#anyway the romance novel is my favorite item here I think
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Illustrated Wolf’s inventory! I think I missed a few items and some sizes are off, but I think you can learn a lot about a character based on the items they carry with them
#dnd#dnd5e#dnd art#dnd 5e character#dnd paladin#dnd oc#dnd character#original#digital#valentine wolf#also so sorry about my handwriting LOL#anyway the romance novel is my favorite item here I think#and the wine is made at his home temple! family business of sorts
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Masterlist
This is every item Panda has written since joining Tumblr*. Some exceptions have been made. This does not include my list of WIPs, because we’d be here forever, and you would be mad at me.** Edits will be made as necessary…when I remember.
If you’d like to see Panda’s original ideas, including OCs, Tickles, and most of the novels I’ve been poking on and off, follow me!
(*Split into separate posts because Tumblr hates commentary. >-<)
(**…Would you guys be interested in seeing my WIPs? Or having access to them in some capacity?)
(Sorted by Fandom, A-Z)
Among Us
Cargo Transfer (2020-)—Yes, despite appearances, this is a story based on Among Us. It’s a strange mix of universes, but I did have fun with it. I was excited to write a mystery or two.
[Technically Ao3 Exclusive!]
Family, Friends, Romance, and Tickles; Minor Violence and Monsters
Current Word Count: 3,605
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Avengers
Not-So-Close Shave (2019)—Uh, yeah, that’s the only one. Oops. I wrote this for Squealing Santa that year. It’s short and sweet, but I admit I remember struggling with it.
Light Romance and Tickles
Word Count: 828
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Boku no Hero Academia
Another Year Over (2020)—This was a Squealing Santa story. It’s kind of sad, but I do love the emotions in it. Plus some unique interactions that I don’t write much.
[Ao3]
Processing Grief and Just a Few Tickles
Word Count: 4,812
Birds of a Feather (2023)—This was my most recent commission; it’s been a while since I’ve written for Denki, and I had a lot of fun working him into my AU’s dynamics.
[Ao3]
Instructional Tickle Torture with sneaky OC cameos.
Word Count: 4,186
Cackle Lantern (2022)—A sneaky Halloween idea I suddenly had one day. Secretly a spin-off of one of Ro’s stories. >w<
[Ao3]
Soft Romance and a lot of Tickles.
Word Count: 1,495
Crime Doesn’t Pay, Kids (2019-2023)—My first Hawks story! Also featuring most of my Hero Academia OCs. I love their little Quirks, plus the other scenes I still have planned for them.
[Ao3 Exclusive!]
Light Tickle Torture and some Combat
Word Count: 7,054
Fight Scene (2020)—Short and Sweet. >w< I wrote this after Chapter 266 of the manga. If you know, you know.
[Ao3 Exclusive!]
Play-fights and Friendly Teasing
Word Count: 925
Fireball (2019)—A little Quirk concept I used to have. I thought I could make a story out of it, and maybe I still could, but I don’t think it’d be much fun.
[Ao3 Exclusive!]
No Tickles… TwT
Word Count: 1,261
For Future Reference (2021)—Might be one of my favorite Ko-fi pieces. Not technically a commission (Or maybe I forgot) but it was a very kind donation from a friend!
[Ao3]
Sappy Romance and some more Intimate sort of Tickles
Word Count: 3,000
From Dust to Dust (2020-)—A character study/AU for Shigaraki’s life if someone had been there when he needed them. I really do love this one and where it’s going.
[Ao3 Exclusive!]
Angst and Heavy Emotions. No Focus for Tickles.
Current Word Count: 3,430
Get Tased (2017)—One of my first Hero Academia stories! Somehow Denki’s powers still aren’t used in enough tickle scenes.
[Ao3]
Sneak Attacks and Revenge Tickles
Word Count: 2,597
Good Night, Deku (2017)—My very first Hero Academia story; I think I wrote it right after seeing Season 1.
Deescalating from Nightmares and Light Tickles
Word Count: 1,452
How to Stop a Quirk (2019-)—I haven’t forgotten; please don’t be mad. T~T Nearly all of my Hero Academia stories feed back into this AU somehow.
[Ao3]
Scientific Tickles and Varying Levels of Friendly Tickle Torture
Current Word Count: 38,927
Just Joking Around (2019)—I don’t think I’ve seen Ms. Joke in many stories. Not that I remember, anyway. So writing this was really fun. There is a sequel no one asked for in the pile.
[Ao3 Exclusive!]
Self-Doubt and Combat, with teasy Tickles.
Word Count: 2,733
Katsukisses (2022)—This was about the time I started actively playing with characters’ genders, and I’ve loved it ever since. >w< Bakugou in makeup just feels right.
[Ao3]
Lots of Tickly Kisses, mostly Platonic but there’s a little Queer-Platonic/Romantic in there.
Word Count: 3,772
Kiss and Don’t Tell (2020-)—The only time I’ve really written a hypnosis-type of story; plus he feels bad about it the entire time. Part of me is still thinking about the final chapter.
[Ao3 Exclusive!]
Hypnosis Tickles and Self-esteem conflict. Minor Sads.
Current Word Count: 2,950
The Missing Pages (2020-)—Some fun little scenes that happen around and between the experiments in How to Stop a Quirk. There’s a little collection by the same name!
[Ao3 Exclusive!]
A Bunch of Dorks Goofing Off. Tickles, Cuddles and everything in between
Current Word Count: 9,563
No Flash Photography (2021)—The first time I’ve gotten to write a spiritual sequel. >w< I’m grateful every day Ro gave me their blessing.
[Ao3]
Sneaky bets, Chess imagery, and Tickle Fights
Word Count: 2,526
Peaches and Scream (2020)—I admit I headcanon a sort of sibling-adjacent relationship between Bakugou and Yaoyorozu, so here’s a little pile of scenes and conversations they have.
[Ao3 Exclusive!]
Gender Exploration, Characters Goofing around, Not Many Tickles
Word Count: 1,923
Secret Tunnel (2022)—Through the mountain… >w< Just a simple little thing I wrote for a silly idea I had.
[Ao3]
Claustrophobia and Tickles
Word Count: 1,755
Shadow Tag (2022)—A mini commission for a Flame friend. >w< I definitely owe Kuroiro more attention.
[Ao3]
Revelry in the Dark. And Tickles
Word Count: 992
Sunkissed (2023)—Yes, I maintain that I finished this before midnight. This was my most recent Squealing Santa story, and I kinda loved writing someone who loves being tickled without being too teasy about it.
[Ao3]
Childhood Trauma and Being Stuck Watching a Tickle Scene with Loved Ones. So, yeah, Tickles. >w< (Free Cookies if you know what story that comic is referencing)
Word Count: 3,778
Test of Resilience (2017)—Fun fact, at the time of writing this, part of me secretly shipped Shinsou and Tetsutetsu.
[Ao3]
Workout Bros and Endurance Tickles.
Word Count: 1,707
You Put the Spark to the Flame (2021)—Turns out most of my Squealing Santa stories were for Hero Academia. This was a pretty fun dynamic to write. ^w^
[Ao3]
Karaoke and Working through Stage Fright. With Tickles.
Word Count: 1,987
Zombie Killing 101 (2021)—Based on a single throwaway shot during the School Festival. If you know, you know.
[Ao3]
A Sneaky OC and Assaulting Haunted House Staff. With Tickles, of course.
Word Count: 1,473
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Friday Night Funkin’ (Almost forgot this one. >-<)
Crossfire (2021)—The first FNF story! My AU essentially makes everyone into some level of demon or supernatural being. Thanx to @cutesmokes for yelling about FNF at the time.
[Ao3]
Gun Violence and Demon Magic; Just a Little Tickle Torture.
Word Count: 5,462
Little Brothers’ Rights (2022)—I love Garcello so much. >w< He’s a softie.
[Ao3]
Big Brother Garcy and Tickle Fights, Mentions of PTSD
Word Count: 4,818
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hades
Backstab! (2022)—Writing Theseus is hilarious. And difficult. But hilarious. I should have made this a tickle fight… >-<
[Ao3]
God Sanctioned Tickle Attacks
Word Count: 1,296
Butterfly Kisses (2020)—The first Hades story I ever wrote. I hadn’t even beaten Elysium yet. I was so young. >w< I still think it’s pretty cute.
[Ao3]
Minor Violence and Magic Tickles
Word Count: 1,234 <Achievement Get!>
Hot Foot (2021)—This was written for a friend on Discord at the time. His idea was too good to pass up. >w<
[Ao3]
Someone in a Massive Lee Mood. And Denial About It. Sparring and Tickles.
Word Count: 2,681
Musician’s Hand (2023)—Hey, this one’s new! A birthday present for Ro; and a reminder that we need more Ler Orpheus in the world, please.
[Ao3]
Educational Tickles and A Couple That Has a Room, but the Kid Won’t Leave
Word Count: 1,882
Of an Amber Autumnal (2021)—A mini exploration of a headcanon regarding Zagreus’ powers. I think it’s just pretty cute. >w<
[Ao3 Exclusive!]
Flashbacks and Family. Tickles Aren’t a Focus
Word Count: 2,201
Picture Book (2023)—A late birthday gift for a Discord friend. I like the idea of this AU a lot, actually. ^w^
A Little Embarrassment and Tickle Torture Between Friends
Word Count: 2,065
Sleep is for the-- (2021)—I’m pretty sure this was also written to fluster the Discord friends back in the day. >w< Some more Ler Hypnos would definitely be interesting.
[Ao3]
Wake-Up Tickles. A Little Brother Being a Brat
Word Count: 1,066
Song of Merriment (2020)—That thing I said about Ler Orpheus kinda just applies to Orpheus in general. I kind of love the poor guy. >w<
[Ao3]
Sort of Cheer-Up Tickles. Characters Just Being Goofs.
Word Count: 1,569
Submerged Foliage (2021)—I like writing love, okay? >w< Soft, cuddly nonsense that I don’t have. TwT
[Ao3]
Surreal and Silly. Romance and Tickles
Word Count: 1,773
Timebroken AU (2021)--A mod idea I had for Hades back in the day. Definitely staying non-canon with the sequel coming out soon. >w<
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Haikyuu!!
Becoming Rough Crows (2016)—Remember when I wrote for Haikyuu? That was fun. >w< This was the first piece of my Rough Crows AU.
[Ao3]
Bondage and some Mild Tickle Torture.
Word Count: 3,808
The Bigger They Are (2018)—Technically the first Haikyuu story I ever started, based on an RP I did with a birb friend.
[Ao3]
Tickle Attacks and Chase Scenes
Word Count: 1,408
Cold Shoulder (2016)—Another Squealing Santa story! I don’t know why, but writing from Yamaguchi’s perspective is very fun.
[Ao3]
Tickle Fights in the Snow
Word Count: 2,306
Collared (2017)—A short scene for a friend. Definitely something I loved at the time.
It’s a Little Spicy, I Guess; Some Bondage and Tickles, a little Romance
Word Count: 675
The First Fox Hunt (2017)—An AU based on another set of RPs I did with birb friend. >w< Probably the only time I’ve written Bokuto.
An Amateur Thief Getting Teased by a Security Guard
Word Count: 3,912
In a Pinch (2018)—The Rough Crows AU! Set around/before the season 1 finale, I think. Hard to say.
[Ao3]
Minor Sads. Some Gentle Tickle Torture.
Word Count: 2,034
Rough Crows Have Soft Feathers (2020)—Tsukishima’s initiation into the team’s little sleepover games. >w< Technically commissioned by a friend to help round out the collection and tie up the cliffhanger left in a previous story.
[Ao3]
Some Playful Tickle Torture.
Word Count: 5,249
Something about Crows and Feathers (2016)—Yamaguchi’s initiation. >w< Like I said before, his character was so fun to play with; I refuse to believe he doesn’t have secret gremlin energy.
[Ao3]
Bonding with Teammates through Tickle Torture
Word Count: 5,969
~~~~~~~~~~~
Iron Man
The Mechanic Returns (2013)—This one gets to be in the Masterlist because I still like it. Keep the Time Travel Disclaimer in mind if you want to talk about it. Yes, I did start writing this within hours of seeing Iron Man 3. >w<
[Ao3] [Original]
Teasing, Tickle Fights, and Criticizing a Child’s Ballistic Weaponry
Word Count: 2,583
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the taming of the shrew | one
he is more a shrew than she
penelope reveals her plan to get you and spencer together. unfortunately, her plan has a few hitches.
A/N: again, big thanks to @homoose for being my helpful beta reader, and to YOU for reading it now.
category: fluff, spencer reid x fem!reader, series
wc: 4.1k
<- prev | next ->
Penelope came back to your place the following night, bearing a new bottle of wine and a collection of materials she mentioned were integral to executing the plan.
Very quickly into Penelope’s explanation of this Genius Plan –– her words, not yours –– you remembered what it was she did for work. Officially, she was some sort of technical computer-y person for the Federal Bureau. As you knew her, she’s a danger to society and anyone with a traceable digital presence.
She managed to construct a comprehensive list of every place in D.C. and Virginia that her friend liked going to, along with the approximate times in which you were most likely to find him there. Approximate meaning, exactly which days he visits and the roughly time of day, down to a mere one hour margin of error.
You scanned the list over, shocked at its detail. Where he cut his hair, got his coffee, bought his books. His favorite restaurants, the chess clubs he’s a member of, his local hospital.
His local hospital?!
“I’m not going to need to know that, am I?” you paused.
“Probably not, but it comes in handy with this job,” she shrugged with a nonchalance that was rather alarming.
There had to be a dozen more places on the sheet –– ranked, in order of his (assumed) preference for them. Penelope calculated it based on the frequency of his visits, their average duration per session, and how often he’d mentioned about the place.
“What?” she tossed her palms up, taking offense when you asked her if she had evil plans to take over the tristate area. “Hang out with him long enough, you tell me if you pick up a knack for researching or not.”
Researching. Mining private data through questionable methods. It’s a small difference to Penelope.
“Remind me not to get on your bad side, Penelope,” you muttered under your breath, flipping the sheet back and forth. “You could ruin my whole life with ten minutes on a computer.”
“I wanted to be thorough,” she defended, shrugging. “And I’d only need five.”
You laughed through your nose, giving the paper one last scan. “You left out one important thing, though.”
“No, I put his home address on there,” her brows wrinkled together as she pointed it out on the sheet with one hot pink polished finger.
“His name,” you berated. “Jesus, you think I’m going to show up at his home?!”
“Again! I’m thorough,” she cried at your accusatory tone. “His name’s Spencer. You’ll like him when you meet him.”
_
You didn’t doubt that Penelope’s friend was a likeable guy, but you weren’t exactly dying to go out of your way to meet him. You told her that you’d get around to it when you had a chance and left it at that.
And two weeks later, you found yourself in need of a caffeine fix that your tea kettle wasn’t strong enough to satisfy. You started on a new piece late the previous night, and midnight rolled into four in the morning, which pushed you into the arms of seven o’clock. Reinforcements were needed.
Throwing on a large sweater to cover up your messy clothes and grabbing the closest pair of shoes you could find, you originally planned on heading to your usual spot just around your street corner. Just as you were leaving, the list, still sitting untouched in the exact spot that Penelope left it in, caught your eye.
It’d been a while since you told Penelope you’d help her out. Enough time had passed that you now felt like there was an invisible deadline over your head.
Maybe it won’t hurt to try something new?
Besides, meeting someone at a coffee shop seemed like an easy, foolproof way to go about this. From all the movies and romance novels, you knew that cafes are the pinnacle of meet-cute situations. Or, in your case, a meet-forced.
Regardless, it should’ve been simple enough, and it would’ve gotten the favor off your shoulder.
You scanned the sheet for the cafe Spencer would be at on a Thursday at 8 a.m., and got there with barely five minutes to spare before he was expected to show.
It was just your luck that he had to pick a cafe practically as far from your home as he could get, and the transfer train had to have a delay that made you walk the last three-quarters of a mile there. Call it crazy, but you didn’t expect to actually have to put in work for this. You expected it better be worth the hassle.
You took a seat in the back of the cafe to catch your breath as you waited for him to show up. Sitting in the booth, with your head down so you coudn’t be seen, the plan started to feel stupid all over again. You were running around the city, spying on this stranger, and for what?
The silver bell hung over the door frame interrupted before your thoughts could travel down that path of questioning. It rang each time a new patron enters, and within the next twenty minutes it rang only eight or nine times. None of them appeared to be Spencer.
You were prepared to call this one a failure and leave, when you realized your colossal mistake. You only had his name, and no idea what he looks like. So unless he happened to wear a name tag around you could’ve already missed him. You realized then that there were more than a few flaws in this plan.
Keeping an eye on the door, you dialed Penelope’s contact as a swarm of new patrons flooded in.
“How am I supposed to know what he looks like?” you whispered into the phone, failing to cover it with a hand cupped over the speaker. Penelope was confused for only a second by the apparent lack of context.
“Oh! He’s tall, has mousy brown hair but he cut it recently. It’s like… missing on the sides, but it’s all there in the front!” she explained.
What the hell does she mean missing?
“Pen, brunette? That’s like all the guys in here…” You took a look around the full cafe; various men typing on computers, taking calls. All of them looked the same, from their brown hair to their khakis and puffer coats. “You’re going to have to give me a little more than brown hair.”
Penelope struggled to explain and with each new feature she gave you, your mental picture of him got more clouded. “He’s skinny! Dresses like a vintage teddy bear!”
“Does he have kind of like… a hot English teacher vibe?” you quirked your head, spying a man approaching from the sidewalk and drinking him in with your eyes. Tall, brunette, clad in corduroy head to toe with a plaid sweater vest underneath. Vintage Teddy Bear F/W 1978 collection.
“Yes! He teaches sometimes! And you think he’s hot?”
Your mouth gaped even though she couldn’t see you. “No, I - I didn’t say that. I said he had the vibes of a hot teacher.”
“And how different is that from saying he’s––”
“Pen, I gotta go. Your guy’s walking in.” You put the phone away before she could pick apart what you said.
The bell on the front door rang as he came in and you stared intently at his face. If this was like the movies, he’d turn his head right then, at the perfect time, and make eye contact. He’d fall madly in love from the first look, and your work would be done. You sat at the edge of your seat, burning holes into his skull, waiting for that moment.
But alas, he never looked up from the linoleum flooring as he walked up to the counter. With a groan, you slid out of your booth and quickly hopped into the line before anyone else could claim the spot behind him.
New plan: eavesdrop, order the same coffee as him, and pretend to go for the cup at the same time. Laugh about the coincidence, how if you share the same coffee order you must certainly have a lot in common, and have him fall in love with you.
But you overheard him rattle off his order and were absolutely horrified. Black coffee, extra sugar. Like, extra, extra sugar.
You were going to need a second change of plans.
You eyed him up and down, searching for something you could approach him about. He was donning black converse under a fitted pair of dark brown corduroy trousers, with a blazer to match, and a deep green plaid vest underneath. On paper, this outfit shouldn’t work. In practice, it… really did.
A little too well, given how good he looks in it. More fashionable than a federal agent ought to be as required by dress codes, right?
“Can I help you?” you heard, and it poked the bubble of your thoughts. Your head shot up to meet his for the first time, eyes wide as heat crawled up your face.
“Uh. No ––” Shit. You didn’t even realize how long you were staring at his legs. Long, long legs. And shit, why did you say no? That was your opening to talk to him.
The man –– Spencer –– nodded his head slowly, uncomfortably, and turned away with a forced grin. He grabbed the coffee cup placed on the counter and you thought now was the time to say something. But by the time you thought of it, he’d already picked up his cup and made his way to the door.
The stupid silver bell mocked you as he left.
__
The first attempt left you slightly jilted, but a few days later you found yourself in need of a few grocery items. You just happened to be in his neighborhood that day, and though it was very much out of the way of your own, you didn’t plan on it being a problem. He’d never see where you lived anyways, and he’d never need to know how unlikely this chance encounter really was.
You had Penelope text you the address of his regular grocery store, and upon arrival, felt immediate concern. It was not a grocery store. It was a convenience mart slash liquor store at the corner of the street, below a building of worn apartments.
As you walked through the aisles, the only things you found were a large assortment of wines that took up half the small store space, an aisle of candy packets and chips, a section for household supplies, and one measly aisle for canned and boxed foods.
Cereal, instant noodles, soup cans, pancake mix… nothing very fresh.
Spencer seemed like a pretty scrawny guy. You now believed it might’ve been from the fact that his food choices were so off-putting that he simply didn’t eat. It wasn’t your place to be concerned, but you decided that if you ever ended up taking him out, a farmer’s market might be good for him.
You loitered around for perhaps longer than necessary. The inquisitive shop attendant asked if you need help –– as in, why are you still here, get out of my store –– and you told her you were just really conflicted on which detergent brand you needed. Finally, the man you were after arrived at the scene.
“Hi, Dolores,” he greete with a small wave. The attendant, Dolores, greets back with a positivity that she sorely lacked when talking to you. Dolores has favorites, apparently.
An unexpected panic settled in your stomach and you quickly turned back to your selection of fabric softeners. You weren’t hiding, you just didn’t want him to catch you staring again. You picked up your two props, pretending to read the labels on the back and compare the chemical formulas on each of them, when you saw him out of the corner of your eyes.
He went into the aisle in front of yours, and over the short shelves you saw the back of his head sweeping over the modest food section. He turned around to inspect the other side of the aisle, and you ducked your head even lower. It was in vain. He spotted you anyway.
You fixed your eyes even harder onto the bottles, afraid to look anywhere else. He shuffled out of his aisle and turned the corner into yours. You started sweating a little.
“Uhm. Excuse me,” he said.
“Yeah?” You looked up from your bottles, putting on your best caught-off-guard face. Like you were a girl in a movie, reading a book on the beach (not detergent labels in a liquor store) and your romantic interest just noticed how beautiful you looked doing it, deciding he had to introduce himself.
“Can you… can you move…” he asked, gesturing to the section of cleaners that you’re blocking.
Never mind.
“Oh! Yeah, sorry.” You burned up, moving out of his way. He reached for what he needed and you peeked down to inspect the contents of his basket. Organic whole wheat bread, cream of mushroom soup, and somehow, he’d managed to find the only two apples this place must carry. At least there was light at the end of the dark, dark tunnel.
He tossed a bottle of Snuggle fabric softener and you raised your brows. Given that he was “grocery shopping’’ in a three-piece suit –– a good one, too, black trousers, vest and blazer with an eggplant purple shirt and lavender tie –– you would’ve expected him to simply send his clothes out for dry cleaning.
“Snuggle, huh?” you said. He gave you a confused look. “Oh, uh. I was looking at these. Couldn’t pick between the two.” You raised your two bottles of softener; Snuggle and Tide.
You needed him to know you weren’t just saying Snuggle to insinuate that you would like to do that to him. You remembered Penelope telling you he had a degree in chemistry or some sort of science field, and asked, “Is… is that one like, more organic? I was trying to read the formulas but I don’t… I don’t recognize the chemicals,” you trailed off. You could see yourself losing his interest the more you spoke. He barely looked at you as he grabbed whatever else he needed.
“I don’t know… I just like it,” he bristled. You looked down at the bottle and flipped it over to the front. It had a drawing of a teddy bear on it. How fitting.
You go to comment on it but yet again he’d made an escape, already at the checkout counter and unloading his basket by the time you looked up again. You rolled your eyes, wondering if it’s even worth it to follow him into line and see if he sparks up a conversation this time.
You could tell that he wouldn’t. So you gave him the space to buy his items and leave.
You didn’t really need the detergent, but Dolores gave you a pointed look before you could even think about putting it back on the shelf. You ended up buying the detergent, a loaf of bread, and two packets of sweets out of guilt.
As you took the train home, digging into your packet of sour peach rings, you began to doubt if you can carry out Penelope’s request.
_
After two failed attempts, you were prepared to tell Penelope that this just wasn’t going to work out. You didn’t expect it to be this difficult to talk to Spencer nor did you see yourself getting closer to him anytime soon. It would be best if she just found someone else to do it.
You caught her in the hallway, leaving her apartment just as you came home from the store. It seemed like as good of a time as any to let her know how unsuccessful your escapades were going. With your tail between your legs, you approached her with the intention of breaking the plan off.
But the second she saw you, it was like she could read through you. She clocked what you were about to say and before you could, she gave you a warm hug. It was the first one you’d ever received from her, actually. And she thanked you for trying.
It didn’t make you feel guilty, per se, but it definitely made you feel weird about telling her the news. So you bit back on telling her what you were really going to say. She didn’t need to know the details of your failure, or the fact that you were seconds away from giving up on her friend.
Maybe you didn’t need to give up right away.
After all, you did only talk to the guy twice. Don’t they always say the third time’s the charm?
You left the conversation at just that –– letting her know that you’re happy to do this for her, even if you aren’t really –– and slinked back into your apartment. The list, buried under the magazines and paint tubes and half-full cups of cold coffee on your table, called for you.
If by any stroke of luck you happened to share one interest with this guy, you promised yourself to give it one more try.
According to the list, that overlapping interest was the wonderful world of Gatsby Books –– a small, locally owned bookstore residing in the heart of D.C. ’s arts district. That neighborhood was smack in the middle of your’s and Spencer’s, and it was where the gallery you showcase at was.
You’d been meaning to get down there for a while now, anyways. It really was the cutest bookstore in the world; inside it lived a white, bushy-furred cat named Gatsby, and he was always there. After all, it was his bookstore.
It wasn’t such a burden to make your visit fit Spencer’s schedule, really. And it would make Penelope happy if you did. So on Saturday afternoon, you took a lovely walk through the sunny arts district of D.C., a smile on your face and a tote in hand for all the books you were planning on hauling back.
The smell of paper and coffee greeted your nose at the door, and you practically fell into a trance, letting it lead you through the aisles of the store without much thought of where you wandered. Not that it mattered, you could’ve roamed the shelves aimlessly all day long.
In the mystery and thrillers section, you found Gatsby. He jumped down from his perch on a step stool and weaved between your legs, greeting one of his long-time regulars. He was such a good shop owner.
“Hi, Mr. Gatsby.” You smiled and bent down to give him a little head scratch when he started running off in the other direction, taunting you into following him.
He rounded the corner and came to a stop at a pair of boot-clad feet; your eyes moved up to find your favorite employee (after Gatsby, of course) restocking the shelves.
“Miles!” you whispered, but he still jumped out of his skin. He turned around, hand still over his chest, and sighed when he realized it was just you. “Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you,” you laughed.
“Hey, long time, no see. Back for some more recommendations?” You ‘ooh’ed at his offer.
“I was just gonna say, the ones you gave me last time were so good. I finished them in, like, a week.”
“Really?” He smiled, brows happily up his forehead. You nodded in assent. “Okay, well I’ll give you more this time, see if the list’ll last you a little longer than that.”
You grinned eagerly, following him to the shop counter where he pulled out a stack of bright green post-its and a pen.
“I’ve actually been waiting for you to come in, I already had these in mind for you,” he mumbled, scrawling across the paper quickly. He handed the note over, and it took a moment to decipher the chicken scratches.
“Okay, first you gave me Al-Shayk and Bradbury. Now you’re giving me Chaucer, Dickens, and Doyle,” you recited the note, giving him a teasing look. “Are we just going through the alphabet, Miles?” you joked.
“Honest mistake. But I’d be happy to give you all the other twenty-two letters of the alphabet if needed.”
“I might hold you to that.” You nodded, folding the post-it in your palm to prevent the sticky backing from gunking up. It’d make quite the good bookmark for later. “Thanks for these!”
“No problem, just a part of the job.”
Nonetheless, you thanked him again before disappearing back into the aisles. You found Miles’ books as well as a few of your own and nearly lost yourself in the rows of floor-to-ceiling bookshelves, until you made a turn. Standing in the middle of the next aisle was Spencer.
A week ago, he was the whole point of coming to the store. That day, you completely forgot about it, and it stopped you in your tracks to see him there. He was just standing in the middle of the walkway, staring blankly at the shelf in front of him.
“Excuse me,” you grinned, “Could you move?”
You thought it was a cute reference back to the laundry detergent fiasco, a chance for you to turn the tables, but he had no reaction to it whatsoever. His face was straight as he merely pivoted his shoulder out of your way as you reached for the book you needed; The Narrative of John Smith.
His eyes narrowed at you and his nostrils flared, and you wondered if it was called for because you grabbed the last copy they had in stock.
“Oh, I’m sorry. Did you want this?” you asked, waving the book in his face. He was just standing there for so long, you didn’t think he actually wanted anything since he never picked it up.
“No,” he said coldly.
Contrary to Penelope’s review, he didn’t actually seem that warm of a person. But you smiled tightly at him, letting a forced laugh fill the stale air.
“I… I swear I’m not stalking you,” you laughed, rubbing the back of your neck. Technically it was a bit of a lie, but he didn’t need to know. It’s just something people say when they have the happy coincidence of running into a stranger so often.
“What did you say to me?” he bit. His tone was sharper than you felt like this conversation deserves.
“I mean, I’ve just been seeing you around a lot… it was, like, a joke? Like, ‘ahh watch out, I’m stalking you!’ you know?” With each second he stared you down, you felt your throat dry out, getting more flustered as you felt the need to over explain yourself.
“Maybe you should work on your comedy routine,” he barked, his voice just faintly cracking. He shoulder-checked you as he rushed out of the store in long strides and a brisk pace.
What in the absolute fuck.
You couldn’t stay in the shop for another minute. You dropped your stack of books at the counter with Miles, giving him a rushed apology for leaving them behind as you stormed out of the shop and headed in the opposite direction of where Spencer ran off to.
The air outside was now frosty as the sun disappeared behind the horizon; the wind nipped at your hot cheeks as you charged home. There weren’t enough words to quantify the anger you felt. Your mind ran rampant with how much you now hated this man.
Not only did he bite your head off for no good reason, but he publicly embarrassed you at your favorite place and had gone so far as to bruise your shoulder to make a point. And you know what? If he really wanted you out of his way, you were more than happy to leave him the hell alone for the rest of your life.
You reached into your jacket pocket for your phone and dialed Penelope.
“Hey! How are––” she cheered.
“It’s off.”
“What?”
“It’s off. I’m not dating your fucking friend.”
“What happened? I’m sure it’s just a misunderstanding––” she started in a panic. She pleaded that you overlook whatever went wrong and promised that she’d have a talk with Spencer about it. She’d try to encourage him into the direction that you need.
None of that registered in your brain, hot blood filling your ears instead of her words.
“He’s a fucking ass,” you spat. “The more I see of him, the less I like him, and… I’m pretty sure we’d rather kill each other than date at this point. So yeah, I’m done.”
☆
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#spencer reid#spencer reid x reader#spencer reid slow burn#spencer reid series#spencer reid fluff#spencer reid enemies to lovers#spencer reid x y/n#spencer reid self insert#spencer reid x you#spencer reid fic#spencer reid fan fic#spencer reid imagine#criminal minds series#criminal minds fic#doctor spencer reid#dr reid
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You don’t have to say you love me (I just wanna tell you somethin’) - Kevaaron
Aaron could have predicted that pretending to date Kevin Day to get back at Andrew would backfire.
He just didn't think it would backfire like this.
Another present fic for @starsandgutters !!
It started off as irritation. A prickle of annoyance. After all, Aaron thought, why was his brother allowed to have his stupid little boyfriend who gave him sappy little looks and brushed his fingers when they thought no one was looking? When Andrew spent so much energy and time driving off each and every girl Aaron had ever even smiled at?
When he woke up to Josten curled up in Andrew’s bed, he felt the anger begin to simmer in his chest.
And when he finally walked in on them kissing, Aaron Minyard knew something had to be done.
***
“I’m sick of this.”
Kevin looked up at the slam of Aaron’s hands on the kitchen counter, a ghost of a wince startling him out of his intent perusal of a book — one that looked suspiciously like some kind of soapy dollar store romance. Aaron raised an eyebrow at the chiselled man with an Exy racquet slung across his shoulders plastered across the cover, and Kevin cleared his throat and flipped the book over.
“Sick of, uh, sick of what?”
“Them. Josten being all over Andrew.”
Kevin looked mildly disturbed. “You didn’t… they weren’t…”
Aaron mimed vomiting. Imagine walking in on that. “Oh god, no. They were just making out. But it’s pissing me off. At this point, I feel like they need a taste of their own fucking medicine.”
Kevin lifted a dark eyebrow, uncomprehending. “What do you mean?”
Aaron considered him over the top of his laced fingers.
It wasn’t Kevin’s fault that Aaron and Katelyn had tearfully decided several months ago that the sneaking around just wasn’t worth the effort — attempting to keep their relationship up at a distance wasn’t working, so they’d parted ways. And it also wasn’t Kevin’s fault that he was now the only one who wasn’t related to Aaron that he actually exchanged more than two regular words with.
But the plan that had been quietly brewing in the very back corner of Aaron’s head for several weeks now was, admittedly, immensely helped by Kevin being Kevin. The fact that it was Kevin — of anyone Aaron could hatch this particular plot with — would piss Andrew off like no other.
And ultimately, that was the utmost goal.
“Kevin, what if I were to tell you…”
***
“What.”
“Look, I’ll help you with studying. Or — or something. I don’t know, what do you want? I’ll get you merch for your favorite team. Something for Knox, or whatever? You can put it on your little shrine.”
“This is ridiculous,” Kevin said, but he suddenly looked a little pinker than he was before. “I don’t have a…a shrine.”
Aaron opened his mouth to make a comment about how he didn’t know what else the entire inside of Kevin’s wardrobe was supposed to be, but now was the time to let things like that go. “I know Andrew and Josten piss you off too. If they figured out they needed to chill out with each other, maybe they’d do more practice with you.”
Kevin looked to be considering the proposition, finally, narrowing his far-away eyes thoughtfully down at the shirtless Exy player, only slightly concealed on the counter by one hand. At last, he said haltingly, “Couldn’t you…ask someone else?”
The uncertainty was Aaron’s in. He pushed forward, throwing another Kevin bait into the mix. “If you do it, I’ll practice extra with you too.”
Kevin’s eyes narrowed again, snapping up to sharpen on Aaron’s face. He had him. “I don’t know if you could keep up.”
“Oh my god, you asshole, that’s the point. I’ll put in more effort, you can show me how.”
“You’ll join night practices?” Kevin tilted his head.
A twinge of nervous anxiety in Aaron’s stomach. “I mean, I can’t do it all the time, I have to study, because unlike the rest of you all, my classes actually matter outside of a minimum GPA. But sure, whatever. Sometimes I’ll let you drag me along. If you do this.”
“This is ridiculous,” Kevin sighed again, as he stuck out his hand for Aaron to shake.
“So is your book,” deadpanned Aaron.
(Though if he had to chew his lip nearly to bleed to bite back a smile when Kevin dove to escape with his smut novel with a sputter and a glare, it was no one’s business but his own.)
***
“Greek salad and the turkey sandwich, here you two are. Enjoy.”
Kevin was sporting a sour scowl strong enough to wilt the salad the cafe waiter had placed in front of him — like getting treated to lunch was the lowest part of his week.
Maybe it was, he’d probably prefer to carry out this plan on the court. After all, Kevin preferred to do most things on the court.
Now that Aaron thought about it, Josten preferred the same. Perhaps the next part of this plan could happen on the court. At least Kevin would look less like he wanted to be five miles away from him, which really ruined the entire point of this exercise.
“They usually get coffee here around this time, so we just need to be a little convincing when they show up,” Aaron muttered, once more glancing furtively over his shoulder for Andrew and his annoying redheaded shadow. “But before they get here, Kevin, you did agree to at least pretend to fake date me. Maybe drop the murder glare, it’s not very romantic.”
“What am I even supposed to do?” Kevin hissed, but his glare dropped in favor of the same flavor of embarrassment Aaron recognized from his Knox shrine, eyes darting to Aaron’s face and back away, on repeat.
Aaron scoffed. “You’ve dated before. You were dating — what’s her name, Thea, weren’t you?”
“Not like this,” Kevin mumbled, beginning to shred his napkin.
Aaron watched him shower paper confetti across the tabletop, biting back his own surprise. Granted, Aaron had only seen Thea once or twice before Kevin had ended things with her, and their relationship had never seemed anything like Aaron’s often short lived but whirlwind style romances. Kevin and Thea had read aloof power couple at best, and… dangerously close to toxic old Raven headspace for Kevin at worst.
But still… Kevin Day, unsure of dating. Unsure of himself. A strange sight indeed.
“Well. We’ll figure it out. First, here.” Aaron slid an open palm across the table, and Kevin stared down at it like it was a foreign object.
“Hold my hand. It’s not going to bite you.” No movement, but Aaron knew how to play to his audience. “Or are you not up to the challenge?”
Kevin huffed and slapped his hand down, clamping his fingers around Aaron’s wrist. His hand was very large, and enveloped most of Aaron’s, but the death grip was anything but amorous.
“Prime boyfriend hand holding, Day,” Aaron said dryly.
“Prime plan, Minyard,” Kevin parroted back, as he picked his fork back up, raising his eyebrow. “Have fun eating that sandwich with one hand.”
“Fuck you.”
“Not on the first date, honey,” Kevin smiled around his forkful.
“Oh, of course. I’ll wait til the second to jump you, I’m not a slut, sweetheart.”
The slight choke brought a wave of triumph, as Aaron also managed to pick up half of his slightly soggy sandwich and bit into it.
Kevin was giving him A Look, and Aaron flipped him off with his sandwich hand, smirking.
Even if he’d had another option for this plan, Kevin was fun to poke at. It had been a long time since they’d last properly talked. They rarely spent time alone — Andrew was the Minyard Kevin was most interested in. Aaron’s preoccupation with Katelyn and with his schoolwork had meant he’d rarely spent much time speaking to him, anyway, let alone trading snarky insults.
Kevin speared an olive and stared at it. “So… aside from… holding hands. What are we planning on doing?”
Aaron tried to cough down dry turkey. “We just need to fool Andrew into thinking we’re an item, it’s not that hard.”
“But what kind of terms, Aaron? How far are you expecting…oh shit.”
(Read more on AO3 here!)
#kevaaron#aaron minyard#kevin day#all for the game#the foxhole court#aftg#aftg fanfic#all for the game fanfic#fanfic#andrew minyard#neil josten#andreil#kay fanfic#kaystuff#long post
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Nintendo Switch: Kissed by the Baddest Bidder
So one night I was stumbling around the Nintendo Switch Game Marketplace. One of the things I love is that there are a lot of unique, cheap, different indie like games that you can use “coins” you earn from other purchases to get. Because as a life long gamer, I still enjoy it but something new will get me more excited than Mario Game version 20...and I, as a normal woman, love romance games and novels and movies.
I stumbled onto this game first, from Voltage, and watched the preview where you are “purchased” and get to “choose who buys you”. Details below:
"I bought you." The worst first impression.
Working at Japan’s first hotel & casino, you stumble upon a black-market auction, and end up as one of the items for sale. “I’ll let you decide who buys you.” Five men place the winning bid, and now you’re completely at their mercy...Eisuke Ichinomiya "The Cold-Hearted CEO"/Soryu Oh "The cool Mobster"/Mitsunari Baba "The Womanizing Thief"/Ota Kisaki "The Enigmatic Artist"/Mamoru Kishi "The Slacker Detective"
Source: https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/kissed-by-the-baddest-bidder-switch/
Now, I was laughing and shocked when watching this trailer and thinking...how? How does someone think of this? How is this any good? This must be a one off game right? Voltage has like, 15 games like this? So I watched all the trailers. Each game is $25. I had a gift card, so I grabbed this one, as the game that I thought would be ridiculous...and one I actually liked the premise of.
I start to play this one, and it is surprisingly good. Most parts are a normal romance? Once you get past the point of dating someone so not normal? And honestly, for the amount of content in any one character’s story, x5 , it is a lot of game play for the price. With replay value, since there are many episodes with “Good Endings” and “Happy Endings”.
I have played one story line completely through, and started all but one of the other story lines, and its actually 3 seasons worth of traveling and story that also spans from you meeting to you getting proposed to.
The game designers were smart with their decisions to not do voice overs, it saves money and makes you have to pay attention. They reuse images for reoccurring places, do a small handful of you and him shots, and even the music is well done and consistent. Characters appear in all stories, you even get different points of views of the main guys in other guys stories.
I have always had a thing for “Villains”, so the idea that all these guys are typical “bad guy professions” works for me, but in playing you also see that a person is more than their profession and reminds one to ask why. Why does the king pin run auctions? When you realize its to find someone he can’t find, that is family, well he doesn’t seem all that bad anymore. Good and Bad are subjective, as much as anyone wants to make it “objective according to my opinion”.
Anyways, don’t want to spoil more than I have (not that I have given away nearly as much as I could have), and highly recommend it. I have one other game from the company, and as soon as I finish this one...will start on that one. Try it and let me know your favorite!
So far, at the time of writing this, here are my favorites ranking (1 best, 5 worst):
1) Mamoru Kishi "The Slacker Detective
2) Mitsunari Baba "The Womanizing Thief
3) Soryu Oh "The cool Mobster
4) Eisuke Ichinomiya "The Cold-Hearted CEO
5) Ota Kisaki "The Enigmatic Artist
#nintendoswitch#gamergirl#kissed by the baddest bidder#voltage#rant#romance#badguysaresexy#review#spoileralert
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Bitter Rivals
Okay this is dedicated to @starseternalnighttriumphant because she is literally one of my favorite Rowaelin writters (Hannah, theres a little shout out to you, you’ll know it when you see it lol)
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“I swear the next time that pompous dick face asshole even looks at me, I swear - I swear Elide that I’m going to take my $4,000 dollar Louboutin’s and stab him.” Aelin let out a frustrated groan in her throat as she stacked together case files to take home for the night. Elide stood in the doorway of Aelin’s office watching her friend and boss pace back and forth grabbing various objects and stuffing them in her bag.
“I take it the meeting with the new Mr. Whitethorn didn’t go as planned?” Elide asked wondering when Aelin was going to notice that she had started to throw random things in her bag and not the case files she needed.
“Oh that’s for sure,” Aelin said waving a box of tissues in her hand. “First he wants to come in like if he owns the place, classic alpha type you know? But then what really gets me is he had the gall, the fucking nerve, to look me up and down, head to toe and then walk away! The buzzard didn’t even say anything to me! Just gave me this once over, sat down, and proceeded to ignore me the rest of the meeting.” Aelin finally noticed the box of tissues in her hand and all the random junk that she had placed in her bag. Huffing she started to pull things out and Elide did her best not to laugh.
In all reality Aelin was used to people, men, in particular, sizing her up only to underestimate her in the end. It was something that she thrived on adding fuel to her fire. But when Rowan Whitethorn the newest addition to their law firm came swaggering in and dismissed her completely something in her blood boiled over into a hot rage. It didn’t help that he was tall, muscular, and looked like he could definitely act out a scene in one of her many romance novels. He wanted to act like an arrogant jerk so in Aelin’s mind he would be treated as such and therefore off-limits.
“Well here’s some news that might make you feel a bit better.” Elide said walking into Aelin’s office and sitting down, “The paralegal gossip network has been whispering that the higher-ups are starting to look for candidates to promote to partner and,” Elide paused for effect, “It seems you are the top of the list!” The smile that broke across Aelin’s face was so big that Elide wondered if it hurt. Aelin jumped up and down in joy before regaining her composure.
“Whew okay, no big deal that’s cool. Besides, it’s not like I’ve gotten the promotion yet anyway. Do we know who the other people on the list are?” Elide shook her head.
“Not that I’ve heard, but the moment I’ve found something out I’ll let you know.” Aelin nodded and gathered her bag and purse ready to leave for the day, Elide doing the same but instead of walking towards the elevator Aelin veered towards the right. Elide paused and gave her a quizzical look, Aelin giving her a secret smile said, “I hid some of the chocolate bark that Lys made for the office.” Elide scoffed a laugh and continued on leaving Aelin to have her end of day snack.
-------------
Thirty minutes later Aelin had combed the office kitchen not once, not twice but five times looking for her secret stash of goodies but to no avail. A part of her knew that she could just ask Lysandra to make her some more but another part of her was frustrated at whoever had found the chocolate that she had clearly been hiding. Finally deciding to give up she jumped when someone cleared their throat behind her.
“Is there a reason you’re tearing up the kitchen so late in the day?” Aelin turned around to see Rowan Whitethorn casually leaning against the entrance to the kitchen. Aelin’s eyes narrowed on the twig-like object in his hands. As if knowing exactly what he was doing, Rowan brought the chocolate bark up to his mouth and bit off a piece.
“You!” Aelin accused finger-pointing at Rowan. “You ate my chocolate!” Rowan looked at the piece of chocolate in his hands before bringing it to his mouth again this time taking a bigger bite finishing it off. He dusted his hands off before putting them in his pocket.
“I didn’t realize they were yours.” He said giving his shoulders a shrug. Aelin wanted to smack the smug look off of his face but instead grabbed her bag that she had put down when looking for her missing snack.
“Oh, so the chocolate that was clearly on the top shelf with multiple items in front of it, hidden from view. You didn’t think that it was someone’s and they were hiding it?” Aelin scoffed and moved to go around Rowan.
“There were some on the counter in the glass jar, why didn’t you eat those instead?” Aelin asked moving out of the kitchen and into the hallway.
“They were dark chocolate. Dark chocolate is too bitter and when I was looking in the cabinet for something else to eat, I found the milk chocolate ones.”
“Because I was hiding them!” Aelin huffed. She didn’t know what was going on with her, usually, she was more calm and collected than this, but Rowan had gotten in the way between her and something sweet. It didn’t matter that he had rolled up his white button-up sleeves and she could see the whorls of tattoos on his ridiculously toned forearms - seriously that’s not a part of the body that should even be attractive.
“Oh Aelin you’re still here, good.” Aelin turned to see Arobynn Hamel, one of the law firms partners walking towards her. She sighed internally and plastered on a smile.
“Arobynn.” She nodded in acknowledgment.
“I need to talk to you about something.” Rowan stepped out of the kitchen and into the hallway with Aelin. Arobynn’s eyes flicked to him before turning back to Aelin. “Oh good you’re both here then.”
Aelin was curious to know what Arobynn could need the two of them for.
“I’m sure both of you are aware that we are looking at possible new partners. I wanted to let you both know that you are on that list and tomorrow morning at our monthly check-in meeting we’ll go over some projects and cases that we want you to work on together.” Aelin felt like she had just gotten hit with a fright truck but her smile stayed in place. Arobynn touched his hand to Aelin’s shoulder and then walked away. Without another look or word to Rowan she walked away.
-------------
“Can you believe?!” Aelin said pouring herself another glass of wine before offering to pour Lysandra one. Lysandra held out her glass and watched with a smile as Aelin filled it up.
“I mean first the bastard doesn’t say a word to me, and then he eats my chocolate, which by the way should be punishable by death, I should know, I’m a lawyer. But then he’s my rival for the partner position?! I swear Lys, I don’t know what I did wrong in my past life or what my ancestors did wrong but this sucks. It sucks.” She took a big gulp out of her glass before picking up one of the cupcakes Lys had baked before Aelin came over.
“So what are you going to do?” Lys said taking a sip out of her glass.
“I don’t know, I don’t know what they’re gonna ask us to do, you know?”
“Well let’s worry about that tomorrow then, have you heard about his new Polish movie that’s apparently better than 50 shades?” Lys asked picking up the remote to turn on the TV.
“Um what? I wanna watch.” Aelin picked up another cupcake before snuggling into the couch.
-------------
The next morning Aelin walked into her morning meeting with a chocolate croissant and three shots of espresso over ice with sugar and cream. She sat down at her normal spot by the window and brought out her phone to look over emails when Rowan sat down next to her. She tried her best to ignore him but when he started tapping his pen on the legal pad in front of him Aelin had to put down her phone before she threw it at his head.
Before she could say something to him Arobynn walked in with three other men and two women one of them Clarisse and the others Aelin had met on various occasions but could not recall the names of.
“Ah good, you’re both here.” As everyone sat down Aelin sat up straighter. This was her chance to become a partner, something that she had been working towards since she started at Hammel and DuVency six years ago.
“Let’s get started then.” Clarisse templed her hands in front of her, “Arobynn informed the two of you of the opportunity to make partner, but rather than look at your individual cases and workloads we want to see how the two of you work together.” Elide walked in the room and handed both Rowan and Aelin some files before sitting down.
“This is Dorian Havilliard, I’m sure that you’ve seen him in the news recently. Currently he’s being sued by his father, Dorian Senior, over a breach in a business contract that they had. We will be representing the younger Dorian and I want the two of you to work this case together.”
“With all due respect,” Rowan chimed in. “Why?”
Arobynn responded, “This is a high profile case, and both of you are good looking to deal with the press. You also both have a stunning amount of wins which should make this easy. Ms. Lochan here will assist the two of you during this time.” Aelin nodded and pulled out her phone to send a quick text to Lys.
“Anything else we should know moving forward?” Aelin asked, scanning through the case file. If all she had to do was to win this case to prove that she was better than Rowan then the partnership was as good as hers.
“No, we will leave you two to discuss the important matter of the case amongst yourself,” Clarisse said standing up. “Please remember that we’ll be watching how the two of you work together during this time.” With that they all stood up and walked out of the room.
“Elide, could you get me all the files from the 2012 White Wolf case, they had a case similar to this, and pull any other files you can find on Dorian Senior, he wouldn’t be suing his son if it wasn’t important.” Aelin listed off, Elide nodding as she took notes.
“What makes you think that Dorian Senior is the one to blame?” Rowan asked. Aelin didn’t look at him as she continued to scan the file in front of her. “Because I’m not being paid to believe otherwise.” With that she stood up and walked out of the room.
-------------
Around lunchtime, Lysandra walked in holding a small green box that was trademarked to her bakery. She knocked and Aelin’s head shot up before a smile took over her face.
“Yeah! You brought it!” Aelin said getting up from her chair to hug her best friend.
“I also brought some food from Emrys,” she said holding up a takeout bag which she pulled out of Aelin’s reach, when she pouted Lys said “And, a slice of his chocolate cake.” Aelin jumped up and down grabbing the bag from Lys before pulling out a couple of fries to eat before splitting up the food between her and Lysandra.
“I love you Lys, and I love your baking but nothing will ever beat Emrys’s chocolate cake, I swear he puts crack in it.” Lys laughed at her friend taking a bite out of her own burger.
“So you gonna tell me why you needed me to make you chocolate?”
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After Lysandra left, Aelin took the box of chocolate up a floor to Rowan’s office. His office door was open but he was on a call, his back towards the door. Aelin knocked tentatively, when he turned around and saw her he placed one finger up telling her he would be just a minute.
“I understand that, but in the meantime I don’t want him anywhere near his son. We’ll file a restraining order on him, I can get a judge to sign it in,” Rowan looked at his wristwatch, “about an hour. Does that work?” Rowan nodded his head to whoever was on the phone before setting it back on the receiver. He walked around his desk to the front and leaned against it, crossing on leg over the other.
Damn it, he was attractive.
“I came to bring you this,” Aelin said handing over the green box that Lysandra brought earlier. He lifted a silver eyebrow at her. Aelin shrugged and smiled.
“I realized that we might have gotten off on the wrong foot so I wanted to give you a little something so that you know where we stand. Rowan opened the box while Aelin’s smile grew brighter.
“What is this?” Rowan asked, still staring at the contents inside the box.
“It's homemade dark chocolate, your favorite.” Rowan lifted the box towards Aelin where she could see the message written inside.
“Oh, that. That’s from me.” The words ‘Rival Confirmed’ were written across the assortment of chocolate sweets that Lysandra had put together for Aelin.
“Anyway, looking forward to working with you.” Aelin turned and walked out the door feeling much more satisfied than the day before.
Tags:
@safewithintheheart
@bibliophileaddict
@acer6437
@bamchickawowow
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Wake Me Up (Shiro x Reader)
Warnings: swearing, fake dating, reader has light anxiety
Word Count: 4,855
Prompt/Request: Shiro x femreader with the fake relationship trope?? bonus if they're childhood best friends and pining idiots
Summary: Reader has gotten herself into a bit of a pickle with a study group at school, thankfully a helpful Shiro agrees to pretend to date her to fix things. What happens when their feelings are more real than they want to pretend they are? Read and find out!
Author's Note: I don't usually write in 1st person, but I really wanted to try something new out. Readers, let me know if you liked it, please. Also, to the anon that requested this, I especially hope you like this and sorry it took so long. Bonus! If you want an enhanced reading experience go listen to the Ed Sheeran song by the same name.
Author: Mod Alex
I knew from the first time I met you that you're something absolutely spectacular. The second your family’s moving truck left, my mom was dragging me over, insistent on the fact that we needed to make the new neighbors feel welcome. I had seen you hiding behind your mom’s leg as our mothers talked. I had waved but that only seemed to make you shrink back more. You had looked so timid and scared back then, even more so when your mom told you to take me to the back so we could play. You had begrudgingly agreed, hiding behind a big oak tree. I followed unsurely. “Hey, are you okay?”
“L-mm-on.” You’d hidden your face in your knees, effectively muffling your voice.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t hear you.”
You peeked up. “Leave m’lone.”
I was taken aback but had sat down regardless. “I’m not mean y’ know. We could be friends?”
You hid her face again, but not enough to muffle your words. “Can you read?”
“Read? Um, mostly. I can’t read real big books. Oh, did you want me to read to you?” You nodded sheepishly and I grinned. “Cool! I’ll be right back, okay. You stay here.” I had run back to my house (which was right next door) and brought back my favorite storybook. “Huff… I’m back… huff… I wasn’t sure what kind of… huff… story you like, so I brought this.” I held the book out for you to see. You startled, but relaxed when you saw the book. A shy smile tugged at your lips and you nodded. So I read, and read, and read. I read until my voice began to fade away and the crickets began to sing. “Takashi, sweetie, are you out here?” In my voice that was fainter still, I bid you goodbye, before I could leave though you tugged me back to hug me briefly and ask if I still wanted to be friends. I, of course, agreed, which to this day, I believe was the best decision of my life.
I guess I must have won you over that day because you deemed me worthy of being your best friend. I was elated, of course. Sometimes we played pretend, other times we played hide and seek or tag. Sometimes we read right behind the great oak tree just like that very first day. It was the same way throughout the entire time we went to school. Sometimes, although I’d never tell you this, whenever I notice you’re having a rough day I’ll call and ask you if we can meet up under the oak tree in your backyard. I’ll read to you then, not because you can’t read (you can, beautifully if I do say so myself), but because it's tradition and because it makes you smile and goodness knows I’d do anything in the world to make you smile. Which is where we are now.
“Kashi?’ I pause, eyes leaving the page to look at you.
“Yes, (N/n)?”
Your eyes are closed, if it weren’t for the fact that you had just spoken I might have mistaken you for being asleep. It wouldn’t be the first time you'd have fallen into an easy slumber slumped against me in the shade of the mid-afternoon. “Do you think you could read me something a little different?”
“Of course!” The words left my mouth faster than I meant to let them, making me sound like an over-eager to please labrador, which I suppose when it came to you I absolutely was. You hummed happily, but the creases in your forehead indicated that something was off. “Anything in specific you’d like?”
You blinked your eyes open, sighing before picking yourself up off me to shuffle through your phone. “This?” I took the phone from you, containing my surprise from you. It wasn’t the first time you’d asked me to read you a romance, but I still couldn’t help the butterflies that would awaken in my stomach when you did. You resumed your spot leaning against me, closing your eyes again. Pushing back the urge to kiss your forehead, I began reading.
As I recited the meet-cute to you I couldn’t help but picture us; is that bad? That I can’t even read a simple story to you without picturing us as the ones sharing secrets, swapping longing glances and flirty remarks. It’s why I never choose romance novels. Because then Hazel melts away with the words into you, and suddenly it's not her telling Augustus the lines, but you telling me and I can’t handle it. I feel like I can literally hear your voice, soft and melodic reciting the lines; when I realize it’s not just my brain supplying a pining fueled fantasy, it really is you actually mumbling along with me "...As he read, I fell in love the way you fall asleep: slowly, and then all at once.” And even then it doesn’t slow my heart rate because why that line? The one line that makes sense in the situation we’re in. Do you have any idea what you’re doing to my heart?
We hadn’t even gotten halfway through when I heard you sniffle. My words faltered, resuming as I tried to steal glances at you. We had yet to even get to the sad part yet, so why? Eventually, I just gave up trying to theorize what might be wrong and stopped to gaze at you. Your wellbeing was my top priority after all. That’s the whole point of us sitting here, isn’t it? “(N/n), what’s wrong?” At this point, it was evident that you were crying. Your face was pressed into my arm, but I could still hear your sniffles. It broke my heart, to see you like this. Without a thought to be flustered over the intimate gesture, I cradled the side of your face, gently urging you to look up. “Hey, now, whatever’s troubling you, we’ll get through it.” You started to cry harder and I immediately felt the syrupy trickle of guilt through my veins. Had I said something wrong?
“It’s all my fault. I’m so stupid. Why do I always have to be such a fuckup, Kashi?” You wouldn’t meet my eyes, looking down pitifully. I wiped away a tear futilely.
“Hey, don’t talk about my best friend that way.” You giggled softly at that. “Really though, you aren’t a fuckup and as far as I’m concerned you’ve never done anything to deserve the berating you're giving yourself.” You sigh, leaning against my hand mumbling quietly.
“You’re sweet. But I really did fuck up this time.”
“What happened?”
“Do you remember when I told you about my group for my Fiction Writing class…”
“Yeah?” Of course, I remembered. Out of everybody in the group, you were the only one to take the assignments seriously, not to mention the guy you mentioned that kept hitting on you- Lotor was his name. I’m not a jealous person, but the thought of someone making you that uncomfortable for their own gain gets under my skin more than I’d like to admit.
“Well, um, it's just that they, um, they got it in their head that you and I, that we’re like, an, uh, an item? I-I was trying to tell them that we weren’t but they wouldn't let me get a word in, you know? Lotor said that that was the real reason I would have to reject his advances. And it was like they started kinda teasing me and I just didn’t know what to say anymore, so I told them that, uh, they could meet you… I’m sorry, you don’t have to, of course. I should’ve just tried harder to get them to listen to me. I should just, um, I can- I’ll just send Ezor a text. Word will definitely travel then...”
I frowned, listening as you continued to go further into your own head, curling in on yourself as you did. My heart twinged, was it so bad that I kind of wanted to play along? Wouldn’t it be a win-win anyway? The group you were in were not particularly nice people from what you'd told me and playing along with it would keep them from giving you shit, and well it didn’t hurt that I’d get to pretend to be your boyfriend… it might be the only chance I get. “What if… What if we just play along? I mean we already know everything about each other. It’d be easier than finding someone else or getting harassed every time you go to class. Anyways, it’s only until the end of the quarter.” And I was being sincere, regardless of my own personal interest, I would've done it for you. I’d do literally anything for you.
You stopped talking abruptly and looked at me with a look I couldn’t quite place. “You’d do that for me?”
I grinned. “Of course. It’d make it easier on you wouldn’t it?”
“I-I guess.” You bit your lip while you thought, a habit you’ve had since we were younger. “Yeah, okay... Yeah, this could work. Are you free Friday night?”
“Friday? What time, Matt and I have that conference.”
“Right, sorry I forgot. It’s, hmmm, let me check…” A beat of silence fell over us as you checked. “9:30?”
“9:30 is perfect.”
“Great! Okay, so the group is meeting up at the Lotor’s at 8, but the ‘study sesh’ doesn’t start till 9:30. Um, it’s really more of a party but Axca is bringing her notes, so I'd have to go either way. Also, I think they want to prove you are my boyfriend or whatever so…. Yeah.”
“I’ll pick you up at 7 and we can get something to eat before then. I have to take care of my girlfriend after all.” I was joking but saying it still made the butterflies stir up again.
You rolled your eyes and smiled. “Sure, sure. See you then, boyfriend.”
-
I’d gotten more dressed up than I may have needed to considering we were going to a college party, but I wrote it off on wanting to look good for the act we were about to put on, after all, it had to be believable right? And well it wasn’ too dressy, just nice. I didn’t look nearly as good as you, of course. When I picked you up, I’d nearly stumbled over my words. I felt like a teenager again, picking up my date for prom. You laughed when I offered you my arm, taking it anyway even though we didn’t have to put on the act just yet. “You like nice, are you ready to go?”
“As ready as I'll ever be," You fiddled with your jacket as you smiled shyly at me, "and thanks, you look good too."
My skin buzzed with a pleasant electricity at the compliment. “Thank you. Well hey, look at the bright side at the least we go eat now. I'm starving, the conference didn't break for lunch thanks to Matt.”
You laughed and I couldn’t help the smile that tugged at my lips, you looked so beautiful and carefree. “Alright, Mr. Matt-Didn’t-Feed-Me, where are we gonna eat at?”
“I was thinking Rover’s?”
We had started walking to my car, at least we were until you stopped in your tracks. “Rover’s? Isn’t that place kind of on the up-and-up?”
“Sure it is.”
“Won’t that be… kinda pricey. Shiro, I don’t think I can- I’ve got textbooks and supplies I still have to get for next quarter.”
I waved my hand, turning to grin at you. “I don’t remember saying I was going to make you pay.”
You huffed looking somewhere between uncomfortable and flustered. “I’m not letting you dump a ton of money on me.”
“Hey, look, I just got a bonus, alright. Let me take us out to dinner. We’re always talking about how we want to go there, so let’s just do it. I promise you there is nothing I want to spend my money on more.”
You grumbled, and before I knew it you had yanked me into a hug. “You are way too good to me.”
I let myself chuckle as I wrapped my arms around you in return. “No way, you deserve it.”
-
At Rover’s we had to park a little ways away. “Hi, we have a reservation for 8.”
The host smiled pleasantly looking at the screen in front of them. “Shirogane?” I nodded. “ Right this way.”
“You tricked me!” You whisper yelled at me as we followed the host.
“I did no such thing.”
“You didn’t tell me you already reserved a spot here.”
“It’s the only way to get in. Although I will say, I’m glad you agreed before we got here.”
You gently socked my arm and I acted hurt, sticking my tongue out playfully. “You ass.” Your broad grin betrayed your words, showing just how excited you were to be here.
"Name-calling, that’s not nice, (N/n). And to think I brought you here-”
“Oh my god, shut up you nerd.”
“Your table.” The host had stopped, watching the both of us with an amused expression. He was older, nearing his late fifties surely. “I remember when my husband and I were your age. We were just like you.”
I laughed, somewhere between disbelief and absolute delight. “Thank you, sir.” I heard you splutter, masking it as a cough. While the host began to walk away I winked at you. “We have to get into character, right?”
-
Dinner was spectacular, although we could have been at a Denny’s and I still would have had a great time with your company. That’s not to say going to Rover’s was overrated, it really was as good as we thought it would be. You seemed so carefree, it was nice to see you free of your usual anxious demeanor. That was a far stretch from how you looked now as we drove to an exclusive party that you had no want to go to. You were practically white-knuckling in the car. My hand found yours, the other still planted firmly on the steering wheel. I gave it a gentle squeeze. You didn’t say anything, but the squeeze you returned to my hand told me more than any words would have anyway. It was one of my favorite things about our friendship, we knew each other better than anyone else, no words necessary.
The house spanned almost a block, with a smattering of people, all in varying states of drunkenness, across the lawn and flocking in through the wide set of French doors. I got out first, moving to open your door, before offering my arm. “Oh my god, you cheeseball.” You took my arm gingerly despite your words, letting your hand slip down to mine once we started walking. Before we made it in I made it a point to stop you, leaning down towards your ear, letting you hear me over the loud thrumming from the music inside.
“I won’t let us get separated, okay, so don’t worry.” I paused for a moment trying to articulate my thoughts in the least embarrassing way. “And, I don't know how far you're comfortable with taking the act. I know we didn't talk about it too much, so if anything happens and you're uncomfortable let me know and I'll figure a way out of it, okay? Is there anything you want to avoid?" My face was burning, asking was important to avoid causing you any unnecessary panic, but it still felt odd asking what the limits of our fake-relationship were. When I pulled back enough to hear your response, you were just as flustered as I was.
“If the situation calls for it, almost anything. And I'll only go through with it if you’re okay with it too. Can we go inside?” Your voice, even as close to me as it was, was just barely over a whisper, your nerves evident. It reminded me of my own voice, ripe with longing in so many conversations we had had and I entertained the thought, even if only for the briefest of moments, that maybe you were pining for me too.
The inside of the house made the front lawn look like the prohibition. People were passed out at random parts of the room, narrowly avoiding the houseguests who were in the middle of sloppy make-outs. The whole thing felt like it was ripped from a cheesy teen film. You were still holding my hand, having taken the lead to drag me through the house to the enclosed back deck where people thankfully seemed to be a little soberer.
“(Y/n), you were able to make it good, and oh- I knew you two were a thing, although I will say I’m surprised.” Lotor’s posh voice rang clear through the chatter and although he didn’t outright say it, his meaning hung heavy in the air: he was demeaning you, saying he was surprised you’d managed to be dating me. Just another tactic to lower your self-worth enough for him to go in for the kill. I hated guys like that, who thought that 'negging' was an appropriate way to win someone over. Besides that, the idea was stupid and I wanted to tell him off, I’d die happy if you ever decided to grace me with being my girlfriend, for him to even insinuate that I was too good for you was absurd.
“I'm Shiro, nice to meet you. (N/n), has told me all about you all, it’s good to finally be able to put a face to the name.” I laughed hollowly, enough to give the random passerby the idea of a friendly interaction but cold enough to let Lotor know I didn't appreciate what he was doing, at least I hoped it did.
“Oh my goodness! So you and her are actually dating?!” A bubbly girl came over, hair in a long reddish-pink ponytail and with a drink in her hand; it was definitely not her first. Lotor threw her a look that screamed: "shut up". SHe didn't even notice.
I smiled warmly, squeezing your hand. “We are. For a while now actually. I honestly thought it was common knowledge?” I laughed, hoping she bought it. Her eyes widened, lips forming an ‘o’.
“Wow! I actually had no idea.” She leaned over to you, winking. “Nice catch. Axca is over there by the way, but you should stay a while. Y’know- eat, drink, be merry.” She giggled before swaying back over to a group of people she had been talking to.
“Come on, I need to talk to Axca.” You pulled me along by the hand, maneuvering through the crowd uneasily. I drew closer to you, hoping the close proximity eased your nerves the same way it eased mine. When we finally stopped, you stayed tucked under my arm, making warm contentment spread through my chest.
“(Y/n), Ezor sent you my way, I presume?” A girl with electric blue hair and a dark jacket sat on a relatively untouched sofa in the corner on her phone, her bag slung next to her.
“Yeah. I’m glad she didn’t send me on a wild goose chase. You have the notes, right?” She nodded but made no move to take them out. You shuffled next to me, words tumbling out of your mouth to fill in the silence that had stretched on for an uncomfortable amount of time. “Can I please have them? Parties aren’t really my scene…” After another beat of silence you continued, “... and Shiro and I already had plans so… yeah.” This caught Axca’s attention, her eyes darting from the screen of her phone to meet your eyes.
“Oh? So you’re still pretending?” She said it without a hint of amusement as if genuinely puzzled.
“Pretending?” You practically squeaked the word out before continuing, quickly covering up your shock. “What in the world are you talking about?”
Axca looked between us. “There’s no trace of you two being together in your online presence. The four of us all figured you were faking. Almost none of us actually thought you were dating him, Ezor just wanted to get a rise out of you and Lotor…” She paused, deciding that what she was going to say was better left unsaid. “So you two really have been dating? You don’t make it too obvious.”
I could practically feel you fuming beside me. “Just because we don't flaunt it like some Insta-couple doesn't mean we haven't been dating.” Axca shrugged, fixing you with a disbelieving and uninterested look. “I mean, really! Isn’t it bad enough that you all tease me all the time!? Now you’re trying to catch me in a lie that you all set up?!” You were shouting, the weeks worth of subtle bullying finally boiling over. It was garnering the attention of party-goers nearby.
“What’s going on?” A tall girl with curly space buns spoke, Ezor was leaning heavily against her side. She radiated intimidation and I felt you shrink against me. Still, you held your ground.
“You all set me up and I don’t appreciate that. Especially since Shiro and I are actually dating and he went out of his way to be here to prove as much to you all.”
“Is that so? Axca what did you find out?”
“Not much. They’re all over each other’s pages, but it’s not necessarily romantic.” She tossed the tall girl, Zethrid if my memory of your description was right, her phone.
Zethrid looked over the contents of the phone before laughing. “Prove it then, (Y/n).”
“That’s enough. I’m not just going to let you all taunt her while I stand here. Axca, was it? (N/n) is here for the notes you have. If you would kindly hand them over. As she's already told you all we have plans and I’d rather not have to postpone the date I planned with my girlfriend because you all think making fun of her is fun.”
“Is that so?” Lotor came strolling from behind us, a fourth woman leading him. She stood quiet, her gaze piercing.
I turned to him. “Yeah. It is.”
“Go on then, Prince Charming. If you love, (Y/n) so much, then why don’t you do something to prove it. Otherwise, I'm sure there's someone who could make her much happier.” He spared a glance at you.
"She's not a prize to be won-" I looked over at you, you’d taken to squeezing my hand. As I turned you grabbed me by the collar and before my brain had a moment to register what was happening you’d pulled me down to press a kiss to my lips. My mind raced and after a second for my mind to process what was happening, I wrapped an arm around your waist pulling you closer as we kissed. You were the first to pull back, a shy smile gracing your lipstick smudged lips. A whistle sounded in the back, along with some cat-calls. You didn’t seem to care, and honestly, I knew how you felt. It was like a bubble was around us as I leaned down to kiss you again.
I would have kissed you until the sun came up and the crowd dispersed but an arrogant voice broke through the haze. “Alright, we get it!” When we broke apart, Lotor stood silently fuming. “Axca give her the notes so they can leave.”
“But I thought-”
“Just give her the notes.” Axca did, fishing a perfectly labeled folder from her bag and handing it to you. As she did, Lotor moved
towards you with a barely hidden sneer on his face as he leaned down to whisper something to you. Clutching the folder, you jogged back over to me, taking my hand in yours as you did.
We made it outside, walking down the sidewalk to the car. The voices and blaring music fading quickly behind us. “Are you okay?”
You hadn’t looked at me, much less answered. We sat in silence even as my question hung in the air. “You kissed me.”
“What? I thought we agreed... You pulled me-”
“The first would’ve proven enough. But you kissed me a second time. Why?”
I couldn’t discern the odd tone of your voice. I felt jumpy all of a sudden. “I just- we had to convince them-”
“Was it just an act then?” You turned to me, tears quickly polling in your eyes. Guilt stung at my heart, I’d been selfish, thinking that maybe your feelings were the same as my own and instead I’d made you uncomfortable and confused. You deserve the truth at the least.
I took a slightly ragged breath. There were a million ways to tell you that I’d loved you since we were nothing more than two kids sitting with a book in our laps behind a tree, hell I’d even imagined it a handful of times, and yet not once did I think this would be how you'd find out. “No. No, I- I shouldn’t have done this. It’s never been an act, not for me at least. I never meant for it to go this far but then you kissed me and I thought- I should have realized it was just for the act. I’m sorry, I fucked up. You have every right to be mad at me, but please if there’s any way that we can still be friends. I don’t want to lose you.” I was rambling, but I couldn’t find the right words and I couldn’t fix it- couldn’t make the harsh feeling of rejection leave or take my actions back.
“Shiro.” Your hand came to cup my cheek, stopping me in my tracks. “Slow down. Let me get this right, you were never acting?” Your eyes glanced between mine as if searching for the truth. I nodded. “So you really wanted to take me on a date and kiss me?” I nodded again, trying to dip my head to hide my blushing features. The hand cupping my cheek stopped me. “How long?”
“What?”
“How long have you felt like this?”
I swallowed thickly. “How long? Um… yes?" A strained, nervous laugh escaped me, "I mean, I can’t even think of a time when I didn’t. M’sorry.”
I chanced a glance at you to see your reaction. I certainly wasn’t expecting you to be barely holding back a fit of giggles. Ouch. You must have seen me cringe because you quickly stopped. “Sorry, I’m sorry. It’s just, god, you mean to tell me we could have been doing this so much sooner?”
“I- what?” I couldn’t let myself believe what I was hearing. You rolled your eyes good-naturedly.
“You and I could have been dating for years now. Are we both seriously such disasters that we’ve literally been pining for each other for years?!” You sounded incredulous and I found myself laughing in disbelief along with you.
“I guess you’re right. So does that mean that we can…” My words faded away as we leaned towards each other.
“Please?” Your words ghosted over my lips, teasing me for what was only seconds away. In the warmth of the car we kissed, it was the same but different than the kisses from before. The same subtle taste of your cupcake chapstick and yet it was so much… More. Maybe it was because we both knew it was what we wanted or maybe it was just the knowledge that I would be allowed to do this again and again and again, but the feeling of kissing you was intoxicating, a sensation that I knew I would never be able to get enough of.
-
It had only been a week since we went to the party and confessed, but everything still seemed so perfect. Ironically, very little had changed. You were still my best friend, after all. We were sitting in our usual spot, I was reading out an original piece of yours, both to revise/edit it at your request and because I had been dying to read it. I’d finished it, marking out a few editorials and encouraging notes on the margins of the paper. As I wrote a thought came to mind. “I've been wondering something.”
“Oh?”
“What had Lotor said to you that night?”
You rolled your eyes, huffing with annoyance. “He said that when I had my heart broken by you that he’d be there for me to come groveling back to.”
“What a prick.”
“Right?”
“For the record, I will never break your heart.” You laughed.
“Thanks for the reassurance, casanova.”
“No problem, my love.” I grinned as your teasing expression gave way to a flustered one. You slipped your hand into mine, hiding your face on my arm.
“Mm-uff-oo.”
I chuckled, some things never changed. “I have no idea what you just said.”
You pulled back just enough to be heard. “I said, I love you.”
I smiled, pressing a kiss to the top of your head. “I love you too.”
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List of Reincarnated into the Villainess of an Otome/Romance Novel Series I Like
Soooooo I’ve gotten sucked into the very specific isekai subgenre?trope? Of girl gets reincarnated into an otome game or romance novel she loves but is the villainess. It’s kind funny how similar these all are but at the same time so different. Now these arent all the titles just the ones I’ve read for at least a volume and like. (if asked i might make a list of the ones that failed for me). I’m gonna separate by types. and if you know of any other titles please do tell me.
Received Past Memories during Childhood
(The story starts with the MC remembering her past life as a child and growing up with the knowledge)
I Reincarnated into an Otome Game as a Villainess With Only Destruction Flags...
So this one has a good deal of traction since it has an anime adaption currently running, but I’ll be honest it’s not one of favs. This series is primarily a harem comedy and most of the jokes deal with the MC’s expectations from the game not matching her new reality and not realizing why, which can be very fun, if one note. The characters are likeable which is why I keep reading but I think some other titles on this list use the concept far better. There is also a spin off version where the MC doesnt get her old memories until later in life and has to deal with the actions of the game character, but it’s fairly the same you arent missing much if you dont read it.
The Villainess Want to Marry a Commoner
So in this one the MC isn’t trying to avoid a bad end rather she’s very excited to be able to romance her favorite NPC whom she wished was romance-able. (which honestly mood) I’m not very far in but it really takes the whole this is a game the furthest as there are stat checks and the MC basically carried over all the items and skills acquired in her past playthroughs.
Survive as the Hero’s Wife
A web series, this one takes place in a book and the main pair are married as children and the MC plays double agent for the series antagonist to keep her and the LI safe. It’s fairly involved with a larger cast of characters but I’ll be honest this is one of the titles I feel would be stronger if it was just a straight fantasy series, the whole Isekai aspect feels like it’s there just to make the plot move quicker. But all around a good read.
Fiancée’s Observation Log of the Self-proclaimed Villainess
Now this one has a fun twist on the formula in that it’s told from the perspective of the love interest. Some of the faults other titles are plague with are avoided here as the main character himself has no knowledge of the world being a game, his fiance does but while she’s happy to tell him she’ll be a great villainess and get him a happy ending with the heroine she never tells him why thats so important so he’s left in the dark and thereby so are we. I will give a warning there is bit of fat shaming in this as the original games villainous was chubby but this version is skinny, like its not awful but its not the best implication that bad is chubby and good is skinny.
The Evil Lady's Hero
Another webseries set in a novel while we dont see the MC in childhood (save for some flashbacks) it’s stated she’s had her old memories since then. What I really like about this series is the MC’s personality and set up. So she died well into her 20s and as such she is a bit more mature and levelheaded than most MC’s, her plan was to avoid the main cast of the books as much as possible but ends up drunkenly sleeping with the male lead leading to them dating. Her thought being I’ll just enjoy this for now and let him break up with me when he meets the heroine, all good. The pair play well off each other and I’m curious to see where the story goes.
The Result of Being Reincarnated is Having a Master-Servant Relationship with the Yandere Love Interest
Now this one has a lot of fun with this concept as there are two other characters who were reincarnated like the MC. Because this game had only yandere love interests even the “good” endings arent that good, the MC also has limited knowledge as she didnt get to play all the way through so she feels less omnipotent than other protagonists, and along with not being the only person displaced it gives the series a nice refreshing feel.
Received Past Memories as Young Adult
(The story starts with the MC remembering her past life after/during the events of the game/book)
I’m a Villainous Daughter, so I’m going to keep the Last Boss
So I actually really love this series and wanna read the light novel version. The MC regains her memories during the beginning of the bad end for the villainess and thinking quickly saves face to run off and find the main antagonist of the game the demon king who happens to be a secret route on the second play through. Its a very fun read but gets a little dark in later chapters I wont spoil cause its good but there is an attempted rape scene.
Simply Good Sense for a Duke’s Daughter
This one kills me cause the world building and characters are so strong and dense it’s actually weakened by the fact that the MC was reincarnated is really just kinda brushed off most the time. As you get more and more invested the only real purpose her being reincarnated into an otome has is like some ideas for products to sell and how to make things that dont exist in this world yet. Like I wont say I don’t enjoy it but I think I’d enjoy it more if it was just a fantasy story.
Beware the Villainess
God I love this webseries. The MC is just a delight as she decides she wont be evil but she wont be good either. What I like about this series is it kinda plays with the fact that the setting is a trashy romance novel cause as the MC learns more about the main characters of the novel she finds that the descriptions in the book dont match up because it’s very surface level. Example a merchant whos said to be very smart and savvy in the books is actually rather easy to outsmart, MC realizes it’s cause the writer only ever wrote he was smart never HOW he was smart. I would def give this one a read its a lot of fun.
For Certain Reasons, The Villainess Noble Lady Will Live Her Post-Engagement Annulment Life Freely
This is again another series I think would be stronger if it was straight fantasy. The MC of this story actually has no idea the world is an otome game, she was nurse in her past life and uses that knowledge for the betterment of the land, (though actually its hard to tell if she was really reincarnated or just has the memories of this person) The story could have moved just as well if the MC was given like a medical textbook from a mysterious other world. But the characters are fun so its not awful just not one of my favorites.
Reincarnated but not as Villainess
I Am Troubled That My Fiance Is a Villain
The MC is reincarnated into an otome game with her memories as a child but as a side character, she ends up endearing herself and becoming engaged to the games villain character. Its very cute because she doesnt have to worry about a bad end she doesnt try to interfere much just keep those around her safe.
Seduce The Villain's Father
Web series MC gets reincarnated into a novel as a minor character, as the story takes place prior to the events of the book she changes things to keep her new sister safe and uses the opportunity to try and avoid more tragic events. Its not bad I’d say the idea itself is interesting though its a little uncomfortable she calls the male lead “father”
A Villain Is A Good Match For A Tyrant
Ok so this web series is kinda hilarious and I do have to spoil a little cause the person reincarnated is NOT our lead, its our villain. So this person was actually the author of the story, she had written a novel about a girl being reincarnated into the bastard daughter of a lord who gets engaged to a tyrant and has to pretend to be evil to stay safe from his enemies, and the author is so PISSED she reincarnated into a random priestess. Its so weirdly meta. The MC is the lord’s bastards and the events play out just like story only she doesnt get her body taken over. This series is very fun, cant wait to see how it goes.
Anyway this is my list if you have suggestions for me I’ll check them out. Will probably make another list later.
#manga#web series#isekai#I Reincarnated into an Otome Game as a Villainess With Only Destruction Flags#The Villainess Want to Marry a Commoner#Fiancée’s Observation Log of the Self-proclaimed Villainess#Survive as the Hero’s Wife#The Evil Lady's Hero#The Result of Being Reincarnated is Having a Master-Servant Relationship with the Yandere Love Interest#I’m a Villainous Daughter so I’m going to keep the Last Boss#Simply Good Sense for a Duke’s Daughter#Beware the Villainess#For Certain Reasons The Villainess Noble Lady Will Live Her Post-Engagement Annulment Life Freely#I Am Troubled That My Fiance Is a Villain#A Villain Is A Good Match For A Tyrant
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an abridged history/explanation of warrior cats if you didn’t read them as a kid and have questions (a primer)
welcome. i’m going to keep things to the point, this is not a plot summary, just, well, its a pandemic and people are seeking items of childhood comfort and its come to my attention that a lot of people didn’t read these books as kids and then they come up in conversation and they act shocked so! i felt compelled to write this.
[2.5k words, 10min read. section headers, no pictures. not a ton of helpful formatting. i don’t want to say don’t read this because obviously i wrote it and think it’s worth reading, but i’ll be honest, this is a lot.]
section one: about me
i was an avid reader as a child, most of which fits solidly into “stories for another time,” and some of which would necessitate me adding tags onto this post that are, well, not necessary. so i will skip over that backstory but for those aware of lexile scores, i had one that was too high for literally any book that was appropriate to give me. so reading in school was torture and reading for fun was excellent.
now because i was a first-ish grader and my mom was trying to keep the fifth harry potter out of my hands, she looked desperately for something else to pass to me. her friend, who had a daughter a year or two older than me, was into these cat books, and my mom was like “here honey you like cats” without thinking too much about it.
which is good, because as i’ll get into, it was a really good fit for me. but like a dozen books later she asked me about the plot and well. i think at that moment she realized that it might have been better to just let me read harry potter.
but yeah i continued to read them long past the recommended reading ages and still as a Young Adult will return to them for nostalgia, and also as i will get into, some really good books. (see a list of books for “morbidly curious but i don’t want to spend 56 to 168 hours reading this”)
i’m not fully caught up on the series but this is not a plot summary so that should not impact my ability to discuss this
section two: content warnings
these books (not this post) includes the following:
discussion of castration (1.1 series 1, book 1, i’m not including this on every item/discussion because this is a complicated series but i want to demo how up front some of this is)
teenage romance/sex/pregnancy (1.1ish-1.3 or 4, continues throughout the series quite a lot, comes up again in 3.4/5, 4.4-5, and a bit in 5)
death from childbirth (1.can’t remember which book, many others)
unwanted pregnancy (se super edition, or a longer one off novel, discussed in 4&5)
sex/implied, discussed, and very very very heavily hinted but never directly said/shown (1.1-3ish, se, other)
murder (constantly, 1.1, 1.4, literally every book, 3.5, i’m just listing the ones i remember off the top of my head that were particularly graphic)
disability/illness, esp. the debilitating and/or deadly nature of it (1.3-5ish, 3.1, but all of 3, 3.4ish)
dementia (1.3-5, i’ve heard in some of the later series?)
abuse (7/8 this is reported i haven’t read these books but based on what i know it’s def there)
child abandonment (1.4-5, 3.4/5, it’s also all over the place but i think those are the only major character incidents of it)
treason (1.3-5, all over the place)
the horror/tragedy of war (background, but pretty constant)
disagreeing with an integral religion/tradition (3, based on the series title, 8, and generally scattered)
the corrupting influence of power (1.4/5, possibly 7/8, others)
racism (1, 3-5, possibly others)
sexism (se, background)
patriarchal societies (se, seems to be somewhat softened based on what i’ve heard but i’m not entirely sure about this)
and more! but it starts to get stranger and this is enough to prove my point
basically everything that could go wrong does
oh yeah! child abuse also child abuse that’s a very major theme in the first series as well as during other points. and elder abuse in the first series.
okay i’ve made my point.
section three: the appeal
look. so. i think we’re kind of pastel-ify children’s literature based on movies. see, parents have to watch children’s movies with their kids, so they can’t be gritty and intense because a lot of parents will say “not for my nine year old! they can’t deal with treason!” and that seems to be bleeding into children’s literature.
but warriors is not that. it’s intense, it borders on “too gruesome for children,” and it’s from a time where kids books got to be serious and heavy and dark because they were about animals. which was great because i couldn’t find books at my reading level that weren’t too thematically difficult, so i got to read something below my reading level, but thematically too hard, so it kind of balanced out.
and then well. so. the series grows with the audience, but the books don’t grow in terms of like difficulty so new readers start deep into it and it’s a complicated thing, the fandom history is complex, but.
the appeal is that parents don’t usually read the books their kids read and so they see a book about cats and assume it’s fluff, and kids who are starved of complex content get to read hamlet-for-kids.
section four: worldbuilding/lore
oh yeah also there’s some really deep lore to explore. so there’s two bits of appeal.
i’m not doing a full world/plot summary, but i’ll explain some common elements here.
thunder/shadow/wind/riverclan: harry potter houses for cats (gryffindor, slytherin, hufflepuff, ravenclaw, except this doesn’t work for the last two but that’s fine because no one cares about them despite riverclan being pretty important in most of the books)
-kit/-paw/-star: naming conventions. everyone has a two part name. (we’ll use cinder as an example because i like the two cinders we know, even tho neither of them get to be cinderstar.) babies are -kit (cinderkit), then when they’re apprentices, which is like being a student, you know, elementary through high school, you’re paw, so cinderpaw. then you get an Official Name from ur clan leader (cinderheart). if you become clan leader, you get to be -star (cinderstar). i know i haven’t explained clan leaders bear with me. this is kind of important because i have the names burned into my memory so i cannot simply always call firestar firestar if he was firepaw at the time of the events i’m describing. it won’t be ambiguous, cinderheart/cinderpelt are a special case. if this is tricky for you it’s fine just only read the first part of the name.
clan (leader, deputy, medicine cat, elder): roles with in the clan. leaders literally have nine lives. deputies are next in line and chosen by the leader. leaders usually go through several deputies, because deputies don’t have nine lives. medicine cats are doctors. they also have an apprentice. those are all one per clan. elders are just retired cats. they’re not a special category per say, but i wanted to mention them.
warrior: adult.
warrior code: laws.
star clan: dead cats. this ties into the religion which is pretty important to the books but for the most part if you understand that dead cats get to give guidance and send their approval, you have the gist of it.
section five: so um, what the fuck
so we start with a cat named rusty who runs into the woods to join thunderclan and then his name is firepaw and we all forget that he’s named rusty except for like that one time it comes up again. bluestar is a great leader with some corrupt deputies but fireheart eventually takes care of it and becomes clan leader which is a big deal.
then a bunch of other shit happens and suddenly ashfur is possessing brackenstar and being (more) abusive to squirrelflight (who is on the outs with brackenstar anyway for lying about their kits jayfeather, hollyleaf, and lionheart because they’re actually the children of firestar’s other daughter leafpool who had them with crowfeather after she fell in love with him but he’s from windclan and she’s a medicine cat so that’s double illegal and apparently hollyleaf is alive even though she yeeted herself into a pit and died because she killed ashfur when he threatened to reveal this but couldn’t live with being the product of an illegal meeting and then it was all pointless because leafpool stopped being a medicine cat out of guilt anyway and jayfeather is just an ornery bitch about everything but especially all of this)
i’m not explaining any of that.
section six: i repeat: so um, what the fuck
so the thing about these books is they’re soap operas and dramas about cats and that means they get just as strange and chaotic as anything else in the genre. i think a lot of people like me, who read them as children, regard the series we knew as a child (usually either the first three or the first five, plus super editions) as something good and warm and comforting (despite being dark and gruesome) because they made us feel good.
they were also a breeding ground for young fandom because of all the the drama that exists and the nature of the books providing that.
section seven: super editions
the simple answer to what a super edition is has already been given (it’s a novel length one-off about a single character, and its usually either a side character - bluestar, crowfeather - or a event/perspective we don’t get to see - firestar, skyclan, greystripe - and they’re generally more mature)
my favorite super edition is bluestar’s prophecy. i read it at like 16, slinking into the children’s library with a stack of other ya fiction and a “children’s book” which dealt with unwanted pregnancy, grief, forbidden love, and more. still not sure why that’s in the children’s section.
section eight: about the drama
so there’s been a lot of fandom drama about these books. i can’t tell you about the nuances, because i am an old fan, so i watched but didn’t partake. the highlights reel that i can recall goes as follows (please note i will refer to characters by name without explanation. it’s fine. the point of this section is to convey the pettiness of this drama):
tigerstar: did he do anything wrong? (the answer is holy shit yes, this isn’t discourse, it’s okay to like a villain)
scourge: did he do anything wrong, also what color is his collar? (also yes, doesn’t matter)
was the new prophecy (2)/omen of the stars (3)/etc good? (yes, eh, no, yes, no comment, no comment)
should jaypaw or hollypaw be medicine cat apprentice (neither of them, but jaypaw’s employment opportunities are limited because he’s blind, so its gotta b him)
uhh a massive tangle around this parentage drama between squirrelflight, leafpool, brackenfur, and crowfeather, which i used as the crux of humor for how batshit the plots can get, so i’m not even going to pretend i can make it funny, but just know that it’s batshit and the correct opinion is as follows: no one is right, but squirrelflight has done the least wrong, brackenfur is an asshole to her where it’s unwarrented, and hollyleaf is an idiot
and the current drama centers around brackenstar and ashfur and is tied directly to the point above, which is why i’ve kind of given up trying to make jokes about this because this is the culmination of like 35 novels.
section nine: i feel like i need to have some conclusive point to justify writing all of this
but i don’t have one, because this was really an excuse to ramble about an old passion for like half an hour. i mean i guess i can say, like, i think younger fans are sort of embroiled in this drama they don’t really have context for, because i’m not kidding, the current drama centers around the grandchildren of our original cast.
it’s kind of hard to know why, say, mistystar matters if you don’t know that she’s the child of bluefur and oakheart and if you don’t remember the drama that surrounded that when bluestar was dying and tigerstar and leopardstar were ruling a combined shadow/riverclan.
(i really hope that’s intelligible i tried to lay the groundwork for it. basically, there’s a biracial kid in a very segregated society who becomes the leader of one of the clans. which is obviously drama, especially considering that that clan was part of a weird supremacy movement a while back.)
& you know? i really hope one of the new series gets to be like, a soft reboot. just. end the current drama and pick up again with the latest generation. a) we’re starting to run out of names, and b) i think that it’s kind of tipped over the edge of sane.
the series also used to be very low fantasy. the cat societies are reasonably close to feral cat colonies (the biggest detail is that toms don’t all have their own territory, but there’s honestly in-universe discussion of this and it’s basically a culture thing), and while star clan/religion is a real and legitimate thing, there’s also a discussion of its abuse and most of the early books don’t really use star clan/related ideas as a physical force so much as a plot device, barring, like, when a new leader gets their nine lives.
honestly, i’ll always adore these books for serving the role they did, and a lot of the series is fantastically well written. but the fandom surrounding it can be, uh, not great because 9-14 year olds don’t really have good brains to understand this.
also, i’m very sad that i can’t find the flash game that was for the great prophecy. it was not very fun, but i enjoyed playing it, so if anyone knows the url so i can search the internet archive for it, please let me know.
section ten: i’m morbidly curious but there are 56 hours of books to read, assuming a very fast reading pace, so is there something i can start with to experience this without dedicating 4 days to it?
yes, there is.
it’s called bluestar’s prophecy. it’s standalone, and i should have given you enough of a background on the lore that you don’t need to know anything else. i’ve already given away the twist in series 1 that it would spoil, so you’re all good on that front.
if you want more, or want the original experience, the first series is self contained and quite good. i’ve given the broad outlines of the plot, but trust me, there’s a lot of surprises and all sorts of things i skipped over because while i like it, it’s not exactly fandom primer material
i also enjoy firestar’s quest and skyclan’s destiny for super editions, but you’ll need to read the first series to understand FQ and FQ to understand SD, so it’s not exactly a starting point. also, SD especially deals with a very different set of themes as the other books.
also, if you were to, say, search “readwarriorcats” (no spaces) on duckduckgo, and then click on one of the first links, you know, not the official site, the one hosted on one of those free website things, you know, not wix, not wordpress, the other one, you would only find lists of the books with hyperlinks.
;3
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Lost Grieving- Richie Tozier X Reader {Chapter 2☆}
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Summary- The reader gets stuck in strange implications and finds herself in Derry, Maine, the location of the infamous Steven King book ‘IT’. Unknowingly she stumbles across the Neibolt House, the dirty and burnt remains of a tragic fire. She remembers what horrors had happened and is hesitant to stay. What will happen when she runs into the one and only Losers Club? What will they do if the strange new girl claiming to be from another universe, tells them they’re all made up characters from a book? Will she help them ‘defeat’ the morbid Pennywise or give up and be lost in perishable hell forever, filled with lost grieving. Proceed with caution when you drive into this tale of horror, humor, and a handful of twisted romance with Richie ‘Trashmouth’ Tozier.
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Main Masterlist
IT Masterlist
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2 (+)
Word Count: 2k
Date Uploaded: 11/05/19
A/N: Sorry for the long wait, I have so many ideas for headcannons and imagines that I’ve been just spitballing them out. I apologize for that, but anyways enjoy the new chapter! Send in any requests or ideas for the story, I’m in the mood for writing and I’m off for the rest of the week.
Warnings and Notes: Cursing and Excerpts from Stephen King’s IT Novel
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“Are you ok?” Eddie began to slow down, we ran as fast as we could. I felt bad for him, he has no idea what was going on. At least I had a basic understanding. He was really pale and it looked as if he could barely breathe. Oh, he has asthma! Wouldn’t he already have his inhaler out or something?
“Yeah, I’m fine. You’re really pale, are you going to faint?
“I think so, but I’m more concerned with the fact that you aren’t freaking out about that clown!” He spat out. I couldn’t make out what he was saying. Eddie spoke at the speed of light, no one ever understood him. I had a pit in my stomach, it pulsed whenever I thought of It. I want to go home.
I looked down, trying to piece together what to say, “Oh I’m terrified, I really think I’m dreaming.” The boy went shuffling through his red fanny pack.
“Why would you be dreaming? I’m not dreaming?
I sighed, “It’s a long story,” and I’ll have time to tell it to him when it comes.
“I think I’m going to throw up.” Eddie sputtered his body spurred to the side of the road, his hands covered his face. I awkwardly stood in front of him as my own nausea came up to battle. I collapsed next to him and we said nothing to each other.
“We need to find Bill.” he huffed. It looked as if his small body caved in on itself.
Bill Denbrough. He was their ‘leader’ or that’s how he was perceived in the books. I never really liked his character, but I felt horrible for what happened with Georgie. I felt bad for all of them. Their lives got swept away by that clown and the poster-child victim of this is sitting right next to me. I really hope this is a dream, what if I don’t go home? There’s no way I could be a foster child, that system is still fucked in the present. I can’t imagine what it could be like here.
“Where does he live?” I had no clue on what I was supposed to do, I’m not even relevant in this plot. What I do know is that I have to get a panicked Eddie over his friend’s house.
“Two streets down. Will you come with me, please? I don’t want to get killed by that clown. I lost my inhaler and my mom is going to freak.” his breathing became rigid. It was catching up with the pace of his talking, which was quite fast. His panting swallowed up all his words. In the story his medicine was fake. Now I was in a conundrum.
Do I tell him or not? It was such a turning point for him, even though he relapsed later on in his life, I think.
“Hey just breathe.” I almost patted his back, but my hand just wavered above him. Eddie tried to hack out a sarcastic reply. His fear got the best of him.
“Oh my gosh, please Eddie just breathe. I don’t care about your inhaler. We’ll get one at Bill’s or something.” He gasped for a gulp of air and shook. After a couple more times his lungs settled and sat in shock.
“How did that work? That never worked without my inhaler! Are you a witch or something?” Eddie wanted to do nothing but run as fast as he could away from that stranger that he found at a crack house. His mother always told him he was sick, he was. What just happened was physically impossible. ‘What if she was working for that clown?’, he thought. “She might not even be real for god’s sake!” Eddie couldn’t think straight.
I was beginning to think I was a witch, there is no physical way I could be here. I had next to none proof that I’m from the future, a different dimension at that. Except for my backpack. I always had sections for unused papers, a bigger chunk for History and English work. There were just a few things that fell through from my desk, but not much. Bingo. My old History article about Democratic and Republican debates. Photos, photos of the President. I did have proof! I just need the right time to bring it up.
“I dunno, my friend has asthma and that works for her.” Lies, I knew that would never work. Eddie would have to be a fool to ever believe that.
“Where are you from? I never heard of that treatment before, especially not from any doctor,”
“Nevermind that, we need to get going.” Nice playoff Y/N. We both headed down the small sidewalk in the brisk afternoon. As we passed the broken down Derry Trainyard the faint scream of a teenage boy filled the surrounding forest. My dress began to hike up my legs and clump by my backpack. Minutes went by when we walked down the unfamiliar streets.
Another deep screech was released, “What the hell was that?” I jumped after it was quiet, our eyes darted around. No one could be seen as the echo still remained. A groomed bush next to us started to shake unnaturally.
“What the fu-” Eddie stumbled back, like a baby learning their first steps. The greenery was torn to its sides by a lengthy boy. The pale thing launched at Eddie and almost stomped right on his arm.
“Hi-ya Eds! Didn’t know your mom let you hang out with girls, especially pretty ones.” He grabbed Eddie’s hand and pulled him to his feet. The boys stood head to torso. The height difference was kind of funny. Who even is that kid? I think he’s part of the club. Eddie seems to know him.
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Richard Tozier turns off the radio, which has been blaring out Madonna’s “Like a Virgin” on WZON (a station which declares itself to be “Bangor’s AM Stereo rocker! With a kind of hysterical frequency), pulls over to the side of the road, shuts down the engine of the Mustang the Avis people rented him at Bangor International, and gets out. He hears the pull and release of his own breath in his ears. He has seen a sign which has caused the flesh of his back to break out in the hard ridges of gooseflesh.
He walks to the front of the car and puts on hand on its hood. He hears the engine ticking softly to itself as it cools. He hears a jay scream briefly and then shut up. There are crickets. And as far as the soundtrack goes, that’s it.
He has seen the sign, he passes it, and suddenly he is in Derry again. After twenty-five years Richie “Trashmouth” Tozier has come home.
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“Bonjour Mademoiselle, I’m Richie!” he bowed.
Oh.”What the fuck is wrong with him?” I choked. Eddie stifled a laugh.
“Many things,” he replied. “Anyways, I haven’t seen you around here before. Are you new? Or like a homeschool?”
‘A homeschool’, isn’t he supposed to be smart or something? I’m starting to remember him. Richie was the jokester and my personal favorite character. This oughta be fun!
“I don’t know where I am.” After ages, I pushed down my dress in an attempt at a good impression.
“What do you mean?”
“I woke up underneath the welcome sign and found that broken-down house.”
The two stared at me, ”No, but seriously where are you from?”
“I’m telling the truth! Wait… I have proof!” I seized my bag and heaved it open. Small folders with homework were inside, along with other items that made it through with me.
I grabbed the green History folder filled with stray Newsela articles about Politicians and the President. I pulled one out about a Democratic and Republican debate. A bright picture of all the candidates with a date from September 2019 slapped right under the headline.
“Here this is from my school, in 2019.” It was the least believable thing I have ever said in my life. I internally cringed and just tossed the papers, along with the folder for good measure. If that doesn’t convince them I don’t know what will, even better, I got a watch. Not just any watch, one of the fancy ones with apps and music stuffed all into one. It’s perfectly packed right into my bag’s front pouch.
“What does the photo represent?” Eddie asked, he pointed to the red and blue stage and Richie glanced at the article about Donald Trump.
“It’s a debate abou-”
Richie jumped in, ”Why is orange?”
“I don’t know.”
“There has to be a reason for it.”
“Shut up Richie.”
“You shut up Eddie. Who cares, I want to figure out who she is.”
“Guys, come on.”
A car came jolting down the street. The driver… wasn’t there. All that was in the windshield was a blood-red balloon, not a person in sight. I screamed along with Eddie, Richie didn’t have any reaction. Richie snatched back my folder and scooted onto the pavement.
I couldn’t bring myself to move, I’m not part of this story, yet I can’t leave. Frail arms yanked me away just as the car whisked past. A crunch was all that was left of the vehicle, it disappeared in a flash. The remains of my crushed green backpack drew me to tears.
“Holy shit my watch is broken!” I sobbed. My last figment of proof.
Eddie flung his hands, “Is no one going to say ANYTHING about the car!?”
“We need to go find Bill.”
☆.。.:*・°☆.。.:*・°☆.。.:*・°☆.。.:*・°☆
#richie tozier imagines#richie tozier#richie tozier x reader#richie tozier imagine#richie toizer x reader#it chapter 1#it chapter 2#it#fandom#fanfiction#the losers club#fanfic
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Ladybug Week: Day 3 - Love Letters/Secret Admirers
Canonverse, 1.4k words
“Whatcha working on there? Homework?”
The second she heard her sister’s cheery voice, Ruby haphazardly threw her books over the piece of paper she was currently hunched over.
“Oh nothing, nothing. I was just uhhhhh, drawing something.”
She risked a quick peek at Yang, who was now standing just beside her. The blonde’s brow was already quirked up in suspicion accompanied by a mischievous, knowing smirk across her face.
“Uh huh, sure. Whatever you say.”
Ruby rolled her eyes. “Yang can you just buzz off for once!?”
“Relaaaaax I’m not gonna go pry. Although, I figured you should know, Blake and Weiss went into the city. Something about Weiss needing help picking testing supplies or something. They shouldn’t be back til later this evening.”
Yang grabbed the yellow gym bag sitting at her foot and hoisted the strap over her shoulder.
“I’m gonna go hit up the training room for a bit. You’re free to come if you wanna take a break from that love letter you got there.”
Ruby responded by failing her arms against her sister in a futile attempt to get her out of the dormitory quicker.
“Yaaaaang stop! I told you it’s nothing like that!!”
“Ok ok I believe you,” she laughed as she made her way to the door. “I’ll be back in a few hours.”
“By the way,” Yang popped her head back in the dorm room once the rest of her body was already outside, “Blake’s other favorite color is teal if you really wanna impress her.”
Ruby threw the nearest item towards the door (a squeaky ball meant for Zwei). Yang however expected such a reaction, and the door was shut behind her before the ball landed on its target.
Ruby pouted to herself as the silence of the empty room filled the air. She knew Yang meant well, but it didn’t make the situation any less embarrassing. She didn’t feel like discussing her crush issues with her, especially when said crush was Yang’s own partner.
“Is it that obvious I like her?” she grumbled to herself as she continued her writing.
It’s not like she chose to have a crush on Blake, but everything the older girl did seemed to entrance her. The way she weaved in and out of battled with her semblance, her dual wielding fighting style, the cute little twitches her bow made when she got to an exciting part of her novel, or the way she unconsciously hummed to herself when sorting through her personal book collection.
Everything about her was just so Blake.
As Ruby enthralled herself in her daydream, she failed to register the sound of the door being unlocked.
“Hey Ruby, I didn’t expect you to be here.”
Ruby’s silver eyes practically bulged out of her skull at the sound of Blake’s voice.
“Oh hey Blake!” she managed to splutter out. “I didn’t think you’d be back so soon. Weren’t you with Weiss?”
“I was, but she decided to come back early to squeeze in some last minuet training. I think she’s supposed to spar against Pyrrha tomorrow or something. I didn’t really feel like going so I came back here.”
Ruby slowly moved her arms over her work, propping her head up with one of her hands.
“Interesting, glad you’re back!” she tried to grin as inconspicuously as possible. Unfortunately for Ruby, she wasn’t nearly as good at being subtle as she was with slaying grimm.”
Blake’s ever perceptive amber eyes flitted to the paper caught between the table and her team leader’s arm.
“Oh, are you working on an assignment? I can head to the library if you need some peace and quiet.”
“No no no stay!” Ruby’s arms waved in front of her emphasizing her plea. “You don’t make a lot of noise anyway. Not that that’s a bad thing cause it’s a good thing! I love that about you. Not that I actually love love you I just like you a lot. Or the way you act I mean...”
The heat consuming Ruby’s cheeks let her know that her face was probably a similar color to the cloak she was wearing.
“That came out kinda badly.”
Blake also felt her face flush at her leader’s words; she had always found Ruby to be awkwardly adorable. She couldn’t ignore the warm pleasant feeling that welled in her chest at the sight of an extremely flustered Ruby reduced to such by her presence alone. The bow concealing her feline ears did little to hide how piqued they had become.
“It’s ok. I like you too Ruby. A lot.”
Ruby stared at Blake in wonder as the meaning of her words hit her in waves. Blake was ok with her liking her. Blake also said that she liked her too. Was this real life? Or did she fall asleep at her desk while trying to write this stupid love note?
Armed with this knowledge, Ruby found herself feeling much braver than she would have otherwise.
“I’m not working on a homework assignment,” she admitted. Her gaze fell to her lap where her legs began to restlessly swing in her seat.
“Oh ok. Is it something I can help you with?”
“Uhhhhhh, maybe?” she started nervously. “There’s this…really cool girl I’m trying to write a letter to. But it’s not exactly going as I planned. How come when other people try to be all smooth and romantic it works, but when I try it’s a complete failure?”
Blake shifted in place. Now she was the one starting to feel awkward.
“W-well, go with honesty if all else fails. If this person is as cool and lovely as you say then you should tell them just that.”
Ruby continued to stare at her legs, brave enough to continue talking but too embarrassed to meet her crush’s gaze.
“What would you write if you had a crush?”
A silence filled the room. This one lasting a touch too long for comfort.
“Never mind. That was a stupid question,” she said quietly.
Ruby heard the quick patter of hasty footsteps as she looked up to see Blake on the other side of the room. She watched the faunus girl in bewilderment as she rummaged through one of her drawers, eventually pulling out a small, leather-bound book.
She walked back to Ruby as she thumbed through the pages, her amber eyes scanning each one in search of something.
“Blake, what are you looking for?” Ruby asked clearly puzzled.
Finally, Blake pulled out a small piece of folded paper from the pages of her book. After placing the book in her pocket, she began unfolding the paper, her eyes anxiously glancing at the seated girl before her.
“It wasn’t a stupid question,” Blake assured her. Ruby noticed how the bow on Blake’s head had flattened slightly from before.
The next words out of her mouth stunned her into complete awe.
“Dear Ruby, despite the heaps of romance novels I’ve enjoyed in my life, I was never very good with committing my feelings to paper. I wish I could be one of those poets who could give you a stunning love poem filled with breathtaking metaphors and similes about how you make me feel. But, honestly, I’m not very good at that. What I can say however is that you are a wonderful teammate, leader and friend. I have never met anyone so pure and willing to do the right thing for no other reason besides that it was right. I never imagined my time at Beacon Academy being this enjoyable, and I’ve realized a large part of that is because of you. I know you probably aren’t interested in someone like me, but I want to let you know that my feelings for you are real whether or not you decide to return them. Regardless, I hope we can continue to be friends long after we’ve graduated, because you are one of the kindest, purest, most lovely people I’ve ever met in my life. Love, Blake.”
She lowered the paper as she looked at Ruby, anxious to see her reaction. Blake again found herself shifting in place as her crush continued to stare, her mouth slightly agate.
Not sure what to do with herself, Blake gave an awkward half shrug.
“That’s all I wrote.”
Wordlessly, Ruby flew from her seat to Blake in order to wrap her arms around her. She squeezed her tightly as she nuzzled her face against the crook of her neck.
“That’s a lot further than I got,” Ruby disclosed softly.
Blake couldn’t help but tense up at the sudden contact. Feeling the love and warmth emitted from the body pressed against hers finally coaxing her to return Ruby’s embrace.
“Also, I like you too Blake. A lot.” Ruby quipped with a small giggle.
#rwby#ladybugweek2k19#rwby ladybug#blake belladonna#ruby rose#ladybug#my writing#really happy how this one came out jhasdbgasbf
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Haikara Walker Translations: An Interview With Toni Kensa
I’ve been posting my translations to twitter for a while, but I figured I should start posting them to tumblr too so it’ll be easier to keep track of. I will be posting more translations to this blog in the near future, so keep an eye out for that.
Haikara Walker masterdoc
Splatoon translations tag
Scans courtesy of @milkiemilkshake
Anyways, enjoy!
Beyond the Kensa
An exclusive interview with the ever-changing Toni Kensa
Toni Kensa, with his aesthetics cultivated in the open sea, made the shocking announcement of the Kensa collection on July 14th. "Inkopolis Walker" visited his studio just before printing, and we conducted an exclusive interview with designer Toni Kensa for some new developments behind the scenes.
There has been a lot of attention paid to your progress since last season, but what was the driving force behind it?
There isn't a change in what I'm facing in my work, it may just be that my output was at the right time, and was in line with the changes of the world around us.
I feel there's consistency with the output of your clothing line.
There are some things that should be changed, and some that should not be changed. As for what that is, that's the question I’m always confronted with.
I think everyone knows about what you’ve been up to over the past few years, but I don't think a lot has been asked about your roots so far. Please share how you came up with your brand.
When I was young, I was invited by a friend and their older sister to watch a turf war match. I saw that all of the Inklings had chosen their favorite clothes, and I was enthralled by the stories that each of their outfits had to share. It made me want to create clothing that would stand out in battles and go beyond gender and species. I think that is one of my roots.
It seems like it was a very novel idea at that time.
For me, it was something that came naturally. Turf wars are more beautiful than anything else. Wearing black can make any ink color stand out wonderfully.
The same can also be said for the music in turf wars.
In fashion, there’s romance to be had and stories to tell.
I would like to ask you about the "Kensa Collection." You've had collaborations with other clothing brands lately, but what do your collaborations with weapon brands signify?
I want to create sportswear that enhances the team ink color in turf wars and to give my support from behind the scenes, so this is an extension of that. For the color schemes to be in balance. For functionality to stand out. I have this unchanging passion for ink battles, and this is a great opportunity to express that.
The red color of the clothespin is very impressive. What is the purpose of daring to incorporate a household item such as that?
Fashion is a thing that people are close to, so I must be empathetic. As everyone knows, there's no point in making something nobody knows. So if you reference a clothespin... then anyone can be "bespoke."¹ It's custom-made for everyone.
How do you feel about the fashion in Inkopolis Square?
Choose what you want. That's all. There is no right answer for what to wear. I want the youth to have confidence in themselves.
In addition to your flagship clothing line and collaborations with Takoroka for footwear, you’ve also been designing the Kensa collection. Isn't it hard to have this much work?
There are many excellent staff members who understand the brand. I have a lot help with, for example, not only with drawing patterns, but also with manufacturing and sales.
Your brand has already very renowned, but do you have any hopes for the future?
I do. However, I think it's best to focus on the here and now.
While saying "I'm still not very good at interviews," our interviewee saw us off at the exit of their studio. It was a strange feeling: whenever we tried to accept an answer, we'd just have more questions that would arise. To solve this never-ending mystery, it may be our mission to live in the same age as Toni Kensa.
Notes:
¹ "Bespoke" is the Japanese name for the Kensa collection.
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Fake It Till You Make It
Fake It Till You Make It (Dean x Reader)
Square(s) Filled: Case Fic for @spnkinkbingo and Case Fic for @spndeanbingo
Ship: Dean x Reader
Character: Dean, Reader, OMC, Sam, Reader’s Parents (briefly)
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Kidnapping, Canon typical violence, implied smut at the end, Major Injury to the Reader, Death of Parents
Word Count: 3.9K
Beta’d by: @focusonspn and @moonlitskinwalker
We Get What We Deserve Masterlist
Summary: When Dean shows up to get information on a case, things start to get further out of control for your perfect world.
A/N: Let me know if you want to be tagged in my SPN Kink Bingo Series
Work today had been hell. Nothing you baked was coming out right. Even when you followed every recipe to the exact detail, it seemed that today was not your day. In fact, the whole weekend had been particularly bad. You pushed a stray hair out of your face and did your best to stock up the front of the bakery with the best looking items from your stockpile of goods.
Your parents had cut back your hours once again, worried that your time at the shop were cutting into your studies. There had been multiple occasions where you had attempted to tell your parents that your classes weren’t the least bit strenuous. The shop needed as much help as possible. It seemed a bit ridiculous but your parents only wanted the best for you.
While most 19 year olds wanted to move out of their parents house the first chance they got, you stuck around. The small town you grew up in for your entire life was home; it felt wrong to leave. So you took a couple community classes and worked in your parents bakery. Most people wouldn’t have felt fulfilled, but you did.
To top it all off, your boyfriend had called you to cancel your date that you’d been planning all week for. An amazing romantic dinner at both of your favorite restaurant. Matthew had apologized profusely and promised that tomorrow he would be free. Tonight he was just busy at the office.
You were sure that, someday when you were both secure, you and Matt would get married, settle down and have a couple of kids when the both of you were more secure and then have a couple kids. Nothing was wrong with never wanting to leave the place you called home. You knew almost everyone's name.
You had no wishes to live an extraordinary life.
The bell rang above the door, where your Family’s name was written beautifully, singling that someone had come into your store and it pulled you out of your thoughts. A plastic smile graced your lips as you lifted yourself up and faced the customer. Your hands instinctively dropped down to your apron to brush some of the flour off. Something irritated your face and it felt a bit like flour or icing, but you ignored it. Although, nothing could have prepared you for the man that was about to enter your shop.
“Hi Miss sorry to bother you.” The man had a gorgeous smile that he eagerly flashed to you, the corners of his eyes crinkling. “Are the owners around? I’ve got a few questions for them.” He reached into the interior pocket of his trench coat, presenting his FBI Badge.
Words escaped you for the longest time, instead, trying to comprehend what a beautiful man like him was doing as an FBI agent. Surely, he could have been a model or some kind of actor. His bright green eyes shone beautifully in the evening sun, the freckles becoming prominent on his golden skin. Your inner thoughts were becoming something from a cheesy romance novel, but this “Dean”, as his badge listed, looked like a man fresh off the cover of one.
After no response from you, Dean cleared his throat to try and get your attention once more. “Miss? Are you ok?” He tilted his head in worry and the repeated question got to you.
“Oh, um, yes. I’m fine, thank you. Sorry.” You returned his gentle smile and decided to step out from behind the counter. You pulled the dirty apron off of your body and set it against the top of the counter. “The owners aren’t here right now. They’re at home. I can give you their phone number though.” God, you felt so ashamed for objectifying the poor man.
Dean tilted that pretty head of his in confusion. “They let a teenager run the store?”
While technically true, the statement still irked you. Being young doesn’t equal being childish. Your head cocked to the side as your hand went to your hip. “I’m 19, sir. Twenty in a couple months. I am an adult.”
Dean rolled his eyes at your statement and you inwardly regretted it realising it sounded like something an angry teen would say. It was too late to take it back now.
“Good on you, kid, but I still need to talk to them. You don't have a home address at all?” Dean slipped his hands into his pockets as he tried his best not to sound annoyed. Information was still needed from you, but kids tended to prey on anything showing weakness. Like exhaustion.
“Yeah. I’m heading there in an hour to bring the cash to them. Do you think you could wait that long?” Giving the address would have been easy, but you were getting him back for calling you a kid.
“Fuck me.” Dean sighed, more to himself than to you, and tipped his head back before taking a deep breath. “Can’t you just write it down or something? I don’t have time to wait.”
“I don’t know you. You could be a murderer for all I know.” It was a joke in all honesty, but it must have touched on something personal because he turned his head to you, his forehead creased in confusion before you clarified. “I just mean, I’d rather play it safe and go with you ok? I’m headed up there anyways.”
“Yeah, fine.” Something beeped, prompting Dean to pull his phone from his pocket. “I’ll be back, ok?” He asked even though he didn’t stay for your answer as he walked out of the shop.
“Okay..” You wondered if some of your food would cheer him up, make him less grumpy. He was cute when he was grumpy though.
Clicking the green answer button on his phone, Dean lifted the thing up to his ear. The voice of his younger brother came through. “What’s going on Sammy?” Dean’s frown stayed plastered on his face. When he thought you’d turned away, he turned himself and looked back inside to watch you work for a moment. “Are we digging any info up on this Matt, guy?”
Sam clenched his jaw before huffing out, “We are not doing any digging. I’m the one going to find the insane witch. All you have to do is find his girlfriend.” Dean shrugged.
“If it’s any consolation, this kid at the shop her parents own is giving me a hard time. She’d only take me to Y/N’s parents if she went with me. Said I could be a murderer.” Dean paused as he scratched his head. “What does she know anyways?”
Something tapped against the glass and it caught Dean off guard just as Sam was saying something. Dean dropped his phone in surprise and turned around, pleasantly surprised to find you standing in front of the large glass window with a slice of pie on a plate.
You smiled, pointing down to it and then to Dean. “Damn,” he groaned as he looked from it and then back to you. He held up a single finger to indicate he needed a minute. If it wasn’t for Sam’s currently annoying voice calling out through the speaker, he’d have gone inside.
“Damn it Dean, just hang up if you’re gonna ignore me. God..” Before Dean could get a word out, the call ended just as Dean picked the phone up from the sidewalk. He groaned, promising to call Sam back later and decided to go in and get the pie he’d been promised.
You sat across from the slice at one of the small tables off to the sides. Dean liked how the bakery looked like one from the fifties. Something you’d only see in Hallmark movies and Disney parks. “I wanted to apologize for calling you a murderer. I shouldn’t have.” A small blush formed on your cheeks as you ducked your head.
It reminded Dean of a toddler that stole a cookie from the jar but couldn’t lie about it when asked what they’d done. An astounding amount of innocence radiated off of you and it made Dean feel guilty for checking you out. Well, almost guilty.
“Don’t worry kid. You’re right to not trust strangers anyways.” Taking the fork from the table, Dean started to dig in to what looked like cherry pie. It was pretty fucking good. Not the best, but up there. You liked the way he smiled as he ate your pie, even if today hadn’t been your best baking day. At least he enjoyed it.
“So, what’s an FBI agent doing here? Some super secret spy mission?” Both elbows rested on the table, your chin resting in the palms of your hands. “I can’t remember the last time we’ve had a death in the town that wasn’t from natural causes. I can’t imagine what you’d be looking for.”
Dean stayed suspiciously quiet as he chewed on the dessert, only shrugging at your question. “Can’t talk about it, sorry sweetheart.” He hadn’t bothered to swallow his food and so his teeth were coated in cherry pie filling. It looked ridiculous on him, only adding to the growing pile of reasons you couldn’t believe that he was an FBI agent.
The two of you sat in comfortable silence for a good ten minutes before a couple in their mid-thirties walked in. You left Dean alone to go serve them the last slices of cheesecake and make a fresh pot of coffee. Patrons would come in and out, never more than a couple at a time though and once the clock struck 10 pm you turned the sign to closed and started the routine on locking up. You checked the back and locked up, cleaned a few counters and then grabbed the cash and placed it into the lock box.
Just as you went to let Dean know you’d finished up, Matt’s name flashed on your phone. He was calling you, confusion made your brows furrow. You answered none the less.
“Hey babe. What’s up?” You smiled as he called you that, Matt’s voice calmed you.
“Not much. How’s work going?” Dean stood up and walked towards you. He frowned as he saw that you were on the phone.
“I just wanted to check in. I wanna see you so bad..” He trailed off. His voice sounded out of breath and you could hear…was Matt running?
“Matt? You ok? It sounds like you’re running-“
“Get back here Matt! Let her go!” A gruff voice called out. The phone call ended before you had a chance to respond.
“Alright. Can we go now?” Dean asked, he tilted his head at you. Motioning towards the door.
“Yup!” Your voice hid any bit of confusion that you had in regards to your boyfriend’s phone call. The door of the bakery being held open for you as the two of you walked down main street, gasping as Dean grabbed your arm and pulled you toward an older black muscle car. “What’re you doing, Dean?”
“I’m driving us. Got a problem with that?” You didn’t, you just didn’t like the way he had manhandled you in the process. Eyes wide and lips parted, he ignored the cute look of surprise you gave him. Dean grinned as you slid into the car, glad he didn’t have to argue with you about it.
80’s rock music that only your father listened to played through the cars speakers. His fingers tapped against the steering wheel as he hummed in tune with the music. Every so often you would give him directions to your house, well “your bosses’ house” but he hadn’t bothered to even ask your name yet.
Dean’s head turned to face you, “Can I ask you something?” He watched as you turned your head to face the older man. “You know anybody in town named Matthew Green? They live here in town?”
Why was he asking about Matt? What did the FBI want with your Boyfriend?
“Not that I know of.” The answer hung in the air as silence once again fell between you two. You were suspicious of why Dean would be asking about Matt? What could Matt have possibly done? Not long after, Dean felt into his comfort zone by humming with the music.
Your house appeared just beyond the horizon, you could already see your mother sitting on the porch swing, working through whatever book her book club was currently reading. The light from the kitchen shone through the window, your father’s shadow moving around, likely cooking up dinner.
Dean pulled into the driveway and cut the engine off, you stepped out to walk ahead of Dean to greet your mom. Your mother’s lips pursed in question as you sat down with her. “Who’d you get a ride from, Y/N? A new friend?” A blush crept up onto your entire face and you did your best to hide it as Dean made his way to the porch. Turning your head you walked towards him.
“Y/N Y/L/N, don’t be rude. Introduce your new friend.” Shock coated Dean’s features, Jesus Christ.
“Y/N?” He repeated your name. It took all you had in you not to ask him to say your name again. Never before had your name sounded so good coming from someone’s mouth. “You didn’t tell me your name was Y/N.” Anger punched through him and into you. You didn’t understand.
“Yeah, well, you didn’t ask what my name was either.” The two of you stared at each other but before Dean could fire back your father popped his head out the kitchen window. “Y/N? Is your new friend staying for dinner?”
Whatever answer you would have given didn’t matter because your mom answered for you. “Course he is, you two go wash up.” Dean simply gave you and your family a tense smile before heading into the house behind you.
“Y/N. I really need to talk to you alone.” He implored you. Without much warning, he pushed the two of you into the small bathroom of your house. Your upstairs brain told your downstairs brain to shut up and realize that Dean was most likely 3 times your size and could easily over power you any time he wanted. His hand came out to rest against the edge of the sink. “I know..I know this is going to sound nuts but you’ve got to listen to me. That Matthew Green I asked you about? Well, he’s..he’s coming after you.”
Dean’s words made you laugh more than anything. You shook your head and leaned against the door. “Oh yeah? And why’s that?” Laughter was bubbling up inside your throat but you did your best to suppress it.
Dean knew you weren’t taking him seriously, so he let his eyes narrow and his jaw set as he answered you. “He created this town, he created a fake family for you, he created this picture perfect place for you.”
“Why is the FBI investigating this anyways?”
“I’m not actually apart of the FBI, Y/N. Me and my brother help people. People like you, people in danger.”
“I’m not in danger. Matt’s my boyfriend ok! He’s a great guy. I’m sorry but I think you should go.” Pain shot up your wrist as Dean grabbed onto it, hard.
“How long have you two been dating?” You rolled your eyes and went to answer. The words six months died on your lips as Dean let go.
“Six months? Really? That’s an awfully long time for someone your age to be in a relationship.” Your eyes shifted around the room.
“He’s older than me, has a full time job…” Dean narrowed his eyes.
“And your first date?”
“Well, it went terribly. He was rude and inconsiderate and I wasn’t going to have a second date but he called me and,” your memories feel fuzzy as you thought back on what happened just six months ago. You could only remember that first date and then everything felt fuzzy. Right up until Dean walked into the store.
“And what Y/N? Can’t remember? Feels like a dream?”
Sure he had lied to you about being FBI (you totally called that though), but something about what he said made you believe him. The town…it didn’t sit with you. You shook your head because of course the relationship was real, your parents were totally real and so was your town. “That doesn’t make any sense. Why..why would he do something like that? I’m nothing special. Besides! If this isn’t real how are you here?”
Dean rubbed over his jaw as he replied honestly. “I know how to get into dreams. It’s a special drink that allows us to share dreams. Now look, this whole fake dreamland is nice and all sweetheart, but I need you to come with me. ‘Cause that’s all this is, the fantasy of some witch.”
A soft knocking on the door interrupted you. “Y/N? What’s taking so long? Are you gonna come out now?” Your mother’s soft voice penetrating through the door. “Wouldn’t wanna eat dinner cold..”
“Mom just give me a minute.” Your voice shook as you answered her. Her voice sounded off, cheery in an almost too cheery sort of way. Suddenly everything was becoming claustrophobic and Dean was only making it worse by moving closer.
“I need you to trust me ok?” Dean had his hand extended to you, just as you went to take it, the bathroom door opened. Instead of your mom outside, Matt stood in front of you two.
“Matt? What-“
“What am I doing here? Well, I knew something was wrong when that brother of yours,” He turned his gaze from you to Dean, “started chasing me and shooting at me. I just had to get away from work to check on you, princess.” The nickname was sour and only now did you notice the blood on his pressed, white shirt and his khaki pants.
Fear made your stomach sink as he tugged you outside of the bathroom and into the kitchen. Horror replaced that when you saw both your parents, dead, blood covering the white tiles.
“N-no! Mo-Mom!” You sobbed. Dean tried his best but an invisible force shoved Dean roughly against the wall. Tears quickly sprung to your eyes as you tried and failed to pull away from Matt. “Please..Please just let me go. I..I’ll stay with you.” The words didn’t seem to sate him, his hand gripping on harsh enough to leave bruises of his fingertips into your skin. Matt was pissed and just as he was going to leave your home, in rushed another man. Taller than Dean, he silently looked around from you to his brother and then back to you.
Matt sighed as another invisible force sent this man back. Dean was finally picking himself up. “Nice to see you made it, Sammy.”
“Shut up, Dean.” That must have been Dean’s brother that he mentioned. They sure were doing a good job on saving you. The two brothers pushed themselves up. Matt turned his attention to Sam.
“I was so sure I lost you back there.” He smiled and brought your back to his chest, helplessly you felt the tip of a knife against your throat. Dean stepped towards you and it only made Matt press the thing harder against your neck.
You screamed, not caring if you looked weak for being scared about all this. “Just leave us alone!” Matt cried. “Can’t you see we’re happy?” He asked. Dean’s eyes never left yours, it did it’s job in making you feel calm. You had to calm down…calm down and think.
“It’s not real Matt. This isn’t the real Y/N and you know that.” Sam stepped closer, only causing Matt to drag you backwards.
“We had a good first date! I call and ask what I did wrong and she tells me I was rude. Called her fat, and insulted her interests.” Matt’s voice was getting louder and each word unlocked memories. They seemed so real, fresh, like they’d just happened. “I try everything and tell her she just misunderstood but she wouldn’t believe me. If she’d just believed me-“ Anger replaced the fear that you had felt as you stomped on his foot. It was enough of a distraction to pull away from him.
Dean smiled in surprise and extended his hand and just as your fingers brushed over his, pain washed over you. So much pain that it crippled you to the floor on your hands and knees. Sound became muted and you lost a grip on what was happening. Matt was so shocked by what he’d done to you that Dean was able to raise his gun and shoot him. The guy probably didn’t even notice.
Your hand moved behind your back to feel the knife that had been in Matt’s hands now lodged into your back. “O-Oh..” If this was all really just a dream, it sure didn’t seem like it from the way the pain was invading your every sense. Dean dropped to his knees as he cradled you. Matt hadn’t seemed to have died yet. He was sputtering about and coughing up blood.
“Y/N, Y/N stay with me ok? You just gotta hold out until he’s dead.” Deans instructions were fuzzy. It was hard to pay attention, but he gripped onto your hands. “C’mon princess…Don’t die yet.” He smiled weakly at you and as much as you wanted to stay awake for Dean, your body wouldn’t let you. You drifted off, into the unknown. Although not concerned as much as you should have been with whether or not you would wake up.
Thankfully, you did. Your eyes blinked awake and sat up slowly, only to then realize that there was no pain in your back. Dean stared back at you, it was a little shocking to see him…in real life. Dean had been fuzzy back in the dream, but now..in this hospital room, you liked how real he looked.
Sam blinked awake beside him, his eyes softening as he saw you were ok. He stood up and grabbed his things their.
“Y/N? You ok there?” Dean asked and grabbed onto your hand. There was an ever present beeping beside your head.
“Yeah Dean. ‘M fine…” You trailed off. “I mean, an insane guy that I’d only been on one date with imprisoned me, but other than that..” It..It was weird because you had no idea how this had happened. “Is Matt..”
“Matt won’t be a problem. I swear.” Dean’s eyes lifted to Sam’s in a silent communication only brothers could have, asked Sam left to give them a moment alone.
“Good..Good.” Dean didn’t offer up what that meant, but you trusted that it was the truth. “Yeah..Yeah..Ok.” You whispered. “Thank you..for saving me.” You smiled back at him and leaned forward to press your lips to Dean’s in a thank you.
A gentle smile graced his lips, but you knew you had to pull away. “You do that to everyone you’re thankful of?” He asked and you shook your head no. “Guess I’m just that special?” He asked.
“You’re impossible.” It only made you want to kiss him again. So you did…again and again. You liked living in the real world. The one where Dean was there to save you.
Dean laid awake in bed, contemplating on whether he should get out or stay in. Things in the bunker had been tense, very tense. Sam and Cas both had started going silent. Even when probed, neither would say more than one word answers.
His mind drifted to his dreams once more. Recently, it’s all he’d been able to do. Now, with another dream about Y/N on top of the other, most of his thoughts were being clouded by yours.
During research, eating, even showering. He felt wrong when he thought of you and Dean worried he was going to get an idea that there really was a girl like that out there for him.
So Dean did what he always did, he shoved you and the stupid dreams down, and off his mind as far away as possible.
@lovinghunty @tarot--thot @cuddly-cat-in-a-trench-coat @timeless-crow @musiclovinchic93
#spnkinkbingo#spndeanbingo#dean x reader#dean x reader smut#dean winchester#dean winchester x reader#supernatural#supernatural fanfiction#spn fanfiction#dean winchester x reader smut#lia's 2019 kink bingo series#we get what we deserve ch. 4
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Oh, shit! Why did y'all had to go there??? If Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (also called Doctor Strange in the Mouth of Mordo, for reasons) contradicts the fanon I love I will be SO mad. I could actually take Mordo and TAO being a thing even tho I headcanon both of them as gay (lesbian TAO, come on, you know you want it, Marvel). I am willing to reassemble my h/c and have them be bisexual and in a relationship. I wouldn't even be half mad, like, I'd get behind it.
I am more worried about them making Wanda and Stephen an item. The comics have always hinted at it, insinuating that Stephen is attracted to Wanda but she won't even give him the time. I hate it in the comics and I hate it here. The only het relationship that I will accept is with Queen Clea, mkay?
And let's not even talk about Wong not liking Karl. Wong and Mordo not being best friends??? I can't handle that, y'all. That'd be like Mordo being allergic to cats. Or Mordo saying he doesn't read romance novels. Or Mordo thinking white men are nasty. Like, my Karl Mordo loves cats, curling up with a nice and nasty romance novel that is actually just pure porn, and resting his head on the lap of his tall white top husband. Don't you take this away from me, Kevin!
______________________
I share the same fear Nonny, believe me I do. I’ve grown so attached to the fanon we created here in our little fandom niche that it’s just as solid as canon in my heart. You’re far better than me at accepting deviations from fanon though. Like I honestly don’t think I can sit there and watch them retcon things so TAO and Mordo were an item. I don’t know Nonny...she’s just been such a mama figure for him in my head that it’s difficult to unsee it. With time I may grow to accept it, if they choose to go that way. But for now I can’t help but hope and pray they just keep her as a beloved mother figure. The MCU’s always had fantastic maternal figures, and DS really needs that too.
And it’s also gonna be a super hard pass for me when it comes to Stephen/Wanda. I know others ship it for their own reasons and I won’t try to take that away from them but for me it verges on being creepy. The MCU makes it a point to call Wanda a kid, meaning she’s really young compared to everyone else. And Stephen’s definitely older than the ones calling her a kid so...yeah. I can’t get behind that either. It’s just not my cup of tea. Also if he’s gonna be her mentor here then that’s also gonna look bad. It’s not like Mordo and Stephen being teacher and student, since they’re the same age. The age gap between Wanda and Stephen coupled with the mentor thing is too much of a combo for me. He’s old enough to be her dad and it’s in the yikes zone for me.
But on a happier note, I’m really hopeful that they’ll keep Wong and Karl’s friendship a thing in the MCU. Them being bffs is one of my absolute favorite parts of fanon. Especially when Wong’s portrayed as the exasperated best friend who knows Karl’s gonna make bad relationship choices but is there for him anyways. Cause he loves Karl and will protect him. I mean, why else was he so cross with Stephen?! He probably took a look at Stephen and had these checkboxes and alarms going off in his head. Like oh god no here comes another one, time to order the ice cream in bulk.
Honestly bff Wong is the dream. Second only to husband Wong. Cause let’s face it Wong is top tier, high quality husband material.
And I adore that imagine you made at the end Nonny! It’s like a perfect summary of fanon Karl. His softness and gentleness all rolled into that lovely image. Can I piggyback and say that his tall, white hubby is tendery caressing him as he reads? Perhaps even reads some of it for him? Getting Karl all hot and bothered just from reading a raunchy novel aloud? And since Karl’s already got his head on his hubby’s lap he just one ups the novel they’re reading and blows him right there? *happy swooning*
#ask and answer#wong#stephen strange#doctor strange#karl mordo#bff wong#give karl mordo a husband#karl mordo deserves better#submission
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Play Though?
(Dad!M’Baku x Reader)
Word Count: 3.5k
A/N: This kind of came to me from the movie Claudine with Diahann Carroll? The characters are gonna have the same sort of attitudes as the main one in that movie. A relationship that isn’t a storybook one, swept off of your feet one, but still good. Who wants that perfect love story anyway?
So, Reader is a single parent and one day in the park meets someone that steals her concentration. The rest is below...
You rub your temples as you hear the clatter of metal and plastic banging around in your brain. Throbbing pain emanates from your skull as you get up and head to the kitchen, walking over the land mines of hot wheel cars, Legos, and army men figures scattered about your living room carpet.
“Mama! I have a big race to do! Wanna see?” The gleaming, round faced, mahogany toned golden child that is your son asks.
You put on a weak but sincere smile as you pour some water to and shake a couple aspirin in your hand. “I do want to see, Xavier. Just give mama a minute to get a drink first.”
“Ok. Mama, can I have some juice?” Xavier gets up, trotting into the kitchen to the fridge.
You stop mid sip, reaching out to keep him from opening the fridge. “What did I say about getting something before I tell you to?”
Xavier’s large brown eyes widen even more as he knows what to say. “You say to wait.”
Nodding, you continue. “Wait for mama to say yes or no. Now get off the door and ask me again.” You cap the aspirin and put it in the cabinet.
Xavier fidgets with his hands, spinning in a circle as he spoke. “Can I have some juice mamaaaa.”
You cross your arms, smiling devilishly. “After you clean up all those toys in there.”
Xavier makes a stink face, coming over to hug your legs. “I want to play still.”
“I thought you wanted juice?” You ask, examining the life expectancy or the braids he’s been wearing.
“Uh huh, but-”
“Then you need to clean up your toys.” Pointing him towards the living room, you dig for your phone to double check your shopping list. “You should anyway, we’re going to the store to get some stuff for dinner. You’ve had nuggets three times this week, and probably more including daycare.”
Xavier noisily throws his toys in the bin one at a time. “Uh uh! Ms. Adams gave us fries one day, and-and pizza!”
You roll your eyes as you scroll your phone. “That’s not a balanced diet, X. They don’t teach you about eating fruits and vegetables yet?”
Xavier clangs his cars hard into their bin, annoying you to the nth degree. “Xavier, you got one more time to throw that in there ‘fore I light you up. Clean up right!”
Xavier hangs his head, braids curtain his face as he slumps to pick up each toy and put them in the tub, painstakingly slow. You rest your head on your fist, jiggling your foot as you watch him get on your nerves in the most minute ways. Xavier peers over at you periodically whenever he goes to pick up a toy to see what you’re doing but you remain unphased, waiting patiently as he wastes your time and his own. What a five year old has to have an attitude about is beyond your thoughts to grasp.
“Xavier Maurice, you have two minutes to pick up the rest of these toys from off this floor, otherwise you are not getting any juice, or iPad time for the day. It’s your choice.”
Xavier moos at your ultimatum, picking up his pace only slightly, but scooping his toys by the handful. You would correct him on his tone, but he caught you on a good day. One thing your son has taught you is how to pick your battles.
The sun was shining and the air felt warm for a change, so you and Xavier walked down to the nearby farmer’s market you’ve been meaning to try out. The place is packed with whites in cargo shorts and Columbia fleece jackets as you calmly peruse the array of tomatoes, cucumbers, oranges, apples, fresh herbs, homemade pastas, and all other artisanal, organic ingredients you could get your hands on. Xavier was not having it, doing his best to remain calm but he is five.
“Mama, where are the PopTarts? And-and cereals?” He whines, reaching for an onion on the bottom row of a stack. You swiftly stop him, preventing what would have been an avalanche on him and a hefty guilt bill for you.
“Hey! Same rules at home, apply out here. Don’t touch anything.” You smell a pear just for the hell of it. The possibilities were endless for you to make some sensible and fulfilling meals for the two of you, but you also had to think realistically about Xavier’s picky eater status and your limited time to cook during the week. They may not have had PopTarts, but you found some homemade ice cream that seemed decent enough to try.
After you put together a good looking basket full of items and pay, you head back to your house to get things started. Xavier helps you carry a bunch of bananas in a bag when a nearby park catches his eye.
“Mama! Can I go play there?” Xavier asks, bouncing on his toes.
You look to the playground area. It wasn’t very crowded and he could probably run off some energy to earn a nap later.
You fake like you’re thinking hard, making Xavier beg even more, sticking out his pink bottom lip. You couldn’t torture your baby any longer.
“Fine, go ahead. But stay on the playground, don’t go off with anybody. And if I call you cuz I can’t see you, you better come to me, ok?”
Xavier nods happily, shoving the fruit at you before booking it across the grass and through a gap in the hedges lining the park’s perimeter to get to the bright colored construction.
You take this time to sit back on a park bench, feeling the coolness of the wood against your legs and back, mixed with the warmth of the sun beaming down.
This actually wasn’t a bad idea in the grand scheme of things. You got time to enjoy nature, sit down as your child is occupied, giving the screen time a break for the both of you. And you can people watch, which is your favorite pastime. There are two white women chatting in deep conversation as you see a blonde hair girl lick a rock before tossing it to the ground, and brunette one hanging from the monkey bars falling hard on her back, head bouncing off of the concrete. She starts to scream bloody murder, but when she gets up, you assume it is from embarrassment more than pain. Her mother’s neck whips around to find her before scooping her up and cooing at her questions, asking if she is alright, etc.
Looking past them, you see a little Black girl swinging on the swing set, hair in braided pigtails held by bobbles, smiling widely as her little legs kicked to build up her momentum. Behind her is a man. And by man, you mean a MAN. Dark wash jeans that accentuated his thick legs; clean chocolate sneakers on his feet; and dark brown Henley shirt that took on the privileged task of masking the full extent of his broad shoulders and impressive chest; dark brown leather jacket.
You suddenly feel very aware of your T-shirt with a questionable stain that you hid with an old university jacket and your old worn out jeans that Xavier scribbled on once and you tossed on in a hurry. This guy looked like the last person you would expect to be pushing a little girl in a swing at a park. More like pushing you up against a wall and-
“Mama! Come push me!”
The sound of your child calling out to you snapped you from your sudden romance novel fantasy and you picked up your bag and headed over to the swing set. You tried to avoid looking at the man pushing the giggly little girl in front of him as you took your spot behind your son.
“I’m gonna go higher! You’ll see!” Xavier taunts the little girl as he grips the chains awaiting your assistance. She sticks her tongue out while gliding toward the sky.
“X, be nice! This isn’t a competition.” You say as motherly as you can, without an inkling of a sour tone.
“Oh it isn’t?” When he spoke, you almost missed your next turn to push Xavier. The deepness of his tone shook you more than you cared to admit, along with an accent you couldn’t place? You were done for.. Looking over at him, you get a full and up close shot of his appearance. His smile is youthful and inviting despite his large appearance, with the gap in his teeth you would’ve laughed but not to be rude. It just brought out your playfulness and made your brain melt as you tried to multitask.
Laughing stupidly, you say, “Well, I mean, swinging isn’t a sport or game. You just swing and enjoy it.”
He shrugs, pushing the little girl as she cackled at her speed of motion.
“Harder mama! I wanna go higher!” Xavier demands.
“You heard him Mama, harder!” He says with a slick smile, as he also pushes his child with more force. You shook the implication of innuendo from your mind as you pushed Xavier farther.
“Listen, I’m getting tired of both of y’all telling me what to do. Men, I swear.” You murmur under your breath, looking at he sideways.
“Oh like women are so easy to please? This little girl has had me up since 7 am with her tea parties and Doc McStuffin reruns and baby shark. All I can say is ‘yes ma’am, of course sweetheart’.”
“As it should be.” You chide him. Xavier’s laughter is at its peak excitement as he passes the little girl on one swing.
“I told you, I got you!” Xavier says.
“X!”
“Baba!” The little girl bellows out all of a sudden, dragging her heels across the gravel to bring herself to a stop. So that is his child, you thought.
“Yes, ọmọbinrin?” He asks, kneeling down to her level beside her. She put her small hands to either side of his face looking very serious.
“I want to be alone now. You embarrassed me in front of my friend.” She gets up and goes over to Xavier who stops his swing to. She takes his hand and escorts him to the sandbox.
You couldn’t help but laugh, covering your mouth as you snort. He looks up at you, slowly getting up.
“You find that funny?” He asks, eyebrow raised.
You try your best to look serious but you can’t help it. “Um, ahem. I mean, hey you are right. Nothing but ‘yes ma’am’ with that little girl. You are wrapped around her fingers and toes, Mr….”
He kisses his teeth, looking over at them. “M’Baku Rotimi. And maybe so. But I’d rather have it that way. She doesn’t cower from people who test her, like her daddy.” M’Baku puffs his chest out slightly for mass effect.
You ignore the twitch you feel at when he says ‘daddy’, trying to stay cool as you look away. “How old is she?”
“Jolasun four, going on 40, very mature and bossy like a certain Miss....” M’Baku mutters anticipating your response as you give him your name.
He looks you up and down slightly. “And your boy, X?”
“Xavier. Five, and every bit of it. It’s funny, he seems to follow your little girl’s word more than my own.”
“It’s a blessing and a curse. You might want to warn him about that, Pretty girls grabbing ahold of his attention too quick. Happens to the best of us.” M'Baku says scratching the back of his neck, looking at you like he has been caught with his hand in the cookie jar. You laugh in a way that was supposed to be condescending but comes out more like a seagull caught in barb wire.
“Oh am I supposed to pick up on something with that statement?” You ask in a challenging tone.
M’Baku puts his hands in his pockets, taking a small step towards you. “No, no, I’m not a poet, nor do I beat around the bush. You are very beautiful and witty, with a son who looks well taken care of.”
You take a step back, flustered but cool on the surface. “Yeah, of course, because I know how to do that.”
“Alone?” M’Baku asks inquisitively, cocking his head to the side. You exhale sharply, flabbergasted as you take this as your cue to leave.
“I should probably get going. I have to make dinner and stuff so…” You turn to pick up your bag and soon as you do, the ice cream falls out, along with other items. It’s condensation from its container worked a hole in the bottom of the paper sack, rendering it useless.
“Fuck!” You curse, picking up the too soft ice cream.
“Here, I can help you with that.” M'Baku picks up the bag carefully, using the other side of the bag that is hole-less, balancing so the contents don’t fall out the top. You have what spilled outside of it already.
“God, you don’t have to do that!” You say, attempting to take the bag out of his embrace.
He lifts it higher, turning from you. “Eh! I feel at least a bit responsible talking your ear off, please. Allow me.”
His eyes are sincere enough, you thought. It’s not like you watched Dateline the night before and saw something about people using children as bait for kidnapping women. You shake the notion out of your head, figuring you’re being a little paranoid.
“I don’t live far, unless you drove.”
“We don’t live far either, so it’s fine; she felt like walking today. Jolasun!”
“Xavier! Come on, we gotta go!”
“Can Jola come with us, mama!?” Xavier asks out loud as they dust sand off of themselves.
“Yeah, she and her Dad are coming, hurry up!” You bellow, thanking M'Baku again cautiously as you all walked to your place.
The weather almost felt like summer by the time you got back, kicking off your shoes as you and M'Baku plop the goods on the counter as you wiped your brow and caught your breath. Xavier and Jolasun run for the bin of toys.
“Xavier, I don’t want a mess. You can watch TV, no toys right now.”
Xavier is barely phased by the change in plans as he gets the remote, expertly selecting his choice of programs.
M'Baku puts the ice cream in the fridge as you start organizing the food in their proper places. “Thanks again. God that woulda been a mess without you.”
M'Baku unpacks the bananas. “It’s all good. You seemed a little off balance, so I figured this might tip you over if I didn’t help.”
You scoff as you shut your fridge door. “Off balance? What does that mean?”
M'Baku takes a breath before ripping an imitation of your seagull squawk with embellished eyelash batting and a hair flip.
“What? What is all of that? I don’t sound like that either.” You say, offended but entertained.
M'Baku leans on the counter peering at you suavely. “Maybe not exactly like that, sure. Can I make it up to you with showing how to use some of these ingredients you bought?”
You put a hand on your hip, pointing a loaf of bread at him. “Now you have stepped over the line. I can cook burn my own kitchen down, thanks.”
M'Baku chuckles. Looking in the living room at the kids who have gone quiet except for the TV. “I am trying to impress you, but you’re taking it as an offense. The saying is, what is it…’thou doth protest too much’?.”
You roll your eyes walking around him to see what the children were up to. Looking over the couch, you can tell they were slumped in a way that for sure meant they were asleep. Before you could confirm, you feel a sharp pain in your foot.
“AGH-” you exclaim, before clamping your mouth with you hand and bouncing back. You feel M'Baku’s hand on your side, the other holding our arm to keep you steady. His touch is hot on you, his body must run naturally warm, you noted; hands rough but gentle and careful when holding you. His close proximity to you helped you to realize how good he smelled; earthy and natural with a clean laundry finish.
“Are you hurt? What was that?” M'Baku asked, but you hushed him as he spoke, pointing and mouthing that the kids were asleep. He gets wide eyed and mouths an “oh”, letting you go to pick up the spare army man that Xavier neglected to pick up this morning.
You sat on a chair at the kitchen table, rubbing the bottom of your foot as you watch him bend over, some skin exposing on his lower back exposing how even toned his melanin is and you are thankful.
“I would offer to help you clean but you may not like that either.” M'Baku says, dropping the toy in its proper place.
You roll your eyes so deep you see your brain. “Sir, I will never say no to free maid service if you are offering, but my son couldn't care less how many legos stab the soles of my feet.”
As he walked over to join you at the table, M'Baku lays a hand daintily on your knee. “I am at your service. If that means I am seeing you for a second date, I would be honored.”
“Second?” Your voice rises as you question him, watching him smile. You are really beginning to love that smile. “Let me ask you this: what makes you assume I am available to date? That I don’t have a husband on the way home any minute?”
M’Baku looks around the kitchen. “I see no pictures, you have no ring, and if you did, I would curse him for being so lazy as to not help you with your shopping list.”
You stare at him a moment before scoffing. “You really want to cook for me huh?”
M’Baku throws his hands up. “That would be a great start! I have many vegetarian dishes you would fall in l-”
“Oh, whoa, wait. You? Babe the Blue Ox, is a vegetarian?”
M’Baku twists his lip up at the nickname. “I’m not familiar with the moniker, but I am!”
“Is that what life is like from wherever you are?”
“Kansas? Yes, of course.” M’Baku rests his chin on his fist, looking at you innocently before breaking with a smile.
Your body relaxes as you tap the table with your fingertips thinking over your options. A man you met on the playground, gorgeous and foreign man, wants to see you again and make you dinner. Without any weird vibes, bad lines, or perverse insinuations?
“Mama?”
You snap to look in the living room, seeing a little hand stretch up from the couch. “Can I have juice now?” You spring up, thankful for the distraction to go check on your son. Jolasun is rubbing her eyes as well.
“Sure thing baby, you’ve earned it. Mama will have some too, she’s kind of thirsty all of a sudden. Jolasun, you want some?” You ask, grabbing some grape juice to pour.
“I think we’ll just head out actually. It’s been good, you’ve got dinner to cook.” M'Baku answers, getting up to go over and pick Jolasun up in his arms.
You didn’t even feel like cooking, especially now when there were two broad, strong spare hands ready to light your taste buds on fire. “If you truly have somewhere to be, yeah, no problem.”
“Can Jolasun come over again?” Xavier asks looking up at M'Baku with his cup in his hand. Jolasun’s head springs off her dad’s shoulder to glare at him, making M'Baku laugh. “If Jolasun is good with it, I think we can arrange something.” Jolasun smiles, giving Xavier a thumbs as he smiles with purple juice stained lips.
“So, we can all just….meet up again sometime in the future. Make plans between us, and that should be fun!” You say informally, trying to keep things casual, no mentions of a date to roll of your tongue.
M'Baku’s eyes light up as he hugs his daughter winking at you. “Good, it’s a date. Take my number down and we can talk.”
You sink into the floor, submitting your number into his device as he asked. So much for avoiding the ‘D’ word. You all say your goodbyes then, closing the door and feeling like you can breathe for the first time all day as you plop on the couch. But you still feel an extreme amount of energy. Now you have a date to plan, but how long has it been since you’ve been on one? What would you wear? Should you buy more food for him to work with? And shit! He is a vegetarian! Xavier don’t care about not a ne’er vegetable!
“Mama, that was fun! I can’t wait to see them soon!” Xavier exclaims jumping in your lap with all of his weight.
You wince at his knees in your thighs, picking him up and lightly slamming him down on the pillows in retaliation. “Ohh! I can’t either, X.”
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Michael After Midnight: Dragon Age II
Dragon Age is a series very near and dear to my heart; ever since playing Origins back when I was in college, I have been inspired by the stories, characters, and lore. Hell, Origins alone is a huge inspiration to my writing, and why wouldn’t it be? It has great locations, deep lore, a core main party without a single weak link with each and every party member you have being unique and entertaining in their own right, and an epic story with all sorts of twists and turns. And it only has two really shitty segments in the whole game! It’s truly a great first entry in a series.
But despite my love for it, I put off playing the sequel for most of the decade, only playing it for the first time this year. And why is that? Because… the critics said it was bad… yes, unfortunately in my younger years I took what critics said without any grains of salt. Dragon Age II was not very popular back around the time it came out, mostly because of its radical departure from the style of the first game, with more hack-and-slash-esque combat, a much more simple and self-contained story, and a cast of characters far more divisive than the first time around. It’s only over time that people have started to give it the respect it deserves, but much like fellow fantasy series The Legend of Zelda it comes at the cost of the current game being bashed.
So how is this red headed stepchild of a sequel, anyway? Did the critics have a point, or is this really an underrated gem? Well, I’m happy to report that this is indeed a fun and fantastic game, and I heavily regret being kept apart from the lovely Merril for so long due to poor critical reception, but there are a lot of problems too. For everything it does really well, it kind of shits the bed in other areas, and a lot of that can be contributed to a rushed development cycle that got this game churned out just over a year after the first one, leading to things like all items lacking the detailed descriptions they would get in the first game, which doesn’t sound like much, but then you get an item called something like “Uncle Horky’s Spanking Rod” as a magic staff and there’s no explanation as to why it’s called that and you have to imagine up some ludicrous backstory for it.
The lack of flavor text is a minor gripe, though, compared to the obnoxiously repetitive environments of dungeons. Reusing and flipping dungeons around and reusing assets would be one thing, but here they literally just take a map, flip it a bit with no changes to the details of the level, and just block off doors that lead to areas they don’t want you going. The worst part is on your mini map you can see the blocked pathways you likely saw ten minutes ago in another dungeon, which just makes a lot of the missions feel bland and samey. It also doesn’t help that enemy types are rather paltry, so you’ll be fighting a lot of the same mooks in the same maps over and over as you grind for items, gold, and EXP.
And then there are some of the characters. The worst of the bunch are sadly two characters who are returning from the first game and its expansion Awakening – Anders and Isabela. Isabela is arguably worse, because she honestly seems rather fun and nice at first, if overly and aggressively flirty, but as the story goes on, it’s revealed that she is actually the cause behind some of the biggest issues in the first few acts, which she neglects to tell you until it is far too late and unless you decided to maximize your friendship with her, she will run off and never return to your party. I can’t deny that this completely soured me to her, and at the end of the quanari invasion of Kirkwall I was only upset I couldn’t find her in act three and kick her ass for what she did.
Then there is Anders. Poor, poor Anders. In Awakening, he was one of the most funny and charming characters, a nice little substitute for Alistair that I actually ended up liking for than the Weenie King of Ferelden. Here though? Anders can not go one fucking conversation without bringing up how oppressed mages are and how much the templars suck and blah blah blah. The worst part is I do agree with him, but he’s just so whiny and obnoxious about it I left him behind all the time, dooming my party to having no healer even as I fought high dragons, blood mages, and Corypheus. It was worth it to not hear Anders bitching about templars and insulting Merril and Fenris. Oh, and Anders nukes the chantry and sets off a civil war. Isabela may be a nasty bitch, but Anders definitely comes out looking like a huge cunt by the game’s end.
The entire endgame is kind of an utter mess too, seeing as no matter whose side you join you end up fighting the same two bosses, with one of them just not making any sense whatsoever. And then the game just sort of ends on a very unsatisfying cliffhanger. And as much as I just complained, all of this stings because really, the rest of the game is quite good, and the story is fun if scaled back from the epic tale of Origins.
Let’s get the obvious best part out of the way: Varric. Varric is literally the best part of the entire Dragon Age franchise. He’s a snarky, wisecracking surface dwarf with no beard who writes best-selling novels, constantly has his shirt open to show off his magnificent chest hair, and has a crossbow named Bianca that he is uncomfortably attached to. He is one of the greatest characters ever created, and there was not one single moment I left him out of my party, because he is a blast to have around, and what’s more, if there’s ever a situation where the dialogue wheel pops up and you can let him talk… you’ve won. This guy can talk his way out of any situation. There’s nothing bad you can say about Varric, and he is in fact the only companion in the game I can wholeheartedly stand behind as a paragon of great writing.
I love the other characters, don’t get me wrong, but they have their issues. Aveline and Fenris in particular, with Aveline being a bit too by-the-books at times to the point where she exacerbates the quanari conflict by demanding that elves who killed a guard who raped one of their own be turned over to her after they converted to the Qun. This is all despite her knowing full well that the poor elf girl would have otherwise gotten no justice seeing as how city elves in this setting are second class citizens at best. Still, she has a rather adorkable romance questline where you hook her up with one of the guards, and she’s not a bad person, just a touch misguided at times.
That last sentence can also apply to Fenris, but on a grander scale. He’s a cool, edgy, brooding elf who absolutely fucking hates magic with every fiber of his being. He is the Anti-Anders, though he’s far less annoying about it, and it’s hard to really blame him for being bitter seeing as he was a sex slave for an evil wizard for most of his life and then just had misfortune after misfortune piled on him. I really hated how mean he was to Merril, but otherwise I warmed to him and befriended him.
And that brings us to a very special girl, Merril. Merril is an adorable, klutzy, scatterbrained blood mage elf who is hated by her people due to the lengths she is going to repair an ancient artifact to bring a piece of her people’s heritage back. While she can be a bit arrogant and stubborn about the whole thing, it’s mostly due to how no one around her seems to believe in and support her; naturally, I believed in and supported her, and while things still managed to go south, she seemed at least to learn a little bit. Overall I found her to be an absolute sweetheart, and she never left my party, much like Varric; frankly, I was going in expecting not to like her and was going to romance Fenris instead, but as it turns out Merril won my heart immediately and my Hawke went lesbian this playthrough.
On that note, as much as I like how Merril, Fenris, Isabela, and Anders can be wooed by either gender in principle, I do kind of feel making everyone bisexual with no rhyme or reason kind of cheapens things. It’s weird for me, a bisexual myself, to be saying that, but it just feels off to be able to get together with everyone, with everyone being Schrodinger’s Bisexual until a romance is initiated. It’s nowhere near as bad as Skyrim, but I just feel it kinda cheapens the romance options. I prefer Origins and Inquisition in that regard, where you don’t have all the options but you do have some unique choices. But, hey, at the end of the day I’m hardly complaining that my Lady Hawke got to polish Merril’s Eluvian, if you know what I mean.
Aside from the characters, I think the game’s real strength lies in its story, which is fitting since the entire game is framed as a story being told by no less a storyteller than our pal Varric. It has a three act structure, with each act detailing a different year in Hawke’s rise to become the Champion of the city of Kirkwall, which is a crime-ridden wretched hive of scum and villainy. The first act mainly has Hawke making a name for themselves, living in the slums with their uncle, doing dirty work to try and get back a little prestige, and recruiting all of their allies, with the act culminating with a trip to the Deep Roads, every DA fan’s favorite location. It’s a nice setup for a lot of twists and turns later in the story, and choices you make in certain dialogue options or quests actually can change what sort of quests you get later. Then again, this is Bioware, so this sort of “action have consequences” gameplay is expected.
Act two deals with just how Hawke becomes the Champion. Rich from the expedition into the Deep Roads, Hawke gets to do all sorts of fun things, such as track down a serial killer who ends up murdering their mom, being stabbed in the back by one of their friends, accidentally inciting a race war that nearly burns down the city, and having to duel the warrior leader of the qunari to the death in combat. Yeah, act two really piles it on to Hawke, but it does tie into the game’s themes of how no matter the level of success, great actions will also come with great consequences, even actions meant to better one’s lot in life, which also resonate in the personal quests of characters like Merril and Fenris, who despite ultimately achieving their goals in the third act feel hollow, lost, and even broken by the end, and that’s not even getting into what Anders does. However the conflict with the qunari is resolved, Hawke is declared the Champion, and things seem ok.
But then comes act three, and boy do things go wrong. Knight-Commander Meredith has gone cuckoo for Coco Puffs and conflict between templars and mages seems inevitable; this act is basically wrapping up hanging plot threads and companion quests until Anders finally nukes the chantry and all hell breaks loose, leading to the final battle. The ending here isn’t particularly happy, with Hawke ultimately ending up a fugitive in the epilogue, and things can get even worse if you make poor choices in Inquisition, but that’s just the way the cookie crumbles.
Here’s the thing: everything I just said? It could be entirely different from my playthrough depending on the choices you make. Sure, some things are inevitable, like Anders committing terrorist acts, Hawke’s mother dying, and Meredith going absolutely bonkers and making you fight statues, but depending on how you play, maybe you’ll like/romance Isabela, maybe you’ll resolve things with the Arishok differently, maybe you’ll side with the templars… the story ends the same but there are so many ways to make your story different. Throw in some great lore, some fun DLC that reveals some shocking truths about the lore, and the fun albeit simplified combat, and you’ve got a game here that has a lot of replay value if only to see where all the plot threads can lead.
I definitely think this is a good game, even a great one. It has its share of problems, but so did Origins, and frankly I’d sooner put up with the backstabbing pirate hooker and the pissy mage terrorist again then go through the fucking Fade and Deep Roads one more time. If you liked the first one, definitely give this a shot; you may end up liking or disliking some of the stuff I dislike and like. That’s the fun of these Bioware games, different aspects are going to appeal to different people. The question is, do I find it better than Origins?
In some respects, yes; I much prefer the simpler combat here, and I like the more down-to-earth story in this one, but at the same time Origins just had stronger characters overall and I’m a sucker for “save the world” fantasy tales. While Origins infamously had some real mind-numbing slogs in the form of the Fade sequence and the Deep Roads, while those environments were tedious at least they weren’t boring. But on the other hand… Origins didn’t have Varric.
It’s really a tossup, frankly, and I love both games a lot. I think each of them has their place and each of them brings something interesting to the table for the series. It’s one you really need to play for yourself to get a good grasp on; don’t be like me and put it off for nearly ten years, give it a go right after your done with the first game and see how you feel. Your experience is going to be a lot different than mine, that’s for sure.
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