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beyondthesefourwalls · 1 year

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Remember You Even When I Don't (2)

Summary: A training accident, the doctor had told him. A nasty one that led him here, laying in a hospital bed with a splitting headache and an inability to remember the woman sitting beside him. What he did know, though, was that you were the most beautiful woman he had ever seen, and you felt important to him. That, as it turns out, would become an understatement.

Words: 3.3K

Pairing: Bradley Bradshaw/Reader (no use of y/n, so can be read as unnamed oc)

Warnings: angst, hospitals, memory loss, language.

Notes: The response to part one was so overwhelming in all of the best ways. I'm so glad that so many people enjoyed it! Please let me know your thoughts for part two as well!

This was inspired by a one shot by the lovely @roosterforme and would not exist without her assistance. If you haven't read any of her stuff, please check out her masterlist - you won't be disappointed!

Part One

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The pain medication kept him knocked out for most of the night. He remembers waking up a few times, blinded by pain or uncomfortable in the small hospital bed, but you were there every time. You slept curled in the chair beside him, wrapped in that green sweatshirt. Once, when the pain was what jolted him awake, you woke too. You hit the button for a nurse and smoothed his hair back on his forehead, his skin sticky with sweat despite the coolness of the hospital room.

“You’re okay,” you murmured to him, shushing him gently when he groaned again. “It’ll go away in a minute, you’re okay.”

As the nurses came in and administered him more medication, you stayed right there beside him. Your hand was still in his hair when he fell back into a drug-induced sleep.

Still, though, when he roused to consciousness with the sun shining in through the slightly raised blinds, he wondered if it was all a fever dream and if you ever existed to begin with. He was almost afraid to open his eyes. Yesterday was the only memory he had of you. There was still nothing before that, except for how you made him feel. While confusing, there was no way that a dream could make that up. He opened his eyes slowly, and there you were.

You were leaning back in your chair, watching the tv that was playing on mute in front of his bed. He couldn’t tell if you were reading along with the subtitles you had turned on in an effort not to wake him up or simply watching the moving images. You held what looked like a large cup of iced coffee in your hands.

You were just as breathtaking as he remembered from yesterday. His heart did the same flip that it did when he first laid bleary eyes on you.

He didn’t get to ponder you for too long before you turned your head in his direction and noticed that he was awake. Your eyes widened a fraction and you stared at one another for a moment, and Bradley thought it would be easy to get lost in your gaze.

“Hi,” you whispered, breaking the silence.

“Hi,” he spoke back, his voice rough, but relieved. You were real after all.

“How are you feeling?”

“Less like I got hit by a train and more like I got hit by a truck, so I guess better.”

“Technically, you were hit by a plane. I imagine a train is close enough though.”

It took him a second to get the joke, but the laugh he let out felt good. Mentally, at least. Physically, it hurt his ribs. But you were making jokes with him and he’d take that over you crying again.

“Not many people can say that, huh?”

“No,” she agreed with a shake of her head, “but you’ve always been a special one, Bradley Bradshaw.”

Blushing was an unfamiliar feeling. So unfamiliar that he didn’t realize that’s what he was doing at first, but hearing you say his full name and compliment him, because he knew that’s what you meant, made his face feel warm and his heart race. Your eyes flicked to his heart monitor, but you didn’t comment on it.

“I asked your nurse if you could change since you might be more comfortable in your own clothes,” you said instead, motioning to a duffel bag that was set on the counter on the other side of his room that he didn’t notice before. “She said it’s fine, so I had a few things brought for you this morning. If you want.”

“That sounds great,” he said, because it did. He hated hospital gowns. He hated hospitals, period. “Any chance I can take a shower?”

“No, I’m sorry. But um…they’re going to take you for more testing in a little bit, probably, and they said a nurse will help you clean up and change afterward.”

You looked uncomfortable as you said the words, and he wanted to ask you why, but you pushed on before he could.

“There should be a few pairs of sweatpants and shirts to choose from. If you don’t like anything in there I can get something else.”

“I’m sure whatever is in there will be fine,” he said softly. You were nervous, he could tell. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” you nodded in response.

There was a tension settling in the room that he didn’t quite enjoy. He supposed it was unavoidable, all things considered. Despite it, though, you remained in the seat beside his bed, almost within reach of him. Your hair was down this morning, one side tucked behind your ear to keep it out of your face. You were still wearing the Eagles sweatshirt that was too big for you. Your eyes were tired, and he wondered if you got anything more than restless fits of sleep last night.

“I’m sorry if I woke you up last night,” he started, unable to take the silence anymore. Your eyes snapped up to him.

“It’s alright,” you insisted, sending him a small smile that had his heart fluttering again. “This chair is actually more comfortable than it looks.”

He sincerely doubted that, but he didn’t call you out on it. You took a sip of your drink, barely putting it down before bringing it back to your lips for another. The ice rattled in the cup as it moved.

He tried to make out what it was that you were drinking. Coffee, obviously, but he found himself curious as to what your typical order was. Were you just a cream and sugar kind of girl, or did you like flavors? Based on how long the order on the white sticker was, he guessed the latter. He couldn’t quite read what it said, but he could see the name above it. His eyebrows pulled together, causing an ache behind his eyes that he tried to push away. He remembered you saying that you had had a few things brought for him, not that you retrieved yourself, so he assumed whoever went to the home the two of you shared is who stopped and got your morning beverage, as well. For some reason, he felt a furling in his stomach. It was irrational, he knew, but the thought of another man doing these things for you, for him, made him feel something akin to jealousy. That wasn’t fair, he knew. He didn’t know your life or your family or even you.

But he felt something for you. He didn’t exactly know what, but a connection that he’s never felt before existed between the two of you like an invisible string. It was one he found himself wanting to tug on and follow and see where it led.

The unknown was intimidating to him, and that’s what this was. Everything about this was unknown.

“Who’s Pete?” he asked before he could stop himself. He hoped his voice didn’t come out as insecure as he felt.

“What?” you asked, eyes widening and back straightening. He nodded toward the near empty coffee cup in your hand where the name was written above your order on the plastic. Your shoulders dropped and then tensed, which confused him even more.

“Ah.”

“I assume that’s who went and got my clothes? I’m sorry, I just don’t recognize the name.” He was trying, so hard, to pull something up to the front of his mind, but he couldn’t. He didn’t remember being close with anyone with that name. Maybe it was a family member of yours that he had forgotten along with you, but something told him that wasn’t the case. You wouldn’t be looking at him the way you currently are if it was a forgotten father or brother-in-law. You were eyeing him like you were uncomfortable in his presence, like you were scared of what to say to him. It was the first time he saw a look like this from you and he didn’t like it. There was something there, something about this name and him asking that unsettled you.

A knock on the door interrupted the potential conversation, and now Bradley felt frustrated. He had so many questions and he knew the answers resided with you. One of the doctors from the previous day, Dr. Anderson, according to his coat, stepped in, offering a good morning as he scrolled on the tablet in his hand.

“How are you feeling today, Lieutenant Commander?”

The title was still unfamiliar to him. His gut reaction was to correct him, but the last time he did that, he found out he was missing four years of his life and an entire wife, so he refrained.

“I’ve been better.”

“Have you remembered anything overnight?”

He saw you flinch out of the corner of his eye and the ice rattled in that damn coffee cup that he still had so many questions about due to your grip tightening for just a moment.

He clenched his jaw and gave a single shake of his head. “No sir.”

Dr. Anderson set the tablet on the foot of his bed and braced his hands against the plasti footboard, giving him the ability to look at him straight on. “That’s not uncommon,” he assured, though Bradley felt nothing of the sort.

The white coat looked back and forth from the two of you a few times, and Bradley didn’t like the look he had in his eyes when they settled on you for a longer moment before looking back at him again.

“It’s come to my attention that the time you're missing means you may not remember being married. Is that correct?”

Bradley gritted his teeth, but nodded.

“I see.” The doctor seemed to weigh his words for a moment before he spoke again. “Perhaps, Lieutenant Commander, it may be best if we speak in private?”

A flash of anger flared through him at the suggestion. You startled next to him, sucking in a breath as your eyes widened at the words. That protective instinct he had in regards to you had a glare hardening on his face. “Excuse me?”

“Bradley…” your voice was gentle, soft, and it had him settling just a little bit, but his eyes remained on the man in front of him.

“I mean no offense. I want to do whatever I can here to help you get on the road to recovery, but in order to properly treat you, you need to be completely honest with how you’re feeling and your injuries. Having someone who is currently a stranger to you could very well impact that. Would you be more comfortable if she wasn’t in the room with us?”

“She is sitting right there, and no, Doctor, I would not be more comfortable if she weren’t.”

“Lieute-”

“She’s staying.”

Dr. Anderson sighed, which grated on Bradley’s already fraying nerves, but nodded. He proceeded to ask him question after question, inquiring about double vision and how bad his head hurt and if he was having any trouble with the range of motion in his neck. They went over all of his injuries again and what his path to healing realistically looked like. His body should heal with no problem, but his head was trickier.

“Unfortunately, there’s no cure for amnesia,” he was told when he asked, and he hated how nonchalant the doctor was when delivering that news. “The brain is the most complex organ in the human body. You sustained a significant amount of trauma to it that would have been considerably worse if your helmet didn’t take a brunt of the hit. Quite frankly, you’re lucky to be alive, Lieutenant Commander.”

Bradley couldn’t fight the urge to look over at you. You were already staring back at him. You tried your best to smile at him, but he could see the pain in your eyes. He hated that he was the one who put it there. It was overwhelming how much causing you hurt,hurt him in return.

Another knock at the door sounded and Dr. Anderson waved in the nurse standing in the doorway with a wheelchair in front of her.

“I want to take you down for another scan to check on the swelling you had. If it’s gone down more overnight, we’ll be able to get a better view of any damage that perhaps we didn’t see before. We’ll grab some updated blood work and do a few other cognitive tests while we’re at it. Jackie will get you all squared away and wheel you down there.”

He grabbed his tablet off of the bed where he set it earlier, giving Bradley a nod that he returned. Instead of immediately turning and exiting, though, he turned to you.

“Mrs. Bradshaw? Could I have a word outside?”

Hearing you be called Mrs. Bradshaw nearly took the breath out of him. But no, Bradley thought, he didn’t like that idea. Not with the way the doctor had looked and spoken to you a few minutes ago. But the older nurse was already speaking to him, asking questions of her own while unhooking some of the machines he was connected to. You stood up, following Dr. Anderson out of the room without a word. Bradley couldn’t do anything more than watch you leave. The door shut behind you and he immediately felt on edge.

“It’s good to see you awake, Lieutenant Commander Bradshaw,” she commented, helping him slowly swing his legs off the bed after she had raised him more upright and lowered the safety bars. She held onto his arm and waist as he transferred from the bed to the wheelchair she had placed directly beside it. His ribs ached with the motion and his vision blurred as his head pounded. It took him a moment to catch his breath and he found himself having to then breathe through a wave of nausea.

You walked back into the room right as the nurse was unlocking the wheels of the chair. Your face was desperately trying to remain neutral.

“What?” he asked, the concern washing over him taking him by surprise.

“Nothing,” you insisted. But Bradley knew you were lying. Your eyes gave you away. They were so expressive that he felt like he could almost see right through you. He knew you were upset and something he didn’t understand twisted in his chest that you were trying to keep that from him.

“I’ll get him back to you in an hour or two, dear,” Nurse Jackie smiled at you as she wheeled him out of the room.

Bradley was so tired of being cut off when he wanted to speak with you.

“You’ve certainly been a popular patient,” Nurse Jackie informed him as they waited for the elevator.

“Ma’am?”

“That wife of yours has barely left your room, the poor thing. I think the furthest she’s gone is the cafeteria, and that’s only when she was coerced into doing it by your friends, and even then not for long.”

“There’s been others here?” he asked, confused.

“Oh, of course. There’s been a carousel of visitors in this room with usually one or two more in the waiting room. The two of you don’t lack love or support, I’ll tell you that.”

That surprised him. He racked his brain trying to figure out who she could be referring to, but came up short once again. Bradley wasn’t close to many people. Making connections with people was hard in this line of work. He wasn’t usually in one place for long enough to have something genuine, friendships or otherwise. It was a sacrifice he was always content with, made easier by the fact that he bore so many emotional scars from all the love he lost early on in his life. He was man enough to admit that.

But yet here he was, being told that he apparently had so many people he was close to that his hospital room had become a revolving door. He had a hard time believing it.

The thought stuck with him when they got on the elevator and made their way down several floors. He went through the motions of it all, doing what was asked of him and answering all the questions he could, but his mind was elsewhere, searching for something he didn’t know.

The machines scanning his brain made him feel claustrophobic. It was unfamiliar to him because he spent his days locked in the cockpit of a single-seater jet, yet he felt like he was aware of every inch of himself as he tried to lay as still as possible. He was becoming uncomfortable in his skin and feeling things he never did before. This wasn’t him and he couldn’t make sense of it.

By the time he was being wheeled back down the hallway to his room, three hours later, the thoughts had festered so much that they etched a tight scowl on his face. The testing should have only taken an hour at most, which irritated him further.

It didn’t help that you were on the phone with someone when the Nurse, a different one whose name he couldn’t remember, pushed him through the door, only to quickly hang up once you spotted him.

“How’d it go?” you asked, and the nurse was answering for him before he could even process the question.

“Just fine, ma’am.” The response was curt. Bradley watched your face fall at the tone the nurse gave you, lacking the kindness that Nurse Jackie had when she took him away.

“I’m going to help him get cleaned up and changed,” the nurse continued, stopping him near the bed and locking the wheels on the chair so that it wouldn’t move.

You cleared your throat and nodded. “Right. I uh-I can get out of the way.”

“You don’t have to go,” Bradley said, meeting your eyes for the first time since this interaction began.

“It’s okay,” you said, forcing a smile onto your face as you grabbed the duffle you had shown him earlier and set it on the bed. “I um..I’ll leave you to it and be back in a few minutes, okay?”

It wasn’t okay, but he didn’t feel like he had a right to feel like that, so he nodded instead. “Alright.”

The process of getting something akin to a sponge bath and into new clothes was painfully uncomfortable for him. The nurse didn’t say much as she helped him, only giving him direction when she needed him to move a certain way or checking in to ask about his pain level if he flinched too hard.

That part of him that he didn’t recognize wished you had stayed and helped him instead.

By the time he was settled back in his hospital bed, he was tired and in pain. The nurse administered him another dose of painkillers before she made her exit.

Bradley decided he preferred Nurse Jackie from earlier in the day.

He tried his best to relax into the bed, focusing on keeping his body still until the drugs kicked in. He rested his hands over his stomach and paused. For the first time since he had been helped into them, he looked down at what it was he was wearing.

He knew this t-shirt. It was soft and well worn, a UVA logo faded with time. It was one he had had since college. He wondered if it was a coincidence or if you had requested this specific one, knowing he’d recognize it. The thought eased some of the frustration he felt, but it didn’t go away completely.

Bradley didn’t like feeling helpless and out of control of himself, and that’s exactly what he was right now.

You said you would only be gone for a few minutes and he wanted to stay awake so he could talk to you, to maybe finally get a few answers, but the exhaustion from moving around mixed with the pain medication finally kicking in had him drifting off to sleep, your face and name cycling through his mind.

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Part Three :: Series Masterlist :: Main Masterlist

*Part 4 and beyond are also on the masterlist!

Notes: Don't forget to comment & reblog! It's so unbelievably motivating.

Tagging those who asked or interacted with part one. I think I caught everyone, but I'm very new to this so apologies if I missed you! Please let me know if you'd like to be added or taken off this list :)

Tag List: @roosterforme - @mak-32 - @hoyaharper - @wildxwidow - @gretagerwigsmuse - @bradshawburner - @iamaslytherin0 - @lilyevanswhore - @too-fangirl-to-fuction - @fav-fanficssss - @benhardysdrumstick - @fandomxpreferences - @acatwriteshere - @1234-angelika - @double-j - @cocoskween - @sunflowersteves - @teacupsandtopgun - @littlezee80 - @sometimesanalice - @je-suis-prest-rachel - @khaylin27 - @infamous-reindeer - @hotch-meeeeeuppppp - @sarahjoestewy-blog - @sunnysidesidra - @notroosterbradshaw - @yanna-banana - @inthestars-unerthesun - @avengersfan25

#bradley bradshaw x reader #bradley bradshaw imagine #tgm fanfiction #bradley bradshaw x oc #Bradley bradshaw x female reader #rooster x reader #bradley rooster bradshaw #rooster fanfic #alli writes #top gun fanfiction #bradley rooster bradshaw x reader #bradley bradshaw fic

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mynqzo · 1 year

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my insane batshit gritty semi-realistic sapphic reimagining of barbie and the three musketeers

okay so many people were confused on if that last drawing of mine was just an oc named barbie or whatever but im here to tell you no! its my insane reimagining of the corinne in the movie barbie and the three musketeers, but sapphic and insane. so today I’m going to dump on you my insane reimagining of barbie and the three musketeers in a semi realistic gritty setting where they’re all sapphic and when they become musketeers they instead work to overthrow the monarchy. this is not a joke I've been thinking about this for months. like i will take alexandre dumas legacy and make it so gay and barbie.

okay so first things I thought of were weapons and such and what they could be replaced with in this setting cause most of the characters have things like ribbons and fans as weapons (and while that's so slay and I love that/never want that to change in the movie, I wanna make it semi-realistic in this gritty reimagining). so corinne’s weapon in the movie is a rapier so we’re keeping that. viveca has those two long ribbons (I’m sure they have a name but I forgot them sobs) and I think in my head she would have a two whips instead, whip dual wielder ohooo. renée has a slingshot (honestly so lame of the movie to give her that) and in my head she has a musket or pistol. aramina has two fans and I think replacing those with daggers would be really swag. and just to be clear all the characters in this version are aged up to be in their late twenties to early thirties.

for corinne, the story will follow the traditional ‘the three musketeers’ storyline but instead corinne is actively held back by her mother from going to paris and becoming a musketeer because her mother believes she’ll fall into the same fate as her father did and die. so she instead sneaks out because she feels like if she became a successful musketeer she could establish a comfortable life for her mother. in my head she's kind of like a cocky playboy kinda character where she's a little full of herself but has a lot of drive to find out what happened to her father and how he came to pass but also to succeed so she can take care of her mother better. like she's essentially the person who would ask you to fence shirtless because she wants to prove that she doesn't need armour.

for aramina I feel like her concept of a hopeless romantic can be made more complex if added with religious calling like for aramis in the original three musketeers. like she has a deeply religious upbringing but she cant stop falling in love with people and getting into trouble about it and it especially shows when she meets corinne and the others and; you guessed it, falls in love with them too. a nice mix of guilt and romance. she could have been a faithful follower of the church and been a nun but fell in love with one of the nuns and was caught and therefore shunned and punished, but she kept doing it again and again and her behavior became too obnoxious for the church to allow so they kicked her out, and she’s still plagued by this guilt while also wanting to follow her heart. she essentially ended up as a maid because her church rejected her and her family refused to take her back in on account of her sinning (rip) so she's essentially trying to find purpose in life while also overcoming this insane guilt she's carrying with her for her own desires.

renée’s story in my head follows that of a noble who then became a street musician and eventual musketeer. in the original musketeer story, athos was married to milady de winter [who was the villain] and attempted to kill her after discovering she was a criminal and then he became a drunkard about it because it made him so sad. for renée, she could have been married to a wealthy man that her family arranged her to marry but he was like, a bad guy and wasn’t really nice to her etc and also was a criminal on the run, so she tried to kill him because she was sick of his shit but her kill attempt ended up with her being fought off by him and excommunicated by her and his family (because they dont know he’s a criminal) so she ended up as a street musician and that lead to her being a maid in the palace and you know the drill.

viveca, the same as was in the movie and book as porthos, loves fashion and clothing and is always dressed super dapper and i feel like this could easily make her be a seamstress in the palace who directly works with the royal family when it comes to making them garments (alongside being a maid). she would know the internal workings of the royal family and be the person who could spy on the politics of everything the easiest out of everyone. i feel like she can put up a facade very well with the royal family where she can act like she’s totally into what theyr doing and not totally planning to go against them at any point like at all.

essentially they work for the palace as maids, one way or another, and do all the shenanigans of protecting the prince from getting assassinated by snooping around and whatnot only for them to turn around and be the people who go out of their way to assassinate the prince because they quickly realize that he’s kind of a shit head. they essentially side with the group of people planning the assassination which leads them into meeting a group of rebels and people who protest the royal family. there’s this journey to realize that the true villain of the story is renée ex husband she tried to super kill who became an advisor to the prince and king after the assassination attempt (and the old advisor was kicked to the curb). so the ex-husband is now doing evil whispery advisor nonsense where he’s trying to convince the prince that the musketeers all are actually planning his assassination (even if its true like how dare you sir ex-husband) and that he should execute them publicly and then provided a bunch of false evidence to ‘prove’ (like its True they do wanna take down the prince but like yknow). and its like a whole thing. during this all they all fall in love and form a sapphic polycule and its complicated and nasty and oof.

thanks for coming to my ted talk.

#what do i tag this #barbie and the three musketeers #is it obvious to say barbie has affected my upbringing

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nyrasproblm · 3 months

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Pure Cruelty

Chapter Four

Joel Miller x Platonic!OC, Ellie Williams x Platonic!OC (sister)

Word Count: 1,6K

Warning: swearing.

Although the last fight between Ellie and Lyla had been resolved, they continued to argue about everything, but to a lesser extent. They argued about Ellie's time in the bathroom, about Lyla's hairbrush that she never found and when she found it was in Ellie's room, about the comic books that Lyla took to read and forgot to return to the younger girl's room, and so on.

Joel tried not to get involved but intervened when necessary, Lyla could swear that he always took Ellie's side but later convinced herself that it was all in her head because she was upset with the fights.

But tonight was the trigger. Periodically, Maria let Lyla keep some books from the bookstore, as during patrols several new ones were brought to the commune, so to avoid overcrowding the bookstore Lyla took them home and placed them in her room.

Theoretically Maria had given it to her, but Lyla made it clear to the people who frequented the bookstore that they could ask her and she would gladly give it.

But there was one book that Lyla wouldn't lend to anyone, she made sure she could keep it permanently and then kept it separate from all the others. Frankenstein. Her favorite book, she had already read it 3 times but whenever she was bored and too lazy to read new books, she would reread it.

This afternoon, she came home from the bookstore and greeted Joel who was in the kitchen preparing who knows what for dinner. She didn't speak to Ellie because her bedroom door was closed. Lyla entered her own room and threw herself on the mattress on the floor, stared at the ceiling and decided to pick up Frankenstein to read again. She always kept it at the bottom of the bottom drawer of the dresser that Ellie had given her. She reached under her clothes and frowned when she couldn't feel the the worn material of the book cover.

She got up and pulled the drawer out of the dresser, starting to search more quickly, threw all the clothes out of the drawer and found that the book really wasn't there. She even opened other drawers because she thought she had stored the book in them, but she didn't. The book wasn't there.

She frowned in confusion and started looking through the piles of books that were inside her room, she looked inside a cardboard box that also contained books and when she finished the room was all torn apart, but she didn't find the book.

Then she remembered, Ellie used to stop by her room to get a book or another every now and then, she didn't read many books because she preferred comics, but when she got tired of reading the same comics she would turn to a book.

She hurriedly marched to Ellie's room and punched the door twice before throwing it open. She saw Ellie lying on the bed with the book in her hands. Lyla recognized it instantly, the worn cover with the letters almost gone.

"Why did you hit like that? Almost knocked the fucking door down." Ellie complained.

"Give me that." Lyla approached the bed and tried to pull the book out of Ellie's hand.

"Ow! I'm reading, can't you wait for me to finish or get another one?"

"The book was hidden! You invaded my privacy and took something of mine without asking me!" Lyla exclaimed.

"I just wanted to borrow some clothes and I saw the book there, wow. Stop making a fuss." Ellie mocked.

"Give it back to me now!”

She tried to grab the book but Ellie lifted it above her head and with her other hand she tried to push Lyla away. Joel went up the stairs when he heard them screaming.

"Hey! What's this? What's going on now?" he asked impatiently.

'Ellie invaded my room, my privacy and even took what's mine without permission." Lyla said and finally managed to hold the book, but Ellie still wouldn't let go.

"Enough of this, you two can stop now." Joel said but didn't approach them.

"Stop, Ellie! Let go!" Lyla exclaimed as she held the book so tightly that her fingertips turned white.

"Stop freaking out, it's just a book." Ellie said but kept pulling the book towards her.

"Stop! You're going to tear-"

Before she could finish speaking, Lyla took a few steps back as the book ripped. The fragile material of the book's spine tore and the book broke in two.

Joel gulped in silence, he knew the fight would only get worse, so he got a little closer to the two girls.Before he could speak, Lyla's tearful voice stopped him.

"Look what you did. It's all your fault! Every time you do something stupid." she accused as she glared at Ellie.

"I just wanted to read it! I didn't know it was forbidden or anything." Ellie felt bad.

Lyla approached her and angrily took the other half of the book.

"You think you can do anything, right?"

Ellie looked at her, surprised.

"What?"

You think you can do anything. You think you can do any shit because Joel will be there to save your skin, it's always like that." Lyla accused.

"Lyla, that's enough. Go to your room." Joel intervened.

"Why? I wasn't the one who invaded someone else's room. Come on, give her a scolding. Just like the scolding you gave me when I came into your room that time, come on!" she said while holding the book against her.

"I told you to go to your room." Joel keep his voice low.

"You always take Ellie's side, I didn't do anything wrong and you're acting like I did-"

"I told you to go to your room, dammit!" he said loudly, making the two teenagers jump a little in fright.

Lyla swallowed hard and walked past him angrily, entered her own room and slammed the door.

"Don't go into other people's rooms like that anymore, do you hear me?" he said looking at Ellie, seeing her nod slowly.

He turned and walked to Lyla's room, knocked on the door and tried to turn the handle, but the door wouldn't open. He frowned and knocked again.

"Lyla? Open the door, come on."

Silence.

"Lyla, open the door."

Again, silence.

"If it doesn't open, I'll break in and it will get worse-"

"Get out of here, I'm trying to sleep." her voice came muffled from inside.

Joel sighed and decided not to insist any further.

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From that day on, the three inhabitants of the house treated each other with mutual silence. The three carried out their duties in the commune normally, but at home the silence was enormous.

Lyla decided it was time to move, after all, when they arrived in Jackson, Joel told her she could stay with them "for a while". Their coexistence wasn't really good, she felt like she was getting in the way of his and Ellie's relationship, so it was time to leave.

She packed a large backpack that she had exchanged at the exchange store and filled it with all the clothes and some belongings she had. He packed the books in two large boxes and went downstairs in the morning.

She placed the boxes at the bottom of the stairs and entered the kitchen with her backpack on her back, seeing Ellie and Joel drinking coffee in silence.

"I'm moving." she said simply.

Joel had the coffee mug on his way to his mouth but stopped and looked at it, as did Ellie.

"What?"

"I said I'm moving."

"Who gave you permission to move?" Joel asked, his face contorting in anger.

"Well, I'm of age. I'm going to a small house that Maria got, she said I should have a roommate soon-"

"You're not going anywhere." Joel interrupted her.

"Isn't that what you wanted?" Ellie chimed in. "You kept talking to Tommy about it."

Lyla frowned.

"Ellie, shut up." he ordered.

"What are you talking about?" Lyla asked her.

"I heard Joel a few times asking Tommy to find another place for you to stay. Because 'the girl is not my daughter'." she made quotation marks with her fingers.

Lyla turned to face him.

"That is true?"

Joel looked away and rubbed his face. His silence said it all.

"Well, that was a month after we went back to Jackson, I think he changed his mind, I don't know." Ellie spoke again. "You shouldn't go, if you want, I'll apologize for all the shit."

Lyla took a deep breath and blinked away the tears.

"Thank you for everything."

She turned and walked back into the living room, picking up one of the heavy book boxes and opening the door. Before she could leave, Joel walked in front of her and closed the door.

"What are you doing? Get out of the way." she said and tried to avoid him.

"Go to your room." Joel ordered.

"You are deaf? I'm leaving."

"Don't go anywhere, go back to your room."

Before they could say anything else, someone knocked on the door. It was Tommy, he smiled without noticing the fight that was unfolding.

"I came to help Lyla with her things. You insisted so much that Maria found her a house quickly." he said as he picked up one of the boxes on the floor.

"She's not going." Joel started but Lyla got ahead of him and started walking out of the house.

"Come on, I have to go to the bookstore later." she said and started walking in front of Tommy.

Joel watched them until they turned onto a street and were out of sight.

#original character #joel miller x platonic!reader #joel tlou #joel miller #ellie williams #ellie tlou #ellie the last of us #tlou #the last of us

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lovelytsunoda · 3 months

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take my breath away // tom 'iceman' kazansky

a traffic jam on the interstate and a diamond ring in a glovebox compartment

temporarily stationed in nevada, tom and heather decide to take a weekend in las vegas to see their favourite new wave band. all the while, all tom can think about when to ask heather to be his wife.

part of the heather and tommy universe started in 'tell me something girl'

pairing: tom kazansky x female oc (named heather)

warnings: fluff overload, marriage proposals, traffic jams.

author's note: guys i know that 'kick' didn't come out until 1987, but bear with me on this one, i was trying to make all of the dates work without the wedding feeling rushed (you'll know what i mean if you check the date headings on 'tell me something girl')

October 25th, 1986. Just outside Las Vegas, Nevada.

the weak air conditioning system in her boyfriend's hummer did nothing to block out the nevada heat as they sat idle, listening to the sounds of engines humming and horns honking. heather schneider held a small camcorder in her hands, the viewfinder trained on her boyfriend's face as he raked his hands through is hair, aviator glasses hiding his eyes. duran duran played on the radio, a tree shaped air freshener dangling in front of the windshield.

"babe, i’m so sorry. i had no idea traffic would be this bad." tom sighed, pushing up his glasses so he could run his hands over his face.

the move to nevada had been sudden. back home in virginia after graduating top gun, tom wasn't expecting to get marching orders so fast after coming back from a mission. the two harrowing weeks in the ocean after the academy had rattled him a little, and he was looking forward to finally spending time with heather again. now, he was scared about what nevada would to do his relationship with heather, until heather dropped a bombshell of her own.

she was quitting her job.

working in a law firm that did work closely with the us military did things to a person. and one day, heather just snapped. she came home in tears and told him that she couldn't do it any more.

and then she quit.

and now she was in nevada with no idea what she was going to do with her life. tom was stationed at the nellis air force base, which was very near to the las vegas motor speedway, a place they spent many a weekend watching stock car racing. tom was easing into his role at nellis quickly, seamlessly and with his trusty backseater ron kerner at his side.

heather was still lost. deployment was only for five months, part of a training program for a plane that most people in the military weren't even aware of yet. and after that five months? would they go back to virginia? stay in nevada? where would she work?

"kaz, stop worrying. the concert isn't until tomorrow night anyways." she soothed, running her thumb over his knuckles. the hummer eased forward, but traffic was still at a crawl.

"nellis is eight fucking miles outside of vegas, why can't we get into the city on a friday?"

"because everybody else is also trying to get into the city on a friday."

in the three months they had already lived in nevada, despite only living eight miles outside sin city, heather had still never been to vegas. never walked down the strip, never seen a show.

until tom surprised her with tickets to watch australian new wave band INXS play at ceasers palace. the band meant so much to heather, and she had been waiting for this weekend for the last six weeks.

tom, on the other hand, knowing the significance of the weekend had something bigger planned. the ring was burning a hole in his glove box, right next to his service weapon.

all that time away had taught him one big thing: he wanted heather in his life, by his side, for the rest of his life.

"hey, heath, do you remember that blue bungalow in miramar? the one that was on the water, with the backyard that walked out onto that small square of beach?"

"yeah, why?" heather hummed, panning the camera over at the traffic in front of her. the pair never went anywhere without their cameras, digital or video. there were envelopes full of negatives in their apartment, shoeboxes bursting at the seams with pictures they'd taken since they started dating in the spring of 1985.

tom tapped his slender fingers against the steering wheel, easing the hummer forward another few feet as traffic picked up, and then promptly slowed. he moved to roll down a window due to the heat, but then reversed his decision after smelling the latent gasoline exhaust in the air and hearing the noise of the jam.

"it's for sale. has been for a while, miramar isn't a hot area for us young people." he stopped to take a breath, looking over at heather. her eyes sparkled as she turned to look at him, popping a small pretzel into her mouth. her large, round prescription sunglasses made her look like an owl.

he adored every part of her.

"i want to put a deposit down. with your permission, of course. i know your life is in virginia, and we can go back if that's what you want. but i see a life for us in that house. kids, a dog. at some point, i want to teach at top gun. that's where maverick is, where slider is going to go. but none of that means anything if you aren't with me, heath."

heather closed the camcorder, dropping it into her lap as she reached for tom's hand, clasping it between both of hers. "tom, i'd love to. let's do it. let's move to california."

tom's heart swelled with love as he brought heather's knuckles up to give her a gentle kiss. everything was finally coming together. they were ready to start their life together.

and he knew he needed to ask. he had planned to wait until they were in the city, planned to get down on one knee underneath the false eiffel tower and present heather with his grandmother's ring.

but, as impulsive as it may be, he knew he needed to ask her. in the middle of stalled traffic on a nevada freeway. his hair had grown out since he'd come home from top gun, bangs curling into his eyes and sticking up in all ways after he pushes his glasses up.

"babe, pass me the camcorder and take a look in the glove box." tom said, putting the hummer in park. he would have turned the engine off to save gas, but who knew if traffic would pick up again and he'd have to drive off the freeway?

after heather passed him the small metal camera, he popped it open, discreetly recording as she opened the glove box. her sunglasses held her long, brunette hair back like a headband as she rooted around the compartment.

"behind the service weapon, sweetheart. it's a small pink box."

"found it." she hummed, her manicured fingers clutching the small cardboard box. (tom had been insistent that she go get her nails done with slider's girlfriend maria before they left nellis, but she had no idea why).

she pulled the lid off the box, a gasp getting caught in her throat when she saw the stunning sterling silver ring, and the large blue stone in the middle, framed by diamonds.

"this is your grandmother's ring."

tom's parents were polish immigrants. when his parents left poland with nothing, they brought his father's mother with them (his mother's parents would follow later). angela kazanzky was classically trained ballerina with the warsaw ballet corps, but had left poland with almost nothing after her husband was killed. all she brought with her was a suitcase of clothes, and that sapphire engagement ring.

"heather, the time i spent at top gun taught me a lot of things. how to be a better man, a better soldier and a better pilot. but it also taught me that i hate being away from you. i hate waking up at the crack of dawn and you aren't there next to me." tom began, reaching for heather's hand. she turned to look at him, eyes wide and hands shaky as the gravity what this was set in. "i hate coming home at the end of the day to an empty dorm without you there. yeah, i love the guys, and i love this job. but none of that holds a candle to the way that i love you, heather anne schneider. i was going to wait until we actually got to vegas to do this, but now's as good a time as any."

he smiled nervously, a shock of giddy, pure love shooting through her veins when she looked at him, an equally wide smile breaking out across her face.

"heather, will you marry me?"

"yes! yes, tom, of course i'm gonna marry you. is this what that house talk was all about? yes, of course i'll do it!"

"thank you." tom exhaled, speaking so softly that she almost didn't hear it. he extended his open palm, waiting for her to press the ring into his palm. she was a giggling mess, trying to hold her hand steady while tom slid the cold metal band onto her ring finger. "i'm so in love with you, and i hope we stay this happy forever."

god, she loved that man.

"i love you more, lieutenant."

stretching as far as her seatbelt would allow, heather leaned over the hummer's center console, kissing her fiancé with an intensity that was out of place on the freeway. she couldn't stop staring at the rock on her finger, and thinking about the promise that it represented.

they were forehead to forehead, full of giddy smiles, the camcorder resting on tom's lap still recording as the pickup truck behind them began to honk.

traffic was flowing normally, and they hadn't even noticed.

they broke apart, laughing as they stowed away the camcorder and the now-empty ring box. tom put the car in drive, throwing his middle finger up at the driver behind them.

they were both still smiling, daydreaming about what their new life together would bring them. heather reached for the radio, turning up the volume as they began to play INXS' 'never tear us apart'.

tom smiled fondly, looking over at her as she began to sing.

"this is going to be our wedding song." she smiled to herself.

the following year, they would get married in monterrey, and they would have their first dance to that same song, heather in a simple white dress, and tom in his navy dress whites. and two years after that, they would welcome their first of three children.

and when mitchell kazansky got married? he used that same sapphire ring to propose to his now-wife amelia.

TAGS:

@magnummagnussen @libraryofloveletters @sidcrosbyspuck @diorleclerc @lorarri @cartierre @userlando @thatsdemko

#tom kazansky x reader #top gun imagine #top gun 1986 #top gun x reader #tom kazansky #iceman x reader #tom iceman kazansky x reader #top gun fanfic #Spotify #fools in love! event

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oillydiya · 4 months

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Things Between Us | Cillian Murphy x OC

Chapter 1 : The Beginning

Summary: Sansa, a 26-year-old graduate student, who unexpectedly encounters a twist of fate when she comes across an actor she never knew before!

Warnings: This fic contains explicit content related to sexuality and various age relationships. The content is not suitable for individuals under the age of 18. *The entire story is a work of fiction. All characters, time periods, and places in the story are purely imaginary. Note: This fic is relatively lengthy. If there is sufficient readership, it may be updated continuously. The content is purely the author's imagination and is not related to the actors. There is no intention to disrespect or cause harm to the actors in any way. Please use discretion when reading.* Talk: This is my first attempt at writing a fic, and English is not my native language. If there are any mistakes, I apologize in advance. Feel free to comment and provide feedback.

November, 2022

Bad Day!!!!

“I’m trying to find a gallery to host an art exhibition for a graduate with my own master’s degree, but I still can’t find it. Even though this exhibition will be held at the beginning of next month!”

"Damn it! Doing things by oneself is really tiring," Sansa, a twenty-six-year-old young female graduate student, murmured about the situation she was in.

London, a beautiful city, is a dream place for many people, and Sansa is another resident of this city, her hometown. In fact, the young woman had only been back in London for two years, having studied in America at the age of seventeen before returning to pursue a master's degree in England again. After being away for so long!

At present, Sansa is about to graduate with a master's degree within the next month. However, before she could finish, She must organize an art exhibition for her graduation, and it's been almost a month now!

She hasn't been able to find a gallery to showcase her work yet, probably because this is the art festival season held all over London throughout the month. This makes it very difficult for Sansa to find good galleries, as everyone needs a place to display their work!

Sansa thought… this would be the end for her!

The girl picked up her favorite headphones and put them on, selecting her personal playlist. Her right arm held a drawing board, and her left arm carried a bag filled with books that she had just stopped by to buy.

Adding to her own chaos, she picked up her favorite book, which she hadn't finished reading yet, while on a trip to her favorite restaurant in Soho, central London. She is living in her own world, cutting off the chaos from her surroundings—a world full of music, literature, and pleasure that she easily finds from the letters in front.

Sansa stopped in front of Mr. Louis' shop, located on the corner of Soho Street. She always has a table that she likes to sit at—a wall-mounted table, the only one of its kind. Even though there is another table nearby, not too far apart, her table is the most private of all the tables in the restaurant. Miss Louise always prepared this table for she when she needed it.

'He is the kindest,' she admired the shop owner.

The young woman walked towards her usual table, ready to read books and listen to music. She doesn't usually pay much attention to her surroundings, tending to only care about things that she wants to care about. Everything else is just the air or atmosphere around her.

She placed a drawing board next to the wall, always choosing to sit in the chair on the left. Checking, putting away her headphones, and hanging her bag next to the chair, she picked up the book she had left reading, placing it on the table to wait for further reading.

Sansa noticed that at the table next to her, there was a group of people sitting, but she didn't care much about them. She even got annoyed because she felt a little uncomfortable not being able to sit in private in this area alone.

Before Mr. Louis walked in to welcome her,

"Hello, Sansa," he smiled at the girl as always.

"Hello, Miss Louis."

"How are you today?"

Ah, the expression on her face probably says it all.

"Pretty bad. Many things are not in my favor today," she replied with a sad expression.

"Oh, is there anything in this store that will help you feel better? Do you want it as usual?"

She smiled back at the man around her father’s age who owned the shop.

"Then I’d like a cheeseburger as usual. This time, I’d like something juicy, and I’d like a chocolate milkshake with cheese," she said, winking at him like a close friend.

Sansa really likes the cheeseburgers here. They're so delicious you’ll be begging for you life!

"Sure. I’ll inform the chef to prepare a cheeseburger. The juiciest and most special for you. Wait twenty to thirty minutes, and in a moment, we’ll bring you a milkshake."

"Thank you,"

she thought, even though today was a bad day! At least, she got to eat something delicious to comfort herself!

After finishing ordering food, Sansa picked up the book and continued reading. She likes to read books very much. It’s like it’s her thirty-third organ. The more she reads, the more she enjoys the story. Books often make her feel like she’s immersed in the writing.

"Hello,"

Sansa looked up slightly at the owner of the voice.

"Hello," she replied and continued reading!

"I’m Tom."

The young man introduced himself. Sansa looked up at him again. Tom is considered to be a good-looking man, and his demeanor seems like that of a good-natured person.

She smiled at him but didn’t reply. Pretty bad manners, right? But yes! Sansa doesn’t want to continue talking to Tom. She just wanted to read a book quietly, only by herself!

“What is your name?”

Damn it! She thought, these men! You really are such a pushover. Sigh!… She probably have to respond politely.

“Sansa.”

“I saw you walking with a drawing board. Are you an artist, Sansa?”

“I’m an art major.”

Before she lowered her head and continued reading her book. ‘Shit,’ She thought to herself. She’s not good at talking. It was always difficult for her.

“Oh…wow, that’s really great.” Tom didn’t seem to relent.

“I really want to see your work. Can I have your IG so I can follow your work?”

She thought for a moment before answering him,

“I’m sorry. I don’t use social media.”

Tom’s face looked disappointed. “Then can I have your number instead?”

What is this!? Sansa cursed in thought.

“I only have my personal number, and I still want it to be private. I can’t give it to you; I’m sorry.”

Tom’s face was now extremely disappointed. Before Tom got up, preparing to walk back to his table. “You are very beautiful.”

Tom turned around and spoke before walking away from her table…

Sansa didn’t feel a thing at the compliment. She just kept her head down and continued reading. Because this wasn’t the first time she had encountered a situation like this. And she really doesn’t like it!! From an event just a moment ago, this made she feel a bit uneasy after being interrupted from reading and made her not in the mood to read further.

The young woman took off her leather jacket before folding it thick, then put it on the back. Then, she took out the curling iron, shook and spread it around before leaning back in the chair and relaxing. She raised her face to the soft afternoon sunlight, took a deep breath, and closed her eyes… picking up the book and putting it down to rest her eyes from the light that shines in. And now, her mind is calmer…

On another side, four young men were drinking coffee and talking about the job they had just interviewed for today.

“How was your film interview today, Cillian?” a fellow screenwriter asked, a forty-six-year-old young actor.

“Excellent,” he replied.

While Cillian was talking with his screenwriter friend Steve, his eyes caught sight of a woman! ‘Wow, what a beautiful woman!’

he thought. She had large, bright green eyes, long eyelashes, dark, well-lined eyebrows, a curved nose that complemented her sharp jaw, full, pink lips, slender and chubby. That sharp face fits perfectly with hair that is loosely tied. And there was a small tangled strand of hair. It fell down on her left cheek, making her look so strikingly beautiful that he had to turn and look!

Cillian saw her carrying a pile of things. One hand holding a book, another person holds a large chalkboard. She also had headphones over her ears. He noticed that she wasn't looking or paying attention to anything around her, and he thought that she should definitely come sit at the empty table next to his! Personally, he didn’t want anyone to sit at that table because it will give him and his friends more privacy.

But it’s okay!! It would be good if she came and sat. ‘Because she is quite beautiful.’ That made him feel somewhat satisfied.

The older male actor occasionally glanced at the unknown woman but didn’t pay much attention to her until a man walked up to her.

‘Is he going to be her boyfriend?’ Cillian thought.

His and hers’ tables were not too far apart, allowing him to hear their conversation. And from the conversation, Cillian then knew… that the young man just came to flirt with her. He was quite surprised at the young woman’s expression. Plus, she acted clearly bored. She could deny that young man almost every sentence. If he were that man, he would have given up.

Cillian was surprised when she said that she doesn’t use social media. It was strange for a woman her age that most people are addicted to social media. She refused to give the man her number with the most ingenious reason, he thought, ‘Her are very clever.’

Before he returned to chatting with his tablemates. But then… ‘Fuck?!’ She took off that black leather jacket! His and his tablemates’ eyes immediately turned towards her.

Damn it! He didn’t want to look at all, but he really couldn’t help but glance at the position of the girl and him. It makes the two of them look like they’re sitting next to each other, probably only an arm’s length apart. Making him see her clearly! Her skin is white and smooth, contrasting with the black strapless, making it even more interesting to look at. Her figure is just as beautiful, with her face, especially when she unwrapped her hair and spread it out.

‘Damn!’ he thought, this was one of the most beautiful pictures he had ever seen. Her side view was strikingly beautiful. Her nose was high and slender, sharply contrasting with her jaw. He swallowed. Can’t stop glancing at this beautiful young woman!!!

She stimulated him even more when he smelled a faint scent, soft and sweet. He had never smelled anything like this before.

It’s so mysteriously fascinating?

Cillian thought. This girl is quite interesting. Not from her face or figure, but it’s her personality that doesn’t seem to care about anything. She fell asleep in the middle of the restaurant, took the book and covered her face. It’s like there’s only her in this area. She didn’t even turn to look or pay attention to their table, which really made him feel at ease.

He’s starting to like her!!

#cillian murphy x oc #cillian murphy x reader #cillian murphy #cillian murphy fanfiction #cillian murphy fanfic

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lookismaddict · 1 year

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Lookism: Rendezvous 🔞 (Introduction) || Gun Park x Fem! Reader ♡

Author’s Note: Hi everyone, this is my first Tumblr post. I decided to join the Tumblr Lookism community because of how much I love this manhwa and it became my favorite manhwa of all time. I wanted to share my thoughts, memes, and writing because of how much I adore this manhwa. I planned on writing my own mini series based on Lookism, especially on Park Jong Gun because I love him so much. This is all purely for fun, and I have so many Lookism scenarios that I just can’t help but want to share them all with people who love Lookism. If you do come across this, I hope you’ll all enjoy it and the future posts that will come.

The introduction will be a little long, so I hope you’ll bear with me on this one. If not, I’m sorry. You can skip it if you want, but the introduction will be important to understand where the story will be going. But I promise, Gun will be introduced in this part. I hope you appreciate some minor OC’s that I made to make the story a bit more interesting. Enjoy! :)

NSFW Warning: Violence, strong language/cursing, sexual violence, and sexual content (teaser).

Story Summary: You traveled abroad to help support your mother who is sick, back home in Japan. However, once you reached Korea, everything went downhill until you met a stranger who offered you a deal that could benefit you. But who knew that this special encounter would turn your whole life around…

Your arms wrapped around the lean, muscular body of the man who you grew to adore. Both of your mouths collided, as well as your bodies. The friction of your bodies made it unbearable, even when you two were still fully clothed. Touching feverishly amongst each other, the two of you wouldn’t dare part ways.

You became so smitten with this man that you got him wrapped around your little finger. His eyes stared down at you, with intense lust in his eyes.

“I think I’m going insane. I don’t think I can control myself any longer.” He said through clenched teeth, as he ripped through your clothes and tossed them aside. Your top, your skirt, and your under garments were torn off instantly, However, he reassured you that he’ll buy you new clothes later.

His hands glide against your legs, pulling them around his waist for you to wrap around him. You clung onto him as he carried you with his strong arms, making sure his lips didn’t leave yours. When the two of you reached the bedroom, he slammed the door behind him then pushed you onto the bed.

“I’ve always wanted to do this with you.” He looked down at you with a strong heated desire. His eyes and his body language says it all. He wanted you badly, and for quite a while now.

Once he removed every layer of clothing that he had on, they all seemed to have landed across the room near the door. He got on top of you, trapping you with his arms on the bed.

“Are you ready, (Y/N)? I’ll make you even more worthy to become my woman than any other woman could. I’ll make sure that you’ll become mine.”

Ah… when did it become this addicting to be with such a man?

Well, it didn’t really start off just from going on dates. It’s much deeper than that.

It all started in Japan. Japan was the place that held bittersweet memories. The place where you lived harmoniously with your mother in that one-room apartment that you had all to yourselves. That little space was just enough for you to feel content.

You didn’t care if the other students at your school treated you like a freak just because you were poor, wearing old and reused uniform. You’re going to school just to get into a university so you can help provide for you and your mom. That’s all that matters.

You missed your mom’s voice, the way she would sing those nostalgic 90s Japanese pop songs. You remembered when you used to come home from rough days at school. The first thing you’d hear was the sound of your mom’s voice coming from the kitchen, singing blissfully as she was cutting up potatoes and carrots to cook your favorite curry rice. Your mouth would curve to a very wide grin while greeting her and offering to help her out in the kitchen. The both of you would be singing together without a care in the world. Fun and laughter always filled the room whenever you were with your mother.

You missed when your mom would offer to also comb your hair. Her fingers gently untangling your hair left you feeling happiness and pleasure as it soothes you. Back then, times were simpler. There wasn’t a care in the world and you believed that nothing would get in the way from you two living peacefully with content. However, that all took a turn for the worst.

On a gloomy day, you rushed all the way home from school to try and avoid the rain. However, as rain drops started to fall from the sky, you were afraid that you might catch a cold while shielding yourself from the rain. You thought that it would be a hassle for you to have to go to the doctor if you got sick. You wouldn’t want to burden your mom who was already struggling to make ends meet with the rent, bills, and additional debts.

When you reached the front door of your apartment, you clumsily fumbled for your keys in your bag before unlocking the door and opening it. Your hand reached for the door knob and as you slowly turned to open it, you yelled out, “I’m home!-”

Suddenly, everything was moving in slow motion. Your bag dropped onto the ground with a loud thud as your eyes widened in horror. You saw your mom laid on the floor, unconscious with a small pool of blood trailing from her mouth. Panicking, you rushed straight to her and tried to shake her awake. “Mom?! Mom!!! Get up, please!! HELP!!! Someone please, oh god-” You dashed across the room as you reached for the only landline phone available near a meter radius and dialed 1-1-0.

Soon enough, the sounds of sirens were heard nearing with such an ear deafening tone outside your place. You felt yourself trembling as you kept shaking her, hoping that she’ll wake up anytime soon. The paramedics came into your apartment with a stretcher and you helped them lay your unconscious mother onto the stretcher. You sobbed as you saw them take your mother away, following them into the ambulance. Neighbors and random bystanders grew curious to see what was all the commotion and loud ruckus about. Many looked shocked and horrified, while others felt pity towards you and your mother. Everyone’s eyes pierced through your back like a painful wave when you followed the medical professionals into the ambulance and rode off.

Is this really it? What if mom never wakes up?

“Please, hurry…” you whimpered.

About ten minutes have passed and you made it into the hospital. They rushed her out right away to the ER to have her looked into. The doors immediately shut in front of you as you hurried over to the nurse who was blocking your way. “Is she going to be ok? Will she be alright? I don’t want her to die! Please help her!” Was all the words you mustered to say. The nurse surprisingly understood the babble of words that came out of your mouth, as she gave a reassuring grip on your shoulder and said, “I’m sorry miss, but you have to wait out here for a while. We’ll do everything we can to help your mom, okay?”

Please… not like this. Why did it have to be like this? We were okay, so why did things have to turn out like this? God, if you are really there, please don’t take my mom away from me. She’s all I have.

Your hands built into fists as you stood there in front of the ER doors sobbing, anxiously waiting for your mother to be alright.

An hour had passed. Then two hours. Then four hours. Then six. The situation dwindled when the doctor finally came out of the room. Your eyes were alarmed when you met eye contact with the doctor. “How is she doctor? Is she okay now?” The doctor’s eyes loomed with a tint of melancholy. “I regret to inform you that your mother has been diagnosed with COPD, which is Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease. This could have been possibly due to her having Chronic Bronchitis previously. However, since she hasn’t been treated early, her symptoms worsened which resulted into COPD. Have you noticed that your mother had been coughing a lot recently?”

You felt your eyes dim and your heart sunk. You were so shocked that the previous events that occurred at home started running through your head.

Flashbacks of your mom over-working herself even at home came flooding in. The remembrance of the times when your mother coughed and told you she was alright after you repeatedly asked her if she was fine, made you feel guilty. Guilt that made you feel like an absolute fool.

How could I have let this happen? This is all my fault. If I hadn’t believed her all those times, she would have been treated right away. Yet, I had to find out like this.

“Y-yes… I have. All this t-time, she was trying to h-hide it from me… S-she told me she was fine, but I didn’t know she was suffering so… m-much…” Tears began to pour from your eyes, leaving you choked up and lost in your own regretful thoughts. The doctor sighed then said, “The only way for your mother to get better is for her to get surgery. She has to undergo pulmonary rehabilitation too before she gets surgery. You may ask for loans to help pay for the surgery and we will do anything we can to help you pay for medical finances.” A nurse came running to the doctor, informing him that he was needed in the third floor. At that, you thanked the doctor for his help and support, then watched him disappear in the sea of bustling people.

A few months have passed, and you decided to stick around in school until graduation. You knew that your mom would have been upset if you didn’t at least graduate from high school, so you decided to suck it up and worked hard until the end. Although, you were glad to leave that horrible place while barely passing. Originally, you had really good grades but it became harder for you to even concentrate in your final year of high school ever since your mother’s hospitalization. Word got out in your school that your mother was staying in the hospital, since one of the students who was brought in from your class overheard you talking to a teacher in the teacher’s lounge about your personal issues affecting your school performance during lunch break. Consequently, the treatment that your classmates gave you got even worse but you didn’t let that bother you. On the other hand, you were just glad that you got to graduate with your head held high regardless of the harsh bullying and the criticism towards you. In some way, this made you realize that you won over them.

Yeah, that’s right. I never gave up. So, fuck all of you.

At the time when you were trying to finish high school, you were managing a few part-time jobs after school and on the weekends just to help pay for the rent and manage your mom’s hospital bills. Luckily, you snagged a job as a waitress at a ramen bar next to the train station where a lot of customers get to stop by. On the other hand, you go to a nearby karate dojo near your place and worked as an assistant there. Just carrying boards, wooden planks, and gathering protective gear for karate sessions was simple enough to earn a generous amount of cash. Hell, you even enjoyed those intense karate matches that you get to see every week. Just observing your favorite karate students kicking ass was fun for you to watch. After all, you started to treat them like they’re your own students too even though they’re around the same age as you. It was as if you were their manager.

Fatigue was starting to catch up to you, yet you felt fortunate for the given opportunities. However, it wasn’t enough to pay for your mother’s hospital bills. You had no choice but to sign up for the special loan program that was being provided by the hospital. While your mother’s monthly bills were barely paid for, your debts started to increase exponentially which made you question whether you’re able to keep pushing yourself to work or not.

No. I have to keep going. I can’t let mom down like this.

After visiting your mom in her hospital room, you were about to leave to go to the ramen place for your upcoming shift until a poster with slips of phone numbers attached to it was on the hospital’s bulletin board. It caught your eye, so you decided to stop and take a look at its content.

Need more cash? Why not work ABROAD?

You have been given a special opportunity to move to any of the following countries abroad, and stay there for 1 year:

China

India

Indonesia

Singapore

South Korea

This is a chance of a life time, so don’t miss it since the number of people who are granted this opportunity are LIMITED.

Jobs will be provided for you through our own job recruiting agency, and we will ensure that you will be given jobs that are best suited for you.

All finances will be taken care of by our private company. Plane tickets, temporary housing, and more!

If you don’t have any form of identification such as passport, personal I.D., or any documents needed to travel, we got you covered!

Don’t worry about paying us back, because everything is FREE!!!

If this sounds interesting, please call one of these numbers now, and we’ll offer additional compensation for your job! GUARANTEED.

Sounds like a dream come true, right? Earning money was all that matters to you. At least, that’s what you were thinking of at that time to set you and your mother free from this hell hole of a reality, called life.

You decided to contact someone from that job recruiting agency, and they gladly accepted your service to them. Through the phone, they instructed you to go to a certain address right at the outskirts of Tokyo, where their company’s headquarters were at. They explained that they needed you to go there so that they can help you finalize all of the paperwork needed to travel and so, you went there without even thinking twice.

On the side of a street, you booked a cab and you headed over there right away. Once you got there, the taxi driver signaled that you were at your destination. You gave him the money and right when you got out of the cab, you found yourself standing in front of an old chipped building that was surrounded by other old abandoned industrial sites. There were only two black tinted cars parked at the very end of the parking lot, as the rest of the parking slots were all empty. A chilly gust of wind blew past you, making you shiver.

Is this really the right place? That taxi driver better have taken me to the right location.

Your hand slipped into your pocket as you took out a small slip of paper, which was the address that you wrote down during the phone call. Your eyes scanned the first few numbers of the address then compared it to the number of the building that was etched at the front of its exterior.

Yup, this is the one.

While slowly walking towards the door, your heart started hammering through your chest and you could feel your breathing hitch anxiously. You turned the door knob and slowly opened the door. Ding! A small bell from the door chimed your arrival, which made you jump.

You looked around the room nervously. There was a wooden desk sat right in front of the entrance and sitting behind it was a man with buff arms who was holding the newspaper right in front of him. An ash tray laid in front of his newspaper, as you watched a trail of smoke rise from behind the newspaper. “So you finally arrived, (Y/N).”

The man peeked from behind his newspaper then set it aside. Before getting up from his seat, he stretched to crack his back, neck, and knuckles that were dressed full of thick golden rings. You observed this man from head to toe. He had a scar visible over his eyebrow. His facial features were rough, with a bit of stubble above his upper lip and on his chin. His hair was slicked back, pompadour style. The side of his neck was painted in tattoos that were images of old Japanese calligraphy on his right side and a green menacing oni was on his left. His outfit was very professional as he wore a black suit with an expensive purple silk tie. “This way.” He grumbled before walking through a narrow hallway full of other offices.

While eyeing the rooms that you passed by, you caught a few other men arranging wooden crates in one room. They all looked pretty built and they looked like the type of men that if you ever met eye contact with them, you’d be dead on the spot. Quickly, you averted your eyes away from the room, worried that they would question you if you meet eye-to-eye with them.

Who are they, yakuza?

Eventually, you reached the end of the hallway to his private study. The newspaper guy closed the door behind the both of you and offered a chair for you to sit in front of his desk. Once the two of you got comfortable in your seats, he pulled out a stack of documents from his desk file and placed them right in front of you. He looked you in the eyes as he let out a puff of smoke from his cigarette that was stuck between his yellow stained teeth. “The name’s Ryuji. I’m glad that you decided to take us up on this special offer, Ms. (Y/N).” He propped his hands onto his desk seriously, while his gaze towards you became even more intimidating, like a tiger ready to strike. “Shall we begin?”

One by one, he handed you a document to sign while he summarized each one. The first document was a contract, stating that the agency will not be responsible for your belongings, safety, and health if it is not within the agency’s reach. They will not interfere with whatever actions you take while staying in another country, as long as you abide by the agency’s rules to ensure your own safety. The process of labor immigration will be taken care of by them, and in exchange, your discipline, proper work ethics, and determination is needed to fulfill the job position that will be assigned to you. By the end of the contract, he handed you a pen to sign. Without hesitation, you decided to sign.

You’re doing the right thing. This is for mom. All of this is for her.

The rest of the documents were taken care of. All personal information that was needed to travel was given straight to Ryuji, for him to sign papers on his end as a private contractor. He asked you which country would you like to go for work, and you chose “South Korea”. The reason why you chose South Korea was because you were more familiar with the Korean language than any other language from those other countries that was being offered. Good thing you went to a high school that offered to teach Korean as an additional language requirement.

Eventually, he gave you a plane ticket for a booked flight set in three days and an envelope that had enough cash for you to settle into the country that you’ll be working at. After everything was taken care of, he offered to let one of his personal chauffeurs to take you back home. “Goodbye (Y/N), thank you for choosing our agency to help you get what you need. I wish you the best of luck in Korea!” Ryuji waved while watching you ride off down the road. You watched behind you as the view of Ryuji and that agency grew smaller and smaller into the background.

Three days later, you boarded your flight to Korea and have safely landed at Incheon International Airport in Seoul. The day before you left for Korea, you visited your mother while she was sleeping. You gave her a light kiss on her forehead after whispering your words of goodbyes to her. “Bye mom, I’ll be gone for a while. I’ll miss you so much. And please, wait for me till I get back. I’ll work hard for both you and me, so hang in there!”

Now you’re on the grounds of Seoul! It is around five in the afternoon, and you finally exited the airport. While walking out, you walked pass a sea full of cars, taxis, and shuttles that were dropping off and picking up many people.

Geez, this place is so crowded! Where’s the pick-up service that Ryuji told me to look out for?

Before leaving the agency, Ryuji mentioned that an escort will come and pick you up from the airport. While scanning the bustling drop-off site, your eyes finally locked on a sign that says your name on it, written in big letters. You hurried over towards the person who was holding up the sign above their head while waving your arm wildly to get their attention. “Hey, over here!” (You said in Korean.)

The escort that was wearing black uniform took notice of you and waved back as he walked towards you. In Korean he said, “Hello, welcome to Seoul! You must be (Y/N). My name is Tae and I will be your driver to the Korean branch of the job agency. I’ll take care of your luggage while you get in the car.” You nodded as you gladly handed your luggage bag over to Tae for him to put in the trunk and got in the black Bentley.

Wow, leather seats. How fancy. Is it normal here in Korea to ride in expensive cars like this?

You were so excited that while Tae was driving, you marveled at the sights outside of the window as you passed by them. However, while staring at the unfamiliar streets of Seoul, your eyes grew heavier as they slowly closed. It didn’t take long for the fatigue to get to you, making you drift into a deep comfortable sleep.

“Miss, we’re here!”

You were woken up by Tae’s call as your eyes slowly fluttered open. You looked out the window and you were surprised to see that the sky was already dark. You jolted up in your seat as you looked around your surroundings from inside the car.

What the hell? Where am I?

You noticed that Tae wasn’t in the driver’s seat anymore. Actually, he was nowhere to be found. You shifted to the other side of the backseat to get a better view of your surroundings. You could still see that you were around the city area, but now, you were in a more secluded area than before. The tall skyscrapers were far away but still visible in the distance. The streets that you were in, barely had any people strolling around at this time. You noticed that the car was parked in front of a sketchy looking bar. The words, “Venus’s Paradise” displayed on the sign of the bar, surrounded by pink flashy lights around the words.

What is this place? Why am I here? This isn’t the agency’s branch. I need to call Ryuji right away!

You grabbed your phone from your pocket and you quickly dialed Ryuji’s phone number. As you anxiously waited for him to pick up, things were starting to look unpromising. The call immediately went to a “this phone number is not available” message that left you terrified out of your wits, so you decided to call Ryuji’s number again.

Dammit, come on and pick up the phone already!!!

After a few rings, the phone repeated the same automatic message. “FUCK!” Frustration swept over you as you ran your fingers through your hair. “I should’ve listened to my gut instead, I knew those bastards were shady! Those assholes-“ You heard the lock of the car click as the door to your right side opened up. You swiftly turned around as you saw two big strangers trying to reach over to you to grab you. Tae was just behind them, silently observing while lighting a cigarette in his mouth. You saw that your luggage bag was standing right next to him. “Come on, hurry up and grab her already! The boss is waiting, and he won’t be happy about this if we’re late. Make sure you bring her all in one piece!”

One of the muscular henchmen got a hold of your arms and tugged you out of the car. You tried resisting by thrashing around, but those strong humanoid freaks behind you restrained you by holding both of your arms behind your back. “Tae, this is a mistake! Why are you doing this?! I’m here to work, not get mixed up in with these creeps!”

Tae stared you down with an unsympathetic look in his eyes. He released an exhausted puff of smoke from his mouth before throwing his cigarette to the ground to properly extinguish it. Finally, his true colors were shown. He walked towards you then forcefully grabbed onto your chin as he leaned in closer to you. You can feel and smell his hot breath that reeked of cigs. “Listen here, girl. The only reason why you’re here now is because you’ve been chosen to become one of the lovely women who will serve our boss. Pretty little things like you could either be part of his little harem shit, or become one of the special hostesses that will satisfy the boss’s powerful friends.”

You gritted your teeth, trying to think of a plan to get out of this situation. “Then, what the hell was all of that contract shit then? What if the agency will look for me if I go missing? Isn’t this still considered THEIR business?” The two buff maniacs behind you chuckled while Tae sneered, “I wouldn’t say so. After all, this is out of their reach now. Didn’t you read the contract properly? You wouldn’t know that the guy who helped you get here in the first place is considered as one of the important business partners of our boss. He basically just sold you off to him. So now, stop acting like a little bitch and let’s go! We don’t got time for this.” Tae turned around to lead the way and right when they were going to push you inside-

NOW!!!

You kicked Meathead #1 on your left from behind on one of his shins, making him let go of your arms while howling in pain. Meathead #2 behind you looked at his partner confused. While he was distracted you head-butted him backwards as hard as you could, which hit him directly on his nose. Now you had both meatheads yelling in pain, and for that, you sprinted down the street like there’s no tomorrow!

Behind you, you could hear Tae ordering them to chase you. “You idiots! Don’t just stand there, go after her!!!” The two henchmen started bolting after you, while one was covering his now bleeding nose and the other one kept rubbing his leg like a moron. You huffed while trying to find some place to lose them but surprisingly, they’re quicker than you thought even when injured. You could tell by the echoes of footsteps chasing after you getting louder and louder by every minute that goes by.

Damn, where am I supposed to go now?! I left my stuff to that other asshole, and now I’m stuck in a foreign country! I can’t believe I let my own greed for money dictate my own actions. Ugh, I’m so stupid! Stupid stupid stupid stupid stupid!!! I just wanted a good life, is that so much to ask for?!

You were running out of ideas of where to go, so you took a sharp left through an alleyway, but to no avail, you were trapped and chose the wrong turn. You were just met with a big dumpster right in front of you. “Shit.” You heard snickering behind you, making you turn around. The two muscle-headed idiots triumphantly walked towards you, seeing that you finally have no where to go. One of them said, “So much for running away. I can’t believe you managed to escape for a bit. Most beauties that we’ve taken in has never done that before. You’re actually the first to do that.”

You rolled your eyes. “Oh great, thanks. Do I get first place now?” They both stopped in front of their tracks, staring down at you with mischievous grins on their faces. “Oh no, you’ll get MORE than just first place,” said the second guy. “What?” The both of them slammed you against the dumpster, enough for you to dent the dirty tin behind you. You groaned in pain as they both pinned you against it, holding both of your arms over your heard by clamping your wrists together. “Since we’re already running late, they won’t mind if one of the packages go missing since there’s a lot more beauties like you. We’ll just say that we chased you all the way up to the Han River and you decided to jump over the bridge. Although, since you gave us a hard time, you’ll have to repay us with some hardship.” The guy on your left had his finger trailed down from your cheek to your chest, while fumbling with the buttons of your shirt. The other creep licked his lips, enjoying the sight of you trying to struggle against their strong grip. You felt hot tears running down your face. Not from fear, but from rage. Rage that resulted from your lack of physical strength.

“That’s right, bitches like you should feel fear. They should be at the mercy of their masters. Should’ve done what you were told right from the start, then you wouldn’t have to go through this. But don’t worry, it’ll be quick. We’ll take good care of you~” You winced as their grips on your wrists had gotten tighter than before. Their hands started to undo the buttons of your shirt and you squirmed under their touch, still trying to resist them. You shut your eyes, prepared for what was yet to come until…

“How pathetic. Guys like you who couldn’t manage to get a woman with their own charms would resort to something like this. Ah, who knew what the world has come to?”

The two of the men paused and whirled around, shocked to see that there was actually a witness who saw everything. You felt their hands loosen a bit from being startled by the stranger. Your eyes slowly opened, curious to see where that voice came from. In front of the three of you was a tall blonde man with glasses blocking the way out of the alleyway. His outfit screamed rich and expensive, with his flashy GUCCI light blue suit and pants. His suit was printed with an intricate pattern, somewhat like clovers. His outfit was paired with a white buttoned-up polo shirt underneath and a golden tie wrapped around his neckline.

The blonde gave a wicked grin as if he was excited to beat up any guy he sees, regardless of who it may be. The glint in his eyes says it all too. In return, the two assholes in front of you glared back at the blonde. “And who the hell are you?” spat one of them.

“Oh yeah, you should know my name before you get your asses handed by me. My name’s Joon Goo Kim. It’s a pleasure to be here, really. I was just so bored waiting for my ride to come pick me up, so I decided to wander around the streets of Gangnam. Oh man, I’m so glad I heard you idiots loud and clear from the outside of this alleyway. At least now I have some form of entertainment to keep me company. So, now I’ll give you two options and you’ll only get three seconds to decide. First, you can leave the woman be and fight me to your heart’s content, OR, you can give me five billion won and I’ll pretend that I didn’t see or hear anything then leave.”

You couldn’t believe what you were hearing. From the Korean that he just spoke, you could understand a decent amount of it. Thank god, you actually paid attention during class. However, from the words that you understood from him, you can confirm:

This guy’s another asshole. Actually, a major freak for violence. The blonde bastard didn’t show up just to save me. He actually came just to have a brawl? Are all men in Korea THIS ABSURD?!

You felt an uneasy chill go up your spine. Your senses were telling you that the blonde man, named Joon Goo, may be dangerous. Even when you couldn’t do anything at that moment, you could feel how close your sweet escape was. An opening will soon reveal itself soon.

“Three.”

Both of the muscle-brained idiots started to enrage in panic. “Now, wait a second!”

Goo was still grinning in amusement. “Two.”

“Why the hell should we follow YOUR orders, huh?!” They started to completely loosen their restrain on you.

Even though you started to despise the blonde guy in front of you, you realized that he unintentionally gave you an opportunity to escape. You now see a bright light in between the two guys standing in front of you, with their backs now turned towards you.

Thank you.

“O-“

You swiftly sped right through the opening in between the two of them towards Goo. The two knuckleheads were surprised to see you swept past them out of the blue like that. Even Goo’s eyes widened a bit in surprise. “You bitch!” The guy that was on your left stepped and reached out to you to try and grab your head until-

WHAM!

By instinct, you stopped on your tracks for a split second, whirled around, and round-house kicked the guy on the side of his head with your right foot. In slow motion, all of you watched as you sent him flying straight into the wooden wall. With such force, a loud crack was heard where his skull made contact with the wall underneath a gust of all of that rubble. His head was now etched deep into the wall with the rest of his body hanging unconsciously while dust was still flying everywhere.

The other creep stood near the dumpster as his jaw dropped to the floor, staring at the sight in disbelief. “H-how the hell was that possible…?” Your head pointed up towards the sky. You let out an exhausted sigh, as if you let all of your energy into that one kick. You didn’t see Goo’s reaction clearly, but you could have sworn that he was grinning even more maniacally than ever. “How interesting. I didn’t see that one coming.” he whispered to himself. In your head, you were trying to process what just happened but you started to feel a bit light headed.

How did I even do that? I’ve never fought before in my life, and yet, I knew how to pull a move like that? Where did that even come from and where have I seen that move before?

While trying to control your breathing, your head slowly turned towards your next target. A gleam of danger emanated threateningly from your eyes, making the buff idiot flinch. His eyes then changed from fear to a new spark of annoyance and rage. “H-how dare you fucking scare me like that for just a second. How could a bitch like you manage to do that?! You just got lucky!” He started running towards you with his fists clenched outward and ready to strike. As he went for a jab to your face, you shifted your weight to your right leg and countered his punch with a left side kick. You feel yourself light on your feet while you shift from side to side, trying to give distance between the two of you and dodged every attempted punch. This gave you time to think of a proper attack to land a powerful kick on him. It was like everything was automatic to you. Like information was just stored into your brain without you even being aware of it.

It has been a while since the two of you have been going at each other. While you were in the middle of defending yourself, Goo was watching intently, observing your swift moves until he heard someone call for him from behind. “Hey Goo, you asshole. I told you to wait for me in front of Gangnam Station.” Goo raised an eyebrow as he turned to see who had finally arrived to the scene. “Ah, you finally came. What took you so long?”

Another tall man was walking towards Goo. Just like Goo’s entrance, this man’s impression was very rich and suave in taste. His dark hair was well-kept as the sides of his head were trimmed and the top of his head was slicked back nicely. His face had on wide-rimmed glasses, not enough to make his eyes visible to see through them from a viewer’s perspective. The new stranger had a long black coat over his shoulders, swaying from the breeze. Underneath, was a unique button-down maroon suit matching with his pants. Inside the multiple layers of expensive clothing was a white long sleeve polo shirt, as well as a bright yellow tie. He was a really attractive man, however, he was not in his best mood.

He stopped on his tracks right next to Goo and turned to look at him with annoyance. “You made me search for you all over Gangnam, you bastard.” His hand reached into his pocket for a cigarette from a new pack he just bought, then popped it in his mouth. On the other hand, he got out a lighter and lit the cig in his mouth before puffing a smoke. His gaze fixated on Goo’s fascinated pupils pointing towards the small fight that you and the only conscious henchman were having.

You didn’t notice the new stranger’s entrance, since you were too busy countering the guy’s punches with your kicks. Blocking and kicking over and over again was starting to tire you out, but that didn’t let you give up just yet.

Goo and the new guy watched intently in silence, observing your movements.

“So, who is she?”

Goo shrugged. “Don’t know.”

“How long have they been going at it for?”

“Not sure. Probably for about thirty minutes now.”

Mr. Wide-Rims chuckled. “I’m surprised someone like her is able to hold on for that long. If I were to catch her out in the street, I wouldn’t have thought of her as a fighter. I don’t sense that vibe coming off from her.”

Goo pushed his glasses back onto his nose bridge. “You have noooo idea. At first, I found her helpless like a little kitten by the dumpster but I didn’t know that she would manage to pull something like that.” He pointed over to the other guy whose head was still punctured into the wall while his limp body was still hanging.

The guy with black hair smirked at the sight of the unconscious man. “Oh? What a terrifying woman… hm?” His eyes turned back to the duel, watching the way you moved. Your kicks, your fighting stance, and your facial expressions somehow managed to hypnotize him. “I see now. She’s using Kyokushin Karate. I wonder how she learned how to fight like that. She must be an amateur fighter from what you told me so far, but the results that we got in front of us didn’t seem to be like that. So, how come?”

The man that you’ve been fighting with was starting to run out of steam. You could see sweat coming down from the sides of his head. The same goes for you too, as you felt beads of sweat trickling down your forehead.

I need to finish this now. But how can I do that if I can’t find any openings?

“Dammit, this ends now!!!” The man in front of you bellowed and bolted straight towards you with his fist outwards, ready to come for the final blow. All of a sudden, your vision became narrower. Your surroundings dimmed around you, as if your body suddenly transported into a dark empty room. The guy coming towards you was the only thing visible in sight. His movements played in slow motion and you finally saw the opening that you were hoping for. Right in front of you was a circle of light illuminating around his face.

“Gotcha.”

With a spring from your heel, you leaped towards him then landed on flat on your left foot. As you put pressure onto your left foot from the fall, you swung your right leg forward then kicked him as hard as you can. The tip of your shoe landed straight for his chin before he could have managed to go for a straight punch. The impact that your foot had with his chin resulted in lots of teeth broken from the force of his lower jaw onto his upper set of teeth. Eventually, his body flew straight up into the air, like a projectile that just fired. The direction where his body was sent flying went straight into the dumpster with a loud thud. The back of his head ricochet a bit off of the edge of the dumpster where he landed with his whole body laid spread out. All the poor guy could feel at that moment was just pain all over his body, which led him to pass out on the spot.

Mr. Wide-Rims gaped in awe as his cigarette slowly fell from his mouth. The way you sent that man flying was such a beautiful sight to see. Everything about that moment was perfect. The timing was just right. The amount of force you used on your movements was calculated perfectly. The energy that was used up from that attack was well-spent. All of these factors somehow mesmerized the man who has been fighting all throughout his life. He had never seen moves before that looked so picturesque like a perfect movie. Especially, from a woman such as yourself. “How can her moves be so graceful? I’ve never seen anything like that before.”

Goo on the other hand, had a glint of wickedness in his eyes. Unlike the first time he saw you send someone flying, his vision became clearer. The sight that he gladly witnessed caused him to come up with a great idea that he thought would benefit him. An idea that he never knew was coming…

Your legs almost gave out as you caught yourself from falling by holding onto your knees. While breathing heavily from all of the action that had taken place, your head sunk down as you tried to catch your breath. “Well, well, well. I guess we have a winner.”

Your head tilted back upwards, as you now see two figures standing in front of you. Goo was still standing there, as he gave you a small mischievous wave. Right next to him was someone you assumed was a new stranger. You and the mysterious stranger locked eyes with one another, even though you couldn’t really see his eyes through those glasses of his. However, even though you couldn’t make out what his eyes looked like through those wide-rimmed glasses of his, his presence was intense. Similar to Goo’s, when you first encountered him a while ago. You had a feeling that these men were not meant to be messed with.

Goo slowly walked towards you, then leaned in close to your ear, enough to hear him whisper. “I’ll make an important offer for someone special like you. How about you become my secret friend, huh? How about it?”

What? His secret friend? What did he mean by that?

Behind him, the mysterious stranger followed after Goo then stopped in between you and the blonde. He glared at Goo and in an instant, he grabbed onto your arm and pulled you away from Goo’s range. You could now feel the tension spark between them, like tension that started between two street dogs fighting for dominance over a bone they just found. The stranger’s grip on your arm tightened from the anger that started surging through him, until you forcefully yanked back your arm away from him then backed away from the two of them.

“Now hold on a minute. Who the hell do you think you are trying to grab onto me like that? I don’t even know you!”

The dark haired stranger scoffed. “You should be grateful that I tried to get you away from whatever that idiot was trying to get you involved in. However, I apologize. I don’t think I introduced myself. My name’s Jong Gun Park, and I’m willing to take you under my care to become one of my greatest masterpieces.”

You blankly stared at Gun in disbelief.

Huh?

[End of Introduction]

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an-established-butt-dent · 2 months

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Dragon Age Inquisition: Meet Inquisitor Artemis Lavellan

Some love for my OC.

Age: at the start of Inquisition 24, but in my head cannon the Inquisition took like 5 years before they ended Corpypheus. Adding two years of relative peace before Trespasser this makes her in her early thirties now.

She is a Rogue with the assassin specialty.

She looks like a badass but is actually an absolute softy (though she makes terrible romantic choices, like wanting to redeem Solas after he reveals his true identity.) She still believes in the good in people, which might become her downfall to be honest.

She strongly advocated for the freedom of all beings and especially the Elvhen slaves.

Leading a military operation has taken its toll after some years, and so she decided to disband the Inquisition at the Exalted Council. Fearing for corruption and wanting to do things her own way without the meddling of Orlais and Ferelden politics.

She chose to keep her Vallaslin, because even though she feels more distant from her Dalish roots since leading the inquisition. She treasures what they represent to her personally (perseverance) and the connection to her family and clan (yes they all survived Wycome, thank god. Don't plan to make her more traumatized than is necessary, lol).

What else? She bonded with Cassandra over smutty literature, for sure. Her BFF is Dorian. She likes all 4 legged animals especially Dragons. She loves taking naps.

Solas and her have been in like a 3 year(ish) relationship. (Lol I just kept postponing their inevitable breakup, does that count?) and she still held hope that he would come back after he left without a goodbye (I love some tragedy okay). She never expected him to have lied about so many things, so she was incredibly upset during their final confrontation in Trespasser.

Now she is probably plotting revenge, but also mourning having her trust broken by someone so dear to her. (Especially when her Ex keeps looking longingly at her from a distance in the Fade. ' I will never forget you' indeed when you keep following her arround like lost puppy.) But seeing as she makes terrible romantic choices, she will try to fight to make him see reason and doesn't give up on him yet. (Cole greatly approves).

Thanks for comming to my Ted talk. :)

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redfoxwritesstuff · 10 days

Text

Pairing: Eventually Alastor x OFC, later- light Alastor x ofc x Lucifer Rated: E for eventual smut Content warnings: It's Hazbin Hotel- this feels redundant. Sex, eventual smut, referenced implied suicide to be discussed in more detail later, drugs, drinking, poor coping, toxic behavior, controlling behavior, cannibalism, idk, it's fucking Hazbin Hotel, if it's worth a content warning it's probably going to come up at some point? Religious trauma. reader has a name/is a oc.

AN: Why not post another chapter? Idk how long this will end up being, depends on how long the new fandom crack lasts and if anyone wants it.

Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 4

~~~~~<3

Amber tried to relax as Alastor walked her along the chaos filled streets. Being in the city was hard with Angel but at least she felt safe, to an extent. Sure, angel wasn’t particularly powerful but he knew the city and knew how to handle himself. He’d gotten through decades just fine.

Alastor was a powerful Overlord, she had gathered that much though she wasn’t totally sure what exactly that meant. With him at her side, she knew she didn’t really have need to fear most anyone on the city streets. That didn’t change the fact that she was terrified of the man himself. Danger and safety both were complicated things.

“Stop trembling, my dear.” Alastor broke the tense silence. “I’m here to help you~”

“Why?”

“Because I’m bored!” He laughed, “What better way to fill the dreadful time than to raise up the stray little dog our dear Charlie brought into something respectable. Maybe she’ll even be able to stand on her own feet!”

“Why?” Again she asked, not knowing what else to say.

“Ha! I know you’re rather young but I do believe you’re a bit too old for toddler questions. Now! Back straight, shoulders back. Hold yourself like a lady.” Alastor tapped her shoulders and back with the microphone atop his cane, held in the hand tucked behind his back.

“Good girl!” She flushed at the praise and annoyance at being talked down to equally. “And just like that you don’t look so much like a kicked dog. Head up, chin level with the ground. Do they not teach women how to carry themselves anymore? What a shame, what a shame. Long strides now.”

“We’re not really drilled on posture, no. Too busy learning useful skills.”

“And where are those ‘useful skills’ getting you now?” Alastor countered. “And what had they gotten you before you came crawling to my humble hotel.”

Amber stuttered out, trying to think of a single good answer to give him and failing. She hadn’t been able to keep herself safe with reading or writing in her afterlife. Hell, those things had hardly managed to keep her safe in her first life.

“Don’t change a thing.” Alastor directed as she settled into the posture he wanted, allowing silence to fall while she waited for direction.

Her hips rocked more with each step, trying to keep pace with him as he guided her down the sidewalk. It took work to keep her shoulders back and spine straight, more than she expected. It worked muscles she rarely paid much attention to. She focused on her breathing as they passed storefronts, finding a rhythm she could almost comfortably settle into at his side.

“And how does that make you feel?” Alastor leaned into her as he spoke, encroaching on what little personal space she had with her hand tucked into his arm, “Confident? Prideful? Arrogant?”

“A little?” She hated that he was right, even a tiny bit. She also hated how bitter the idea of those feelings tasted in her mouth. A woman shouldn’t be confident. She shouldn’t be prideful. To be arrogant was wrong. But did any of that matter, really? Was she not in Hell?

“In Hell, physical power goes a long way,” Alastor began his lecture, “Perceived power goes near as far. By luck alone, you stumbled into the acquaintanceship of powerful people. That and the ability to bluff will protect you from many. Using that pretty little head on your shoulders will protect you from many of those who may still try you.”

Amber tried to absorb the advice Alastor had given her. He wasn’t the first person she would expect to give her life coaching in Hell but she was far from in a position to shun it.

Something had to change though, Angel was right- she couldn’t just hide in the hotel forever.

He opened the door to a shop for her and ushered her inside with a hand at the small of her back. It was a simple tailor’s shop, with shelves full of bolts of fabric and figures displaying sample patterns. The sheep demon working behind the counter looked absolutely terrified to see the Overlord, a feeling Amber could relate to instantly. Alastor paid the reaction no mind at all however.

“My little lamb, how are you today?” The sheep meeped out an answer and gathered a stack of shirts, mostly red but some back and all near identical from what Amber could see.

“Your order, Mr. Alastor, Sir. If you’d like to inspect it before I wrap it?”

“Very good,” Alastor gave the stack a fleeting glance as he pulled Amber up to the counter. “I have another task for you of rather urgent need, I do hope you can accommodate it?”

The sheep meeped again, clearly too terrified to turn the powerful man down. Amber wanted to offer some sort of assistance to the sheep woman, some way to get the attention she was so uncomfortable with off of her but there wasn’t much that could be done.

“You see, this lovely little fox isn’t well dressed and she needs to be.”

“What would you like?” The woman came around the counter, eager to put her attention on Amber. It gave the small sheep a reason to focus her attention anywhere other than Alastor without appearing rude.

“Something dignified and elegant.” Alastor answered before Amber could open her mouth. “A few items, skirts and dresses.”

“Colors?” The woman asked.

“Make her match.” Alastor decided with a flick of his wrist as the woman finished taking measurements. She was quick and efficient while Alastor laid out what specifics he wanted. “Have it done by end of tomorrow. Thank you~”

“That’s so fast!” Amber couldn’t help chastising as Alastor led her out of the store while she tried to turn and face the woman quickly going behind the counter. She wasn’t sure what she wanted to tell the little sheep but somehow, she wanted to reduce the pressure.

“And so the fox does have a voice?” Alastor laughed, unphased by her protests. “I pay a premium to be a priority, I expect to recieve the services I pay for, simple as that. Now, let’s do something about shoes for those feet. What you’re wearing is simply dreadful.”

~~~~~<3

Amber had no idea what to make of the day. A imp man thing, black as night and tinted with green walked behind them carrying her bags, not that there were a great many of them. The lines and eyes of the imp were lime green.

A flash of her life top side reminded her that evil was always lime green. That was just in Disney movies however. This was real life. Well, real after life. Fuck this was weird. Who would have thought Hell would be so normal and yet so weird.

“Thank you,” Amber struggled to find her voice. She didn’t know what to make of Alastor. The man still scared her but he hadn’t been anything other than joyfully creepy.

“It is nothing my dear. It wouldn’t do to let the spider dress you alone. He’d have you looking a unsavory lady of the night. That would surely give our fine establishment a poor reputation.” Rude. Not totally wrong but still, rude.

“Can’t have that.” Amber braved saying.

While Angel hadn’t pushed her to buy anything she said no to, he did push her comfort level. It didn’t take much to do that however, her life up top had been full of below the knee skirts, high necklines and long sleeves.

With the simple blouses, modest skirts and slacks that Alastor was having tailored for her, she was being afforded the ability to tone down what had already been acquired. Hopefully she could find a middle ground that allowed her to live her afterlife a little more free and still not feel so exposed.

“Indeed, we cannot.” Alastor hummed a bouncy tune as he walked them down the sidewalk, his steps light.

They walked in near silence otherwise, just the clicking of their heels against the concrete and the melody from Alastor. As they went though, Amber received a sharp correction each time her spine slouched or her shoulders moved forward. The cane floated behind her, smacking whatever part of her fell out of his desired alignment was quickly becoming her number one enamy in Hell.

“That’s starting to hurt.” Amber grumbled as the hotel drew closer.

“Oh? Don’t want to be corrected, do not do anything needing correction. I can’t have a limp flower on my arm.”

~~~~~<3

“Welcome back!” Charlie was eager to see them enter, nearly exploding as soon as the door opened.

Amber ducked away from Alastor as he held the door open for her. It felt ridiculous honestly, to scurry away from him after having spent hours with him but she couldn’t help it. Her back ached from maintaining the posture he demanded and she wasn’t sure what she wanted more- to be free from that damn cane that kept whacking her or free from the imposing presence of Alastor himself.

“Oh good, Creepyface didn’t eat you.” Angel joked, or at least she had hope that it was a joke, as she put more and more distance between the towering man in red and herself. It felt like she could finally breathe.

“Tomorrow you’ll accompany me to collect your items.” Alastor announced, rather than asked.

“Oh, okay.” Amber said dumbly, wanting to say anything else.

“Seriously, I’m glad he didn’t eat you.” Angel said, passing Amber a drink as she reached the bar.

“Was that a real concern?” She asked softly, clinging to the safety of what felt like her first friend in hell.

“I don’t know, probably!” Angel said, looking to the bartender for confirmation. “It’s not crazy, right Husk?”

“Not out of the question.” He grumbled, giving Angel a new glass to replace the one he had given her.

“So, what did he want with you anyway?” Angel leaned, to the side and crossed his long legs while he gave her his full attention.

“I don’t know?” Amber grimaced at the taste of the strong drink in the glass Angel had given her as it burned it’s way down her throat. “He was worried about what clothes we got, that they would give the hotel a bad reputation.”

“Figures, stuck up prude.” Angel grumbled, downing his drink only to get a quick refill. “Probably can’t get laid and doesn’t want to be reminded. If he just asked me nicely-”

“I will close this goddamn bar down.” Husk warned though Amber wasn’t sure the hotel bar ever closed.

“I am sure he doesn’t need help with that,” Amber tried to defend.

Alastor was a handsome man in his own demonic way and power radiated off him. Sure, he was smile was sickeningly yellow and he was terrifying but since the dawn of time, woman have been falling at the feet of terrifying men. Panties dropped for powerful men all the time, looks be damned.

“He’s not unattractive and is a gentleman,” She added.

“Ha!” Angel snorted into his drink. “But that smile! I bet woman dry up as soon as he turns that creepy look on them.”

“That’s so rude.” Amber hushed him, trying not to laugh at the way Angel waved his arms, ever so animated.

“I guess there’s a kink for everything,” Angel sighed. “Would you fuck him?”

“Oh, I- I don’t, I mean- I, I don’t know him, not really. And he wouldn’t, I mean-”

“I’m fuckin with ya, Foxy. Calm down!” Angel laughed, downing his drink. “I don’t think he fucks anyway, even if you were interested. I’ve tried!”

“I am going to bed.” Amber decided, knowing it was the only way she was going to escape this situation. There wasn’t any way in the goddamn world she wanted to have this conversation.

Alastor creeped her the fuck out. The idea of Alastor fucking creeped her the fuck out. The idea of fucking Alastor should creep her the fuck out. It would any sane person and the fact that it didn’t totally was not something she was going to dwell on.

Not after spending what felt like hours being smacked by his cane. Her fucking back was probably going to be bruised. That’s what she needed to be focused on. That and figuring out how to exist in a way that kept Alastor’s attention off of ‘correcting’ her.

What she needed to dwell on was the fact that she was weak, powerless, weaponless and stuck in hell with nothing but a hotel to protect her. Sure, she’d come a hell of a long way, she had a bed to sleep in and now clothes to wear but all it would take was them deciding she wasn’t worthy or something and she was back to hiding in alleyways and trying to not draw attention.

“Amber?” It was Charlie’s voice that stopped her in the hall, turning to face the tall princess. The air around Charlie was different. The sunshine and rainbows had been replaced by a soft assurance. She was in Princess mode. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah,” Amber was caught off guard, far more used to seeing her in her over eager high energy mode the princess existed in most of the time. “Is that surprising?”

“No! No, I just-” Charlie struggled to put her words together. “Alastor’s just, he can be a lot sometimes.”

Amber laughed, she couldn’t say why. Maybe her sanity was fracturing. Maybe Hell was getting to her. Maybe she finally felt safe. Maybe it was the whacks to the back of her head when her eyes would fall to the ground as they walked.

“I had better times before,” She settled on saying. “But it wasn’t the worst time I’ve had. I- He’s really intimidating.”

“Be careful with him, okay? Don’t make any deals with him.”

“He’s dangerous.” Amber stated rather than asked.

“Very.” Charlie confirmed before adding, “He wouldn’t hurt a guest though!” as if that wasn’t in direct contradiction to her direction to be careful. “I’ll let you get some rest.”

“Charlie?” Amber called as the other woman made it a few feet down the hall. When Charlie looked back to Amber, she said “Thank you, for giving me a place to stay.”

~~~~~<3

The morning brought a fresh redemption activity. Amber was certain they wouldn’t work, hell surely wasn’t something you escaped from but who was she to argue. She was a guest, living rent free in exchange for whatever straightening up she could come up with to do and an honest attempt at participation.

Opening the door to head down, she walked right into the massive pink frame of Angel.

“Sorry Foxy.” He caught her with his lower arms, keeping her from falling. “I found the buttons and thread. Figured we’d fix your clothes up.” In his upper hands he held a pair of scissors and a small sewing kit, safely above her head. It had to be nice to have four hands, once one got over the weirdness of it.

Nodding, Amber let him in for what ended up being the most awkward experience in her afterlife. He had her lift her shirt so he could see her ass clearly and establish where and how exactly her tail extended from her body.

He was so tall and lanky that he could sit on the floor and comfortably grab at her clothes, moving her how he wanted without having to slouch down. Amber couldn’t even begin to imagine what the world looked like from his stature. How was it everyone around her was so fucking tall, with few exceptions and she only gained a few inches in her afterlife?

He cut down the back seam of her leggings until her tail rested naturally, though the rest of her was far from comfortable with the pink face focusing so intently on her ass. Sure, he looked at, touched and fucked asses all night, every night for his employment. For him, it was probably as normal as looking at someone’s hand or arm.

For Amber though, she didn’t have nearly as much experience having her ass examined. Especially knowingly. She had been sheltered, having only been with one man and if others looked at her ass to appreciate it, it was a moral failing on her part.

“Cute panties, oh wait- you’re not wearing any!” Angel laughed as he moved the fabric around.

“Shut up.” She hated that her voice was more of an embarrassed whine than forceful. It would have just been another layer of fabric that was bunched awkwardly under her tail. It was just another moral failing.

“You’re so goddamn pure.” Angel laughed. “Why the hell are you here?”

“Guess I wasn’t pure enough.” Amber shrugged, not knowing if she wanted to say why or if he really wanted to know.

It wasn’t something she really heard a lot of people saying. Perhaps most people had many reasons they were in hell and couldn’t identify the one thing that tipped the balance of their soul. Maybe she was wrong and it wouldn’t have mattered if she hadn’t done that thing and just being in the wrong faith was enough.

Did it fucking matter?

“How’s that feel?” Angel asked instead of teasing her anymore while he examined her tail. His finger traced down her spine from her lower back down to where the vertebrae shifted, shooting out and continuing into the tail instead of terminating into the sacrum.

“Better.” She had to admit all the awkward attention on her ass was worth it.

“Good. Don’t move or I might sew your ass cheeks together.” Angel said though Amber knew the general set up of her body made that unlikely. “Or I would if you had much of an ass back here.”

He first set a stitch at the seam, preventing any further unraveling of her pants. After that, he put a button on the waistband and created a hole for it. It wasn’t his neatest work he’d ever done but it would hold.

“We could stick a bow on it next time- that’d be kind of hot.” Angel laughed as Amber squeaked at the indecent idea. “Make your little ass a present.”

“Shut up,” Amber whined as Angel laughed. This was what it felt like to have a friend. It was foreign, something she hadn’t realized that she missed from life. “You’re an ass.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Angel swatted her ass before acting like the strike hurt his hand. “Settle down and let me button you up.”

“Thank you.” Amber wiggled her tail as Angel buttoned the back of her pants, enjoying the feeling of having it freely move while trying to ignore Angel.

“It’s not perfect but it’ll hold. I’ll do the rest later if ya want.”

“I can do them I think, if I use this as a guide. Thank you though.”

~~~~~<3

Charlie had exercises lined up. It didn’t feel like it had much of a point but who was Amber to challenge the process. The ever so kind princess was wholly invested in her plan to redeem sinners even if the group she had to work with was mostly hotel staff.

“So, I thought- maybe we can learn about each other’s lives from up top!” Charlie seemed very proud of herself for the idea as everyone in the room shifted uncomfortably. “Who wants to go first?”

Crickets. Amber felt bad for the silence that stretched on. No one seemed eager to talk about their living lives. She certainly didn’t want to.

“Okay, I’ll go first!” Charlie decided. Amber could feel her ears twitching doubtfully atop her head. “I have never actually been up top! I was born and raised here.”

It shocked Amber that the princess had always been in hell. The woman was more sunshine and rainbows than most people she had known in her life. If anyone deserved a life, it was her.

“You next!” Charlie pointed at her girlfriend who looked extremely uncomfortable.

“I had a lot of sisters.” Vaggie threw out as Charlie squealed in joy before all attention was directed to Angel.

He was just as uncomfortable as Vaggie appeared. “I came from a large Italian American family.” He took the path Vaggie had chosen as well, going with a generic family answer. Not participating but still participating just enough to skate by.

Husk had a likewise vague answer. All anyone was learning about their hotel housemates was that they had come from families which was a given. They had to be born and raised at some point. Even Nifty’s answer had been family based- Though Amber couldn’t imagine it, she had been alive at one point too and had no siblings.

Soon enough, all eyes were on her. It felt like the shadows themselves had eyes that were trained on her. Never in her life had Amber wanted less attention on her. It was suffocating.

“I had a daughter.” She finally said, looking into Charlie’s eyes and deciding to give her a bone, just a little bit more of herself than the others have given. “She was beautiful and caring and kind and sweet. The light of my life.”

“She’s still alive.” Angel assumed. It would make sense, Amber was just recently deceased and children do tend to outlive their parents.

“No,” Amber physically cringed back from the memory even as she forced herself to give more. It was the least she could do to support the princess that so whole heartedly took her in. “She passed shortly before I did.”

Amber stood from her chair in a hurry. She wanted a drink or she wanted to run but neither would have been a nice thing to do. It wasn’t Charlie’s fault that her little trust game struck a nerve. Likewise, it wasn’t her fault that Amber had decided to share her daughter and not something painless like having a father or sister or pet.

“I should go straighten up… something.” Amber decided.

#Alastor x oc #Alastor x original character #alastor x reader #alastor x you #hazbin alastor x reader #hazbin alastor x you #hazbin alastor x oc #alastor x y/n

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amatres · 5 months

Text

OC Mannerism

thank you @the-raging-tempest for the template! it's hard for me to visualize these sort of things but i hope the general vibe gets across at least!

BASICS :

NO. OF SPOKEN LANGUAGES >> Taldane, Skald, academic Draconic, basic Varisian, rudimentary Kelish

TONE OF VOICE >> Melodic is the best way to describe it. Her voice almost sounds as if she is always somewhat singing. I'd put her around on a higher end of average, with a very soothing cadence. A Mezzo-Soprano.

ACCENT >> Though subtle due to how much moving around she's done as a child and later on in life after running away, Layla has a brevic accent. The irl equivalent for her would be a balkan accent, thank you Taylor for the inspiration😌. Those who aren't from Brevoy wouldn't likely be able to pinpoint where it's from, but those who are would if they were perceptive.

DEMEANOR > Approachable! Very approachable, friendly, and confident. Her confidence is not in a way of being prideful, but of being comfortable in her own skin.

POSTURE >> From the template Cas made that I'm still filling out: Layla carries herself with an easy elegance and the proper poise of one who spent many years among the nobility. Some who watch her say her movement has an almost unnatural grace and assume it’s due to her moroi heritage.

HABITS :

-Layla is always moving in public in some way, swaying back and forth, playing with her hair or clothes. Her favorite is her amulet, and when she becomes more introspective she holds onto it to center herself. She's not incapable of standing still, she just prefers not to.

-Despite, or perhaps because of, her bad vision she is constantly watching her surroundings and looking over her shoulder at the slightest noise. She does her best to disguise this as part of her constant movement, instead of the surveillance it is.

-She is almost always humming to herself, to the point she frequently doesn't realize it.

COMPLEXITY :

VOCABULARY >> ⚫️⚫️⚫️⚫️⚫️ Only held back by own limited vocabulary, as Layla is very well read. Depending on who she is talking to, she can range from speaking casually to speaking as if she is for an Jane Austen novel. It is notable however that the more poetic she is in a conversation, the more likely it is she doesn't like someone. Of course she could just also excited and is getting carried away.

EMOTION >> ⚫️⚫️⚫️⚫️⚪️ Layla wears her feelings on her sleeve with no shame. Whether it joy or grief, you will likely know what she is feeling. Over the years she has tried to catch herself, and with help of people she trust she can at least be brought down from where her emotions take her.

SENTENCE STRUCTURE >> ⚫️⚫️⚫️⚫️⚪ Once again held back by my own limits. Again she is very well read, and had a very proper noblewoman's education, so it bleeds into how she talks.

PROFANITY: She doesn't cuss much, not because it makes her uncomfortable, but because she just doesn't feel like it. Her cussing can be surprising to those who don't expect it.

FREQUENCY >> ⚫️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️

CREATIVITY (in regards to profanity) >> ⚫️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️ BOLD THAT APPLY

arse / ass / asshole / bastard / bitch / bloody / bugger / bollocks / chicken shit / crap / cunt / dick / frick / fuck / horseshit / motherfucker / piss / prick / pussy / screw / shit / shitass / son of a bitch / twat / wanker

THIS OR THAT:

straightforward or cryptic?

finding the right word or using the first word that comes to mind?

masculinity, neutrality, or femininity?

formalities or with abrasiveness?

praise or equivocation? (both, depends on the situation)

frankness or flattery (she does both, depends on the situation)

excessive or minimal hand gestures (idk if excessive is the right word, but she isn't 🧍‍♀️ the whole time either so lol)

name-calling or magnanimity? (this very much depends on who she's talking to and if she has control of her emotions at the moment)

friendly or blunt

IMPORTANT QUESTIONS

DO PEOPLE HAVE A HARD TIME HEARING OR UNDERSTANDING YOUR CHARACTER? Never, she is able to adjust very easily to the needs of who she's talking to. If they can't hear her, it's because of something out of her control or because she didn't want to be heard.

DOES YOUR CHARACTER’S POINT COME ACROSS EASILY WHEN THEY SPEAK? Depends on if she wants it to! But she is in general very articulate, so she has no difficulty sharing her point of view when she wants.

WOULD YOUR CHARACTER INITIATE CONVERSATIONS? Yes! She is the type of person to find someone who is in the corner and talk to them to put them at ease at a party, and try to get them to enjoy their time. She enjoys talking to as many people as she can because she enjoys hearing other people's perceptions.

WOULD YOUR CHARACTER BE THE ONE TO END CONVERSATIONS? Rarely. She will keep a conversation going as long as the other person is comfortable with it! It's only in conversations where she is angered does she cut it short, either to leave, or kill them lol.

WOULD YOUR CHARACTER USE ‘WHOM’ IN A SENTENCE?

Yes, both ironically and not lmao. noble ass but also mischievous ass.

YOUR CHARACTER WANTS TO MAKE A COUNTERPOINT. WHAT WORD DO THEY USE?

but / though / although / however / perhaps / maybe

all of them lmao, it depends on the context.

HOW DOES YOUR CHARACTER END CONVERSATIONS?

If the conversation is ended by her and it's not on a bad foot, she will smile and usually give a thanks for talking to her, say it was nice talking to them, and give a goodbye, though not necessarily all of them at once. If she's close to them she might hug them, or perhaps even kiss them on the cheek. It usually won't be in a formal manner, and she'd try not to overstay her welcome.

WHAT SOCIAL CLASS WOULD OTHERS ASSUME YOUR CHARACTER BELONGS TO, HEARING THEM SPEAK?

Just on voice? Probably they would assume she's from upper middle class, and probably assume she was raised by a wealthy merchant or something similar, or more accurately as a noblewoman. She can change it to better suit who she's talking to, so if she wants to come across a certain way, she likely can and will.

IN WHAT WAYS DOES THE WAY YOUR CHARACTER SPEAK STAND OUT TO OTHERS?

She can put most people who listen to her to ease, whether they notice it or not. She speaks clearly, and is genuinely polite but not to the point of sounding archaic. Most conversations with her leave her conversation partner in a better mood than they entered it with.

Anything that wasn’t touched on? -Despite me pointing out her habit of humming, she is heard laughing even more often. I think she'd have a very cute laugh, one that bubbles up and is infectious.

-Layla is an arabic name meaning 'night' or 'dark', given to her by her mother shortly before her mother's passing. Many believe, including Layla, it to be a purposely on the nose name for her child who was born in the middle of the night as a dhampir. It's pronounced 'lay-luh' as one would expect.

-If she feels threatened, Layla will be more likely to try and manipulate the person into not seeing her as a threat, before ultimately running away when they aren't paying attention. Ie. the fact that she'll mirror who's talking to.

#tag game #layla (oc)#pwotr pals #this one is long but i'm pretty sure i filled out everything #hope this makes sense! i am not very articulate myself lmao

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charlieslowartsies · 6 months

Note

RAHH it’s so cool to see that other people are rereading kgau too, cuz it’s done nothing but lurk in my mind ever since I first found it a few years back, AND that’s what IVE been doing too and I’m having a blast!!

Any commentary on Danny or his character? Or how you came up with him as Jeremy’s kid? Idc I just love that little dude he’s so cool

I often wonder how many times people have reread. If we go by hit count on ao3, I THINK GS or DS has been hit the most? What's funny is they're older and they've been completed for a hit minute, and they're around 10k hits. LW is ongoing, incomplete, and arguably one of my faster completed fics and it's at 10k too lol. I have Danny Fitzgerald comments I suppose! I am VERY tired so I hope these make some semblance of sense xc

Danny was created because I kind of felt Mike had grown used to his surroundings very well. I liked that about Mike! One of the blanket themes of KGA is of course, Found Family. But...I also wanted to explore a more 'holy shit! living robots' reaction. I also needed someone Mike wouldn't LET the gang bully/be cold to.

While Mike worked on ridding them of that learned fear, in the meantime he focused on hiring people that were chill and wouldn't give him more headaches.

So I needed a teenager I decided. I was very hesitant to make him at all. I'm not a huge fan of OCs when it comes to my own writing. It complicates things, and if I wanted a story of OCs I would make that. (Reading them is more fun ^^)

However, the kga series proved I could make something I liked well enough from scratch. Like I've said before, the content we had for Mike Schmidt's character was, yanno, zilch. He might as well have been an oc for a while, until more games and lore appeared over the years. (Obviously KGA does not follow the 'correct' lore. I'm 100% okay with that.)

I hemed and hawed a lot with just keeping Jeremy alive and making Ghost Strings star him, but a fic I loved reading at the time also had an amazing Jeremy and I didn't feel I could write my 'own' version and do it justice. Jeremy as well, if anything, would have a much darker history with the restaurant. Danny was essentially a blank canvas, while still having a reason for being there. He was a fraidy cat--rightly so--but he was determined and he forced himself constantly out of his comfort zone. (I'm sure GS would have been a much different story if Mangle had been active/in the restaurant.)

So, Jeremy had to go. And then I realized I wanted to work on death and loss and that kind of pain.

Danny obviously joins the restaurant for deeply painful and close to selfish reasons, but he's still someone we root for. He's just a dumb teenager looking for something of his father's, not realizing he's the reason he has so little to remember the man by.

All we are made up of is memories. Ours and others, things we take from important people in our lives.

Danny's theme/lesson in GS was 'Even bad memories have a place in a Good life' after all.

Danny's presence in the story helped me explore that mystery, and grief, and what happens when we try to heal ourselves, or when we rely on others to help us, like Bonnie helped Danny. It became a great parallel for Michael/Max Afton, since we learn in Last Shift, YEARS later in the story, this wasn't the first time Bonnie kept something safe for someone out of sheer love and devotion, like Max's beloved cassettes and music-tastes. This was despite Bonnie and the gang being so deeply hurt by Max's attack on them, but he still held on to the Good alongside the Bad.

And of course, giving Bonnet to Danny seemed...so fucken cute and fun and easy. She needed someone, he needed someone, and they just clicked.

My favorite thing about Danny is that everyone liked him so much more than I expected, even just in his first fic. I pursued Finding Freddy with the best intentions, and as hard as that fic was for me, I do not regret making it a Danny!centric fic. It also helps that when he shows up in Lies Within he's clearly done lots of growing, but he's still very mortal and he's very able to die. He still tries to help the restaurant, choosing to embrace the mantle of Day Guard that his father held in the Toys' era. That continued loyalty to Mike ends up being a pretty powerful weapon against the Virus.

Also something I need to explore more is Max is such a puffy little trash cat over Mike when Danny comes onto the scene, although he does lower his hackles within a few months, (and by the time of Lies Within) he's guarded and cautious around Danny. However once Max decides Danny belongs with them, that's it and Max considers him family as much as he's attached to Mike.

One thing I hadn't expected was liking the broship between Ness and Danny that's cropping up in LW. I absolutely want to mull that over more! Vanessa obviously has different...ties and hangups... to Bonnie models, but they really are interesting foils for each other. Esp considering Danny's choices in his older stories and her choices now, including the ones she might still have to make ;)

#kga #knight guard au #ask #answered #phew #ok exhausted i need food then sleep #i wanna WRITEEEEE DX

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ilkkawhat · 7 months

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Fic authors self rec! When you get this, reply with your favorite five fics that you've written, then pass on to at least five other writers. Let’s spread the self-love 🤍

aw 🥺 thanks for sending this to me

Half Past Midnight: My first fic I wrote after a...idk how many years it was hiatus, right at the start of me falling back in love with CSI again and creating things for it; I took such a deep dive into Nick's head and part of what I did in writing this was watching only Nick's parts on a loop, in the dark, with headphones on and I distinctly remember a point where it really got to me and I gasped for air and spooked my dog (don't worry he was okay just startled lol) It was also the first fic I started playing around and including my own headcanons in there

Last Breath: I just...have a lot of good memories from writing this fic. It was probably the most interactive, like I would go so far as to say it was almost even like a collaboration because so many people pitched ideas (the idea for the fic as a whole was straight up handed to me on a silver platter) and made the fic better for it, and I also really got to know my Stokes children OCs in doing this fic--I did do a handful of fics for them before this, but I feel like I really hammered down who they were and it won't be the last fic on this list but I do also have the sequel (First Flight) to use as a chance to cover things I missed in the first one and explore more universe altering headcanons. It was also my first like, longer fic at around 64k word count wise, and right now my longest completed fic lol

Atrophy: I swear this list I'm just going off of fics that I have distinct memories of attachment to; this one I started writing on my way to a wedding and brought back an OC I created back when I was a teenager. After the wedding I had to go to this university for a class paid for by my job and I spent the car rides there and back brainstorming, and even writing in between classes (and if I recall...even during class at some points shh.) Its sequel Agony is uh, giving me some challenges and I regret a lot of things like maybe pushing it out so fast and then losing steam and wishing I did some things different/toned it down, but Atrophy I still feel mostly good about (though man imagine if I went as hard on it as I am with Agony as long and drawn out as it is lol) and the ficverse as a whole is definitely a favorite of mine

For Your Viewing Pleasure: Surprise, another Grave Danger fic. I wrote this during a pretty rough time and just remember being proud of myself for doing it, and wrote it all within a week and the ideas and words just kept...flowing. It felt like I was truly in my element when I wrote it and helped me remember why I love writing so much.

Specimen Stokes: God I know this fic also went off the rails like Agony did where I worry it became like...too much and should have held back a little (no pun intended) but I will never forget the day I ran out of work to go start writing a one shot in response to an anon who I don't even think technically asked for it as a fic, it was like "choose between these scenarios" and as I started to think about it I just...couldn't help myself. Like Atrophy I have sequels in mind and all sorts of things I want to do and I swear I actually have the rest of this fic installment planned out it's just...writing it lol. And taking the plunge into making it sci-fi and twisting the characters in the AU has been a blast and I feel like a great amount of my creativity has shown through in this fic, the edits and stuff I made for it, and the ideas I have coming up.

#i know i'm not really on here anymore and haven't even created much since what. april?#for sure I haven't really giffed. maybe made an icon or two #but i have been writting little bits and pieces here and there and recently had a dream that inspired yet another fic #that i'll probably never write/finish but i think I might combine it with another WIP and if it is ever done...the angst man #i just wanna make things again and feel good about it #though i guess writing so much about my fics has to be worth something in regards to that...right?

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baradorable · 1 year

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Name: Rift (Raymond Cruz) Age: Thirties Gender: Male Species: Human (Mutant) Occupation: Freelancer/Mercenary Allegiance: Krakoa (Former), Orchis (Former)

Art done by GeckoBara

This is my X-Men OC. Rift, AKA Raymond Cruz, is a mutant with the power to create portals. His abilities have made him a top asset for many groups.

Personality

Rift is the "love 'em and leave 'em" type. Since he can always just use portals to leave any situation he wants, he's quick to ditch relationships and situations when things hit a rough patch. He does that with most situations, really. He's a mercenary, though he won't do anything he deems too evil, like kidnapping or murder. He's still willing to commit other crimes if they pay well. And given how useful his powers are, he makes sure to charge a lot for his services.

He's smart, charismatic, and able to analyze situations well. He's strategic. Which makes him dangerous. He has a competitive side, which can sometimes slip out on the field. If you're able to get him in the right mindset, you can get him to forget his carefully-crafted plans and possibly mess up.

Because he invested a lot of time in developing his powers, he's come up with a lot of strategies to fully exploit them. He knows his limits and potential well. He takes pride in his abilities and the need people have for them. So he gets jealous interacting with someone more powerful than him. His worst trait is that he'll try to one-up these people. In extreme cases, he might even try to sabotage them to bring them down. He's backstabbed some of his fellow mercs to ensure he comes out on top.

Part of this is a desire to be liked. He grew up in a very anti-mutant world, so he's used to being disliked for who he is. He secretly craves validation. Since he abandons people quickly, he struggles to form strong bonds. On the rare occasions he finds a serious relationship with someone, his jealousy and competitive often lead him to sabotaging anyone he sees as a threat to the relationship.

When he’s off-duty and walking around in his normal life, he takes on the persona of a shallow himbo. He speaks in a flighty tone, seemingly misses big social cues, and freely speaks his mind in a way that can inadvertently hurt someone's feelings. He's cultivated the image of a in idiot for his own gain. It's a persona that allows him to have fun and avoid showing his true self; someone who strives to be perfect and beloved. After all, it hurts when people reject the real you. But if they reject the mask you put on - the act that doesn't represent the real you - then there's no harm done.

TL;DR: He's smart and hot. He's flaky and possessive. But he's hot, so it's okay. He's a good guy. He's just not a nice guy.

Backstory

Rift is American. His mother immigrated from Ireland in the mid or late '80's. His dad was born in America, but I haven't decided where his family is from. I'm thinking Portuguese, just for some self-indulgence. But also because Marvel doesn't have any Portuguese heroes at the moment.

His powers activated when he was 14, and he would spend the next several years working on developing his powers. He'd frequently ditch school or home, due to anti-mutant sentiment held by the people around him. He ended up developing some prejudices towards humans.

He ended up making a business out of transporting people around. Think Uber, but faster and with more range. Once word of his powers got around, various organizations began to seek him out. Rift would eventually parlay into full freelance mercenary and spy work.

Here's my idea of how he fits into the Marvel universe. You can ignore this if you don’t follow X-Men continuity.

He was one of the mutants depowered by M-Day, but came to Krakoa and got resurrected to get this powers back. His natural prejudice towards humans made him predisposed to liking the nation, and he was willing to lend his services to X-Force in order to help mutants.

However, the Five were very hesitant to remove his secondary, eye-based mutation; one he always kept hidden out of resentment and disgust. Many other mutants insisted the should keep his extra eyes and take pride in being different. Empty platitudes that he found patronizing. So he left and continued his work as a freelancer.

He ended up coming across Orchis, who would hire him on to spy on Krakoans and allow them to move around the world without notice. Orchis is an organization made up of people from several groups (S.H.I.E.L.D., A.I.M., HYDRA, etc.) to deal with the threat of humans becoming extinct and supplanted by mutants.

While he knew they were anti-mutant, He was unaware just how anti-mutant they actually are. They paid well, so he could stand to put up with them if he got something out of it. And it put him in conflict with other mutants, so he'd always have the opportunity to test his powers.

Of course, come Fall of X, they inevitably betrayed him and every other mutant. He was on a mission to Arakko during the third Hellfire Gala, thus avoiding most of the chaos. Once he heard about how Orchis attacked Krakoa, he fled to deep space and stayed there for a few months.

After Fall of X, he returned to Earth. He hated humans even more after they supported Orchis’ anti-mutant tactics. But he also hated the X-Men, since they and the leaders of Krakoa let the only sanctuary for mutants fall.

Job

He's a "freelancer" (read: mercenary) who works with various groups. His official codename is Rift, but for various business-related reasons, he's also known by several aliases: Bluebird, Luscinia, Luzon, Cardinal, Ripple, and Thrush.

He'll use a different name to obscure his identity, or know what kind of group is hiring him. For example, one criminal organization calls him Cardinal. Anyone who calls him by that name is likely associated with that organization. The NYPD know him as Luscinia.

He has different ways for people to contact him, and the type of name they use for him tells him what kind of work they have in mind, or who's hiring him. The goal is to keep everything separate, & being able to filter what kind of job he chooses to accept. (It's actually a lot more complex than having different phone numbers, but I'm giving you the simplified take.)

He doesn't kill, and he avoids directly harming innocent people. Spying, stealing information and theft are okay though.

Portal Power

Rift’s main power is to create portals, which he uses to spy on others, transport people, smuggle things, or create diversions. He rarely fights people directly; instead, he uses his powers to mess with the field. When creating a portal, one will open up close to him, and will connect to a portal that will appear at his desired location. His range is about 15,000 km. He can't access other dimensions through his power, but he can teleport around a dimension he's currently in.

His powers require him to see a location in front of him, or to have been there before. Otherwise, his powers "guess" the location, and open a portal to a completely random location on the planet, usually within two thousand miles of his current location. His power is also location-based, not person-based; he can't specifically try to find a person unless he knows their exact location. So no thinking of Spider-Man and trying to catch him at home.

These portals, once opened, can exist independently of Rift. He usually wills them to close instantly after he uses them, and can choose for how long they remain open Otherwise, they close after about two minutes, regardless if they're used. The portals can be any size, as long as they fall under 24 feet in diameter; they can't grow beyond that to accommodate travel for larger opens or things. There are no limits as to how many people can go through.

The number of portals active depend on their size. So he can create a lot of small, hand-sized portals at once, but only two 12 foot portals. Distance has no affect on his ability to make portals, though firing off too many portals in rapid succession will tire him out.

A cool side-effect of his portals is they won't bring anyone to a place that's impossible to visit. You can't be brought to the inside of a solid object, or in an area too small for one to logically fit. The powers can drop you into the ocean, but they won't place you inside a whale or trap you halfway through a statue. Because of this limitation, Rift can't open up a portal inside your guts, or force you through a portal into a chest at the bottom of the sea.

Other Notable Techniques

Moo-neuver: He opens a portal and lets stampeding cattle run over his opponents.

Torrent: Opens a portal to somewhere in the ocean, shooting forth a torrent of water at a target.

Smokescreen: By opening a portal above a factory chimney, he blasts his opponent with smoke.

Perfect Aim: If he has a firearm, he can open up one portal at the top of his gun, and and another in front of the target. By sending the projectile through the portal, he’s almost guaranteed to hit his target and avoid anything getting in the crossfire.

Black Hole: A theory, one he hasn’t tested out. What happens if you open a portal inside another portal? Or if two portals open into each other? Can two locations exist in the same place, at the same time? This results in neutron degeneracy pressure, where the rifts collapse in on each other to create a black hole.

Scatter Slap: A secret technique he hasn’t discovered yet. He can touch something and open up countless tiny portals on a molecular level, getting in-between a person’s molecules/atoms/whatever the hell. This would let him instantly scatter someone or something across the world with his powers. Instant vaporization.

Secondary Mutation

He has another mutation: red eyes that grow on his arms. They're basically like tattoos, but become actual eyes when exposed to enough direct sunlight. The more sunlight his body gets, the more eyes appear. His skin will also turn red, and the eyes on his face will turn red, and gain black sclera. They can blink and look around independently, but he currently has no control over them, nor can he see through them. Without sunlight, he begins to revert to his usual state.

He's ashamed of this mutation, so he always covers up.

He doesn't know it, but should he let his second mutation run its course, he'll be able to see from all of these eyes at once. If someone makes eye contact with them, the eyes can temporarily "steal" their sight, giving Rift the ability to see through that person's eyes. Meanwhile, that person now sees from one of the eyes on Rift's body. It's a very disorienting power.

His primary power is about escaping and providing his own personal freedom. His secondary power is about trapping others and taking things away from them. I feel like it's a good metaphor for his personality: he's flexible and living his best life, but has a sinister, controlling side that even he isn't fully aware of.

Trivia

Time for some fun

He’s bisexual. He leans more towards women, romantically. He leans towards men, sexually.

Claims to be a top, since one-upping and dominating others is his thing. But he’s actually verse top.

Has used his powers during sex.

He’s definitely a dom in bed. Very kinky, very in control. But sometimes, with the right partner, he’s can turn into the biggest sub you can imagine.

He used to have casual sex with a human friend who admired his eye-based mutation. That something Rift hated about himself was beautiful to him. This friend took Mothervine to try and force a mutation in himself, but would end up dying from the result. As he was dying, Rift broke him out of the hospital so they could spend their final moments at their favorite beach.

Expert frotter.

He’s a quarter fairy. He has the potential to learn magic, but doesn’t know it. I like to imagine this magic would let him access Otherworld, or other dimensions.

#barannoying

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dovelydraws · 10 months

Note

If you don't mind me asking,

What's art styles ended up influencing .. Well your art style?

Oh, this is a fun question, thank you for asking!

Hmm, I think it's a little hard to say since I've been drawing since I was basically a toddler, lol. Every little thing I've ever enjoyed has had some sort of influence. I'll try to go through the timeline though.

When I was a little kid, I had a special interest in zoology (still do! but it's not as obvious as it was back then.) I used to wake up first in the house specifically so I could turn on the tv to the animal planet channel and just watch documentaries all morning, and I carried a giant animal kingdom encyclopedia with me to school every day to just flip to random pages and read whatever popped up. During this time of my life, I pretty much exclusively drew animals- particularly elephants, canines, and horses. I had no interest in people.

I had no real interest in stylization at this point- obviously as a little kid I was never able to achieve perfect anatomy or anything like that, but I was more interested in making my animals look real than cartoonish- which meant I was never really influenced by the disney movies I was watching, since they stylized their animals so heavily.

I remember the dreamworks movie Spirit held my attention for a very long time, and I think it may particularly have been that way because the horses looked and acted more real than they did in disney movies. They were still stylized of course, it was a cartoon after all, but it wasn't to any extremes. I still find myself wanting to mimic that in my animals now; cartoon, but not cartoon-y.

I think these two gifs help illustrate my point lol.

After this exclusive animal obsession (followed by dinosaurs, and then dragons) I got really into Sonic the Hedgehog around age 11. Drew sonic characters, and made my own OCs for it, for basically the entirety of middle school. I've pointed out in the past that it seems the way I draw hands was heavily influenced by this phase

Very round, almost rubbery, where the ends of the fingers tend to flare out a little bigger than they are at the knuckles.

Then after sonic, I got into my first anime, Soul Eater, and this is really where I first started venturing into drawing people and more realistic human anatomy.

Interestingly, this artstyle seemed to also do the Sonic Hands thing, lol

After this I had a big anime phase, as well as just a general "I want to study actual human anatomy" phase during early high school. I was following a lot of skeletal/muscular system tutorials during this time.

Following that I started getting back into american media, in particular I remember invader zim, steven universe, and tmnt 2k12. I'm not sure I can really tell myself where the steven u artstyle is present in my own, but I've had people tell me they can tell I was into it at some point after saying so.

Then there was the Rubberhose Boom of 2017, with the release of Cuphead and BATIM very close together; I had a big hyperfixation on that artstyle specifically at that time, and I feel like I may owe some of the loose-ness in my artstyle to that.

Then, I suppose, we come to Rise of the TMNT. That show ended up being a major inspiration to me, and I think I owe a LOT of recent artistic growth to it. Rise pushed me out of my comfort zone big time. I always liked doing dynamic poses, but rise encouraged me to push things further, and I started drawing more backgrounds and making bolder color choices because of it as well.

I think my artstyle became just a bit more angular after drawing so much fanart as well.

And I suppose that's where I'm now at presently! Aside from media, I also can't say I'd be where I am artistically today without the influence and support of my many friends. :) I owe a lot of things about my artstyle, particularly specific things like my lineart, to compliments my friends paid me which made me pay more attention to the things I was doing accidentally that they happened to like, then making it purposeful and more refined as a result.

#asks #long post #this was really fun to think about :)

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socialoutsiderwritings · 9 months

Text

To mend and break 8

Tony Stark made sure to keep his kids out of the limelight when he was granted custody of them after their mother’s death. The world knew very little of the Stark twins and Tony wanted to keep it that way. For the most part they knew one was a genius and the other was daddy’s spoiled princess. But when Tony starts acting out of control , the twins are thrown in the middle of the crossfire , allowing the world to really see them. They now have to make a choice that will change their lives forever.

Pairings: Tony Stark x (FAB21+)Daughter!Reader x Son!OC

Unknown Location

Your hands gripped at the arm rests. Your eyes were open but you couldn't see a thing; your eyes were covered with something. And although you could not see anything around you, you had this strange feeling like you've been here before.

There was a variety of machines beeping around you; but you were almost positive you were not in a hospital. You could also hear people walking around you but they hardly said a word. Then a cold chill ran up your spine as a set of heavy doors opened somewhere around you.

The people around you all greeted whoever had entered, but you didn't recognize what language they were speaking. Her heels, you assumed was a woman, clicked across the floor as they approached you. The hairs on your arms stood up when she sat beside you; like your body just knew where she was even though you couldn't see them.

A woman's voice called your name. But it wasn't your name. Not what you were called here on Earth. You felt her hand on your forehead, then she caressed over your hair and down to your shoulder, where she rested her hand.

Tears streamed down your face. You only knew they had, because she had reached over and wiped it away. Then she spoke again. Even though she was speaking a foreign language you still somehow understood what she was saying. You began to sob.

Then you felt something get placed around your head. She grabbed your hand and gave it a squeeze.

"You're our only hope." She said.

****

You gasped, suddenly choking on something. You brought your hands up and pulled out the tube that was shoved down your throat.

"Agents! I need assistance in here!" Someone yelled. They rushed over to you, attempting to restrain your hands as you pulled at the IVs shoved in your skin. "Miss Stark. Please clam down."

Still unaware of what was going around you or to you, you shoved the person back. Instead they didn't get pushed back by you; they got blasted back. You stared at your own hands in shock.

You looked around the room. A hospital room. But you were different; you felt different. Maybe it wasn't a hospital.

Were you kidnapped? What happened after Ivan Vanko? Where was he?

So many questions raced through your head. Wherever you were, you needed to get out. You needed to escape.

You made sure you weren't connected to anything anymore before running out of the room. As you abruptly exit your hospital room, the staff in the hallways looked to you, startled. One of the nurses behind the desks, held a phone up to her ear, and then over the speakers announced..

"Security. Hospital wing. We have a runner."

Your body processed the words faster than your mind did and you sprinted off down the hall. You had no idea where you were going but you ran. Until you were stopped by a group of men, inside an elevator with their guns pointed at you.

Assuming they were going to shoot at you right away, you held your hands up to shield yourself. And again, a blast released itself from your hands, causing the men to dodge out of the way. You stared down at your palms.

"All units, she is armed." You heard them yell.

You walked back slowly, stunned by what you had done. You ran back down the hall and frantically began looking for another exit. They stopped you at every corner, until finally they had you in a corner. You looked at the wall, panicked.

"Miss Stark." You recognized Rumlow's voice right away. You turned around and saw him standing just at the end of the hall with his hands and weapon up in the air. "I'm not going to hurt you alright." He tells you. "I'm walking towards her, hold your fire." He tells his men.

"Stop." You tell him, holding your hand out hoping to blast them all away. But nothing happened. "Stop right there!" You yelled again this time pushing your hand out but again nothing happened.

"What did you do to me? Where the hell am I?"

"I'm not here to hurt you." he tells you as he walks closer. "Just come with me." he says calmly. "I promise, I'll make sure you're safe." He's now a couple feet away from you, and stays there.

You look at him and back at the the group of armed men. You didn't trust him. He could be lying. But somehow, you just knew, right now, he wasn’t lying.

You stared at Brock. You inhaled a breath and nodded. You took one step forward and suddenly...

"Shots fired!"

"No!" Rumlow yelled at the same time he lunged at you.

A series of bullets rang through the air. Your hands were up and your back hit the hard cold floor. You laid there silently. Rumlow looked down at you. You stared at him with just as much confusion. As he got to his feet, you sat up.

The bullets were frozen in mid air. Everyone stared in shock. Rumlow approached the frozen bullets, then looked back at you. Realizing your hands were still up, you dropped them; at the same time the bullets fell to the floor with a series of clinks.

Your name is called out as your brother pushes through the group of men. He's in front of you, holding your shoulders and examining your person. "Are you hurt?" He asks you as he examines your person. When he didn’t see any injuries on you, he whipped his head around and stared at the other men. “Who the hell fired?” He asked.

The men stared at one another, until one of them stepped forward and confessed. Anthony left your side to approach the man.

“You alright?” Brock asks you. You turn your head to face as he walks into your view.

You nod. You were still a little bit shaken up, but now that your brother was here you weren’t as frightened. “Where am I?” You asked, though you were certain now where you could have been.

“SHIELD HQ.” Fury announced as he made his way through the agents. He stopped just beside your brother, “we need to talk.” He tells you. “Now.”

——————————⎊——————————

You looked at yourself in the mirror. Unfortunately for you, they couldn’t provide you with your own clothing. All they could offer was a pair of SHIELD sweatpants and T-shirt. Before you put them on, you examined your body. The tiny punctures on your skin from the IVs were healed. If they did something to you, you wouldn’t know.

You took a closer look at your reflection. There was something different about you, but you weren’t sure what. You looked closer, your hand coming up to trace your neck.

Your necklace was missing. The necklace you had since you were a baby was no longer on you.

There was a knock on the bathroom door and them your brother’s voice came from the other side of the door. “You can’t hide in there forever.” He told you.

You slipped on the clothes and walked over to the door to open it, angrily. “I could have.”

***

Your dad was already on his feet when you entered the giant office. He noticed you walk in after your brother and let out a sigh of relief. He walked over to you, meeting you halfway, and embraced you in a tight hug.

You were nervous at first, but as soon as you felt his arms around you, you relaxed. He kissed your temple and hugged you tighter.

After a moment you finally let go. “What are we doing here?”

“Let’s find out.” The two of you walked over to the furniture in the middle of the room to sit.

Anthony and Fury sat across from you and your dad. Your brother handed each of you a thin manila folder with a giant classified stamped over it. Your dad grabbed it first and opened it.

"Somethings happened to you." Your brother tells you. "We have no idea what exactly. And given what happened out there, it seems to have altered something in you."

Your heart skipped a beat in your chest. You were suddenly nervous.

Tony slapped the manila folder on the coffee table. "No." he stated.

"What? No what?" You asked. You grabbed the manila folder and opened to see what had gotten him so upset. It was a consent form.

"We need to run tests." He told you but you had already read through the whole thing. "We just need your permission to--,"

"Use me as a lab rat?" You asked him. You weren't angry, not yet. "You said we."

"Yeah. As in SHIELD." He awkwardly looks back at Fury. "I work for SHIELD. Have been for a while."

You sat back in the chair, and exhaled a huff of disbelief. "You do realize what they're asking of me right?"

"It's not them." He admits. "It's me. This is my idea. This is how I can help you."

"Bull. Shit." You enunciate. "You never brought this up before.."

"You didn't shoot energy blasts from your hands before." He tells you. There was a short moment of silence. "I know you're scared, but i'm going to be with you."

"That's so comforting." You rolled your eyes. "Thanks but no thanks." You placed the folder back on the coffee table. "Can I go now?"

Fury bulged his eye at you. "I can't just let you walk out of here." He tells you. "Do you know how many of my men you put in the hospital wing earlier? And you think I'm just going to let you go home?"

"They were pointing their guns at me." You defended yourself. "And I didn't know that was going to happen. It was an accident."

"Which makes you a danger to yourself and to those around you." He sat closer to the edge of the couch and leaned in to rest his elbows on his knees. "The consent was just a formality. Because i'm nice like that." He says.

"I am not obligated to get your consent. If I see you as a threat, I have every right to figure out ways to neutralize that threat. Are you a threat?" He asked expectantly.

You looked at your brother. He glanced down at the manila folder on the table, making it clear what he wanted you to do. You turned your head to look at your dad. He had his hand over his mouth and his sunglasses on, but he was facing in the direction of your brother. His silence was not comforting or even helpful.

You sighed. "No." You finally answered Fury. You opened the manila folder again. You grabbed the pen from your brother and signed your name on the line.

——————————⎊——————————

You didn't react when the needle pierced your skin.

Anthony glanced up at you. He attached a collection tube to the vacutainer. "What should I apologize first, huh?" He asks you. He waits a short moment but you don't answer. "Silent treatment. Real mature, Y/N." He rolls his eyes.

He removes the tube and attaches a new one. "Just so you know I asked to oversee this operation." He tells you. "I figured it'd be better. I know you trust me."

"Oh," you drawled, "my hero." You spat. "That doesn't make any of this better. I always thought you'd be above this."

"Above what?" He was annoyed now, but he kept his tone neutral.

You shook your head at him. "Forget it. Just finish up so I can go home."

“You brought it up. Tell me.” He pushes. “Above what?”

“Human testing.” You replied. “You don’t know what they could do to me. Or with my blood. This could end up horrible. Like what happened with dad’s weapons.”

"It won’t. I promise." He tells you. He attaches another tube. "This is the last one."

"One more thing. You can't control whatever happened to you. We can't risk you having another 'accident'." He removes the tube and slides the needle out of your skin. "We're sending you to a safe house."

"That wasn't part of the deal."

"Yes. It was." he tells you. He peels the gloves off his hands and tosses them in the garbage under the counter. "You just didn't read it all the way through. Until we figure out whats going on with you, you're subjected to isolation." He turns his back to you as he inverts the tube samples that he had laid on top of the counter.

"I know you think this is unfair. But this is the best deal you're going to get. You're lucky they didn't throw you in jail--" he turned to face you. He stumbled back, tripping over his feet and falling to the floor.

He blinked a couple times, processing what just happened. Gradually he began to feel a sharp pain in the center of his face. He brings his hands up to feel his nose and winces at the soft touch. He pulls his hand back and notices blood on the tips of his fingers. "Did you just punch me?"

"I did." You rub your knuckles. "And it felt great."

You leave him on the floor as you exit the room. Rumlow was in hallway with a few other men. You figured they were waiting for you, and walked up to Rumlow.

"Miss Stark." He greeted you. "We're escorting you to the safe house. We can head out whenever you're ready, if you want to say your goodbyes...."

"No." You cut him off. "I'm ready to go."

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