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#i was so excited to draw stuff for the new chapter that i started drawing in my creative writing class dieheieej

kiastirling-fanfic · 2 years

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Few Against the Wind (DAI)

In honor of hitting 10 chapters the first long fic I’ve written in ages, I’m gonna actually make a post about it.

Few Against the Wind by KiaStirling on AO3

Fandom: Dragon Age Inquisition (drawing from other Dragon Age media as well in pieces, but not compliant to the full Dragon Age canon)

Main pairing: Solas/Original Inquisitor (Modern Character in Thedas) - slow burn (as in they’re barely even friends yet, expect no romantic overtures for a good while)

Important tags: Multiple PoVs, Asexuality, Religious stuff (author is not religious), Canon-typical violence, languages, Fade Buddies, Fantasy Racism

Summary: A woman falls from the sky just when she’s needed, what could it be but the work of the Maker? Why else should she speak in tongues but for being struck dumb by His grace?

She would disagree if anyone asked her. Could ask her. But by the time she has the words it’s too late, and June is heralded the Herald of Andraste. Burdened with knowledge and an entire system of faith carried on her shoulders that she holds no stock in, an earthling muddles her way through Thedas.

Current Length: 82k+ words/10 chapters (chapter length 5-10k words each) Projected Length: Unclear because scope creep.

#dragon age fanfiction #modern girl in thedas #self-promo #idk I haven't really been this excited about writing something since HPatHC so I'm gonna talk about it #but yeah if Modern Character in Thedas isn't your jam then give it a skip #This fic definitely draws on some established tropes in the genre #and while I hope I've got some fresh takes and new directions #I've hardly read everything to say this is unique in the fandom #idk #prolly won't post again until we're finally at Skyhold #oh right yeah in case you don't want to read Haven stuff yet again uh we're still in Haven #Chapter 10 is post Val Royeaux but pre going to mages/templars #spoilers it's gonna be mages #oh and uh #We also have yet to hit June's PoV #even in the backlog #tldr I didn't wanna write from the PoV of someone who couldn't communicate with anyone #we'll start getting her PoV at the end of the first arc (the attack on Haven) so don't worry it's happening #why am I writing an essay in the tags #oh right 'cause it's 11pm and I should be in bed #um #bye #I hope you didn't actually read all these you poor soul

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seraphinitegames · 11 days

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The Wayhaven Chronicles—Update 24/May/2024

Well, I should probably start the update by saying that the first demo section will be released tomorrow for the $5+ tiers on Patreon and publicly late next week! :D

It is a short section, only being Chapter One, but a lot of the work went into the behind the scenes and coding stuff, so hopefully it will be running super smooth! It’ll be a good thing to see if this new editing system is working, and also if all that intense work that went into the cleaning code, changing character creator, etc has paid off, hehe!

While I was waiting for the readers’ comments to come back in, I really went hard on Chapter Two this week. This new keyboard has made the world of difference, and I’ve been able to type pretty much back at the speed I was before. It feels soooo good!

I am getting tempted to go back to a bit I’ve already written and add in a Unit Bravo POV section though. It’s not a planned scene, but I think it would really fit in well. It’s just that it’s already quite a linear chapter (A LOT of setting up the story for what’s to come), so I’m not sure about adding in another section where the reader can’t pick a choice.

I’m definitely back and forwards on adding that in at the moment.

There’s something about Book Four that is feeling…different. Not the way it’s written or anything, just, well, I always put everything I am into all my works, but Book Four is drawing even more from me, and I’m pushing myself and digging deeper than ever before to really put my all into it. It’s feeling really special in many ways already!

Next week, I’ll be working on getting all the text and graphic assets Hosted Games needs for putting Book 4 on the Steam wishlist. Seems good timing with the first demo release!

I’ll also be pushing on with Chapter Two. I’m really hoping to get it finished next week. It’s a big one with a lot going on which will really make for an exciting next demo section… ;D

I can’t wait for you to try out the demo! It’s like Book Four is really coming to life now I’m finally getting to share it with you all, hehe! :D

#the wayhaven chronicles #asks #interactive fiction #unit bravo #twc detective #romance #vampires #update #twc book 4 demo #the wayhaven chronicles book 4 demo #twc demo #demo release #choice of games #hosted games #dashingdon #creative writing #choicescript

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lyomeii · 9 months

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a little maid

・❥・warnings/notices: yandere themes, manipulation, obsession, reader dies in original timeline, reader is a servant/maid, female reader, cesare is obsessed with reader.

・❥・ request by anon! Question about the how to get my husband at my side You can do something where the reader protects Ruby and she becomes mega affectionate and in the end she comes to the north and everyone becomes affectionate(Yandere) for/to her

・❥・a/n: sorry for being missing :/ I got excited and inspired for drawing, writing some other projects (another chapter of wireless is coming soon!) and stuff from colleges, but no worries, here is the post for today!

・❥・way before ruby goes to the north to marry izek, you were at her side since the very beginning as her personal servant and beloved friend to anytime. the two of you were inseparable despite the differences of social classes, she being a noble girl set to marry the heir of the omerta dukedom while you were nothing but a simple servant ready to help her at anytime. a rare, but lovely duo.

・❥・that’s why you were so important to ruby! always helping her whatever she needed no matter how hard the task was and often. the way her blue eyes shiny when you are in the same room as her is more than enough to notice how the girl deeply cares about you since you are one of the few people that treat her right. despite yourself being treated in horrible circumstances too, the little bruises on your skins or when you force yourself to stop shaking when cesare is in the same room is noticeable to her eyes. specially when his eyes are settled on you, like he is watching a prey and he is ready to attack at anytime.

・❥・so when the news of ruby getting married to the heir of the omerta dukedom reaches your ears, you couldn’t be happier for the lady to get a better living life away from this place, away from the people who torment her daily and you got even happier when she told you that you are coming alongside her. the tears you dropped on her fancy and expensive dresses as the two of you prepared enough luggage to the long travel away from this living nightmare. away from the pope and cesare, even with the last one trying to make you stay in the manor to make him ‘company’, but luckily the pope told his son that ruby couldn’t afford to lose a loyal servant like you, so you quickly left with ruby towards the north.

・❥・the travel itself was a little rough, but nothing like the two of you couldn’t handle and so the day the two of you arrive at the north, things aren’t the best. the servants from the omerta dukedom were horrible to ruby and people often spoken ill things about your lady! oh, you were so ready to thrown fists and kicks everywhere to defend your sweetie lady when needed, however ruby told you to stay out and ignore them, after all, she only needs you, right? regardless of her now husband being cold and everyone treating her like nothing, you still here as her closest friend.

・❥・with days going by, it was hard to the local servants, knights and some others residents to not notice how the loyal maid of the lady rudbeckia followed her anywhere and how hardworking are you no matter the task you were given. clean the dirty windows? they are soon spotless. cooking to the knights? a delicious meal is ready to be eaten. serving izek after he is done with training? yes. ignoring the fact that you hold some feeling towards that man, you can’t deny that he is trying his best to become closer to ruby, even asking you for help. it was funny to seeing him nervous when questioning about the lady’s favorite food and sweeties.

・❥・so things get a little better, if you ignore the fact that you got in a few arguments with the headmaid and some others servants that tried to downgrade lady ruby and soon, people start noticing you even more. others maids that aren’t on your bad side, asking for advices in certain tasks. some knights becoming brave enough to hand you flowers and some little gifts that you thanked them and of course, you got to know elenia van omerta a little better. there is no lying in this part, you didn’t like her at first (the headmaid didn’t help with that too), but you give a shot and become somehow closer to her despite your heart telling not to do it.

・❥・ with more time passed, ruby’s life got better at the north. people aren’t that bad anyone with her, since you either threaten them or just because they rapidly become nicer to her :) and things between her and Izek got better. the two of them even act like a couple in front of the people and got to know each other. isn’t that sweet? now they are closer and some maids were replaced, you get more free time to get know around the dukedom, something you didn’t have the opportunity to do it earlier. and unfortunately, you got to know even more unpleasant people.

・❥・firstly, there was freyan. a sweet girl at first glance, but after a few interactions with her made you rethink about her entire personality. why is so evil towards ruby? ruby didn’t make anything for her to be so evil. and her brother, lorenzo? well, he is not that bad like you expected… before you could scold him for an accident at the training grounds, he quickly apologized to you and those involved, even getting you a bouquet as an apology gift with his cheek fully red. the knights couldn’t help, but make some fun of the boy for having a little crush on you and he went back to training to avoid even more embarrassment from his colleagues. a little weird, but at least you are happy that he isn’t as half bad like his older sister.

・❥・another person who you got closer in recent times is ivan. someone who at first, you wanted to be distant as possible, but turns out he is someone cool to be around. his carefree personality was the the main reason of how easily the two of got closer to become friends, also the many gifts he gets to you are also a little bonus of this friendship. you are to naive to notice his feelings about you, maybe it’s the fact that you are too busy working for ruby all the time.

・❥・and speaking of her, ruby is someone who cares about you and always will. in the original timeline, where the original rudbeckia was the one who caused the entire destruction of the omerta empire and between the main reasons she did it, you were the main one. a maid who never left her side til the very end by the hands of cesare, the very same one who never told where he put your dead body to rest. that was her final straw to bring the world to a living nightmare and she did with fully happiness when Izek confronted her in that very same day where she took her final breath.

・❥・now, with a new person living in rudbeckia body and trying to change such fate, she can’t be happier to know that you still around here. the way you spend most of your time next to her is the reason she smiles and there is nothing in this world she would change for that.

@lyomeii stuff || don’t repost

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midnightorchids · 22 days

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Hey babe- I wanted to know how you felt about booknerd!reader x Jason. Because it's been rotting my brain forever now and I need to know what someone as genius as yourself thinks about it. So like- We know Jason is a book girl. He's got huge floor to ceiling shelves in his apartment filled with non-fiction, historical fiction, classics, and maybe a few Si-Fi titles. I feel like he would love Toni Morison, Maya Angelou, Henrik Isben, Margret Atwood, and maybe even Harukai Murakami. He has this beautiful collection of leather bond additions of the Iliad Bruce gave him when he was 16. And when he finally invites you over, he cannot contain his excited smile as you start gushing over his home library. He makes you guys coffee and you spend hours talking about your fav genres, authors, online author drama - and after he's walking back to his apartment after dropping you off, he's smiling down at his phone at the message you sent. 'I had so much fun today! Ur library is so so so cool, was wondering if you would be ok going with me to Chapters next week? Wanted to pick up the new Skyward book' He's kicking his feet and hiding his face in his pillow. So deeply overjoyed that his crush shares in his immense love of literature. After you guys officially get together, he buys you so many fucking books. He fallows your goodreads wishlist religiously and surprises you almost every month with a new addition to your growing collection. He usually collects used paper backs, but for you, he splurges on the hardcover special additions. Of course it's because he loves you but it's also so that, maybe, you'll be more incentivised to move into a different apartment. One with floor-to-ceiling book shelves and a shared bed... just saying.. He branches out into more genres and authors he wouldn't usually read from just so he could talk about your favourite books with you. You do the same - your book collections getting mixed together in the process. Library dates, bookstore dates, used-bookstore dates. Your first couple of dates and realisations of love happened in and around books. You would always leave little messages inside the first page of the books you give him. So that if your every away or he's on a mission and he takes a book with him, he'll have one of your small messages of love as a reminder of something to return home to.

Hi hon!! I’m so sorry for the late response, I’ve been dying with uni and just life in general recently, but I’m back and ready to write again!!

I fully agree with almost everything that you said, like you’ve written it out so well and it’s just so cute! I was literally giggling and kicking my feet at the last one omg.

I shall try to add more stuff!!

Jason’s go to present for his loved ones is annotated copies of his favourite books. He only does this when he feels comfortable with a person because sharing his thoughts feels raw and vulnerable sometimes.

Having a significant other who loves to read and appreciates these types of gifts would make him feel happy and very emotional. It’s not often he gets to share this side of himself with people.

When he gifts his copies to his friends or his partner, he feels like he’s leaving a piece of him with the person, so he only does this when he trusts you.

He leaves detailed little messages on the margins of his books. He draws little smiley faces on the cute parts and angry faces on the parts that made him upset.

In the books for his significant other, Jason leaves little notes around the quotes that remind him of you. He highlights them in a different colour and makes sure his notes look extra tidy.

He sucks at wrapping things, so sometimes you’ll get a very poorly wrapped, tape covered novel. You’ll look at the wrapping and laugh, you’d pinch his cheeks teasingly and tell him he did a good job. He’d turn his face away in embarrassment, which leads to you placing a gentle kiss on his cheek.

Then, there would be times where he doesn’t have the energy to deal with the horrible wrapping paper. So, you’ll be gifted a plain paper back with a sticky note on the front cover that reads ‘for you,’ in squiggly lines.

It’s honestly sweet and he gets very shy about it.

Also, Jason’s taste in books is very diverse, he reads anything from the classics to romance to gothic horror. He reads anything and everything and because of that, I think that it would be very easy for you to share your thoughts and recommendations with him.

Even if Jason hasn’t read the book, he listens intently with a huge smile on his face. He loves listening to you talk. If he doesn’t know the author or the book, he will try to familiarize himself with what you’re reading and branch into different genres.

There would be lots of reading and bookstore dates. You’d browse through the different aisles with his hand in yours, only letting go when a particular book catches your attention. He watches you in awe as you gush about the different series.

(Side note, my friends and I always go to bookstores and just point out the worst books we’ve read and I think Jason would do that too.)

As you search through the shelves to find your next read, he’ll come to you all excited, rambling about the book in his hand. From the looks of it, it seems like he loves the book. His hands are moving around, he’s smiling and giggling, but if you pay attention, he’s actually just cussing out the author.

This becomes a tradition in your relationship. You both bring up books that you hate instead of the ones that you really enjoy. You’d spend the next hour of your bookstore visit just giggling at the random passages that the author thought were good enough to share with the world.

I think this would also lead to a book club of reading awful books sometimes just for shits and giggles. There would be weeks where you would read amazing, well written stories together, but then there would be times when you guys would pick up something bad just to make fun of it.

Overall, Jason would love having a book nerd significant other because he finally has someone who he can geek out with.

#gn!reader #jason todd #red hood #jason todd x reader #red hood x reader #jason todd imagine #red hood imagine #jason todd headcanon #red hood headcanon #batfam

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tsubaki94 · 3 months

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Seeing that @green-with-envy-phandom-event is starting today I thought I could post some of the lineart I submitted for the event.

Here's the Snowball fight which I had spent a couple of hours composing, it's my only entry from the Disabled AU but was lots of fun to make. I'm looking forward to seeing what it's going to look like colored.

In case you are wondering where the Phantom comic is or when the next page will be out I can only say that I don't know. There are almost six chapters sketched out so there will be more.

However, (and I don't like to talk about personal stuff but feel like you deserves to know why there hasn't been an update.) Frankly, I've had a low period where I haven't been able to create much at all. It's been hard to motivate myself to finish the sketches and make pages for the comic. I am doing it for my enjoyment, so when it feels like a struggle, I take a break and do other things.

Now bad news never comes alone, and my grandpa passed away suddenly last month so I'm now going to help my mom with the funeral that is next week. It's going to take a lot emotionally from me but I am combining it with meeting some great friends while I'm there.

Hopefully I'll get back to drawing the comic with a couple of pages each month. Heck, the Next chapter is 40 pages long and I'm getting excited thinking how they are going to look when I'm finished with them.

Oh well. Now you know.

Hope you are all enjoying Greenwithenvy2024

#danny phantom #art #fanart #danny fenton #sam manson #tucker foley #greenwithenvy2024 #update #irl stuff #lets enjoy this event #disabled au #wheelchair au #wheelchair

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wally-darling-hyperfixation · 1 year

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Welcome Home, Darling!! Part 2 Human Wally x GN Puppet reader

Drawings are by Clown. I couldn’t find one without writing on it. Tags for this story will be at the end. Love y’all

Part 1 for those who haven’t read part 1

Home creaks as you step through the tv holding a human in your arms . “Shhhh Home, you’ll wake him up. And we don’t want to wake him up now ,” you shiver in excitement and walk with Wally in your arms to the bedroom. For a puppet, you sure can pick up a lot of weight. You never knew why you had such incredible strength if your plush arms. But you could balance Barnaby on your hand and sometime y’all do acts together with you picking up Barnaby. So like super strength. Back to Wally , you set him in the bed and tuck him in brushing his hair gently out of his face. You sigh smiling and pull your chair over near the bed and pull out a book. Home creaks and groans and you shush them. “Let him sleep. It’s almost morning. Why don’t you sleep Home and you can great our guest in the morning,” you say as you look at the chapter you are on in the book. The house moves a bit like nodding and then it’s silent. Seemed Home decide to sleep now. All that was in the room was you and Wally. You sigh dreamily staring at him. “Oh Darling, I can’t wait for you to wake up so I can look into those eyes,” you smile and read the book. “Oh wait. He is going to need his stuff,” you thought and gently set your book down. You head back to the living room and turn on the tv going back through to get him packed for his move to the neighborhood, whether he likes it or not.

Wally yawns and rubs his eyes as the sun seemed to be shining into the room from the window. His hair was in all in his face from rolling around so he didn’t really notice where he was. He yawns and sets his feet on floor walking out of the room and to the bathroom ,Home had adjusted themself to mirror Wally home in the real world so that it will be a little harder for him to not think he is in his home. Wally turns on the water and splashes his face rubbing it clean with soap, water, and a soft towel. He gets the lotion on the sink and lotions his face. Got to keep his face from being chapped but also smooth. He searches around for his hairspray and brush not finding them. He groans and heads to the living room cause he usually has an extra box he hides away for when he runs out. As he heads into the living room, you are actually entering out from the tv with luggage and things of him. He gasps and screams , a puppet came out of his tv!!! He runs away and into the bedroom hiding. He was under the bed shaking and hoping this was still a dream

You sigh and set his stuff down . “I was hoping to get home before he woke up but I guess I took to much time getting his stuff,” you say putting it in the corner with his other items you had gotten throughout the night. You turn off the tv and talk to home. “Home ,sweetie, where is my Darling human?” You ask waiting for answer. Home creaks and groans in which they tell ya he is in the bedroom. “Thank you Home,” you pet the walls in appreciation and skip over to the door knocking on it. “Darling, I am coming in. Please don’t be scared. I just wanna Welcome you to your new Home. I wasn’t wanting to scare you. You will love the neighborhood and we can even get you a place of your own,” you slowly open the door and you say this looking around. Home moves the floor pushing Wally out enough to where you can see his foot. “There you are,” you pull him out seeing him with his hair down in his face, “ don’t you look lovely in the morning. Your stuff is in the living room. I got it for you. If you want to get all dressed and ready for the day. You know where the bathroom is. I’ll go and make breakfast for you,” you say brushing his hair out of his face and leave the door open humming as you head to the kitchen. Home wouldn’t let your guest run out so you had no worries. You start to fix a wonderful breakfast for the man you know as Wally from his art. Apple Juice and apple cinnamon pancakes for breakfast. Wally comes out after doing his hair and getting dressed not wanting to anger the puppet. He sits at the kitchen table as you put food in front of him. He looks at you and asks “What do you want? Why am I here? Why me?” You smile taking a bite of your food just by looking at it. “Why, Wally dear, I just want you to be a part of the neighborhood. Won’t you be my neighbor? You don’t seem to have anyone in your life where you were and here. Everything is wonderful and nice and you will make so many friends. Though I will be your best. So from the bottom of my heart, Welcome home, Darling.”

That’s my brain with my story idea lol. Thank y’all so much. Tags: @darling-w @chronicbeans @celestia80s @peachesandcremes @hiddencatails

Hugs and kisses to y’all Make sure to tell me if ya like it

#wally darling x reader #wally darling #welcome home fandom #welcome home x y/n #welcome home #welcome home wally #welcome home x reader #wally x reader #wally x y/n #wally darling x self insert

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eddiemunsons80sbaby · 6 months

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Never Say Never

Chapter 3

Pairing: SingleDad!StevexReader

Summary: You are a 32 year old single mother, raising your seven year old son on your own. After being widowed at 30 and going out on awful dates with disgusting men for the past month, you have decided that you're giving up. You already had your great love. One person can't possibly get lucky enough to have two in their lifetime. But then your son starts playing baseball and the coach might just change your mind about that.

No posting schedule.

18+ only for eventual smut

Word Count: 7.1K

1 2

“Jeremiah and I are going to build a fort when I spend the night,” Eli told you from the back seat as you drove him to school. This sleepover tomorrow was all he had been able to talk about all morning. “He said his daddy builds the most epic forts that take up the whole living room and he’s gonna ask him if he’ll build us one. And we’re going to watch Scooby Doo and the Alien Invaders. And Jeremiah has a Gameboy and he said he’s going to let me play on it! I think I’m going to ask Santa for a Gameboy this Christmas!”

“Wow,” you replied, smiling to yourself as your eyes darted to the rearview mirror, relishing the excitement on your son’s face. “Well, Christmas is pretty far away, buddy, but you save that idea.”

“Well, Christmas is way closer than my birthday now because that already happened and I have to wait a whole ten months for my birthday to come again but Christmas is only eight months away.”

“You’re right. Christmas is closer.”

“Yeah, and the Easter bunny doesn’t bring stuff like Gameboys. He just brings some candy and small stuff.”

“That’s right. I think asking Santa for it is a really good idea.” Plus, that would give you some time to save up for it. You made good money but working off of a single income meant you started saving for Christmas long before the holiday arrived.

“Yeah, I think so too,” your son replied, his little face serious. “Maybe I’ll start working on my list so it’s all ready. Oh! And Jeremiah said that we can ask his dad if we can go for a night walk. They take their flashlights and Miles and walk around in the dark! Isn’t that cool?”

“The coolest! That all sounds pretty amazing, buddy. You’re going to have the best time.”

“I know! And we get to spend the whole day together! We have baseball and then we’re going to get ice cream and then I’m sleeping at his house. It’s going to be the best day of my whole life!”

You laughed, “Well, that’s a pretty big statement. You still have a lot of life yet to go, but I am sure it will be the best day of your seven years so far.”

Turning into the drop-off line, you waved to Ms. Lincoln, Eli’s kindergarten teacher, who was standing to the side, greeting the kids as they came in. She’d been so vital to Eli that year. He’d lost his dad just a couple months into the year and she’d been so empathetic and kind to him. You would forever be grateful for the way she’d helped your son navigate such a confusing and awful time.

It had been difficult for Eli to understand the permanence of what had happened, especially when his dad being gone for a long period of time was not unusual. He continually asked when Justin was coming home, each inquiry another ice pick straight into your chest, when you would have to explain, again, that daddy couldn’t come home this time. He couldn’t ever come home again.

Ms. Lincoln had taken a special interest in him, knowing his love of superheroes, something that had come about because you had told him once that his daddy was one. Eli envisioned his dad like Superman, saving people’s lives, which wasn’t entirely untrue. His teacher was the one who encouraged him to draw. That was when he’d created Master Marine, a superhero with blond hair and blue eyes just like his dad that swooped in and saved the day, defeating the bad guys.

Every single time a new picture made its way onto your fridge, you would battle back the darkness. The darkness that sat just to the side, waiting to swallow you whole. The darkness you fought every morning, knowing you had to get up, knowing you had to keep moving or you would become stuck. And you couldn’t become stuck because your son needed you.

He needed you to be his mother, needed you to be strong and show him that everything was okay, needed you to keep going to your job so you had a place to live and food to eat. So as much as those pictures used to tear you up, take whatever pieces you'd managed to tape back together and run them through the shredder each time they appeared, you knew they were helping your son cope. Even his therapist had said art was an excellent outlet for him. So, when he would present you with a new one, Master Marine saving a young child that looked just like Eli from a bully at school or saving a woman with your hair and eyes from an evil mastermind, you would smile and gush about how amazing it was, sticking it to the fridge with a magnet.

“Bye mommy!” Eli yelled as you moved up to the front of the school, one of the fourth grade teachers opening the back door for him.

“Bye buddy. Have a good day. I love you!”

“Love you too!”

He turned back and waved to you over his shoulder before disappearing into the red brick building, his Batman backpack bobbing on his back. You turned out of the school and onto the road, heading for your favorite coffee shop.

You had a rare Friday off and you were starting it off by meeting Janice for coffee, a little ritual you had whenever you had a weekday off. It didn’t happen often but when it did, you savored every single moment of it. Your life was a constant cycle of work, running errands, doing household chores, and being a mom. To have six hours of time where no one required anything from you was a gift, one you didn’t get very often, and one you never took for granted.

Some people might use that extra day to catch up on household chores or run errands. But you didn’t, not if you could help it. You used that time to meet your friend, enjoying a slow coffee that you could savor instead of inhaling it just to get the caffeine to kick in. You used it to actually sit down and read a book or lay on the couch and watch tv shows you couldn’t ever watch when Eli was around. The laundry and the messy house would still be there tomorrow. The grocery store wouldn’t cease to exist if you didn’t go today.

Opening up the door to Brewed Awakening, you instantly felt like you were home, the atmosphere always so warm and welcoming. June, the owner, a woman around your age with long black hair and startling green eyes, waved from behind the counter. You waved back, inhaling the rich aroma of freshly brewed coffee, already feeling that zing of energy, as if your body knew what was coming and was preparing for it.

You had been coming here for coffee since June had opened the place four years ago. Your love of coffee is what had brought you to the door but the atmosphere and the friendly owner is what kept you coming back. It didn’t hurt that June made an excellent cinnamon mocha. But what she’d done with the space turned it into an inviting place that kept you wanting to come back.

The decor was like a warm hug, full of comfortable furniture and cozy blankets. People often curled up in the squishy armchairs with their mug of coffee, reading a book, a blanket draped across their lap. Or they might be cross legged, on one of the wide chairs at a table, working on their laptop. The walls were a canvas of photos and artwork, small cafes from all around the world, allowing you to imagine that you were sipping a cappuccino in Vienna or enjoying a cafe latte in Paris.

“Hey girl,” June greeted with a smile as you approached the counter. “Cinnamon latte as usual?”

“Yes, please. I’m actually meeting Janice but she’s not here yet, of course.”

June winked, “Of course. Our Janice prefers to be fashionably late. Want me to get her Flat White ready?”

There it was, that feeling of belonging, like you were old friends even if the only encounters you ever had were at this counter. June had to serve hundreds of coffees a day but she knew every single regular’s order and often took the time to learn personal things about them as well. Often, you would approach to find your drink already ready, June preparing it the moment she saw you walk in.

“Yes please.”

“How’s my favorite little guy doing?” asked June as she steamed the milk.

“Oh, he’s great. He actually started playing baseball. His first practice was yesterday and he loved it,” you told her, slipping your credit card into the reader.

“Yeah? That’s great. I played softball all through school and I loved it. I can’t wait for him to come in with you so he can tell me all about it.”

“I’ll have to pop in with him sometime this weekend. You know how much he loves your hot chocolate.”

June laughed, setting the cups on the counter and leaning in, whispering, “Just so you know, that’s my Eli special. Not everyone gets extra whipped cream, chocolate chips, and crushed candy canes on their hot chocolate. Just my favorites.”

She winked and you smiled as you took the two coffees and headed over to two squishy armchairs that were free. You sat, sipping on your blessed caffeine, only waiting a few moments before Janice came swirling into the coffee shop like the tornado she was, apologies already falling from her lips for being late. Not that they were necessary. Late was just her perpetual way of being. You'd accepted that about your friend. You learned long ago that if you needed Janice ready at five, then you had to tell her four or you’d be waiting a while.

You held up your friend’s coffee and Janice took it with a smile, flopping down into the chair with a dramatic sigh, “Thank you. You are my favorite person ever.”

“I already had that title. I’ve had that title for a very long time. I didn’t need to buy you coffee for that so maybe you should pay me back. What a waste of my money,” you teased.

Janice stuck her tongue out. “You only stay my favorite because you supply my caffeine habit. Sorry I’m late. I was editing photos from that wedding I had a few weeks ago and I completely lost track of time. Then I raced out the door and got in my car and realized I didn’t have my purse. So, then I had to run back in and then the house phone rang and it was my mom and you know how hard it is to get her off the phone. And then when I told her I was meeting you, she had to know how you were doing and if you’ve found a guy from online dating so I was filling her in on what a disaster that was. And…”

“It’s fine,” you laughed, not surprised at all that Janice had told her mom all about your online dating escapades. The two were more like best friends, only sixteen years between them, than mother and daughter. “I never expect you to be on time anyway.”

“You know, I should be offended but that’s fair,” your friend shrugged and then she lurched forward, hand on the arm of your chair. “But I really was trying to get here on time today because I am dying to know how last night went with the hot dad.”

“You know it wasn’t a date, right?”

Janice waved her hand, groaning loudly, “He brought dinner to your place. It’s practically date adjacent.”

“Our kids were there. I told you that. Do you even listen when I talk? Eli and Jeremiah were just having a playdate. He brought pizza. It wasn’t even in the same zip code as a date.”

“So…you’re not interested in him at all?” Janice’s eyebrows lifted to her hairline, coffee cup brought to her lips, challenging you. Damn, she knew you too well. “Aha! I knew it! It’s all over your face. You are a smitten kitten and I love it! You’re definitely interested.”

You groaned, your head resting against the back of the chair. “Maybe…I don’t know. Janice, this is all very strange for me. And he’s just the dad of my kid’s friend. It’s not like he asked me out or hit on me or gave me any sign that he’s interested in me at all. He didn’t approach me at some bar and buy me a drink. I approached him to ask about his son coming to my house to play. I don’t even know if he’s single.”

“Well, that’s easy enough to figure out. Just ask him. When are you going to see him again?”

“Tomorrow. The boys have baseball practice again and then Eli is going to spend the night at their house.”

You looked down at your coffee, focusing on the dots of cinnamon speckled across the foam, not wanting Janice to read your expression. You did not want her to see how excited you felt at the idea of seeing him again and to read too much into it because you didn’t even know how you felt about it.

Yeah, you were lonely sometimes. Eli was your entire world and you had Janice and Matt. You weren't alone but sometimes you wished for someone to be around. Someone that was yours. Someone who might take care of you, offer to rub your feet or handle things while you took a bath. Someone you could curl up with while you watched a movie or who would make the salad while you prepared dinner. Someone to talk to, to share about your day, to hold your hand while you strolled through the grocery store.

It was dumb, really. Silly. You knew that. You should be perfectly content with everything you had, everything you'd had before you lost Justin. Not everyone got to experience a love like you had. But even when you had him, because of his job, he wasn’t always there. You'd spent lots of evenings alone. Being alone was not anything new for you but there was something vastly different about being alone, knowing your person was coming home to you at some point versus being alone knowing they never would.

“Okay, perfect. So you ask him tomorrow.”

“How am I supposed to ask him if he’s single?” you scoffed, appalled at the idea. Clearly, Eli had a mom. He’d spoken about her last night. Maybe he just didn’t like to wear a ring. Maybe she was simply out of town for work or something.

“Just like that. You tell him that you enjoyed your evening together and you wondered if he was single.”

“Janice, I can’t do that.”

“Of course you can. It’s a simple question.”

“There’s nothing simple about that. I haven’t asked a guy out in over a decade. And even back then, I was awful at it. I was always so nervous. Do you remember when tripped over my own feet and spilled that drink all over Josh Day in college? It was mortifying. Just because you’re all confident and brave doesn’t mean everyone is. Besides, I don’t even know if I want to know. I don’t know what I want.”

“Honey, we’ve been over this.”

“Yeah. We have. And you’re the one who wants this for me,” you groaned, “but Janice, you’re not in my shoes. You have no idea. You can’t know what this is like and I hope you never have to. You say it’s been long enough and that I need to move on. Maybe you’re right but that doesn’t mean I can wave some magic wand and be ready. They didn’t exactly give me a manual on how to get over your grief when your husband suddenly dies. They didn’t give me some step-by-step instruction booklet for how to start dating after losing the love of your life. And how to do that when you’re also a single mother who has a kid to consider in all of it. I tried. I went on four dates and every single one of them was awful and just reminded me of what I was missing. They didn’t make me want to move on. They made me want to hang on for dear life to what I used to have.”

“I know. I know they were awful. But I don’t want to see you close yourself off to the possibility because you’re scared. Online dating sucked. I hear you. But this isn’t that. This is a guy, right in front of you, who you obviously are interested in. And it’s a guy who already knows Eli and your son likes him. He’s already organically a part of your world. You spent a whole evening with him. Do you have another horror story to tell me about him?”

“No,” you admitted, sinking down into the comforting cushion of the chair. “No. He seems wonderful. He was great with the boys. I mean, obviously he’s good with his kid but he was great with Eli too. He had them both laughing. And he has a good job. He’s a project manager for a construction company. Not that it should matter but I definitely don’t need a manchild in my life. Raising Eli is enough.”

“And…?”

“And what? Isn’t that enough?”

“He’s cute obviously?”

You flushed, bringing a hand to your face as those eyes and that smile came back to you, “I already told you he’s good looking. I mean…hazel eyes, ridiculously good hair, and a smile that could power up the whole of New York City. He’s that kind of good looking that makes you wonder what he’s doing here and not on your television screen.”

Janice giggled, her feet bouncing against the floor, arm smacking her chair, “See? Come on. Take your shot, honey.”

“But what about Eli?”

“What about Eli? Didn’t you say he liked him?”

“He did but he barely knows him. And this isn’t the kind of thing where I could wait to introduce them until I knew it was something real because he’s already in Eli’s life now. And Eli is best friends with his son. I can’t screw that up for him. Because how would we be able to still set up playdates if we had some horrible breakup? We wouldn’t be able to be in the same room and then Eli would be crushed. And what if Eli isn’t ready to see me with someone else? He’s only ever seen me with his dad. He might think I’m betraying Justin. And what if…”

“Whoa, okay, let’s back the truck up a bit here,” Janice soothed, her hand coming to rest on your arm. “It’s just a date, one date honey, not a lifetime commitment. Ask him out on one date and see how it goes. Keep it simple and come here for coffee. No pressure. Not some fancy restaurant with low lighting. Just a nice coffee. If there’s nothing there then you just move on as friends and it doesn’t have to affect the boys. They don’t even have to know that you two went out. And you know I’ll watch Eli for you if you need me to. Name the time and Matt and I will be there.”

“I don’t know. This all just feels weird and wrong…I mean, Justin…”

“Justin wouldn’t want you to be alone for the rest of your life. Justin loved you like Sam loved Annie, like Wesley loved Buttercup, like Harry loved Sally. He would want you to have the world. He would hate the idea of you sitting in that house all alone. You are far too young to be facing the rest of your life alone. Take the leap, my friend. Take a chance on this movie star man. Be happy. It’s okay.”

But was it okay? You would like to think that Justin would want you to be happy, that he wouldn’t want you to spend the rest of your life alone at only thirty-two. But would he look at it as a betrayal? Would you be dishonoring him and everything you'd shared if you replaced him like an old couch?

And was any of this even relevant? You didn’t even know if Steve was single. Maybe he was still married or maybe he wasn’t but he was already seeing someone else. You couldn’t imagine a guy like that staying single for long. There had to be women lined up just waiting for their turn. If the moms at practice the other day were any indication, that was certainly the case.

But did you want to keep being alone? Maybe you didn’t straight up ask him but maybe you could find out. You were hanging out tomorrow for a bit anyway. Maybe if you were crafty, you could figure out his status without just coming out and asking if he was single.

“I’ll think about it,” you finally relented.

“I guess I’ll take what I can get,” sighed Janice.

___________________________________________________________

After listening to Janice spend the next hour trying to convince you why you needed to grab the bull by the horns, your friend’s words and not yours, you were ready to get the hell out of there. Janice was not going to let this go. You'd hugged your annoying, but well-meaning, friend and headed off to the grocery store.

As you'd just had pizza last night, Eli had asked if you could change pizza Friday to nacho Friday. So, here you were, even though you usually avoided doing things like this on a bonus day, grabbing all the fixings you would need to make the best nachos ever. Or really, what you would need because when Eli said nachos, all he really wanted was melted cheese on tortilla chips and some salsa to dip them in.

Not you. You had every intention of loading yours up with all the good stuff. Grabbing a cart, you wandered through the aisles, grabbing avocados to make guacamole, ground beef, taco seasoning, black olives, sour cream, and one jalapeno. Deciding a bottle of wine would be a nice addition, you turned down the liquor aisle and almost plowed right into another cart with your cart.

“Oh my god. I am so sorry. I wasn’t even looking…”

Your heart stopped, along with the entire grocery store, as if someone had hit the pause button, when you saw who you almost ran into. Steve gave you that megawatt smile, blinding even under the fluorescent lights of the grocery store. He stood there in a plaid button down and jeans, a baseball cap on his head.

Seriously? You'd met this guy two days ago and you had never seen him before. You definitely would have noticed if he’d ever been anywhere in your vicinity. Who wouldn’t notice a guy who looked like that just having the nerve to exist? Now you were running into him in the grocery store? Could you have just been blind?

To be fair, after Justin had passed, for a long time you felt like you w were moving through life in a fog. Your grief had been so thick that you barely noticed anything, simply going through the motions that were required of you. Maybe you had seen him before but never even noticed, blinders that were you just trying to function keeping you from seeing this beautiful man that lived in your town.

“Hey there,” he laughed, taking his hands off the cart and holding them out wide.

“Hey. Grocery shopping?”

Your eyes closed as you inwardly cursed yourself. Obviously he was grocery shopping. He had a cart in the middle of a grocery store. Why were you so bad at this? And Janice really thought you had a shot in hell of flirting with him, of asking him out when you couldn’t come up with anything better than asking him if he was grocery shopping in a grocery store?

“I mean, it is a store full of food so, you know?” Steve shrugged, gesturing to his basket. “I had a few hours before I had to be out to check on a job site so I figured I’d grab all the provisions for the big sleepover tomorrow. It’s way easier to do it now than to lug Jere with me. He’ll have this cart overflowing and my wallet completely drained by the time we checkout.”

You looked down. His cart was full of everything two seven year old boys might want. He had burgers, hot dogs, buns, four kinds of chips, cookies, ice cream, popcorn, juice boxes, cereal, and milk. You also noticed the six pack of beer that was probably his own personal little treat for having two seven year old boys in his house all night. Your eyes met his, eyebrows lifting.

“The beer is just…I mean, I won’t drink it all when they’re there or anything. Just like to have one or two in the evening sometimes. I promise you I am a responsible adult.”

“No, that’s not it. I don’t care if you enjoy a beer. You’ll probably need it. It’s just that’s a lot of food for one overnight. Looks more like you’re planning on twelve kids or possibly stealing my child for a whole week,” you teased, pressing your lips together. “I warn you. You can try to take him if you want but you’ll want to give him back after the first night. I’ll be impressed if you make it through night two. He’s amazing but he’s a handful.”

One of his hands ran through his hair as he chuckled, “No. I wasn’t planning on keeping him. Trust me, one seven year old is more than enough for me to handle on a regular basis. Besides, Jere’s mom will be home Sunday night so he’ll be heading back with her until I get him again on Wednesday.”

“Oh?” So she was in the picture but definitely not in the picture as in them together. Here was your opening, your way of finding out more information without blatantly letting him know you were interested. Just a casual conversation between two acquaintances who ran into each other. “Shared custody?”

“Yeah. Nance and I divorced about four years ago but we try to co-parent the best we can. She’s been on a trip with her husband for their anniversary for the past week so I’ve had Jere all week. That’s why I needed a babysitter for the meeting. Normally, we just help each other out if we need to.”

“Wow, that’s great. It’s so nice that you two can make that work when so many can’t. Jeremiah must love that his parents can work together so well. It has to make the split a lot easier on him.”

Steve shrugged, “Yeah. I mean, we’re just better friends than we were romantic partners, you know? It wasn’t really a contentious divorce. Nobody did anything bad. No cheating or nastiness or anything. We knew we wanted to make it as easy on Jere as we could so we agreed to joint custody, splitting our time with him fifty-fifty and then if something comes up, we just move stuff around as needed.”

You were impressed. You had known quite a few people who’d gone through a divorce, more than you should for only being thirty two. Most of them were not friendly with each other. Nasty divorces where venomous words were thrown around and battles lasted for months over possessions and children and pets. To have two people just recognize that their marriage wasn’t working and decide to work together for the sake of their kid was incredibly mature and only made him that much more attractive. You really needed this guy to have a fault because it was getting harder and harder not to think he might be the most perfect guy you'd ever met.

“It’s really nice that you two are there for each other like that. It’s hard being a single parent.”

“Yeah. It is,” he agreed. “You’re always feeling like you’re doing the job of two people. But I’m very lucky to have her and my friends to help me out.”

“Yeah, I have my friend Janice and her husband Matt. They help me out a lot whenever they can. Matt is actually the one who got Eli into baseball. He started taking him to the batting cages right after him and Janice started dating. And he’s taken him to a couple games. That’s why Eli wanted to play.”

“Well, Jere is definitely glad for that. He was practically bursting to tell me that Eli was going to be on the team.”

“Those two really seem to have connected,” you said fondly. “Eli talks about him all the time. It’s nice. He…uh, he struggled to make friends the first couple years of school. He was kind of quiet and kept to himself after…well, he just was going through some stuff. So, him finding Jeremiah has been really great. Or, I guess Jeremiah found him, actually. Eli told me Jeremiah saw his Batman backpack on the first day of school and showed him his Superman one and asked if he wanted to be his best friend. It has really brought him out of his shell.”

“Well, Jere loves him. When I ask about school, he’s never talking about anything he is actually learning.” Steve chuckled. “He’s always telling me about Eli. He would not stop talking about Eli coming to sleepover after we left your house last night and it was all he talked about this morning on the drive to school.”

“Eli too.”

“Coach Harrington, is that you?” came a sing-songy voice as Laurie Streeter came sliding up next to him with her cart.

“Oh, hi Ms. Streeter,” Steve greeted with a nod.

“I thought that was you,” she beamed and was that, was she actually batting her eyelashes at him? You grimaced at the woman in her mid thirties acting like some teenage girl with a crush. “I just couldn’t pass up the chance to say hi to my favorite baseball coach. You know, Richie hasn’t been able to stop talking about how much he loves baseball ever since the first practice the other night.”

“Well, good. I’m glad he’s enjoying it. I try to make sure all the boys are learning but having fun.”

“Oh, and you do such a wonderful job.”

Her hand fell on his forearm as she leaned into him, pressing her ample cleavage against his bicep. Steve’s eyes widened and you noticed the red that was creeping along his neck, up over his jaw, coloring his cheeks. But was he blushing because he was flattered or because he was mortified?

You were certainly mortified. You couldn’t even bring yourself to ask him if he wanted to maybe get a cup of coffee sometime and this woman was practically melding their bodies into one in the liquor aisle of the grocery store.

Laurie was that mom that was always put together. You never caught her without a full face of make-up and not a hair out of place. Her husband left her for a younger model last year and instead of letting it beat her down, she’d come back with a vengeance. She’d taken up Pilates and even you had to appreciate how tight her ass looked in her yoga pants. Apparently, Laurie had decided to show her ex just what he’d given up when he walked away.

You looked down at yourself. It wasn’t that you were sloppy. You were wearing jeans and a sweatshirt, normal attire for your off days. You'd put on some concealer and mascara this morning and you'd pulled your hair into a ponytail in preparation for meeting Janice for coffee. You looked presentable but you would never be able to compete with that if that was what Steve was looking for.

Laurie might be a single mom but she was living off of the generous alimony she received in the divorce from her cardiac surgeon ex husband. She didn’t work. She had a nanny for her three sons. She had all the time and money in the world for Pilates, spa days, and the salon. You were lucky if you remembered to get a haircut every six months.

“That’s really nice of you to say,” Steve replied, and you watched as his Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed hard.

“Oh my gosh, coach. Your arm is so firm. Wow. Do you work out?” asked Laurie, giggling as she wrapped her hand around his bicep, squeezing.

“I mean…I try to get to the gym a few days a week,” he stammered.

Jesus. Laurie was ready to straddle him right there next to the wine and Steve was struggling to speak. This situation was just getting uncomfortable at this point and you needed an out. Janice was wrong. There was no way you were going to embarrass yourself by setting yourself up to be rejected.

“It shows. You know, it must get so lonely in that house all by yourself when Jeremiah is with his mom. I could bring over dinner sometime for you, keep you company…”

That was it. You could not listen to it anymore. “You know, I really need to get going so I’ll let you two catch up,” you interjected, attempting to maneuver your cart around them.

“Oh my gosh! I didn’t even see you there,” Laurie said, her voice dripping with false sweetness, letting you know she absolutely had seen you there. She just didn’t care. The woman’s eyes roved over you from head to toe. “Oh honey, you must let me give you the name of my stylist. You could really do with a…well, everything. I know single motherhood is challenging but you really can’t just let yourself go. When was the last time you had your hair done, sweetie? How do you ever expect to find a man walking around like that?”

“Well, you know it’s hard to find the time,” you seethed, the urge to just leave your cart and dart out of the store overwhelming. But no, you'd promised Eli nachos for dinner. You would not let this woman bully you into running away in shame.

“I’m a single mother and somehow I find the time.”

“Yeah, it must be so hard when you have a full-time nanny to mother your children. Some of us have to actually do that ourselves.”

Laurie looked like she’d been slapped, her jaw almost hitting the floor. Steve’s hand slid across his mouth but you caught how his eyes crinkled. He was hiding a smile, amused by your comment.

“You know, I happen to enjoy a woman who doesn’t feel the need to get all made up just to go grocery shopping,” he offered. “When you’re naturally beautiful you don’t need to hide it behind a bunch of face paint, anyway.”

You pulled your bottom lip between your teeth to conceal the smile that came at his words. Could this man be any more perfect? Did he even have a flaw? And the look on Laurie’s face, the way she turned tomato red, the fumes that you could practically see coming out of your nose, only made the moment even more enjoyable.

“Well, this was fun but I really need to get going now. I have to pick up my son and make dinner for him since I don’t have anyone to do that for me. I’ll let you both get back to your shopping,” you said simply, pushing your cart down the aisle, heading for the checkout.

“Hey, I’ll see you tomorrow, right?” Steve called out.

You turned to look at him over your shoulder, “Yeah, tomorrow, facepaint free, split ends, and all.”

Oh, but that look on Laurie’s face, sheer jealousy and outrage, would have you smiling for the rest of the day.

____________________________________________________________

Steve drove toward home after checking in at the job site, unable to stop grinning, occasionally chuckling as he remembered Laurie’s face when you had called her out. As he remembered the smile you gave him when he spoke up, saying you didn’t need make-up because you were naturally beautiful, his chest warmed.

Well, okay, he hadn’t exactly said you were beautiful but it was implied. At least, he thought it was. And you didn’t need make-up. He loved that you were comfortable enough in your own skin that you didn’t feel the need to cover every inch of your face in make-up. He loved that you didn’t feel the need to look like you were heading out to the club just to pop into the grocery store.

He’d dated his fair share of high-maintenance girls. And while there was nothing wrong with a lady caring about her appearance, there was something annoying about having to wait an hour and a half for them to get ready when you casually mentioned grabbing some lunch. Now you were waiting until closer to dinnertime and grouchy, which inevitably led to a very unpleasant meal when you started sniping at each other. He’d been there more times than he could count.

And Laurie Streeter, she needed someone to knock her down a few pegs. She walked around with her nose stuck up in the air, acting like she was better than everyone else. She had milked that divorce for all she could and honestly, her shitbag of a husband had cheated, so Steve didn’t fault her for that. But everyone knew she didn’t get her hands dirty if she didn’t have to. She had a cleaning lady, a nanny, and in the summers she even had a pool boy. That woman had no idea what it was like to actually be a single mother.

Steve pulled his Ford Explorer into the driveway in front of his house. He’d bought it after Nancy and him had separated. There’d been no arguing. She was the mother of his child. He told her to go ahead and keep the house. He’d be the one to find somewhere new but she’d wanted a fresh start too. So, they’d sold the house they bought together when he was only twenty-three and split the profits.

It fit his needs. In fact, it was probably a bit more space than he needed for just him and Jeremiah. It was a two story house with three bedrooms and two full baths. The kitchen area was decent sized with a wrap around island where he kept a couple barstools and a space for a dining room table. He’d refinished the basement two years ago and that was where most of Jere’s toys were, along with a tv for him to watch his cartoons.

But his favorite part was the backyard. The house was rare in the neighborhood, boasting a quarter acre of land with a large backyard. His fence butted right up to the treeline and he spent many nights sitting out on the deck he’d built or on the patio with a fire going and a beer in his hand. Jeremiah loved the swingset he’d put in and he was begging for them to get a pool but that was a big expense and a hell of a lot of upkeep. Still, he promised the kid he’d think about it.

Unlocking the front door, he smiled as the familiar tapping of paws across hardwood greeted him. Miles came dashing around the corner. He swore that the dog looked like he was smiling, with his big old tongue hanging out of the right side of his mouth. His size intimidated people sometimes but he was just a big old teddy bear.

“Hey there Miles,” Steve cooed, rubbing his head. “You miss me? Your buddy will be home from school soon. I have to get him in about an hour. You wanna come with me?”

The dog huffed loudly, curling his body and spinning in a circle as if he understood exactly what Steve was saying. And quite honestly, sometimes he wondered if he did. He’d spent many a night spilling his guts to the furry beast, telling him things he never shared with anyone else, not even Robin.

“You know, there’s going to be some new people coming to meet you tomorrow,” he told Miles, heading into the living room, the Newfoundland trailing behind him. “Jere’s friend, Eli, is going to come over and spend the night. He’s really excited to meet you.”

He sat down on the couch and the dog did not hesitate, leaping right up next to him. He laid down, his big head dropping onto Steve’s knee and he absent mindedly stroked his fur, fingers moving through the black, shaggy fur.

“His mom’s coming too and I think I might like her.” Miles lifted his head, those big brown eyes observing him. “I know. I know. I see a pretty girl and I’m losing my mind again but I don’t think that’s what this is. Not this time. This girl’s different. But she lost her husband and I don’t know how long ago it was. I don’t want to push her into something she’s not ready for. And you know, if I asked her out and then it didn’t work, what if she felt awkward and then Eli and Jere couldn’t hang out anymore? He’d be so hurt. I don’t know. I thought about asking if she wanted to stay for dinner tomorrow. I mean, the kids would be here too. So, it’s not really like asking her on a date, right? It would just give me a chance to maybe talk to her, get to know more about her. I just feel like I have to be careful with this one, you know? It’s not just my heart that could be on the line this time. So, what do you think? Should I ask if she wants to stay for dinner tomorrow? Have a burger? It’s casual enough, right? Just being friendly?”

Miles leapt up and barked before bestowing Steve’s face with one of his sloppy kisses. He laughed, grabbing Miles’ big head, placing a kiss right on his black nose.

“I guess that means it’s a good idea, huh?”

Miles woofed loudly and maybe it wasn’t the most valid way to make a decision, but Steve trusted this big beast more than he did most people. Alright, he’d ask you to stay and eat with them. No big deal. You'd all eaten together the night before. Then he could maybe figure out what the right call was with this because he really wanted to find out if you were as different as you seemed. He wanted to know if this time could be different, if maybe he’d chosen the right one.

Chapter 4

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phoebepheebsphibs · 6 days

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A lil sumthin' sumthin' to say...

Thanks for enjoying the story and drawings!

Your reactions, artwork, and many words of encouragement have been amazing. There are so many people who have enjoyed the story and were such an amazing motivation. There are a few specific people that I wanna acknowledge, though...

(Disclaimer, most of the sona designs were based off of piccrew posts I went digging for or were based on user icons lol)

Of course we have to start with @boots-with-the-fur-club!

Thanks for letting me continue the story you started! I didn't expect it to grow as much as it did, but the more I wrote, the more the world around it grew and evolved and it became this huge multi-chapter, multi-arced saga. I always get so excited when I see you post a new story and I wait in anticipation for every reaction you leave on my updates. Thanks so much for the advice you give, little blurbs you wrote, and moments when you fangirled over stuff with me! I have never been so inspired to write/draw/create in my life, and for that I am truly grateful.

@daboyau your interactions and reactions were very special and meaningful. I haven't known you very long but I can already tell how talented a writer you are and I may be just a bit intimidated by you. You motivate me to be a better writer, to work hard, and to not be shy about my stories! You're a very inspiring writer and every time I see your reactions to my work I freak out a little lol...

@truths33k3r4 I love the design you made for Mikey (I even took some inspiration from your design for my own), and the kind comments you leave always brighten my day! Your artwork continuously brings me joy, and I can't thank you enough for the adoration and adorable "phanart" you've created! You are truly inspiring and wonderful.

@that-0n3-shr00mi3-guy hands down you leave the funniest comments and have the most hilarious reactions to my stuff dude. I love how excited you get, it lets me know that you're invested and that my story is interesting. Thanks for making me laugh without fail!

@burritello3000 thank you for the comments, reactions, theories, interactions, and general love you consistently give to my stories! It makes me so happy that my blurbs and fics can provide so much entertainment that it in turn gives me entertainment to read your reactions!

@belleyellsaboutturtles your reviews and comments, the reactions you give, and the kind words you leave have inspired and delighted me to no end! It makes me so glad that you have noticed certain things that I write, hidden easter eggs and special clues, and I love how your heart melts from the brotherly moments or the sad lab memories. It's people like you that I write for!

Thanks again to all for how you have inspired me. I just genuinely appreciate your love for the story and hope to continue making stories that draw y'all in wholeheartedly!

#i was gonna post this later (like after the story finished) but I COULDN'T WAIT #genuinely guys you're the best #thank you so so so much #it means the world to me that i get to finally write the stories i want #and even more so that people actually want to read my stories #thanks so much #i hope this wasn't cringe #rottmnt #rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles #rottmnt fanart #double mutated mikey #double mutation mikey #rottmnt mikey #rottmnt michelangelo #rise mikey #rise michelangelo #rottmnt fanfiction #rottmnt au

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flymetosnarryland · 10 months

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GTFO.

Did anyone miss Muggle London like I did? 🙃

This series as a part of "Infraction" has grown incredibly. It helped me understand a lot about things I want to write and made me think about "Infraction" as... well, my first real baby, lol. I wrote one Snarry, "Oblivion" already, but I take that story as testing the waters. I tried to know Harry and Severus, placing them in situation close to, eh, something that happened to me in a way. It means a lot to me and I'm proud of myself that I managed to write a fic from the start to the end.

"Infraction" on the other hand... this one is going to be really FAT piece of work and I'm excited over the moon about it. First chapter and the first part of second already landed on Ao3, but when am I going to finish the next part of it? (If anyone is interested at all, because I personally don't touch unfinished pieces, knowing how it works 🤣)

Well, to be honest, I decided to not rush it. Not because I don't know what to write. The main outline of the story has 40k+ words. It appeared that planning a series of murders is not so easy 😂 especially when the politics are part of it (I mean, Merlin... that's the last thing I thought I will EVER write, lol) and on top of that I have some complicated relationships (or, I suppose, a cherry on molten chocolate cake 🤤). Which makes me shiver and scream, that much I want to jump into writing it again. But the more I am thinking about the plot and fitting everything I need into it (of course writing it down), the more I'm surprised that I am able to figure out something that seems damn complex to me and my three brain cells 😂 I want to be proud of this story. I want it to be... maybe not perfect, but as good as I can see, it can be. And I enjoy the idea of growing as hobby writer. It makes me really happy. Also it's my first serious CRIME story. I know I said before that I always wanted to write crime. I always thought though it's out of my range, you know, I'm too dumb to bring something interesting that other people could possibly like as I do. But with this story I'm trying new things (like bringing Marauders to life), I'm thinking in advance, I'm on both sides: the detective and the serial killer and... GOSH. I really think it will have sense and be worth to waste some time on reading it, lol!

Also there is Snarry AUctoberfest on the way and, you know, I decided I'll try to write something for the fest for the first time! (It's my year of many first times and I really like it!) Funny thing, it appears that my fic for the fest will be a little test to what I want to do with "Infraction." When it occured to me (don't ask how it happen, but the idea I've had in mind turned 180 degree and I couldn't help it! Had to just go for it 😂) I was stunned. But in the same way it's a great opportunity to try new things, see how it will go and how it will work before I'll jump back to my baby.

If anyone checked "Infraction", please don't be mad or sad or... disappointed or angry (?), that I'm not updating it yet. This fic is absolutely my main focus and I'm tinkering and working on it. As for everything, I need time (and probably cut some other projects while I will write it; so less drawing going to be main part of the writing process 🙃 I suppose in the last quarter of the year; except if I'll have my holiday from work!)

Ah, dang. I wrote a lot here, I suppose? Less shite than messy personal stuff, but still something I guess, I wanted to share? Even if I think it's pointless and worthless, because who cares, lol. I'm learning, trying to share, I think. I should, as I wasn't doing it at all and it suppose to help me to... leave the shell of person that other people think I am. Because I grew to be someone irl that I'm really tired of being. Of pretending to be. How stupid it all sounds it's beyond me and I still deny to admit it.

#snarry #Severus Snape #Harry Potter #Muggle London #and some personal nonsense

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disposal-blueeee · 5 months

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stuff i never finished and why

hello and good night . i'm just gonna ramble about stuff so yeah

swings

oh man i really loved this drawing . but it was a PAIN IN THE ASS .

i had a bunch of problems with this one . i spent an embarrassing amount of time doing the line . then after i started painting it on Ibis paint i realized that i should've done the line with a textured brush .

then the background . i really couldn't make it look nice even if i tried . i spent so long just trying stuff and searching for references but i just couldn't get it right . the colors and the lightning kept looking weird .

and just when it was looking decent , oh no the file is corrupted !!! and if i wanted it back i would have to go through a speedpaint of a drawing that took me 28 hours ( i actually tried it 😭😭 but it was taking so long and after some time the app crashed )

so , i decided to just give up . i was already fed up with it . maybe some day i'll try to redraw it or something

edit : oh wait a second . this drawing makes no sense without the background . edgar looks like that because there's supposed to be a puddle under scriabin's swing and he's trying to get edgar wet with it

otgw x chapter 20 / 21

i just said i loved the other one but THIS ONE . this one is SO PRETTY and i was so excited to try some new brushes and overall just finish this . excited enough to start painting edgar without even finishing scriabin's line .

i was using a small tablet my friend let me borrow . it was actually so helpful because i could draw on my phone with it !! i used to work on this when i was at school .

then i started having problems with the background . again

then my friend told me that his mom didn't agree with him giving me the tablet and that he should give it to his sister instead so i had to give it back . great . at that point i didn't feel like finishing it so

random reference i found in pinterest

this is like a month old maybe ???? i just thought " oh this would be such a fire pfp " and after finishing the sketch i was like " alright i'll finish this tomorrow " ( i never finished it )

mostly didn't finish it because i didn't have any idea to make it look lifeless and tragic . oh well . maybe i'll try it someday i still think it's cool

papa's cheeseria

this one isn't really unfinished . i just wanted to make a doodle sheet but never drew anything else so now he's just there . alone in a blank space . poor guy .

so yeah . everytime i play papa louie's games i always make the workers look like edgar and scriabin . i thought this default outfit looked pretty cool so so i had to draw it

#there's probably more stuff to add here but i lost a bunch of files when i changed my pc :((#also i have another one i really wanted to add but it's oc related so so nope #i tried so hard with the swings one but after some time i just felt like the drawing expired ?????? somehow #like that just wasn't how i used to draw anymore . so i just gave up #the same thing happened with the otgw x 20 / 21 one and it makes me so SAD #i don't even know how that one popped in my head .#one day i just remembered over the garden wall existed thanks to a friend posting some art about it #and idk i just had to draw them like wirt and greg #anyways back to rambling about my life woohoo #i'm i'm doing so bad rn #but let's pretend i'm not . alright #this year will be tough .#vargas #vargas zarla #scriabin vargas #zarla s #edgar vargas #sunny's rambles #sunny's art

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slightly-warmer-hibiscus-tea · 24 days

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CW: OC talk + Rambling / Blood / Gore / Censored Nudity (character sheet) / Mentions of Drugging

(idk why these warnings are so intense, but I swear it's all just silly OC talk T^T)

I’m kinda sorta working on more (comprehensible) TS OC stuff in between studying right now… I wanna hurry and talk about them but without info dumping (if given the opportunity I will without hesitation 😔…) because in terms of the best stories I have conjured up for OCs in general Naudedel and Noble are surprisingly good and I’m very excited to share how deranged they are together…

Right now it’s just about making Naudy readable and working on extra fun stuff… like monsters!

I’m trying to work out his “monster” form…. The concept is there, but the execution is just not ticking the right boxes for me right now… also, the line art at the end is old and probably will go unused, but thought it was something to add here because like hehe look at my deranged son :)

When it comes to the writing I'm going to split it into two chapters. The first half will be a summary+ of his upbringing, and the second on how he fucked up his arm and why. Just enough info to get a read on what his deal is pretty much. I just need to edit the first chapter and rewrite some parts then it's ready to annoy the world!

I'm trying to think of a good design for his original mother... I'm thinking dark hair and milf (¬‿¬)･ﾟ✧ ... honestly I need to start drawing out the designs for all the other TS OCs I've accumulated over the year (?) here's a fun list-

Hickery (bloodhound OC... dilf oc...I've already been made fun of for his name, but it stuck to me so I'm keeping it!)

Maya (another bloodhound OC)

Cove (Hound's ex-husband)

Cetcher's gf + informant, who still needs a good name...

and that one guy! (doesn't have a name yet... but is important in Hound's part of the story... she bashed some of his guys in the back of head with a hammer... it was a whole thing... Leander got involved... gang war stuff, don't worry about it...)

There are technically more OCs, like that Hightown lady Noble befriended during their first few weeks in town. However, I'm not sure if I'm including her in the final plot meeting. But yeah, anyway I'm rambling so on to Noble news!

For Noble, everything is plotted out in advance surprisingly…character playlist and all... just need to find the words to explain their story other than “parasite with a weird God complex feels guilty” I do have some old memes and art of them though!

Noble curse stuff...

Childhood cult stuff...

Current reality...

Poor person masquerade dress censored for tumblr...

Noble folks!

I actually wrote out a whole little thing for the black dress in a what-if scenario of...

"Oh! ,,,What if there is a masquerade in Hightown and Noble sneaks in to get some information on a certain individual who might know a thing or two about curses, but turns out the whole event if devious and their all eating babies or some fucked up shit,,,, and what if while sneaking around they see Leander and are like 'what's he doing here?' and they lock eyes but he ignores them as he ducks into a closed off area with some important looking people,,, once he comes out he walks past them and they lock eyes again as he leaves,,, Noble chases after him and once they catch up they get to see his cold and detached side right before he hides them from the other guest,,, after they talk for a bit, or more like Leander talking over them and their worries as he slowly wipes their memories while they protest that it's not fair only to wake up the next day back in their room,,, thankfully their curse is good for more then just silly bouts of insanity so they have a hunch on what happened, everyone around them who knew where they went the night before were obviously worried and the general consensus is that they might have been drugged and should go check in with Kuras just in case (wow this is getting long...) but on their way to the clinic they run into Leander and of course discusses their current problem with him ,,, words are exchanged,,, a kabedon may occur,,, as he whispers in their ear,,, all fun till he erases their memories again, or at least tires before receiving a little gift that makes him look at this whole curse thing from a different angle." DEEP BREATH! ...Anyways... yeah.

But it was taking so long to write out that I ended up losing motivation so yeah... like everything else we will pray the motivation comes back so I can finish that... plus who knows, I might make an x reader version of it if I can. (don't hold your breath... I'm extremely slow)

Anyway, I'm gonna to shut up now because I've yapped enough. I'mma make some hibiscus tea (ironic) and head to bed... Night night, if you made it this far, thank you for listening to my craziness <3

#rambles #oc: naudedel #oc: noble #touchstarved oc

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waffles-art-writing · 1 year

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One Hell Of A First Mission - Task Force 141!Platonic x F!Reader - JOKER

Summary: The very first mission you (JOKER) go on with Task Force 141, you end up clearing a house and finding the one person you need to find wasn’t there anymore. You’re then quickly flown out to meet the Los Vaqueros which results in you jumping off a cliff and being helped out by the one person you wish you never had to work with again. (THIS FOLLOWS THE LINES OF THE START OF THE COD:MWII 2022. And is before the events of JOKER and the previous parts)

Proof Read: NOPE

Pairing: Task Force 141!Platonic x Female!Reader

WordCount: 5k

Age Rating: 16+ preferably

Codename: JOKER

KEY: Y’all should know this by now… Y/N - Your Name so on and so forth

Warning/Info: Normal COD Stuff, Guns, violence, swearing, depiction of action, horrible writing on my part. Kinda a slow burn but it is the back story of how JOKER join the 141. Philip Graves gets his own fuckin’ warning. Sorry not sorry. A lot of time skips, because I’m following the plot of the game for this one the next chapters coming!

PLEASE READ THE PREVIOUS PARTS TO GET A BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF JOKER! (If you want) This does take place before the events of JOKER and the previous parts.

Previous Parts can be found here: MASTERLIST (And other things I’ve written)

TagList: @studywithrosie01 Sorry for tagging you but you’ve shown so much love for this series so I thought I should tag for you this part! I hope you don’t mind! And @robins-fanfics (I hope I got the right user name lol) (Tell me if you want to be added or taken off the tag list for this series!)

———————————————————————

Your boot taps the ground rapidly, hands curled around the gun in your lap. “Calm down kid, they aren’t that scary” Price states, you’ve known him for a long while. He’s practically your dad at this point, he helped you throughout your career in the military. Pushed you to your limit to get you into the SAS which you’re beyond thankful for, yet right now you’re wondering if that was a bright idea. You’re meeting up with the Lieutenant of the Task Force that Price has made. You were the first one to meet Laswell in person, she had a nice, friendly smile but you could tell she is tough as nails. “I know Captain, but… he’s ‘The Ghost’ the man everyone is scared of, he bloody appears outta nowhere!” You state, looking over at the bearded man, he shakes his head lightly. “Well, you’ll be following his lead for now kid. He’s being instructed by Shepherd on this mission” you sigh at hearing this, you’ve had a few run-ins with the US military a few times. They couldn’t understand your accent for the life of them, that’s one of the many cons from living in a household with multiple accents under one roof.

You have no clue what this mission is going to be like, you’re meeting up with another man apparently. He’s meeting you and Lieutenant Riley at the tarmac, just as you’re scheduled to fly out. You can’t help the nerves that are filling your energy, the jitters of anticipation and the fear of what is to come next. “I’ll see you soon kid, stay safe” Price states, drawing you out of your running mind. You nod to him as you give him a fist pump, a light head bump. You two have always done that, a fist pump which turns into a light head bump of good luck, and see you soon. You never part ways without it.

You steel your nerves as you walk out onto the air field, catching a plane to meet up with the Lieutenant and the new guy. Not sure what to expect of your new team mates when you meet them, or how they operate. But there’s excitement bubbling in your veins.

———

“So you’re the new kid?” A grumbly voice sounds out from behind you. Spinning on your heel you come face to face with the signature skull of Lieutenant Riley. “Yes Sir” you state, not breaking eye contact, even though the cold sweat dripping down the back of your neck is screaming at you to run. “Come on then” he states, walking past you, his large frame towering over you, gulping back the nerves you trot after him. Quickly falling into step with the man.

The engine and blades of the chopper are loud, the wind it’s creating ruffling your jacket as you stand next to the Lieutenant. Both of you have stopped when an armoured vehicle with a bunch of soldiers in the back pulled up. Ghost was talking with Shepherd, “The Sergeant?” Ghost questions, he knew you were coming but didn’t know himself and another person were going to be leading this operation. Your interest piqued when you hear him say that. You subconsciously readjust the balaclava that’s on your face slightly, the sinister joker-like smile staring at anyone who looks. You watch as men jump off the armoured vehicle, waiting to see who is this new Sergeant that’s going to be leading you and other men into a war zone with the Lieutenant.

A man in a dark jacket approached you both as soon as he jumped off the vehicle. A smirk on his face already. “Let’s get ourselves a win, yeah L.T?” He states, bumping the Lieutenant’s shoulder with his fist. “Save ya a seat, sir…” you watch the exchange with raised brows, the black war paint around your eyes cracking slightly. The man nods to you too, the smile back on his face as he jogs off towards the chopper. “See you on the Chopper, Lieutenant” you state, quickly following the Sergeant. You hear a faint “Fucking Hell…” from behind you, a short snort leaving you as you jump onto the ramp. Looking for a seat. Waving from the corner of your eye catches your attention, it’s the Sergeant. You smile under your mask as you make your way over, throwing yourself into the seat.

“They call me Soap!” He states, holding his hand out to you, you take his hand with a firm grip. “Joker! Good to meet ya!” You notice the Scottish accent, it’s interesting to hear one compared to all the English accents you hear on a daily basis. Your nerves have been drowned out by the adrenaline rushing through your veins. This Soap seems to have a good energy about him, you could get used to this.

————

“Bravo team offloads here. Alpha team stays on board to land down range. Both teams meet in the middle. Remember, we want Hassan alive, but this is capture or kill” the Lieutenant states as he approaches the ramp that is lowering to let Brave team out. Both you and Soap stand to follow Ghost, you flick down your night vision as soon as you step out. You snicker lightly at hearing Ghost saying “Keep up Soap” honestly surprised he didn’t say that to you instead.

You kneel in the grass, out of the way of the chopper as it takes off to drop Apha team off down range. You jog after Lieutenant Riley, keep a few paces behind him. Your sniper rifle in your hands as your Semi Automatic is strapped to your back. You hear the radio chatter of the chopper in your ear, it’s louder than the blood rushing through your veins as you weave through the ruins of a stone building. You're zoned in on the mission, keeping your eyes peeled for anything and everything.

Suddenly you hear the frantic calls from the chopper, the whooshing hissing sound of a RPG being launched echoes through the night. The flares are not helping the chopper for the second missile. You come to a halt at the top of the small hill, the ground shakes form the impact of the aircraft plummeting into the ground. “Shit…” you curse under your breath, your knee digging into the dirt below you as Soap crouches down on your right and Ghost on your left. “Alpha, what’s your status?” Ghost asks over the comms, the crackling sound of coughing breaks through the haze. “Alpha, how copy?…” Ghost pushes for an answer. “Shit…” you curse under your breath. You block out the conversation over the comms, raising the Sniper up. Watching the flames lick the ground like a hungry beast, another missile hitting the chopper along with countless bullets raining down onto the downed bird.

“Ghost we need to secure the crash site now” Soap calls, his eyes moving from the chopper to the Lieutenant. “First, we clear for Hassan, that takes the heat off Alpha. Then we secure the crash site. Clear?” The timbre of Ghost’s voice cuts through the air like a knife. “Roger that.” Both you and Soap reply. “Let’s move” as soon as his words leave his mouth, you’re off your knees immediately, quickly falling in behind Ghost. Your boots hit the hard earth like thunder on the horizon, your rifle up and ready. You weave around small bushes, following Ghost through the low walls of what looks like a garden. “Force up to the house” his command is clear as you branch off to the side, Soap filling the gap between you and Ghost. You position yourself on the other side of the door, looking down the scope of your rifle. You glance up at Ghost and nod to him, he nods back to you and Soap. You hear the muffled yells of “Kill all that they send here!” From the other side of the door. “Breacher Up” Ghost calls as he swings the heavy breacher into the wooden door.

—— Time Skip —— Mission With Los Vaqueros —

Your heart is thumping in your ears as you groan, pushing yourself to your hands and knees. “You good lass?” Soap questions, both of you just dropped down to a ledge on the side of a cliff. It has a hearty drop. You’re following a few of the men who work for Alejandro. Ghost is watching from above you, Alejandro with him. “Y-Yeah..” you cough, gripping your gun tightly as you turn around. “Oh hell no” you state, seeing the gap between the ledge you’re on and the one you have to jump to. Alejandro says something about cutting school and playing around these parts when he was younger. “Until the cartels moved in?” Soap quips before taking a running leap onto the ledge in front of you. Alejandro and Ghost jump down, quickly cutting in front of you and Soap. They easily shuffle along the small ledge on the side of the cliff, backs pressed against the wall as they move along it, you swallow down the nerves in your throat. Soap goes ahead of you, followed by Rodriguez - one of Alejandro's men - then you follow after. Your hands shake as you shuffle along the wall. Then the sound of a bullet flying past your head into the rock wall behind you makes you freeze. Ghost yells something that you don’t process as you watch Rodrigues get shot multiple times. His body falling away from the cliff, rag dolling down.

“JOKER MOVE IT!” Soap yells, ducking when a bullet flys over head. You shake your head free of fog, quickly shuffling most the way, taking the risk of leaping to the ledge. You do a tactical roll when you hit the ground, sliding up onto your knees. Breathing heavily, you don’t get a chance to breathe, Soap already pulling you up by your arm. You push yourself up onto the ledge that's higher, running after Soap and Alejandro. Ghost right on your heels. You throw yourself off the ledge onto the one that's lower, landing on your feet, stumbling into a sprint again. Rifle gripped tightly in your hands. You watch Soap disappear behind the lip of the ledge, realising you're gonna have to slide. Your hand falls behind you as you stick one of your legs out to brace yourself while sliding down the rough rock face, thankful you're wearing gloves and thick cargo pants. You stand just behind the others as they stand at the edge of the cliff, Ghost sneers out a “You led us to a dead end, mate.” You internally curse Alejandro.

Your blood runs cold when you see the Mexican soldier launch himself off the cliff, yelling out “We jump from here!”. “WHAT THE FUCK!” You yell, quickly looking over the ledge. “Don’t lose your weapon” he yells just before he lands in the water. “Your turn, Sergeant!” Ghost states, both you and Soap look between each other. “See ya down there, Lass.” He quips, doing a two finger salute before jumping. You back away from the ledge slightly, your head whips towards the Lieutenant. “Go kid, there’s no time! We stay here, we’re dead. Now jump!” you gulp as you tighten your grip on the rifle, you take a running leap off the ledge. You plunge into the icy water, your eyes screwing shut just before the impact. You quickly resurface, the water soaking the balaclava. Not helping with breathing, your breathing is heavy as you tread water. “You good, hermanos?” Alejandro asks. “Affirm” Ghost states, he’s next to you. “Soap?” The Scotsman nods his head “Breathing” he quips. “Joker?” You let out a small cough, shaking your head lightly to get the water out of your face. “Alive…” you mumble.

“Move down river to the bridge. Use the rocks for cover” Alejandro instructs, you all take off swimming down the river. You’re thankful you're going with the current, cause god knows you would’ve bailed and just went on land if you were desperate enough. Alejandro tries contacting someone on comms, you're too focused on not letting your heavy tactical gear get caught on anything under water, or drag you to the river bed. “Radio’s picking up somethin.” Soap states, you’re in the middle of the group, your smaller size getting dragged by the current quicker than the others. “Sounds American” Ghost states, he’s just behind you on your right. “Great, Yanks” you sneer. Everyone dives as soon as a vehicle comes into view, Alejandro stops behind a rock. Soap right behind him, Ghost a little further down. Before you can even attempt to stop at one of the rocks, Ghost grabs the strap of your vest, dragging you up next to him. “Thanks Lieutenant.” you mumble, you are situated just below the large long log that’s fallen across the river, resting on the large rock both you and Ghost are behind. You duck occasionally whenever bullets whiz past your head. Your feet slip and you plunge into the water, resurfacing quickly. Gasping for air as you grip onto the rough rock, you're thankful for the strap on your stifle still around your shoulder. “Fuckin hell” you curse.

“Keep pushing up river.” Alejandro calls. You groan as you struggle to keep your head above the water, and your gun trained on the shore where the enemies are. All three of the men are six foot plus, while you're below all their chins on flat ground. You dive underwater, seeing Ghost come to a stop at another set of rocks, Alejandro and Soap go around the two of you and perch themselves slightly down from you. You practically throw yourself onto the rock shelf that's just below the water, taking the short time to regain your breath. “Move up river! Go!” Alejandro calls again, you groan as you see them move off. Your eyes meet Ghost’s for a second. You bite your tongue and push off the rock, following after them. You dive under a log that's just above the water's surface. You resurface just behind a rock, coming face to face with a Mexican soldier who has their gun aimed at you, you're quick to train your rifle on them, letting a bullet lodge itself in the man's skull.

“The rivers slowing us down, mate!” Ghost calls, you can tell he’s agitated by being in the water for so long. “It gets shallow up ahead!” Alejandro states. “Oh thank god, the waters up to my fucking eyes!” You call, shooting down a few more men that are on the shore. You feel like your skin is in ice cold water, your clothing sticks to you as your plate carrier weighs you down. Boots slipping over the algae covered rocks, you just wanna rip the boots off your feet and the plate carrier off your chest. You push your way through the water, quickly grabbing the rock. You’re beyond thankful for the shallow water, you are crouched low behind a rock. You hear your lieutenant’s strong accent cut through the air, your stomach dropping when you hear what he’s saying. “Vehicles on the bridge!” You whip your head around to look at the bridge, “They’re not ours!” Alejandro calls “Fuck-! It’s the army!” You peek over the edge of the rock to look, eyes widening to see the heavily armoured vehicles roll onto the bridge. “Get to cover!” Ghost calls, you quickly duck back down and press your back up against the rock. “We have to hold here and get extraction” Alejandro states. Soap slides up next to you, Ghost next to him then Alejandro. “We can’t do shite against that armour!” The Scotsman states, you reload as you listen to the firefight happening.

Suddenly an American accent cuts through the firefight “This is shadow-1! Engaging the bridge north of your position. Danger close!” You realise who is speaking, it's Philip Graves, the man you’ve worked with in the past. “Who the hell is that?” Alejandro asks, “Commander Graves. Shadow Company. They’re with us.” Ghost states, he glances at you when he realises you’ve gone very quiet when the American’s voice cuts through. The rumble of the bridge getting hit by the large shots trembling the ground, you watch as the bridge crumbles “Shadow-1, Bravo 0-7! Good Shots! Fire for effect!” Ghost says over the comms. “All stations, no enemy movement detected. You’re clear.” Graves states over the comms, you sigh as you stand shaking out your shoulders. “It’s good to see you boys.” You grumble lightly under your breath when the American states this “Likewise, mate” Ghost states, he nudges you to move when Alejandro calls ‘This way!’ You fall into a run, splashing through the water, jumping over a few larger rocks. “Graves, we’ve located a vehicle for exfil.” Ghost states as you all run up the slight hill from the river towards a pick up. “Roger that. Be advised, we got a possible hit on Hassan, two kicks north of your position.” Grave states, you roll your neck as you come to halt by the back door of the pick up, climbing into the back. “That’s cartel land. They have a compound there.” Alejandro states, you’ve been quiet the entire time. “Load in!” Ghost calls. “Shadow-1, stand-by…” You watch as Ghost slides in next to you, Soap climbing into the front seat and Alejandro into the driver's seat. “I’ll drive,” Alejandro states. “You boys, good to roll up Hassan with some fire from the sky?” Graves asks, everyone looks at each other. The boys nod, you just shrug as you look out the window. Ghost watches you with a raised brow hidden under his mask. “Let’s wrap this fucker up, Graves” Soap states. “Solid copy. We are pushing to the target di-rectly. Shadow-1 out.” You slump back into the seat. Letting out a sigh, you rub the space between your brows, pushing the balaclava up a little.

—— Time skip to grabbing Hassan ——

“Breaching” Soap calls, the door gets bashed open by the Scotsman. “They’re here!” “Get the Major upstairs!” Multiple cartel members yell. You’re the first one to shoot down a few men and spot the man you’re all here for, you quickly switch on the comms, the throat mic switching on. “Shadow-1! Positive ID on Hassan!” You call, rushing forward. “He’s moving upstairs!” Soap calls, he’s right behind you, followed by Ghost and Alejandro. Grave’s brows raise when he recognises the female voice come through the comms. “Graves, he’s exiting the second floor! North-west side!” Ghost states over the comms. “Got a visual on Hassan!” Alejandro states, you're quickly moving across the second floor outside. You ignore whatever is happening over the comms, you enter the building again. “Get down!” Soap calls “Get down! Now!” Alejandro growls. “Get the fuck down!” You sneer, your sights aimed directly at Hassan’s head, “Who the fuck are you?” Hassan questions, his voice holding venom. The man who was with Hassan is now dead on the ground, Alejandro moves forward. “Mexican Special Forces, you're coming with us…” the restraints get secured around the man's wrists. You can see the anger in Alejandro's movements when he restrains Hassan, you keep your gun trained on Hassan. “Shadow-1, Bravo 0-7. Jackpot. I say again, jackpot. Target is secure.” Ghost states over the comms, you look over at the Lieutenant. Graves asks a question about the exfil, which Alejandro answers. Soap slaps a hand down on your shoulder, giving you a nod of approval. You nod back, a small smile hidden under your mask. A few moments of conversations between Graves and Ghost gets drowned out by the rumbling of heavy tires on the earth, your own stomach twists into uncomfortable knots as you realise that it's the Mexican Army. “For fucks sakes. Do we ever get a break?” You ask, the question not directed to anyone. “Not this time ‘round Lass” Soap states as he looks out the window towards all the heavy armoured vehicles.

Graves says something about the shadows being able to engage the convoy, the next thing you know is the whisper of a large 25mm round flying through the air. The deep thunderous sound of it hitting the earth shakes the building, the sound of metal crunching and being destroyed rings in your ears as you look around the room. The earth continues to shake when smaller rounds and bigger rounds make contact witht he earth, your blood is bubbling under the service, you need to move. You want to do something and not just sit around and wait for your next order. The next thing you know you're running down the stairs at breakneck speed, Hassan being dragged behind you as you kick open the door to the outside, the exfil vehicle ready for you all. Ghost cuts in front of you as you get out the door, followed by Alejandro then Soap who has Hassan in a death grip. You spin around keeping your gun up and looking for any movement that needs to be dealt with. “Come on! Come on!” Rodolfo calls over the comms, you are happy to see him again. Hassan spits something out that you don’t quite catch as the screeching of tires and the blood rushing through your ears is all you can hear. You do clearly hear Soap growl out a “Shut the fuck up!” When he shoves Hassan into the side of the Vehicle. “Fuuuuuck” you groan as you realise you're the smallest on the team, you immediately open the door and climb over the back seat into the back compartment of the vehicle. Rodolfo and Alejandro speak to each other in Spanish, you only make out a few words as you're trying to get comtoble in the one spot no one is supposed to really sit in these types of vehicles. “We’re good!” Soap calls, “Go!” Ghost growls. “Joker?” Rodolfo asks as he glances up in the rear view mirror, spotting you peeking over the back of the seat between Ghosts’ and Hassan's head. “Happy as Larry!” You joke, you're not comfortable by any means but you know you just want to get the hell out of here already.

—— Time Skip To Interrogation of Hassan ——

You sit on the hood of one of the Vehicles, the headlights cutting through the thick blanket of darkness that covers the desert. The animals of the night linger just beyond the lights. Alejandro and Soap drag Hassan into the middle of the group of vehicles, shoving him to his knees with a bag over his head. “On your knees” Soap growls out as he steps back. You got here before Graves did, you aren’t happy about having to conduct this interrogation with the American present, you hated working with him in the past and right now you still are sour about being near him, especially on a mission that you were hoping to just be yourself and the 141 accompanied by the Los Vaqueros. Graves is kneeling down setting up the laptop which has General Shepherd and Laswell on the other end, your Criss cross applesauce on the hood of the vehicle. “Y’all got a clear picture?” You cringe at the drawl in his words. You hear a “Crystal” and a “All Set” fromt he other two members of the video call. You inch your way forward to have your feet dangling off the edge of the hood as soon as Graves moves away, your feet coming to rest on the bumper. “Alright, we are live, folks” Graves states as he approaches Hassan, the bag no longer on the kneeling man's head.

“Do you sepal Arabic?” Hassan questions, looking up at Graves.

“No one other than you” you mumble, knowing he won't hear you.

“No” Grave relplies.

“Farsi?”

“No.”

“Course not.” Hassan states with a smirk playing on his lips, “Then I’ll speak your bastardised Medieval English because you are all uneducated street dogs” You jump off the hood to curse him out in every language that you have learnt, but you get held back by a heavy hand. You look over your shoulder at who has stopped you, Ghost shakes his head lightly knowing that anger that is bubbling in you. You have too much adrenaline still coursing through your veins.

“Ahh, see… we’re getting off to a bad start here, Hassan” Graves starts as he tucks his thumbs into the top of his tac vest and looks down at the ground, something he always does when he's about to interrogate someone. “You are talking to a Quds Force officer” Hassan states. Graves leans in slightly, “You’re the commander of a foreign terror organisation” “I can say the same to you.” You know Hassan is gonna get under everyone’s skin, but you know damn well that Philip Graves has that skill as well. “What’s your target, “Major”?” You almost snort at the way Hassan’s brows scrunch in displeasure.

“What was your target when they sent missiles to my land?” Hassan questions.

“Oh well, wild guess… To nail your ass” Graves looks down at Hassan.

“So insolent and foul-mouthed. You will learn to respect me when your nation sees fire”

Graves steps closer to Hassan “You are in bed with the cartel, Hassan” he starts “If you disappeared, no one would know where to look for the fuckin’ stain” he growls out through a tight lipped frown.

A small shiver runs down your spin when you hear Hassan let out a small tiny pathetic chuckle of a ‘ha’.

“I have no doubt you’ll take pleasure in torturing me.” Hassan states when he looks back up at Grave from shaking his head lightly, a smile on his face. This time Soap speaks, his voice accent thick compared to the others.

“Who’d you get American missiles from?” You lean your elbows onto your knees, you jerk lightly when you suddenly hear General Shepherd speak. Almost forgetting him and Laswell are on the video call.

“I don’t care who they’re from. I wanna know where they’re going.” You almost want to yell at the older man, for overpowering Soap’s question which was a good question.

Graves was looking at the laptop before stepping away from Hassan, that's when the laughing yaps of coyotes cut through the air. They sound close, not too close but close enough for you to not feel comfortable. Graves walks a few half paces before turning around to look at Hassan. “Take a look around, Hassan” he states before stepping up the man and leaning down to get in his face “Now you can either become part of the food chain or you can start talking.” You watch the conversation from the shadows, just like your Lieutenant. “I’m a hostage here.” Hassan states, “This is illegal.” Alejandro speaks up from behind Hassan. “You’re a prisoner of war.” Hassan turns to look over his shoulder at the Mexican. “Iran is not at war with Mexico. I’ve broken no laws.” He turns to look back at Graves and motions his head to his surroundings “These men and their commanders are the law breakers.” He glances over towards you and Ghost but you can tell he is mainly looking at the laptop, he still makes eye contact with you through the haze of the lights, and with Ghost. You stare the man down, the dark oil paint on your skin making your eyes stand out against the rest of your dark outfit.

Ghost takes a small step forward “You and your beloved General Ghorbrani broke every—-” “DO NOT SPEAK HIS NAME!” Hassan yells, cutting Soap off. “You executed him and you will pay for your crimes…” he pauses briefly “Only god can help you now-” he yells in his mother tongue. You understood him barely, you wanted to snatch a knife from Ghost’s plate carrier and throw it between the screaming man's eyes. You attention cuts to below you, where General Shepherd's voice comes from the laptop “I want this bastard in permanent custody or looking up at the goddamn grass…” he sneers, Laswell is quick to cut in “General, killing Hassan is an act of war, keeping him is illegal. Right now, he is too hot to hold.” She’s right, you all know this is illegal but you’re still doing it. “Tell me you’re getting something actionable, Laswell.” The general growls, you move to slide off the hood of the vehicle when Laswell states something about working on it.

You stand next to Ghost who has moved over slightly to allow you to jump down. You both watch as Graves brings the laptop onto the hood of the vehicle. Grave's voice lowers as he looks at the laptop. “Actual, let me finish this” you tense up his words, you glance over at Soap and Alejandro then to Ghost who is just staring at Graves with no emotion in his eyes. Yet you can still see the thoughts playing like a movie. You focus back into what Shepherd is saying, only catching the end half of his sentence. “Without proof we need to turn him loose. See where he leads us” you watch as Graves leans away, Soap quickly walking up and leaning into the conversation. “He’s right here. You can’t be serious” his voice is low gravely when he speaks, his accent a strong contrast to the others. Graves moves off the side slightly, Ghost as step forward an inch, his arm coming in front of you when he sees Graves look at you. “I’m afraid I am, son.” Shepherd says. You look down, looking at the phone in Ghost’s hand. “Laswell, did we get anything from his phone?” You bet Ghost to it, he looks at you with a clearly raised brow, you can tell. You give him the same look. “Affirmative. We got a hit.” Laswell states, “Good” the General pauses “Now take him back and let him go”. Ghost moves slightly, making eye contact witht eh eyes and nodding his head. Alejandro bags and drags Hassan to his feet, Ghost slyly puts Hassan’s phone back in the man's pocket when he walks past. You notice this as you have done it many times, but you were taking the phones and not giving them back. You hear the familiar ‘thunk’ of the laptop closing, you nod to Soap who seems pissed. Not surprised.

#fanfic #cod fanfic #cod mwii #cod x reader #ghost cod #ghost mw2 #simon ghost riley #soap mactavish #call of duty modern warfare #soap cod #alejandro cod #rodolfo mw2 #philip graves #captain price #slow burn

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randomyuu · 2 months

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so hold my hand (consign me not to darkness) [1/4]

Ah, yes. The fic that made me realise I’m in desperate need of Cursed Spirit Gojou in my ever-growing favourite GoYuu tropes.

Content Warning!

Major Character Death. Other characters are disrespectful to the corpse.

I highly suggest you read the fic first, or just the fic, since I don’t think I was properly able to adapt it into drawings. While I managed to use roughly two weeks of on-and-off planning, researching, and storyboarding, I only had a full week to finish it. You can read more of my thoughts below the comic if you’re curious.

Title: so hold my hand (consign me not to darkness)

Author: qalb_al_louz

It’s ongoing, and as of this drawing, the fic is in its third chapter. While this is (sexually) SFW, always be mindful of the tags! Please keep yourself safe and sound.

Please read from right to left, and enjoy!

You can only upload 30 images in one post, huh Damn, I gotta divide it into parts

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

Alrighty, I'll put my watered down unhinged thoughts below. No extra drawings down there if you're curious haha (unless you want to see the storyboard and the characters' full body character sheet, lemme know). You can skip the stuff underneath the Keep Reading for all parts.

This fic had me grinning from ear to ear every time I read this. The atmosphere, how it goes from POV to POV—of pure fear and panic—and the peak excitement I got when Yuuji properly meets Gojou, like brooooo 😭

Gosh I cannot emphasise how much I love this fic. I’ve always been wanting to make a whole comic out of it, especially since it was 2 chapters and it doesn’t look like the author will update it, but it just… kind of forgotten ∠( ᐛ 」∠)＿

But then the author posted a new chapter and I told myself this is a sign I should really start.

also goddamn I was so naive to think I can tackle 2 chapters as comic—no I was in fact cannot

The moment I laid my eyes on the first paragraph, things were portrayed very vividly in my mind. The panel, the angle, Gojou's head rolling down... I was like, hell yeah. Then I continued reading and I finally succumbed to my desire to draw this out.

At first I want to adapt this into a vertical format like those manhwas. However the longer I try to learn and storyboard it... I am simply not yet comfortable with it, especially for such a big project. Even the 1st storyboard starts vaguely vertical before the panels quickly crammed into that B4-B5 format lol. The first sketch estimated 69 (heh) pages for 90% of chapter 1. I said "no" for my own sanity and fully focused on the usual manga format and it was narrowed down to 60. Still a lot though, quantity and time-wise. So with a heavy heart, I can only do the majority of chapter 1 :”) I really really want to draw Sukuna talks back to Gojou—do you have any idea how good that scene was??? Gojou tried so hard to restrain himself, he’s so other I love him 😭

Due to the sheer length of this comic (I'm still in disbelief), I have limit lots of things, and that includes the drawing. If you've seen my other JJK fanarts, they are more rendered than this one. Well, this one is purely sketched with the help of the eraser to tidy up some lines. This is also the first fanart that I did purely on Photoshop, so I can control the typesets and drawings in one place. Usually, I use Photoshop for panels and typesetting and Krita for drawing.

I don't really like Photoshop's brush, but it did really well in curbing my perfectionist tendencies, so that's good.

It's also been quite a while since I draw in general (sobs) so... yeah, you might find differences, or not ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ But I hope you enjoy it nonetheless!

I know setting is important, but maaan I genuinely won't miss rereading chapter 83-93 with a heavy focus on background and character locations. I just want to read the action and dialogue😭 However continuity is really important. But my spatial intelligence is almost non-existent even GPS sometimes can't help me. All I'm saying is that if you find some silly drawing mistakes, do forgive me ∠( ᐛ 」∠)＿I only drew all this in a week because otherwise I won't have another chance to complete this.

Well, lots of things I won't miss from this project, but haha let's talk about the characters instead because holy shit what was I thinking, starting this year drawing this many characters in the same project??? I have never drawn anyone here except for Yuuji, Gojou, Nanami and Megumi. I don't think I've ever drawn older Getou before. I already forgot how to draw my boy Yuuji and I gotta draw all these people???

This is what you call making a bad decision, kids. Don't do your "drawing warmup" after months of not drawing and tackling a project of a scale way bigger than you've ever tackled before.

Thank you for reading this far! I hope you find my complaint entertaining! But make no mistake, I genuinely still love the fic. Drawing this, even with all the headaches it gave me, only makes me adore this fic even more.

Thank you very much to each one of you who follows and leaves comments and tags on my silly art—it never failed to make my day :D And I sincerely wish this one also made your day or even made your minute! I'll see you in the next part!

#yuu's art #jjk-fic-fanart #jjk-ship #五悠 #goyuu #goyu #5u #gojou x yuuji #shibuya arc #shibuya arc canon divergence #lots of characters on this one #kenjaku #chousou #mahito #jogo jjk #gojo satoru

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kadextra · 14 days

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so on a whim I started reading omniscient reader’s viewpoint manhwa

..and got hooked on the story so hard that I easily blasted through all available eps in less than a week. istg they put dr*gs in this thing it’s so good???? 😭

[SPOILER WARNING! big ramble ahead. if you’ve never read it, leave this post. consider checking it out you won’t be able to put it down]

lets get this out of the way first.

RAHHHHHH KIM DOKJA….. KIM DOKJA I LOVE YOU

GUYSSSSS 🥺 LISTEN. HE’S SUCH A GOOD PROTAGONIST. MY TRAUMA BOY. MY DUDE WITH THE POWER TO INFODUMP PEOPLE TO DEATH. YOU SELF-SACRIFICING IDIOT. his cunning intelligence makes him super attractive what can I say, I LOVE smart mcs with ambiguous morality and self sacrificial nature

here’s a big ✨shut your mouth✨ to every character who’s said he’s ugly- get your eyes checked, get a job get away from him (I know it’s because of the fourth wall’s filter it’s not their fault I’m just being silly)

the fourth wall is such a cool power to have. the complexity of how it acts based on his perception of fiction vs reality as the reader …. that’s very interesting and well thought out!!! how it lowkey has a consciousness too and it’s so tied into his mental state makes me want to psychoanalyze this guy even more. probably one of the most unique powers I’ve seen created and explored in a story tbh

I think the entire system of how the world works is really well done in general. constellations watching the apocalyptic bloodbath via livestream and sending donos to their favorite little guys shouldn’t work as well as it does and cracks me up so much 😭 (uriel is the best). I enjoy learning about all the irl different fables, history & mythologies too. plus doing my own research is fun! I did a deep dive through the web to learn about dokkaebi folklore lol I’m having a good time

I also related hard to how dokja read TWSA throughout his life, the story was a companion for him. got choked up bc I reflected on how much my own favorite companion stories for years mean to me. there’s been situations I’ve thought “what would (character) do?” dokja saying stuff like “what would joonghyuk do?” felt like I got called out <3 I’d probably be the same as him if my favorite characters suddenly came to life

anyways yeah I caught up with the manhwa looked online and discovered it comes from an already completed novel with over 500 chapters and the manhwa is barely a third into adapting it though it’s been releasing every week for 4 years. and that it’ll take like 10 more years to finish. I then planted my face in my hands and screamed with despair

I’ll shrivel up waiting to see what happens……………heyyy woahhhh.. whats this light of salvation ? the novel file just completed download on my phone ? that’s crazyy wow I opened it ? im scrolling it right now ? omg I’m telling myself in the mirror “pace yourself, try to space your reading out do NOT read too fast” ?

jokes aside im excited, first I’ll take some time to read back through the earlier chapters for extra context of scenes! >:D after I finish doing that…. pls pray for my self-control to try stretching this for as long as possible. I’m pumped to see what happens next with this demon king part so maybe I’ll read along with the manhwa unless I get too impatient heh

to conclude- I had no idea the fandom of orv was so passionate. while closing my eyes to spoilers, I was looking at beautiful fanart and animatics (watched this one and ascended that’s one of my fav rin songs). I can tell how much you guys love the story, there’s always going to be people like me who get interested so keep it up :D if the fandom does end up reading this, ummm *knocks on the door* hi im new

I will likely talk about it more in the future!! tagging under #orv & “ #kade reads ”. might draw fanart on my art blog too bc brainworms <3 happy reading everyone

#orv #omniscient reader's viewpoint #kade reads

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