started doubting yourself, but Nathan was always there to reassure you. He would tell you that you’re doing a good job, that you were a perfect fit for this band.

That’s when you started falling for him. He would stay up late with you, when he was done fucking groupies and they all passed out. You were always still awake for some reason, you had a hard time sleeping. He knew this. So when he was done having his fun, he would typically walk over to your room and find you awake, at your desk, usually on your laptop.

Sometimes you looked at news articles of yourself, calling you gay, wrong for the band, saying you did nothing to protect the boys, and of course much worse. Sometimes you would watch YouTube videos of the past bands the boys had been in. Other times you were just watching a stupid show to calm your brain down.

This time you were looking at news articles. You sighed and scrolled through all the hateful words, taking them to heart even though you knew you shouldn’t. You had tears in your eyes and you cursed yourself for them. You walked over to your bed, laptop in hand, and lazily scrolled.

That’s when he showed up again. When he was done having his fun. Or so you thought. He slowly opened the door after knocking a couple times, knowing it was usually okay to just walk in. He looked over at your desk and then your bed, sighing when he saw you looking at the news articles.

You quickly shut your laptop and sat up. He didn’t usually come around this early..and he’s still in his clothes, but he wreaked of booze and weed. He walked over to your bed and sat down. You stared at each other for a moment before speaking.

“Listen- I know I told you I wouldn’t, but I had to. Or at least I felt like I had to-“

“Y/N.”

“You know I honestly don’t know how you guys do this, how you don’t let stupid news articles get to your head-“

“Y/N.”

“It’s funny because you never think you’ll take it to heart, you think you’ll just laugh it off, and never think about it again-“

“Y/N!”

“-Huh? Oh- Yeah? Sorry. What’s up?”, your face flushed a light pink, embarrassed. You sat up straighter and looked him in the eyes.

“Don’t listen to those dildos. They don’t know what they’re talking about. They’re dumb fucks who literally lie for popularity and fame or whatever. We think you do a great job and that’s all that really matters, right?”, he smiled a little and you smiled widely back. You hugged him hesitantly and he hugged you in return.

“Thank you, Nathan. You always know what to say to make me feel better. Even if your trashed.”, you didn’t want to stop hugging him, you let it go on for longer than you usually would, and he did too.

“Wanna smoke some weed? Maybe It’ll help you calm down and sleep.”, he suggested. Normally you would say no, out of keeping a clear head, but tonight you said yes.

He broke the hug to get a joint from his pocket, and he took your hand, leading you to the patio. He took his lighter and lit it, taking a few hits before passing it to you. It had been a while since you smoked, you typically only did it when the boys were on vacation and didn’t need you.

You took a few smaller hits, and almost coughed a lung out. You had to pass it to Nathan and hold onto the railing for a couple seconds while you caught your breathe. You laughed as Nathan took a huge hit, passing it back to you.

You took a couple hits and passed it to him, he would take a huge hit and pass it back. This was the cycle until you both reached the end of the joint. You were pretty blazed and so was he, but he had also been smoking beforehand.

After it was finished you both went inside, making small talk until you reached your bed again, both of you laying down on it, giggling.

“You know- I almost didn’t take this job.”, you started, and he stared at you with wide eyes. You continued, “I was so worried I wouldn’t be good enough, or that I wasn’t ready to take on the responsibilities of taking care of my favorite band. I actually almost quit after a few months. But I decided to stay.”, you giggled thinking about it. “I’m glad I did, I wouldn’t have met you otherwise. The real you.”, you smiled at him.

He was stunned, looking at you with those wide eyes. “No way. You may be a complete dildo sometimes..but you’re our family or whatever now..You do a better job than most of the idiots that would’ve taken it. I’m ..”, he thought for a second, grimacing at what he was about to say, “I’m glad you’re here..or whatever. I’m glad you took the job.. You’re fun to be around .. and you like..make us smile I guess.”, he struggled to say.

Your eyes were tearing up again and you smiled. You knew it was hard for him to say that. You got on his lap and hugged him again and he groaned, hugging you back. “You’re sweet, Nathan. You’ve always been my favorite. Don’t tell the others though, you know how they’d get..”

This time he didn’t let go, maybe it was the weed and the booze. He put his face in your neck and sighed. He sounded..happy? You smiled and held him closer to you. “You know, Nathan, I had a huge crush on you for a really long time..”, you admitted in your hazed state.

He loosened his grip to pull back and look at you in the eyes, “Are you serious?”, he said with his infamous serious face. Your eyes widened a bit at your confession and you panicked inside, squirming a bit to get off him, but he kept you on his lap, awaiting your response.

“U-Uhm- yeah- I did- a-and I know that’s gay- so super gay - but-“, he cut you off by pressing a finger over your mouth, tears filling your eyes. He looked like he was thinking of what to do. You were fucked. You just fucked up your entire relationship and career. You were crying silently at this point. He wiped your tears and sighed. “Don’t cry.”, he said sternly, but you couldn’t help it. “I-I’m sorry- Please forget I said anything - just -“, he cut you off by kissing you this time.

You were shocked, your eyes widened. You kissed him back immediately. He put his hands on your waist and yours went around his neck. You had stopped crying and instead you were smiling.

Nathan put one hand on your ass and squeezed it, causing you to squeak into his mouth. You could feel him smirk against your lips. You raised one hand to the back of his head, lightly pulling on his hair as you started to grind against him in retaliation. He broke off for a moment, groaning, and then pulling you in again to kiss you sloppily.

You could feel yourself getting harder, just as you could feel him through his jeans. He was shifting a little in discomfort, the fabric becoming uncomfortably tight. You raised yourself and unbuttoned his pants, pulling them down to his knees, not breaking the kiss for a moment.

You kept his boxers on, you didn’t want to go too far tonight. Keeping your own pajama shorts on as well. You resumed grinding against him, his hands tightening against your waist and pulling you down, his hips thrusting up to meet you. Your lips moved from his to his neck, biting and sucking, leaving marks.

Normally he would hate a groupie leaving any sort of hickies or marks on him that couldn’t be hidden, but he didn’t seem to mind when you did it. In fact, he seemed to enjoy it quite a bit. So much so that after a few minutes he decided to return the favor. You had to stop and moan because he knew exactly where to bite somehow. Your grip tightened on his hair, your grinding speeding up.

He made sure to leave as many as he could on your neck, making it obvious that you belonged to him and him only. Your grinding became sloppier and more desperate, feeling the build up in your stomach. He recognized this and put a hand on your appendage, stopping your movement, he brought his own to his hand, and began jerking the two of you off. His hands were huge and rough, he could easily fit both of them in one hand.

Your hand on his shoulder tightened more than before, and you kissed him. He kissed back frantically, feeling his peak close by. You were both sloppy and reckless. You gripped his hair harder and he gripped you both harder in exchange. You felt his sex next to yours, throbbing and his hand gripped tighter, speeding up.

Even through the fabric, the friction was almost too much. Almost. He groaned and looked into your eyes, you looked back into his. And at that moment you felt yourself burst, him cumming moments after. You moaned loudly into his mouth, a string of curse words and his name. You shook on his lap, even as his hand tried to stabilize you. He moaned your name into the room, not caring who heard.

After a few more strokes he let go. Breathing heavily. You practically collapsed on him, almost unable to move. He moved his hands to wrap around you, holding you close to him. You did the same as you caught your breathe.

You chuckled and looked up at him. “So- I guess I’m not the only gay one, huh?”, you smiled, happy to not be alone, and happy that the person you loved, loved you back. He grimaced and chuckled along with you.

“I guess so.”, he smirked softly and his grip on you tightened. “Just..promise you won’t quit? Ever? Or at least..be like..my boyfriend, or something..”, he looked away embarrassed and nervous, even if he knew you would most likely say yes, he still worried you would say no.

“Of course I will. You don’t have to worry about a thing. I’ll be more than happy to be your boyfriend, Nathan. You have no idea how long I’ve wanted to hear that.”, you confessed and hugged him tight, tears filling your eyes once more, but this time happily.

He kissed you and you kissed him back. You couldn’t believe this was happening. He broke the kiss and looked down at the both of your crotches. His jeans on the ground, having slipped off while all of that was happening.

“Let’s get you cleaned up, yeah?”, he picked you up in his big arms, carrying you over to your bathroom, helping you undress and undressing himself, turning on warm water and taking a shower with you.

Let’s just say you ended up sleeping great that night.

———————————————————————

extra:

The rest of the band were in the hot tub, watching some stupid show when they saw Nathan walking over to your room. They didn’t think much of it since he did it almost every night.

That was until they heard moaning coming from your room. You weren’t quiet. Something they would tell Nathan later.

“Holy schit!! thatsth stho gay!! They’re gay!!”, William exclaimed as he began to get out, but Pickles shoved him back into the water. “Shut up and leave ‘em alone! God knows they both needed this. You see the way Nathan talks about ‘em!”

“Ja Moiderface, maybes he’ll shuts up nows.”, Skwisgaar said as he played his guitar. Toki just nodding and agreeing with what everyone else is saying. He was just happy that you and Nathan were finally doing something about your feelings.

———————————————————————

i’m so sorry if this isn’t exactly what you wanted, i’m a bit rusty in the spicy compartment!! as always let me know if you need anything else!

-Mooshi

#boywriters-blog #nathan explosion #reader #nathan explosion x reader #metalocalypse #dethklok #pickles the drummer #skwisgaar skwigelf #toki wartooth #william murderface

62 notes · View notes

coolguyincsworld · 8 months ago

Text

(This rant has no point other than to rant abt something irks me so if you don’t wanna read all this for there to be not point at the end then keep scrolling)

I’m so happy that more people are getting into 911 but i kinda hate it that the only reason they’re getting into it is because of bi buck.

Yes seeing representation is a very good thing and I love that I get to see myself in media but this show has so much more than just gay characters. And even before buck we had so many gay characters, hen, Karen, Josh, Michael, and so many more. so why is it buck that drags them in if it’s ALWAYS been the gay firefighter show?

And this isn’t a new feeling for me because I would always get mad when I saw a comment saying “someone tell me when buddie is canon so I can start watching” because watching a show only because there is a gay couple is weird. You should watch a show because you like it not because of a couple.

Also 911 is a very ‘you need to know the lore’ kind of show because they could bring up something that happened in like season 2 and your not going to know what’s going on because you only started watching because of a gay couple and most often than not your not going to watch the earlier seasons because you know that they aren’t getting together and they had no plans of getting together in the earlier seasons.

It just makes me mad that people don’t really care abt the show and only the couples and yes I know that the show is about the characters and there hectic lives as firefighters but nobody cared abt Madney or henren so why all of a sudden do they care

Like I said this rant had no other point other than get it off my chest soooo yeah

#911 abc #911 #evan buckley #eddie diaz #buddie #bucktommy #911 on abc #bi evan buckley #madney #maddie buckley #hen wilson #henren #karen wilson #josh russo

38 notes · View notes

vaniloqu3nce · 2 years ago

Text

Yoko Headcanons Pt 2

Yoko’s parents are an extremely wealthy and notorious vampire coven from Japan. They put plenty of expectations on Yoko throughout her childhood to be perfect and uphold their family’s image.

Yoko knew she was gay from a very young age but knew her parents would never approve. She played the perfect daughter but really she was sneaking girls home, partying, generally prioritizing her own happiness once she was old enough to understand what makes her happy.

Yoko’s parents had no idea what she was up to until she was caught. She was sent to Nevermore to reform.

She did NOT reform.

Yoko flirts shamelessly, with anyone. Even Wednesday occasionally (though playfully) up until she realizes Enid has a crush, then she tries to befriend Wednesday in order to make sure she’s good for Enid.

Wednesday and Yoko actually become decent friends and bond over their in depth knowledge of old horror media.

Yoko LOVES Wednesday’s books she’s basically the number one fan after page one.

Yoko: Is your girlfriend done with chapter twenty nine yet Enid i cannot wait this long

Enid: Yoko its three am STOP TEXTING ME

Yoko and Wednesday are an awesome sarcastic duo.

Thing Enid Yoko and Wednesday have horror movie nights in which the gfs cuddle and our favorite man and Yoko criticize outfits, set design, camera angles, how realistic the blood is, and so on.

Enid is terrified so she’s mostly hiding in Wednesday’s chest while scrolling through her phone and Wednesday holds Enid the whole time and Wednesday will occasionally comment on Thing and Yoko’s conversation if she has something to add.

Wednesday: It’s not that easy to hold a severed head. They’re quite heavy.

Yoko has a lot of trouble focusing and finding interest in school, so Enid helps with homework and classwork because Yoko’s parents will kill her if her grades don’t remain perfect.

Yoko is very confident and charming when it comes to flirting with someone she has no interest in romantically pursuing. Which is basically ever girl ever.

Yoko gets very nervous and flustered when she actually likes someone. She can trip over her words (very unlike her) or just completely brain fart.

Divina: Yoko, are you listening

Yoko, who was just staring and thinking about how pretty Divina is: wha?-I mean yes absolutely.

I raise you demiromantic Yoko.

I raise you Yoko who has a hard time expressing herself emotionally because her parents didn’t allow it.

I raise you Yoko being absolutely smitten with Divina out of all people and hates herself for it because love scares her.

I raise you Divina not wanting anything with Yoko to be public because Yoko gets around and she’s not ashamed of it, and Divina is worried about her image/what people would think/her parents finding out.

I raise you Yoko for the first time in a long time realizing she wants someone forever and that terrifies her so she never makes anything official.

I raise you them both learning how to work through their fears and vulnerabilities together. Yoko teachers Divina how to prioritize her happiness instead of doing whatever her parents want and being unhappy. Divina teachers Yoko how to open up, helps her stay organized and on track in school, teaches Yoko how to keep herself organized with little neat schedules and notes.

Yoko’s love language is very physical.

I raise you Enid being the best friend possible and supporting her best friend despite Yoko hiding her relationship with Divina for some time.

I raise you Wednesday telling Yoko to get her shit together when she’s flirting with other girls because shes scared of committing to Divina.

Finally I raise you Yoko and Enid being the worst possible pair of lesbian best friends ever.

Yoko: Divina can step on my throat and id thank her

Enid: Wednesday is so pretty id let her run me over twice

#wenclair headcanon #wenclair #enid sinclair #wednesday addams #yoko tanaka #headcanon #fancanon #enid x wednesday #yokovina #yoko x divina #thing addams #wednesday x enid #eniday #wenid #there is not enough yoko content #i truly belive yoko enid and wednesday are the worst pair of friends ever #wednesday and yoko BOTH have limited patience for bs and they are so protective over enid #oh yeah enid me and your gf hung someone from the flag pole for making fun of your scars xoxo #wednesday acting annoyed with Yoko all the time and Yoko is always making fun of her affectionately #they’re a healthy friend group except two of them are dating and yoko is there barfing #but secretly she’s obviously happy for them #Yoko calls them her bitches and Wednesday elbows her so hard in the stomach. that never stops her.#oh these two? these are my lesbians dont worry they dont bite #Wednesday is exasperated. Enid is used to it.

248 notes · View notes

kwockwoc · 11 months ago

Note

Do you think that Seiji would be the type to say a pick-up line? What would be the most Seiji-appropriate line he would say?

hmm...

you've got pretty eyes (800 words, sfw, below the cut)

you've got pretty eyes

Seiji, with some trepidation, opens his Tumblr Inbox.

Anonymous.

He narrows his eyes at that. Why anonymous?

He reads the ask.

He re-reads it.

A few seconds pass.

New tab.

Google.com

Search: best ever pick up line

Scroll, scroll, scroll.

Search: best ever pick up line gay

Scroll, scroll, scroll.

Search: best ever pick up line gay tips tricks guaranteed success

Scroll, scroll, scroll.

Hmm.

No, no, no.

Phone.

> Nicholas Cox (Husband)

Call.

Nicholas’s voice, sounding a little harried. He’s obviously outside. Seiji can hear – traffic, maybe? – and voices in the background. “Seiji? Honey, what’s wrong?”

Seiji clears his throat.

“Hello. What did I say to you when I asked you out? The first time?”

After a second of stunned silence, Nicholas laughs.

“What? Why – what’s brought this on?”

“Um. Nothing,” Seiji says, because admitting to his dearly beloved that a random Tumblr anon ask had triggered a cascading series of self-reflections and self-doubts would probably make him sound even more oversensitive than usual.

“Well – honey – I don’t think I remember,” Nicholas admits, his mouth a little too close to the mic, like usual, and Seiji loves that, even though he should probably be miffed by the fact that his spouse doesn’t remember how they kickstarted their relationship. “It was a while ago.”

“Yes, I know. I just thought you might remember.”

“I wish I could remember, honey. I really do.” Nicholas sighs. “I think – uh – I think it would’ve been something cute. Something like, is this piste taken?”

Nicholas laughs again, and Seiji grumbles.

“No, no, that wouldn’t have made any sense, and I was more bold than that,” Seiji says. “I think it would have been something about your ass.”

Nicholas lowers his voice. “Seiji, you might’ve thought you were bold, but you really weren’t. There’s no way you would’ve said anything about my –” there’s a pause, as if Nicholas is checking who’s around – “my ass when we were sixteen.”

“Well – I wanted to say something about your ass.”

Nicholas sighs. “Are you sure it wasn’t something about my fencing? Something jokey? Something about corps a corps?”

“No, I think I’d remember that,” Seiji says. “That would have involved some planning.”

“Hmm. Yeah, you’re right. And I’d remember it, too.”

They lapse into a few moments of comfortable silence. Nicholas breathes into the phone in a way that’s distinctly… his. It’s similar to the way he snores, gentle and regular, perfect –

“I think I might have said something about your eyes,” Seiji says, before he becomes overwhelmed by meditation on the beauties of Nicholas’s autonomic nervous system. “You’ve got pretty eyes, sweetheart. I’ve always liked your eyes.”

“Oh, thanks, honey. Dad reckons they’re just like grandpa’s,” Nicholas says brightly, and Seiji groans.

“Yes, I – I already know Robert’s opinions on your eyes. And please don’t talk about your grandfather while we’re discussing our dating history.”

“But grandpa was hot,” Nicholas says, a little reproachfully. “You’ve seen the photo.”

Seiji buries his face in his left hand, keeping the phone pressed to his head with his right. “Sweetheart, we’re not debating whether your grandfather was hot,” Seiji says.

“What were we debating?”

“What I said to you to convince you to date me,” Seiji repeated, patiently. “The –” he exhaled, nosily. The words seemed clumsy, teenagerish. “– the pick-up line I used.”

Nicholas laughs again. “Honey, I’m real sorry, but I’m gonna have to go soon. Like, now. I’m meant to be on bus duty. We can talk about this when I get home, if you want.”

“No late practice tonight?” Seiji asks, hoping that the answer will be no. Nicholas and his assistant have been working with two of their most promising épée students an extra night each week, to get the kids ready for individual competition – the Illinois junior NAC in November. Seiji knows, without being told, that Nicholas is an excellent teacher, and an even better coach. His students adore him. Everyone adores him. Seiji adores him.

“No, Seiji. No late practice, I promise. That’s Wednesdays only now, and Silvia’s doing most of it anyway.”

“Okay. That’s good.”

“All right, I’ve gotta go. The kids are getting out of class. Love you, bye!”

“I love you Nicholas. I love you very much. Bye now.”

Seiji puts the phone down.

Eventually, he returns his attention to the laptop, screen glowing in the home office.

He reads the ask a third time.

He clicks Answer.

Dear anonymous,

Thank you for the ask.

I was not and am not generally given to deploying – as you put it – pick-up lines, although I am convinced that there was something I said that was not only extremely witty but also deeply passionate and endearing that convinced my now-husband, Nicholas Coste @fyeahepee2002, to embark on a romantic relationship with me.

If you require advice or support in obtaining a romantic partner, I suggest a web search. There are many useful and enlightening websites with practical advice.

Seiji Katayama (@expertfencingadvice)

He clicks Post now, and moves on.

#kwoc writes #kwoc answers #nicholas cox #seiji katayama #nichoji #thanks anon for the ask!#fence comic

20 notes · View notes

rodolfoparras · 5 months ago

Note

Just going on anon to say this cos it feels safer, speaking from someone who has an abusive dad he was a master manipulator and would abuse me and others physically, mentally, and verbally and would also heavily drink and was worse when he did drink. He hasn’t changed and is still the same except he doesn’t drink any more because of heart issues and doesn’t lay hands on me anymore bc I’m in my 20s. But he’s still abusive and hasn’t changed and managed to manipulate my family into believing that it wasn’t as bad as I say it was and they always tell me that “he still loves you tho, you have to forgive him bc god says so”. I went years without talking to him and when I did start speaking to him again, it wasn’t long bc he even gaslit me into believing that it wasn’t bad, but it really was, like I said he’s good at manipulating. It was so bad that even I, a gay man, was even scared of other men, and I still am. I stopped speaking to him again and I never will, because as soon as I went back to speak to my family I spoke about me dealing with depression and he said that he was depressed too to try and steal the attention away from me, guess who they had more sympathy for….him! He got to be an evil monster and always got away with it by shedding a few tears and saying how he “just wants peace and god showed him the light” in front of the family but behind closed doors will tell me “do you really think anybody will really ever care about you?”.

So yes to sum everything up, that imagine you wrote was actually a tad bit healing in a way. You never wrote that he was physically abusive, you only said that he would drink, that’s all. And you also wrote that the father changed and was better to his kids. If people don’t like the content you write it’s not that hard to just scroll past it or unfollow.

Sugar first of all I want to say I am so sorry you had to experience all of that what you just told me is absolutely horrible and no kid should have to go through such things but also I am so sorry you had to experience the same type of abuse into your adult years

Unfortunately in 99% of these cases the abuser will tell you it’s not as bad as you rmr or to forgive because religion or family and it’s a manipulation tactic. For a long long long while I used to think that maybe the person isn’t aware they’re being manipulative but it doesn’t matter because they’re still doing it and while pulling the religion and family value card they’re not actively doing anything to better the situation

But I am glad you completely cut him off! It’s clear that he just wants to be a looming figure in your life and there’s no need to keep such people around. Doesn’t matter if they’re family or not if they’re not actively trying to better themselves it’s not worth keeping them around!

And I’m glad the piece could be to some help! It’s just a thought at the end of the day no need to put weight into it 🫶🏻

#alec answers

8 notes · View notes

lec743 · 2 years ago

Text

Cherub AU (FNAF Fanfic)

(waves) Hey, y’all! Who’s ready to break some hearts?! Also remember to check out @starrspice tumblr page to see not just their Cherub AU but for all of their wonderful AU’s that they come up with.

*******************************************************************************************

After your first job with your cherub tutors, you had a few days off to have for yourself and for your human job. During your week off, you kept accidentally replaying that stupid scene in your head. You and Sun getting angry with each other. You, forcing a kiss on him. The feeling of how soft and warm his lips were. Then when that thought pops into your head; you’d cover your face with your pillow if you were in bed, or you’d intensely focus on the job in front of you scaring your boss if you were at work.

You don’t know if you were ready to face Sun again. You were going to have to bite that bullet eventually, and hell, if you’re lucky he’ll act like nothing happened. Then you’ll be able to act like nothing happened too. You don’t believe that you’re that lucky, though.

You were standing on your roof top waiting for your tutors to show up. To try and calm your nerves, you started going through your satchel to make sure you’ve got everything. You took your pills. You have snacks and juice for when you get tired. You have your emergency contact information for if you faint. You have the rose that Eclipse gave you and you have your apartment keys. You double and triple checked what you had on hand before you heard your name being called out. You looked up to see Moon.

“Where’s Sun,” you asked without thinking when you saw his absence.

“He has a job at the opposite side of the city. You and I will be working on this heartbreak case on our own.”

You tried not to let the relief show on your face. “So who are we breaking up?”

“I’ve already seen your assignment. It looked like it was going to be a tough one, so I think before we try to tackle that mistake together, I think you should sink your teeth into a much simpler assignment. You know, for practice.” Moon said. Then a scroll floated down from the heavens and fell into his open hand. He unrolled it and you walked around him to look at what it said.

The scroll was about two teenagers. They’re white boys, one with blond hair and the other with dyed black hair. The blond was called Will and the other was called Mark. The boys are apparently staying together despite being unhappy with each other, because they’re apparently the only gays in their school.

You tsk at this and said, “I feel bad for teenagers. Their world can be so small sometimes. When they do find someone like them, they want to keep them in their lives for as long as possible.”

Moon nodded. “Yes. They’re afraid of what comes after they break up.”

“So how do you usually break people up?”

Moon rolled up the scroll and said, “It depends. Sometimes, I just have to suggest to one party or the other that they need to talk. Other times I have to put strain on the relationship, like emphasizing someone’s feelings like they’re not supportive or they’re not present in the other’s life. Other times I have to help them see that they’re being cheated on or get a third party involved to show them that their love life isn’t as great as it should be.”

You stood there silently as you processed what he said. “Man,” you eventually said, “That sounds rough. Does it ever get… I don’t know… tiring?”

Moon gave you a humorless laugh. “Yes… it can be a lot, but just because there are bad break ups out there, doesn’t mean love isn’t real.” You doubted that, but Moon continued. “I mean, if love truly isn’t real, I don’t think my job would exist, ‘cause what’s the point of breaking something that isn’t there in the first place… you know?”

“I suppose,” you said hesitantly as you felt your heartache.

Putting away the scroll, Moon said, “Come on. Their high school is a few miles from here. They’ll be out of school soon.”

Moon’s wings spread out and he flapped them and started flying in the air. You soon followed suit. The air didn’t sting with cold today, and it felt nice to fly with the sun warming your back. You couldn’t help yourself as you started spinning and doing little loopty-loops. You had the biggest smile on your face.

“You really like flying, huh,” Moon said softly.

You stuttered in your flying before going back to the normal soaring that Moon was doing. “Oh! Yah… It’s nice.”

“I’m glad you like it so much,” Moon said, “I’ve been flying for so long that the novelty has worn off for me.”

You gave Moon a half smile. “One day I’m going to have to stop flying, so I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of it.”

Moon nodded at you to acknowledge what you said. “You have a nice smile when you fly. It’s nice to see. I hope you enjoy it for as long as possible.”

You were glad that he turned to pay attention to where he was flying because suddenly your face felt very hot. You had to say an internal mantra of, it doesn’t mean anything, to try and calm yourself down. You managed to cool off by the time the two of you made it to the school. It was 2:45pm so you had a few minutes before school let out. You and Moon got comfortable sitting on the edge of the school’s roof, and you had a nice view of the school yard.

The two of you sat silently on the roof as time slipped by. You were thinking about what bills were coming up that you’d need to pay off soon when Moon spoke up.

“So… What is your opinion on love?”

You side eyed Moon. He was staring down at the school yard, but he was fiddling with the wrappings on his hands and arms. The wings on his back seemed agitated like how birds will get big when they’re threatened or scared. You looked down at the school yard, very aware of how important your answer may be to him about this.

“I don’t think you’ll like what I have to say, Moon.”

“Maybe not, but I’d like to understand you better despite that.”

You sighed. Why did that make your heart flutter? Stop you stupid heart! “Love is just a sham. All it does it bring people pain and hurt. It’s not worth the trouble.”

Moon hummed sadly. “I’m sorry you’ve been hurt so badly that it made you think that.”

You said nothing. Opting to scowl at the school yard as you tried to get your heart under wraps as it traitorously pumped with validation, old pain, and a new warmth that you didn’t want to acknowledge.

The school bell rang and students were walking out. Soon the two of you saw Will and Mark walking hand in hand with each other as they were looking at their phones. You and Moon flew down and followed them as they walked home.

The blond boy, Will, was talking about a cartoon that seemed important to him while, the dyed black haired boy, Mark, looked like he was suffering through the topic.

“I don’t remember what the scroll said. Did it say that they attempted to have a conversation with each other, or something else?” you asked.

“They haven’t said anything to each other,” Moon confirmed.

“Let’s start out gently. This is going to hurt them a lot since this is their first relationship.”

You got out your Suggestion Pads, crumbled up a card, then threw it at Mark’s head. It uncrumpled and folded itself into a little paper heart and stuck itself to the back of his head. You then began to softly tell Mark that if he’s unhappy, then he’s allowed to tell Will that. It took a bit, but the paper heart disappeared from the back of his head as the two boys came across an empty playground.

Mark tugged on Will’s hand and said, “Hey. Let’s go over here for a bit. Okay?”

“Sure.”

You two followed the boys to a rickety old swing set. The two of them sat down on the swings and started lightly swinging on them.

“Will.”

“Yah?”

“Why did you ask me out?”

You turn to Moon and give him a look that you hoped indicated that you were proud that Mark was starting so strong. He was asking a very important question. Moon nods and motions for you to keep watching.

“Well, uhhh,” he blew a raspberry, “Uhhh. I think your cool!”

“What about me is cool to you?”

Once again Will started floundering. Then he said, “Well, why did you say yes?”

You squinted your eyes, very judgingly at Will for his deflection, but dropped the judgment as soon as you felt it. When haven’t you felt a little defensive and needed to deflect? Maybe it’ll help push the boys to break up.

“I’ve never been asked out before and I thought I’d end up liking you,” Mark confessed.

You saw Moon’s nose subtly wrinkle in a practiced handling of cringe. You had your hand over your mouth at that. Mark didn’t sound like he was taking a dig at Will, but it still looked like it hurt the blond boy to hear it.

“We’ve been dating for a year, and you can’t find anything about me that you like,” Will asked, his voice raised.

“You don’t seem to have anything that you like about me! You still haven’t said what you think is cool about me,” Mark said, his voice raised to match Will.

“Wh-you! You’re just cool!”

“But what specifically? We’ve been together for a year, as you’ve so kindly pointed out, and you can’t even come up with a single detail that is specific to me?”

The two boys looked away from each other. Mark was looking at the ground as he was still slightly swinging on the swing. Will stood up and walked a little bit away from the dyed black-haired boy. His back was turned to him as he had his arms crossed.

“Come on,” Moon said as he got out a suggestion paper, “Keep going. I know you can do it.” He threw the card like a throwing star and it folded itself into a star and stuck to the back of Will’s head. It didn’t take much convincing from Moon to get Will to keep talking.

“Why are you bringing this up now?” Will asked, still not turning to look at his boyfriend, “What have I been doing wrong?”

“Is the feeling really not mutual?” Mark asked instead of answering Will’s questions. “We keep trying to find something that we can both like together and yet we keep failing at it. We argue more than anything. Making out isn’t as fun with you as I thought it would be. Are you really wanting to stay as my boyfriend?”

Will took a moment to answer. “I don’t know,” he mumbled.

Silence took over once more. You got out a card and threw it at Mark. You suggested to Mark to talk about what’s making him unhappy and why he wants to break up.

“I… don’t like always watching tv or playing video games as a way to hang out with you. I don’t like feeling like I have to “preform” being gay with you around everyone. I don’t like how I feel being with you. I know relationships are supposed to be a little hard to maintain, but I don’t think it should be this hard… You know?”

Will started to cry. Mark started getting teary eyed too as he tried to wipe away his tears.

“Are we breaking up?” Will cried, his voice high from the strain of trying to keep an even voice despite his tears.

“I would like to break up, yah.” Mark said as he sniffled.

“But you’re the only one I know who’s like me,” Will wailed.

“I know! Same to you for me, but what’s the point of being together if it just makes us miserable?”

You nodded a long with Mark. You thought both boys were being very brave and honest with each other despite everything. Watching them break up was giving your heart phantom pains.

“So what now?” Will asked weepily. “Are we supposed to pretend that we never dated or something like that.”

Mark sighed. “No. I don’t want that either. Let’s… Let’s just stop being boyfriends. I don’t know what we’ll do next, but maybe it was a mistake on both our parts to try and date each other.”

Will looked hurt, but he was drying his tears. Then with a nod he said, “Yah. Okay… Bye Mark. See you around?”

“I'll see you around,” he confirmed.

Moon motioned for you to stay with Mark as he went to follow Will as the blond boy walked away. You watched as Mark started to cry into his hands once he thought he was alone. Your heart went out to the teenager. You took your invisibility spell off and quietly sat down in the swing Will was sitting in.

“Tough day?”

Mark jumped at your voice. “Jesus Christ! Where did you come from?!”

You chuckled at his reaction. “You really didn’t hear me walking up, huh.” You pulled out your snacks and juice from your satchel and handed it to the teenage boy. “Here. Crying takes a lot of energy out of you. This will help.”

Mark gave you a teary side-eye, but soon took the snacks and drink. He was still sniffling as he ate the snacks and drank the juice.

“Do you want to talk about what you’re so upset about?” You asked.

Mark shook his head.

“That’s okay, Kid. Be sad for as long as you need to be, okay. You’ll find something that’ll make you feel like smiling again in the future,” you said confidently, “Know that I tell the truth because I’m the sorriest sap of an adult you’ll ever meet.”

Mark rolled his eyes, his tears drying as he finished off the treat and was drinking the last of the juice.

“It’s true though,” you said with a bemused smile on your face, “all my insides hurt all the time and it makes me go all blarglargle…” you gargled your sentence as you slid out of the swing and splayed against the ground like you were a dying scarecrow.

This made Mark laugh. You smiled up at the teenager and motioned to take his trash from him. “Thanks for the snacks, Stranger, but uh, I better get home, or my mom will begin to worry.”

You give Mark a thumbs up and said, “Don’t let me keep you. I’m just glad I got you to smile.”

“Yah, yah,” Mark dismissed you as he walked away.

You got to your feet and dusted off your backside. As you stood by yourself in the empty playground, your thoughts drifted to Sun. As much as you don’t want to confront it, you should probably apologize to him for forcing that kiss onto him. If you weren’t so angry at the time, you’re sure you could have come up with a better way of proving your point than locking lips with him. You grimaced at yourself as you tried to force away the thoughts again of how warm he felt and how he smelled like daffodils.

“Hey Newbie!” Moon yelled.

You looked up to see Moon and Sun flying down towards you.

“I saw Mark walking back home. Are you doing okay, preforming your first break up?” Moon asked.

Sun was looking around like he was pointedly avoiding the sight of you.

You fiddled with your fingers. “Uh. I couldn’t resist trying to make the kid feel better.”

Moon nodded understandingly. “As long as you weren’t trying to say that he should get back together with Will then it’s fine. Though it is advised that you try to refrain from doing it often in the future.”

Considering you don’t have much of a future, it’s a promise that you can easily keep. Clearing your throat, you then turned your attention to Sun.

“Sun.”

“Trainee.” He said with distain.

“I’d like to apologize for forcing that kiss onto you the other night. Even if my point was made, it still wasn’t right of me to do that to you… How about we forget that kiss ever happened and go on like normal, yah?” You offered your hand out for him to shake, hoping he’ll take your olive branch.

Sun gave you a scrutinizing look, then he looked to Moon for guidance. Moon motioned for Sun to take your hand. Sun slumped a bit at the motioned suggestion like he really didn’t want to, but eventually he took your hand and the two of you shook hands.

“Fine. Fine. I accept your apology… but you know, that just means I win.” Sun said in a smug tone of voice.

You sputtered. “What do you mean, you win. What about me apologizing to you is a win?”

Sun let go of your hand so he could use his hands to better gesture with and said, “Oh no. Not the apology. The how-about-we-forget-that-kiss-thing, you added to the apology. What’s there to forget if it didn’t mean anything, hmmm?”

You stuttered on your words. Anger filling you as you motioned like you wanted to strangle his scrawny yellow neck. Moon tried to mediate as Sun got haughtier and that in turn made you angrier.

“That’s not what I was meaning you walking stick up my ass! Go suck on a lemon you cheddar cheese-faced fuck,” you shouted at him before flying away.

Before you could get too far, Sun yelled, “You want to kiss me so bad it makes you look stupid!”

That really got your blood boiling, and you were glad you were already running away. There’s no way you were going to let him be right about you, and what you know about love. Your heart wouldn’t be able to handle it.

#fnaf #fanfiction #cherub au #starrspice

17 notes · View notes

thefiresontheheight · 2 years ago

Text

When your beloved mutual reblogs a piece of fan art or a gif a comment like “yeah they’re gay keep walking” and for the life of you you cannot recognize who the people are and the post and tags certainly aren’t identifying the movie/show/game/what have you. You kinda just have to be like “wow, yes they are, these people, def gay, uh huh, good for them” and keep scrolling

17 notes · View notes

ohfallingdisco · 2 years ago

Note

I’ve been scrolling on the byler tag and like I don’t understand something.

why is it delusional for Mike and Will to have similar internalized homophobia or similar queer stories. Straight characters literally have similar and/or the same stories.

And besides it’ll never be the same experiences between them.

While Will had Lonnie and the bullies making him feel like being queer is wrong, he was also surrounded by Joyce and Jonathan who made him feel like being different is good. I mean his speech in the van to Mike, saying that Mike makes him feel like being different is a good thing and that it makes him fight on. so yes, Will has internalized homophobia but it’s the 80s, im sure even Robin has it too. Like it was basically shamed if you were queer, who wouldn’t have internalized homophobia.

Mike had his dad and the bullies too making him feel like being queer will get you killed or that it’s a bad thing. Except he didn’t have a older sibling to tell him that it’s okay to be different because Nancy was going through something similar with how she thought she had to act a certain way. And his mom, though she told him in s1 that he can tell her anything and had a queer coded scene, she hasn’t since after. So he’s gonna have some internalized homophobia no matter what. But unlike Will he doesn’t have the side that tells him it’s okay and even better being different. So he conforms to the society norms and hides that part of himself, and even to himself he hides it. But in s4 he has Eddie. Someone had pointed out this so credits to them, that Eddie made Mike feel like being different, liking D&D and not conforming to the norms is cool. I mean Eddie’s speech about how “forced conformity is what’s killing the kids” probably wasn’t the first time he brought it up. And we even see it in Mike’s clothes. He finding out who he is and not hiding so much from it.

All to say is, everyone is allowed to think what they want about a character. What I don’t like seeing is people saying it’s delusional to think that Mike and Will are on similar queer storylines.

Why is it delusional??

They aren’t the same story anyways. They definitely would parallel each other but it’s different. parallel doesn’t mean exactly exactly the same. it’s just similar.

seriously. we need to stop throwing around the words crazy delusional or even weird, because like at the end of the day we all agree that Mike is queer. and that Byler is endgame.

we keep saying we all can have our own opinions and then see posts that call eachother delusional or weird. Like stop.

we’re not even fighting about different things. It’s like we’re yelling at eachother but we agree on things.

Oh anon, you and me both, I completely agree

I’ve seen people get really defensive about any other characters mirroring Will’s story, which I think I understand where they’re coming from when they say stuff like “he’s the only one with X trauma so don’t take it from him,” but also—a lot of queer people grow up with similar experiences? And he’s not the only queer character we have anymore. Their stores all parallel each other, even if they are wildly different.

Will is gay, in love with his best friend, a young teenager figuring himself out, has experienced homophobia onscreen, and has found one or more outlets for negative feelings as a result of his queerness.

In addition to, all under 18:

Robin, a lesbian, who likes someone from band she’s been shown to be very friendly with, and has shown expectation of homophobia onscreen—and has verbally expressed fear over being outed to the wrong person. Steve has narratively and thematically been built to be her queer support by s4: he’s not going through the same problems as she is, but he loves her unconditionally and supports her for who she is.

Vickie, heavily implied to be bisexual or somewhere under that umbrella, whose boyfriend was someone she wanted to go to a weapons store of all places with, and who now likes Robin now, a girl from band she’s been shown to be very friendly with and interested in getting along with. Her experiences with homophobia are more subtle, but we see her really jittery when it’s hinted she could be queer. I say that counts. Her queer support comes most obviously in the pb&j talk with Robin at the end of s4, though she seems well-adjusted enough to reasonably have more, honestly.

And, Mike—surprise!—follows the pattern, too. I personally think it makes the most narrative sense with the queercoding established if he was gay, but bi Mike and other interpretations are valid and cool, too. We agree he’s in love with his best friend, of course, and from the very first season, we saw Troy and his squad targeting most of their taunts about Will being a “fairy” etc. at Mike, and anti-gay propaganda being spread avidly around him. His queer support, like you said, despite the few others who’ve offered, was definitely Eddie. S4 was the first time we’ve seen Mike openly embracing his true self, and his one episode in Hawkins carried queer Mike being happy for most of the show. Of course, Will would’ve probably loved to have been support for Mike, but he has no clue Mike is queer, obviously.

So, yeah, that’s a long-winded way to say I agree lol. Straight cis allosexual people even go through a lot of the same experiences during adolescence, so why would it be any different for queer people? Hell, honestly, with the way the show’s going, I wouldn’t be surprised if we got queer Henry Creel in flashbacks, too.

I really appreciate the ask!! You’ve clearly thought about this and brought some really interesting points to the table, so cheers for that lol. I don’t know why there’s so much division about queer experiences needing to be totally different for them to be unique, but hopefully people will come around soon. Frustration is normal, but it always ends eventually, in good situations.

I don’t know how much I answered your question, exactly, but hope this was at least entertaining anon lmao 💜

#ask #queer experience #stranger things parallels #will is will and every other queer character is themselves but their uniqueness doesn’t mean they haven’t shared experiences <3

7 notes · View notes

grimm-rider · 2 years ago

Text

Entry 1

My name is Calio Caecos, and I’m a Black Rider of Baba Yaga.

There, I got the important part out at the front.

I’m writing this for my own personal records. In case I forget these things again. Not for anyone else to read it. Hint hint. Turn back now or bear a terrible curse. Or something.

Anyways, it’s been a couple of weeks since my journey started and I’m not going to write detailed daily entries of every little thing we did every day leading up to today or I’ll never catch up to…well, today. So I’ll summarize until I reach our current moment in time.

After trying to travel to Irrisen from Ustalav, I woke up in a…compromised position…in the Taldor border town of Demgazi, on the opposite side of the continent from where I was meant to be. A year later than it was meant to be. And I’m not going into anymore detail than that since I suspect someone other than me might get nosy and start reading this.

Aenland. That means you. Stop reading my journal.

Regardless, after I woke up in unusual circumstances, I went to a cleric to get checked out, due to my…sickly complexion. This is how I discovered both my…unusual allergy to positive energy, and the fact that despite it I don’t detect as undead of any sort. The priest wanted to preform some other prayers and rituals or something on me, but I was tired of holy men, and wasn’t quite sure what he’d end up doing if none of his little rituals worked. So I slipped away.

It was not long afterwards that I discovered my new magic and ability to call on negative energy—and the knowledge of how to scribe the spells into scrolls. I remained in town for one day to make some scrolls, then began making my way north.

I didn’t get far. Heldren, specifically. About as far South in Taldor as you can get without being right on the border. There I was roped into helping save a forest from an unseasonable winter that had mysteriously occurred along with three others.

First was a fellow Irriseni named Edeya—a beautiful woman with a talent for witchcraft. Next was a literal bear wielding an axe named Nestian—yes, a literal furry grizzly bear, not a gay bear. I don’t know his particular preferences. He might not have any as far as I can tell, he doesn’t really seem to have a strong reaction to much of anything or anyone. Last and certainly least is Aenland, an absolute nightmare of an elf. Take all the features that make elves beautiful and exotic, exaggerate them until they’re uncanny, stretch him out for good measure, and you have Aenland. He has creepy bug eyes, his limbs are far too long and thin for his body, he’s always smiling that creepy smile, and his hair is infuriatingly perfect. He is a sleep paralysis demon given flesh. And he seems to have made it his goal to be as infuriating as he is creepy. I hate him. So much. Everything about him makes me unreasonably mad. He has no social graces. He’s patronizing and looks down on anyone who isn’t an elf. He charges headfirst into sensitive topics with the subtlety of a charging rhino. He doesn’t know when to shut up and keep private information to himself. And as far as I can tell he’s totally oblivious that he’s doing anything rude.

And Aenland, if you didn’t take my words to heart and quit reading my journal prior, I want you to know: I wholeheartedly mean every word I say. Also fuck off and quit reading my journal.

Oh there’s also Edeya’s familiar I suppose. Snezhinka, an arctic fox. When we first met Edeya, the fox was pretending to be a stole around her neck, but after we left town and I called out Edeya on her obvious Irriseni origins, she had Snezhinka stop the act and introduced us.

After we gathered some information, and learned of one missing Lady Argentina, we headed to the bubble of eternal winter covering the normally warm Taldan forest. Along the way, Aenland asked us obnoxious invasive questions. I had a…friendly wrestle…with Edeya, to try to decide who would be subjected to Aenland first. I won, but unfortunately Aenland decided I would be next regardless. His questions were as annoying and intrusive as I’d expected and I gave the most barbed pointed replies I could muster—which he seemed completely oblivious to.

Finally, we made it to the bubble of winter and were free from Aenland’s incessant talking. There we found an overturned carriage, and fought some zombies within. My first foray with the undead—a very fascinating experience. We found Lady Argentina’s signet ring within the carriage, and continued on our way.

In the forest we faced fey, ice elementals, another fey riding a giant elk pretending to be a forest spirit, and a handful of bandits. Nestian didn’t want to kill the bandits, so we knocked two unconscious and I spooked the other two into running back to their camp with their tails between their legs. We woke one of the unconscious ones, questioned him—spooked him a bit—and got some information on Lady Argentina’s whereabouts. We had him lead us to their fortress.

Despite the bandit we were leading attempting to use his own body to set off a trap, we made our way through the fortress and cleared it out easily.

Well, I say easily. At one-point Nestian was surrounded by enemies and bleeding out, and Aenland spent part of the fight frozen in place by the necromancer leader Rohkar’s Hold Person spell. And Edeya was bleeding out so badly she could hardly think straight at one point. So okay maybe this wasn’t that easy of a fight. Maybe I’m just that good at keeping myself alive. Mostly alive?

…Alive. I’m alive. Detect undead doesn’t work on me, so clearly I’m still alive. Despite anything Nestian has to say about me smelling like death.

Anyways, despite any setbacks, the end result was Aenland knocking out Rohkar, me convincing this girl Nestian really wanted to leave the fight to leave, Nestian killing a shitton of people and seeing some weird fey creature flee into the woods, and on the outskirts Edeya keeping everyone else alive with her healing and using Evil Eye to weaken enemies.

We found Lady Argentina in a basement, I gained her trust by returning her signet ring, and we let her out and told her we had some prisoners we intended to question. When she heard one was Rohkar she insisted she be there to question him herself. We agreed. She had a strong personality and I for one QUITE enjoyed it.

When we woke Rohkar, Lady Argentina started our questioning by immediately slapping him and demanding answers. Then before he could actually answer she slapped him again.

Did I mention I like this lady?

Rohkar told us that they plot to kidnap the Lady had been concocted by the fey, and was part of a greater Irriseni plot, although he didn’t know the details. All he knew was that the leaders of the fey in this area were an Ice Mephit named Izozai and a Moss Troll named Teb Nottin.

After the others asked their questions about his plans and the eternal winter around us—which we learned was caused by a portal straight to Irrisen—I asked my own questions. Namely about Rohkar’s necromancy and what a necromancer gained from following the god of murder, Norgorber.

He gave his answer, that if he killed someone and raised them in Norgorber’s name, and then they killed someone, and then he raised them and they killed someone, it was a growing wave of death all in the name of the god of murder. He also told me a bit about the actual workings of necromantic spells—the necessity of always having onyx gems on hand to use as a material component, because the spells to raise the dead consume an amount at a rate determined by the power of what you try to bring back. Although the scrolls I took off him won’t need those. Which meant I had one free big hitter I could make.

I looking back feel like I’ve used it wisely.

Anyways after that enlightening conversation, we went to bed. We had a little detour back to town to cure Edeya of a disease, get a reward from Lady Argentina, and meet Nestian’s family (literal bears. Not talking shapeshifting bears like Nestian. Literal four-legged cave bears.)

Then it was back on the road to the winter portal. We fought some of Rohkar’s scraps (some icy skeletons left behind), some (very flammable) living trees, and finally the Mephit and an ice elemental.

She wasn’t as threatening as we’d expected, honestly. The ice elemental took longer to kill.

Then came something that…left a bad taste in my mouth. I’m not going to just summarize this part because…well I’m just not. It feels like more should be said about it. That’s all.

We came upon a Haunt.

Aenland was the first to see it. A young boy ran across his path. He begged to be left alone, then vanished into the boulders ahead of us. Aenland went ahead of us and tried to talk to the boy. The child poked his head out of the rocks—but instead of talking to Aenland, he addressed a ‘Mrs. Vasillanova’.

That’s a name we’re going to hear a lot more going forward. It’s one I hate. And its owner is going to get what she deserves and oh so much more when I get my hands on her.

At this point I recognized the Haunt for what it was, and informed Aenland that what he was seeing was not a true ghost, but a memory of a child caused by something terrible and traumatic happening. We had seen a strange doll laid out within a cabin on the top of the icy cliff ahead of us, and I let the others know that it was likely the key to calming the Haunt. Until then we had to be on guard, because Haunts were usually extremely dangerous and malevolent things.

Aenland saw that our path was blocked by some sort of magic—likely something that would trigger the Haunt. Nestian decided to take a different approach, and began using his claws to climb the side of the ice cliff directly. Then he threw down a rope so the rest of us could follow.

As we moved through this area we continued to hear from this poor child. First, he was yelling in anger at Vasillanova, telling her he just wanted to go home, and he didn’t want anything to do with her ‘stupid doll’. Then there was a more quiet and tearful moment, in which he was talking to someone named Thora, and he said he didn’t think he would be coming back.

As Aenland crossed onto the plateau, the doll activated from his proximity. He was hit by a Ray of Frost from the doll—which was actually a Guardian Doll. A construct powered by a soul gem in its left eye—in this case a particular twisted creation considering it appeared Vasillanova had decided her souls of choice were children.

Nestian charged the doll. It locked him with its gaze and tried to cast a mind dominating effect on him as it said in the little boy’s voice “You want to help Dominik, don’t you?”, but Nestian was stronger than the doll and shrugged it off.

I hit the cursed thing with a Ray of Sickening—as despite being a construct this particular creature was susceptible to these types of attacks, perhaps due to its reliance on a soul. Edeya hit it with an Evil Eye.

Then Aenland decided to get fancy and try to get into flanking position instead of just going for what was closest or just shooting the damn thing. And so instead of getting to hit it at all, he got stabbed in the ribs by a freezing cold dagger and became paralyzed by cold. Again.

Fucking Aenland.

Anyways Nestian managed to keep him from getting his throat immediately slit by grabbing the doll and cutting straight through it in one final expect chop—soulgem and all.

We were all pretty quiet afterwards, and moved on quickly after Aenland and I confirmed that the Haunt was really gone.

I’m going to kill that bitch Vasillanova. And I’m going to make her into a bloody skeleton so her soul is trapped in service to me, for a long long time. I’m going to make sure she understands the same suffering every single child she murdered felt, tenfold.

…Anyways. After that we had an encounter with a giant white weasel, which Nestian calmed and helped us pass by without a fight. And from there we were almost at the heart of the forest—and the winter portal.

The snow storm had grown unbearable here, we could barely see an inch in front of our noses, and it was incredibly difficult to walk without snowshoes. Ah. Just like home.

Man I never quite realized just how much Irrisen sucked as a kid.

We ended up in a fight with a fey in these conditions, if you could really call it that. A bunch of blind swinging in the snow, on both sides. Our blind swinging was just better.

Then we reached the eye of the storm.

There was no snow where Teb Nottin awaited us. Trees surrounded a clearing, and the snow swirled around us, spat out of a portal in the center. The moss troll put up a fight—he did a number on Aenland when the elf got too close. But I set him on fire, and he panicked when that happened and looked like he was going to actually turn and run. But Nestian cut him down before he could.

I regretted not turning him into a bloody skeleton then and there, but it’s okay. I got one that’s just as good later. I…ended up distracted by other things a moment later.

See, this is when we met the Black Rider.

This is when we witnessed the Black Rider’s final moments of life, and each agreed to an oath—for our own differing reasons—to take on the mantle of the Black Rider, save Baba Yaga, and stop Queen Elvana. The Black Rider laid back into the snow, and the last life left his body after his power joined with us.

Aenland was seeking a weapon to kill a Demon Lord. I was seeking answers—and somehow the Black Rider knew me, even though I shouldn’t have been back to Irrisen before, so I knew the answers about my missing year were tangled up in all this. Nestian wanted to protect his family from Queen Elvana, who they’d already fled from once. And Edeya…Edeya was the most mysterious of the lot. Yeah even more than me. When Edeya hesitated to take the cloak, the Black Rider looked her in the eye and said “Edeya Karanasi take the cloak, it is your destiny”. Karanasi was the name of the former head of the Winter Witches, before she mysteriously died in the Vale of Tears twenty years ago. So at the time that gave me some suspicions that she was probably directly related to at least some of the Winter Witches. She has since confirmed that her parents were Winter Witches, and she was slated to join their ranks—but she decided she wanted to do something better with her life.

Good for her.

I’m curious what caused her change of heart. The Winter Witch position comes with a lot of perks and power. There must have been some sort of catalyst to push her into deciding to leave that all behind. But for now, I’m leaving that be. I like Edeya, so unlike Aenland, I know how to keep my nose to myself and respect other’s secrets when they aren’t immediately relevant to me.

Although if we ever find ourselves alone, and in a place where we can’t be easily overheard, I might just ask her…

Anyways, we gained the power of the Black Rider, the old Black Rider died, we’re Geassed to seek out Baba Yaga, and so we stepped through the winter portal and into Irrisen—some of us for the first time.

Not me. For me this was a long overdue homecoming.

At least it feels long overdue. From how the Black Rider was talking…it sounds like maybe I was in Whitethrone recently? In my own memory I’d never been to Whitethrone. But in my own memory I’d not returned to Irrisen since I was a child, so there we have it.

We walked for a while, before we ran into a giant mantis attacking a man and a woman. The man was injured, in its mouth, and clearly not a warrior. The woman was holding her own with a fiery handaxe and a pick. She saw us and called for help in Skald—the native tongue of Irrisen for those not in the know—and I answered in agreement. It’s not like we had anything better to do, and having locals on our side rather than against us would do wonders for our journey. Plus, I was sure Nestian and Aenland were probably a hair’s breath from helping whether she asked or not.

I told the others, and we jumped into action, helping to slay the giant insect and saving the man before he could be torn apart. The woman—Nadya—thanked us and asked some questions about where we’d come from and why we were here. Aenland was…incredibly too honest for where we were. But it worked out in our favor, as it turned out Nadya had reason to hate the Winter Witches, and was immediately willing to help us if we were working against them.

It turned out her daughter, Thora, had been kidnapped by one Nazhena Vasillanova. We remembered hearing both of those names during the Haunt we’d passed through, and informed Nadya of it. She said she knew Domonik’s father and would give him the grim news. As for Thora…fortunately Vasillanova was in Whitethrone at the moment and had left her lover Radosek Pavril in command of the Pale Tower. While he was still a vile man, he was far less likely to have killed Thora.

As we were getting ready to rest for the night, I spent some time alone. Just…thinking about some things. I had some words with the symbol of Norgorber I took from Rohkar. Before I really got anywhere though I got rudely interrupted by Aenland. There was a fey woman singing at the edge of camp and he wanted me to come with everyone else to check it out.

And thus, we met a fey named Miriam. She appeared to be a pleasant and sweet girl who just wanted friendly company to wait out the cold night with.

Looks can be deceiving.

We talked. We told her about ourselves. Aenland told her far more than necessary. Again. She asked many questions and seemed very interested, hanging on our every word. But it all seemed like a totally friendly chat at the time. The next day we parted ways as the people in camp were suspicious of her and she felt going into town would be dangerous. Supposedly.

We only learned days later just how deep her deceptive nature ran.

In town, Aenland and Edeya noticed that the people in town seemed to all look weirdly like the people in Heldren, and the buildings were identical. After come talk about how weird it was, Nestian came up with an intriguing theory (which turned out to be right). Heldren and this village were connected by a leyline, and that natural magic had in some way affected the way the people looked and the way the town was ultimately set up.

With that strange mystery solved, we first went to Nadya’s house to plan our assault on the Pale Tower (and to meet Nadya’s sons, their grandmother Katcha, and her home’s Domovoi, Hatch.) Afterwards we went to the local tavern, where we got a reception almost as icy as the weather outside. And the barkeep’s wife tried to drug us with tea that had a suggestion effect on it so that she could try to make us leave town—something Nadya after the fact realized they must have done to other travelers in the past, who had mysteriously packed up and left without warning for no clear reason after going to the tavern. We didn’t out them in the tavern in front of Nadya, but Aenland and I both caught onto what was going on. Aenland decided he was going to take all of the tea to go, and when the barkeep’s wife tried to argue, Aenland asked if I had anything I wanted to say about the tea. Getting the hint, she let us take the tea. Aenland rubbed it in further when he suggested some mead for the table.

…He can be okay sometimes. On very rare occasions.

We returned to Nadya’s house not long afterwards, and had our own drinking contest with Katcha. Things were a bit of a blur after that. That old lady can really hold her alcohol. And so can Nestian. I mean yeah, he’s a bear. Edeya even tried to help give me an edge by Evil Eyeing Nestian once. Or maybe she was just Evil Eyeing someone at random. I don’t know—she was doing it to prove she wasn’t a buzzkill because she was the only one not drinking and I was poking a little fun.

Aaaanyways all this to say, I was fucking wasted when the next thing happened.

This compact mirror we’d taken off Teb Nottin’s body began vibrating.

I took it out and began examining it. Finally, I opened it. The face that was in the mirror wasn’t my own. It was a man with greasy brown hair, bad facial hair, and a big forehead. The man wasn’t looking at me, and was talking as though he were talking to Teb Nottin. I laughed and gleefully informed him that Teb was dead.

The man froze and looked at me now. I was expecting a ‘who the hell are you?’ or a ‘what do you mean Teb is dead’ or maybe even a ‘you’ll pay for killing my troll!’. Instead he asked “Calio, is that you? Why are you back here?”

That threw me off balance—and I was already off balance from the alcohol. My response was something along the lines of “How do you know me, I don’t know you?”

The man immediately flew into a rage, ranting that I shouldn’t have come back, and that if he saw me he was going to kill me, before the compact turned back into an ordinary mirror.

I stared at my bewildered reflection for a long moment, wondering if I’d just imagined that entire thing in a drunken haze or if it had really happened (spoiler alert: it really happened). Then I went back to sleep.

Not for long because soon Hatch was pawing at me in a panic and saying we were under attack. So I helped wake Edeya up, and we all fought a bunch of Pale Tower guards who had come to arrest Nadya for…something? Maybe harboring us, but I’m not really clear. Honestly it doesn’t matter, since when did the White Witches need a legitimate reason to spirit people off?

Hatch directed us back to the tavern we’d nearly been drugged at before, where Nadya had gone to face the Pale Guards’ captain. We made our preparations and then made a beeline for the tavern.

At the tavern Aenland went around the side to peek in through a window, then motioned for the rest of us to make our move. Nestian burst in, taking down a Pale Guard along the way. Aenland shot the captain, and I saw an opening. I used a lovely little spell I’d gotten ahold of called Boneshaker and ripped the skeleton from the man’s body.

With a touch of the symbol hidden in my pocket, I raised the skeleton again and had it trip up one of the other guards.

The symbol felt warm in response.

Anyways we cut through the pale guards without any trouble. And those assholes, the tavernkeeper and his wife, decided to side with them.

Hilarious thing. Turns out his wife was channeling negative energy using a very familiar symbol.

She channeled negative energy and the look on her face when it didn’t affect me was just…priceless.

What was even more priceless was the look on her face when I turned it back on her with inflict moderate wounds, pulled her in close, and told her “you’re not the only one who kills in his name”, and let that be the last thing she ever heard.

That felt really good.

Aenland didn’t take kindly to me taking his kill (he’d wanted to kill the tavernkeeper’s wife, but after I saw her unholy symbol I knew I just had to be the one to do it), so he killed the tavernkeeper and was saying something to him about how I heal from negative energy as he did, which just seemed to confuse the man in his last moments.

Afterwards we found another of those little mirrors on the captain. That reminded me of what had happened the night prior, so I told everyone about what had happened. I described the man I’d seen, and Nadya identified him as Radosek Pavril. So apparently the person who is head of the Pale Tower currently and lover of Nazhena fucking Vasillanova knows me somehow.

Well, knew me. Past tense now.

I ended up explaining to the others about the hole in my memory, since I had no other explanation for where Pavril knew me from. Afterwards Edeya jumped in on the ‘revealing secret truths’ train and told us that her parents were Winter Witches, and she’d been slated to be one before she ran away.

Knew it. Totally called it.

Anyways, we got Nadya back home. She had a happy reunion with Hatch. The house spirit had promised if we got her back then he’d help us with the Pale Tower. He used to work there once upon a time, and he knew the passcodes for all the teleporters between floors. He also knew the dangers on the road between here and there.

And so we disguised ourselves using the clothes of the Pale Guards we’d killed and made our ways to the Pale Tower. We didn’t run into the monstrous crow guarding the road because of our disguises, and I talked our way inside by saying we were expected by Pavril and he wouldn’t want to be kept waiting.

Inside, the courtyard was being patrolled by an Ice Troll, and guarded by a frozen construct.

I set a second troll on fire. Wonderful trend to keep going.

You know what’s even better? I got to make up for my regret of not using my animate dead scroll to raise Teb Nottin. I raised this particular Ice Troll as a bloody skeleton, who we’ve taken to calling Reggie. Naming him was Aenland’s idea. He insists you have to be friends with the undead you make, and I fear if I didn’t play along he may well have broken my new toy.

Reggie helped Nestian and Nadya to finish off the ice construct.

We had Reggie break through the main doors while we went through the smaller side doors. We fought a water elemental, then a number of Pale Guards—including some that Reggie got the jump on while on their break, and a second captain who had the key to the teleporter.

We teleported up to the second floor, fought a shapeshifter that tried to pretend to be Lady Argentina, Reggie killed two fey who were completely ineffective against him, and then we entered a room with two ice statues.

I approached the largest doors to see where they went. When I did, the nearby mirror began reflecting Radosek Pavril. He questioned who dared to try to invade his tower. He seemed surprised to see me. He told us we should leave or be crushed. I told him to say hi to Reggie. He broke character for a moment to say that me making his minion into a bloody skeleton was really friggin awesome. Which it is. Anyways we told him we’re coming for him, he seemed to want to say something but like with the Black Rider he couldn’t seem to. Then he said come if we could make it to him. The mirror turned back to a mirror.

And I got hit by a lady with a sword.

Oh and this is the part I was foreshadowing when I said Miriam wasn’t all she appeared to be. Because she showed up here helping the lady with a dragon claw trying to gut me.

Turns out just because a fey can feel remorse doesn’t mean she’ll be any less likely to join a bunch of child murdering assholes. She was apparently originally tasked by Queen Elvana to kill the Black Rider before the queen killed him herself, so then when Aenland went and spilled the beans about the Black Rider and our new role, she decided that she was going to learn more about us and find a chance to kill us instead.

Bitch.

I managed to survive. Between Aenland, my own inflict wounds scroll, and Nestian finishing the clawed woman off, she didn’t manage to finish me off first. And as such I called up my last inflict moderate wounds and pumped it into Miriam—because I wanted her to die for stabbing us in the back.

Nestian and Reggie dealt with the ice statues, which had come to life after the mirror turned back into a mirror. Miriam took a stab at me with a flaming blade, then made a run for it. I stabbed her, but it wasn’t enough to stop her.

Aenland got this kill. He dashed after her as she made her escape, and took the final shot.

He was weirdly distraught afterwards. I can’t fathom why he’d mourn someone who betrayed us and just tried to kill us. She was never really our friend. She used his kindness and his naivety against him.

We found the key and some other items of interest, then took the teleporter up to the next floor—the aviary.

There we fought a sylph who seemed to somehow know Nestian—although Nestian didn’t know him back. Nestian didn’t seem to have any holes in his memories like me. So we have no idea what’s going on there.

We managed to get another key, and entered the final teleporter.

On the final floor we stood before an army of ice elementals.

Pavril whirled around and activated a huge mirror behind him. In the mirror was Queen Elvana herself, along with a bound Milani worshipper. She was annoyed with Pavril for ‘interrupting dinner’. When Pavril tried to tell her about us, she said she already knew about us. She spoke each of our names, and said she had been scrying on the Black Rider’s death. She already knew all about us. She said if he wanted to be the only one punished for this and not Vasillanova as well, then he should kill us now. Now leave her to dinner. And then she called two *fucking dragons* to rip the Milani worshipper apart, and the mirror turned back to a regular mirror.

Pavril turned back to us, and said ‘Well. You heard the woman.’

And so there were no more words. We fought. We killed the ice elementals. His familiar, some creepy goat that talked in abyssal and shot ice out of his mouth, fought back. I slipped through and got the first strike on Pavril himself with an inflict spell. He tried to curse me in return.

Bitch.

Reggie joined me in beating the crap out of Pavril. Pavril stepped away and in one final desperate bid he began throwing a cloud of snowballs at us—but they were not horribly effective. Then Aenland followed up with one final arrow that pierced him in the head—killing him.

A moment later Nestian slayed the familiar, and it vanished in a cloud of locusts and blood.

We found Nadya’s daughter and reunited them. Then—with Edeya’s help (And Aenland’s…attempted help…)—I closed the winter portal. We were officially stranded in Irrisen.

#pathfinder #journal entry #reign of winter

2 notes · View notes