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kentocidal · 11 months

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i fucking hate you (but i love you)

alhaitham x afab!reader

tws: dubcon, afab reader, hatefucking, semi-public (they’re in the akademiya), porn with plot, alhaitham has questionable motives but like barely so do with this warning what you will, pulling out

words: ~3.9k

a/n: i did his story quest and then i was possessed. lol um anyway. reblogs >>> likes.

it was your fault for choosing the elective course with the smallest number of registered students. no, seriously, it had to have been your fault. only you of all people would have made such an idiotic mistake. you knew something was up when you had enrolled and saw the suspiciously low number, but hey, it was just an easy elective from haravatat, what could go wrong?

everything. the answer had been everything.

“you have it wrong again.”

those words had become ingrained into your brain, etched into your bloodstream and made you boil over. you had failed almost every test, every assignment, absolutely butchering every field task you were given for this class about linguistics for a language you had been studying for years, and instead of just dropping the class and choosing another elective, you chose to take on a tutor, also from your class at the time, and he had been your worst nightmare.

alhaitham. a star haravatat student destined for greatness. someone you should have been looking up to, someone that honestly should have helped more. but, alas, alhaitham (in your opinion) was stuck too far up his own ass to help with your grades, or with your comprehension of anything having to do with the material you were struggling with.

“this is an easy concept. i really do not need to explain it to you.”

“you- you’re literally being paid to explain it to me. explain it.”

“no.”

“you do realize you’re supposed to be tutoring me?”

“yes, i do. i have explained this concept three times by now. at this point, it is simply your own fault for not comprehending it- you are definitely wrong again there, too.”

alhaitham did not help your grades. alhaitham did not help you. he did not find the idea of helping someone other than himself interesting, not in the slightest, but yet he still showed up to your twice-a-week tutoring sessions to piss you the fuck off.

twice a week you would be given long paragraphs to read over and translate, or images of runes to decipher and translate again. and alhaitham would sit next to you, his nose in a book, barely answering your questions with more than ten words at maximum. or, worse, he would stand almost over you, his presence just over your shoulder and over your back, watching the way your ink pencil scribbled mindlessly over the images or the texts to try and make sense of them. he would click his tongue in those moments, shifting his weight behind you, and the hairs on your neck would always stand on end.

alhaitham was really only there because he was forced to, and so were you, but in the short month and a half that you were with him twice a week, you found yourself absolutely loathing your fellow student.

you passed the class by a hair’s breadth, marring your educational reputation within the akademiya for good. and it was mostly your fault for believing that the elective course would be easy for you, but something inside of you had snapped. you did not like alhaitham.

you grunted as you carried the hefty file down the long, winding hallway, clutching it close to your chest and gritting your teeth.

it had been a long time since that elective course, and every time you heard of alhaitham’s academic achievements afterward sent some foreign emotion through your body. while he continued to succeed and grow, you had to rebuild your reputation from the ground up. while he became a scribe, a hero, you were stuck in the shadows, working in the background for your previous master in spantamad. your name was listed almost last on all of his papers, as if he was ashamed of the fact that you were there. you felt as though your accomplishments were not your own, and you were promptly of the opinion that someone other than yourself needed to be blamed for your unfortunate misgivings.

alhaitham was that person. which was why this task of yours was so bothersome.

not only were you lugging worthless documents halfway across sumeru city to the akademiya main offices to drop them off for filing, you had to hand them to alhaitham. the same guy who you felt had a hand in ruining you.

you gritted your teeth harder together as you made your way up the stairs towards the scribe’s private offices.

you felt like he had been a constant presence in your life ever since that semester with him. alhaitham was consistently in the background, enshrouding your consciousness with his overbearing presence. you wanted to walk through sumeru city to clear your head from studying? he was there, sitting in the back of puspa cafe with some physics book in hand. you wanted to go out towards apam woods to get some data on ley lines for your research and your thesis? he was there too, studying some old decrepit domain and sketching the symbols on the arches. and he would always glance over, as if to say, see, i’m better than you. you’re not worthy of your lowly position beneath me.

part of you wanted to seriously scream at him. give him a piece of your mind. but maybe that’s what he really wanted from you, or maybe he really just didn’t care. not at all.

you stopped outside the door to the scribe’s office, glaring hard at the lacquered nameplate that had been made for him. ‘scribe alhaitham.’ what a fucking joke.

you shifted the heavy folder to one arm and turned the knob, pushing the door all the way open. the scribe was often never in the place anyone needed him to be, so you had been instructed to just leave the file on his desk with a note from your master that simply explained where it was from, and to please file accordingly, thank you very much.

unfortunately, though, you weren’t allowed to have good luck. not when it came to alhaitham.

you stared bug-eyed at the gray-haired man sitting behind a desk that had never been so neat in the length of time that you had been dropping files off to him. it seemed that the scribe had actually chosen to report to work during business hours, for the first time in his adult working life, and looking at him straight on made your stomach flip.

also, you hadn’t knocked. so you were just barging in on the scribe while he was probably doing something of some importance to warrant his appearance in the akademiya.

you wanted to be sick. you couldn’t.

“excuse me?” alhaitham stared at you, a look of mild surprise overshadowed by annoyance. “can i… help you with something? you look lost.”

you stared at him for another moment, feeling like a fish out of water what with the way your jaw opened and closed. it had been a considerable amount of time since you had seen him up close.

“i’m- here to drop these off.”

“okay.” he jutted his chin towards his desk, and you remembered that yeah, you should probably put them down and leave.

just put them down and leave. your feet moved, and your arms moved to shift the weight of the file folder, and your hands definitely moved to grab it and set it down properly in front of him, but your head? your head was spinning, what was this? loathing? rage? jealousy?

“next time, you really should knock. i was in the middle of something.”

his voice cut like a knife, and your lips were moving before you could wrap your head around your thoughts.

“oh, i’m so sorry, scribe alhaitham. or should i still call you the grand sage? i don’t know what to call you these days, since you’re never around to do your job.”

you hesitated for a second after the words left your mouth, and then you took a step back to look at him, eyes wide.

alhaitham was a rather stoic man. his facial expression almost never changed from that of mild boredom and dissatisfaction with the world around him. he was the type of man to sit and stew about everything all of the time. it seemed, to many, like he had no true emotions at all.

this time, though, when you looked at him after insulting him to his face, he looked… he looked almost shocked, bewildered would be a better word for it. somewhere in those oranged-tinged irises, though, laid a deeply seated heat that could only be attributed to anger.

you had gotten a rise out of him.

“i’m sorry?” his voice was steady, but from where he was sitting in his chair, he looked stiff.

you swallowed. you would be fired. at least you could go out in a blaze of glory.

“you heard me.” your voice was shaking, and you forced air back into your lungs as you did your best to find the best vocabulary to use on him. he was intelligent, after all; he’d be able to understand. “it isn’t my fault for just walking in here. i mean, you’re never around when you’re supposed to be. isn’t it the job of the scribe to, you know, take notes of the goings-on in meetings and within the akademiya? you would think that after your disgustingly high pay raise from playing grand sage simulator for a month, you would find it in you to stop being so self-serving and actually do some of us a favor by doing your job. we’ve all gotten accustomed to you not being around when you need to be because you’re always off doing some fuckery or some independent research, so excuse me for deciding to skip the formality that i don’t believe you truly deserve.”

you had to force air back into your lungs. you had shifted forward a bit, hands on his desk, towering over him like you had some sort of power in this dynamic, when it was entirely the opposite.

alhaitham’s brows were knitted together, an annoying crease making itself known above the bump in his nose. you took another breath as he sat back, smoothed out the front of his shirt.

“are you still hung up on our class together?”

you felt like the wind had been knocked out of you. “what?”

“you cannot blame me for your lack of educational prowess in a subject that is far out of your field.” alhaitham hummed as he pushed his chair back, got to his feet, reminded you of his station above you both physically and mentally. “i tried to tutor you, but nothing i did for you ever worked. that is simply not my fault.”

“you-” you stood up, trying to meet his height. “you asshole. you didn’t try at all. all you did was intimidate me- this has nothing to do with the past!” you snarled at him, all bark and really no bite, “i have tried my best to recover from the hell that you put me through. while you were handed everything on a silver spoon, i had to claw my way into a job-”

“don’t try and speak on subjects you don’t have any true knowledge of, it’s unbecoming.” he squinted at you, hands relaxed at his sides while yours were fists.

alhaitham was a menace. you hated him. he had everything you had ever wanted – a cushy job within the akademiya, status, worthy research tagged to his name, and you had failed one class in his field and failed. it had shifted your world, your future, and he remembered it.

“you make me sick.” you hissed at him, and he barely shrugged as he stepped around the wooden desk between you to your side.

“i can’t say the feeling is mutual, because it certainly isn’t. i almost want to pity you.”

he was tall. you felt like heat was radiating off of him as you took a step back and away from him, just one. you glared up at him, something in your abdomen shifting, like when you would drink too much water at one time. maybe you were going to be sick because of him.

it was stifling in the small office as you glared at each other. the proximity between you and the scribe was small to begin with, but it felt like it became ever smaller now that alhaitham was on the same side of the desk as you.

alhaitham sighed. “you are just as pathetic now as you were then in my class. it’s unfortunate that you barely passed, there’s potential in you.” the feeble scholar stepped into your personal space, crowding you against the bookcase behind you. “i’ve seen your previous work, your research. i am the scribe, after all. i do in fact do my job, and do it well. if you had been just a bit more open to learning from me, perhaps you would have my position instead.”

something inside your chest lurched as you stared up at him, your anger and hatred pulling back like waves receding from the shoreline, leaving something in its wake.

the tide shifted. a storm was brewing.

it was hot in the office. far too quiet. no one ever really came up to the scribe’s office, let alone his floor; he was never there, there was barely a need.

the tension in the room crackled. alhaitham had always been there, working in the background, tugging your eyes away from your work or your life to command your attention to him.

the first crack of lightning spidered across an ever-darkening sky.

you weren’t sure who had moved first, whether it had been your hands to his collar or his hands to your face, but suddenly he was on you, his mouth on yours, bruising and forcing you to simply open up to him. and you were kissing him back, fingers curled into the collar of his shirt, crumpling it beneath your nails and tugging him forward to feel the weight of his broad chest pressed against yours.

his tongue bullied its way into your mouth, fighting with yours to occupy the most space; alhaitham always took up the most space in a room and this was no exception. his hands, calloused from his sword usage and so hot, brought your face closer to his and tipped your head back to really stand over you. you felt him against your thigh through his pants, hard and twitching, and part of you wondered how long he had been hard for. did he get off on getting told he was shit at his job? at being degraded?

did he get worked up because it was you?

his hands slid their way down from your face, over your chest and to your sides to pull you flush to him. some worthless sound bubbled up in your throat, making you feel small and meek against his broad chest.

he started to move, and you went with him, biting at his lips and making him hiss and bite you right back.

he brought you over to the front of his desk again, barely pulling away and licking the saliva that clung between you two away to push you back until you were just barely sitting on the top of his desk. he seemed to have a motive, calculated ministrations planned three moves ahead at all times.

you felt like a pawn in his chess game, and you let him take your queen.

his rough hands gripped at your sides and pushed their way towards the buckle on your pants, and you put your hands on his desk to lift yourself up, sliding on the papers you had brought and scattering some to the ground.

“you messed it up,” he huffed at you, his turquoise eyes completely hooded and darkened to some deep, foreign color.

“fuck you.”

“i will.” he grunted as he pulled your uniform pants down and off, dropping them to the floor and shoving his way right back between your thighs.

you panted, having barely a moment of reprieve as he removed his hands from your body to start tugging at his belt buckle. somewhere in your hazy mind, you asked yourself what you were doing, but the question disappeared when his lips crashed into yours again, making your teeth bump into his and making you whine.

it was like he needed to remind you that he was in charge here. he was ahead of you in everything, always coming out on top, even now.

you groaned into his mouth when you heard his belt buckle finally clink open, and the shuffling of fabric. he didn’t push his pants or boxers down, not yet anyway; he pulled away from your kiss finally and put a hand on the back of your head, guiding your forehead to his shoulder to make you watch as his fingers moved your panties to the side to reveal your sticky cunt to the both of you. you bit your lip to fight back a whine, his fingers threading through your hair as the middle finger on his other hand swiped slowly through your folds, making you jolt. he was silent as his rough finger traced over your hard clit before slipping back down and slowly, slowly sinking into your fluttering hole.

you moaned, mouth dropping open as knuckle by knuckle your enemy’s thick finger pushed into you, you wanted to drop your head back, arch up into him, but the hand in your hair held you steady and firm, acting like an anchor while the storm crashed in your ocean.

he pumped his finger in and out of you, experimentally, testing the waters, stretching you. it wasn’t for your pleasure, despite how he curled in you; he was prepping you proper, stretching you open.

one finger turned to two, and your moans got higher at the stretch, turning to whines as your thighs tried to press together but couldn’t because of his hips being in the way. he kept you spread open, barely having a foothold on the desk, gripping at his shirt. he had you at his mercy as he scissored his fingers inside you to prep you, soaking his hand with your juices, shushing you gently and making sure you were ready to take his cock.

you cried out when two fingers turned to three, scissoring and stretching you farther than your own fingers had allowed. your head was buzzing and part of you recognized that you were allowing this to occur on an akademiya desk in an akademiya building, but fuck it. damn it all to hell, even.

his fingers slowly pulled out of you and you whined at the loss, but his opposite hand pulled your head up by your hair to get you sitting up straight. both of his hands moved to finally, finally free his cock from its constraints, and it jumped up towards his stomach, hard and leaking.

you bit your lip. what had you gotten yourself into?

neither of you said a word as he pulled your panties to the side again, harder this time, and pressed the hot tip of his cock to your wet clit. the slide made you both groan, your eyes rolling back while his nose scrunched up slightly.

alhaitham gritted his teeth as he guided the head of his cock through your sticky folds, catching on your entrance and making you whimper. it was only a matter of time until he was pushing into you, guiding himself all the way, sinking deep into your wet heat and carving himself a home there.

your jaw went slack and your hands braced themselves on the desk, crumpling your papers, but you couldn’t find it in you to care.

your eyes finally caught alhaitham’s when you felt his hands under your knees, pulling them up to hook in the slots of his elbows. you squirmed. you were completely open, stretched and full, being forced to be split apart on his cock.

he stared at your face as he pulled his hips back, and then slammed home, and got a sick pleasure out of watching all of the air leave your lungs.

he set a brutal pace, grunting and watching your pussy closely as you started to wail into the confines of his office, head either thrown back or staring down at the milky white ring you were leaving at the base of his cock. it bullied into you, and you swore you could feel his tip kissing your cervix when he shifted angles.

finally, the prodigal scribe spoke, shifting and leaning more into you to bite at your neck. “fuck…” he groaned against your ear, and you felt like you had ascended.

the tidal wave building within you finally started to come to a crescendo, and your body started to go taut, squirming under him, clawing at his back. “a-a- ‘haitham, i-“

“i know. i can feel you.” he practically growled against your ear, and the bass was like thunder, making you cry out and start to really come on his cock, the pap, pap, pap of his hips meeting yours getting louder as you gushed around him and gripped him like a vice.

he huffed against your skin and made sure you were properly coming down from your high before pulling out at the absolute last minute to shoot white ropes over your pussy, making a further mess of you.

you both stayed there for a second, panting against each other’s skin. your hands slowly dropped from his back, and he placed one of your legs down carefully, and then the other, as if he were some kind of gentleman. that kindness was kind of wiped away by the way he assessed the mess of your pussy, hummed, and moved your panties back to their rightful spot, keeping his cum there. he patted your pussy over your panties, making you jump and whimper.

“this should keep you relaxed now, shouldn’t it? you are always so upset. hopefully this will keep you at bay for some time for me to continue my work.” alhaitham took a small step back to tuck himself away and fix his pants, cleaning himself up while you sat there on his desk, ever so slow to catch up to his speed.

you couldn’t say anything before he was helping you back into your uniform. your head was clouded and foggy as he looked you over, holding your chin between his wet fingers and assessing your face.

“you have potential. i can assure you of that. do not underestimate your intelligence or your strengths.” he pressed an almost chaste kiss to your lips. “go, your other master is most likely wondering where you’ve gone. do not make him think you are skipping out on your assignments.”

confused and muddled, you left the office and shut the door behind you.

your anger surged, but it was but a small wave against the much larger ship that was now going to become a problem: you liked him.

#alhaitham #alhaitham x reader #alhaitham genshin #genshin impact #genshin impact x reader #tw.dubcon #alhaitham.txt #asktotag.txt #tw.ns/fw #woodrow.txt #here it is folks! eat up!

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lizziethereader · 2 months

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January 2024 wrapup

(better late than never) not pictured: - Better than the movies by Lynn Painter - The Fine Print by Lauren Asher - Flawless by Elsie Silver - A Semi-Definitive List of Worst Nightmares by Krystal Sutherland

I got a lot of reading done in January, though not all of the books were my own choices (see all the ebooks). It was a bit of a mixed bag, but there were enough really fun reads for me to still consider the month a success overall!

favorites of the month: Emily Wilde's Map of the Otherlands by Heather Fawcett, System Collapse by Martha Wells

nonfiction of the month (1): The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene

classics (1): The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins

poetry (1): The Wild Iris by Luise Glück

graphic novel (1): Thieves by Lucie Bryon

#January 2024 wrapup #reading wrapup #book photography #mine #wrapup

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cupsandthoughts · 1 year

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i had the best time annotating my recent reads!! 🥹✨ i finished “a semi-definitive list of worst nightmares” and “the goldfinch” during my bali trip and had a blast writing my reviews ✍🏼 i decided to try writing them out on the cover page and love how they turned out 🥹🤍 i also wrote out my review of “piranesi” just a few days ago with the same style!! everything here looks so well-loved, and i’m a huge fan 🫶🏼 swipe for details ✨ https://www.instagram.com/p/CpxXtv6Pbvx/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

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melanielocke · 1 year

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Book recommendations: horror

Horror & fantasy romance ended up in a tie in my poll. I chose to do horror first mainly because the book I'm reading right now will be on the fantasy romance first and I need to finish it first.

I have been reading some horror lately. It's not my most read genre, but I have a big enough pile that I could pick out the ones I think are really good. Most of these aren't necessarily so scary it keeps you up at night, but they can be eerie, very atmospheric, dark and occasionally very messed up. I'll mention the type of horror and what kind of scary elements are in there. All of these are YA, I don't have many adult horror books on my shelf.

I'll start with House of Hollow by Krystal Sutherland

Iris is the youngest of the three Hollow sisters. When they were young, the three sisters disappeared from a busy street. It should have been impossible, but there was no trace of them. A month later they reappeared, changed, and with no memory of what happened to them. Iris has tried to forget what happened, and stay away from the weirdness that followed. But when her oldest sister Grey goes missing, Iris and middle sister Viv go looking for her. If they want to find Grey, they will have to uncover the mystery of the past.

This book is creepy and has a rather horrifying twist near the end when you learn what really happened in the past. I think this is one of the scarier books on this list, but it's done really well, with monsters chasing Iris and her sister around and an eerie parallel world

Rep: bi main character, lesbian side character; Korean side character

Other books from this author: The Invocations (horror, coming early 2024); Our Chemical Hearts (contemporary), a semi-definitive of worst nightmares (fabulism)

The Wicked Deep by Shea Ernshaw

Two hundred years ago in small Oregon town Sparrow, three sisters were accused of witchcraft. Stones bound to their feet, they were thrown into the harbor and drowned. Ever since then, the sisters have returned once a year as ghosts. They each possess one young girl in town and kill one boy.

The town has long accepted their fate and Penny is no different. But then Bo Carter enters the town, unaware of the danger he's just stepped into. Penny can't trust him, but she wants to save him from the danger just the same.

This book has one big twist. It's not super scary perse, nor is there any gore, but very atmospheric and that's where this author excels. Would recommend it for people who aren't used to reading horror.

Winterwood is the next book by Shea Ernshaw

Once again set in a small, isolated town in Oregon, this book follows Nora Walker, a girl descended of a line of witches. She is connected to the Wickerwoods, dangerous haunted woods that only she can enter during full moon to collect lost things.

In the middle of winter, with the power out and all connection to the outside world lost, Nora finds a boy in the Wickerwoods. Oliver went missing from the Camp for Wayward Boys weeks ago. By all accounts, he should be dead and yet she found him. Oliver has no memory of what happened the past weeks.

Nora quickly bonds with him, but realizes she has to uncover the mystery of what happened to him and how he could survive so long in the woods. And it soon turns out Oliver was not the only boy who went missing.

Much like the Wicked Deep, this book excels in its atmosphere and the way it portrays a very creepy forest. It has an interesting plot twist, though not as strong as the one in the Wicked Deep. It's not keep you up at night scary, and also has a lot of focus on the romance.

Other books from this author: Long Live the Pumpkin Queen (Nightmare before Christmas book); A History of Wild Places; A Wildnerness of Stars

Next: Sawkill Girls by Claire Legrand

This book is set on the isolated island of Sawkill rock, where girls have been going missing for decades, stolen away by evil no one has dared fight... until now.

Marion is new to Sawkill rock, trying to escape the tragedy that befell her family

Zoey's best friend was the last girl to disappear, and she is determined to find out what happened, and if Val has anything to do with it

Val is the queen bee, the daughter of the richest woman on the island. But she has a dark secret.

This book was not entirely what I expected when I bought it, but I loved it. This one is rather creepy, I think, though not what would keep me up at night (to be fair, movies are more likely to keep me up than books due to being scary). It creates an isolated atmosphere, but another strong point in this book is the relationships between the three girls and the development there. Marion and Zoey become friends and team up to uncover the mystery when Marion's sister disappears. Zoey hates Val. But Marion might have feelings for Val.

Rep: Sapphic relationship, Zoey is Black and asexual

Also by this author: Furyborn trilogy (epic fantasy); Extasia (horror); Winterspell (Nutcracker retelling)

House of Salt and Sorrow by Erin A. Craig

This is a retelling of the Twelve Dancing Princesses

Annaleigh is one of twelve sister. Or, she used to be. Four of them are dead due to strange accidents, and people are saying her family is cursed. Annaleigh becomes more and more suspicious that her sister's death were no accidents.

Then, her sisters start sneaking out, going to glittering balls and dancing the night away. Annaleigh does not know if she can come with them or stop them, because where are they really going and who are they dancing with?

If Annaleigh does not find out what happened to her sisters soon, she might be the next one to die.

It's been long enough that I do not remember exactly what happened in this book, but I do remember that it was eerie and there was an interesting plot twist when Annaleigh finds out where they really go dancing.

The book stands on its own, but there will be a companion coming out this year, House of Roots and Ruin, which follows one of Annaleigh's sisters

Also by this author is Small Favors

I read this solely because someone told me it would make a good comp title for the book I'm querying, and this is a retelling of Rumplestiltskin.

Ellerie is the daughter of a beekeeper in Amity Falls, a small town surrounded by mountains. They're very isolated and have to go on supply runs to a bigger city to make sure they have what they need. But during a supply run, all people on it die. More and more strange things start happening, slowly building up. Monsters in the woods, people acting strange.

Ellerie finds herself in a race against time to save herself and the people she loves before her town goes up in flames.

This book has a kind of strange pacing. The last part has a lot happening, but before then it's all a very slow build up. Most of the incidents with monsters, Ellerie does not witness, she hears about it second hand. She befriends a strange boy who has come to town as a trapper, catching animals in the forest to sell their hides. He won't give her his name, making me instantly suspicious, but their relationship builds up for such a long time that I was constantly questioning if he could be trusted or not.

My biggest criticism of this book is that I could not tell you when it was set. It took me a while to figure out it was America, though the religious small town feels very American to me, but I couldn't tell you the time period. Likely historical. But when? Who knows, certainly not me.

The Honeys by Ryan La Sala

Mars and his twin sister Caroline have always been inseperable. But that summer, Caroline went to Aspen summer school alone. Mars no longer felt welcome there due to his gender fluidity. But when Caroline dies unexpectedly, Mars decides to take her place at the camp to feel more connected to her. It does not go as expected, and Mars quickly remembers why he stopped going. But he befriends Caroline's old friends, a group of girls called the Honeys because of the bees they tend to. But he soon finds something is seriously wrong in the camp, and it might very well have caused his sister's death.

This is a book about grief for a large part, and I think inspired by the author's own grief for his sister. I especially loved the way the Honeys were characterized in this book, and their friendship with Mars, and the story is also about a very femme queer person being accepted within a group of feminine girls.

Rep: gender fluid MC; queer side characters

Also by this author: Reverie (contemporary fantasy); Be Dazzled (contemporary); Beholder (horror, coming in October)

The Dead and the Dark by Courtney Gould

The Dead and the Dark is a paranormal/horror mystery set in a small town in Oregon. Because apparently Oregon is where all the spooky paranormal mystery things happen? I don't know, it seems to be a popular location

Logan's two dads host a ghost hunting show together, and have traveled to this town, which is also their hometown, for the new season. But teenagers are disappearing and there might be something really spooky going on here, and Logan has the feeling her dads are keeping secrets from her.

Ashley is a girl who has lived in this town her entire life, and her boyfriend was the first to go missing. Now, Logan is her only hope to find him.

This is a sapphic story as well as a paranormal mystery, but the emphasis is more on the mystery, I think. There are ghosts in here and a pretty sinister and quite creative explanation for what is happening in this town and why.

Rep: sapphic relationship, main character has gay dads

Last on this list is Hell Followed with Us by Andrew Joseph White

Trans boy Benji is on the run from a cult. A fundementalist sect that unleashed Armageddon, killing most of the population. They believe that one chosen one will end the world for them and they made the ultimate bioweapon to do this.

Benji is rescued by the teens from the ALC, a queer youth center, and their leader Nick. Benji is immediately drawn to Nick, he's slowly changing into a monster capable of destroying the world and Nick knows.

Still, Nick allows him to stay with them as long as he can control the monster and use it to fight on their behalf.

This is I think the goriest book on this list, with lots of details on the ways Benji is slowly transforming into a monster. It's written by an autistic trans man. Benji is trans, while Nick is autistic. There is a lot of creepy fundamentalist religion in this book, as Benji was raised in the cult and their whole idea is that they should kill everyone not part of their world with their bioweapons.

Also from this author: The Spirit Bares its Teeth (coming September)

@alastaircarstairsdefenselawyer @life-through-the-eyes-of @astriefer @justanormaldemon @ipromiseiwillwrite @a-dream-dirty-and-bruised @amchara @all-for-the-fanfiction @imsoftforthomastair @ddepressedbookworm @queenlilith43 @wagner-fell @cant-think-of-anything @laylax13s @tessherongraystairs @boredfangirl16 @artist-in-soul @beyondlifebeyonddeath @ikissedsmithparker

#book recommendations #horror #ya horror #hell followed with us #andrew joseph white #the honeys #ryan la sala #small favors #house of salt and sorrows #erin a craig #winterwood #the wicked deep #shea ernshaw #sawkill girls #claire legrand #house of hollow #krystal sutherland #the dead and the dark #courtney gould

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metalheadcowboy · 2 years

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more trans eddie thoughts:

he's constantly getting into it with teachers who say transphobic shit and/or misgender him, which is (part of) why he's been held back so many times

he got into dnd rly young, before he'd figured his shit out completely, but that first time playing was a massive eye-opener because the character he created was a guy & for ~some reason~ ppl using he/him to talk about him was kinda awesome

his bandmates were the first people he told when he came up with his new name

he likes having his hair long, but for some reason tying it back makes him dysphoric

EEEEEEEE!!!!

Oh for sure, he's probably gotten more detentions than he could count just standing up for himself, much to his uncles complaints to the school. And first days are his worst nightmare, which is why when he finds out he's being held back for the first time he nearly has a full on breakdown in his room.

Because he can't do that again, can't go through the embarrassment of correcting his teachers on the first day, hearing all the kids laugh at him, the soft whispers of "freak" from the back of the room. Can't take the constant misgendering and dead naming from everybody, even those trying their best to understand his "situation" as they called it. Couldn't take another year of wondering if the people who were actually nice to him, of which there were very few, were being genuine or just putting on a facade to back stab him later. He couldn't play the constant cat and mouse game anymore and told himself he wouldn't

And, yet, at the beginning of August he found himself back, sitting at the same old wooden desk, attached to what he swore was a chair designed to be uncomfortable, listening as the teacher went down the list of names. Every name closer to his making him feel more and more sick to his stomach.

Joshua Miller...

Ashley Moore...

Caroline Munson?

It was as if Eddie could feel his heart stop in his chest, fist clenching as he grit out a firm, "Eddie." And to his surprise the whispers didn't sound as deafening as they did the year before, so powerful.

"Pardon?" his teacher questioned, looking on at him with confusion. And instead of cowardly mumbling his name again he said it with pride, "It's Eddie." he looked up, making sure to make eye contact with the stout woman standing before him, "Not Caroline," he grit with enough attitude to make her cock an eyebrow at him. But, to his delight she didn't dwell on it further, just gave him a semi-judgmental up and down, made a note on her roll sheet and moved on.

'86, maybe it really was his year.

OKAY I LOVE THIS BECAUSE THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT I DO 😭 Not only does he give all of his DnD characters he/him pronouns, but by any means possible he will make them as strong as he possibly can, even if it means they're dumb as a rock because hearing the amount of hit damage he does to whatever villain they may be fighting, especially if it's the fatal blow always makes him feel so euphoric and happy. Especially the way everyone looks at him and cheers for him like he's some kind of hero. I also hc that his first character would be a Shifter idk why 🤷🏻‍♂️

YES!!! I also think they would be the first people he comes out to after his uncle, of course. And I think they would have a lot of questions but would wholeheartedly support him. Really, even after Eddie came out nothing would change between him and his band, he would just be "one of the guys", like he'd always been, and that's what be loved about them, they never treated him differently. But I honestly think they would love his name and the reasoning behind it. They would definitely think it's "metal" and would grin and laugh out of excitement for him, some even calling him lucky that he got to pick his own name and Eddie telling them not to push it with a soft smile. And one of them would definitely be disappointed they didn't pick his name even if in the back of his mind Eddie is thinking about how dumb of a name it was he wouldn't have the heart to tell them that.

Okay, I feel like this is so true and I just feel it. I think that when Eddie ties his hair back it makes him look more feminine and draws more attention to the "softness" of his face which everyone he asks swears doesn't exist, but he swears up and down that having his hair up just brings out his more feminine features so he never wears his hair down. But shit happens and things change. That "shit happening" happening to be the stuff with the upside down and that "change" being him not wanting to fight interdimensional with hair in his eyes if he can help it. So, he borrows a hair tie from Robin and smacks the hell out of some demobats. And almost the second they're done he starts taking it down but not before Steve cam stop him.

"Woah, dude, what're you doing, what if they come back," Steve exclaimed, shaming Eddie for his lack of readiness and quick relaxation.

But Eddie just shrugged, not giving much thought to it, "Don't like it," he explains simply, taking his hair down and shaking it out, adjusting it like it wasn't just going to get fucked up all over again.

Steve shook his head, "your funeral, Munson," he sighed, picking his ore up off of the ground.

"Wouldn't expect you to understand anyways, Steve."

#going feral currently #sorry it took me so long to get to this work wore me tf out lmao #Eddie Munson #Trans Eddie Munson #Stranger Things

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novankenn · 11 months

Text

Shadows in the Dark

Synopsis: Everyone knew of the grimm and the threat they posed to human and faunuskind. They were was another threat, that had existed for just as long, hiding in the shadows, and preying upon any unlucky enough to encounter it.

(Original Post/Idea HERE) (Master Chapter List)

(826 Words) Pyrrha “Buffy” Nikos was a prodigy in all definitions of the word. Smart, athletic, driven, charismatic, and focused. Her aptitude for athletics manifested early at the age of 5. Wanting to give their angel the best chance to succeed, her parents sacrificed and worked to provide Pyrrha with access to the best tutors and instructors they could find.

At the age of 7 her natural talents in athletics grew to include the combat arts. Her parents followed that discovery with a wave of new instructors and trainers. Each brought in to hone their daughter's natural raw talent to a keen, disciplined edge. Having her aura unlocked by the age of 10, Pyrrha was groomed to become a force to behold in the tournament circuits.

Then tragedy struck the NIkos family when Pyrrha turned 12. On an outing with her father, celebrating her first minor semi-pro tournament, completion and victory, with a walk through a local park's less travelled walking trails.

"Pumpkin?" Alexander Nikos asked with concern as he noticed his daughter pressing her hand against her stomach and gasping in pain. "Are you okay?"

"Cramps, I think, it's nothing." Pyrrha grunted, forcing herself to stand straighter, in an attempt to play off the sharp pains radiating through her centred about her pelvic area. Only to groan loudly and nearly double over as another wave nit her.

"That's not nothing." Alexander observed as he moved closer to his beloved daughter, and place ed a comforting hand upon her back. "We're heading back and getting you to a doctor"

"I'll be..." Pyrrha hissed sharply, before groaning, and gasping. It was the worst pains yet, she couldn't understand it. Her cycle was very regular, and it was nowhere time for cramping, and even if it was, they were never like this.

"Do you want me to carr..."

A harsh and menacing hissing sounded from their right. Alexander whipped about his body, moving into a boxer's stance, his hands up and ready. Pyrrha was wracked with another set of pains, and nearly collapsed to her knees. Alexander wanted to embrace his daughter. To scoop her up and bodily carry her to what ever assistance he could find, but the hairs on the back of his neck were raised. He might not have been huntsman trained, but he knew more than enough to understand there was danger nearby.

"Oh, isn't she just the most delicious thing you've ever seen?" Alexander understood the slurred speech, and could place the owner of said voice as female.

"She definitely is. A delicate looking morsel." came a similar hissing voice, this one male. "But what of this brute, standing in the way?"

"He looks a little tougher, might require a little tenderizing..." the voice faded out into an ominous sounding low laugh.

Alexander Nikos lashed out as the two figures rushed him and his daughter. In the dim light of the walking trail, the two figures appeared almost bestial. She could tell one was male and the other female, and other than that they were but nightmares. Alexander Nikos wasn't just a pretender. He was fit, and an accomplished boxer, if his girlfriend Althea hadn't become pregnant he was going to turn pro.

The female figure flailed and stumbled backwards, a wet cracking thud proceeding. Alexander felt the thing's nose shatter under his punch, but he wasn't able to follow through as the other figure was upon him.

"You'll pay for that, bitch." The male figure hissed, as it attempted to grapple the older man. Alexander was able to get his left arm up, and braced against his attacker's exposed throat, while his right started to like a piston connect repeatedly with the figure's exposed gut. Eliciting a pained grunt with each impact.

"Pyrrha run!" Alexander shouted as he felt himself slowly being overpowered. Pyrrha couldn't, the shock and then horror of what was happening rooting her to the spot. As accomplished a combatant she was, she only knew how to with in the rules of a spar and tournament, and this wasn't one of those. "Pyrrha run!"

Having recovered, the female figure rushed, catching Alexander from the side, tearing him from the grasp of her accomplice, and bearing him to the ground. Alexander's body hit the gravelled pathway, hard enough to knock the air from his lungs, but even then he had enough left in him to scream in pain, as something latched onto the side of his throat, near where the shoulder met the neck.

The sound of her father, screaming in pain, and the image of his writhing body, burrowed itself into her mind. She watched with terror wide eyes, as tears flowed down her cheeks, while her father's struggles grew weaker and weaker, until they finally ceased.

"Now for desert." one of the figures hissed, as the pair stood. Pyrrha screamed at that point upon seeing the mangled state of her father's body.

"That's enough of that." came a new voice.

(I don't know when I might continue this... but I will. Hope you enjoyed.)

#rwby #buffy the vampire slayer #pyrrha nikos #vampires

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