#my five years of editing has trained me for this very moment

[culperscomet]

TURN “I Know The End”

Every good fandom needs an honorary ’i know the end’ edit that’s just how it works. Please go ahead and direct all hate to @tallmadgeandtea it was her idea I am guiltless (kidding ofc). I fear I will be getting jail time for this and having my editing privileges revoked. But I simply had to do what must be done.

Please watch until the end. I spent my entire spring break working on this and nearly caused my phone to overheat.

#turn washington's spies #turn amc #benjamin tallmadge #abraham woodhull #anna strong #caleb brewster #robert townsend #culper spy ring #american revolution #my five years of editing has trained me for this very moment #edit time of SEVEN HOURS

[indecisivemuch]

Look at me

Pairing: Luke Castellan x Reader

Summary: Being oblivious to Luke’s feelings, you tried to get over him by getting a boyfriend, who just does not know how to treat you right. Inspired by the song ‘Boyfriend’ by Dove Cameron ~ “I could be a better boyfriend than him.” (jealous luke, friends-to-lovers, fluff, angst, pining, happy ending.)

Warning: Just the boyfriend being an asshole and unwanted physical touch for a split second, but nothing serious. Sorry if your name is Cole. Violence (physical fighting)

Note: I’m sorry if there are a lot of errors, I haven’t had the chance to edit this thoroughly so if it feels like a train wreck, then I'm sorry. I just needed to write this out, get it out there, so I can go back to revising for my exams in peace lol, cause this plot/idea has been at the back of my head, I could not stop thinking about it or study properly. Lowkey hated how this one turned out, but whoops.

Word count: 4.8k

“People say that eyes are the windows to one's soul,” you once told him. You two have been best friends for a very long time: five years of being attached to the hip. Yet, you were completely oblivious to the way he looked at you. Even everybody at camp noticed and thought it was bound to happen. They were so sure that Luke and you would end up together. So imagine everybody’s surprise when something else occurred.

It happened right in front of Luke: Cole - a boy from Cabin 5 and son of Ares - asked you out, and you said yes.

It has been two months since that day. All Luke could do was sulk as he watched his best friend slip away. Of course, you still tried to spend as much time as possible with him. But even then, things have changed. There were no more of those content silences between the two of you. There were no more carefree laughs that made Luke feel like you two were the only ones that existed in this place. He used to walk you back to your cabin every night, hugging you good night or kissing your forehead close to your hairline if he felt brave enough. Moments like those convinced him you two would be like that forever. But his solace was taken in a split second. Now, you were so near, yet so out of reach. 

It didn’t help that he saw you every day, like right now, as you sat in the middle of a gathering hosted by your cabin. Gods, even the wind seems to be in love with you, judging by the way it was blowing through your hair as if it was trying to twirl itself around those lovely locks that Luke himself used to always tug behind your ears. The sight of you always bathed him in this warm feeling, like the morning sun. Hence his nickname for you: sunshine. 

Then his brown eyes landed on the figure next to you, and they hardened. He has witnessed it all: Cole’s backhanded compliments, ignoring you on your birthday, leaving you alone to talk to his friends, occasionally flirting back with girls who batted an eyelash at him, and then blatantly telling you that you were overthinking it. Luke knew he could treat you so much better. 

You were sitting with your boyfriend and his group of friends, who often gave you weird looks or snickers. Gods, if it was him you were with, he’d never make you feel excluded. He would have his arms around you and defend you if his friends ever made snarky remarks. Not that that would ever happen anyway; you were well-loved at camp, and all his friends loved you. But he would treat you well, nevertheless, not like that dumbass sitting next to you.

One of your favorite songs started playing, and Luke watched as you genuinely smiled for once tonight. You touched your boyfriend’s arm, muttering something to him. Luke knew exactly what you were saying to Cole because you and Luke used to do this together. Except, you never had to ask Luke. 

Whenever your favorite tunes were on, Luke would immediately pull you out of your seat and dance with you, laughing as if nothing mattered at all. Nights like those, he liked to imagine that the stars above envied them and what the two of you had. Now? He felt like one of them, watching from the outside. 

Luke’s jaw clenched as he saw Cole shrugging off your hand on his arm. Gods, Luke felt like that idiot was taking you for granted, and his blood boiled. Before Cole, Luke used to always orchestrated some excuse to have you touch him - getting injured on purpose sometimes just to watch you frantically panic over his wounds and take care of him, volunteering to help you out with swords training just to touch your hand and pretend to adjust the way you were holding it, hugging you every time he greeted you and so on.

For a second, your mask slipped, and you had that look on your face, like something had left you emotionally wounded. It was the kind of look Luke would kill to never see again, and oh, the things he would do to get rid of Cole. Luke had to wrestle with the thought of marching up to Cole and beating him to a pulp. However, he did stand up to approach you.

You felt a hand touch your shoulder. When you peered at the person standing, your eyes immediately glimmered as they caught Luke’s. However, something foreign was gleaming in his eyes. The Hermes boy has always looked at you sweetly. But the way he was looking at you right now was filled with something much more intense - borderline fervent, like an obsession. 

Cole finally glanced over at you for the first time the entire night. Unlike you, he instantly recognized the look in Luke’s eyes: hunger and longing. It was clear as day to everybody but you.

Luke extended his hand out for you to take and you understood right away. For the first time in two months, your hand touched his. Luke’s chest sunk and his breathing lost its usual rhythm for a second as your skin made contact with his. The Hermes boy finally looked over to Cole, and the Ares boy saw an immediate shift in his eyes. Now, they were filled with animosity and - the most obvious of all - heated jealousy. 

Luke led you away from Cole and started twirling you around. You let out a laugh - the kind that was infectious and has always brought a smile to Luke’s lips. You both sang along to the lyrics. For once, your relationship felt restored, just like the good old days. Was it wrong that this was the happiest you have felt since you got together with Cole? You shrugged away the thought as the song slowly ended. Luke settled with both hands on your waist while yours were around his neck. Usually, you would put your head on his chest as you both slightly swayed around. But now that you were in a relationship, you kept a bit of distance between the two of you. You gaze up at Luke, who was already staring at you sweetly. The moment was perfect. Gods, you almost wished to stay in it forever.

Meanwhile, Luke hoped he could convey his thoughts through his eyes - the unspoken words he wished he had told you sooner. Could you not see the infatuation coursing through his veins whenever he was with you? Could you not see that you got him at your beck and call? 

The look you gave him almost convinced him that you heard his thoughts. You leaned your head on his chest, caught off-guard by the speed of his heartbeat as it soothed you along with the music in the background. Feeling a heated look over his way, Luke glanced around and locked eyes with your boyfriend. Cole narrowed his eyes while Luke gave Cole a look of resentment and immense loathing. 

Gods, he could be a much better boyfriend than Cole.

“Hey, man,” when you heard your boyfriend’s voice, you lifted your head from Luke’s chest and withdrew your hands around his neck. “I’ll take over from here,” Cole practically pulled you away from Luke and started swaying with you. Instead of feeling happy that Cole finally danced with you after two months of dating, you felt wrong. Cole's hands were on your waist, but they felt sluggish like his heart was not in it at all. Your ear was against Cole’s chest, so you caught the sound of his heartbeat. It sounded…too calm, almost cold and shallow, causing you to twist your lips into a frown.

You glanced up at your boyfriend but saw him staring behind you instead. So you glanced back and caught a glimpse of Luke before getting pulled around by Cole, who roughly yanked your face towards him. He kissed you almost aggressively. There was something cynical and bitter about the way he was kissing you. 

Cole opened his eyes and conceitedly made eye contact with Luke. The Hermes boy glared at the sight of Cole handling you so roughly, claiming your lips so smugly. If it was him, he would be kissing you for you; he would be kissing you to show you how much he worshiped you and the ground you walk on, not to prove an empty point.

You finally managed to pull away when Cole let go of your chin. “All right, we’re done for the night, don’t you think?” your boyfriend muttered, quickly leaving you to return to his friends as if nothing had happened. Despite feeling slightly aggravated at Cole, you hated that you couldn't care less of his words at that moment, and the first thing you did was look in the direction Luke had been before. 

Yet, he was not there anymore.

~~~

Your cabin was not on the same side as Luke’s cabin for this match of capture the flag. You were fighting off some people who were on the blue team. Years of training with Luke paid off because you managed to point your sword at the person’s neck and grinned when they put their hands up in surrender. You continued perusing through the area, trying to regroup with your team or take down another blue team member. However, you almost tripped as you witnessed Cole on the ground with Luke on top of him, repeatedly punching his face..

“Luke!” you called out, watching as Luke’s action faltered, and his eyes darted around frantically around like a lost wild animal. However, Cole took advantage of Luke’s momentary distraction to land a hit on Luke’s face. The Ares boy got off the ground as Luke stumbled and went for another punch. However, Luke dodged it effortlessly and rammed Cole against a tree instead.

“Hey, knock it off,” you yelled, standing between the boys to stop their flight. Luke immediately backed off, afraid he would accidentally hurt you if he didn’t. But Cole, in the middle of his blind rage, still swung for Luke and ended up striking you across the face instead. Right when that happened, Luke pushed Cole again and rushed to your side to assess your injury. At that very moment, Chiron approached the scene with one of Cole’s friends next to him, who promptly told the man:

“It was him. Luke initiated the fight.” 

~~~

Luke wished for somebody to put him out of this misery as he stared at you from afar helplessly. He was so dotted that it hurt. Somebody must have answered his prayers because your eyes met his from across the field. There was a bit of sadness behind them, perhaps regret from how things ended yesterday. You whispered something to your boyfriend, but Cole did not even spare you a glance and waved his hand as if dismissing you from the discussion. Luke’s hand once again curled into a fist. He bit the inside of his cheek from the pain induced by his injury. The Hermes cabin counselor felt no bit of guilt in his body about his physical altercation with Cole. He felt smug at the sight of Cole with one black eye, busted lip, swollen cheek and a body sporting way more bruises than him. 

You deserved better. 

“Hey, stranger,” you greeted, sitting beside Luke. Almost immediately, he hooked one finger under your chin, tilting your head lightly as if he was afraid he might break you. The boy scanned over your injury, sighing at the sight of purple forming under your skin, indicating an emerging bruise. Even so, under the moonlight, you still looked heavenly to him.

“Devon said you initiated the fight. Is that true, Luke?” Luke frowned at the mention of Cole’s friend. Great, now he knew another idiot’s name. Meanwhile, you have asked this because you knew him. There was no way the boy you knew would lose control like this and swing his hands first. 

“No, but what’s the point of telling Chiron that? It’s two against one,” he breathed out.

“Luke, you’re literally the friendliest and nicest counselor here. Of course, he would believe you,” you reasoned. You sighed disappointingly as Luke only shook his head in response as if asking you to drop it.

Now, you two sat in silence. It felt the same as the comforting ones you have had with him before - the ones that made you feel like you were at home in front of your fireplace, curled up with a book. 

“Why are you with him?” and with that, the comfort evaporated as the air thickened. You and Luke rarely argued or even disagreed, so it felt like an unfamiliar territory every time it felt relatively tense between you two. 

“I know you, which is why I know that you’re absolutely miserable with him, so I don’t understand why you’re still with Cole,” Luke commented, though his voice was quiet because he was considerate of drawing this type of attention to you. He had seen it before - Cole causing public altercations and storming off and you running after him with tears emerging from your eyes. He did not want to put you in the same position.

“Y/N, please, as your best friend…” there it was again, the word that used to make you smile brightly, was now the same one that brought you pain. You wanted more. “...You deserve better,” he uttered, his eyebrows slightly scrunched as he looked at you with those eyes. There it was again, the look so intense that you were convinced they could swallow you whole. Yet, you could not interpret them. So, you looked away.

“Luke…” you said his name almost like a warning sign. The boy sighed at this. 

His fingers gently tilted your chin towards him, urging you to face him. There was so much contrast in the way he touches you and the way Cole does. You knew precisely why Luke wanted you to look at him: your eyes were your tell for him. Years ago, after you told him that eyes were the windows to one's soul, he told you that he knew this already because he had learned that your eyes will always tell the truth for you. That’s how, in so many instances, he would be the first to notice whenever you're upset. 

“Y/N, does he make you happy?” you stiffened at the question. Words choked up in your throat as your mouth opened to answer. You wanted to say yes so you both could get over this conversation. But you knew he would be able to tell you were lying. The way he looked at you right now, as if you were the only thing that mattered. He seemed so vulnerable. Little did you right at this moment, Luke was willing to surrender and let you go if you said yes.

“Oh, this is who you left me to talk to?” Cole's voice broke you both out of the trance. “The person who beat your boyfriend?” Cole passive-aggressively spat, sneering from above as he looked down at the two of you. You called out to your boyfriend, but he quickly cut you off with a quick “Unbelievable,” before walking away. But Cole did this on purpose. He liked the attention he drew, even if they were at your expense, especially because he knew you would chase after him.

“I’m so sorry,” you muttered to Luke on your boyfriend's behalf as you stood up to run after him. Luke frowned as he shook his head. If you were his, he would never allow you to apologize on his behalf, nor would he give a reason for you to ever do that.

“Uhm, what are you waiting for?” Annabeth’s voice broke Luke from his irritated state. “Go after her,” the young girl nudged.

“I doubt I should do that, Annabeth. Last time I was with him, he ended up in the infirmary.”

“Yes, but you need to go after her before it’s too late.”

“It’s already too late.”

“No, it’s not,” the girl stated sternly, and when Luke peered over at her, he recognized the look on her face. From experience, he knew better than to doubt when Annabeth was right. So, he stood up and walked in the direction where you disappeared after your boyfriend.

“Stop it, Cole. I don’t want to…” Your voice grabbed Luke’s attention as he started walking in that direction, eyebrows furrowed.

“Come on, this is the least you could do to make it up to me,” Cole replied. 

When Luke reached the scene, he almost went into an uncontrollable wrath when he saw Cole trying to take off your shirt as you objected and struggled out of his grip. 

“I said ‘let go,’ Cole,” you yelled this time, pushing him back. Upon finally doing so successfully, a figure stormed past you and immediately flung at Cole’s cheek, right at the spot that was already bruising. The impact knocked Cole to the ground as he wailed from the pain. Averting your gaze to the person, you saw Luke. Like a deranged bull, Luke grabbed Cole by the collar and lifted him up, going in for another hit, but you quickly stopped him, calling out his name.

Cole, who did not learn his lesson, spoke again, “Gods, of course! He runs to your aid again. You must be a good fuck for him to get this attached. How many times have you fucked him, huh? Gods, you’re such a whore, you know that?” If it were not for your hands stopping Luke and removing his grip from Cole’ shirt, Luke would have ensured Cole no longer had a face. 

“Cole, stay the fuck away from me. We are over.” Your words seemed to affect Luke more than Cole. It was as if Luke could feel an immense weight being lifted from his shoulders. “Let’s go, this is not worth it,” you told Luke. Cole barked a laugh at this.

“Man, you’re more trouble than it's worth. Do you know why no guys ever asked you out? You’re fucking difficult and clingy, that’s why. If it was not for that fucking bet, I would not have either.” Luke was about to launch at Cole but was caught off guard because you had already done it yourself. You punched him, aiming for his nose and teeth, making sure to break a few.

“You fucking bitch!” Cole spoke after he howled in agony. He spat out blood as his nose started bleeding, “Gods, you’re gonna pay for this.”

“Oh yeah? Come on!” you challenged him, motioning him to come over. Any sense of calm or restraint you had was long gone. “I’ll be the one sending you to the fucking infirmary this time,” right when you started approaching Cole again, you were quickly stopped by Luke. He stood behind you, one of his hands soothingly rubbing your back in an attempt to calm you down. Luke averted his gaze to Cole.

“If you know any better, then leave, Cole. And don’t come near any of us again, or I promise you…” Luke trailed off, shaking his head as his eyes bore the weight of the promise he left unsaid, leaving it to Cole’s imagination as to what Luke would ever do to him if he ever saw the boy again. Something seemed to dawn on Cole as he saw the dark look on Luke’s face. Cole finally decided to leave the scene, limping away from the area as he muttered some insults under his breath.

You turned around and inspected Luke’s hand, which started bleeding again through the bandage. Taking his non-injured hand in yours, you wordlessly dragged the boy to the infirmary. Despite the excruciating pain spreading through his injured hand, Luke blushed at your action and followed you like a lost puppy.

The Apollo person on shift was someone you knew, so you managed to convince them to let you do the work on the Hermes boy. You observed his hand again, peeling off the dirty bandage from it. As you went to grab disinfectant, Luke softly held you back by flipped over his hand that was in yours so that he could take a look at your hand instead.

“Are you okay?” His words made you swiftly look over at him instead. There was a sad look on his face as he sat on the infirmary bed. You haven’t seen him this hurt and dejected in a long time.

“Am I okay? You’re the one with the bleeding hand.”

“You punched him quite hard.”

“He deserved it,” you settled on answering, hesitantly pulling your hand out of his so you could grab the things you needed. 

“You know I had that handled, right?” you asked mindlessly, trying to fill the silence as you disinfected his hand and wrapped a new bandage over it. “I don’t need you to defend my honor or anything, Luke. I can hold my own ground,” you tried joking.

“No, I know you can hold your own ground. Besides, I wasn’t defending your honor,” he spoke softly, watching as you delicately held his hand with so much care. He wished you could hold him like that as well. A quivering sigh escaped his soft lips, his voice much less firm than he wanted it to be: 

“I was defending the girl I’m in love with.”

You immediately looked at him, only to see him already gazing up at you. It was as if a blindfold had been taken off, you finally understood what your other friends were referring to when they said that Luke had always “looked” at you. His eyes were filled with adoration. However, this time, they were also decorated with pain.

“I could be a better boyfriend than him,” he stated, almost like it was a fact, and your gut knew it was true, too. 

“So….Why not me? I watched you give Cole - a complete asshole - a chance with you. I watched him give you so much less than what you deserve. It pains me, but I still sit here and wait for you to look in my direction for even one second in the way I have always looked at you. I could be so good to you, Y/N. I waited for you to realize I could be the one who loves you so endlessly and treats you way better than all these guys combined. So…why? Please tell me why and put me out of my misery. Why is it not me?”

“Luke…” you rasped out his name. Despite the pain he was in, his heart could not help but throb for a second as it yearned for the sound of your voice calling out to him again. He almost scowled at himself for the way he was reacting to you. Gods, you managed to unravel him through the sound of his name from your lips. He hesitated for a second, wondering if he would even be able to take it at all - if he was given a chance with you. Would he be able to handle the way your skin felt against his, or would his heart burst into unstoppable flames? Would he ever be able to move on if you ended up breaking his heart, or would it remain in scattered pieces of you?

“I love you,” he uttered so effortlessly, which almost convinced you he had said it a thousand times before. In a way, he did, but only in his mind after every time he bid you goodnight. Gods, never did you think he’d say it out loud and put it out there. You almost said it before as well - out loud to the universe, but never brave enough.

“Luke, I never knew,” Luke wanted to sigh as he looked away from you. For the first time ever, he did not want to be vulnerable and let you see his eyes. The same ones that had been looking longingly at you for the past five years, and you were too blinded to see.

He could have sworn that he had been laying it on thick for the past years - all the touches, the looks, his actions. Luke would always linger near you and select you first every time he had to go on a quest. And if he ever were selected to go on one without you, the first thing he would do after returning is wrap his arms around your waist as he pulled you into a hug, breathing in your presence like it would bring him back to life from the gruesome battles he had to go through while out of camp. Did all those actions throughout five years not show you enough that he was infatuated with you? He wanted to reassure you that what Cole said previously was not true. Many guys wanted you but never asked you out because they knew he would be first in line no matter what. 

"Luke, please, look at me," Of course he obeyed. His eyes met yours - the ones he always tried to find in a crowd of demigods.

“I never knew that you were an option. I did not know that I could choose you. I thought that even attempting to tell you about my feelings would break our friendship forever. I didn’t know you felt this way, too. In fact,” you dryly chuckled. “I was giving Cole a chance because I was trying to move on from you.” Luke tugged you closer to him, his fingers lingering on your hips. Thousands of thoughts speared through him as he tried to collect himself. A glimmer of hope presented itself as his mind toyed with the idea of you wanting him too.There was no way he was letting you move on now, not when you both have mutual feelings. 

“I thought I was deep in the friend zone. Did you not see all the moves I pulled on you?” he asked.

“What moves?”

“Uhm—the physical contact?”

“I thought you were just touchy.”

“I walked you back to your cabin every night!”

“Well, I thought it was just a best friend thing?”

“The first thing I do after every quest is search for you, you’re always the first one I want to see.”

“I really, really thought it was because you were my best friend.” He groaned at all of your responses.

“But do know, Luke. You have always been my first option in everything. And I would have chosen you again and again, the first pick every round…if I knew you were up for it.” He groaned again, but this time out of temptation and satisfaction. He didn’t think the metaphorical butterflies were real. He slowly but surely stood up from the infirmary’s bed and wrapped his arms around your waist. You reciprocated, your hands around his neck. He leaned closer to you and gulped. He wanted to say the right words, do the right things and not mess this up. He took a deep breath and finally settled on what to say next.

“Can I kiss you?” He muttered in a low, raspy voice with a restrained manner, as if he was holding himself back. Five years of pining led him to this point. You almost melted at the sound of his voice.

“Kiss me, Luke.”

And he did. He pulled you up and arched down, connecting your lips together. He dove in as if he had been waiting for this day his whole life. He felt every breath knocked out of his lungs. He sunk himself into this moment like he was living for it rather than in it. He kissed you as if it was the only time he could and as if you would evaporate if he stopped. His hands moved to your face to embrace your cheeks in his palm.

You started moving your hands up his head and played with his curly hair. You tugged it slightly, and the action drew a moan from Luke. The sound caused you to break away. It made you flustered that you had evoked such an alluring sound from the Hermes boy. 

“I wanna go slow for you, I really do. But it feels like I’ve been waiting for so long. I want to be a gentleman and not skip steps. But I can’t wait anymore,” he whispered before whimpering against your lips, “please be mine.”

He went in for another kiss again, but you pulled away. His heart clenched at this. The boy bit his lip and wanted to scowl at himself for attempting to speed things up. He was too greedy and wanted things too quickly for you. He almost whined at the thought of losing the chance he barely had.

“That was not a question, Luke. Ask me, and I’ll give you an answer,” he stared into your eyes, and it almost set him on fire. He never saw that much passion in them before. It almost matched his, and that made his heart fasten again.

“Will you be mine, sunshine?”

“Yes, Luke. As long as you’re mine too.”

“I have always been yours.”

——————————

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[magicfootballstuff]

Strictly Unprofessional - part 2 (alexia putellas x reader)

Summary: You’ve just landed your dream job as a photographer at FC Barcelona Femení. The only problem? You hooked up with the captain five years ago and haven’t seen her since.

Part 2/9

Read other parts here.

———

It doesn’t take long to settle into your new routine at the club. On a typical training day, you spend your mornings outside taking photos of the players on the pitch and your afternoons in the media office editing and sorting through the photos on your computer.

Occasionally there’s something a bit different to do - you have to do photoshoots with a couple of new signings towards the end of the transfer window, plus some work for the club website and shop. You even get to stand in for one of the videographers when he’s off sick and while you’re not as familiar with film work as you are with still shoots, you enjoy the experience. Plus, it’s an entertaining day filming silly challenges with a few of the players for social media.

Your interactions with Alexia are limited and entirely professional. You still haven’t reminded her of the fact you met five years ago in Ibiza, and by now it’s far too late. You keep waiting for her to remember and confront you about it, but she never does.

When the season starts in September, you get to experience your very first away trip as everyone travels to Tenerife for the team’s second game of the new season. Some of the other backroom staff grumble a little bit, especially the older ones who don’t like having to leave their families for the weekend. But you’re young, single, and the closest thing you have to commitments in Barcelona are the houseplants that will surely survive for the two days you’ll be gone. The Barcelona team is starting to feel like a little family to you and a weekend away with them, especially one in sunny Tenerife, doesn’t really seem like work. 

But before you get there, you take photos of the players getting on the bus, photos of them getting off the bus, getting on the plane, getting off the plane… and so it goes on. Every moment of the journey is documented and only a fraction of the pictures you’ve taken will ever see the light of day, but the players must be used to it because they hardly seem bothered by the presence of the cameras.

It’s only when you finish your final shoot of the day - the players arriving at the hotel - that you get to relax.

“So, your first away trip, huh?” Mapi asks you, as she stands behind you in the queue in the hotel’s dining hall that evening. She’s one of many players who has been friendly since you started this job. “How are you finding it?”

“Tiring,” you admit, because you’ve been on your feet all day with barely a moment to rest. “But good. I got some cute photos of you and Ingrid on the plane.”

“I don’t remember seeing you taking any.”

“That’s because you were asleep.”

“No!” Mapi pouts. “You paparazzi’d me?”

“It’s my job,” you grin at her with a shrug.

“Can I at least see?”

“I’ll show you in a bit.”

You load your tray up with food, then as you start to walk towards a table where some of the other staff are sitting, Mapi catches your elbow with her hand.

“Come and sit with us,” she says, steering you towards a table where a few of the players are already eating. “We’re allowed to mix.”

Mapi sits down in an empty chair next to Ingrid and you take the seat opposite, more than aware of Alexia’s presence at the other end of the table, though she’s deep in conversation with Patri and Aitana and doesn’t seem to notice you.

“Show me the pictures then,” Mapi says, almost as soon as you’re sitting down.

Your camera bag is still slung across your body and you unzip it to take out the camera, loading up the photos you took today and scrolling through until you reach the ones you took on the plane.

“Here,” you say, angling the camera to show Mapi the photos. 

There are a few of her and Ingrid, all with Mapi’s eyes closed and her head resting on Ingrid’s shoulder. In the later photos, Ingrid has spotted the camera and poses with a smile and a peace sign while Mapi sleeps through.

“Oh, those are cute,” Ingrid says, leaning over to look at the camera screen.

“Do I always sleep with my mouth open?” Mapi asks Ingrid. 

“Sometimes.”

Mapi’s complaints have caught the attention of the rest of the girls at the table, Alexia included, and soon they’re all asking to see the photos.

“See, Mapi, this is why you should never fall asleep when there are cameras around,” interjects Alexia.

Mapi rolls her eyes as she gives your camera back and says, “Little Miss Media Training over there is always camera ready.”

“Oh, I’ve probably got some bad ones of her too,” you grin, sparing a glance at Alexia to test her reaction.

“Really?” Alexia asks, her eyes going wide.

“Show me!” Mapi says gleefully.

You scroll through the hundreds of photos you took today until you get to some of Alexia waiting to get on the bus from the airport to the hotel and click through them more slowly.

“She looks perfect,” Mapi comments as you show her each photo in turn. “Perfect, perfect. Come on, there has to be one bad photo of Alexia - aha!”

Mapi’s triumphant cry comes when she sees a picture of Alexia with her mouth twisting upwards as if she’s about to laugh, but you move onto the next picture which is the real gem. Alexia is about to get on the bus with Patri but both girls are laughing, Alexia with her eyes closed and cheeks half-puffed out as she struggles to contain her laughter.

“Let me see!” Alexia says, getting to her feet and circling the table until she’s standing beside you to get a better look. You angle to screen of your camera so she can see and she lets out a groan, before saying, “You have to delete it.”

“But only after sending me a copy,” interjects Mapi, still full of glee.

“Relax,” you reassure Alexia. “It’s not going on social media. Anyway, I don’t think it’s a bad photo.”

“Easy for you to say,” Alexia says, as she returns to her seat with a pout. “It’s not a picture of you.”

“It’s a picture of two friends sharing a joke,” you say. “It’s so fleeting and so human and it’s immortalised on film.”

“That’s very poetic, but please send me that photo,” Mapi grins at you.

You glance back over at Alexia, who is back in her seat but has a curious expression on her face as she looks straight back at you, head tilted to one side as if she’s trying to read into your soul. Your cheeks flush, remembering that in theory Alexia knows you far better than anybody else at this table, even if she doesn’t remember it herself, and you put your camera away to continue eating your dinner.

———

Later that night, when you’re in bed in your hotel room, having one final scroll through your phone before going to sleep, an Instagram notification pops up at the top of the screen.

alexiaputellas is now following you

You almost drop your phone in surprise. 

Somewhere in this hotel, Alexia is in an identical room to this one, probably on her phone too, and one of her last thoughts before going to bed is you and your Instagram account.

That thought makes you feel a certain kind of way, though you don’t think you describe it exactly.

You open up the app and tap the notification to get to Alexia’s profile. You don’t follow her yet - you thought about it years ago when you got back from Ibiza and did a little internet stalking but chose not to, then you also haven’t followed her since starting your new job, not wanting to draw any unnecessary attention to yourself to remind her that she met you before.

Does she remember? She’s mentioned before that she thinks she recognises you - what if the Instagram follow is her way of confirming that she’s finally put the pieces together? Or maybe it’s just a complete coincidence. Maybe she’s following you purely for your photography.

It keeps you up for longer than you planned, and when you finally fall asleep, you dream of Ibiza.

———

You like matchdays. You get to sit in the sun and watch a game of football, even if you see most of it through the lens of your camera. And it’s where the players are most able to be themselves, showing all their emotions out on the pitch, the passion, the frustration. It delivers some beautiful opportunities for the perfect photo.

Barcelona wins the game comfortably to continue their perfect start to the season. A photo that you took of Alexia after scoring her second and Barcelona’s third goal is picked to go out on all the social media channels to announce the final result, a shot of her screaming in passion as Pina jumps on her back with a few of the other players out of focus in the background as they chase after her. 

There’s not much time to celebrate after the match as the buses will be heading directly to the airport to take the team back to Barcelona. You get straight on your laptop as you sit near the front of one of the buses while waiting for the players to shower and change, but as you’re sorting through photos, a shadow falls over the screen of your computer.

“Is this seat taken?”

You look up and see Alexia standing in the aisle of the bus.

“No,” you say, moving the strap of your camera bag out of the way to clear the seat.

Alexia stows her bag and coat above the seat, then drops into the seat beside yours. There’s an unspoken rule that further towards the back of the bus you get, the noisier it is, especially after a match, and you don’t say anything to Alexia, unsure if she’s sitting here to keep you company or if she just wants a break from the celebrations taking place at the back of the bus.

In the end Alexia is the one who breaks the silence.

“I’m glad I’ve got the chance to speak to you,” she says. “There’s something I wanted to talk about.”

You know what Alexia is going to say before she even opens her mouth.

“I remembered where I know you from,” she continues. “Ibiza, right?”

#alexia putellas x reader #alexia putellas imagine #woso imagine #woso x reader #strictly unprofessional

[basicallyjaywalker]

Wanna ramble about a moment/character in ninjago you think people need to talk about more?

I don't know who you are anon, but I'm glad you asked!

I am desperate for people to character-analyze Wu. I'm desperate for a lot of character analysis including Nya but since I got a lot of my Nya feelings out with some lovely folks the other night (edit: the other night was a month ago dw about it. this took a minute) I'm going with Wu this time

Master Wu to me is such an interesting case of a character who it is so easy to ignore the bits of the show that hint at his wider issues and traumas. He is a man defined heavily by his family and by his past. A lot of criticism he gets, I think, is due in part to that.

I've mentioned before that I've been rewatching S1 with a friend of mine and intermittently pausing to infodump on them about interesting character things I notice from that season. A lot of that has been Wu-focused because despite having seen RotS dozens of times throughout my life (watching it on CN, watching it on Netflix when only it and Legacy were around, rewatching it with friends) I have only just started noticing the seeds of character written in.

I might also just be reading too much into things, but hear me out

In S1 (and by extension, the pilots), Wu is characterized as your typical old wise teacher. In the first few minutes of EP1: Rise of the Snakes, he is chewing out the Ninja for playing video games instead of training. The line he uses? "Never put off until tomorrow what can be done today."

It's a line that gets repeated throughout the series. In fact, it gets repeated that very episode when the ninja go (pun not intended) to fight the Hypnobrai and a literal pre-teen. At first, it seems to just be a piece of wisdom. Some old proverb Wu's picked up over the years, possibly one he even coined himself. However, in EP7: Tick Tock, Wu tells the story of who, possibly, first told him this.

(Source: Tick Tock/Transcript | Ninjago Wiki | Fandom, highlight added.)

It was Garmadon. Now, I'm not gonna dwell too long on Garmadon, if you spend five minutes talking to me you'll learn he was the first character whose story I obsessed over and I want this essay to be about Wu, but I think he plays a role in Wu's overall story, as does Wu's family as a whole.

Prior to this, Wu and Garmadon's relationship has been more of a sibling rivalry taken to a good vs. evil extreme. We didn't know why Garmadon was evil and we didn't know about Wu and his relationship as kids. However, this scene establishes the backstory. They were, as Wu puts it, "the best of friends." That is, until Garmadon gets bit by the Devourer going to get the katana Wu lost.

Now, I know the Devourer bite was destined to happen because of the Overlord or some shit, but Wu doesn't. As far as he's concerned, Garmadon getting bit was a direct consequence of both his mistake and his cowardice. He lost the katana. He was too scared to get it. Garmadon went over instead. Garmadon got bit.

The scene goes on to show the FSM tending to Garmadon in the aftermath. Wu is watching from behind the door, likely told to stay back, but concerned. And in his POV, we get this intense moment, where Garmadon turns, looks directly at him (his eyes turning bright red for the first time), and says "It's all Wu's fault!"

(This clip should begin at the start of Wu eavesdropping. If it doesn't, skip to 0:58. I highly recommend also paying attention to Wu's body language during this scene.)

The camerawork does a great job of showing how this probably felt for Wu. It zooms in, Garmadon's voice echoes, and the background blurs. We see in the flashback that this is a moment Wu has etched into his memory. Not to mention, he was likely a very young child when this happened. LEGO characters' ages are weird, but Wu in this scene has the Big Eyes, which always seem to be used for characters under 12. We don't know exactly how much older Garmadon is to my knowledge, but he doesn't have the Big Eyes, so he's probably closer to 12 and a few years older than Wu for sure.

Imagine that. Being in elementary school and your older siblings gets hurt. They're acting strange. They're lashing out at your father. Then, they blame it all on you. They're hurt because of you. Wouldn't you internalize that?

I could go on about Wu's relationship with Garmadon, but again, I think I've spent enough time on it and I don't want to only focus on that. It's an important part, but there are others.

Let's talk about Wu's relationship with his dad.

Now, I have not yet read the Spinjitzu Brothers series. I cannot speak to any development of Wu and the FSM's relationship in there. I have, however, read The Book of Spinjitzu and blogged some of my thoughts on it here, including some of what it says about Wu.

For those who haven't read it, first, there is a Google Drive folder floating around with all of the canon spinoff books/graphic novels in it. Here's the link if you wanna read them!

The FSM is an... intriguing figure. I mean, in the series he's basically god? He made the entire world. That's already a very high bar to live up to. Then, in Book of Spinjitzu, there's a few specific parts that, when I read them, signaled that Wu internalized a specific message when he was young.

(Source: The Book of Spinjitzu, Page 3).

Wu does not want to disappoint his father. It is up to him (and Garmadon until he turns evil) to "uphold the legacy of Spinjitzu" and, by extension, his family. He says he was "very young" when this was explained to him. Considering he seems to already be training at an elementary age, "very young" means VERY young.

(Source: The Book of Spinjitzu, Page 16).

Here, we again see Wu being very aware that he has some large burden to carry. Something else interesting here is that the thought of the Green Ninja Prophecy is already weighing on him too. His considering if he might be the Green Ninja is of extra interest because of how the Green Ninja Prophecy and the--I wouldn't call it obsession, possibly fixation?--with who it is factors into his later actions, but we'll get to that later.

(Source: The Book of Spinjitzu, Page 19).

This one in particular gets me because it comes after Wu mentions Garmadon becoming more evil. It is a statement of power. Wu knows that the legacy of Spinjitzu now rests in his hands alone. He cannot let himself fall the way Garmadon did. He cannot disappoint his father. Whether or not the FSM intended it, Wu always knew the fate of the world rested, at least in part, upon his shoulder. He knew this from the time he was a young boy and it remains in his mind to this day.

Now, these quotes are indirect, but they all point to one clear idea: As a child, Wu internalized the idea that he alone is responsible for keeping Ninjago safe. He will play a pivotal role in its history.

There's not evidence in this book that the FSM's was a bad father, per se. However, just because one doesn't set out to harm their children, doesn't mean they won't. I often say Wu has an "Atlas complex," which I have no idea if it is an actual concept but use it to refer to this idea. Wu feels as though he is responsible for holding up the world, much like Atlas. He must keep the balance, he must solve the Green Ninja prophecy, he must make his father proud.

(Source: The Book of Spinjitzu, page 61).

I'm going to get further into what this means for Wu as a teacher to the current Ninja Team, but for now let's look at Wu's first foray into teaching.

Morro. Wu's Biggest Mistake.

That might seem like an overstatement, but it's not.

(Source: Ghost Story/Transcript | Ninjago Wiki | Fandom)

Okay he says regret, not mistake, but I was paraphrasing.

Let's turn back to his quote about his destiny. Wu writes, "Is my life's mission to be the Green Ninja? Or maybe it will be to find the Green Ninja and protect him (or her)??"

From a very young age, Wu was not only aware of the Green Ninja but prophecy but also thinking about his place in it. We see this again when he takes Morro in and trains him.

(Source: Ghost Story/Transcript | Ninjago Wiki | Fandom, highlight added)

A big thing Wu is criticized for here is making Morro believe he is meant to be more. That he is the Chosen One. And Morro, being a young homeless orphan just now given some semblance of power and protection, latches onto that. And I can see it, but when you take into account the above that he was trained from (likely) a younger age than Morro and given a similar level of responsibility, it becomes more understandable. Wu is just doing what he was taught. He doesn't believe that he is harming Morro until it is too late.

This is the entire story, but I'm specifically going to be discussing 1:36 onwards here. I also wanted to add that rewatching this scene made me lay down on the floor! What the fuck! But I digress.

There's a lot going on in this scene. For one, Wu washing his hands of Morro in some ways, but not others. He turns his back on Morro when he tells him that destiny has decided, but looks at him again when Morro storms out. He goes to save Morro from the Grundal, but decides that he cannot "teach those who would not listen." Most importantly, when Morro leaves to go find the Tomb of the FSM, Wu leaves the door open. He waits for Morro to return, but never goes after him. And Morro never comes back.

Wu gives Morro's fate a dismissive response at the end of his ghost story ("I am saddened he was banished to the Cursed Realm") but it's clear he still cares deeply about him in the finale of the season.

Wu's VA in this is phenomenal btw. That "Please Morro!" and "MORRO!" make my heart ache.

Morro believed Wu stopped caring, but he didn't. Even after all he's done, even after trying to destroy all of Ninjago--destroying what Wu had spent his life trying to protect--Wu tries to save him. He begs for Morro to come with him. Morro refuses, Wu watches him perish.

Someone else Wu is close to is gone. Wu again considers himself responsible. Everything is his fault.

And finally, we reach Wu today. A cautious, secretive man. He loves his students, this much is clear. Even as early as the pilots, he drops his wise teacher persona to joke around with them.

As with Morro, he trains them like his father did him. He even uses the same methods his father used when he trains them.

(Source: The Book of Spinjitzu, page 32)

While he is hard on the Ninja, wanting them to succeed and training them to help defend the Realm, he lets his guard down more than it seems he did with Morro. He also learned a valuable message from his experience with Morro when he hides the Green Ninja Prophecy from the Ninja, getting angry when they start to push themselves in the same way Morro did upon learning about it. It's clear he doesn't want a repeat.

Now, I can't speak for later seasons (I will eventually) but this fear of repeats, his students going down a dark path because they're tempted by power or greatness, losing someone else, likely drives Wu not telling them other important information. That is just a passing thought though.

Final notes:

I'm currently in the process of rewatching S7: Hands of Time. I actually got this ask right after finishing EP68: Scavengers, which opens with Wu having a nightmare. In it, he and Misako are walking outside of Yang's temple. While walking, Misako delivers this line in response to Wu reminiscing about the time they've spent together:

(Source: Scavengers/Transcript | Ninjago Wiki | Fandom)

This line, to me, is Wu's subconscious trying to tell him something he needs to hear. It's hinting at what might be his greatest flaw. Wu is haunted by his past, by his mistakes. He finds it difficult to tell others because of both his guilt and his desire to not put that worry upon them. In this very season, he makes the mistake of trying to face his past on his own, and he nearly dies for it.

In the same episode, you see Wu trying to make sure Lloyd doesn't make the same mistakes.

(Source: Prev)

Wu stresses the important of the team. It's as if he sees Lloyd blaming himself for what happened to Wu, sees him doing the same thing Wu has, and is trying to prevent him from doing the same thing. This is further emphasized when, after Wu falls asleep (well, fakes falling asleep), Lloyd says "Wu's mistake was going in alone. So was mine."

Master Wu is, like many characters in this show, someone who is more complex than meets the eye. He is not just a wise, old teacher. He is a man who, throughout his life, has made mistakes and carries the weight of each of them on his shoulders. He is a man who tasks himself with making up for those every day. He is a man who wants better for his students, his family.

Until the day he dies, he will guide and protect his students. And possibly? Even after death too.

#ninjago #lego ninjago #master wu #long post #anon tag #this made my day i looooooooooooooove character analysis #i know a lot of what i post about it may not encompass the full series but i just think that makes it more fun tbh #i'm working with what i have and later i may come back to this and add even more things #i'm also very passionate about wu analysis as a former wu hater because i think the fact that his character stuff is so buried #leads to a lot of the hate #Why didn't he tell the ninja things? well he told morro things and look how that turned out #he grew up believing the weight of the world was on his shoulders #in one way or another #i won't lie and say the man does not make mistakes #but like i mention in s7 when he does he is fucking haunted by them #he is not breaking the generational trauma but he is damn well making an attempt for someone who probably doesn't realize he has it #p.s i tried to add image desc to each ss to make it more accessible but if i messed it up please let me know! #i spent way too much time on this #somebody do a word count i'm curious but too tired to copy this all into docs #falls over #part 2 of this is just the dark island trilogy but i think i'm gonna wait to do that #this took so long and the words are now refusing to words #thank you for reading #i need to take a nap after writing this I feel physically spent #please enjoy another rook branded ramble disguised as a comprehensive essay #other essayists bring you professionalism and academic vibes #i scream into the void and put way too many links o7 #happy birthday ninjago!!!! i finished this in honor of you hopefully it is worthy

[medusanova]

Anything That Can Go Wrong

For my fellow rivusa shipper, @fitztragedy​ xx

When Musa learns that Riven is the ‘mentor’ assigned to improve her hand-to-hand combat skills -- and help her pass the only class she has left to complete her third year specialist courses -- she begins to wonder if Murphy’s Law should be amended from ‘anything’ always going wrong to ‘anyone’. 

Because apparently it isn’t enough they’d both left, well, things awkwardly suspended between them after the spiraling catastrophe that was her second year. He’s also still the only person to know what happened with the scrapers. 

Added to that, Riven also happened to be one of only five people in the whole of Alfea that sat at the same desk as her in botany class last term, leaving her to battle his soil remnants, eraser shavings, seat warmth, and general presence for an entire hour everyday. And, worst of all, he’s still the only person who’s ever come close to understanding the very heart of her. 

And now? Well, now she has an entire month to make a fool of herself in front of her biggest rival on the training pitch. All in the name of making it to her fourth and final year. 

Their meeting time is set for an hour before dusk every other evening on the patch of grounds near the barrier. On her first day, Riven arrives as she’s securing her fighting gloves around her wrists. He quietly sets up the training mat and stands in wait, patient as can be.

“Hey,“ she greets. She isn’t going to let him of all people show her up in decency.

“Muse,“ he drawls with a nod. “Why the fuck are you wearing gloves?“

Decency her arse. She barely prevents her eyes from rolling and lifts a brow. “For safety and protection? Maybe you should try it sometime.” 

“Oh don’t worry ‘bout me, Pixie. I always use protection,” he assures with a growing smirk. 

Musa manages to ‘accidentally’ clip a fist against his jaw during their session. She considers it a great start to the month.

She sees him a week later during her free period, which also happens to be his free period (see? Murphy’s Law: Person Edition), when she has the unfortunate idea of spending it outside. She’s walking through the courtyard with her headphones around her neck, ready to settle behind the tree situated furthest away from the main building.

He’s already there, of course, under her favorite willow. Faint traces of cigarette smoke pepper the air as he hunches over his phone, legs sprawled over the comfiest part of the roots. The only reason she doesn’t spontaneously combust is because of the faint purple mark she spots under his right cheek.

He gives her a look when she slowly lowers herself onto the gravelly dirt nearby before going back to his phone. She’s about to put her headphones on when he sighs in exasperation.

“At the risk of being decked in the jaw again-“

“Bet you’re glad I had those gloves on, huh?“

“-I feel the need to ask: why on earth are you sitting over there?”

“In case you haven’t noticed, there’s only one comfy place to sit under this tree.” She digs her phone out of her back pocket, ready to drown him out. 

“Musa,” Riven says, sounding vexed, “you look tragic. If you’re really set on this tree for some reason come and sit here.” He scoots over, extending his legs in front of him to give her enough room.

When she continues to stare at him he grins and says, “Promise I won’t bite.”

Riven doesn’t bite. Which is rather unfortunate since instead they talk about music and his upcoming apprenticeship with Silva and he even shares a bite of the cookie he stole from the canteen, which forces her to play her new favorite band out loud for him. In effort to not lose in the decency department, of course.

“What’s your last class?” he asks as she secures her headphones back around her neck.

She stands a moment before he does, slinging her bag over her shoulder. “History. Why?” 

“Drop by the bastion when it’s over?” They started back toward the main building. “I’ve been doing weapons training with some of the first-years and they’re having trouble grasping the art of the bo staff. Thought you could share a few pointers.”

“Oh!” She grabs his bicep, barely containing her smile. “Yes, I’d love that. Though, fair warning, I haven’t been using it as much this term to ‘round out my strengths’ so once I join you might have a hard time getting rid of me.”

His lips quirk in the corner, creasing a dimple into the corner of his cheek. “That’s what I was counting on, actually.”

After her class she makes her way to the group of first years wielding staffs haphazardly as their instructor guides them in a commanding, yet reassuring voice. He weaves her into his class seamlessly, allowing her to take over their instruction and demonstrate effective techniques they could use in the future.

Throughout the lesson, she studiously avoids catching a glimpse of Riven and that cheek dimple he’d flashed at her earlier. The one that she couldn’t stop thinking about all day. She can, however, feel him staring at her intently as he wraps class up. 

It’s just the two of them left when she finally catches sight of him and Murphy’s Law bites her in the arse again. 

He’s clearly been working with students a majority of the day because his shirt sleeves have been rolled to the elbows, revealing an obscene amount of forearm that flexes as he holds two staffs and twirls them in each hand. Perspiration clings steadfastly to his cheeks and forehead and upper lip.

“Since when do you use a staff?” she asks, irritated with how breathless it she sounds, with how his cheek twitches. 

She almost doesn’t catch it when he launches at her, too focused on that charming, damned dimple again. 

“Watch.”

He comes at her without warning, making her raise her weapon to defend herself. And like they’d rehearsed it, they fall perfectly into a spar. Five minutes. Ten. She doesn’t know how long. They’re twin flames dancing around each other. 

It takes her a few moments to realize he’s using her moves. 

“Have to say, I’m pretty impressed,” she admits, stopping their spar.  

His face, which had been guarded and focused until then, broke into a smile. “Yeah?”

“Who taught you these super impressive and original moves?”

“Some mind fairy,” he quips, laughing at her shout of indignation. “You should see her do these. Mine are a poor imitation.”

She gives him her most serious expression. “Hm. I beg to differ.”

“You do?” 

“Yes. I have it on good authority.”

She’s about to turn away, unable to withstand the attraction and electricity buzzing between them when his fingers brush hers and suddenly he grabs the staff, throwing it into a pile with the rest.

“Hey! Give it back.”

“I’ll give it back later. But right now, I’d really like to kiss you.”

She flattens her lips to stop the smile from spreading across her cheeks. “You would, would you?”

“Very much so,” he murmurs. 

“I didn’t think you were the type to ask for permission,” she prods.

“Hm, usually I’m not,” he cups her face in his hands, sliding his fingers along her jaw. She barely stops her eyes from closing in pleasure. “Then again, I usually don’t end up with a bruise on my face when I’m with anyone else so let’s call this a special case.”

She smiles and covers said bruise with her palm, placing her thumb over his dimple. “Oh, well I don’t think you have anything to worry about this time around.”

His breath ghosts her lips, mouth so close she could feel his smile. “Yeah?”

“Yeah, I have it on good authority.”

Maybe, she thought, Murphy’s Law knew what it was doing after all. 

Happy happy birthday to you, dear Val!!

#a bit of fluff to rot the teeth #also my first rivusa in a long while! hope Im still okay at it lol #happy birthday to my lovely friend xx #rivusa #ftws musa #ftws riven #ftws rivusa #riven x musa #fate ficlet #fate: the winx saga #fate the winx saga #rivusa drabble #my writing #nova writes

[alpydk]

Cabinet of Oddities (Part 19)

Stealth edits are incoming. Mostly to CH8 to dampen the smut. The next chapter is written and I find it too beautiful to want to smut it up further so the smut level of the entire piece has come down. (Sorry to those who wanted real smut). Honestly, I'm just enjoying writing this all so much and I am so so grateful to everyone who has taken the time to even read one chapter, let alone the amazing people who have left comments. Sorry, I'm just riding the post-CH20 high.

Ao3 link

Summary: Not long from now they would travel to defeat Kethric Thorm. Everyone seemed to be spending their last moments of freedom in different ways.

Thomas stood against the pillar watching her as she woke in the astral plane. “My sweet little mask, how I’ve longed to see you again.” 

Nana stared at him sceptically. “I know you’re not him. You can stop playing games.”

“Nana, come now. You know me.” His voice softened slightly trying to convince her.

She looked away trying to not let him sway her. “Gale said not to trust you. And after what happened before I know I shouldn’t.”

He took a seat next to her. “I’ve done nothing to harm you. I’ve protected you, just as I used to.”

She felt his presence next to her. He seemed different, softer, weaker. “Are you okay?” She didn’t want to believe it was him. She didn’t want to be used and manipulated as she had been five years ago and yet she still cared deeply for him. This time would be different. She would say no if she had to.

“Yes, yes I am.” Nana heard the strain in his voice, her memories going crazy, reminding her of his death. She pulled herself close to him and held him fearing that this would be the same, that in moments she would lose him again. He wrapped his arms around her and it took all her strength not to start sobbing in his arms. She had missed him so much and yet Gale’s gentle voice still rang out in her head.

He slowly released her from his grasp. “It’s been a while since somebody did that for me.” 

“Five years…” She whispered. 

-------------------------------

She stood on the balcony of the Last Light Inn looking out over the blackened waters. Another restless night where her mind trailed from Thomas to Gale trying to trace a path of similarities and differences between the two. “I just want to do what’s best for him. To hear his voice.”  

Not long from now they would travel to defeat Kethric Thorm. Everyone seemed to be spending their last moments of freedom in different ways. Gale had taken to secluding himself in his room at the inn and although Nana had tried talking to him he always seemed distracted. He’d rub at the orb on his chest and she would hear quiet prayers to Mystra as she left the room. 

Shadowheart and Karlach had also taken to a room but the noises had been very different, Karlach clearly making up for lost time or trying to seize the moment before their inevitable defeat at the hands of The General. 

Nana had tried to bother Wyll only to find him training tieflings outside. He’d taken his attention off one of them for a second as she had approached only to end up taking a rapier blade into his armour. The children were learning. This had meant though that she’d ended up alone with her thoughts. 

She pondered over her reaction to the drow elf. “I shouldn’t have reacted so forcefully. A no would have been enough. That rage. He’s back under my skin. I feel him there.” She muttered to herself and she flexed her fingers trying to relieve the tension in them. 

-------------------------------

Astarion had been watching her for some time, judging whether he should approach her or not. Trying to decide if it was worth thanking her for the doll that he’d placed carefully in his pack. He wanted to hate it but in combination with her scaring the drow, he’d ended up hiding it away. He hadn’t needed her care. With the worm and its advantages, he had been learning his strengths, learning that no was an option. If Nana can reject you… He shook the thought away. No, she wasn’t to thank for his new choices but he could at least give her a little credit. The fear she’d put in the drow’s eyes had at least been entertaining. He took a step forward towards the balcony resting his delicate hands over the flaking wooden bannister. 

“Under your skin. So you finally succumbed fully to Gale’s charms then?” he said with a devilish smile at her.

“What? Oh no, no. I’m not sure how ready I am for any of that yet.” She gave a nervous laugh.

“Still playing the part of the innocent virgin then, I see.”

She shook her head and he noticed the blush rise on her cheeks. “I wish it was just an act. After- Well you know the story. When someone has been under your skin like that, used you…” She pulled her arms into herself and gazed down at the bannister. “...Broke you, you don’t want to let anyone get close, no matter how much you might want it. At least not until you can be sure.”

He understood her all too well. The centuries of Cazador's abuse had left him a shell of what he once was. He sighed deeply realising they were more similar than he had liked. “Nana, I spent two hundred years using my body to lure pretty things back for my Master. What I wanted, how I felt about what I was doing, it never mattered.”

“I’m sorry, Astarion.” She kept her gaze on the wood in front of her which he was thankful for. 

“Look, I wanted to speak to you about the doll and what you did at Moonrise.” He turned to look at her, his eyes examining her closed-off posture, her defences up. “It would have been so easy to bite her. To just go along with what I was being told to do. A moment of disgust to force myself through. And then I could have carried on, just like before.”

“Is that what you would have done with me, all those moons ago? A moment of disgust?”

He was caught off guard by the question and looked away from her trying to bite back the shame that crept up his spine. “It would have been so easy.”

She gave a small nod and picked at the dirt that lay under her fingernails.

“But now…I’m more than that. More than a thing to be used.” She lifted her head, her eyes forgivingly pointed in his direction. He felt embarrassed by his words, as if opening up had made him weak and he would have followed up with a deflective joke if she hadn’t spoken first.

“We’re going to kill your master, aren’t we?” This was not the response he had anticipated. He had expected a hug, a friendly comment of caring and concern. But violence, revenge? This was more his style than hers.

“Maybe. But I'm not even sure he can be killed. Cazador’s a vampire lord, his power…” He batted her question away trying not to pay too much attention to it. She really is insane if she thinks we can take him on.

Nana smiled and he noticed there was a malicious flash behind her eyes. “There is always a way to kill someone. You just have to be creative enough.”

Darling, you have a mask for every occasion. 

----------------------------------

Gale paged through the journal. It had become a habit when he could not find answers elsewhere. He knew his time was running out and he had tried to distance himself away from those he had grown to care about. He was terrified of what was to come, the shadows of the curse not the only ones darkening his spirits. The book brought comfort. Poems of love, and comments of joy written about himself. Yes, it was self-indulgent, but to be loved for who he was, not for his wizarding abilities, not for the knowledge he had or his charisma and charm. No, to be loved simply for being him. For silly things like his eyes or his voice. Love, to love again…

He turned the pages, mud sticking them together. He’d managed to salvage the first half of the book and although the latter half was in better condition, corners had become ripped and frail and some were still stuck together. This poor book. A ribbon stuck in the centre of one and he peeled it slowly up leaving a faded trail between the words. He sighed as he began to read.

I hear you whispering. I see the blood on my hands. You made me do this. I tried to fight you this time and now you’re gone and I miss you again. I know I need you to protect me. I’m sorry. Why do you have to do this? I know it’s not right. Why do I feel your sick pleasure in my mind afterwards? Who are you? I’m your sweet mask and you’re hiding behind me. But you love me, you wouldn’t do anything to harm me. These people deserved to die, didn’t they?

Gale skipped a few pages. He needed something more recent. Something happier to fulfil his needs. 

He’s so kind. He talked for hours today about a place in Faerûn; Waterdeep. I’ve never been there before but it sounded beautiful. He told me about his tower there, the culture, and how women would wear silk gowns. He says there is the Blackstaff Academy that goes way back and how he used to study there. The whole city sounds like a dream and I can only hope that one day I’ll visit. Maybe I could find a silk gown and be one of those women he spoke so fondly of. I’ll braid my hair and be someone worthy of him. We could walk arm in arm throughout the streets and people would come up and talk to us. We could laugh at high society jokes and share wine that we wouldn’t check the price on. I’d let him read on his balcony and bring him fresh tea. I’d run my hand through his hair, I’d touch him. 

But I’m getting far too ahead of myself. It’s just been one night under the stars listening to him talk. But where's the harm in dreaming, of wondering what could be?

Gale eased the flutterings of his heart. To dream of these things? He could make them a reality for her. For one night alone, maybe he too could dream.

#bg3 #baldur's gate 3 #bg3 gale #gale of waterdeep #gale dekarios #gale bg3 #galemance #bg3 fanfiction #ao3 fanfic #fanfic #i dont care what anyone says this author has everything I want

[whinlatter]

Hi, You mentioned you liked the Tent scene in the DH movie which is very rare for Romione fans and book fans… and so I’m curious if there’s other things you like from the films? I would love to know

me fighting for my life in hinny/romione jail after saying i really like the tent scene

Ok just in defence of the tent scene, which I love for so many reasons in a film series I broadly feel ambivalent about... I love that how plays with the idea of the characters just being kids getting a moment to piss about in a tent with the radio on, while the war rages around them (the song is O Children for a reason, and the fact that the train imagery runs throughout the lyrics... chef's kiss). I think it's a thoughtful twist on that line from DH about them being "three teenagers in a tent whose only achievement was not, yet, to be dead", playing with the teenageness of it all. I also really like how it steps out of being a HP film and plays both with a change of pace but also different forms of media - like, if you're converting something from one form to another (in this case, from a book to a film), you can and should think about what you can do in movies that you can't do in books, and music is so important in that. And I actually really love at the end where movie!Harry and Hermione look at each other and something seems to hang in the balance - I think it works as a bit of a wink and a nod to the audience expectations, but I love that they both turn away from it, because to the two characters there’s nothing of that between them, just deep love and ease with another person that they treasure and are grateful for. And then the song ends, and it’s back to the worry, three minutes of forgetting and back to the hours and hours of waiting and worrying. And although I don't really think of the movie characters as the characters, I do think it works as a way to render a dynamic in book!Harry and Hermione’s relationship by DH, which does have this intimacy, tenderness, and these gorgeous little twinge moments of physical affection:

She hesitated, but recognised the dismissal. She picked up the book and then walked back past him into the tent, but as she did so, she brushed the top of his head lightly with her hand. He closed his eyes at her touch, and hated himself for wishing that what she said was true: that Dumbledore had really cared.

Overall, though, I really don't love the films. I absolutely enjoy rewatching them with friends as a nostalgic relic of my childhood, yes I will re-enact the PS/SS chess scene on request, but I don't think as a series they're very strong, either as an adaptation or as a standalone body of work. My favourite film is probably GoF, because I think it just gets the vibe right: it nails the series shift that happens in book four, in that it delivers boarding school caper vibes immaculately, but then also really nails the political/courtroom scenes (the Barty Crouch Jr trial scene holds up as iconic, oh my god!) and the truly terrifying graveyard scene and the tragedy/agony of the aftermath. But in general I don't think the films are hugely well done, and I think giving David Yates films five through eight was a huge mistake (the man just turns the lights down to show that everything is getting dark and miserable, and directs weak, mannered performances from his actors in scenes that are poorly cut and edited. I will die on this hill). If JKR weren't set to make bank that she's going to pump into toxic TERF lobbying in Scottish/UK politics I'd be excited for the HBO series. Since the films were made we've seen how long-form series television can really be a wonderful medium for delivering quality adaptations and is where some of the most exciting new IP has been coming out of for the past few years, so there's such rich creative energy in that space that could deliver a really quality adaptation. But she is... so I am not!

Other things I like from the films that aren't in the books, after a lot of thought lol:

Burning the Burrow scene — it happened in the wrong film (the Burrow probably was attacked during DH, after Ron is revealed to be travelling with Harry at Malfoy Manor), but I think it’s extremely atmospheric, really chilling and beautiful (the reeds! the water! obsessed) Also it’s basically the best/most bearable Hinny moment in the wasteland of film Hinny........ but I digress

The crackling radio scenes from DH 1 (borrowed these heavily for inspo for Beasts, I love them so much)

#justice for the tent scene #justice for the burrow burning scene #and injustice for everything else #thank you anon! #also thank you so much if you have sent me an ask this week #i have an irl deadline early next week so am behind on writing and replying but i promise to try and get to the asks as soon as i can!

[cupidssrosses]

i care about this too much

hangman and roosters relationship follows, BEAT. FOR. BEAT. the ‘ex’s getting back together’ plotline i’ve seen in 100 other films about straight relationships. 

the first scene, where hangman swaggers up to rooster, stands like five inches from his face, smirking the whole time while they insult eachother. they’re glancing at eachothers mouths, everyone around them is watching them like this interaction is nothing new. 

rooster telling him he looks good as hangman plays pool veeery slowly and somehow antagonisingly. you can feel how much hes showing off. hangman leaves and pheonix goes up to rooster and says ‘he hasn’t changed’ and rooster is STILL just STARING in his direction and says ‘no he hasn’t (or something like that lol)

then their always making eye contact in the meetings, bantering while their flying then

omg THEN

roosters about to get into the plane and maybe never come home, and this SHOT i swear. it’s like, romantically coded cinematography but a canonically platonic relationship?? and it drives me CRAZY. the camera follows rooster as he walks, and hangman enters the shot and their still for a second. 

they don’t. know what. to say. this could be a goodbye for all they know. the warm lighting, the eye contact, the tension, all of it. 

then finally hangman SAVES HIS LIFE and they say the ‘you look good’ ‘i am good’ lines again. HE LITERALLY IS THE REASON that rooster is still ALIVE. rooster comes home safe, he gets off the plane, hugs EVERYONE ELSE except of the main character and RIGHT here

right here is where after 20 years of watching movies my brain has been trained to expect the love interest to appear and for the romantic subplot to resolve. (idk why how to train your dragon is all i can think of rn but do you remember at the end!?! its the SAME SCENE. hiccup is greeted by a crowd of secondary characters, he talks to them for a second, then the music changes, the crowd parts, and astrid comes up and they have their little ‘thats for everything else’ moment, anyway)

here is structurally where in every other movie the next person to talk to rooster would kiss him. and what do you know hangman arrives, everyone steps back, there’s this importance you can feel. the music changes, so does the tone. this isn't just another character, this interaction means something. god and the way they’re smiling at eachother it gets me everytime. but of course, like he considered going for the kiss but decided against it, hangman offers his hand for a handshake. 

ALL of these scenes. ALL these interactions would have read as romantic if one of them, was a women. its crazy to me. they use the same cinematography, the same type of dialogue, the same direction that you would expect to be used for a romantic subplot, but use it for a platonic subplot. 

a man and a women could interact once with the slightest amount of tension and people would without a second thought assume they’re love interests. these two were out here saving eachothers lives, having the most flirtatious interactions ive seen in ages, but no, they’re just really close friends. 

EDIT/ADDITION: I’ve seen so many people say that rooster and pheonix were ‘clearly fucking’ or ‘clearly had history’ and you know what?? i totally see it!! so valid. plenty of tension. but if you think they had chemistry but rooster and hangman didn’t, the only difference between the two is that they’re the same gender. they had the same amount if. not. more chemistry/tension than either of them did with pheonix

oh also, another example of romantically coded techniques/tropes being used in apparently non-romantic plotlines is the tv show suits. its not every episode but mike and harvey have a bunch of scenes that would read as HEAVILY romantic if either of them was a girl (eg. harvey running in slow motion to stop mike from putting himself in danger was very ‘running through the airport’, but oohhh no they were ‘brothers’ )

#i never thought i'd care so much about two random fighter pilots but here we are #hangman x rooster #jake hangman seresin #bradley rooster bradshaw #hangster #top gun maverick

[ladytauria]

20 questions for fic writers

tagged by @zeroducks-2! thank you <3

How many works do you have on AO3?

90 total, with 8 of them for my original fiction pseud.

What’s your total A03 word count?

266,163. however, i like to subtract 2 of the original works i wrote, 'cause most of the writing is no longer canon to the project it was written for xD so, 198,925. still impressive!

What fandoms do you write for?

whatever fandom i'm obsessed with at the moment.

in the past, that's been super robot monkey team hyper force go!; how to train your dragon; ghost hunt; percy jackson & the olympians; legend of zelda; and ducktales (2017). there are a few other fandoms but those works never left my drafts xD

currently, it's DCU, & mostly bats at that <3

What are your top five fics by kudos?

in a diner at midnight (1,161 kudos) -> first story in my reverse robins series, as well as the first batfic i ever published lol. Tim catches Jason stealing the Batmobile's tires after he was sent back to the car, and does what any good Robin would: laugh his ass off and then buy him dinner.

you know just what i need (1,158 kudos) -> Tim is an omega. Jason is an alpha. Jason likes him, but he knows he blew his chances at being with Tim years ago. That changes, after he finds out that Tim has experienced a string of rejections, as he prefers to dominate alphas in bed. Jason is... entirely unopposed to this.

early confrontations (814) -> another part of the reverse robins series. When Jason finds out that Tim might be alive and operating as the Red Hood, he decides the best course of action is to break into his apartment.

inquiring minds (794) -> the only non-DC fic on this list. Ducktales (2017). Penumbra wants to know how Donald didn't burn up in Earth's atmosphere.

held together (792) -> another part of the reverse robins series. After Bruce accuses Jason of killing Garzonas, he goes to Tim for comfort.

Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

There for a while I was only responding if someone had a question, but now I do try to respond more, even if just to say thank you, or send back a heart emoji in return xD

What’s the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Hmmm. I don't write a lot of unhappy endings xD But "empty promises" is probably the angstiest ending I've written. Maybe "twenty to one."

What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Hmm…

Edit: I didn’t realize I forgot to finish answering this one!! Most of my fics end happily so I’m not sure which one has the happiest 🤔 I will have to look through and edit again with a proper answer lmao

Do you get hate on your fic?

Not in a while. Only once on AO3. Twice on FFN. Some people weren't very happy I wrote genderfluid Link :) And then prior to that-- I mean. It was hate, I guess, but it was more funny than anything else. Guest account was upset at the length of my oneshot collection entries and started advertising for a date, lmao. Ah, trolls.

Do you write smut?

Yes. Usually with feelings, and on occasion, with plot.

Do you write crossovers?

Hmm, I have had a conversation about crossing over my first fandom with DC, but idk if that will ever actually leave my drafts ^^;

That said, I do like the idea of writing fusions?

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of.

Have you ever had a fic translated?

No.

Have you ever co-written a fic?

Not in a very long time! And the two I was co-writing never did get finished, lol.

What‘s your all-time favourite ship?

I hop fandoms and multi-ship too much to have an "all-time" favorite ship. But currently I vibe hardest with JayTim.

What’s the WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

Hmm...

So I tend to either plod along at WIPs until they're either finished or I've moved fandoms xD Every now and then I will scrap one, but for the most part, there's a pretty good chance of me finishing the fics I start.

That said...

I don't know exactly what the problem is, but I've been having a really difficult time working on the tenderest of touches. Stray!Tim x Hood!Jason teaming up to kill the Joker, and as they're waiting for their plans to come to fruition, they end up having lots of ill-advised kinky sex... which slowly causes their feelings for each other to deepen and reveal themselves.

There are also some identity shenanigans, as Jason never learned Tim's secret ID and Tim has no idea that Hood is his dead first crush :)

What’s your writing strengths?

I think I'm good at conveying emotion. I also think I do alright with dialogue :) And, hm, metaphors / imagery?

What’s your writing weaknesses?

Character voice. Not so much in dialogue, but in the prose? I tend to stick to 3rd Person Limited, and I feel like my personal writing voice tends to come out too strong & overwhelm the character's.

Endings. Sometimes I find the right one, but other times I meander for a while, or just. Decide to stop it at a certain point, which can be a little abrupt.

Juggling more than so many characters. This one hasn't shown up so much in DC fics because I don't think I've really written much with more than 3 characters, but that's about my limit. After that I end up forgetting people / certain characters end up kind of disappearing.

Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

A word here or two, yes. A couple of lines, maybe. But any more than that... not likely?

First fandom you wrote for?

Super Robot Monkey Team Hyper Force Go! An old Disney cartoon from the early 00s. It was... mecha-anime adjacent, centering around a human and his five cybernetic monkey teammates trying to stop their planet from being (destroyed? ruined? corrupted?) by the Skeleton King.

Favourite fic you’ve ever written?

Hmm...

Okay, actually my favorite fic I've written hasn't been posted yet. I was persuaded to make it longer and--well. I had ideas, so. That's what I'm doing :)

But of the ones I have posted...

It's a toss-up. Because like... I have two that I genuinely enjoy re-reading because (at least for the moment xD) I have no complaints. And then there are two I'm just. Genuinely proud of the concept and the outcome, even if there are areas I might want to fix, I think I did a good job anyway.

And then there's one that I'm genuinely just proud of finishing bc of how much trouble I had with it xD

Anyway. Um.

I'm gonna go with the two i enjoy re-reading the most---

drape me in your warmth // patience is a virtue (rewarded by sin)

no pressure tagging... @paprikadotmp4 // @kieran-granola // @generatorcat // @disniq // @enak-s // @glaciya

#tag games #my posts #abt me

[amazing-spiderling]

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

HECK. Ummmm okay okay... I'll do my best.

Surface Tension

I'm taking this opportunity to highlight a fic that I wrote for an anthology I put together with a team of *very* talented writers and artists, Metal Gear Solid: Lost Years. I had wanted to tell a story about Hal's isolation and vulnerability in his youth, the aspects of his past that made him an easy target for predatory behavior- and even though this story isn't particularly long, I think it's the one I spent the longest working on (in a words per day sense). Writing this story made me dead sure that Kojima was referencing the movie "The Graduate" when it came to the Emmerichs, and I tried to channel that sort of listlessness into this story. Because it was for a zine, I don't think it got many hits or comments, so I'm putting it here now.

The Man in the Mask

My own little "hit in the face by Apollo's red playground ball" of a fic- I actually wrote this Spideypool AU to deal with my frustrations regarding the handling of asylum seekers at the border- but the pandemic aspects of the story ended up hitting very close to home for everyone just a few years later. Fun! This is one of those stories I thought of as a "weird one that nobody read" but when I looked at my actual hit counter, I saw it had proven more popular than I realized, so that's good for me? It's a bit of a bottle episode that is more about Wade and Peter than Deadpool and Spider-Man and has a more sedate tone for most of it, but I'm partial to the way the story unfolds.

Pictures of You

Another Metal Gear story, this was for the Otasune Zine "Let the World Be". I got to team up with the incredible Harshai who did the illustrations for this story in the zine. It's a collection of moments during Dave and Hal's Philanthropy days, each one with an accompanying photograph. It's a pretty soft one, but one that comes to mind a lot, especially when I'm in the car and staring out the window at the landscape, thinking about these two on the open road. It also comes to mind every time I see a ridiculous food challenge posted on a restaurant wall. I need to see about getting permission to share the art in the posted fic, because I think it really adds something, especially the last image which was a polaroid of Sunny besting Hal's time eating the enourmous burger.

Five Years Later

Yeah, it's a WIP. What are you gonna do about it? Back from hiatus, it's the second installment of a "mostly MCU compliant" Spideypool "met as childhood friends" AU that my friend @343enderspark and I have been working on for years. In this portion of the story, Wade is dealing with life in a world without Peter (oh, and half the population, I guess) and slowly starting his journey of training and eventually becoming the person he was meant to be. (And the Defenders show up because I literally could not resist.) I got to try my hand at writing a lot of different characters in this fic, so it's been fun to flex those muscles. We had a long break between the first and second chapter, but we're back on track and CH 3 is drafted and waiting on edits, so that should be out soon. :3

Home's Around the Corner (It's a Long Way There)

More WIPs? Yeah. More AU's? Double yeah, because this one is more or less an AU or an AU. XD This is a new project I'm working on with @blissful-thinker that's Earth-65 but a step to the left, where Matt wasn't adopted by the Hand, but ended up staying with the Chaste, and returns to New York City years later only to find out he doesn't really have a place in his old home anymore. (Or does he?) This one has been a lot of fun and allows me to write one of my favorite things- tired DA Nelson, and also too-big-for-her-britches Gwen, haha. It may be niche, but it's *my* niche.

#i was sent this twice but i'm only gonna do it once #this is bullying i'm being bullied #daredevil #metal gear solid #spideypool #my fics #earth-65 #otasune #mattfoggy

[maybeonedayillfindout]

Oh, to be a mysterious old book collector that goes by Mr Valentine even though no one knows my real name or whether im a man or a woman. I wear half moon glasses with a gold rim and am never seen wearing anything other than an immaculately put together outfit of a long coat, a dress shirt and some worn dark green pants, maybe some suspenders, that fits my aesthetic perfectly. I have been fascinated with books since i was little, and worked as a librarian and delivery boy for most of my twenties, until the untimely death of my grandfather (who was always a little peculiar) leaves me with a small fortune and a large mansion full to the brim with trinkets and collectibles. I sell the house and use some of the money to buy a small cottage in the middle of nowhere. I keep as many of the trinkets as i can. After that i travel around in search of first edition plays or poem translations never published or a fascinating set of letters in an exchange between forbidden lovers in the 1800s. I collect a very very large collection of pieces of writing through the ages that i keep in my little cottage safehouse. I travel to france to london to moscow to japan, and once even to argentina and egypt. I go on ships and trains exclusively because thats where you can find things you didnt even know you where looking for. The day i turn sixty five i find a letter that leads me down a rabbit hole and i end up uncovering a decades old conspiracy that is still going to this day. I spend a decade following the trail, storing everything i find back in my little house in the woods, until one day i trust the wrong person and realise ive gotten poisoned. In my last moments i leave a note that i put in a book that i send in a little cart down the river Volga, which is frozen (im in moscow at the time). I hobble to the red square and die curled up near the ice rink. Ive always liked moscow during winter. My murderers think theyve put a stop to my knowledge but what they dont know is that ive left my cottage, and everything in it, to an old friend who has never gotten married, who ive always had a bit of a soft spot for. She learns of my death and mourns at least a little inside for the rest of her life. When she dies of old age she leaves my collection to her young granddaughter, who is so quiet and unbothered by anything that people call her peculiar in that way that implies something much more severe. When she finds out about the cottage she is delighted and moves there as soon as shes done with her education, intending to write biographies and historical non fiction using the resources i amassed, but not three years into her stay she hears a knock on her door during a storm and opens it warily only to find a bedraggled, lanky girl trying her best to cove a very old book from the rain who speaks in a heavy russian accent and begs to be let in so she can explain who she is. The girl lets her in and gives her a blanket and hot chocolate and listens to her tell a wild story about finding a book under a bridge and taking it and then having to run from someone who happened to see her carry it and started following her home, eventually resulting in her having to leave the country out of fear of being stalked, and finding an address disguised as a riddle in the book she picked up and deciding to go there. Her and the granddaughter become fast friends even though one speaks mostly in russian and the other in french, and then they both uncover the conspiracy and are forced out of the cottage into an adventure that they will never forget, during which they find out a lot more about my life and also fall in love. They survive and live the rest of their lives traveling, like i did, following trail after trail. They die in peace, leaving everything in their will to a young mother they see almost as a daughter and my legacy continues and grows through mother after daughter after granddaughter after lover. Centuries down the line, my grave is wrapped in pink lilies and blue forget-me-nots

#writing #yes i know how ridiculous the book in a cart down the volga things is #this whole thing is ridiculous and i wasnt about to put thought into this #wlw #sapphic #librarian #pink lilies represent feminity btw #this will get like 2 notes and it will be embarrassing. but oh well

[within-infant-rind]

I posted 1,204 times in 2022

29 posts created (2%)

1,175 posts reblogged (98%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@kafkasdiariies

@cicaklah

@bryndeavour

@romanced

@diomedrian

I tagged 254 of my posts in 2022

#art - 33 posts

#oxventure - 31 posts

#photography - 17 posts

#writing - 15 posts

#artists on tumblr - 10 posts

#illustration - 10 posts

#fanfiction - 10 posts

#dark academia - 9 posts

#quotes - 8 posts

#fashion - 7 posts

Longest Tag: 111 characters

#they wouldn’t be expecting her now and how poetic it was to bring terror into the very place they found comfort

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

It’s coming!

14 notes - Posted June 15, 2022

#4

Egbert is Martin Luther with a ninety-five theses for the Dragon D’Or

15 notes - Posted November 24, 2022

#3

The episode “Ballot Time” was so good. Egbert’s beautifully crafted story arch was *chef’s kiss* perfection! Bravo to Mike and Johnny for that! (Also, shoutout to editing for the inclusion of Egbert’s theme during a very important moment.)

18 notes - Posted December 2, 2022

#2

I am late to the party but I’m finally watching Parley Hard. It surprises me that no one mentioned Prudence’s expression when Dob said “I don’t know what you did, but I know who you are”. She looks really suspicious at that, which kind of implies she doesn’t think they really know Egbert that well. I don’t think that is a stretch for Prudence to think that either. Most of the Guild members have kept secrets from each other to varying degrees of importance. Dob regarding Liliana’s hair/how deep his feelings are (although that was eventually revealed), Prudence has never said how she became a warlock other than she just didn’t want to serve the same patron as her adopted father figure, and we don’t know what really happened to Corazon’s crew at the Island with the Cursed Hole. Egbert isn’t the only one keeping secrets but he has been the most private about his past - others have broached their topics but mostly spoke in half-truths. Egbert has never said anything more than he’s been disgraced and requires a penance. Anyways all of this is very delicious and I do enjoy Mike’s roleplaying as always.

19 notes - Posted November 24, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

Not to be a fandom discourse blog, but I can’t help but be frustrated by recent comments regarding the Oxventure brand. On the Oxventure’s DREAD one-shot video, there is a pointed essay responding to an official channel’s reply on another comment that has some choice words for the group. It’s a very emotionally driven essay for an unemotional topic. Calling them out for not playing a one shot of a “mainstream” ttrpg on a channel dedicated to a mainstream ttrpg and getting bizarrely upset about the “lack of substance” in their actual plays. A similar train of thought can be found on a recent Reddit post, but like I can’t help but feel like it’s trivial complaining. If you want something serious, watch another actual play or go play dnd yourself, the point of actual plays is to be entertaining, and for the Oxventure crew this means comedy over form. I can’t imagine watching a five year actual play series and not figuring that out. There’s a simple solution; don’t like? Don’t watch.

27 notes - Posted October 29, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

#tumblr2022 #year in review #my 2022 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review

[greysrank]

Kendrick lamar bitch dont kill my vibe lyrics

The song, produced by frequent collaborator Sounwave of Top Dawg Entertainment in-house production team Digi+Phonics, heavily samples "Tiden Flyver", by Danish electronic group Boom Clap Bachelors. Even in the midst of an effort to “stop all pollution,” Lamar is yelling the titular protest."Bitch, Don't Kill My Vibe" (edited for radio as "Trick, Don't Kill My Vibe" or simply "Don't Kill My Vibe"), is a song by American rapper Kendrick Lamar, from his major-label debut studio album Good Kid, M. The song’s gold-hued beauty is infused with contradiction: its a languid meditation on trying to elongate a transitory moment. “Look inside of my soul” are Lamar’s opening words and he maintains this introspection even while expanding his thoughts to encompass the city that puts him on stages and we fiends waiting on his records “like the first and the fifteenth.” It has a delicacy defined by its precariousness Kendrick is a sinner certain to sin again, but there’s hope too: in the change he feels coming and the new life approaching. Jonathan Bradley: Hip-hop isn’t usually this internal in its focus it can get personal or spiritual or contemplative, but “Bitch Don’t Kill My Vibe” notably turns away from an outside world with which rap is inerrantly to engage. Whatever the reason, this one’s still going to be monopolizing my iPod whenever I end up passing by the “k’s.” So maybe I should take Lamar’s advice and cut out all the talk. Maybe it’s something about the very first words here - “I am a sinner/whose probably going to sin again/Lord forgive me/Lord forgive me thing’s I don’t understand” - that’s achingly human. It’s also in the way Lamar zig-zags through it, managing to be awe struck by where he’s ended up (“put me on stages/to me that’s amazing”) while also throwing out a bunch of disses. It’s partly in the way those strings give way to the beat, the two eventually synthesizing into one fly-as-hell production. Yet I find it difficult to put into words why this song sticks with me. It’s probably one of my most played tracks period of the last year. Michel: This is the Kendrick Lamar song I’ve listened to the most since last fall, on long train rides and walks to work and times spent preparing dinner. Well-observed, still too damn garrulous, and Lamar’s dork impersonation still sounds misconceived. Sounwave digs up some Danish downtempo fluff and strikes smoke if only Kendrick could show the same curiosity about the actions of others.Īlfred Soto: One of my least favorite good Kid, m.A.A.d city tracks gets a sonic spritz, although this incarnation lacks the desperation of the other diva-addled editions. The vibe doesn’t really seem endangered: he says he’s shouting but we can’t hear it. What actually matters, though, is Kendrick - his verses are so insanely good on the remix that they won me over to a song I was initially cold on, but when I go back to those original verses, I remember that they really weren’t anything special.Īnthony Easton: The music is lush, seamless, and gorgeous…like a slightly cryptic luxury product you didn’t know existed five minutes ago, that you will dispose of in two or three days, but you need now! It’s too bad so much effort is put on the cliched lyrics and tired flow of the hyped-to-death Kendrick.īrad Shoup: Lamar’s exceptionalism grates against his declarations of fallibility. But oh lord does the “bitch” belong, if only to give the song its bite and keep it from wafting away on air.Īl Shipley: It’s interesting to listen to the solo album version given how much it’s been framed and defined that the superstars that have touched it in other incarnations: Lady Gaga on that increasingly laughable, thankfully discarded early draft, Jay-Z on the event remix. For the single version, it’s been changed to “trick,” turning the chorus into something lighter and more accessible. And the word “bitch” hits like a brick, a spiky detour from the rest of the song’s measured atmosphere. It’s a curious song – curious meaning that it feels singular, but also that it shows Lamar trying to understand the world around him as he tilts his head at finding something new. It floats along calmly despite being based around a withering put-down, stands alone on an album entirely concerned with thematic cohesion and showcases craft over savvy marketing (Lady Gaga was supposed to be singing the hook once upon a time). Pharrell Williamsĭaniel Montesinos-Donaghy: For all that’s been written in the wake of last year’s good kid, m.A.A.d city (my personal favourite: Houstonian writer Matthew Ramirez’s tumblr essay), “Bitch Don’t Kill My Vibe” has retained an element of mystique despite the level of attention paid to its host album. Donnie Trumpet & the Social Experiment.I LIE HERE BURIED WITH MY RINGS AND MY DRESSES.Email (song suggestions/writer enquiries).

#Kendrick lamar bitch dont kill my vibe lyrics

[writersmorgue]

BNHA fic recs (hidden)

First Edition: fics i probably cried to while watching part 1

(fics in my collection that aren't listed publicly)

this collection is a list of fics that i would generally recommend to people.

I'm keeping my words limited to the authors' summaries because i do not have the time to read all of these again unfortunately and give you individual ratings. this is just the first two pages out of eight so expect more.

mature and explicit fics are marked with a M/E

I will not be including individual TWs for each fic please check the tags before reading.

briar roses (and hundred years of sleep) by vannral - E

In which Izuku is hit by a ‘Sleeping Beauty’ Quirk, Class 3-A tries to find his True Love and get them to kiss him, and Katsuki’s very angry about it all.

The Boy Made of Snow by Gotcocomilk

Endeavor thought that Shoto was the perfect protegee, an ideal mix of flame and ice. He was wrong, but this was no surprise— Endeavor was wrong about many things.

Perhaps, if Rei had a quirk, he would have been right. Perhaps, if Rei had been human, Shoto would have been the balance of heat and cold Endeavor so craved, the hero to challenge All Might.

But Rei was not human, and Shoto— Shoto had a frozen flower where his heart belonged, buried in a fiery chest.

saltwater room by reapers

It starts —like all ideas that inevitably lead to one’s downfall do— with something akin to this: Midoriya Izuku. Midoriya Izuku and a five-story house by the beach, completely devoid of any entry-fee --save for the one where Todoroki has to pretend to be Deku’s boyfriend.

All-in-all though, not an awful price to pay for the vacation of their dreams, right?

Right?

ragtag by SportsAnimeRuinedMyLife (NoodleFriend)

Kirishima Eijirou had enough to deal with before almost every pro hero went missing. But after an unthinkable disaster throws society into chaos, Class 1-A reunites and tries to figure out what went wrong and what exactly they're supposed to do next.

Or...Deku is missing, the pro heroes are gone, but Kirishima is trying his best.

dead reckoning by SportsAnimeRuinedMyLife (NoodleFriend)

sequel to ragtag

Confessions are hard enough without adding explosives by auriadne

“I heard we don’t have class because you confessed to Bakugou.” Todoroki sighed. It wasn’t a moment he remembered fondly because Bakugou blew up the roof.

The World Without Me by BeyondTheClouds777

When Izuku dies, he realizes he’s not as Quirkless as he thought. He does indeed have a Quirk, one called “Second Chance” that gives him another chance at life after death. But the Quirk comes with an odd side-effect: he gets to see what the rest of the world is like without him first.

Class 1-A Radiates Chaos by ShotoTodorhoeki

Despite popular belief Izuku can really keep a secret, but class 1-A can sniff out a secret like their lives depend on it. So, what happens when Katsuki Bakugou makes an appearence on a famous youtuber's channel that nobody knows the identity of? All hell breaks lose. That's what happens

I'm Cheering For You Kacchan! by Emerald_Leaf

Going to a school an ocean away from your secret hero-in-training boyfriend sucks. At least that is what Izuku Midoriya thinks.

But at least he can make an excuse to go fly out to cheer him on at the biggest sporting event in Japan.

...While attempting to hide their relationship from his very curious class.

Surely this won't go wrong.

...Right?

Smut Week 2020 by writingboom - E

That's right.

I wish I had regrets, but alas.

Enjoy, you nasty bastards. I love you all.

His Hands by writingboom - E

Pt 2 of For A While

The Intervention by CognitiveResonance - E

Deku’s grasp was gentle but firm as he slowly guided Bakugou’s face to his front again. The look in his eyes had changed; instead of innocent, it was more assertive. . . dominating. They were still wide and unblinking, though, as if Deku was daring him to try anything. As if Bakugou even could, with his entire back flush against Todoroki’s chest.

“That wasn’t very nice, Kacchan. Do you want to try again?”

Through the Cracks by Tiress - E

Through a prank gone horribly wrong Kaminari and Sero end up trapped in a closet and end up laying privy to something they were never supposed to see.

When the Sun Grows Cold by Accio_Talent

It's hard to see the signs, especially when you're so focused on the wrong person.

The one where everyone finds out Midoriya was suicidal and depressed and they start to miss the warning signs for Kaminari.

Clandestine by emilily_25 - M

Four times Bakugou and Todoroki hid their relationship from their classmates, and the one time they didn't care who knew.

Eyes on Him by emilily_25 - E

Sometimes, Inasa just likes to look.

Over Ember's Edge by emilily_25

After a particularly rough training session where numerous students are injured with burns, the principal of UA finds it appropriate to bring in an expert for a guest lesson. Aizawa’s not fond of who they bring in, though he’s not sure why.

Tipping Point by emilily_25

Class 1-A react to seeing first-hand the dysfunctions of the Number Two Hero's household, after what should have been a routine training exercise ended up with battered and unconscious Todoroki Shouto. U.A. High deals with the immediate aftermath. Aizawa Shouta handles the first contact.

Shouto recedes.

Between a Rock and a Hard Place by emilily_25 - E

Shouto thinks he’s a good person. He saves people as a Pro Hero, he (usually) doesn’t forget to buy any of the obscure vegetables Katsuki needs for his cooking, and he’s even learned how to give Izuku the best massages possible for after his particularly bad missions. He thinks overall, he’s a good person.

So he really doesn’t understand why the universe keeps throwing him into the middle of his boyfriends’ petty bets.

So Pretty for Me by emilily_25 - E

The Class 1-A girls brings Todoroki out to get his makeup done with them, and Bakugou just can't control himself.

Just Say When by Bounemr

Denki is shocked to find himself tutored by Todoroki. Will he finally rise from last place, academically, in class? Will love shenanigans happen? Probably. They're not mutually exclusive.

Five Years Too Long by SageGreenSadness - E

'Fate is cruel. That's the only thing Denki can conclude because how on earth can you otherwise explain how he's ended up as a roommate with the two guys he's in love with.'

Aka Denki is a pining, horny mess but maybe things will work out better than he expects.

that faint voice of yours that grazed me by underfallingflowerpetals

Shouto has a panic attack, and Bakugou proves himself to be surprisingly adept assistance.

silences in sunlight by vannral - M

“So, you caught feelings for your former kouhai, huh?” Tamaki spits out his tea, and yeah, he’s totally choking on it right now, because frankly that’s the last thing he’s ever expected to hear from Nejire’s mouth."

In which Tamaki is suffering, pining and incredibly in love with Kirishima. Their friends and colleagues are quite done with them both.

us (in every moment) by vannral

A collection of stories for the Kirikami Week 2018.

bellflowers by vannral - M

“Izuku knows what the Hanahaki does. He knows what his options are, and sure, they aren’t great. In fact, they’re pretty horrible. The list is short and daunting. There are still flower petals on his pillow."

In which Izuku has Hanahaki Disease, and Katsuki's furious.

the curse of the anime protagonist by masterdipster

Or; the one where Izuku is blessed with the most heroic quirk in existence.

The problem is, er, being a hero's the last thing he wants to be.

Powder Keg by Ajaxthegreat - E

Bakugou really, really, really didn’t want to be trapped in an elevator with Todoroki and a fireproof dildo.

purple haze by Ajaxthegreat - E

“Would you use your quirk on me?” Shinsou’s eyes snapped up to Denki’s. They were bright violet in the middle, right around the iris. “Never,” Shinsou breathed, eyes intent on Denki’s flushed face. They stopped moving together. “Never, ever unless you-” “What if I asked you to?”

Interpreter by artindistress

Bakugou is a pro athlete who’s deaf and Midoriya is his interpreter. There’s a lot of camera footage of him zoning out on Midoriya’s face during interviews.

Kinktober 2020 - BNHA Edition by thesilencebeforeastorm - E

A collection of nsfw fics for Kinktober 2020 of My Hero Academia.

Pastel Explosion Murder, Pastel Pleasure, Pegged in Pastels, by artindistress - M, E

Katsuki has a dark secret, and he’d rather die than let anyone find out. . .

So of course his childhood friend finds out.

#fic rec #fanfic #bnha #mha #bnha fic rec #ao3 #mha fic rec #todokami #kiribaku #bakudeku #deaf bakugo #smut #smut rec #kiritama #hanahaki #todobaku #au #bnha au #fanfic recommendation

[dreamingofaizawa]

Potent

Alpha! Hanta Sero x Fem! Omega! Reader

***18+ Fic***

If you are under the age of 18 please vacate the premises.

Warnings: A/B/O, smut, knotting, marking, breeding kink (sorta? idk it comes with the A/B/O territory), a hint of pregnancy kink, a bit of blood

Word Count: 3.6 k

Author's Note: Ohhhhkaayyy so this has been sitting in my google doc for AGES. I think I started this in...October of last year? It's been sitting there for months and I've lacked the motivation to finish and post it but then I sent in an anon ask to @reinawritesbnha and, being the absolute queen she is, she became the little push I needed to do it. I DID IT FOR REINA!!

Also, this is some of my earliest writing and I only skimmed and edited a little bit of it so if there's a little bit of weird pacing or a strange cutoff where the writing styles clash it's because I haven't touched this piece in months.

Anywho, enjoy~

*

*

*

It had to happen when you were surrounded by alphas.

Your suppressants flaked out, again, and your scent wafted through the air on the street. Normally It’d be fine for an omega to let their scent float freely around them. But your scent is particularly...potent, even when you weren’t in heat. Not only that, but you weren’t mated yet, your scent glands still bare, and you still didn’t have a pack. To make matters worse, you’re quirkless.

You hadn’t realised what was happening until your path was blocked by an especially large male alpha. You turned around, and there were two more behind you. Fuck. This isn’t good. You took in your surroundings and searched for an exit, but you couldn’t find a way out. There's no way you’d be able to outrun the three very large male alphas.

Probably the worst part is that more alphas are turning their head toward you, taking notice of your lavender honey and rain scent that slowly began turning to a sour swamp. You dared to hope that change would ward off the three cornering you, but they’d already got a whiff of you. Several distressed chirps sounded from your chest, voicing your discomfort, and you glared pointedly at the three alphas as they edged closer to you.

You hate when this happened. Why’d you have to be cursed like this? Your growls only grew, baring your little omega fangs. There’s no way in hell you’d let some stranger scent you, let alone one of these creeps. They wouldn’t take the damn hint and just crept closer to you, calling out to the ‘pretty little omega’ to ‘come have some fun’.

You’re scared now, the involuntary chirps in your chest coming more frequently. None of the other alphas or betas on the street were big enough to face the three, making you a sitting duck and a ragdoll if they wanted you to be. Your claws are small, nowhere near ideal for this situation, but you’d use them if you needed to. With a final low defiant growl you dropped your bag against the wall behind you and readied yourself for a fight.

Suddenly a large body dropped in front of you, his back to you. His scent alone hit you like a freight train, orange zest, mint, tree bark and something earthy. It had your head spinning, nearly sending you into an early heat. He growled, low and powerful, the sound rattling in your chest and making you sink further into the wall behind you. The other three alpha’s scents together were still overpowered by the new alpha before you, and they vanished faster than they appeared.

He turned around and stepped away from you, giving you space to breathe. He kneeled down enough so he was eye level with you, his hands reaching out clearly in an attempt to comfort you, but kept from touching you.

“Are you okay?” The question barely registered, still delirious from his scent, and you’re having a hard time recovering. Large hands grip your shoulders and shake you lightly, your mind beginning to clear with the soothing pheromones he’s releasing.

“Omega.” The command snapped you to attention, your gaze fixated on his own dark irises.

“Are you okay, omega?” You blink, swallow down the lump in your throat, take a deep breath.

“Yeah...I’m okay. Thank you, alpha.” But you’re not quite okay. You need to get home. Fast. The alpha seemed to catch on, probably by your scent that still hadn’t returned to normal. He stands and slips off his jacket, draping it over your shoulders and wrapping you in his scent. It’s a comforting gesture.

“Let’s get you home.” With a nod you set off, the man walking next to you with a strong, warm hand on the middle of your back.

“What’s your name?” You introduce yourself, and he does the same. His name is Sero Hanta, and now that you’re calm again, you take in just how handsome he is.

Raven hair is pulled back into a small bun, showing off his undercut and strong, sharp jawline. Onyx eyes shine with kindness and playful mischief, and a beaming grin reveals pearly white teeth. He’s incredibly toned, his muscles calmly rippling under the t-shirt that stretched over his chest. You vaguely noticed the strange shape of his elbows, but disregarded it as his quirk. The omega in you is howling, begging for this alpha, his scent invading your senses. But you suppress it quickly, reminding yourself you’d only just met this man.

As you reach your apartment you exchange phone numbers, and he tells you to keep the jacket and use it when you go out to ward off any unwanted attention. You thank him again for helping you earlier, and he waves to you as he walks down the hall and enters the elevator, the doors closing in front of his handsome smiling face.

Despite meeting him only ten minutes earlier your instincts trust the alpha, and you hold the jacket close to your face, breathing in his scent. It’s wonderful, and your inner omega is in love. You find yourself wondering when you’d see him again.

The next few days are riddled with work and calls to your doctor about the strength of your suppressants. You work from home as a secretary for a small company. It’s a miracle you’d found it, too. Nobody wants an omega, let alone a potent one. It’s an alpha’s world, you guess. When this job opening popped up you were ecstatic, so you took it and have been working from home with decent pay for the last five years.

The calls to your doctor were not going as smoothly as your job, though. You leave a message every four hours until she finally calls you back. She was concerned since the suppressants she’d prescribed are the strongest out there, and if your scent was overpowering them they were either defective or your scent glands were overproducing. It wasn’t an immediate threat to your health, it only meant you’d be drawing more attention than you wanted to. Still, it’s annoying and makes life so much harder than it needs to be.

After she prescribed twice the amount, she said she’d look over your tests from the latest visit before she hung up the phone. You groaned once the call ended. You seriously needed a break from your second gender. Taking the prescribed double dose of suppressants, you got ready to go out to the corner cafe to read and drink coffee. Hopefully the new amount will keep steady. You really don’t want to deal with any more aggressive alphas this week. For good measure you pull on Sero’s jacket, allowing his scent to cover you, then grab your keys, phone, wallet and a book and begin the walk.

When you arrive at the cafe you order a hot mocha, curl into the small corner booth and crack open the book. You got lost in the ink and your mind floated along the adventure, putting yourself in the shoes of the main character and leading the mission to take down the corrupt queen who’d framed you for killing the prince of a neighboring kingdom. You were ripped from the fantasy world when a bright, enthusiastic blonde came up and tapped you on the shoulder, making you jump. His smile was as bright as his hair.

“Sorry to scare you cutie, but I couldn’t help but notice that jacket of yours smells an awful lot like my friend Sero!” You smile softly at the blonde.

“Well if we’re talking about the same Sero Hanta, then your nose would be correct. This is his jacket.” His eyes widen as he nods.

“Oh my gosh you must be the omega he keeps talk-” The blonde’s words became muffled by a large hand. A hand that belonged to the very man you were talking about. Sero smiles apologetically down at you as he shoves the blonde back to where you assume they’re sitting.

“Sorry about Kami, he’s… extroverted.” You smile back at him, mostly because you’re happy to see him again.

“It���s no problem at all. He recognized your scent on me.” He looked down and only then realized you’re wearing his jacket, and he beams at you. Then he takes a glance at the booth you’re sitting all alone at, his smile falling just a bit.

“Do you wanna come sit with us?” You take a moment to think about the offer, then agree with a nod. Your omega couldn’t pass up more time with him.

As you approach the booth you notice there are more people with Sero than you anticipated. There were four other people sitting there. Sero introduced all of them from left to right. Bakugo Katsuki, Kirishima Eijiro, Ashido Mina, and the happy blonde from earlier is Kaminari Denki. You introduce yourself and when Sero slid into the booth, you followed after him.

These five are a tight pack, and you learn they all met in high school. Bakugo’s brash personality made you wary at first, but it didn’t take long to realize he’s just like that with everyone. He makes a bit of a snippy remark, which you easily counter, and he smirks while the rest smile or snicker. It would seem they like you.

You can’t tell what their second genders are, and you mentally kick yourself for even wondering in the first place. Their genders are none of your concern, but you can’t blame yourself when you’re constantly alert because of your own stupid second gender. As it turns out, you don’t need to wait very long to find out.

This time you smell your own scent as it permeates the air around you. You swear under your breath at the stupid suppressants that obviously can’t so their job, and the others snap their gazes to you. You sigh.

“Yeah, that scent is me. My suppressants flaked again. Sorry about that.” They all nodded, seemingly understanding. Sero must have told them about the other day. Of course, it would soon repeat. It didn’t take long for an alpha to take notice of your scent. The man -- why is it always the largest males??? -- strides up to the booth with a cocksure grin and leans down to inhale your scent. You duck away from him, into Sero, and let out an albeit small warning growl that was drowned in Sero and Kirishima’s. He ignored them all the same.

“Hey there little omega, you smell real nice. You wanna come hang with me instead? We can have some fun together with my buddies, what do you say?” The others stayed quiet. They’re going to let you defend yourself before they do anything in case they end up escalating the situation. You turn your head and lift your shoulder, hiding your scent gland.

“I’m not interested, thank you. Please leave me alone.” You hoped to whatever deity watched over you that the man would leave. Before anyone could react the alpha grabbed your wrist in a vice grip, yanking you roughly from your seat. You chirp, your scent turning sour and the entire pack abruptly stands, baring their fangs at the man. It barely registered in your head that Kirishima and Bakugo are alphas, Mina is a beta, and Kaminari is an omega, their fangs giving them away.

The man tightens his grip on your wrist and you cry out, your bones creaking under the pressure. With no other options you did the one thing that would get him to let go, and sank your fangs into his wrist. You jump back into Sero, who wraps an arm around you protectively.

“You bit me, you bitch!” He raises an arm, clearly about to try and hit you, but a large hand grabs his wrist. Surprisingly enough it’s Bakugo, and his growl is laced into his words.

“Leave now, or you lose a hand.” Sero speaks up from above you.

“You might wanna listen, amigo. That’s Dynamight.” The alpha rips his arm from Bakugo’s hold and looks down at you, and you growl at him as he scoffs and walks away, apparently not ready to fight the #2 pro hero over an omega.

You all sit back down and you pull up the sleeve of the jacket to inspect the already forming bruise on your wrist. Your nose wrinkles with a half-angry half-pained snarl. Tenderly, Sero takes your wrist and lightly squeezes the sides of your forearm, against your bones, and your lack of reaction tells him nothing’s broken. Still, he growls at the offending bruise.

“I’m gonna kill him.” You shake your head and put a hand over his.

“It’s not worth it Sero. He’s probably long gone.” You turn to the rest of the pack.

“Thank you for protecting me.” Kirishima is the first to speak.

“Of course! That dude was a jerk. I just hope he doesn’t go around doing that to other omegas.” Bakugo, surprisingly, spoke next.

“Obviously we’d protect you. You’re a potent omega and quirkless, so you attract unwanted attention without even knowing or wanting to. Besides, if you’re gonna be Sero’s omega there’s no way in hell we’d let some extra handle you like that.” The implications make your face burn, and Kirishima smacks the blonde’s arm with a ‘Don’t just say that kind of thing, Katsuki.’

After an hour or two of talking, and shockingly no other aggressive alphas, they all walk you home to your apartment. Sero wanted to check on your wrist again, so you invited them all in, but they all had something else to do, so you were left alone with Sero. The fact that the one alpha you desperately wanted to be around is alone with you in your apartment is both great and terrible. Thankfully, you have self-control and his own suppressants are working perfectly fine.

He inspected the darkening bruise on your wrist, his large hands gripping your arm tenderly and turning it gently as he prods at the skin. It doesn’t hurt too bad, so you assure him you’ll be perfectly fine. Eventually he leaves with a hug and you sigh once the door is closed, relieved that you were able to keep your omega at bay and your hands to yourself.

A couple days later you get a text from him and the two of you text often, asking how each other’s day went, if anything interesting had happened. You didn’t leave your apartment unless you needed to, since your suppressants clearly weren’t working, so you made sure to cut grocery trips short and keep away from any alphas that seemed a bit aggressive. Sero invited you to hang out with the pack at their house, and you obliged.

They lived in a huge house all together. Most of the rooms were sealed so no scents or sounds could go in or out for ruts and heats, and there were several spare rooms that were empty and waiting for more pack members. It was a fun hangout, filled with video games and good conversation, and even better food which Bakugo cooked. Sero had an arm around you whenever he was close, and you definitely didn’t mind. Your suppressants flaked in the middle, again, and Sero insisted he walk you home. With him walking you home there weren’t any alphas trying to get you this time. You ended up going over to hang out with them a lot when you weren’t working, and eventually Sero began to court you.

Obviously, you accepted, and after a few months of dating and scenting, your overactive scent glands seemed to mellow out, Sero’s scent mixing with it. Your suppressants are lasting much longer now, which is a good sign. Now that you’re Sero’s omega, he often helped you with your heats and you’d help him with his ruts, and he was strong-willed enough that he hadn’t marked or knotted you in the middle of things.

About a year and a half into the relationship you realize you really love him. Sure you had arguments, but everything was settled through calmed discussions over coffee or tea, and you came to understand each other well enough that arguments became few and far between.

You’re happy with Sero, so when your heat came around early and he was there to help, you were going to let him know just how much you loved him.

You texted him once you felt it starting. He was there within half an hour, and you pounced on him once the font door closed, smothering him in hot, wet kisses, eager to feel him inside you. He carries you to the bedroom, and you two are quick in shedding all of your clothes. He lays you on your back with a hand on your throat as he growls into your ear, making a hot shudder roll down your spine.

“Are you ready for me omega?” You whine and nod, your slick already dripping down your folds. You want him so bad it hurts.

“Please alpha, I need your cock.” He growls again, satisfied with your answer, and he presses into you, bottoming out with one firm thrust. You chant his name like a mantra as he set a bruising pace, rutting into you recklessly, wet skin slapping on skin the only other sound beside your whimpers and his growls. His teeth nip at your shoulder, sharp fangs testing your skin and claws digging into the fat of your hips. His cock is so deep, hot swollen tip kissing your cervix with every full-bodied thrust and sending you into a euphoric haze. Your own claws are sinking into his back, leaving little trails of red and blood beading down the lines. It drives him wild every time.

“That’s right, little omega. Mark me up, I’m all yours. Fuck you’re so pretty underneath me like this.” His hands grip behind your knees and press them into your chest, folding you nearly in half as he plows into you further. The angle knocks the breath from your lungs and your eyes roll back. You can feel his knot beginning to swell, feel how his thrusts are getting more controlled and his grip on your thighs tighten from the sheer concentration it’s taking for him not to breed you. You have other plans. Between wheezed breaths you squeak out.

“H-hantaaa~” He slows to a near snail’s pace, grinding his slowly growing cock into your sweet spot, a smirk stretching across his face as you splutter from the sudden change. He’s enjoying making you squirm.

“What is it, sweetness? Tell your alpha what you need.” You pant, chest heaving as much as the position will allow.

“Want your mark, want your knot~ Wanna be bred Hanta! I want your pups!” He stills completely, claws digging into the fat of your thighs with enough force to have drops of blood falling to the sheets beneath you. You’d never said anything like that in the heat of the moment. He can’t have heard you correctly...right?

“Princesa, do you know what you just said?” The seriousness in his tone has you sobering, but even before you knew exactly what you were saying. You nod frantically, wiggling your hips to get him to move again.

“Yes! I know alpha! Please, give me your knot~” His growl makes your bones shake, and with no warning he drops your legs around his waist and leans down so his face is buried in your neck.

“Fuck, I’m gonna trust you with this baby girl. I’ll give you exactly what you want.” His fangs sink into your scent gland just as he picks up his brutal pace, and the euphoria makes you cum hard, your whole body locking up and mouth falling open in a silent scream. He plows into you as you regain your breath, and you bite down on his own scent gland as hard as you can, tearing into his skin with every intention of leaving a pretty scar for the world to see.

His knot swells more, and he’s pushing it into you with every ounce of power he can generate with that gorgeous body of his. With one final snap of his hips he locks his body to yours and cums hard, ropes of hot seed filling you to the brim. He collapses on top of you and laps at the wound on your neck and you do the same. After a few minutes he leans back and cups your face in his hand, gazing down at you like you hung the moon and the stars.

“Are you alright?” You nod, nuzzling into his palm.

“I’m sorry. I was gonna talk to you about it, but my heat came early.” He kisses your forehead gently, brushing the strands of hair from your face.

“It’s okay, pretty thing. I trust you know what you’re getting yourself into.” You giggle and wrap your arms around him.

“Of course I do. I love you, Hanta.”

“I love you too.” You lay there, tangled in each other’s arms until his knot goes down. You whine at the loss when his cock slips out of you, clawing at him to come back because you’re still in heat. His hand gently wraps around your neck, a low chuckle on his lips.

“Relax, we’re far from done.” His already hard erection rubs up and down your glistening folds, barely stimulating your clit, teasing you until tears prick your eyes and you’re beggin him to fuck you again.

“When I’m done you won’t be able to walk for days. I’m gonna breed you so well, You’re gonna look so pretty all big and round with my pups.” He groans at the image he’d conjured in his head and you squeal as he slams his hips into you.

You’re in for a wonderfully long night.

#sero hanta #sero hanta mha #sero hanta bnha #sero hanta x reader #sero hanta x fem reader #sero hanta smut #hanta sero #hanta sero mha #hanta sero bnha #hanta sero x reader #hanta sero x fem reader #hanta sero smut #omegaverse #tw: a/b/o

[coalitiongirl]

Fic Recs (under 300 edition)

So I wanted to get back to reading Swan Queen fic regularly, and I asked people to rec longfic that they'd read (not written) and loved that had fewer than 300 kudos! I haven’t read most of these, but I’ve collected them here so y’all can go through the list and discover some new fics with me! Please try to kudos and review every fic that you read! It means the world to the writers and will keep em writing, and then we all win. 😁

Atonement by SgtMac (M): With Regina's magical heart failing thanks to years of previous evil, Emma and Regina and Henry (and Granny!) set out to save her life by traveling to the Enchanted Forest and requesting help from ancient magical beings known as the Guardians. Given a mission as simple as it is impossible - to achieve atonement by creating peace - the ladies find themselves joining a rebellion and fighting for the very soul of the Enchanted Forest all while trying to help Regina to understand that the self-loathing and guilt which have driven most of her actions don't have to doom her chance for a new beginning or even, a chance to live and love again. A S4(ish) SQ love story set against the turmoil of war and the chaotic savagery of the old world.

Blood and Sand by cheshire6845 (E): A/U The Savior is a slave forced into the role of fighting as a gladiator for the House of Hearts. The odds are against her survival as she will have to win in the arena, navigate Cora's schemes, outlast a general's vengeance, and not be killed out of spite by the current House of Hearts Champion - Regina the Undefeated. This story follows the major plot points of Starz Spartacus with some twists along the way.

But what if there was no time by KizuRai (M): When she wakes up, it's dark. She can't move, she can't see, she can't feel and she can't hear. Where am I? She feels a forceful oppression, pressing her down, draining her of her energy and she's powerless to stop it. How did I get here? The question of here is relative, she's not even sure where here is. What happened? There must be some reason for being stuck here but her memory is fuzzy, like all her thoughts are being sifted through a filter. Who am I? She's not sure if she actually exists or she suddenly became sentient in the darkness.She hears a voice reverberating in the distance, it's distorted and quiet but she hears it all the same. It breaks the monotony of the silence. Someone's coming for her, they will get her out. She's just not sure she wants them to as the price might be too great.

Finding Home by evl_rgl (T): “I wanted to remember you so badly that I pulled back your cursed town just so that the memories would make sense. I needed you so badly that even when I had no memory of you, I still tried to find you.” Regina gave Emma and Henry memories of a happy life together before they fled Pan’s curse, leaving them with no memories of their lives in Storybrooke. However, when the memory spell shows signs of failing, threatening to rip apart the minds of both Emma and Henry, Regina makes a drastic choice to go back and fix it, understanding that it will mean living alone in a world where her son doesn’t know her. Was the spell really faulty, though? (swanqueen)

Five Flames by MariaComet (U): In the past, Emma Nolan disconnected from her peers in high school, preferring to keep to herself. In her sophomore year of high school, she decided to try and join the boy’s wrestling team because she was bored. She didn’t expect herself to become the champion of the most bullied kid in school or the secret best friend of the school queen. She also didn’t expect to join a club that would change her life. In the present, Emma is trying to cope with a humiliating loss in her martial arts career. She claims to be “training” but is stuck in limbo between wanting to retire and try again. She is isolated from her former best friend, Regina Mills, a local celebrity chef and the rest of her old friends. When one of them calls her with an idea to honor their deceased teacher, she is confronted with unresolved feelings and questions about how powerful love truly is.

A Glamour of Truth by PrincessCharming (T): After 2x10, Regina uses magic to show Emma the obvious truth. A tentative trust forms between them amid hilarious bickering. With Emma's help, Regina struggles to regain a place in her son's life... until Cora arrives, wanting her daughter back. Pieces of Regina's past emerge showing that the board was set long before the game started. The final battle begins soon.

His Dark Materials 'verse by MoonlitMidnight (M): A modern Alternate Universe in which Dæmons (the external physical manifestation of a person's 'inner self' that takes the form of an animal) are present. In which Emma and Regina have led slightly different lives and they make slightly different choices.

How Many Miles to Avalon? (WIP) by RavenOutlander (E): Regina would do anything to save Emma from the darkness and bring her back home safe and sound. Even put up with the two idiots, Captain Guyliner and a bunch of dwarves she decidedly wanted to drop off at the nearest exit. But in their search for Emma, they find that she might not need that much saving after all. Caught up in a search for the infamous Philosopher Stone, an all out war between DunBroch and Camelot, and ghosts from the past to haunt her every waking moment, Regina finds herself scrambling to keep her and her family's happy endings from falling apart.

The Hyperion by FrankenSpine (M): After wishing upon what she believes is a shooting star, Emma Swan finds herself aboard the Hyperion, the royal starship of an alien Queen from a faraway galaxy. She quickly learns of the tensions between the Queen's people and her own, but the Queen takes an interest in her and agrees to take her away from Earth forever. Adventure awaits. *(Loosely based on Guardians of the Galaxy with just a hint of Farscape)*

If Wishes Came True (It Would've Been You) by Angeii_K (M): After Regina films a guest appearance on her friend Neal’s popular show, he invites her to spend the weekend with him and his girlfriend. What she never expected was to actually like the woman. Sparks fly between the two, which results in them questioning everything and making choices they will later regret. 4 years later, they meet again in the most unexpected of ways. Now co-stars on the same show, they are forced to work through the emotions from their last encounter. What will happen next? Only time will tell.

The King Doesn’t Have To Know (WIP) by highheelsandchocolate (M): The White Knight had never seen anyone like her before: the Queen was nothing short of mesmerizing. Her possessive yet neglectful husband, however, was another thing entirely.

The Lich by Dangereaux (M): Gay disaster Emma, exasperated Regina, and a monster. A Halloween special.

Maybe if We Close Our Eyes we Can Reach the Stars by wellthizizdeprezzing (T): Emma is a lonely astronaut. Regina is an adventuring alien. Their paths cross leading them onto a journey of new discovery. Between galaxies and many miles of cold black space, despite not speaking the same language, they manage to fall for each other. An out of this world love story.

A prisoner long forgotten by sugarsweet_19 (M): ‘I wish I had a child as white as snow, as red as blood and as black as the wood of the window-frame. Soon after she had a little girl, who was as white as snow, with lips as red as blood and with her hair as black as the ebony of the window-frame. She was therefore called Snow-white.” This is how our story starts but how will it end?The evil queen as been locked up in a tower and forgotten that is until princess Emma looks for a place to hid from her parents after they tell her she has to marry Neal the son of the dark one.

Revenge of the Three Little Pigs by mskyo (M): Regina and Emma find themselves alone and looking for the rest of their party. The Evil Queen must face the consequences of her past actions. Will Emma come to her aid, or understand that justice must be served... *Some chapters have fairly graphic sex, and violence*

Things I Almost Remember by cheshire6845 (T): A/U Despite an oncoming war between the Dark and the Light, Emma and Regina are best friends growing up in the Enchanted Forest. When war does come, they find themselves on opposite sides. Regina will have to defy her mother to save Emma. Will Emma be able to save Regina when Cora curses her daughter to live in the Land without Magic?

What We Make (WIP) by DiazTuna (M): “My mother.” He says calmly. He’d known all along, she’s aware. But he’d known that today would be the day that would get this going. She wants to ask what it was like, to have woken up this morning, laced up his boots and walked into hell just knowing. “It’s programmed the cyborg to kill her. Before I have a chance to be born.” -In which the leader of the future sends his best soldier back to the past to save his mother from a killer cyborg. Terminator AU.

The Wrong Way by pcworth (M): Takes place right after Zelena steals Regina's heart. Zelena offers Regina a chance to go back in time with her and change both of their lives for the better. But what will be the price of that decision. Slow-burn to SwanQueen

zombie trash by 13pens (T): Zelena could have her brain and eat it, too. Fic operates on three premises 1. this takes place in any universe where zelena is a reformed asshole 2. zombies are a thing and exist iZombie style 3. i have NO chill

#swan queen #fic rec #ouat