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captainapple · 2 years

Text

Best of Show

Pairing: Andy Barber X Fem!Reader

Warning: If you haven't watched Defending Jacob, stay away! (or at least read the plot on the internet) Maybe some displayed affection, like kiss, hug, etc. Violence mentioned.

Word Count: 4k-ish

A/N: Finally breaking my hiatus with this work for @supraveng 500 followers challenge. It's been a long time since the last time I wrote something. The weird thing, I managed to vomit words for this quite long fic. I hope you enjoy!

In the neighborhood, they were the perfect little family. His life was like a movie that run smoothly in a town somewhere in the United States; a nice American house, cars, a decent job that paid well, a sweet wife, and an unproblematic teenage son. Everyone in that town knew the Barbers. But it was not because of their perfect little family. The Barbers were known from the unfortunate event that changed their family two years ago.

Ever since the accident happened, Andy was not the same man. His blue eyes never shined as it was before. His suit used to make him walk proudly on every trials he went on. Now, he walked like a lifeless man, sometimes he seemed like a colorless attorney in the courtroom. Everyone’s eyes were on him. Most of them were giving the pity look as Andy walked into his cold empty house.

It was an innocent glance at first. Andy was walking through the hallway when his blue eyes met yours. He nodded and smiled politely before going into the management office. Laurie, his now-ex-wife, was working as one of the managers. During their divorce process, you kept meeting him in the office. You always excused yourself every time he came. Rumor was heard that Andy was delivering some divorce paperwork. Probably that rumor was true. In couple of weeks, Laurie was no longer wearing the wedding ring, so did Andy. That was when everything began.

Now, Andy was living by himself. Occasionally, you visited him to deliver some lunch and dinner. These foods turned into front porch conversations, eventually turned into multiple dates. It was not easy since you worked at the same place with Laurie. Jacob also had not woken up from his coma, yet. However, you promised yourself to make this thing works. You needed Andy as much as he needed you.

Today was another day where you delivered some food to Andy. You confidently knocked at his door. Andy opened the door with a soft smile in his face. He had dark circle under his eyes, but his bright blue eyes and smile greeted you warmly. It was one of his charms; no matter how tired he was, he always capable of welcoming you. His arm snaked around your waist as he pushed you closer to him. A small gasp escaped your lips.

“What are you doing?” You were startled by his sudden movement.

“What?” He shrugged, “You don’t like it?”

“It’s just… um… It doesn't feel like Andy Barber at all.”

“Well, you were in awe when you saw it on the movie. Maybe I could give it a try, ya know.”

You giggled looking at your puzzled boyfriend. He sure was a good observant. Raising eyebrows, you were signaling him to let you in the house. Boston air was always unbearable during the month.

“I won’t let you in if you don’t stop giggling!” He pouted.

“Aren’t you a cute little boy. C’mon stop pouting and let me in. How if anyone sees us?”

“Okay. I let you in because you think I’m cute.” He pecked your lips. “But who cares if anyone sees us? You know Laurie and I aren’t together anymore.”

“But the divorce was months ago. Don’t you think it’s too soon?”

“Honey, when I said who cares, I meant it. Let them say whatever they want to say. All I know is that I love you. Period. And nothing in this world can stop me showing all of my love to you.”

“Alright, show me then.”

He did as he was told, wrapping his arms around you tightly. Your faces inches away from each other. He looked at you in your eyes and you could see the love in his, again. You could see his pupil dilated. His eyes were much deeper and brighter shade of blue. Even though they were different than the normal ones you saw every time, you did not care. You knew they were blue and nothing else mattered anymore.

He gave you a light kiss. Then he kissed you again. And again. And again. He kissed you so many times you didn’t know how you would remember them all. He kissed you, and you thought to yourself; it was the most amazing kiss of your life. You held him closer to you, like he would disappear if you lost your grip. You wanted him to; you wanted him to stay by your side forever.

The snow started falling in the windshield. Her breath fogged the rearview mirror as she checked herself again. The cold air pinched her skin when she stepped out of her car. Her hands were scrabbling the back of her car to find a coat. It still smelled like her scent with a little hint of his.

It took her a minute before her knuckles touched the wooden door. A knock then followed by another. She could hear the sound of footsteps approaching the door.

"Laurie!" Your heart dropped as soon as you opened the door. "Andy's showering and I think he'll be done soon. Umm - Wanna come in?"

"Nah, I'm good. Can you just tell him that the hospital called. Jacob is awake."

"Oh! That's a wonderful news! I'm so happy for both of you."

You went in to hug her. Her eyes teared up a little. Before she cried, she hurriedly excused herself. Jacob news was one thing, but the seeing you in used to be - her house was a whole different thing. Since when the two of you were a thing. There were lots of things that she felt in that moment. One of them was jealousy.

What was the hug for? She kept repeating the question in her mind. She clearly knew that shirt was his. The shirt that she used to iron the night before the trial. She could swear that you purposely hugged her to show how much scent of him you got in you. You were sleeping in that bed, with him, reminding her how warm it used to be when she was lying there in his arm.

Deep down she tried to reassure herself. Andy once hers. He loved her first. There was no way you could replace her, his first love since college. She took one last look at the house as she smiled painfully. It used to be her place. It used to be the only space where she wanted to be. In a matter of time, it would be hers again. Andy was hers once and she knew how to make him hers again.

Andy hugged you tight and kissed you as soon as he heard the news. The news that he wanted to hear every time he visited his son in the hospital. You can see a little skip he made as he walked to his car with joy. The snow started falling and the wind blew quite strong. That did not make him stop his track. But when he realized that you stopped at the front porch, he stopped in confusion. You could listen to him calling you by the look of his face. The news itself terrified you. You were happy for Andy, you really were. But the thought of Jacob’s reaction haunted you.

“Honey?”

“Maybe it’s better to go by yourself.”

The vapor came out from his mouth as he walked towards you. He called you once again as he knew you would tell him sooner.

“Okay,” you exhaled, “Is it too soon to tell Jacob about me? Or about us?”

“I know my son well. I can do the talking and you don’t have to worry about a single thing.”

You hesitantly agreed. To be honest, it was not only about Jacob. It was also about Laurie. She knew that you were sleeping with her ex-husband. The meeting this morning, you could call that the most awkward moment in your life. What would happen next? As if Andy could see your worries, he hugged you and kissed your forehead softly.

“We got this.”

You smiled up at him, holding his hand as he drove. He looked happy, but at the same time, you could see he was worried. You did too, you were. You wanted to get this over with. It was only a few miles before arriving at the hospital, and now you had nothing but worries.

Andy footsteps became faster and faster as he got closer to the room. You waited outside with the hope that everything was going to be okay. The light in Andy’s eyes were different. It was pure excitement and happiness like you never seen before. All you wanted was Andy to finally get his happiness.

After a while, Andy was walking out from the room. His expression was something that you could not understand. It was a mixture of relief, yet he had worried eyes. Something did not feel right. You guided him to sit next to you. There was explosion of curiosity, but you would not ask him until he said it himself. He sat down weakly with his head down. You kneeled in front of him, lifting his head up. You brushed his beard softly.

“Do you want to tell me about it?”

“Yes.” He exhaled. “The doctor said that Jacob lost his memory partially.”

You could see he was a little hesitant to talk about it. His face contorted. This was the face when he could not win a case in court. The face that you had not seen in a long time. He might be forgotten what it felt like until now.

“He remembers things way far before the accident. The most important thing is the doctor said it would be best if –“

“If?”

“I and Laurie are … together. Helping him adjusting to his new life slowly.”

A short ‘oh’ came out from your mouth. It was working well between you and Andy. Plus, the progress of Jacob, you thought everything was going in your favor. Now, it was not something that you imagined. Seeing Andy and Laurie back together again, even it was just for show, there were questions and questions that flooded your mind. How if Andy caught in the scenario and unable to escape his feeling? What if your relationship lost because of his old memory?

You did not realize that Andy had been calling you as you drown in your thoughts. He was asking whether you would be okay with that. You really loved him, and you just want the best for his happiness if that included sacrifice for his son, Jacob.

“Yeah. Anything for Jacob. I’ll be okay. It is just for a while, right?”

Jacob was fast asleep. Laurie peeked before she went out of the room. A smile of victory clearly displayed as she witnessed how devastated both Andy and you. She knew that she was not a bad person. Wanting her family getting back together was not a crime. As the doctor spoke to her and Andy, letting know that they had to be together again, fireworks sparked in her heart. Everything would be back as if nothing had ever happened. You were just little pebbles in her way. She was sure that once Andy felt her warmth again, he would forget you. All it took for her was to put on the best show that she needed to do.

She opened the door and walked out slowly, letting her presence known to both of you. After exchanging few words with Andy, she nodded politely and excused herself. She could not wait to pack all of her stuffs and place it back inside that house.

She watched you and Andy said goodbye from a far inside her car. A woman knows another woman, that was she thought when she saw you trying to look happy in front of him. Andy might be good in reading people’s expressions, but he was fool enough to realize your real emotions. She knew that she should not feel happy right now, but she deserved this moment. Life had given her a second chance to rebuild her family. Jacob did not remember about the accident and Andy would be living with her again. She would not mess it up again.

Moments after she arrived, Andy helped her to bring her stuff upstairs. After a long cold nights in her bed alone, she was finally back sleeping with him. All the memories flooded her mind as she stepped into that two-story house. She remembered Andy’s warm breath as she rested her head on his chest while his hand brushed against her head. No matter how bad the situation was, he was always there to ease her worries away every night. Her hands felt the softness of the fresh sheet on the bed. This was it, her fresh beginning to be the perfect family again.

Couple of weeks had passed since Jacob was home. Andy was always there for his recovery. He spent time with Jacob after work until nighttime. It had become a routine that she would stop by Jacob’s room to remind them for dinner. They would gather and talk about their day on the dining table. Mostly, Jacob told his stories about everything that he learnt during homeschooled. After dinner, Andy would talk with Jacob when they enjoyed watching football until Jacob almost fell asleep on the couch. Laurie watched everything and smiled. She did it. She almost did it.

As soon as Jacob fell asleep, Andy was a distant person. They did not spoke a single word to each other. She tried to start any conversation with Andy, but he would respond shortly. He spent every night sleeping in the guest room. The bed still felt cold. It did not even smell like him. It smelled like her scent and the fabric softener or whatever detergent on his side of the bed. Andy also often spent days doing his works and did not come home. She never wanted to know whatever he was working on. It was too much for her to understand. Besides, he would be home again to spend time with her and Jacob in any other days. She could not object to any of his decision. She just needed to give him time until he realized that he missed his old life.

She watched her son had fallen asleep on his bed. As she closed the gap on the curtain, she could see the beautiful night outside. It made her think that it had been a long time since she enjoyed running around the neighborhood. She knew Andy would not be home tomorrow as he was gone for three days working. That was when she decided to take her usual track to jog at night.

Her footstep stopped only couple blocks away from her house. She noticed a black Audi parked in front of a house. The exact same Audi that her ex-husband drove to a “three days work”. Her mind and her heart were racing. The scenarios that often came to her mind, which she brushed them off, finally happened. She did not know what was gotten into her, she walked quickly towards the door of the house. Knocking like a really scared person, she was also tapping her heels waiting nervously. Footsteps were heard approaching the door.

You opened the door. And Andy’s voice echoed from inside.

“Who is it, honey?”

You instantly froze as you found her standing in front of you. You could not even hear when Andy called. He walked to you. His hand grabbed your hand and held you tight.

“Explain yourself.” She clenched her jaw.

“Why?”

“You have your family waiting for you at home. But YOU- “, her fist rolled before she pointed at him, “you spent night in ANOTHER woman house! Is this what you called working?”

“Laurie!”

“NO! Don’t!” Her finger moved to point at you, “And you… how dare you take my family away from me? Have you got no shame?”

Andy stepped forward as he told you to stand behind him. He pushed her hand away.

“Do. Not. Raise. A Finger. On. Her.” He used his deep cold voice to talk with her. “I have enough of YOU and your little game. You thought I did not notice every time you tried to make me stay a little longer. Or the time when you tried to make as many ‘innocent’ contacts as possible, like a desperate woman trying to make be stay in bed with you.”

Laurie tried to talk back but Andy stopped her.

“What we had is over. I do everything for Jacob- “

“I do it for Jacob too! He is my son!”

“He is NOT your son since the day of the accident. You know what, this is over. I’ll talk to Jacob tomorrow that we’re done. Consider it as your mercy because I will never bring up the accident to him.”

Laurie was speechless. Her tears started to pile up on her eyes. She went back to her house without saying a single word. You could not help but felt pity on her. She was just a mother who wanted to have her family back as it used to. As if Andy could read your mind, he brought you inside to tell the truth that he never told anyone.

You never saw him this broken before. He told you everything that Laurie told him long time ago, after the accident happened. It was all because she could not believe her own son. He broke down as he remembered those hard times when he only had himself to stay strong. You could not say anything. Instead, you hugged him tight as you brushed his hair to calm him down. Both of you ended up fall asleep in each other embraces.

That night had somehow become another forgotten night. Andy had told Jacob that he and Laurie decided to go separate ways. He was a grown-up teenager. He understood everything without wanting to dive whatever his parents had on each other. Introducing you to him was another step that Andy took after a while. Having interacted with bunch of teenagers on your work, you got along pretty well with Jacob. You knew it still need time for you and Jacob to completely becoming close. But both of you tried the best for Andy.

Brighter morning had come. Summer came sooner in Newton. The warmth of the sun slowly crept in your hands as you made breakfast in the kitchen. Andy went to the kitchen. His big arms hugged you from behind. You turned around to see him clearly. His blue eyes matched with the light blue shirt that hugged his figure tight. He looked better as the sun shone brightly outside. He gave you a kiss, usual morning greeting that he did before Jacob was awake. You stepped away as you heard Jacob was coming down the stairs.

“We don’t have to keep sneaking around soon. I promise.” He whispered.

All of you ate breakfast together. You could not stop laughing with Jacob while Andy was explaining his dad jokes that both of you could not understand. This was the family life that Andy always imagined living with you for the rest of his life. Seeing you and Jacob could get along well, butterflies filled his stomach. He never felt this kind of way since he was in high school. He seemed like teenagers drunken in love all over again.

“Andy?”, you snapped your fingers. “Andy?”

“Oh sorry. What was you’re saying?”

“Aren’t you going to work? You’re going to be late if you don’t move now.”

Andy went to work. You were cleaning the kitchen as Jacob was packing his stuff. Today, he would be going to Laurie’s place. He was going to stay for a week. He could not stop teasing you, knowing that Andy and you would be alone when he was away. You never saw him this playful before and you were grateful for it.

The giggling suddenly went quiet. You did not notice since you were busy washing the dishes. Then, Jacob sobbed and wailed in pain. You rushed upstairs only to find him fainted on the floor. You immediately called Andy in panic. Before Andy reached his office, he made a sharp turn upon your call. He rushed upstairs and brought Jacob to the hospital. You watched your surroundings to check anything that caused all of this. Andy might not notice it, but there was an old court file filled with evidence, news, and other stuffs. You flipped to see the label of the file. Case Against Laurie Barber; Victim: Jacob Owen Barber; Status: Dismissed (Accident).

It did not take long until Andy arrived at the hospital. Both of you waited nervously. He kept telling you not to, but he could not stop shaking his legs. He’ll be okay. Words that he repeated to you and mostly to himself, assuring that Jacob had been through the worst, and he survived. Moment passed and the doctor had let Andy’s in. Not long after, Andy called you to joined him.

You knew Jacob was sick, but his face looked paler than usual. He showed more than discomfort. Andy’s face also got serious. You did not know what was going on. Your eyes kept looking for clue from Andy, but he was distracted.

“I don’t think I should be here.”

“No, wait!” Jacob kept you from going. “I think I need you here.”

You agreed without asking a question. Jacob might not be ready to tell you everything. Andy watched the sky as you sat next to Jacob. You held his hand as you brushed his hair gently. The medication calmed him down as he slowly drifted to sleep. You offered to call Laurie. Suddenly, he stopped you. He led you outside the room before he told you everything.

You could imagine it was hard for Jacob to remember everything. Andy was there to listen every story that he had to say. You could see that Andy was furious. He never knew that Laurie purposely kept stepping on the gas before the car hit a wall. You held his fisted palm and softly stroke it with your fingers. He took a deep breath and calmed himself down.

"Remember, she wasn't thinking straight. It wasn't easy for her."

"What would I do if you weren't here?" He kissed your forehead. "But how did he manage to find the court file?"

"We were planning on moving. Some documents may accidently fall. Unfortunate for him that he found it." You tried to reassure Andy. "Look, it doesn't matter now. Just go inside and help Jacob understand everything. He only can trust you now. I’ll call Laurie. She deserved to know about her son condition."

Her walk seemed like little run as she rushed to the hospital. She would never think going back here to see Jacob. You were supposed to drive him to her. But she got the call from Andy that Jacob went to the hospital. Still in her jogging set, she jumped on the car straight away. As she drove to the hospital, a lot of things fogged her mind. Maybe it was the side effect of the accident that time. She could not stop feeling guilty since the day she woke up in the hospital, meanwhile, Jacob was lying unconscious for years.

She supposed to be able to go and see her son. Instead, the door was blocked by you. You did not let her pass the door. She could not handle any bullshit with you anymore. As she tried to barge in, Andy stopped her track. Now, she felt that her ex-husband and his new lover were going against her. She did not want to listen any words that you and Andy wanted to say. She was Jacob’s mother after all. You and Andy finally gave up and let her in.

“Why are you here? How dare you to show up here?”

“Jacob! I am your mother. What’s gotten into you?”

Jacob went into another hysteric episode. The doctor had to rush in to give him another sedative. Andy rushed to dragged her out of the room. She was too weak to even stand up. She dropped on her knees as she cried really loud. You went to calm Jacob down and Andy went to talk to Laurie. All you can do was hoping that Andy could keep his composure and acted wise.

“I’m sorry I can’t tell you anything.”, Jacob said with a sleepy face. “One day, I promise I will.”

“It’s okay”, you smiled softly as you nodded, “whenever you’re ready. Now get some rest.”

He slowly drifted to sleep. Before that, he managed to whisper words to you.

“I’m glad dad found you.”

You knew something was off when you saw Laurie had talked to the doctor before you and Andy were arrived. The custody of Jacob went to Andy. There was no way that the doctor only called Laurie when Jacob had been awake. As soon as Andy came to the conclusion that he had to live with Laurie, you knew it was her plan all along. You were confident that you would be able to crush that smug smile she showed you in the hospital. And sure enough, Andy would always find a way to his home, which is you.

Andy decided moving the house after his big fight with Laurie that night. You were rummaging through his office to clean up some of his stuff. An interesting file found hidden in the drawer of his desk. This was it! You told yourself. You would not let Laurie got away with her efforts trying to take Andy from you. All it took was to place it where Jacob could see it. You could not wait to see what show would be unfold with this file.

Laurie could put up any show she wanted, but you were giving her the best of show.

Oh about that Benjamin Rifkin, stabbing skinny teenager like him was an easy job for you. William Barber owed you for making him feel needed by his own son.

#supravenghit500 #andy barber fanfiction #andy barber #jacob barber #andy barber x reader #andy barber x you #defending jacob #defending jacob fanfiction #chris evans fic #laurie barber #chris evans

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periodically-puzzled · 6 months

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[tap out]2, 4, 5, 11, 14, 15

If anyone else had asked me about tap out I’d have ignored it. But you… you I can answer.

2: What scene did you first put down?

I wrote this one in order and with no planning whatsoever, which is not true of the vast majority of my writing, but in a PWP there is very little organization required.

I should note that in early drafts, the story lacked an introductory character-study section where Peter gives you a glimpse into his frame of mind. We started right on the rooftop at two in the morning, and right away we were off to the races. Once I got to writing, though, I realized which themes I wanted to focus on and what energy I wanted Peter’s POV to have, so I went back and let Peter sort of defend his own valor before it was ever challenged.

4: What’s your favorite line of dialogue?

Wade has to explain the concept of a safe word to Peter, and Peter indignantly responds:

“You want me to cry uncle?”

5: What part was hardest to write?

Specifically this section, because it fucked with me then and it fucks with me now:

Peter really didn’t want to imagine the next few nights right now, couldn’t conceive of a world where right now had any kind of ripple effect out onto the future. There was no future, there was just him and whatever fresh circle of hell Deadpool thought to put him through next.

11: What do you like best about this fic?

It reminds me of Jen. I was going to make up some garbage to say about the actual writing (which I am proud of), but the real reason is I wrote it for my friend and it made her happy. I’m very grateful to have had her friendship and her mentorship for as long as I did, but she’s been on indefinite hiatus from fandom since February, and unfortunately, I’ve lost touch with her in that time. I think of her often and pray that she’s doing well.

14: Is there anything you wanted readers to learn from reading this fic?

Anyone who would view tap out as a cautionary tale is already informed enough by their own experience not to need further education.

15: What did you learn from writing this fic?

Authorial intent and audience experience often have little to do with one another. By handing ownership of a story to an audience, you give them the creative freedom to interpret it in radically different ways than you intended. You cannot get in their minds and change their perspectives to match your own. Your options are to let them have the story or to not let them have it.

Read the fic here!

#tap out whenever #ask game #thank you for the ask!

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ldysmfrst · 6 days

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Breaking and Entering (4) - Mikhail

Status: Ongoing Series (hiatus - may start again based on responses)

Chapter number: 4 of unknown

Word count for Chapter: 1,044

Word count for Story: 8,908

Genre: Werewolf

A little about the author: I am a mother of two beautiful children. One of which is special needs, and on 3/28, they lost 75% of their vision. I started a Patreon if you feel the heart to donate towards helping with the medical costs of appointments, medication, and modifications to the house, which insurance doesn't cover.

Warnings: (I am not good at this, but I will try. Let me know if I missed anything!!) NOT BETA READ!! This story will have a bit of angst, fluff, smut, f/m, and m/m. This chapter doesn't have any warnings... unless I missed some.

High school.

Like actual high school with other students.

Not alone with a tutor in the library of the packhouse.

My world just got flipped yet again. After my father wished me luck, Aliaksandr, Mitch, and I moved to Gamma Jon's office to discuss how my day would look. I started at 8 a.m. and ended at 3 p.m., followed by training with the warriors my age and who would be under my command.

"What do you mean I have a free third period? What is brunch? I thought there were sports after school, not training?" I ask no one in particular as I look down below, watching the students starting to come in quickly.

Most students are dressed lightly for the heat until one student catches my eye, leaving the building … wearing pants and a hoodie. Watching the student walk away, I can feel Borya get restless.

"MIKY!" Aliaksandr raises his voice, and I spin around and glare at him before I say anything, "If you want us to answer all your questions, you might want to listen to our answers. Besides, you have five minutes to get to your first class with me, and Professor Clark is not one to mess with."

"You are lucky you are my Beta, Sasha," I say as I grab my coat.

Mitch hands me a backpack and says, "In here, you have everything you need for your first 2 classes. Your locker has the rest of your stuff. I know you aren't dressed for school, but we will make do."

"What do you mean I am not dressed for school?" That is when I remembered I was dressed for the office. I thought this morning's meeting would be with an advisor or to settle something urgent, so I was wearing a three-piece charcoal gray suit with no tie and black dress shoes.

"I cannot go to my first day of school like this! What kind of impression would that be? I am stuck up, prick, right? I think not. Hold on."

Papa, can I run home and get on something other than a suit?

Yes, Misha. You can start after brunch. Take Sasha with you.

"Sasha, you and I will go back to the packhouse so I can change. Mitch, you go ahead and get to class. We will meet back here during the third period. Understood?"

They nod in unison, and Mitch jogs out of the office.

Sasha and I head home to my car, a deep purple Toyota Highlander. Along the way to the packhouse, I decide it's time for some answers.

"Sasha, when did you know this was going to happen?" I glare at him quickly, trying to keep my eyes on the road.

"About two days ago, but Mitch knew about a month ago because Gamma Jon mentioned something to him."

"So, explain high school."

Listening to my Beta tell me about the cliques, the squabbles between the circles, and all the chicks, I know this year will be challenging. I not only have to integrate like I am just another student, but I also have to find the balance between being one of them and being their next Alpha.

I have to deal with multiple teachers instead of one tutor. This is probably going to be my easiest transition because I already know most of the pack, and my tutors would switch depending on the topic. It shouldn’t be hard to have more than one at a time, but we will see.

There is also the pressure to find my mate. According to Sasha, it should be easy with all the females at the school turning 18 soon. Even though it seems like it would be easy, Sasha doesn’t seem to consider all of my Alpha duties. Taking the time out of those duties to attend coming-of-age celebrations just means later nights for me.

I have always wondered what it would be like for humans who have to go through trial and error to find a mate. In my spare time, I have read books about epic battles over love or on heartache over being with the wrong human mate.

Can you imagine wasting months or years of your life only to have your chosen mate be the wrong one? I guess it may not be that different from living your life without being moonmatched.

When we get to the packhouse, we have some time before we have to get back. I decided to raid the fridge for breakfast, shower, and change into dark denim jeans, a dark blue polo shirt, and blue and black Nikes. For some reason, since I learned about going to school, Borya has been restless.

Borya, what is wrong? Why are you acting like you haven't been on a run all month? We ran last night.

She is near, our mate; she is finally close.

Do you mean she is eighteen already? We need to find her fast.

I don't think she is eighteen yet, but I can feel her. Being an Alpha allows us to feel things before anyone else, including her.

Right, but she is here, and I may meet her sooner than we thought.

Running downstairs, I call for Sasha. I cannot wait to tell him what Borya said. "Sasha! Sasha! I have great news!" I yell as I barrel around the corner into the main hall, almost running into my mother.

"Good Morning to you too, Misha," she smiles at me. “I hear your father finally told you the good news. You're starting in an actual high school. Remember, you are still 18 years old. Have fun with school, make friends, and find yourself."

"Mum! I am so sorry. Where is Sasha? I have great news! Borya said he felt our mate, which means she is here! She really is here!" I say with a massive smile, hugging my mother tightly.

"That is wonderful! Now, you must ensure you are a man worth being a mate with. Oh, I had Sasha wait for you in the car. I wanted to wish you luck on your first day of school," she tells me as she walks to the front door, "Now off with you. Good luck, and make us proud."

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#ldysmfst fic #breaking and entering #werewolf #werewolves #plustwo #plus sized mc #fated mates #moon mates #a/b/o dynamics #a/b/o #alpha beta omega #high school #pack dynamics

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k--havok · 3 months

Note

😭"what are the biggest challenges writing your WIPs?"

Thank you for the ask!!

I did already answer this question here but I think I can expand!

Another point of contention I have with my WIPs is that its hard for me to figure out when I do not have enough or when I have Too Much of an idea. What I mean by that is... sometimes you have an idea but then when you add a lot to it the original premise doesn't quite work with what you want, mainly because there is not enough of the original premise to maintain the weight of the rest of the story.

An example I have of this is Waking into Divinity. I have a LOT of ideas for where the story can go which mainly take place in the demonic world of Gehenna. The entire second book of the series is about Rylie gaining powers and learning about their true inner strength and what it means to be a leader. There are also a lot of politics and a brewing war that happens in the second book, and the third and fourth (possible!) books are expanding on that and the consequences of Casrath's bad decisions lol.

But the premise of the story? The original idea with no politics or demon world or anything of that nature? A meme idea of "what if a demon showed up in your apartment one day and declared he was your soulmate and was so pathetic you just adopt him as your roommate?" like yeah haha that's funny but where do you go from there? And thats when the spiral of ideas begin. Like a domino effect. And now that I have all this serious new material, I need to revist the original premise and rework it a bit.

Other times you don't really have Enough of an idea and you get stuck. An example of this is a work I have on hiatus called A Colloquy between Gods. I have roughly 40k words for it and am nearly at the halfway point. I know what I want to happen next too. But I feel I am writing in circles as I have not developed the characters enough. Nor is the worldbuilding fleshed out enough either. And I do not really have enough fresh and unique ideas for it at the moment either.

I know I'll eventually get back around to finishing it. But the story is a bit more literary than what I normally write about so I worry it will fall flat. Self-doubt and writing ability gets in the way too at times. Sometimes you have a great idea for a story, but you know you don't quite have the writing chops to pull it off.

I could go into a whole other tangent about that. I probably will... but not here haha!

#writeblr community #writeblr #ask box #ask box game #wips #my wips #wid #waking into divinity #acbg #a colloquy between gods

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poefred · 1 year

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I H*ecking Hate Sonic Frontiers

How do I go decades defending Sonic endlessly only to end up in a Twilight Zone episode where everyone not only DOESN’T think this is a new low for the series, but also that it’s one of the best Sonic games ever?! Dude Forces came out coming on 6 years ago and everyone rightfully trashed on that game’s shallow, lazy level design and complete lack of originality riddled with recycled assets.

But the series goes on hiatus for 5 years and comes out with another batch of 30 levels that ALL flat out suck. Forces had 30 levels and 5 of them were green hill and 5 of them were chemical plant. But in frontiers 10 of them are green hill and 8 are Chemical Plant. It’s not even just that they’re reusing these level themes AGAIN. But that they’re less than a minute long, and are so shallow and worthless that they don’t even try to reach the incredibly muted “highs” of Forces. Frontiers levels unironically make Forces look like an exciting ambitious game in comparison. How do you have such an embarassing showing and get this jaded fanbase on your side?

Well the game’s fans will simply respond those 30 levels aren’t the core of the game. Which, fair enough. The majority of the game takes place in the "open zones” But oh wait, the level design is EVEN WORSE here! Go play literally other sonic game, and it’ll feel like an actual adventure. But frontiers is just running around in an empty open world touching enough 5 second automatic levels floating in the sky until you’ve gotten the arbitrary number of progression maguffins. The only thing breaking this gameplay loop up is combat, and challenges. Well the combat is one step removed from the nicktoons unite type combat seen in sonic boom rise of lyric. Give sonic a couple flashy animations attached to attacks that are all functionaly identical, and people are tricked into thinking it’s more than just a mindless button masher. Sure some of the bigger enemy encounters have different things going on. But every single one of them is so heavily scripted that even the odd decent battle, is boring to fight even a 2nd time. This carries over to the super sonic battles, which just show all you need is a lightshow and tryhard music for people to ignore the fact that nothing is happening. First of all the ENTIRE point of super Sonic battles is that you have to beat the boss before you run out of rings, which always start at 50. You’re supposed to be picking up rings as you fight so you won’t die as they’re constantly draining. But in frontiers you can just run in circles and fill up your ring meter to 400 before the fight and have no worry of running out. And the mechanics are no different than when you’re fighting a low level grunt enemy, it’s the EXACT SAME button mash combat seen everywhere else. Oh yeah the parry requires no timing btw. Meaning the optimal strat is to stand there holding parry waiting for the enemy to hit you, which triggers your counter attack, which is your strongest hitting single move. And when the boss is half dead it triggers some light show that doesn’t even effect the fight whatsoever. Just put more moving lights on the screen and now it’s cooler. Jiggle the keys in front of babies face to keep it entertained! There’s one bit in the third boss where you have to grab a constantly moving blade and aim it back at the boss to hit it. Literally the only time the game ever asks you to do anything at all and it immediately stuns the boss and lets you button mash it to death.

And the challenges I can’t believe don’t get hated on. How do so many people go 20 years hating every sonic game after sa2 but when a sonic game gives you 60 seconds to hold left in a hamster wheel for 2 seconds NOW you’re a fan again? Oh maybe the first hamster wheel didn’t do it for you. You weren’t convinced until they copy pasted the wheel 4 more times. (The variety is very lacking) Bet you guys were really pogging the 3rd time it tested your ability to hold the parry button down...? Or how about those apparently super cool moments where it gives you 70 seconds to run somewhere that only takes 8 seconds to reach, with no obstacles or anything between the start and finish. Nah it must be the 7th time you did a walking puzzle that’s slightly more complex than the same ones seen in sonic boom rise of lyric, but much less complex than the club penguin minigame using the same concept.

Don’t even get me started on the story and fishing minigame. I could make another wall of text about both but this has gone on long enough so I’ll keep it short. But the story is exhaustingly boring and pretentious. Ian Flynn clearly attempted to fix the sorry state the previous writers left the series in. But he was given nothing to work with. The game takes place on a nondescript island that doesn’t resemble anything sonic related at all, and clearly no actual budget for cutscenes. Meaning all he can do is just awkwardly reference past games about as smoothly as a family guy cutaway gag, to sloppily establish pretty much everything is canon. But that just does more damage to the series continunity than ever. There was a very clear intended reboot, ignoring that makes it all a complete mess. Sonic’s voice direction makes him sound like a tired old man who doesn’t want to do it anymore. One of the only major events in the story is that Sonic is getting weaker and weaker as he saves his friends and uncovers the history of the island. Already lame enough that it doesn’t fit in with gameplay at all. Sonic could be about to keel over in the cutscene, barely able to even walk anymore, but the second it fades out into gameplay you’re gonna be running at full speed like nothing’s wrong. Worse than that though is the second Sonic can’t take it anymore and it becomes a real problem, it’s cured in the same cutscene. This shows me the mandates that say Sonic can never lose, and if he’s ever behind must immediately regain the upper hand, is stil in place. Meaning no matter how they dress it up, any dramatic moments are going to be as impactful as the null space bit in forces. Y’know that bit where sonic’s sucked into the void of nothingness forever only to escape literally 20 seconds later effortlessly. Except at least that played into a style over substance appeal and was very quick instead of dragged out throughout the entire game as a major plot point. Even Eggman’s character is unfun to watch here. Usually an inherently charming, charismac character, reduced to a direction that’s dreadfully melodramatic, and frankly kind of gross.

The fishing is just playing into *it’s not a good game if it doesn’t have fishing* and also *ecks dee big the cat* memes and has no depth and is actually so broken you can fish for ten minutes and be overpowered for the rest of the game. And mechanically it’s THE most embarassing fishing minigame ever put into a game. Sonic fans will go *oh well it’s just an optional side mode who cares*. Bro that’s not an excuse, everybody’s golf has a more robust fishing system all around. It’s being outclassed by a GOLFING game. Comparisons don’t get better against anything else. Especially not when Ocarina of Time had a pretty decent fishing hole back in 1998 on the n64. Like look, I’m not expecting an actual simulator here, fishing is usually very simple in many of the games its featured in (which is a LOT of games these days). But this flat out NOT a fishing minigame. It’s literally just functionally a loot box. You don’t have to aim for the fish, there’s no care given to what kind of fish would be in the same ecosystem, THERE’S NO DUPLICATES.... You press A, press A again, and you pull out a random object, half the time not even a fish. You very quickly realize that it’s just giving you items down a list until you’ve gotten them all. You’re not fishing, you’re opening loot boxes with a fishing skin. And to make absolutely sure every corner of this game is devoid of any substance whatsoever...The coins you have to find to be able to pay for fishing....are given to you in the hundreds for free every few nights during an event that’s impossible to fail.

This isn’t the extent of my complaints, that’s enough though. I’ve literally played every single sonic game and frontiers is the only one I absolutely hated. Free Riders on Kinect is a better experience by a long shot. This game is the definition of “My expectations were low but holy f*rick!” How did perception on this game go from “This game looks like trash” when it was first shown off to being THE most universally well recieved game in the entire series?!?? NOTHING CHANGED. The world still sucks, the level design sucks, the story is stupid and boring....Every single thing it does is just something that was hated in Forces, or taken from MUCH better games and done as bad as possible. Why do people like this game? I literally say “I’m begging you to explain why you like this game” to people and they can’t do it. “oh it’s the best sonic game in years!” BRO IT’S THE ONLY SONIC GAME IN YEARS THIS SERIES IS DEAD. WE’VE WASTED 10 YEARS ON FORCES AND FRONTIERS. Forces took 4 years to make for some reason, frontiers took another 5. They’re going to be updating forces with likely filler worthless content for the next year instead of making another game. This series was putting out better content when they were releasing 2-3 games a year every year. It’s crystal clear to me that Sonic boom did an obscene amount of damage to Sega financially and they were out of money for Sonic. The last few years were literally just desperate fund raising to make enough money to even finish frontiers. How are people so pessimistic and down on the series to say there hasn’t been anything good since sa2, yet this bottom of the barrel unity asset flip garbage got EVERYONE back????? Like dude even other games I flat out hate, which mind you is honestly not that many in the grand scheme of the industry...I at least understand why a certain audience might like it. Even my most despized games I can go *well this audience is into it and I understand why their taste makes them find it enjoyable and that’s fine* But there’s NOTHING here. Frontiers is EVERYTHING people hate about Forces/modern sonic and more. The music isn’t even good. There’s a select few tracks that are cool but a major majority of the ost is the cyberspace levels. Kind of hard to make any stand out iconic tracks worthy of Sonic’s musical legacy when you have to write 30 songs that play over the same 40 second long green hill zone level over and over again.

#sonic fandom #sonic the hedgehog #i love sonic #sonic frontiers #Sonic Frontiers Sucks #rant #wall of text #I watched sonic fans ramble about how bad the series was for 15 straight years but the second i criticize frontiers i'm the weird one #People still unironically go haha edgy the hedgy this E10+ game is so EDGY guys what were they THINKING #Yet me talking about the newest game is apparently caring too much and I need to touch grass #haha guys sonic 06 has long load times what's up with that? Bro 06 is almost 20 years old grow the h*eck up!#Frontiers is Forces 2 #This game is so bad i struggle to dislike anything else anymore #You're lying if you like this game #Balan Wonderworld Was Better #Just Play Unleashed #Or any other sonic game tbh

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the-foolish-scholar · 4 months

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Three of Cups

In the Three of Cups, three youths are dancing with each other in a circle, raising their cups high in the air in a toast of joy and celebration. They look to one another with appreciation, honor and respect, and are bound by their emotional connection and friendship. There is a sense of lifting each other up and celebrating each other’s unique contribution to the group. The ground is layered with flowers, fruit and a pumpkin, symbolizing the celebration of an abundant harvest and the goodness in life.

Yowdy. Mix of y’all and howdy. I was super tired but then I made the mistake of drinking pop and now I’m Hannah Horvath coded post tweeting “All adventurous women do.” IFYKYK.

Life continues to play out like an episode of Fleabag but I try to channel Barbie energy throughout all of it.

I’m in the process of moving out of my current apartment into a new one farther away from my comfort zone. It feels strange and kind of scary but it’s time. Mao made some points and that’s all I’ll say…

I’m gonna miss the San Luis because every time I walked around the neighborhood, I felt like I was with my younger self. I know that sounds crazy. But I think that there was such a healing aspect to living here as an older and wiser version of myself. It was like I got to do what I did at 18 all over again but actually be present and feel in control during it.

The new place is actually going to work out better for my budget too… The irony is that I picked this place because I thought it would be better for my budget… But in reality I just forced myself to suffer?

But also, it wasn’t suffering living here. It was just a different version of suffering. Oh to be a Camus girl surrounded by Sartre fans!

What I mean is that, I’ll be trading my frequent bucket showers and beautiful view for breathtaking foliage and surveillance… So maybe I’ll be a Foucault girl by the time the new lease is up! Yes, my new apartment has cameras in the common areas! It’s like living in the panopticon (:

I know, I know, I’m too paranoid for my own good. But Orwell wrote 1984 for a reason!

Ahhhh yeah. What else? I got contracted to teach for a big chunk of February which is good because I need money to survive but also because my new place is just a block away from the school! My other job is going well too and things are actually playing out quite harmoniously because I’m helping my boss restart her SAT tutoring business that went on hiatus during the pandemic. I’m extremely thankful that I’ve been able to foster the relationships that I have because I really wouldn’t be able to do anything without my community down here.

It’s all so beautiful. And so reassuring. To know that you can travel anywhere and meet kindred spirits.

Speaking of kindred spirits! I got to spend some time with the folks from Marquette! I got some DCs and swam and played with the kids and it was so good for the soul. I recommended we go to this one restaurant that I like a lot but every time I’ve been there I’ve been the only person eating in that restaurant… We had the whole place to ourselves when we went out there again and it was an experience for sure! The adventure didn’t end there though, somehow, I ended up exploring the tunnels underneath the Sheraton! It evoked the memory of when the janitor took us into the bomb shelters underneath Anderson at the Valentine’s Day dance…

But yeah… The shenanigans should probably stop… The semester is about to start for my master’s program…

It’s so nerdy but I’m so excited to be in classes again. It feels so good to be challenged in an academic environment. And to have the opportunity to learn about the bible from empathetic academics and not some homophobic and patriarchal nun… With a developed frontal lobe… Oh, the symbolism will do me so good!

Also, I’m stoked to work on projects with my contacts from the Political History of El Salvador program! We’re going to professionally record songs written in memoriam of martyrs from the civil war and lay the foundation for future projects.

I guess that’s it really? I don’t know what else to tell y’all. I miss you all back home. The few of you that actually read this, lmao. I’m crafting a digital footprint, for you! Be grateful! It terrifies me! But on the brightside nothing I post will ever be as embarrassing as my rendition of My Bonnie Lies Over The Ocean… Which is quite meta as someone living abroad if I may say…

youtube

#Youtube

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honest-moth-of-silver-grove · 3 years

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Season 3 left feel salty about Alucard not getting his happiness. So may I request for post season 3 imagines please about Alucard meet a empathetic, intelligent human lady whose is a herbalist (not a witch. Something that Lisa does) (whose personality and appearance is like Belle from Beauty and Beast) and their relationship being like Beauty and the Beast.

A/N: I’m ALIVE!!!! School has tried hard to vanquish me but it has FAILED! I HAVE RISEN VICTORIOUS!!! At least for this semester. It was a big challenge transitioning to fully online courses so I must apologize for the hiatus in writings. Being on the computer for school for 8+ hours straight, the last thing I wanted to do in my free time was to stare at another screen with a deadline weighing on my shoulders. But I’m back baby! And with 21 pages for this ask, holie-molie!

OH, AND I HAVE A KOFI NOW! I know times have been hard and money has been tight for everyone, but if you like what you’ve read here, please consider donating to my virtual tip jar here: [x]. There’s no obligation. Right now I answer asks and write Imagines for fun. That might change in the future, and I might open up on more of a commission basis, but that’ll depend on my schedule and how everything goes.

❀ ⭒ ❀ ⭒ ❀

The winter winds were much worse than expected. Shivering, you tugged your cloak even closer to your body for what must have been the hundredth time that day. Beneath you, your horse whinnied at your constant wiggling. The sky was crystal clear when you had set out earlier. The weather shouldn’t have changed this fast.

You weren’t incredibly well-educated on the seasons, but you knew enough about them as an indirect consequence of your area of expertise. You were a herbalist and had studied the properties of plants- both native and foreign- for years. Of course, more often than not this included information on the seasons; certain plants were to be sown and harvested at very different, but specific times. Your family had belonged to a long line of experts in herblore who had taken up studying the gifts of the earth for centuries. As a result, you were very adept at utilizing the natural environment around you.

Unfortunately, in this unexpected icy-tundra, you feared your knowledge of natural properties would do you no good. Something was haunting about the snow that fell here, you could just feel it. The air itself was well below freezing but the snowy droplets themselves were almost warm to the touch. You sensed a sinister atmosphere behind such circumstances. It felt as if someone, or something, from above intended to punish the beings in this realm. A part of you wished to flee, to distance yourself from whatever entity was suffering retribution. Even then, a strong resilient voice inside your heart told you that you were no quitter and certainly not a coward. So, despite the feeling of dread looming over you, you trekked on.

You had received a mysterious letter a little over two months ago from an anonymous sender asking you to come at once to a certain clearing in Wallachia. If you weren’t mistaken, the land once belonged to a prominent family, some tens of years ago. You heard the rumors of how they had been either killed or driven out, but this letter insisted that some new person, or people, had seized occupancy of the place. You knew your family was known within many secret circles, and this letter insisted that this former great family, the Belmonts, belonged to one such circle.

The letter suggested that once again, your services were needed. Although what for, the anonymous sender did not say. You supposed it was safer that way. If this family was indeed persecuted long ago, it was better to be vague in their instructions. Perhaps it was an attempt to reunite each of your families’ services with one another? In exchange for medical aid and advice, you would be equipped with holy weapons and knowledge of supernatural creatures. And with the recent happenings in Wallachia, you concluded that it was a more than fair arrangement and set out just under a week ago.

You didn’t live far from Wallachia but the journey was anything but quick. So many people required your assistance on the way, and despite the principal objective of reuniting with the great, long lost Belmont family looming over your head, you had chosen to stay when necessary and help in any way you could. It was just that the people you’d met were living in such pitiable conditions, you refused to leave them unaided. You had become so invested in herbology for its abilities to help people. You made a promise, many years ago; not to anyone in particular, but a promise nonetheless to never turn your back on anyone, or anything in need- ever. You weren’t foolish enough to believe your efforts would make an impact on the overwhelming cruelty of the world, however, you stayed dutiful to your cause. Just because the world was cruel didn't mean you had to be.

Pulled from your train of thought, your body was wracked with shivers again.

‘Did the winds suddenly pick up again? Or perhaps,’ you wondered, ‘Was it something more?’

You pulled your mare to a stop. Taking a deep breath, you closed your eyes and focused on the feeling.

“Sadness.” You realized.

You were not so alone in these woods.

There was someone, something out there all alone, suffering. Perhaps if you located the source, you could help them. They could be hurt. And even if they were simply lonely or scared, some company might do them good.

‘Or,’ a cynical voice in your mind interrupted, ‘They could just want to be left alone.’

Nevertheless, you had made a promise to help, wherever and whenever you could and this time would be no exception.

“Come on.” You urged your horse alone. You were going to find the source of that sadness and put a stop to it.

❀ ⭒ ❀ ⭒ ❀

What you found was not at all what you were expecting. You had anticipated some sort of humble cabin or cave-dwelling, certainly not the incredibly ornate castle which now stood before you.

‘Perhaps the builders of the castle are the ones who sent the letter?’

Briefly, you considered the fact that this might be the work of the living descendants of the great Belmont family. Then again, an uneasy feeling told you there was much more to the display here than what met your eyes.

If the Belmont’s had only recently come out of exile, why choose such an ostentatious place to reside? Surely a more understated abode would be less suspicious. Why on earth would they go and invite trouble in this way? It seemed to you like a foolish oversight.

Still, unwise decision or not, the sight was impressive. You wished the weather wasn’t so harsh so you could stand to gawk another moment or two. However, as the biting winds picked up, you could feel another one of your digits grow numb with every passing moment.

Kicking your mare into action once more, you instructed her to trot around to the rear of the castle. A place this intricate was bound to have a nearby stable. You were still some distance from the actual entrance itself, not even having cleared the tree line of the adjacent forest, but you assumed that along with a stable, a place of this size ought to have more than one entrance and exit.

You patted the side of your horse’s chest reassuringly. You would give the place a more serious inspection once your horse was safely out of this weather.

Unbeknownst to you, had you ventured nearer to the front entrance, you might have noticed the two frozen corpses resting on spikes at the foot of the front steps.

❀ ⭒ ❀ ⭒ ❀

The stables were easier enough to find and, just as you’d thought, were absolutely gorgeous to look at. Everything was painted in rich, dark colors. It certainly looked like a stable worthy of royals. However, you couldn't help but notice no other horses resided there. Perhaps there was a second stable you missed initially, or perhaps the family living here didn’t have any horses.

‘That’s odd,’ you mused as you secured your horse within a stall.

The closest town was Argesh, but even that was miles away. Once again, you found yourself judging this family’s actions as rather foolish. At the very least, they ought to have invested in a horse for travel in the harsh winter months.

No matter how you chose to look at it, the situation remained quite baffling to you. You supposed you would just have to ask the inhabitants what their reasoning was before you leaped to any more conclusions.

You left the majority of your belongings still attached to Honey. There was no way you could carry them in all at once, and besides, even if you could, that was presuming too much. For all you knew, the family inside the castle wasn’t keen on having their company stay in the main house. You had heard some well-off families could be funny about those kinds of things.

Giving your mare a final brush, you temporarily ventured back out into the cold. You knew you should have run around to the front door, knowing for certain there was an entryway there, but it was below freezing and the longer you remained outside, the bluer your lips turned. Yes, it might be considered poor manners but in these circumstances, you would rather have a quick entrance than a proper one.

After a few cold seconds of searching, you came to a simple door with a wrought iron frame. Hastily, you tugged it open, flinching at the loud screeching noise it’s hinges made. Whoever was inside was certain to have heard you. But you supposed that was for the best. After all, you were a guest in their home; to simply walk in without warning would be rather rude.

“Hello?” You hazarded a cautionary greeting but was met with silence. Was anyone home? Or maybe the reason there were no horses in the one stable meant that whoever had been living here cleared out long ago.

Without any reply, you were lost to the maze of stone hallways and lush red carpets that greeted you. The muddled architecture outside did not do the inside layout justice. The interior was even more unclear. It seemed that certain hallways ended without warning and others began out of nowhere. You assumed at the very least one or two main hallways would make themselves known, but as you ventured deeper into the bowels of the castle, the more confused you became. You spotted a lone staircase to your left and hesitantly began to climb. Voices carried farther, the higher up they were, right?

“Hello?” You tried again. “Is anyone home?”

You racked your brain and tried to think back to all the fellow travelers you had met while on the road. Did any of them speak of an abandoned castle? A building as showy as this one was bound to be a noteworthy landmark. You could only recall a half memory of a story a Gresit fruit vendor had told you.

You were stopped for the evening, and enjoying some food and drink when you heard the story of their local legend.

‘A savior,’ they had said, ‘the antithesis of Dracula himself once slept under Gresit. He was the one to thank for the end of the night horse attacks.’

Or so they thought.

At the time you thought it was nothing more than a sweet story, a fairy tale complete with a happy ending. But now, as you stood small in the vast maze that was this castle, you had a creeping suspicion the story was true.

‘Oh my god,’ you thought. ‘This was the infamous Dracula's castle!. This place must now belong to the saviors of…’

A flash of red at the corner of your vision caught your attention. Clusimly, you tripped on the last step, the blunt stair ledge landing directly at your ribs. Hissing, you sucked in a sharp breath through your teeth and pushed yourself back onto your feet.

“H-hello? Is there someone there? Bel-Belmont?” You once again announced your presence with a question. “I apologize for using the rear entry, but I had just come from the stable.” You cautiously ventured out into the large hallway at the landing’s level. “My horse, Honey, I put her there, I hope that’s alright.”

You tried to keep your voice light and steady but inside your chest, your heart was pounding. “I received your letter.”

“‘Letter’?” A harsh voice rasped out from beyond the shadows. “Do you think I’m as foolish to fall for that?”

You blinked in confusion. “B-but, I brought the letter with me, it’s in my pocket.” You went to reach for it, but the stranger’s serious interruption gave you a great pause.

“If you wish to keep living, I suggest you put your hand back down.”

You froze. You had met hostile people before- not everyone believed in nature’s medicine. But on those occasions, you had come prepared. Here, like a fool, you rushed in blind, believing the person who resided here to be an ally. What had this person so upset? So untrusting?

“Who are you?” You asked. “Why would you send for me only to threaten me?”

“I did not send for you.” The man’s reply was quick and deflective. “I am no longer in the practice of accepting the aid of humans.” His words echoed around you rather annoyingly. You could get a much better read on the individual in question if he only showed himself to you.

Who was this mysterious stranger? And what did he mean, ‘humans’?

“Step into the light.” A momentary rush of brevity overtook your speech. “You threatened my life, the least you could do is show me your face. I have a right to at least see my would-be killer.”

You scanned the hall from left to right. Nothing. Until...

“I am Alucard Tepes,” a hot breath whispered on the back of your neck, “And I did not ask for any visitors.”

You were momentarily seized by fear, but more powerfully then, by indignation.

You were a kind person who only sought to help people. Whoever this person was, you were sure they had reasons for being adversarial, after all, the world was a harsh place. But still, that gave them no right to speak to you in this way.

You waved away the heat of this stranger’s breath and walked forward. You intended to put some distance between the two of you.

“My name,” you said displeasedly, “Is (F/N) (L/N) and I have done nothing to warrant this behavior from you. I received a letter asking for my help, and that is all I have come to do.” Despite this man’s earlier warning, you reached into your pocket and withdrew the correspondence in which a mystery individual requested your presence. You held it out in front of you, as far as your arm would go.

“This,” you said, sounding very self-assured, “Is what I received. I wouldn’t have presumed this much otherwise. Now,” you huffed, “Would you mind explaining why someone sent for me?”

The man, Alucard, regarded you suspiciously for a moment. Seeming to have decided you weren’t currently a threat, he snatched the letter from your hands quite rudely.

“Damn that Belmont.” He muttered under his breath. “Now you bother to think of me… How untimely.” He looked back up to you, clearly annoyed by your presence.

You did your best to hold your ground. You narrowed your own eyes back at him.

“It seems,” he began, “You were brought here under false pretenses. My compani… an old acquaintance of mine must have written this letter shortly after he left. The person who requested your presence is no longer here.”

“Alright.” You furrowed your brow. “Well, did he mention when he’d return?”

“No.” Alucard seemed more frustrated than you were. “You’d be better off looking for him elsewhere.”

“So I’m not welcome here, then?” Alucard tilted his head at your question.

“You don’t intend to leave? I said the person who requested your services is no longer here; therefore, he does not need you.”

“And what about you?”

“Me?”

“Those look awful.” You gestured to the scars on his wrists. They seemed to extend up to his forearm, but you couldn’t see beyond the sleeves of his shirt. “If you’d like, I could try and minimize them, make the scarring less obvious.”

This ‘Alucard’ stalked menacingly towards you. He didn't seem to appreciate your observations. In fact, he seemed to become even more agitated.

“You can stay in the stables until the weather clears but I doubt Belmont will return in that time, providing you don’t disturb anything. But I will be watching. But I will not hesitate to kill you, should you do anything suspicious.”

You gulped.

“Then I’ll just avoid being suspicious,” you replied, matter-of-factly. “But under those conditions... You’ll allow me to stay?”

Alucard waved you along. “If you want to amuse yourself, dying at the hands of a monster, I won’t stop you.”

You once again found yourself blanching at his words, but began to follow him down the hall, nonetheless.

“So a monster is kept here then? Is it one of those night creatures?” You presumed.

“Something of that nature,” he responded, quite dryly.

“Well, is there anything you can do for it? Um, them?” You asked, earnestly.

“What?” Alucard was taken aback. “You want to, what? Feed it? And take it for walks as if it’s the family dog?”

“No, of course not,” you replied, hotly. “I mean, in terms of treatment, is there any way you can…” You paused, struggling to find the right words. “Can you save them?”

For the third time since you met, Alucard looked at you deeply. He seemed to be remembering something from long ago and searching for it, somewhere in your eyes.

“That,” he said after a moment’s pause, “Has yet to be seen.”

❀ ⭒ ❀ ⭒ ❀

You discovered, by process of elimination that this was indeed, The Alucard, son, and antithesis of Dracula. It seemed so obvious once you put two and two together, you almost didn’t understand why you hadn’t seen it immediately before.

He had put you up in a stall in the stable with Honey. Well, he had been so gracious as to let you choose a stall. You did thank him for proving a straw mattress and bedroll but that seemed to be the extent of his hospitality. You didn’t mind so much. You were used to traveling and sleeping outside on the cold hard ground. Compared to frozen mud, the stone ground of the stable was a luxury. The stable was heated and shielded you from the howling winds and whipping torrents of snow outside. Truly, you couldn’t ask for more.

Well, to be perfectly honest there was more you wanted to ask but it had absolutely nothing to do with your accommodations. You wanted to speak at length with the Alucard. You wished to ask him questions about Dracula, about the castle, about Belmont, but most intriguing of all, you wanted to ask him about his heritage.

You knew his father was Dracula and that his mother was a human woman. But that still left so much to the imagination. How did she and Dracula meet? Why on Earth would he choose to have a child with her? Was it a consensual relationship? Or perhaps she was his prisoner?

Briefly, you recalled hearing about the church wronging Dracula by accusing his wife of witchcraft. At first, you had assumed the church persecuted an innocent woman, completely unrelated to Dracula but had chosen to do so in his name. It wasn’t until you arrived here, that you realized the woman they burned at the stake was indeed the true wife of Dracula and most likely, the mother of Alucard.

You felt awful. Your family often faced persecution as well. But more often than not, it resulted in your ancestors being driven from their homes. You could count the total number of times on a single hand that someone in your lineage was sentenced to death for herbology.

You had been very close to your Mother. If she had died in that manner, you weren’t sure you would have had the strength to continue. Luckily for you, it was merely old age that claimed her in the end. When you were younger, you used to feel angry that she had chosen to have one last child so late in life, knowing full well her chance of seeing you grow to have your children was slim at best. As you grew older, however, and learned more about reproduction, you supposed thinking of when she would die was probably not something your mother considered while conceiving you.

You shook your head, swearing away such sultry thoughts, and thought back to the problem at hand. You were physically safe from the elements in the stable, but still, you were quite lonely. And while you had no problem foraging and hunting for meals, your curiosity got the better of you: you wanted to know what Alucard had in his kitchen. After all, he was part human. You were so engrossed with the idea of a half-human’s/half-vampire's diet. As a student of herbology, you knew food was not only necessary for survival but often had impacts on mood and behavior as well. At least, that’s what human physiology told you, you had no clue if it applied to dhampirs as well. But you were determined to find out.

❀ ⭒ ❀ ⭒ ❀

You waited well into the evening to once again knock on that back wrought iron door, him being half-vampire and all. You expected it to be bolted shut ever since you entered through it without prior permission but were pleasantly surprised to find that it was still unlocked. Gently this time, you opened it.

“Alucard!” You called. “Can you hear me?”

You did your best to retrace the steps you took the first time you entered. As you finished ascending the staircase, you expected to find him waiting to ambush you in the hall like last time. Except when you reached the top step, without falling this time, no one was in sight.

“Alucard?” You called again. “I wanted to ask you something… Are you here?”

No answer.

‘Well,’ you supposed, ‘In that case, as long as I’m not suspicious, it should be fine to walk around.’

You continued to stalk down the long hallway, admiring the paintings and armors that adored it. This place was filled with so many things, things that must have had such interesting histories! Briefly, you wondered if Alucard knew about any of this stuff.

Coming to a turn, you found yourself at another hall, this one much darker than the previous. The beautiful magic lanterns that illuminated the path you trekked were dark here. And the surrounding air felt much colder than before. Was this part of the castle not used much? Your curiosity got the better of you and you decided to investigate.

You slowly stepped down yet another stair and emerged out from under its arching molding to find yourself across from a matching staircase. Where the two sides met in the middle was a smooth platform, and in the center of it, close to the front edge, rested a grand throne. The chair was massive and tall, much taller than any human you had ever come across. A chill ran up your spine. There was only one being you could think of that would have had use for such a chair.

‘Dracula.’ You thought to yourself. ‘This must be Dracula’s throne room.’

On the platform, and beyond it to its left and right was a blood-red carpet. You tried not to think of the irony in the color choice. Instead, you opted for walking down beside the throne, to further inspect the stone carving on the divider in front of it.

It was so intricate, and very well carved. You wondered if Dracula had produced the work himself, or if he had someone else do it for him?

‘Perhaps, oh what were they called again? Oh, yes! A thrall!’

For all you know, he forced his thralls to complete this architecture. I mean yes, he was Dracula, but still, this place was huge and there was a lot of ground to cover by oneself. As you continued down the side of the divider, you found your attention transferred to the absolute mess that was this hall’s floor. Shattered glass from fallen chandeliers and chunks of tile and wood littered the scorched carpet. Something dreadful must have happened here, you could feel it.

You could feel so many memories and energies in that room, it was overwhelming. There was this strong, serious aura of purpose and destiny. Wrapped around it was this bright aura of energy and a fiery spirit. A third, equally strong energy brought a chill down your spine: it was determined, like the first, but much more distraught. Whoever those three individuals were, they all felt like it was necessary to be there, but how it took an emotional toll on each of them was a different story entirely.

You wondered if Alucard was one of those auras. He probably was, after all, it was he and this ‘Belmont’ who fought to defeat Dracula. And the third spirit seemed to be with them, so they most likely picked up a companion along the way. Their companion seemed to be the most lighthearted out of the bunch. How you wished they chose to stay here with Alucard. If anyone could use some lightheartedness right now, it was him.

However, one more thing troubled you: this battle must have taken place here was months ago! Why hadn’t all this debris been cleared away? Why were some spots of the castle so immaculate while this huge throne room and hall remained littered with rubbish? You were seeking too many answers again.

‘Speaking of questions,’ your mind drifted back to the task at hand, ‘I was supposed to be looking for Alucard.’

Oh well. You didn’t think that obvious snooping was something suspicious. It was apparent as day that you had been gawking at everything here since you arrived. There was nothing sinister or sneaky about that. You hoped Alucard would regard it the same way. After all, you were still technically under his rule as a guest in his home.

‘Home,’ you thought. ‘How sad to have to come home to this. Perhaps,’ you supposed, ‘I could help tidy the place up. Yes! That ought to cheer Alucard up a little. And then maybe,’ you hoped, ‘He might start talking to me.’

You had made up your mind. First things first, you were going to find yourself a kitchen. And second things second, you were going to brighten up this dreary place, even if you had to drag out all this broken furniture yourself. Just because Alucard wasn’t in the mood for talking to you, didn’t mean that you couldn’t talk to him. You just had to uncover a creative way to communicate. And your plan in mind looked like the best way to do it.

❀ ⭒ ❀ ⭒ ❀

The kitchen you had managed to find easily enough. And you were pleasantly surprised to find it stocked with bottles of wine, dried herbs, and grain. It appeared half-vampires, such as Alucard, did eat human food. You still had no clue as to how often he ate or how much. Or if he needed blood in addition to human sustenance. You supposed you would learn in time. At the moment, however, you were mainly focused on the rich drink. The sweet wine pooled heat in your belly and with it, you felt ready to begin to tackle the daunting mess in the throne room.

Normally, you wouldn't have been so forward in your actions, but a part of you was growing desperate. The longer you thought it over, the longer you sensed Belmont had sent for you knowing his friend would be quite lonely by the time you arrived. It was clear to you Alucard had large emotional wounds left from the falling out between him and his father and the tragic loss of his mother. At least, those were the wounds you knew about. Then there were those two mysterious… guests staked out at the castle’s front. Alucard told you nothing about them, other than you would be wise to not end up like them. It wasn’t much to go on.

As you mulled over all of these thoughts, you put your body to good use. You used one of the torn and bloodied drapes as a tarp and went around collecting pieces of tile and ceiling. By the time you had squared away the larger chunks, the sun was rising. Huffing, you took a moment to sit at the foot of the grand staircase. You supposed you may have been a little manic in working for so long, but you were so rapt up in thought, you didn't even notice how much time passed until the morning light caught your eye.

It wasn’t a grand gesture by any means, but it was a start. You figured the more work you did, the less time Alucard could keep pretending you didn’t exist. The more of the castle you brightened up would force Alucard to either acknowledge your help and by extension, your residence here at his home. Or at the very least his frustration with your changing things would prompt some sort of confrontation. You had initially assumed, based on the way he reacted when you first met, he would be an aggressive sort of housemate, but instead, his presence was like encountering a ghost.

There were moments you could feel him nearby; his aura had a distinct sorrow to it, but for the most part, you couldn’t get a solid read on him. The deep, cold, sadness emanating from the castle was practically all-consuming. If you were to get anywhere with him, if you were to truly understand him, the first thing you needed to do was change that.

And so you did.

Not overnight of course, but little by little, you dedicated several hours a day to tidying up a room or dusting off old collections of statues and books. On the rare occasion, amid your nesting, you’d feel a chill run up your spine. That’d be how you knew Alucard was watching you, how you knew he was close. Half of you felt incredibly satisfied to have piqued his interest, and the other half of you was downright terrified. You were like an innocent little rabbit, hoping to catch the eye of a sly fox: it was a dangerous game for you to be playing.

❀ ⭒ ❀ ⭒ ❀

Alucard felt that danger too.

He was so unbelievably angry. He was angry at his father for declaring war on humanity, angry at Dracula for betraying his mother’s final wish, for forcing him to fight against his kind in the way he had. He was angry at Belmont for leaving the stupid Belmont trove as if it made up for him and Sypha running off to live happily ever after only god knows where after leaving him alone to rot alongside all those other long-forgotten artifacts.

He was beyond angry at Taka and Sumi for betraying his trust the way they had. It had been too intimate, too personal, too awful to look back on the way he was made to... If they only had threatened to kill him the way most people would, with a stake aimed at his chest after a long fight on the battlefield. No, they had chosen to hurt him in his bed, in his own home after… Just the very memory made his dhampir blood boil. Or perhaps he had willed his blood to boil to not have to feel the ache in his heart and the weight in his stomach. Those two had hurt him most of all.

And then there was you.

When he had finally grown comfortable with the silence, with the all-consuming loneliness of his castle and the Belmont hold, you just had to let yourself in. Yes, Alucard was angry at you, but not for the simple act of intruding, oh no. He was angry for the way he longed to be near you. He was angry over the way his mind begged to speak to you. He no longer wanted to be the cold, cruel master who you avoided like the plague, he wanted the freedom to enjoy your company and have you enjoy his in return. It was a dangerous desire, one he didn’t know how to approach.

It felt like it had been years since he knew how to speak kindly, how to think kindly. He had chosen to forget in order to protect himself. But thanks to your unexpected arrival, Alucard wondered if the emotional walls he had put up were too high for even the most insistent of herbalists to climb over. He supposed only time would tell.

‘Or,’ a voice in his head supplied, ‘You could push things along.’

Alucard stared intently at the flames raging in the fireplace of his father’s study. He had been sitting, quietly pondering what to do about your current situation.

“How do you suggest I do that?” He spoke towards the fire. He knew it was juvenile. He knew he wasn’t talking to anyone other than himself. Still, it felt... nice to use his vocal cords after all this time.

‘You could offer her more permanent lodging.’

“She hasn’t made any complaints.”

‘True. And she won’t. She’s too polite.’

“Looks can be deceiving,” Alucard replied dryly. After all, he knew all too well.

‘Yes. But I do recall a certain brother-sister duo asking you about moving the castle rather early in your relationship.’

“It was not a relationship,” Alucard hissed.

‘Acquaintanceship,’ the voice acquiesced. ‘They asked for things- repeatedly. She has asked for nothing. On the contrary, she has done things for you, without being prompted.’

“The cleaning, yes,” Alucard sighed. “It has continued to a point where I can ignore it no longer. She’s done more than sweep up the remaining shards of glass.”

‘Perhaps it is time you do something for her, without asking. See how she responds to such kindness.’

“What exactly do you have in mind?”

‘Invite her to dinner. At the formal long dining table.’

“Why is where we eat important?”

‘It shows you value her presence. Women appreciate that.’

“And what do you know of women?”

‘Well, your Mother always appreciated it when your Father did it for her.’

Alucard paused.

Briefly, he recalled a time before his Mother’s death, before their move to her home village of Lupu. A happy time when his family would sit around in the formal dining room, just the three of them grouped at the front of it.

His mother always did appreciate his Father’s melodramatics. She adored the way Vlad made everything fanciful and over-the-top, even when such fanfare wasn't needed. She claimed she found it rather charming. Lisa swore she never needed anything fancy, as long as she had the two of them, she would say, she was happy.

Alucard pensively rubbed his thumb and pointer finger together. “Do you think it will work?”

‘Sure, it’ll work. You just need to be subtle about it.’

‘Subtle?’ Alucard thought. ‘I can do that.’

❀ ⭒ ❀ ⭒ ❀

You had finally settled in for a nice nap when a strong chill ran up your spine. You jolted up into a sitting position. There in front of you stood Alucard, the Son of Dracula, the Savior, and the Prince of Wallachia.

“I, uh,” you stammered. “The sun is up.” You pointed at the rays streaming through the stable’s doors.

“I am only half-vampire. I can withstand sunlight.”

“Alright then.” You thought for a moment. “What about garlic?”

“You’ll see when you join me for dinner tonight,” Alucard answered rather stoically.

“Dinner? You’re asking me to eat dinner with you tonight?”

“I am not asking.”

You crossed your arms at that. “Is that so?”

“Yes.”

“What if I don’t want to?”

“Excuse me?”

“Maybe I only eat meals with people who haven’t taken every opportunity we speak to be demeaning and rude.”

“I have not been rude.”

“You threaten my life when I first arrive here, then you avoid me at all costs, and now you demand I join you for dinner.”

“I told you, I do not appreciate visitors, especially unexpected ones.”

“It’s not my shortcoming that your friend failed to mention my impending arrival. If you want my company, ask nicely!” You huffed.

Normally you would maintain your composure but there was something about this conversation that irritated you so much. You wondered if you were picking up the annoyance Alucard was feeling himself.

Alucard rolled his eyes before sighing.

“Fine,” he gritted out. “Would you please,” he added an emphasis on ‘please’, “Join me for dinner?”

You smiled. “I’d love to. But I won’t have you preparing the meal all by yourself. It wouldn’t be right.”

“I did not ask for your help in cooking.”

You nodded, pulling yourself to a standing position. “And yet, I’ve offered it anyway. I was planning on hunting some hare. I saw a handful of them scurrying around yesterday.”

“You don’t have to. It would take you ten times the effort and time than if I were to do it.” Alucard wasn’t trying to boast, it just came off that way. Sensing his words had unintended consequences, he quickly added, “If you truly wish to help, you can prepare the vegetables.”

That piqued your interest.

“You have fresh vegetables?”

Alucard smirked. “There’s a garden house deeper in my castle. I took the liberty of cultivating a few species before the autumn frost.”

It almost pained him to admit, but a part of him was relieved that someone other than himself would be eating the food from his garden house. He had taken to planting seeds when Sumi and Taka were…. Well, when they were staying. The surplus had been just another painful reminder of his foolishness, but now, thanks to your stomach he supposed, he would no longer have to regard his extra efforts as a mistake.

“Could you-? I mean, if it wasn’t too much trouble, do you mind showing me this ‘garden house’ of yours?” You recited the new term carefully. “My family has studied in herbology for years, but I’ve never heard of such a place.” You were very much intrigued.

“It’s nothing spectacular, I assure you,” Alucard promised as he gestured for you to follow. “It’s just an indoor room that mimics the elements of certain growing seasons.”

Your jaw practically dropped. “You’re saying it can create summer indoors and it’s not spectacular? Does it make rain?”

Alucard nodded.

You were flabbergasted. “It practically sounds like magic!”

“Not magic, just science. Irrigation systems have existed for hundreds of years."

Alucard brought you around to a hidden entrance you hadn’t seen before. Noticing your look of curiosity, he explained, “It was built for the stable hands to be able to ready the horses at a moment’s notice.”

“Oh, I see,” you commented. “But why haven’t I noticed it before? It’s much closer than the entrance I’ve been using.”

“There’s a glamour that normally protects this door from prying eyes. I temporarily disabled the runes that powered it.”

“Are you going to try and tell me that’s science too?”

Alucard paused for a moment, letting your words wash over him, before letting out a hearty chuckle.

Inside, you were beaming. That was the first smile to grace Alucard’s face since your arrival. He looked so beautiful, with his head tossed slightly back, his eyes crinkled shut: almost like an angelic oil painting come to life.

“That,” he said, shutting the door behind the two of you, “Was most certainly magic.”

❀ ⭒ ❀ ⭒ ❀

It had been two weeks since you and Alucard had sat down to that formal dinner. Although it was much more lavish than anything you’d experienced, you were mostly flattered and only slightly uncomfortable. It was an odd happenstance, to go from being completely ignored to becoming the sole subject of his focus. Even so, you supposed it was better than the silent treatment, even though there were occasional moments now and then when you missed your privacy.

It wasn’t that Alucard was nosy or too forward, oh no; it wasn’t like that at all. It was so clear he was just very lonely and desperate for human interaction. Even though he still verbally denied that desire existed, you knew he was lying by how often you’d find him joining you in a study or the garden house. And while you couldn’t deny you enjoyed the attention, there was a certain desperateness to it that concerned you. You hoped Alucard’s fears, and anxieties would lessen the longer you remained, but at times you believed it was causing an adverse effect.

It was as if your familiarity caused him more fear than your alienness. You wondered if perhaps his sudden closeness was in fact part suspicion, not mere neediness. All you could conclude for certain was those two skeletons out front must have done a serious number on him. For all you knew, they played the long game and waited until Alucard’s guard was down to strike. You had met people like that on the road. You just couldn’t understand it, the effort it took, to pretend to care with such force, waiting it out to reveal such nefarious intentions.

You wished to ask some questions about the two corpses but kept those morbid curiosities to yourself. After all, you had only recently been welcomed to stay inside Alucard’s home. You didn’t want to find yourself back in the stables if you were to suddenly offend him. You sensed his soul was very raw when it came to that subject. And speaking of raw...

At the present, you were reading over some old tomes of a small study right off of the castle’s garden house. You were working on a surprise salve for Alucard’s scars, and you intended to combine your own knowledge in herbology as well as the castle’s collection in order to make it. This particular collection pertained the most knowledge relating to plants and their properties, which is why you frequented it so much.

You were illustrating the flowering buds of a Hypericum perforatum in the blank book Alucard had gifted you when he entered and took a seat on the bench across from you.

The prior pages contained illustrations on the fundamental steps of honey harvesting. Honey was one of the main ingredients of your concoction, and you figured it was as good a time as any to record your knowledge of the process. Thankfully, the castle had its own stored honey to take from, seeing as you were out of the supply you kept on your person. Plus, you had some time before the weather warmed and spring arrived, meaning you would have to get on without fresh honey for a while.

You had even gone so far as to ask Alucard if he believed it was possible to transport a hive into the garden house once the more pleasant seasons brought the local bees out of hibernation. You were immensely pleased that Alucard found your idea agreeable. You would always enjoy a swell of pride every time he complimented your knowledge or found your ideas plausible. And you weren’t the only one who beamed every time the two of you had a similar idea.

Alucard would get this little twinkle in his eye, as if he was remembering a happier time from his past. There was an awful lot of apothecary equipment and scientific instruments in the castle. Perhaps he used to practice herbology among other things prior to his mysterious heartbreak. At any rate, you were extremely pleased to have such an important aspect of your life in common.

You glanced up from your journaling to send Alucard a soft smile before returning to your work.

“Hypericum perforatum?” You heard him ask. “I do hope you don’t intend to ward me away with that.”

You chuckled at his comment.

“Yes, well,” you started, “I doubt it would be effective seeing as how you were the one to sow and harvest the castle’s Hypericum perforatum prior to my arrival here.”

“Yes,” Alucard mused, picking up a dried stem and twirling it between his fingers. “It would appear useless against me. However, up against a fully-fledged vampire, of course, who knows?”

You shook your head. You could tell from the glint in his eye and the light tone of his voice that he was being playful.

St. John’s Wort may have been rumored to have supernatural expelling properties, but you knew that was all it was. Back during the Crusades, knights would rub their blades down with the herb for good fortune and protection. From there, the rumor surrounding the name, St. John’s Wort, as well as the idea of its holy properties only grew.

The plant did possess other useful properties, however, much like most herbs. You were hoping to use the Hypericum perforatum in your salve, along with lavender as well honey. You hoped the inflammatory reducing properties of both the Hypericum perforatum and the lavender would work to reduce the bright redness around Alucard’s scars whereas the honey would help speed up any healing.

However, you weren’t sure how to broach the subject of treating Alucard’s scars, recalling how infuriated he was the first time you mentioned them. Then again, that hostility could have been because you had just trespassed into his home. Either way, you figured if there was to be any chance of Alucard accepting your gift, the salve would need to have already been prepared.

“You’ve been interested in ailments of the skin as of late.” Alucard’s observation shook you from your train of thought. “Why is that?”

You shrugged your shoulders. “Just working through the body, I suppose. The skin is the first step.” You tried to joke in a manner reminiscent of Alucard’s own playfulness not moments ago. But from the looks of his unimpressed expression, your humor missed the mark.

“I told you it would not do you well to lie to me.” Alucard’s voice suddenly sounded so much louder, even though the distance between the two of you had not changed.

Either that or the new sound of your heart pounding in your ears made his words all the more menacing.

“I will give you one more chance to answer truthfully.”

Crap. You’d been had. You bit your lip and prayed that Alucard would not take offense to your actions, once he learned the true intention behind them. You took a deep breath before speaking.

“I wanted to make something for you.”

Alucard’s eyes narrowed. “Pardon?”

You tried again.

“I wanted to give you something, a salve to try and help reduce the prominence of your scars. I know I mentioned it when we first met but, you didn’t take so kindly to me then. It’s just you’ve been very kind to me as of late, and I appreciate all that you’ve shared with me and I wanted to be able to share something with you.”

Alucard stood up, wordlessly.

Your heart sank. “I didn't mean to upset you!” You started. “Please, forgive me!”

“Forgive?” He spat. “You don’t know the enormity of what you ask.”

“I’m sorry if I crossed the line or presumed too much,” you felt helpless. You didn’t want to go back to dead silence between you two. “I just wanted to help.”

Alucard froze. He had turned to leave but something in your voice, something about the way your body language suggested you resigned yourself to whatever fate he saw as fit, struck a deep chord within him. You weren’t trying to argue, to protest. You didn’t get angry or defensive, you just sat there, with your head held in your hands.

There had been times before, times in battle, times of anger when Alucard truly felt like a monster. He thought he had crossed that line, finally descended into that madness the night he put Sumi and Taka’s bodies out on stakes. He had told himself it was over; the battle inside him was won by the beast, and from that moment on, he would have no regrets or qualms about it. He was a dhampir, the son of Dracula; that was the horribly lonely fate he resigned himself to. That was… Until he heard your apology and glanced back to see your small, vulnerable form, ready for whatever consequences your surprise aid had unleashed. It reminded him, you reminded him of his mother.

His mother, who just wanted more than anything to help people; his mother who even with her dying breath, begged for her murderers’ forgiveness. His Mother was a saint, and the people persecuted her for it. And there you were, much like her, simply trying to help, and suffering for it.

He was the one making you suffer for it.

Yes, there had been moments of absolute rage and madness within Alucard, but until that moment he had never felt as much as a monster as he did looking down at you.

‘What have I done?’ Alucard’s hands began to tremble.

His own mother’s final wish was for him to be kind to humans, it was the reason he fought his Father’s war; it was the reason he staked his own Father, because of her last wishes. He had sworn to uphold his promise to her, to get along with humans, to be better than his father was. And yet, in just a few months, as the result of a mere two people’s transgressions, he had allowed a cold wall of disgust to build between him and humanity, solidifying the distance between his vampire half and his very own humanity. How could he have allowed it to get this far?

You were awaiting shouting, or a blow, some sort of violent outburst on Alucard’s behalf. You sat still, hoping he’d be quick about it, hoping you could take whatever anger he dealt and start again in repairing the relationship between you two. You never intended to offend him; you just wanted to help. You waited, the silence overwhelming you like how a storm’s wave overtook a ship.

And then… amidst the silence, you found yourself listening to the sound of someone sobbing. You were embarrassed until you reached up to your eyes and found them dry. So if you weren’t crying, that left...

“Alucard?” You straightened up to ask, absolutely unprepared for the sight that awaited you.

You had always thought Alucard was beautiful, angelic almost. There was this air of royalty around him; he always held his head so high, always seemed so sure. He looked the complete opposite now.

Before you, Alucard’s form was doubled in half, his lovely golden locks obscuring his face from your vision but you could tell from the shakes that wracked his body that the sobs were coming from him.

“Oh, Alucard,” you quietly rose from your seat and approached him slowly. You didn’t want to startle him. “I’m so sorry, for whatever happened to you. You didn’t deserve it,” you said, kneeling down to be on par with his eye level.

“How could you possibly know that? You barely know me. I’m a monster.”

You reached out to place a supportive hand on Alucard’s shoulder. “You’re the savior of Wallachia, and you’ve welcomed me into your home. You’re smart and proud. But I know enough to tell when someone’s been hurt, Alucard. You’re not a bad person for doing what you had to in order to survive.”

He turned to look at you. “So much has happened, so quickly. I’m not used to feeling…” He sighed. “I suppose I don’t have much practice when it comes to these kinds of things. I can recite any one of these books in several languages. I was raised by a Doctor and a polymath. I am knowledgeable in most sciences, but when it comes to emotions… I don’t suppose you have a remedy for that?”

You smiled, letting out a breath you didn’t know you were holding. “I don’t have anything instant or magical, but I think I have the next best thing.” You straightened yourself up to a standing position, pulling Alucard up with you.

“Oh?” Alucard allowed you to brush some of his hair back behind his ear. “And what’s that?”

“A good hot cup of herbal tea.”

Alucard shut his eyes, momentarily, taking in your suggestion. "I think," he started, "I think I'd like that."

❀ ⭒ ❀ ⭒ ❀

A/N: @mightyarsh Again, sorry for months-long delay, but I’m back!

And @ the rest of yall.... once again, please consider donating to my Kofi, if you enjoy my work and want to see more.

#castlevania imagine #castlevania x reader #alucard tepes x reader #castlevania alucard imagine #alucard x reader #alucard tepes #os

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poychachi · 3 years

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Useful Apps [and Websites] for Writers

@writinghaven on instagram || NO REPOSTS!

NaNoWriMo: A useful app with multiple writing challenges that lets you create a project and implement goals! You can track your word count or your editing progress and can set up how many words you need a day to reach your goal in a specific timeframe :) 10/10! I personally use this one everyday

Google Docs: I'm sure most of you know of this one, but out of all the platforms I've written on, I love Docs the best for a few reasons. One, it has a lovely autosave feature and as a night time writer, I can get groggy and forget to save at times. Another is that it's very easy to use, the fonts are awesome, and it runs well even on a high word count!

Notion: Notion is honestly useful for everything. I use it for my everyday to-do’s, as a calendar, and I even have a notion page for random quotes I like! I actually recently started using it for organizing my WIP and while it’s not designed to do that, it’s super easy to turn your notion into anything you want since it’s so adaptable. Also, it can be super aesthetic :)

Writer's Companion: A free program with no ads that is custom-made to help you build your world, create characters, write outlines, set goals, and more! It basically helps you keep all the different elements of your WIP organized

ProWritingAid: Alright, so I'm sure most of you know Grammarly. ProWritingAid is basically that, but you can use it for creative writing (and in my opinion their platform is better and their prices are more reasonable :)) Unlike Grammarly, ProWritingAid very at targeting dialogue and it's super useful for grammar and style too!

Pinterest: Super useful for finding face claims and inspiration for your novel :) While it isn't directly writing related, I don't think I'd be able to write as well without it! You can also find some nice writing tips on there too

Scrivener: This platform is purposefully designed for authors so it's super useful and requires less formatting compared to if you're making your manuscript on Google Docs or Microsoft Word! It has a cool management system for documents and notes and a cool thing is that you can write your WIP in any order and easily rearrange it :)

Zepeto and Picrew: There’s a huge portion of writers that can’t draw and find it hard to find the right faceclaims for their OCs, so Zepeto and Picrew are my personal favorite apps/websites for character visualization :D

HONORABLE MENTIONS!!

Notebook.ai

Toyhou.se

Story Planner

Pure Writer

Character Planner

Novelist

Also, just some websites with micro writing communities:

CAMP NANOWRIMO. campnanowrimo.org

CRITIQUE CIRCLE. critiquecircle.com

CRITTERS WORKSHOP. critters.org

FICTIONAUT. fictionaut.com

INTERNET WRITING WORKSHOP. internetwritingworkshop.org

STORYADAY. storyaday.org

WATTPAD. wattpad.com

THE WRITERS CHAT ROOM. writerschatroom.com

Hi guys! I'm back from my sudden hiatus :) Posts like these take a long time to make so any support is greatly appreciated! Remember to leave a like if you found this helpful and comment what you thought or any post requests you have! [shares and saves are huge gifts you guys can give to support me so if you do decide to do so, thank you so much!]

#writingtip #apps #writingapps #resources #writingpost #writing post #writingresources

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alwaysthrowsscissors · 3 years

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Fic Writer Questions!

Thanks for the tag @venhedish dont mind if I do darlin'! Loved reading your answers too!

1) How many works do you have on AO3?

17 and I started May 2020

2) What's your total AO3 word count?

84,430! Sooooo close to that 100k milestone I just need to get off my writing hiatus since I have a beefy one shot WIP and a couple kink-meme prompt fills started that will get me to the finish line!

3) How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

On Ao3/as an adult, just Supernatural.

4) What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Well Jung – This was my first and I’m still super surprised it took off so well considering all the head-hopping. I also hadn’t written fiction since high school so it’s pretty technically rough!

I Can’t Forget the Time and Place Where We Just Met – Who doesn’t love a good old-fashioned double amnesia fic! This was a SPN Masquerade fill and it was super fun to write!

Kiss the Cook – Another SPN Masquerade fill inspired by Dean in an apron in S15. Kitchen fucking is fun fucking!

Iodine and Stitches – 3/5 SPN Masquerade fills that I did fall 2020. Seriously such a fun event to participate in I cant recommend it enough. This is one my only fics with a serious tone throughout which is tough for this clown.

Double Jeopardy – Written for my buddy after finding out she has an intelligence kink! Cut to us giggling about Sam losing his damn mind when he plays Jeopardy with clever Dean!

5) Do you respond to comments, why or why not?

Listen…I can’t fully express how much comments give me LIFE! I want to know what you liked about my silly musings, I want to know your fav part, I want to know that I gave you a boner! I'll take a button smash, I'll take an emoticon. Anything, everything! I make a point to always respond back to show my appreciation for people taking time out of their day to make my day.

6) What's the fic you've written with the angstiest ending?

Without a shadow of a doubt Yesterday Don’t Matter if It’s Gone about what would happen if Sam and Dean hooked up during Mystery Spot and exacerbated Sam’s downward spiral during the months of Tuesdays. I write a lot of humour and this sucker is humourless PLUS has an unhappy ending! Weeee!

8) Do you write crossovers? If so what is the craziest one you've written?

Never have but not opposed to the idea.

9) Have you ever received hate on a fic?

Nope, I’ve been pretty fortunate but I also write pretty tame shit. So if I start dabbling more in the archive warnings it may change. I do have a fun multichap wincestiel non-con WIP in the works 😈

10) Do you write smut? If so what kind?

AHAHAHAHAHA I’d say a good 90-95% of my 84k wordcount is smut! All M/M all explicit! Fun times over at Casa Scissors 😏. I do have some upcoming stuff that’s more plot heavy though which I’m looking forward to.

11) Have you ever had a fic stolen?

I fucking hope not that would be a big bummer.

12) Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes! And as a noob I had to pinch myself, it still fucking blows my mind! A lovely Ao3 user Yigelulu translated I Can’t Forget the Time and Place Where We Just Met into Chinese. It was so incredibly cool to see my words in another language and a great honour that they liked my fic enough to put in all that work!

13) Have you ever co-written a fic before? Yup! Turn Your Head and Cough with my budbud Wearingdeantoprom. Dean gets his prostate rubbed for the first time at the doctors office.

14) What's your all time favorite ship?

Wincest wincest all the wincest! My brain is infected and there is no cure! I am a pro-shipper though ship and let ship my dudes. I also dabble in wincestiel and LOVE any combination of winkline and may write it one day. I don’t really read much from other fandoms. I’ve read some George/Fred (I like brother fucking ok?) and I love me some Jess Mariano/Dean Forester over in the Gilmore Girls camp (the perfect enemies to lovers) but its unfortunately such a small ship. Any souls reading this who like those ships, please drop any recs into my box!

15) What's a WIP that you want to finish but don't think you ever will?

Anything I am passionate about I will finish. I’ve only killed one thing because I got bored with it but I posted my fav part for a fic challenge. I hate not having something to show for my spent time (I know it's a hobby but it's the principle damnit!) and I hate unfinished things. Those damn little ao3 red circles haunt me 🚫

16) What are your writing strengths?

Christ uhhh I’ll say I’m most consistently praised in comments for my dialogue and it’s what always flows the smoothest for me. I think my humour is also a strength, it comes very naturally when I write which is why I have a hard time keeping it out of my fics! Times are tough I just wanna make y’all giggle ok?

17) What are your writing weaknesses?

Frankly, my greatest weakness is that I don’t take it seriously enough to look at my past writing critically for improvement. I also write (non-fiction) for my job and had extensive training to do so, so when its for this hobby I honestly whip it out, edit a couple times, and slap it up ‘good enough’ styles and I don’t go back to re-read once posted. I think if I looked back, I could see lots of opportunities for improvement and could go from a fine writer to a good writer. I’d also say that I’ve written pretty fun fluffy cracky smutty stuff so I guess another weakness is a lack of depth of plot and subject matter. I do want to explore this stuff more though.

18) What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

My concern is if you don’t speak the language fluently, then native speakers reading your fic might feel a big disconnect if you get colloquialisms and euphemism etc. incorrect. It could take them out of your fic if its not authentic enough. I don’t speak any other language fluently so it would END BADLY. I can speak and read French VERY POORLY and that’s it so no, I will never write in another language unless its jibberish I invented myself!

19) What was the first fandom you wrote for?

The only fanfic I wrote before SPN last year was a handful of super cracky, gen Gundam Wing fanfiction in high school!! They are on a broken USB stick which kills me I want to read them so badly! All my other creative writing was original fiction mainly horror/thrillers. I stopped when I started my undergrad cause...that shit is a lot of work yo.

20) What's your favorite fic you've written?

My first love is my first baby Well Jung. I love the plot, I love the humour in it, I love the heart, and it’s still some of my fav sex I’ve written. And the title makes me giggle too who doesn’t love a bad pun? I'm so thrilled it was so successful but it would still be my favourite even if 3 people read it. It made me rediscover writing as a hobby and helped me explore this wonderful (yet insane) fandom. I love all my babies and I even think the writing is stronger in other fics, but he will always be #1 in my heart.

OK this was fun I love talking about fic writing! If any of you read my stuff and want to know more, hit me with an ask; I love making new frans! Tagging @oddsocksandstuff @samanddeaninpanties @raidens-realm I think my other writer mutuals have been tagged by Ven!

#ask game #about me #fanfic writing #spn fanfiction #my writing

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ravenforce · 4 years

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Stark Legacy V

Pairing: Natasha Romanoff x Carol Danvers x Wanda Maximoff x Maria Hill x Reader but Carol Danvers x Reader centric for this chapter.

Summary: Carol takes her motto to heart: higher, further, faster.

Word Count: 3515

A/N: I am so sorry for being on hiatus for the past few months but I’m back. I hope I did Carol justice on this one. Let me know what you guys think, please. xx

Parts: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 6

***

You arrived bright early the day after you signed up to be the newest agent at SHIELD. You were just entering the command center when you bumped into your immediate supervisor, Deputy Director Hill.

“Agent Stark-” The millisecond that it took her to glance at the watch behind you told you she wasn’t expecting you to be early again but Maria remembered she promised to stop having preconceived notions towards you based on her knowledge of your brother alone. She smiled genuinely. “Good morning.”

“Good morning -” You hesitated. Maria motioned for you to follow her.

“Agent Hill is fine.” Maria rounded a more secluded corner, you fell in-step with her. She eyed you sideways. “Maria when no one else is around.”

You cocked your head to the side in silent question. Maria shrugged. “Can’t have other agents thinking I have favourites.”

“You have favourites?” You asked teasingly. Maria stopped in front of a huge glass door with one side open to reveal the gym.

“I do not.” You looked at her with bright eyes, and she knew you didn’t believe her. She rolled her eyes at you playfully. “I do however want to be your friend.”

That stopped you from teasing her further and staring at her intently for a minute. “I would love that,” you said sincerely before walking deeper inside the gym. Maria watched you talk to some of Agent Colson’s team for a few minutes, making sure no one will give a weird treatment.

“I think you might actually have a favourite.”

Maria didn’t even flinch when she heard Carol’s voice behind her. “Oh shut up, I -” Carol cut her off by wrapping her arms around her waist and giving her a soft kiss on the cheeks.

“You don’t have to explain your crush to me Mar,” Carol said while leaning her chin on Maria’s shoulder, watching you now too. “Besides if you explain, you’ll be late for your meeting with Nick.”

Shit. She almost forgot. She immediately untangled herself from Carol’s arms and gave the blonde and quick kiss on the lips. “Keep her company will you?”

“But I’m busy -” Carol tried to reason.

Maria who’s almost at the corner stopped to look at her girlfriend sternly. “You wouldn’t be here loitering around if you are.” Then she’s gone.

***

Being asleep for a long time, made you rusty when it comes to social interactions but not any less perceptive. You can feel everyone staring at you since you walked inside the gym, you can feel that people are wary of you. You guess, the word does travel fast. Thankfully some of the agents from Agent Colson’s team saw you and waved you over.

“Hey! We heard you’re officially on board,” Agent Simmons, you remembered, said cheerfully.

“Welcome to the fam,” Leo greeted sincerely. You smiled softly, “thank you.”

“Are you here to train?” Agent May asked.

“Yes but no one wants to train with an inhuman.” You hide the awkwardness with a smile, subconsciously waiting for someone to flinch.

“Ugh,” Agent Grant moaned. “Would totally want to spar with you-”

“Me too but we’re about to go on duty,” Leo interjected.

“Next time,” you said with a smile. You like this team, they’re all nice and genuinely warm. Colson’s team was just about to exit the gym when Carol walks in.

“I’ll spar with you.” Everyone stopped and stared as the blonde continued to walk towards you with the confidence and swag only an Avenger can muster. “Unless you’re scared.”

You let out a full belly laugh, cutting Carol off. Instead of being offended, she was enthralled by how realistic it sounded. She wanted to hear it again. More importantly, out of the blue, she wants to be at the least one of the reason for you to laugh again.

“You’re on, Captain,” you said hopping on the mat with her.

***

Carol looked you up and down unabashed. Had you been fully human, you would have blushed with the way she checks you out openly. You cleared your throat to gain her attention. “Rules?” you asked with a confident smirk to hide your nerves.

“No weapons of any kind.”

“That’s it?” you asked while wrapping a bandage around your knuckles. You didn’t really have to but it gives you some sense of normalcy.

Carol shrugged. “Too many rules take the fun out of everything,” she said cheerfully.

You chuckled, making Carol cock her eyebrow at you. “I guess that makes you the fun one, huh?”

Carol made a lightning-fast move to cover your mouth. “Don’t let them hear you say that,” she whispered while pretending to look around for her girlfriends.

You rolled your eyes playfully before, in an equally fast move, you threw Carol down the mat. Carol gaped at you from the floor for a minute before breaking into a grin. You offered her a hand but instead of getting up, she pulled you down with her and rolled around until she pinned you in the mat. You groaned and it took a little longer than usual to shrug Carol off of you.

“Not bad, Stark. Where’d you learn how to fight?” Carol asked smiling while you two circle each other.

“Tony insisted that I take lessons before I started school.” You blocked a heavy punch to the side of your face. “He said I’m not allowed to use my inventions on other kids, so I’d have to learn how to protect myself another way.”

“Smart,” Carol commented unnecessarily since everyone knew Tony’s beyond smart; he was a genius.

You kept attacking each other with unrestrained force, rendering the rest of the agents who were doing their morning routines to stop working out completely. You caught a glimpse of the little audience gathering at the edge of the mat from your peripheral, distracting your momentarily. Carol used the opportunity to land a heavy blow on your left cheek.

An audible crack can be heard from the stillness of the room, followed by a collective gasp.

“Oh my God, Y/N,” Carol worried. “I’m so sorry. I got carried away.”

Carol chewed at her bottom lip when you wouldn’t lift your head and meet her eyes. Then you started giggling. “Y/N?” She asked softly.

Carol’s forehead crinkled adorably in confusion. You silently thank the universe for being inhuman because had you been otherwise, you surely would have been vomiting blood by now. You’re also thankful that Tony used only the best materials available in the world for you shell because had any of it been subpar, you’re sure that your cheeks or even your whole skull would have cracked.

Then you looked up at Carol with a smile. “Again,” you said while going on a fighting stance.

You used Carol’s hesitation to launch an attack. Carol struggled at first, overwhelmed by her momentary worry and the sudden increase in your speed and strength. Carol smiled realizing that she just found someone she can spar without holding back. Before she can retaliate though, Maria’s voice cut through the room.

“Enough you two,” she said calmly. You and Carol immediately dropped your fighting stance to regard Agent Hill. You just noticed then that Carol’s heaving, you bite the inside of your cheeks to keep yourself from smiling. “Agent Stark, clean up and meet me at the command centre after lunch.”

You nodded before thanking Carol for her time and hopping off the mat. “Spar again, soon?” Carol asked hopefully before you can exit the room. You just smiled at her and nodded. The rest of the morning stragglers went on their way to the showers to clean up as well, leaving Carol and Maria alone.

When everyone was out, Maria threw a towel to her blonde girlfriend’s face. “Just how long were you two at it?”

Carol grinned before sitting down. “Around after you left,” she answered before chugging down a bottle of water.

“Four hours?” Maria nearly yelled in her surprise.

“I guess.”

Maria stared at her girlfriend for a while. None of the Avengers ever trained with Carol that long, not even Natasha. Her surprise turns into a warm smile as she watches Carol smiling softly to herself.

“Oh Mar, she’s amazing!” Carol can’t stop herself from gushing about your strength, your fighting techniques, and your elegance. “Dare I say, she’s as elegant and deadly as Natasha.”

Maria smiled, wondering what Nat would feel if she heard Carol say that. She listened intently and patiently as Carol talk her head off about you all the way to her office where they’re supposed to eat lunch together.

“What?” Carol asked after she sat across Maria’s massive table. Maria opened multiple food containers in front of them.

She looked up at Carol. “I’m not giving her up to The Avengers,” Maria declared confidently.

Carol’s smile was wicked. “Not yet,” she challenged.

“We’ll see about that.”

***

Ever since the first time you two sparred, Carol always finds an excuse to go to the HQ to train with you. You really don’t mind, spending time with Carol, albeit just in the mat, is surely always fun. Captain Marvel is fun. She’s a perfect combination of chill yet intense when need be. She’s also ridiculously flirty, which you chuck as just within her nature and not because she’s actually attracted to you.

But most especially, the reason why you absolutely love spending time with Carol was that she doesn’t treat you any differently. Some of the agents at work are either too polite because you’re a Stark or too aloof because you’re inhuman. You appreciate her and Maria for making you feel a certain degree of normalcy, and more importantly, they make you feel like you belong. So when Carol showed up at the Stark Tower on your day off, you welcomed her with a bright smile.

“Hello Captain, what do I owe the pleasure?” You voice heavy with teasing. Carol tried not to think too much about the way you said the word pleasure but by the growing smirk on your face, she knew she wasn’t doing a very good job at hiding how that simple word made her hot all over.

She cleared her throat before speaking up. “I bumped into Happy at HQ and he told me that today’s your day off,” she trailed off a little when you closed the hood of your car and stood beside it, revealing your choice of outfit for the day. You watched her take in your simple grey shirt, denim mini skirt, and black boots. You cleared your throat, and you chuckled when she visibly shook her head to clear her thoughts. “I was just wondering if you want to do something fun today?”

You wiped the grease from your hand using a dry towel before walking up to the blonde. You stopped a foot away, making Carol sweat unnecessarily. “I would but you have to be honest with me first,” you whispered, holding her beautiful hazel eyes.

“Always.”

“Did you really bump into Happy or were you looking for me today?”

“Shit. Happy snitched on me, didn’t he?” Carol groaned, making you laugh. Carol crossed her arm and pouted.

“Do I need to change for where we’re going?” You asked walking pass the blonde to go inside your suite. Carol turned just in time to have a perfect view of your ass in denim mini skirt. You laughed again, having perfectly timed your walk.

“Yes, change to your Phantom suit.”

That made you pause and turn back to her. Carol shrugged with a huge smile on her face, not giving you any clue at all to where she’s taking you.

***

You gaped at Carol when you landed on her idea of fun. You took your suit’s helmet to have a better, unobstructed view of your surroundings.

“No fucking way,” you said in pure excitement while moving in circles to take in everything.

“It’s not much now since it’s been abandoned for a long time but -”

Carol didn’t get to finish her sentence before you cut her off by jumping at her and giving her a tight hug. Carol wished to whatever higher entity there is out there for you not to hear or feel how hard her heart was beating in her chest at the way you feel against her arms.

“Are you kidding me?” You still didn’t extricate yourself from her. “You brought me to a freaking space station.”

Carol chuckled. “Abandoned space station,” she corrected with a smile.

This time you untangled your arms from around her, much to Carol’s disappointment. “Semantics,” you said before walking ahead. Carol watched you look at everything with childlike wonder. “I never thought I’d ever been able to step in one.”

“Oh don’t be modest, given your intelligence and credentials, you totally could,” she countered earnestly.

“Maybe but I like working at SHIELD.”

“Why?” Carol asked. Not because doesn’t think you’re fit for the job but because she’s genuinely curious. You can be anywhere in the world, yet you chose to stay and sign a contract with SHIELD.

You run your fingers across the decaying console on the main deck before looking ahead, into the stars before turning back towards Carol, with your ass and hands resting on the edge of the table. “I can protect the people I love better with SHIELD than all alone.”

“The people you love?” Carol stepped closer to you.

“Pepper, Morgan, Happy…” you paused to watch Carol inch closer to you some more. “…and my friends: you, Nat, Maria.”

“Are we friends, Y/N?”

You tried to hide it but you visibly gulped at her proximity. “Aren’t we?” you asked, lips curling into a soft smirk.

For the past few months, this has been your dynamics with Carol: playful banter and harmless flirting. You’re used to it by now but the longer it goes on, the harder it is to ignore your growing attraction to the blonde. Which would be totally fine, if she’s single but you have to remind yourself every day that she’s not.

Carol had to step back too to ground herself. She’s moving too fast, she knows it. She knew she had other people to consider too. Apart from Maria who’s obviously on the same boat as her, she hasn’t really talked to Nat and Wanda about her attraction towards you. She knew Maria hasn’t mentioned anything yet either because it’s too early.

“We are,” she whispered.

“Good, I’d really like that.”

Before Carol can say anything, her stomach grumbled loudly. She turned beet red while you started laughing. Just like that the tense atmosphere’s gone. You took her hand and led her back to the ship. “Thank you for taking me here, Carol but I think it’s time to go home.”

Carol’s relishing the feeling of your hand in hers when her stomach protested again. She joined in when you started laughing again. “I don’t need to be told twice,” she grumbled playfully before pulling you to a run.

***

Carol walked into the command centre after her appointed meeting with Nick to see if Maria wants to grab lunch together. She faltered on her step when she saw the worried face Maria was sporting.

“Hey-” Carol greeted cautiously. Maria turned back and gave her a quick smile.

“Hey. Meeting’s over already?”

Carol ignored the question and stood next to her girlfriend. “What’s wrong?”

Maria’s eyebrows crinkled together further. “Nothing,” she whispered before turning to the monitors in front of her. Carol was just about to ask where you are since you’ve been working closely with Maria since you started a couple of months ago when Carol saw your name on the board.

Suddenly, she understood why Maria look worried. “Why is Y/N out with Agent Colson’s team?” Carol tried to hide the concern in her voice but Maria knew better.

Maria sat in her swivel chair. “They’re down one person for today’s recon mission. Nick decided she’s ready for fieldwork,” Maria sighed.

Carol took a deep breath. She knows that you can very much handle yourself out there but it doesn’t mean they can’t be worried.

“She’ll be fine.” Carol and Maria looked behind them. They’ve been so engrossed in worrying about you, they didn’t even hear Happy approached.

“Need I remind you that she’s a Stark?” Happy asked smiling. Carol chewed on her bottom lip. “Besides, she trained with only the best around here.”

That made Carol and Maria relax a little. “She will be fine,” they both murmured to themselves before their phones simultaneously lit up with a message from Natasha, asking them to meet them in town for a quick lunch.

***

Carol was having a quick trip off-world to check on a nearby planet when she received a message from Nick. She left a sizeable crater on the lawn of the HQ when she landed, almost knocked down a wall, and almost took off the door from its hinges in hurry to get to you. Carol’s heartache when she saw you on a hospital gown, lying side by side with a sleeping Maria.

“Hey,” you whispered as not to wake up the agent beside you.

“Hi,” Carol greeted back. She wanted to move towards you but her knees felt like lead as the adrenaline leaves her body. “You’re safe -”

You smiled sheepishly. “I’m so -”

Carol cut your apology off by nearly tackling you and Maria out of the bed. “Settle down, Carol. She’s alright. She’s home now,” Maria grumbled, cuddling next to you further; face buried in your neck.

Carol looked at her sleeping girlfriend “I think the repair stressed the living daylight out of Maria,” you whispered, squished between the two women.

“You think?” Carol hopped on the bed, squishing herself on your other side. “She’s been worried since you left for the mission.”

“I’m sorry. It was an ambush,” you started to explain but Carol started snoring softly with one arm and leg swung over your body cut your explanation off.

You were smiling to yourself when Natasha entered the room with a quietness that only the Black Widow can do. Your eyes met, Natasha looked a little conflicted. “Shouldn’t you be the one sleeping?” she asked teasingly.

You shrugged with a smile. You patted your lap. “You look like you can use a nap too,” you said softly.

Carol and Maria opened their eyes momentarily to look at their redhead girlfriend, and together they patted your lap before resuming their previous sleep position.

#carol danvers x reader #captain marvel x reader #natasha romanoff x reader #maria hill x reader #wanda maximoff x reader #black widow x reader #scarlett witch x reader #carolnat x reader x wandahill #carolnat #blackhill #unholy pentagon #avengers imagine #natasha romanoff imagine #black widow imagine #carol danvers imagine #captain marvel imagine #wanda maximoff imagine #scarlette witch imagine #raven writes

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threecheersforsuccess · 3 years

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Context: This is an old post from my Instagram after I decided to get mental health help and took a large hiatus from using the platform. I participated in a studygram prompt challenge to reflect on my account and myself as a student.

👇 Cultivating an academic support system

Back in the ye olden days of middle and early high school, I avoided academic support in my inner circles, since I've been told constantly back then that I'm overreacting about school, and it was just hard to find those who had the same values as I did. I feel like this fear of judgement prevented me from learning how get help overall, so when I hit college, I had to struggle a lot breaking further out of my shell to reach out for help. In my experience, college work takes a lot of collective effort and accountability to get through the STEM weedout classes, so the importance of building strong support systems and knowing what resources is available is just out of this roof.

💎 What is part of my academic support system? (not a comprehensive list)

1. Study partners/groups for each class

2. Your TAs and professors

3. The resources available: academic counselors, tutors, learning centers, etc

4. Mental support: Friends and family that resonate with you and can hear you out on struggles, support groups and clubs, and/or professionals that can walk through what you're struggling (mental support is something often overlooked because it can be difficult to associate your mental health towards how well you do in school, but it's something that definitely has to be tended to)

💎 What to do after identifying these areas of support?

I like to write out what has been missing or could be improved from each bullet point in relation to my academic performance. For one example, as I organize my thoughts, I might have noticed that I haven't been to office hours for past few weeks. From there, I first ask myself why and then deduce that my TA seems to not care as much, which makes me ultimately unmotivated to see them. Knowing so, I try to emphasize other options; do I need to seek another available TA or should I use out-of-class resources more? Surely, the problem-solving framework may not work for everyone, but writing things down makes me less fearful to reach out for help and push for stronger connections.

#studyblr #studygram #study #studying #student #vstudies #studyblr tips #study tips #blog

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anotherbeingsworld · 3 years

Text

Bounded by the words.

Pairing: Bryce Lahela x F!MC (Casey Valentine)

Summary: A momento from a patient lead to a new hobby for Casey, as it records the moment of their relationship.

A/N: It was an impulsive reaction, but.. I wanted to post something and this has been in my drafts for months. I actually have submitted this before, and I am posting this again since it is edited much better than before. Today is the 25th and, honestly... it is a hard date for me in a way. So, I am coping it with fics unfortunately, but... I wanted to post it for a while now and I had shown it to @bratzlahela before she went on hiatus; and nikka, this is for you and i miss you soo much ! This is a love letter AU which had been in my drafts for months now. I am also dedicating this fic to @mrs-raleighcarrera as a thanks for everything, <3 I have something planned later, I hope I manage to start it but... enjoy. 💜 (I noticed... my love for letters can be shown.. I am so sorry ;;)

Tags: @bitchloveskcbaseball , @storyofmychoices @jaxsmutsuo , @mvalentine , @princess-geek , @lahellacute , @this-person-is-busy , @annekebbphotography , @mrsbhandari , @dcbbw , @choicessa , @choices-confessions ,@fantasyoverreality98 , @baltersome , @ofpixelsandscribbles , @thundergom @starrystarrytrouble, @kelseaaa ,@bratzlahela , @choicesficwriterscreations , @lalizah , @drethanramslay , @arcticlumineer , @choicesstan1 , @aveeiro , @eleanorbloom , @openheartfanfics , @brycesgirl , @rookitcarrera (if you want to be removed or added, let me know 💜)

MY MASTERLIST

Casey is assigned to take care of 19-year old, Brianna who is diagnosed with a Gastroenteritis. As she walks in the room, Brianna was burying herself into a book. She smiled at the sight, as she tries to remember the last time she gets a chance to read a book herself. The title on the book caught her attention, with the minimalistic cover that certainly calms her eyes. ‘Bounded by The Words.’ The title says.

“Bounded by the words?” Casey said to capture her attention.

Brianna startled, as she drops the book down to her lap. Her eyes widen as she saw Casey there grinning at her.

“You scared me!” Brianna stated as she places her hands over her beating heart whilst Casey walks towards her.

“I’m sorry Bri, you looked like you were drowning in the book. I had to save you somehow.” She winks at her, as a smile appear on Brianna’s face.

“Ha ha ha, very funny doc.”

“So, what is the story about making you drowned in the pages?” Casey asked as she checks on her vitals.

“It’s a story of two lovers..”

“Typical.”

“Hey, I am talking here!”

“Alright, alright my lady.” Casey bows as she lets herself have fun with her.

“As I was saying, it is a story of two lovers who was bounded by a series of letters. They never really got a chance to see each other face-to-face as the man is apart of the world war before. Their communication only relies on letters, handwritten letters that caused their love to grow each day. Unfortunately, neither of them got their happy ending as the man sacrificed himself into the war leaving her a thousand letters behind as a reminder that he will always be there for her…” Brianna wipes a tear as she describe the book.

“Oh wow… that is really sad.” Casey felt her heart break a little from hearing Brianna talk about it.

“Yes, it is. I ended up crying every time I read it and this time is any different.”

“Can I take a look at it?” Casey asks her as she immediately pass the book to her.

“Maybe you should hold onto it, as a momento for taking care of me and keeping me company.” Brianna said with a small smile plastered on her face.

Casey’s eyes widen,

“It’s your favourite book Bri…”

“Don’t worry, I have a few more copies of it at home! You should keep it and maybe try read it at your free time. I know doctors don’t have much time to rest, so consider it as a self-care gift from your favourite patient, which is yours truly to you.” Brianna insists before Casey could return the book in her hands.

“My favourite patient? How did you guess?” Casey asked with amount of sarcasm in her voice causing both of them to break into laughter.

Both of them ended up talking for a little while, exchanging stories, a few hugs and a signature from Brianna aswell. Patients like Brianna, really reminds herself why she wanted to be a doctor in the first place. She loved helping people, saving lives, but she is also interested in knowing the stories of her patients. During her time at Edenbrook, she had met a lot of people with various backgrounds; a surfer, a lawyer who is living this world as she is. She always felt pleasure in knowing her patients, and Brianna is one of those patients that gives her the sign that she loves her job.

After finishing up her shift, Casey makes her way back to Bryce’s apartment as they often have sleepovers with one another. She makes her way to the apartment, where she was met with Keiki who was furiously typing on her (Bryce’s) computer as her brows furrowed in frustration. Casey immediately took off her coat and make her way to the couch, as Keiki perks her head up at her presence.

“What do you got there?” Keiki eyes the book she was holding as she sat down.

“It’s a gift from a patient, I think I am gonna absorb myself in some literary entertainment after those long shifts.” Casey said as she gets herself comfortable on the couch, she starts to read the book. After felt like an hour, she already had surpassed the 100th page.

The door opening pulled her out from the zone, as Bryce finally arrived from the hospital. Casey turn her head to the sound, and smiled as she saw him. Casey stands and give him a kiss on the cheek, guiding him to the couch where Keiki is still on the computer looking more ease than before.

“So, what did you guys do today?” Bryce asked as he placed an arm around Casey pulling her close to him.

“I am trying to finish up this darn assignment, and its just so hard! Why did I take computer science?” Keiki whined as Bryce lets out a small laugh.

“What did you do today Cas?” Bryce turns his gaze to her, as both of their eyes meet.

Casey smiled as she shows the book to Bryce.

“Bounded by the words? It sounds like a cliché rom-com if you ask me.” Bryce said as his eyes are on the book.

“Hey, I am a hopeless romantic and this book managed to play with my heartstrings!” Casey protested as she held the book like her life depends on it.

“Okay, okay…Enlighten me, tell me what is the interesting scenario you have come across in the book?” Bryce challenge her with a wink.

“Their entire love story consists of letters, and they never met yet they still love one another…” Casey felt herself gaze as she placed a dreamy look on her face as Bryce just shook his head.

“Whatever makes you sleep at night Cas.” He says as he placed a kiss to bring her back towards reality.

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Casey suddenly felt herself to be inspired from the book, as she felt her heart hold on to the concept of writing love letters. It is midnight, as Casey felt herself feeling awake. She slowly makes her way out of Bryce’s hold as he was sleeping peacefully. She puts on one of Bryce’s shirts and heads out to the living room. She sat down on the floor, with a box full of stuff contains, coloured paper and a huge amount of pens. She smiles, as she proceeds.

My dearest Anastasia,

The darkened days had now befallen us, the roared of the enemy unmistakable. Where it’d be my last sacrifice in the name of thy country. The time has come for me to filled in my word, as I would let myself be pained from the death that followed me every day. Regrets washed over me, as this letter would be the final reminder, where life with you made it very much better. The warmth of your touch can still be felt, as our farewell was playing in my mind for the longest time, a needed farewell that kept me awake on one of these days, longing to be in your touch again. But, even in the depths of the darkest roads, you will always be in thy heart. Forever, and always.

Love,

Roland.

The one that started it all, the final letter of Roland Rosio to his long last love, Anastasia Luvielle as their love continues to grow even after the death of Rosio during the final battle. The inspiration that started it all.

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Dear Bryce,

It is our first date together despite the hundreds of times we went and spend our nights at Donahue. It is when we are, something. Something beautiful, as one would say it. The 21st night of September, was a date to remember; our first night out as something more. As a kid, I always imagined myself going to the ball with my very own Prince, as we dance the night away.

But, in this case… they were no prince, a dress, a castle, a glass slipper, heck there aren’t any pumpkins involved in the beginning of our story. It was a story of clumsiness, fairy lights and a whole platter of fries. An interesting combination one might say, as it started with grace and ended with a bag of loaded fries from a small vendor.

It was unique, as you told me your jokes as I would find myself getting red, as the sight of your sweet and smiley face. The way we danced around the circle, as the fairy lights were hanging above us, has been a permanent attachment in my mind.

Lights, Fries and Bryce? A perfect combination.

Love,

Casey.

The first of many has been recorded, as she slips it into a box. A small box which is going to be playing a huge role in her life moving forward. Bryce stops himself in his tracks, admiring the smile on her face before moving towards the living room. The memory of their days together, playing in his mind.

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Dear Bryce,

I don’t know where to start, I miss you. I miss everything about you and, I don’t know how long I can do this anymore . I always wondered why couples would fight over the littlest things and, I hoped that the fate won’t fall down to us, but…I was wrong. It felt like a downfall, and I regret yelling those words at you. You were never a burden, you were the light and I don’t know how I haven’t met you before. My life had changed with you, and it has change again, and… I miss you. I miss everything about you, your hugs, your silly jokes, the way you’d talk at the movies despite being shush away by the audience, especially you. I miss being able to hug you when I was happy, and…I am going to make this right.

Love, Casey.

The first fight, as there were words left unspoken. One of many that made were stained with her tears, as the sadness took over. Her life was different with Bryce, and she didn’t give up. She tried and tried, and tried and try again until one day, she did it right. Neither did he.

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Dear Bryce,

I can’t believe our time has come, we are finally getting married tomorrow! It is a common feeling of excitement to be a bride, and I am very excited for our adventure next. I always felt like you were the one with the huge benefit in doubt in myself, the day we meet in that locker room at Edenbrook. The first time I laid my eyes on you, it felt like I was going to meet a stereotypical male from a rom-com, but… you are different. A good type of different, you have been there for me since the very beginning.

You have seen through it all, and I am very lucky to be apart of your life. You have always been my number one support through the highs and the lows, and I am always going to be grateful for everything we have been through that lead us to this very moment. I am excited for our new beginning, I will see you soon.

Love,

Casey.

The day they become as one, where Casey Valentine and Bryce Lahela finally tied the knot after all these years. A new adventure awaits them, as a whole new life is looking them with a wide-smile. The ceremony was intimate, as all of their close friends and family members were invited. They got married at one of his favourite places, the beach. As they finally got their happily ever after.

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Dear Bryce,

I did it. WE DID IT! After all these years, we did it. I am finally pregnant, after all the negatives. We did it, and you are going to be a dad! I remember those days, you were telling me about teaching our kid surfing, and silently hoping they will follow your footsteps. Our dreams have been granted, and I am truly ecstatic! The feeling of being a parent had lingered on my mind since early on, and… I am beyond grateful to be on this journey with you.

Baby Lahela is 3 months strong, mommy and daddy can’t wait to see you soon. I can’t wait for all of the new memories we are going to make together. We love you daddy!

Love,

Casey.

After a few years of marriage, and trying… they finally did it. Both of them starting a new adventure with their little bundle of joy, the first adventure with the little Lahela. And, they were very excited for it.

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‘Dad, what is these letters?’ Louis asked in fascination, as he finished reading one of Casey’s letters after all these years.

A smile appeared on his face, remembering the memories from years ago. The day Casey starts to become obsessed over a piece of literature that changed their lives one way or another.

‘Mom loves to write letters, and these is all of hers. She writes it every time we are happy, sad, angry and everything in between. I never understood the purpose of it all, and your mother tends to get emotional over the littlest things and, she still managed to blow me away every time…’ He lets out a sigh, rereading the final letter in the pile. It was written a few days ago.

Dear Bryce,

We have been through it all, am I right? It has been 25 or maybe more years, since our first meeting and I can’t believe it has been that long. We have done an amazing job together, and I am very very proud of what we had achieved all these years. You have been an amazing dad to our little ones, who is not so little anymore. Our little Louis, is our astronomer now, I still remember the first time we were giving him a bath, he was a quiet baby but with a lot of determination and a gold heart, just like his father. Our little girls Kailani and Alexandra, has managed to follow in our footsteps, even though we warned them about the stress and pressure of med school along with warnings from our dear friends, and I can’t believe they did it. They were always so smart, and I can’t say how proud of I am of our little angels. Bryce, you have been my rock, my best friend, my lover, my partner and… I will always cherish you in my heart. You are the first person who never gave up on me, and… life with you, has been the best chapter in my life. You have made me a better person, you have seen me in my lowest and you didn’t left. You were there through thick and thin, and I love you for it. I will never forget the day where we said, the three words. The day where our life started to change every day. You have given me unconditional love and care, you have made my life the way it is today. My mom, always wondered how I came across someone like you before, and I would laugh; fate brought us together and Edenbrook was the start of it all.

Unfortunately, some stories would come to an end. And, the end of mine is coming very soon; take care of the kids, and tell them that mom is very proud of them. My love, you had made me the happiest and… even in the depths of the darkest roads, you will always be in thy heart. Forever, and always.

Yours,

Casey Lahela.

The end of the letter, the one line that started it all, as a small smiled appear on his face despite the tears falling down on his cheeks. Alexandra and Keilani made their way as they pulled Bryce into a deep hug, letting their sorrows take over breaking every façade that they had. Louis joins in too, as they stood there together, as a family. Her memories were playing in his mind, a recording of every sense from their little time together made it into the highlight as, the letters felt like a metaphor, a feeling somehow she is there with them, looking down with a huge smile. A smile of satisfaction, as a chance to finally let herself go.

‘I will always love you Casey. Forever and always.’ He whispered slowly, as their life story was flashed through his eyes which is the best moments of his life.

THE END.

#playchoices #bryce x mc #bryce lahela #casey valentine #open heart #open heart second year #anotherbeingsworldwrites #choices fic writers creations #fics #bryce oh #bryce x f!mc

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