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qierxing · 1 year

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War Cry

Commissioned by the lovely Veritaventis Yan! Kaeya Alberich x OC

“Khaenri'ah, huh? You sure know a lot! The legacy of Khaenri'ah is long gone. The sinners are all that's left, and they're not worth mentioning.”

i. “Sacrifices must be made.”

Briony would like to say she’s lived to see many things.

Her life has long made its way through the wheel of fortune; and with each high and low she has always endured. Unfortunate deaths, nasty slander, betrayals from those she thought she could trust. What’s a little apocalypse on top of it all?

Where is her wheel pointing now?

She’s studied Khaenri’ah. Built by humans, for humans–she thought reading through all the old texts and inscriptions would have prepared her for–for something. A sign. A prophecy of some sorts. Anything that could have prepared her for fire, screaming, and terrible monsters heard only in stories. What good does being the leading expert on the topic do if it doesn’t help you?

It was like the gates to hell had opened: hilichurls, abyss mages, heralds, dark shadow knights, and all manners of monsters flooded the stone streets. The skies turned dark, ominous purple clouds shutting out the sun. The ground trembled as they marched amidst the screams of frightened citizens. They did not falter or stop, even as people ran this way and that.

She’s one of the luckier ones, she knows. At least she had a Vision. The abyss forces did not hold back their intimidation, whether that meant setting fire to innocent families’ houses or cutting down those who happened to be in their path. It was all she could do to pull people out of the way of monsters.

Last she was able to remember during the chaos, Razor and Fischl were trying to hold back abyss mages from the elder Adventure Guild members while Bennett was doing his best to evacuate them to safety. That was all she was able to catch before she was lifted away screaming and pounding on Kaeya’s back. That bastard. She thought nothing could phase her anymore after her adopted brother attempted to sabotage her career in the name of family. Evidently, she was proven wrong.

She sucks in a deep breath, knuckles taut around the kitchen counter. Focus. The ingredients sit in front of her tauntingly. Apples, beef, carrots…she’s made this stew too many times to count. At this point, she’s sure she could make the dish blind.

First, the vegetables and beef. The knife in her hands feels heavy as she chops the carrots and dice the apples. Did the soldiers who came through the gates feel the same with their blades? Even as people cried out, they did not blink as they slashed through flesh as they marched on. Those abyss heralds–how could they have been humans if they could so easily cut down their own?

Focus! She shakes her head violently. The meat and vegetables are done, so now it’s time to start caramelizing them along with the aromatics. The hiss of the butter and garlic clears her mind if only for a moment. Her hands drop in the carrots and onions automatically, moving the spoon to evenly distribute them across the bottom.

Bennet, Fischl, and Razor, were they okay? They were still so young–even if they were seasoned adventurers and fighters, they cannot take on a full legion of hilichurls and abyss mages by themselves. Archons, what if they–no, they wouldn’t do that. They wouldn’t sink so low to harm mere children…would they?

Venti, where was he in the chaos? The steak sizzles as the air is filled with a hearty aroma as she makes sure to sear each side. The apples and potatoes follow after. Briony knows that Venti is more than the weak bard he presents himself as, but she worries nonetheless. Poetic ballads do not halt the hearts of tyrants and monsters.

Almost done. She pours in water, adding seasoning and herbs, before putting on the lid. Jean. Was she okay? She once again finds herself clutching the counter, staring off into nothing. If the mere townspeople were nothing more than cannon fodder to the troops that stormed through, then she can only imagine what has happened to the Knights of Favonius order, the protectors of Mondstadt.

“Smells good~” Warm air puffs into her ear and her world screeches to a stop.

The knife in her hands finds its way upon a defined jugular.

If there’s anything she knows, it’s that Kaeya loves his games. She swears it’s some way to stimulate the constantly active brain that he has. (If she had to make it into a thesis report, she bet she could write it in a day) So she knows that she shouldn’t give him the reactions he wants. But somehow, he just always knows how to get under her skin. Is it his inherent ability to be annoying? Or an acquired talent? Either way, it’s infuriating.

Kaeya grins, despite the blade pin pricking his skin and letting out beads of ruby red blood.

“Whoa there, honey. This is quite a greeting for you.”

“Maybe you shouldn’t be sneaking up on people in the first place.” She bites back.

“What can I say? You just make the cutest faces when you’re surprised.”

She scrunches her face in disgust, and he laughs heartily, as if he weren’t close to having his throat slit.

“What’s for dinner?” Kaeya tilts his head as she continues to glare. He opts to lean around to check the pot, and turns to her with a cat-like grin on his face.

“Let me guess. Northern Apple stew?”

She wants to smack that smug look off his face. As if he had any right to talk about how she turned to her comfort food to destress. She could write essays upon essays on Kaeya’s inordinate love of wine and all things alcoholic and how cause and effect from personality and trauma played into it.

“If you keep acting like that, I’m not letting you have any.” She brusquely replies, removing the pot from the stove and putting out the fire. Kaeya follows her to the quaint dining table as she sets down the pot.

He hums. “Why, you break my heart. You know I love your cooking more than anything.”

Not enough to keep your loyalty to Mondstadt, but she keeps her mouth shut. She’s so drained, she’s not sure she can play tonight’s round of psychological warfare. Instead, she watches as Kaeya sets out the cutlery and plates, waving at her to sit down.

Dinner is strangely quiet, however. She expects some kind of stupid quip as they cut into the beef and spear a fork through the potatoes. Or an exaggerated re-telling of his day of work; maybe even just a fantastical story of pirates and mermaids. But there’s none, and she finds the dead silence more unsettling than Kaeya’s smooth timber.

“You must hate me, huh?”

She pauses, fork halfway to her mouth. Putting it down, she ruminates on what she should say.

Yes, is the first thing that comes to her mind. No, is what follows after–because even after everything he’s done, he’s one of the few to see her for her without any rose filters or expectations. She can breathe around him, talk to him without fearing the weight of her words. After spending years in stifling academic seminars and upright noble balls, Kaeya was a person she could trust to be impartial and free.

“It’d be hard for me to say that I don’t hate you right now.” She manages evenly.

Kaeya observes her face then closes his eyes, no doubt thinking about her statement.

“I won’t ask you to forgive me,” he begins, “Just know that I had my own reasons. And this is the best outcome.”

Something in her snaps. From nerves, from anxiety, or just from being tired of having to deal with Kaeya for so long, she’s not sure.

“The best outcome is Mondstadt being burned down?” She slams her hands on the table, standing up. “Innocent people have been assaulted, ‘all for the best outcome’? Are you hearing yourself right now?”

Kaeya’s starry eye reflects her visage angry and out of breath, sending shudders down her spine.

“The townspeople have been mostly unharmed.” Her eyes widened at the casual statement. Then, the kids, they were okay? And even the Adventure Guild elders? Oh, thank the Seven–

“And the Knights have peacefully surrendered to cooperate with Khareni’ah.” Her heart drops to her stomach. Did Jean realize the price she had to pay when those monsters stormed in? Or was her hand forced against her will?

“Peacefully, huh?” She envisions the beef she’s stabbing is Kaeya’s flesh; if only for a bitter, violent moment.

“Would you rather have them forced into submission?”

Her blood runs cold at the empty expression Kaeya’s face adorns. There’s a glint in his eyes that she’s never seen before, not even when she saw him facing enemies. Her eyes narrow into dagger points.

Is this his true face?

–

ii. “Now cut me loose: I’ll show you the meaning of sacrifice.”

Kaeya knew the consequences of taking Khaenri’ah's hand.

"This is your chance. You are our last hope."

He could’ve forgotten his father’s words when his hands clasped around his shoulders that fateful night. Turned over a new leaf when Crepus found him soaked to the bone near the vineyard, hurrying him inside before he could die of hypothermia. When Varka knighted him, he could’ve moved on from the past and broken free from his father’s heavy expectations upon him.

And yet, even after Crepus died, he could not stop but think about how even the mighty fell.

So he resolves turning his back on Diluc's betrayed face, not just once, but twice. He puts aside what Jean had taught him in protecting Mondstadt, if only to crush the guilt that came with facing her as she is surrounded by abyss heralds. He knows Lisa would’ve wiped him off the map if they tried to do anything to Jean. And Amber, the young clever outrider who has always pointed at him anytime something suspicious happened. Now, she will no longer be wrong.

But he could not turn back now.

Khaenri’ah was his home. They were humans, just like the other nations. Even if the Heavenly Principles gave judgment upon his country, they are, and still, people at their core. And when his countrymen fell, what did the other Archons do?

They turned away and closed their eyes.

Still, even if Briony had tried, he knew she could not do the same. Not when she was forced to face him and his eyes. That is the one thing he always found endearing about her. It was hard to find someone like her who is able to care, and so fiercely and genuinely at that. Even as rumors swirled around him, she still smiled and invited him in for tea on a sunny afternoon.

But if he had to be honest, maybe what he enjoyed most, is when she gets mad.

The fire in her eyes burns brighter than even Diluc’s flames that scorched his right eye that fateful rainy night. Like the explosive burn of Death After Noon, Briony’s sharp rebuttals leave no one standing. Her words are no longer shrouded and censored by an internal review, but instead carry the blunt force of the knowledge she carries. He’s beginning to realize he’s developed quite the titillating taste for the finer things in life.

He waits for her heavy breaths to slow and regulate.

“The townspeople have been mostly unharmed.” He watches as Briony perks up at his sentence. He knows that her pride won’t allow her to ask him directly about the people she cares about. “And the Knights have peacefully surrendered to cooperate with Khaenri’ah.”

A flurry of emotions flit by on her face. Relief for a couple moments, then worry, and finally, anger, once again.

“Peacefully, huh?” She scoffs as she forcefully spears a fork into a piece of beef.

“Would you rather have them forced into submission?”

“Don’t be morbid.”

“I’m just saying,” he hums, amused at her pointed glare, “it could’ve turned out a lot worse than what the current situation is.”

Her knife makes a ugly screech as she pointedly drags it across the ceramic while cutting into the beef. “And there are situations where it shouldn’t be happening at all.”

He twirls the knife in his hands as he meets her eyes. “Riddle me this, O’ leading expert on Khaenri’ah. What do you think these forces are hoping to achieve from all this?”

It’s clear that she’s taken aback at his sudden question. Her face flickers between confusion and distrust, unsure of his intentions behind the words. There’s something captivating in the way her dark eyebrows and viridian eyes scrunch in deep thought, clever mind already turning wheels upon his question.

“The forces have been ruthless, but if you are to be trusted on your word, and if the townspeople and the Knights have been spared…” Ah, there it is. That lovely expression of realization dawning upon her mien. “Don’t tell me…”

He smiles and leans forward in a conspiratory manner. “Khaenri’ah is a country for the people, by the people. My countrymen may resent the people who love the Seven, but we know better to misdirect our anger.”

She’s left frozen, staring down at her plate in muted horror.

“We’re only asking for the Archons to help clean up the mess that they stood by on the sidelines for.” He leans back and shrugs. “Again, I’m not asking for your forgiveness. But I don’t want you to get hurt trying to do something foolish out there.”

That seems to melt her frozen stature. “Do something foolish? Like trying to make sure no one gets hurt?”

“There have been no casualties, despite the mayhem that happened.” He stands, picking up his cleared plate. “That, I will not lie to you about.”

She’s silent as he also takes her plate. As he turns around to head to the kitchen sink, a broken sigh has him stopping in place.

“Was everything we went through a lie?” Briony hunches over with a wobbly whisper. “Was it amusing, leading me around like some kind of ignorant dog?”

Diluc said something similar that cold rainy night. Just like Briony had her trembling hands clasped together, his adopted brother had to take his claymore with both hands instead of his usual one hand technique, due to them shaking so much. With anger or sorrow, he doesn’t know.

He’s silent for a moment. It would be all too easy to lie and smile it off, but he knows that would silently close another door that could never be opened again. And he could not have her cut him off, not when he has fallen in love so deeply and ardently. He doesn’t want to be left alone on that cold, dirt road anymore.

“If I said yes, would that make you feel better?” He places the dishes into the sink, the hollow clinks filling the void.

He only gets silence in response, and when he looks over, he flinches. Briony’s tears flow down her cheeks and drip onto the pine wood table. He purses his lips in hesitation before he kneels down to eye level with her.

Lifting her head gently, he stares into her glistening eyes as he wipes away the tears oh so gently with his thumbs. Foreheads pressed together, they both stare into each other's eyes.

“I love you.” The bold declaration opens his heart for only a moment. Glacial ice thawing under her pleading gaze. “And nothing will change that, sweetheart.”

If he could drink up all the despair and sorrow reflecting in those deep forest hues, he would be a staggering drunk outside Cat’s Tail. Is it cruel of him to think that Briony looks her most beautiful now? Broken down and hanging off his every word, she looks like a painting; gleaming tears like shining pearls upon her tawny complexion, dark mossy hair like swirling tree branches framing her face, all for his viewing.

“But I don’t love you.” His heart freezes over at the genuine response.

He smirks.

“It’s a good thing, then, that you don’t have a choice in that matter.” His voice carries no hostility as he abruptly removes his hands from her face, causing her to almost fall forward into air. She splutters as she looks up in dazed confusion.

“Prisoners of war don’t usually get to have a say in how their jail cell or warden is.” He cheekily adds, shrugging on his fur cloak. As he approaches the door, he takes a final look back at Briony sprawled haphazardly while gazing at him with an expression that he prays to be desperation. He closes his eyes and turns away. He’s losing his touch. Not many could get under his skin or the careful facade he wrapped around himself. And yet, she manages to do so without even batting an eye.

“And as your prison warden, you won’t be going anywhere.” He swings open the door with grim determination. Remember why you’re doing this. He had long steeled himself for this when he decided to knock upon Diluc’s door and confess his dark secrets of a mission that could not be heard by unknowing ears.

His Vision sends frigid air frothing around his shoulder and for a moment, he lets the cold envelope him once more.

The click of the door closing behind him syncs with the gongs of the bells in the Favonius Cathedral. How ironic, that the chimes that once brought hope into the hearts of others, Kaeya thinks, now strike fear of those in line for execution.

#yandere genshin #yandere genshin impact #yandere kaeya alberich #my works

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candycornstudios · 8 months

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Remember back when boomers would claim that people are "putting razor blades in apples"

Yeah, I turned that concept into a character. She's a villain, an evil magical girl, and one of the people that Candy Corn and her friends fight against often

#halloween #anime #anime art #digital art #art #spooky season #candy apple #razor #razor apple #oc #original character #villain

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officialleehadan · 1 year

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Algol Whispering

Guiding Stars

+++

Andra was fascinated by the alien queen.

She was a beautiful creature. Many-legged, like a spider three times over, but with thin, spindly limbs that chimed softly where they skittered over the hard dur-steel of the brig’s containment cell. Her body was mostly clear, but thin threads of blue wove though her like a network of nerves that glowed from within. Her body was made up of several larger sections, but the way she moved was more serpentine than anything, and she held the front section off the ground. Four of her limbs, forked and mobile, offered utility. Two more were shaped into razor-sharp blades.

When they first released her into the cage, which was lined in every known psi-dampening material known to humanity, she spent a while flinging herself from side to side of the cage, scrambling and scrabbling to escape. Andra had watched her then too, worried that the precautions, made for a rogue psionic, not an alien hive-mind, would not be enough.

Finally though, after hours of increasingly desperate attempts to escape, the queen backed up into the furthest corner from the door and hungered down, chirring and coming to herself.

That’s where Cygnus found Andra, twelve hours after the queen’s capture.

She was sitting on a bench just outside the cell, watching the queen fidget and shift about. He didn’t know there was a bench down in the brig, but it made sense. They almost never had criminals on the base, which meant that the cell was more often filled with young psionics who hadn’t entirely gotten their abilities under control. There was another cell, fitted similarly with psi-dampers, but designed for comfort, in the medical wing.

They all agreed that this alien queen did not need to be in he medical wing, closer to their most vulnerable residents.

“You’ve been down here for two hours,” Cygnus said as he greeted Andra with a green-apple-colored mental kiss and presented her with a bowl of the fruit itself. She loved apples, and he got them for her whenever he could. She beamed up at him, mind sparkling with champagne bubbles of gratitude and took the bowl. “Learned anything interesting?”

“I can still feel her,” Andra revealed between bites of apple. Cygnus pulled an orange out of his pocket and began peeling it methodically and listened to her even as he tracked her conflicting emotions through their bond. “The queen. She’s trying to reconnect to her Hive, but she can’t find them through the dampeners.”

“Glad they’re working. We worried they wouldn’t.”

It had been a real risk, putting the queen into the cell and then letting go of their hold on her, but they couldn’t keep holding her psionically either. Only he and Andra were powerful enough to manage her, and they had to sleep sometime. The cell had been their best chance at taking the queen alive. If she had shown any sign of escaping, they would have had to kill her.

The loss of the chance to study her would have been painful, but not as bad as letting her rampage through the ship.

“She isn’t afraid exactly,” Andra said. Cygnus slipped into her mind and she welcomed him there with rose-gold love, then showed him what she was feeling. Since her capture, her empathy had been higher, although still not as high as her telepathy or other skills. All the same, it was one of Cyg’s weakest abilities, and he was interested that it was so useful now. “I don’t think she feels emotions the way we do. Fear is human. She does seem to know that we caught her, and she’s intelligent, but… it’s so inhuman that I can’t connect with her at all.”

“You’ve been trying? It was the last thing Cygnus expected, considering how Andra felt about the aliens in general and the queens specifically. Of all of them, the few survivors of Asteroid Base 42 were some of the most bloodthirsty where the aliens were concerned. “Why?”

“I think it’s why they broke me so badly,” Andra explained as her mind colored with the shocking lime green of remembered pain, sparking like fireworks through vivid, blinding blue. “They thought we’re like them and that I was just being stubborn. A queen from a different hive. If we can figure out how to speak, how to actually speak, we can at least ask them why they came for us. All I ever learned was that they thought we’re like them, and that they hate us.”

“But not why,” Cygnus murmured. Andra had, in starts and stops, shared what she survived on the alien ships. For her sake alone, he wanted to burn them out of the sky. For her sake, he would try to figure out what this queen wanted, and why she risked coming to Blood Star Base. “We still don’t know what they want. They destroy planets, but we’ve never been able to get close enough to see what they do after.”

“They want the resources I think, but it’s probably more complicated than that.”

“I imagine so,” he said and offered her a section of his orange for a few of her apple slices. She smiled and took the trade willingly. He ate while he thought, aware of her following his thoughts like a dragonfly skimming over a deep lake. There was no need to dig deeper. Not when he would part the waters of his mind and let her in if she asked. In reply, she scattered gleaming silver snow through his mind and he smiled at the feeling of it. “Alright. I’m here now. Want to try together and see what she does?”

“Not really, but better us than anyone else,” Andra said and set her bowl aside with a sigh. “No time like the present. Let’s see what an alien mind feels like when they’re not the one in power.”

+++

Guiding Stars:

Procyon Moon

Altair Chariot

Vega Dignity

Cappella Besieged

Canopus Emergent

Nihal Collision

Spica Interlude

Polaris Eclipsed

Sirius Empowered

Mizar Orbit

Dabih Risen

Ankaa Igniting

Leporis Crush (Subscriber Only!)

Porrima Chain

Menkent Ripple (Subscriber Only!)

Atrea Rest

Arcturus Rally

Acrux Resonance

Adhara Leap (Subscriber Only!)

Cujam Defendant

Heze Attack

Acamar Shield

Avior Triumphant

Algol Whispering (New!)

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MASTERLIST

#Writing #writing prompt #story #novel #romance #love #spilled ink #spilled writing #spilled romance #spilled feelings #writeblr #lee hadan #LGBT #inspiration #long post

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dismemberment-on-a-tuesday-night · 7 months

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It's Halloween (the best day of the year, obviously) so I came up with some headcanons for how my characters celebrate.

Below the cut, because it's a long list

Our Man Flint

Flint carves squashes to scare off demons and celebrates harvest with his community. This is before people viewed Halloween (or All Saints Day, or All Hallow's Eve) as satanic.

August and Ambrose don't celebrate Halloween, since at this point in history it was a very Christian affair.

Eden

Ezra listens to Spooky Scary Skeletons on loop through all of October. He hands out jolly ranchers and snickers to trick or treaters, paying them tons of compliments on their costumes.

Christopher attends the harvest party at his church with his relatives. Afterwards they head back to his house to make carmel apples and bake pies. He always helps his nieces and nephews carve pumpkins.

Colt's house is a favorite in his neighborhood, since he gives out ridiculous amounts of Russian sweets. He makes in poor taste jokes about hiding razor blades in candy, but never actually does it.

Jay, before the events of the story, would usually go to Halloween themed orgies or just stay home. They weren't ever big on holidays.

Divinity

Wren doesn't celebrate holidays, other than ancient religious ones from his religion.

Mary gives the trick or treater's multiple king sized candy bars, as well as carmel apples she makes herself. She dresses up like a black cat every year.

Blood Sacrifices

Ve'Qren, when he survives to the modern day, thinks Halloween is a grand holiday. He loves playing dress up, giving out sweets to little humans, and watching horror movies. It's the only holiday he puts any effort into.

Humanity's Collector

Harlow doesn't like Halloween, because it triggers his paranoia. So he spends all day in his house trying to pretend it doesn't exist.

Glade loves seeing what new anatomically incorrect fake skeletons humans come up with this year. The amount of Halloween decorations in xeir pocket dimension is remarkable.

The Doll Collector

Dahlia dresses up to match whatever her brother is doing. Every year, they go out to parties and get wasted, then return to his apartment to watch Bela Lugosi's Dracula.

Jules celebrated Halloween as a kid, but hasn't had anything to do with it since he turned sixteen.

Zion takes his kids trick or treating, and dresses up a universal monsters. One year he got creative and went as the vampire from Blacula, but he usually sticks to more recognizable characters.

Viola stays home and watches scary movies. She gives out peppermints and butterscotches to any kids who ring her doorbell.

The Collector throws a masquerade party every year, where the guests wears a surgeon's yearly salary worth of jewels, not to mention the costumes themselves.

Sanctuary

Mordecai loves Halloween music to a fault. He dresses up as characters from old Hollywood movies. Nosferatu and Citizen Kane are his go-to's.

Rahab never liked Halloween all that much. She took Mordecai trick or treating when they were kids, and gave all her candy to him.

Ishtar doesn't know what Halloween is.

Rosemonda preaches that holidays are improper and not to be celebrated by her "faithful followers". She's a kill joy like that.

You can't Follow Your Heart if there's a Stake Through It

Jacob adores Halloween. It's the only time of year where it's acceptable to play songs about necrophilia and grave robbing. He dresses up like vampires most years, and owns a very nice set of fake fangs.

Rurik doesn't know anything about Halloween. Holidays don't matter much to him.

Jericho doesn't celebrate Halloween for religious reasons.

Angelique, Clara, and Karina dress up as the Heathers. Every year. No one finds it funnier as they do.

Alma gives out homemade cookies to the trick or treaters, but doesn't dress up herself. She takes any opportunity to dote on little kids.

#Abraham original: Hot off the press #Halloween #Ocs #Head canons

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stellar-smth · 2 years

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Ch3 of 'Beyond Emerald Shallows' is out

[...]

Erwin is on his knees, turned sideways towards Levi and Levi can’t help but keep his eyes locked on the man’s form. The heel of the schooner affects Erwin as much as everyone else on board and Erwin has to cling to the bucket with one hand to prevent it from sliding away, possibly falling over even. It looks circumstantial – Erwin’s clumsiness is surely not of any help as well.

A faint smirk settles on Levi’s lips at the sight as his eyes wander further up, inspecting the blonde's profile from up close – his straight nose, high cheekbones and sharp jawline, flowing from his ear down to his chin. And he is clean-shaven. Indeed, the stubble that had turned into a three-day beard has disappeared from his cheeks only to leave behind smooth, tanned skin.

It shouldn’t surprise Levi that Erwin’s efforts to keep his appearance neat include his facial hair as well – but still, Levi is a little bit stunned by it and his chest tightens at the sight. Either Erwin found someone among the crew he trusted enough to give him a hand and guide the sharp razor blade along his neck or he managed to do it himself – on a moving, swaying ship which would be impressive. The former reminds Levi of the way Isabel gushed about Erwin and he can just hope that she wasn’t the one shaving him, although he doubts it. Isabel can be a little clumsy herself and Levi can already picture her accidentally slipping with the razor blade along Erwin’s exposed throat.

Levi wants to revel in this image a little longer but the sight of Erwin’s Adam’s apple bobbing distracts him – he has to swallow hard himself, a tingling spreading through his chest. Fuck, does Erwin have to be so finicky about his appearance, does he have to look so crisp and clean?

Levi is just about to force his eyes away when Erwin suddenly looks to his side, meeting Levi’s gaze and causing his heart to skip a beat. Levi wonders if Erwin was able to sense the stare, maybe even felt a little uncomfortable under it. But the expression on Erwin’s face rather points to the contrary – he looks relaxed and his blue eyes are shimmering as Levi hurries to turn away.

Shit. He feels foolish.

He shouldn’t feel caught off guard by this guy – after all, Levi is the Captain and Erwin is just a barely tolerated guest on boardThe Lady Kuchel. Levi should be able to drill his eyes into whoever he wants, anytime he wants.

With this new conviction in mind, he returns his gaze with more confidence and finds that Erwin has returned to the task at hand – but he seems hesitant, not as committed as before. A frown spreads over Erwin’s forehead and his full lips are pressed into a thin line as if something is going on in his head.

Levi contemplates and exhales a low, reluctant growl from the bottom of his throat before he speaks. “What is it, Smith, spit it out,” he snarls and tries to put as much poison in his tone as possible.

[...]

>>> Link to the fic on AO3 <<<

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ear-worthy · 3 months

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American Hysteria: The Podcast About Pointless Panic

There's a country song by Garrett Hedlund called, "Timing Is Everything."

That sentiment applies perfectly to the podcast American Hysteria. When American Hysteria began in 2018, the flames of society-wide conspiracy theories burned hotter than ever. With then President Trump using the bully pulpit to foster conspiracy theories -- QAnon, white replacement theory, PizzaGate, vaccine denialism, Putin is being persecuted, and even wind power causes cancer -- rational thought began to exit the public consciousness replaced by a belief best described as Fox Mulder of The X Files meets "Springtime for Hitler."

It was a perfect blend of societal delusions and a podcast investigating that same rift in political, social and cultural stability.

American Hysteria explores how fantastical thinking has shaped our culture – moral panics, urban legends, hoaxes, crazes, fringe beliefs, and national misunderstandings. Poet-turned-podcaster Chelsey Weber-Smith tells the strangest stories from American history and examines the forces that create the reality we share, and sometimes, the reality, we don't.

The podcast is produced by Skylark Media, which is an entertainment network creating and producing interactive audio dramas and podcasts.

The host, Chelsey Weber-Smith, is known for Channel Zed (2020), Behind the Bastards (2018) and You're Wrong About (2018).

Chelsey Weber-Smith also writes country music and rambles around the United States, building campfires and hoping for the best. She is a graduate of the University of Virginia's MFA program in poetry and has written and self-published two chapbooks, a travel memoir, and two full-length folk/country albums, and was recently nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Her work has been published in BOAAT, Transom, Matter, Wu-Wei Fashion Mag, the James Franco Review, and Miracle Monocle. She currently lives in Seattle.

Weber is perfect for the role in the podcast. Listen to her: "I believe in getting tangled in the weeds, in living in the often-untouched gray areas, of exploring the nuances that often get lost. I hope to use humor and poetics to ease people into difficult truths, to educate with care and understanding, especially around issues of race, class, gender, and sexuality, and the bigness and smallness of being alive."

What kinds of topics does American Hysteria cover ? Here's just a partial list.

Early Drag Queens, including the manly soldiers of the U.S. Army who put on drag shows during the Second World War.

The ghosts of children killed in a school bus, who are said to push cars uphill and away from danger.

The toy riots that took place over sought-after toys, such as Tickle Me Elmo, Cabbage Patch Kids, and Beanie Babies.

The wild stories about Halloween sadism -- razor blades in apples, rat poison in chocolate -- which turned out to be largely tall tales.

My favorite episodes so far include the show about the numerous conspiracy theories surrounding Barbie over the decades. These theories range from grooming to fat shaming, anti-feminism to body dysmorphia.

In the episode, I discovered there's one thing Ken and Barbie can never do. Get your mind out of the gutter. It's not that. After all, they're dolls. According to Barbie creator Ruth Handler, they can never get married.

My other favorite is about Hallmark Christmas movies. In the episode, Weber-Smith says, "Because so many Hallmark writers and directors also make horror movies, I called in podcasters Sarah Marshall and Alex Steed of 'You're Wrong About' and 'You Are Good' to discuss the similarities between these two seemingly polar opposite genres."

I learned that each Hallmark Christmas movie budgets at least $50,000 for fake snow. The movies are generally filmed in the summer.

My other favorite is the episode about the craze in the late 80s and 90s about satanic cults. The episode details the insanity of parents claiming their children had been affected by these satanic cults that were overrunning America. Later on, we discovered that Satan is really Steve Bannon, so no worries.

Weber-Smith is charming, funny, snarky, sarcastic and utterly entertaining on this podcast. America Hysteria is hysterical in how it crafts a narrative about these events of mass hysteria and then comments on the state of our culture, society and mindset. The narrative is fascinating and educational because, in a way, this podcast is a textbook (only funnier and wittier) on American sociology.

Chelsey Weber-Smith makes the case that America's craziness is not a recent phenomenon. Conspiracy theories have been with us since dogs were domesticated. Think about it. It's only been 60 years since parents claimed that Elvis and his gyrating hips and The Beatles and their long hair would be the end of Western Civilization as we know it.

Thanks to Fox News, American hysteria will never run dry on conspiracy theories. The network invents them every day -- Tyler Swift is a CIA agent, happy holidays is a secret Communist call sign, and when conservative white people fall asleep, their bodies are being taken over by minorities, like in the film The Invasion Of the Body Snatchers.

Check out American Hysteria. You'll learn something, have fun, laugh often, question the validity of conspiracy theories, and enjoy the warped sensibilities of host Chelsey Weber-Smith.

Finally, the podcast does encourage feedback. The podcast urges listeners to: "Tell us about a local urban legend you grew up hearing! We may play your voice message on the show along with whatever information we can dig up."

#podcast #podcasting #psychology #mass hysteria #conspiracy theories

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scumfuckflowerboi · 1 year

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i must fear a loving god the same way i must fear a loving man. they caress your cheeks with razor blades, take you out to dance on hot coals. they tell you how you pretty you are while looking through you - you give them your trust, but they won't be there to catch you after cutting your legs off and they won't be there to drink up your tears after making you cry; i must fear a loving god the same way i must fear a loving mother. words aren't enough, but the belt is. but they love you, oh, they love you. do you really think they would hurt you so much if they didn't love you? do you really think they would destroy you so much if they didn't want you to turn out strong? they take your brains out to feast on your ideas, your pretty mind, and when they put it back in, it's already too late for you to run. they soak you in acid to scrub you clean off their sins. you are the product of their insecurities, so you'd better start living their pain. you'd better start becoming it - i was in a supermarket once, my heavy heart walking right behind my loving mother, but she was too fast for me - a child with broken wings and cut off legs. and i lost her on the way through the bakery aisle - the smell of freshly baked buns lured me for a second - and suddenly i felt the cold of not only my mother, but my heart leaving me behind. she took it with her into eternity. and between the buns and bread and apple pies, i heard him laughing - a loving god and his angels. i must fear love. i must fear it.

#mine

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self-loathing-angel-of-thursday2 · 1 year

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Beautiful Spouse’s Rewatch Thoughts SPN 04x07

It’s the Great Pumpkin, Sam Winchester

“I’m stuffing my face with tubular meat so I guess it’s time to watch these fuckers”

“You can break my seal, Cas” “Dean doesn’t know how to handle being dominated like that”

“Fucking kid makes a mess” “I can’t remember who murders who” 🎶who’s murdering who?🎶

“Oh this is the one with the shit in the candy”

I don’t like the razor blades

“It’s a really weird camera angle to be honest. It’s the first time they’ve done that”

“You can’t leave this fucking guy alone for 2 minutes. He just swallows all the razor blades in the house”

“Idk what kind of drugs you need to put in the candy to make people eat razor blades” “nice.” “Drugs man” “What the fuck is he doing at that squiggly bit?” “LOOK HOW FRESH HE LOOKS”

“You see how Dean took off that jacket? I wish I could be that cool” (we watched Dean take his jacket off twice) “What does she do? Choke on shit?” “Wow. Way to be fucking jealous” We’re going to eat apples now that this person died bobbing for apples

“She’s fucking dead bitch”

“HELL YEAH. SHE”S A LOBSTER” “How come the apples aren’t baked?” Dean is wearing a blue tie

“Look at that stupid smile” (We watched that twice) “Sam’s hair look really greasy. Those sideburns are awful” Thats now how you pronounce Samhain

“Oh, is sam talking about wearing Hanes? Basic bitch underwear?” “Donald Trump has small hands, and he’s pretty fucking scary” “he’s always eating dude. Oh its halloween candy” “Why does he eat so much on TV? I feel like he eats more-and-more as seasons go on, and then he stops suddenly” “He thought about that a lot” Dean has gender troubles

Dean shouldn’t fat-shame

CASTIEL ANGEL OF THE LORD

“Fucking nerd” and laughed at Sam

“Sounds like a plan. Maybe you should leave” “I think we’re up to 8 billion now” Dean looks as Cas’s lips a lot

“Idk if it’s intentional. They just always film them so closely” “Maybe with all the guns going off all the time, Dean’s just trying to lip read” “It’s funny that Dean said because he’s daddy’s blunt instrument” “that’s one hell of a bet” “better wash the car quick” “baseball sucks ass” “that was convenient” “This is the lock-picking lawyer” “Cas looks so convicted” “This guy looks like he plays acoustic guitar” “She’s not the least bit surprised that they just ventilated someone in front of her?” “They do that a lot - give it a shot. I means it pays off until you get pricked by a nail in the wall” “Kid you wish you were on drugs right now” “Oh hell yeah” “yeah that’s how that works” “That whole family had a problem dying young I suppose” “They went really close on the cameras this time” 🎶with my crotch wide open I’m torching everyone🎶

“You’re losing your mojo man” 🎶need to suck some more demon dick🎶

“Thats a lot of heavy breathing and shit man” “I’m not sure what Dean’s more disgusted by - using his psychic powers or the heavy breathing” “Is that much of a threat? It would be instantaneous” “They always look so surprised when the angels leave” “IS this a destiel moment because there’s 2 creepy guys watching kids in a playground?” “oh yeah his seal was definitely broken at that point” “you’re fucked in the head. Dude how is that a destiel moment?”

#beautifulspouserewatchesspn #supernatural #supernatural s4 #supernatural rewatch

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splinterdsoularc · 2 years

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@fiddlingonthetympanic continued from here

“Razor blades in apples went out in the ‘60s,” Chucky says, putting the bag of candy over his shoulder. Shoving a hand into the pockets of his overalls, he withdraws a (plastic) version of the knife responsible for most of his killing. “Also, I’m offended you think I’d waste good drugs on kids.” He wouldn’t even really waste his good drugs on his kids, even though he did love them more than he ever wanted to admit.

He doesn’t touch any of the candy, though, not wanting to incite Tess’s wrath anymore than he has to. “Yeah, I’ll make sure to save the candy for her. Jen’s managed to squander away an entire assorted box of Hershey’s -- she’s trying to keep it from the twins.”

“Yes, the costume was on purpose. No, I couldn’t find overalls in the right size so this is mostly handmade.” The Good Guy overalls still felt like home, no matter how long he tried to stay away from the doll.

#v; supernaturally possessed #fiddlingonthetympanic

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amplesalty · 2 years

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Halloween 2022 - Day 19 - Night of the Demons (1988)

If The Greasy Strangler taught me not to be enticed by awesome titles, this one should do the same for cool posters...

There’s only one prior instance whilst doing this Halloween thing where I can recall watching a movie based on the cover alone, The Devil Inside. This is undocumented on here as it was way back in 2015 when fell off after watching the 2014 Godzilla and being so bored to tears by it that it made me reluctant to even write anything about it. But then missing that one made me not want to move on to the next movie which caused a whole chain reaction and meant I just gave up on that year.

The Devil Inside left precisely zero impression on me to the degree that I had to search to try and find what it was. Luckily Googling ‘horror movie nun’ has it come up fairly quickly but the only real lasting memory I have of it that it wasn’t good. And that rings true of today’s movie as well which I’ve always had in mind to watch because there’s something so eye catching about that poster. Just the absolutely intense look on that monsters face but also how ‘loud’ in general it is, it really stands out. I don’t think I’ve ever really stopped to read the tagline on it before which is pretty ballsy to call out two horror movie icons in Jason and Freddy and claim they’re too scared of this movie.

That little story about Godzilla is apt as well because I’ve been putting off talking about this because there’s really not a whole lot I can say about it. Gee, a bunch of kids go to a secluded place to party and have sex but get terrorised by someone and slowly picked off one by one, haven’t heard that one before.

Everything is just so cliché and pretty much everyone is an arsehole so you don’t really care one way or the other if they do get killed. In fact the lead girl is pretty annoying given that she spends most of the movie just running around screaming and then near the end where she’s trapped with someone else, she has this weird speech that seems to be recapping a bunch of information in this weird way. “Remember what she said, this is Halloween right? All those monsters can’t go to hell tonight, right? Because it’s the one night of the year they get to roam free, right? Well maybe we’ll be safe in the morning, right? We can just hide in here tonight and they’ll die in the morning, right?”

Apparently this is seen as a cult classic but I’m not feeling it personally. It feels like it never goes truly overboard into being comedy horror that it would have that cheesiness to it, it’s very much towing the line on the border of comedy horror but still has two feet within plain horror. Had some sequels and a remake too but I can’t say I’ll be watching them anytime soon. This same director, Kevin S. Tenney did do Pinocchio’s Revenge in 1996 which I feel like I’ve seen the art for before and I’ve clearly not learned my lesson because that I one I do kinda wanna see. It sounds like it’s very derivative of Child’s Play but it leans into that ‘maybe the kid is crazy’ thing so that sounds up my street.

Of all the arseholes in this movie though, they should have focused on the grumpy old man that bookends the story. It doesn’t feel out of place for an anthology horror movie, just flesh it out a little bit and you’ve got a segment there. He starts out being hassled by these kids at the start so picks up some apples and razor blades with some evil intentions in mind.

But well well well, if it isn’t the consequences of my actions, at the end of the movie his wife decides to make apple pie out of all these apples they seem to have laying around which promptly shreds his throat into ribbons.

Actually, that would be the one thing that would get me to watch the sequel; what’s her deal? She just walks over, softly kisses his dead body on the head and wishes him a Happy Halloween before taking a sip of coffee. She doesn’t seem alarmed in the slightest so did she know what she was up to? Is she just senile? Has the possession somehow escaped the spooky house with the kids and infected her?

#Halloween 2022 #Night of the Demons

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dreamgrlarchive · 4 years

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Self Care 101 🦋

In this post I’ll be outlining my current routines as they relate to self care. I’ll cover everything from head to toe making sure not to skip your spirit. You cannot be a girl of ANYONE’S dreams if you aren’t taking care of the most important person in your world: you.

mornings:

wash face with gentle cleanser from curology, tone with organic Mamonde rose water and finish with rich moisturizer and spf30

brush teeth with activated charcoal toothpaste by Crest and baking soda for whitening and gum clarity

take vitamins : woman’s one a day, hair skin nails, biotin, vitamin c

drink glass of water then a cup of tea

black tea, raw cane sugar, a lemon slice, ginger

good for energy, immune function, and detox

showers:

this may sound so extra (😅), but depending on my hairstyle, I sometimes like to let the shower run for about five minutes with the door closed to create a sauna effect. this is especially if I have a mask on my hair.

my showers usually are about 20-30 minutes

I have a back brush, pink exfoliating gloves, a loofah, and tree hut body scrubs and I use them ALL.

I wash first with my dove beauty bar to assure clean skin before washing with EITHER my OGX Shea So Soft body wash or Dove Renewing Peony and Rose Oil body wash to add scent or silkiness to my skin.

hair removal:

I haven’t yet mastered the art of waxing myself so I’m still riding the shave wave. *when I do I’ll make a post 4 that*

I exfoliate throughly before AND after shaving

I shave my entire body using Tree Hut Shaving Oil and a nice conditioner I’m not using. This leaves my skin super soft and silky and helps the razor to glide without skipping. I use Gillette Venus. no less than five blades, anything less is ASKING for nicks and a hard time.

when I don’t feel like shaving, I use Nair. use at your own risk. yes, I Nair my ENTIRE BODY. only leaving it on for about 7 minutes I rinse in WARM (not hot) water and exfoliate afterwards. it is imperative to moisturize after to avoid irritation. however, Nair is much easier to do than shaving and seems to last an inkling longer.

after shaving, once a month, I pull out my KENZZI. it’s an IPL device and it has helped to slow the growth of my hair. it’s noticeable for us long, thick haired chicks. I use the second to lowest setting as a melanated babe, as the higher settings could burn me.

I know many endorse the hair on women movement and I can understand it. But I personally love my skin silky, hairless, and smooth.

nights:

after eating dinner, I wash my face and apply the tiniest bit of glycolic serum and my curology night cream. my skin has been the best it’s been in a few years. then I brush my teeth and rinse with peroxide.

every four days I give myself a facial

my favorite face masks:

The Ordinary Salicylic Acid mask

The Ordinary AHA + BHA mask

all Tony Moly sheet masks *luvvvvv those*

GLAMGLOW SUPERMUD clearing treatment *fav*

Peter Thomas Roth Pumpkin Enzyme mask

Peter Thomas Roth Cucumber Gel mask

Peter Thomas Roth Irish Moor Mud mask

Peter Thomas Roth Rose Stem Cell Bio-Repair Gel mask

ORIGINS Clear Improvement mask

An at home honey and aloe mask

I apply a rich facial moisturizer and get to bed.

I then write in my planner my new plans and what I did that day if I hadn’t already. then after that I script and make mood boards in my diary. then I read a little. currently reading: Making Faces by Kevyn Aucoin, and Live Like a hot Chick by Jodi Lipper.

emotions:

I talk to my grandmother about my feelings, she helps me sort things out. please try to find one person you trust to talk to, my messages are always open. 💓 I often overthink. I suffer from anxiety and clinical depression. sometimes these things make me FEEL limited. these experiences wax and wane. I remind myself that the darkness is temporary.

I write in my diary what I feel and track my emotions for potential patterns. I don’t manufacture or sugar coat my feelings, I just talk.

sometimes you need a good cry. let it out. clean your slate. you’ll always feel better, sometimes great after a hard, deep sobbing cry.

I try to get out of the house and get some sunlight. it helps brighten my mood sometimes.

baths:

LOVE taking baths I don’t care what the status quo is about dirt. just rinse off. I love wrapping my hair up and soaking in warm-hot water.

first I run the water. as it’s running I add my bubble bath, then body wash, then my Shea Moisture fragrant coconut oil. it smells soooo good, literally yummy. then I inevitably scream from dipping my toe in the hot water. finally I get in, scrub down my body, emphasis on feet. then I wash, and just relax. I’ve even fallen asleep in the tub once, I was so zen.

careful not to soak too long or overdo it with your products. synthetic materials lingering in your lady bits for too long cause cause infections like bv or uti

some women add tea tree oil, acv, or even Aztec clay to their baths for wellness purposes. I love adding essential oils to my baths to relax and the natural scent is just great 🥺

when I get out I always put something that feels lush and soft on. *invest in super soft, comfy bath towels, they’ll make you feel so luxurious and soft after a nice relaxing bath*

flower:

the yoni is something sensitive that needs to be taken care of thoroughly, and differently than the rest of your body. it’s not recommended to use soaps down there, it can unbalance things and make you itch. also make you prone to infection. this is why I use clear warm water to clean. if I use soap it’s a sensitive, gentle formula. don’t ever try to clean the cavity. she’s a self cleaning vessel.

to shave, I trim my hair down as close as possible and use a FIVE BLADE razor with conditioner and take my time. making sure not to pass a spot twice, I apply moderate pressure and move slowly. when finished I rinse and scrub gently. I PAT not rub dry. to finish off I apply TendSkin, and salicylic acid to avoid ingrowns. once that’s soaked in I apply shea butter. very soft and pretty 🌸

⚠️ DO NOT PUT ON TIGHT PANTIES OR RIGHT PANTS AFTER SHAVING. it restricts the hairs and causes irritation and ingrowns. throw on some comfy loose shorts for a while, let it breathe

dietary needs:

drink plenty of water

cranberry juice

vitamin c

minimal red meat

probiotics

at home vagacial for the high maintenance girlies:

*make any necessary extractions with pointed and slanted tweezers *

scrub:

brown sugar, tea tree oil, a little shea butter

exfoliating and anti inflammatory

mask:

baking soda, fresh lemon juice, vitamin e oil, papaya juice, gelatin

fixes discoloration and brightens the skin while softening

moisturize:

aloe vera gel, rose hip seed oil

smelling sweet:

ah yes, my favorite part. I love fragrance so much. I love to smell like you could literally break off a piece of me and eat it.

I find that using fragrant washes and oils make your scent more strong and help it linger. I already mentioned the body washes I use. the tree hut scrubs I use smell amazing also. I alike to add essential oils and man made scents like strawberry and chocolate to my Shea Moisture oil (so yummy).

I also use a fragrant lotion, eau de parfum, and fragrance mist.

here’s a list of some of my favorites:

perfumes:

jimmy choo fever

coach floral blush

yves saint laurent mon paris

victoria’s secret bombshell

victoria’s secret scandalous

valentino

fragrance mists:

victoria’s secret velvet petals, pure seduction, warm and cozy

bath and body works a thousand wishes, fiji pineapple palm, warm vanilla sugar, black raspberry vanilla

oils:

coconut

sweet almond

peppermint

chocolate scented essential oil

strawberry scented essential oil

orange

grapefruit

eucalyptus

sweetest combo ever:

vanilla extract, coconut oil, shea butter, and your favorite perfume. you’ll be smelling like a warm cupcake with extra sprinkles and icing 🧁

layering:

oil, lotion, eau de parfum, mist

pulse points:

inside elbows and knees, in between thighs, inner arms, behind ears, back of neck, ankles

hair:

it’s super important to keep your hair moisturized. quenched tresses move, grow, shine and bounce. dry hair is limp, lackluster, and extremely fragile

my fav diy deep conditioner:

a banana, half an avocado, three spoons of honey, an egg, a spoonful of mayo, a spoonful of coconut, olive, and castor oil each

strength from egg, avocado, mayo and olive oil

moisture from avocado and honey

cover damp CLEAN hair and scalp in mixture and cover with a plastic bag, then towel for an hour, rinse thoroughly, and seal in moisture

fav hair products:

castor oil

fusionplex conditioner and mask

Aussie conditioner

wella goji berry mask

coconut oil

style booster edge control

helpful tips:

when shampooing, concentrate on the scalp and wash thoroughly twice, as the suds will naturally cleanse your stands without drying and stripping them

rinse hair with apple cider vinegar every now and then. it restores your ph balance, smooths the cuticle, clarifies the strands, and adds shine

always add oil and leave ins to DAMP hair, never dry; this will ensure you’re sealing in moisture

try to use smooth fabrics to dry your hair, bath towels encourage frizz and breakage

hands and feet:

and last but not least, let’s cover manicuring and pedicuring.

it’s super important to make sure your nails are either DONE or filed, shaped, and smooth. at home maintenance is super easy. make a point to scrub your hands and feet well when bathing. make sure to stay on top of your cuticles by trimming or pushing them back. I like the look that pushing them gives. I use an orangewood stick, metal pusher and cuticle softener to make the process super easy and safe. after I’m done I add my pineapple scented cuticle oil. I do this on my fingers and toes.

invest in a rasp and pumice stone for your feet and use these gently every two weeks after soaking them in warm foot salts. rough usage can cause cuts and irritation. in between treatments keep your feet soft by slathering them in a moisturizing foot cream, cocoa/shea butter then oil to seal it all in. buy some soft thick aloe infused socks and wear them to sleep. you’ll thank me 😉

for info on how I do my nails click this

well, that’s all I’ve got. I truly hope you enjoyed my post! it’s always fun sharing my advice with you all. any feedback is appreciated and question is welcomed ♡

#my posts #self care #high maintenance #the prissy girl agenda #dream girl journey

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mrs-march-ahs · 3 years

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Taking Care of Kai Anderson in Prison

I think this is kind of a weird idea, but I wanted to write it anyway!

Warnings- smut, manipulation, Daddy kink, Kai Anderson. Words- 3k

Summary- Blue hair and bearded Kai is put in prison, and it’s your job to shave his head and beard because, being a violent prisoner, he isn’t trusted with a razor. He plays mind games with you and finds out exactly what he wants to know, and uses it to his advantage.

----

You gather your necessary items and walk down the prison corridor, scanning your badge to open every double door on the way. You walk towards the door of the room you need to be in, and you look through the one-way mirror to look at the prisoner inside. Kai Anderson, the leader of a murderous cult, just went through all the paperwork and confessions needed to be locked away for the rest of his life. The guards inside hold him very firmly and get ready to sit him down. It’s a very high security room, multiple guards outside looking in, a secured metal chair with hand restraints on either side, and a locked door. You scan your badge to enter and he immediately looks at you but says nothing. This has been your job for multiple months and after years of training, being around dangerous men and convicted criminals wasn’t new to you. But something about his relaxed face, and his body looking so comfortable despite all the restraints, made you nervous. Your job so far at the prison is to take care of the vulnerable, but this man didn’t look it. You walk over to the table and lay down everything you’re holding: an electric shaver, shaving cream, knife and a towel, to try and take away as much of his identity as possible. He needed taking care of, and being in the high security wing, he wasn’t trusted with a razor. The guards finish tying his hands to the cuffs on the arm rests of the seat and look at you.

“Want us to do his feet too?”, one of the guards says, motioning to the similar cuffs at the feet of the chair.

Kai looks over at you calmly and raises his eyebrow, asking the same question.

“No don’t bother”, you pick up the towel and walk over to him. “What will he do? Trip me up?”.

This silly comment earns a slight smile from Kai and he looks at the guards. They point to the one-way mirror and walk outside, to remind you that they will be watching in case you need them. They leave and shut the heavy metal door behind them. You wrap the towel around Kai’s neck and slide your hands on his shoulders, smoothing it out before picking up the shaver and running your fingers through his greasy blue hair.

“I need to shave your head, is that okay?”, unsure whether he knew what he came in here for. He slowly nods once and continues looking ahead of him at the mirror. You take a breath and run the shaver through his thick hair, watching it fall on his shoulders and on the floor. After a few strips, the side of his head is all shaved and you look at him in the mirror. He turns his head slightly to get a better view, then looks straight forward again, completely unmoved by what you’re doing. The stillness in his face and the silence in the room unsettles you. You continue shaving him, shuffling around him, trying to be careful and thorough but also wanting this to end as soon as possible. He notices the effect he has on you and speaks up.

“When my sister was little and she had to get her first haircut, she sat and sobbed, she was so scared”, he begins telling you, looking himself dead in the eye. You glance at him in the mirror and nod to show you’re listening.

“So, I took some scissors and chopped some of my own hair off, to show her it wouldn’t hurt”.

You smile at his anecdote and look at him in the mirror, and he looks back at you. His eyes pierce through you and his serious expression doesn’t change. The stare makes you turn back to his head and shave the last few strips of head he has left.

“That’s sweet”, you say softly. “You’re a good big brother”.

You finish shaving him and rub your hand over his now bald head. He nods at your comment and tilts his head to the sides and looks at his new cut, with his face still as serious as before and eyebrows furrowed slightly. You watch him inspect his new look and mix up the shaving cream.

“They say that a girl’s relationship with her older brother is more important than the one with her dad”, you walk over to him, stirring the shaving cream and nod in agreement. You make eye contact in the mirror and you add, “I’m close with my brother, I can tell him anything”. Though you knew that anything you told the prisoners could be used against you, you couldn’t help but feel so awkward that you wanted to say anything to keep the conversation going, and not bring back the deafening silence. You lean down at his side and begin putting the shaving cream on his face.

“And your dad?”, he asks quietly. “What’s your relationship with him like?”.

A million thoughts go through your mind, debating whether to tell him anything. Although he had no right to know, it didn’t seem like a big deal to tell him a few things. As you contemplate your next move, you try to focus on the task at hand and why you’re here in the first place, but you’re interrupted when Kai turns his face to look at you. His deep black eyes look into your soul. It seems like he already knew everything there is to know about you, even though he just met you. You inhale nervously and turn your focus back on putting cream on his face.

“It’s good”, you say quietly, which prompts a single amused exhale from the criminal. You resist the temptation to question him and instead walk over to get the knife from the table.

“Why are you lying to me?”, he asks, smiling. You take the knife and squat next to him. You can’t help but give him a puzzled look and feel even more uncomfortable at him smiling than looking serious. You shave one strip up his neck and his jaw and wipe it on the towel around his shoulders.

“I was honest with you, why aren’t you being honest with me?”, he asks quietly but firmly, looking at you in the mirror, inspecting your body language. “You have Daddy issues, don’t you?”, he states, confidence dripping off every word and the question solely rhetorical.

“I said it’s good”, you reply defensively, trying to not give him satisfaction in knowing anything about you, especially without you telling him directly.

“Don’t worry, I know what it’s like to have a shit father”.

You turn his face to look at you while you carefully run the knife along his neck, curving at his Adam’s apple. You focus on looking at his lips and chin while shaving him, but you can feel the burning stare right into your focused eyes. Looking down at you, letting you shave around his lips, he stays silent but smirks slightly. After you wipe the blade, his mouth opens once again, and his words catch you off guard.

“You just want a Daddy to protect you, hm?”

His filthy and overly confident words surprise you into looking at him. A combination of his sly smirk and his black eyes staring at you make your insides burn. You feel your cheeks flush and try to look away from him, but you simply can’t. This time you could tell the question wasn’t rhetorical, but you couldn’t bring yourself to answer.

“You want Daddy to take care of you?”.

You stand up off the floor, not breaking eye contact, and breathe in a wobbly breath. You attempt to open your mouth, but you know no words will come out, so instead you clench your jaw, and remember who’s in charge. You blink hard and look away from him, taking the towel off from his shoulders and wipe his face clean, and then put it aside. When you return to your spot by his side, he glances over at your watch.

“We still have 7 minutes until o’clock, when I assume you have to go. Let me show you a trick”.

You look him up and down intrigued, completely restrained by his wrists and wonder what he could do. He bends his wrist upwards as much as the restrains will let him and sticks out his pinky finger. You squat in front of him and link your pinky with his, earning a smile from him.

“We’re linked now. If you lie, I’ll know.”

You nod slowly a few times and quickly look over your shoulder at the mirror behind you, feeling security at the fact that guards are watching you through the one view mirror. When you look back at Kai, he smirks at you softly and leans his head down, not breaking eye contact.

“Do you feel safer to know that they’re watching us?”, he asks, making you inhale nervously. Although it’s your fault for making it obvious, the prisoner isn’t meant to be he’s being watched. You take a deep breath and decide to test him.

“It’s just a mirror, I was looking at yo-”

“Weren’t you listening?”, he snaps, clearly aggravated by your lie. He clenches his jaw and takes a deep breath before repeating himself, even more condescending this time. His voice was barely raised but your heart immediately starts pounding faster. You felt so naked and vulnerable in front of this man that you wondered if he could see your heart beating right through your chest.

“If you lie, I’ll know”.

You furiously nod at him, not daring to take your eyes off him this time.

“What are you feeling right now?”.

You inhale sharply and take a big gulp before answering as honestly as you could.

“Terror”, you reply quietly. He exhales once in amusement, and continues to burn you with his stare, thinking of another thing to ask you. But before he has the chance to think of anything else, you decide to be brutally honest with him. Perhaps more than you should be.

“Can I be honest?”, you whisper at him, looking up at him with puppy eyes, trying to control your face to maintain as blank of an expression as you can. He nods once and waits patiently for you to continue. The second that question comes out of your mouth, your stomach fills with regret, knowing that you shouldn’t say anything more. Although every bone in your body knows that this is a bad idea, you can’t help but look at his strong veiny hands and melt inside.

“The worst part a-about you isn’t the terror”, you begin. His eyebrows come closer together in intrigue.

“It’s the arousal”. You can physically see his ego grow larger as he listens to your heart-felt confession and laughs breathily, letting your words loiter in the air for a few seconds before responding.

“I’m not sure I believe you”, he says, slightly shaking his head. “Prove it”. Your eyes widen and you blink slowly not sure what he means. The warmth coming from his strong hand spreads through your body and lingers on your thighs and your heat.

“I’m not sure what you mean”. He listens to you and sighs. After a few seconds, he explains.

“Girls think they’re always so sneaky, they think all guys think about is sex, when in reality, we both know girls think about it even more”. You gulp and try to take your eyes off his, but feel like they’re glued onto him.

“When you sit on a man’s lap, he can feel the warmth coming from between your legs. But if you’re aroused, you can feel you pulsating”. You quiver your lips at his dirty words and fail to understand the simple instruction he is giving you.

“What does that mean? I mean- what do you want me to do?”. He leans closer to you, and with every approaching inch your legs almost give up. You wobble slightly when his face comes so close to yours that you can feel his breath.

“Sit on Daddy’s lap, and let him feel you throb”. The second the pet name leaves his lips, butterflies fill your tummy. Your pussy gushes out wetness at his quiet, almost secretive, tone of voice, and demands to be touched more than ever before.

For the first time in minutes, but what felt like hours, you manage to take your gaze off his hypnotizing eyes and flicker down at his lips. He was so close, if you wanted to, you could kiss him. Because of your multiple seconds of delay, he cockily reiterates, whispering to you, his lips inching even closer to yours.

“Unless of course, you’re not aroused, and you’re lying, again”. He says, emphasising the again. He of course could tell that you were not lying, but enjoyed toying with you. Although he only met you minutes ago, he knew exactly what buttons to push.

Very slowly, you nod your head and looks at his pinky holding yours. Without breaking eye contact, he straightens out his pinky to let you go and sits up proudly, trying to scoot as far forward off the chair as possible, due to his wrist restraints.

You stand up, silently begging your knees not to give up, and gulp, before straddling one of his knees. He watches you closely as you hesitantly creep your hands to hold onto his shoulders, before pulling them away. He whispers discreet words of encouragement, “Hold onto Daddy”, making you lay your hands gently on his strong shoulders, and your pussy flutter at the name again. He hums in approval at the pulsating heart beat he feels on his knee from your throbbing heat. Without being told to, or rather, given permission to, you try to gently brush your pussy against him harder, hoping to get some release. The second Kai notices and feels your wetness through all the layers of fabric between you, he decides to help you, and suddenly bounce his leg. The unexpected movement against you makes you gasp slightly, and hold onto his broad shoulders. The sheer fact that such minimal touch earned such a strong reaction from you makes Kai smirk, and start bouncing his leg rhythmically. Every time you jump slightly at fall back against his knee, you end up griding across it, making friction against your clit. The pressing and kneading against your sensitive spot makes you bite your lip as all the arousal from your entire body goes straight between your legs. The shakiness in your knees and the tingle in your thighs runs towards your heat, making you practically drip on him. With a particularly hard bounce, you can’t help but gasp and hold onto his shoulders harder, closing your eyes in pleasure and looking down, too ashamed of how good he makes you feel. The overwhelming feeling forces a moan out of your lips, making Kai smirk. He watches you bite your lip and refuse to give him the satisfaction of knowing how good he’s making you feel, and feels threatened.

“Keep your eyes on Daddy”, he says, making you open your eyes instantly, and adding enough of a sensual touch to your pussy that you are almost brought over the edge. When you look at him, his black eyes lock you in and you have no trouble maintaining eye contact, despite slowly approaching your orgasm. Embarrassment flushes your cheek as Kai watches you, about to come undone from such a soft movement on his part, and having not masturbated in a while nor had sex, you were too stressed and focused on your job to take care of yourself. Maybe he was right, you needed a Daddy to do it for you. You grab onto his broad shoulders and completely let go, not grinding on him anymore, just letting him make you cum. Just as you hit your peak, Kai looks over at your hand on his shoulder, and without warning, he puts his bouncing to a halt and looks at you with a cheeky smirk.

“I think I have to go to my cell now”, he says with a cocky expression. You breathe heavily and look at him with pleading eyes, denied your finish. The realisation of what you just did hits you and you open your mouth slightly. As you slowly get off him, he continues looking at you clearly proud of himself. You stand in front of him for a few seconds before slowly walking to the door, and unlocking it, hoping your heart slows down before it jumps out of your throat. Or drops from between your legs. The smirk on Kai’s face widens when you look back at him, and then look at all the things on the table, deciding to leave it all there. You take a deep breath and smile at Kai, before putting your hand on the door handle, and whispering to him.

“Bye, Daddy”.

He smiles and nods at you and you step out of the door and shut it behind you, trying to regain control over your body after he made you feel like jelly. When you look over at the security guards standing in front of the one-way mirror, embarrassment burns you from the inside, and you flush completely red, having forgotten that you were watched the whole time. They look at you awkwardly and one of them puts his hand in his pocket, making your eyes glance at the bulge he’s trying to hide. The eye contact between the three of you silently agrees to never speak of this, and you walk away, trying to hide the smile covering your face.

You’re left to wonder how a man so restrained can have you completely wrapped around his finger. Later than day when you go back home, the second the front door shuts behind you, memories of Kai fling back to your mind, making you shiver. That night, when you lay in bed with your hand down your pants, all you can think about is your new Daddy.

#ahs #american horror story #ahs cult #american horror story cult #kai anderson #kai anderson smut #kai anderson x #kai anderson x reader #evan peters character #evan peters characters #ahs smut

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ginwhitlock · 3 years

Text

Hallowed Be Thy Name

NEW MOON AU: No one caught Jasper in time when Edward pushed Bella into that table. Maybe that’s a good thing. Maybe it’s all she wanted. JASPER X BELLA

tw: religious musings, descriptions of blood and sex (no actual sex)

He’s all teeth. Lips soft like the desert heat. Rose bush mouth hot and wet like an August afternoon in Washington. There’s a little league baseball game teeing off in her stomach and the curl of wheat humming against her brow and— fucking god, death has never felt this good. Not in the history of the world. It’s like Abel and Cain, and not the other way around. The scorch of ruby red blood running down her throat, sweat pilling in the crease of her nape. Her knuckles are molted white. Her dress is green. Like a forest. Like a timber house on fire.

Marble hands are trying to tear him off her, nails like crystals, blood covering every slick surface. And god is she slick, under and over her dress, and holds onto him tighter. He’s wearing a button up that reeks of another girl’s perfume and she decides her life could suffocate it if she tried hard enough. All that crimson coating her palms like split middle school nail polish. Not acetone smoke. Just copper. Just him. Just her pale skin, marred.

This is what God feels like, she says. This is prayer. The way his tongue sweeps the roof of her mouth stops her pulse and she starts her Hail Mary’s in tandem. He’s saying something. Roaring and growling and hissing with his knuckles creating screaming dents into her hips, under her dress again. She wants him in between them. She wants the heaviest parts of him fucking her into the shards beneath them. She wants she wants she needs my God— Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name; thy kingdom come— fuck his nails dig like claws into the meaty flesh of her thighs as he bites his way over her jaw, maybe it’s the blood loss— is it? The room is silent like a car crash, there’s water on the collar of his shirt and it’s soaking in, oh Lord oh Lord oh Lord there’s his beautiful teeth. Is that what a razor blade feels like? Is this what the Eve felt? Or is she the apple—

Her world is ripped away from her in milliseconds. Her vision is black and grey, white washed without the haze of a southern demon’s fingers making prints in the smooth satin of her dress. Everything is crumpled and fading like an old school box TV as it flicks off before her father tucks her into bed.

She is twelve and eighteen and six years old all at once and the cool wash of air from the doctors breath is like a lullaby. And God, she wants to sleep so badly. Why did they take him from her? Why can’t he put her to bed? She’s so cold now, without, without…

There’s a bone white piano key by her useless forefinger and she smiles.

It’s the best birthday she’s ever had.

#I wrote this like. three minutes ago #this is also for Molina-Hoe because for some reason she likes what I write. idk if she’ll like this one but she’s my favorite #mine #twilight #thetwilightsaga #jasper x Bella #jasper hale #jasper whitlock #Bella swan #twilight fanfic #my writing #writing #fanfic

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comfortwriting · 3 years

Text

Ashtray Part 4 - D.M

Masterlist, Requesting Rules, Writing Prompts

This is Part 4 of my Draco Malfoy Mini Series, please read parts 1, 2, and 3.

Warnings: swearing, smoking, mention of food and eating.

“Is love a tender thing? It is too rough, too rude, too boisterous, and it pricks like thorn.” Snape’s voice echoed in the back of your mind whilst you flicked through your Romeo and Juliet GCSE muggle study materials, forgetting about charms, divination, and hexes, and learning about Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, and John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men instead.

The spring breeze brushed against your tender neck and cheek, causing your hair to blow out of place, the pages in your books flicking over, your bookmark sliding out of the crook and onto the grass.

Sighing, with a cigarette clamped between your lips in the corner of your mouth, you quickly grabbed on to your book, trying to find the page you were on, battling against the strong and unsteady breeze which started to resemble a billion hands, trying to push you away all at once.

Reaching the page you were on, you picked up your bookmark and shoved it back into the crook, sucking on your cigarette and inhaling, you stuffed the books into your bag and rested your head against the giant birch tree you pressed your back up against, looking up at the long, thick branches that welcomed new leaves and blossoming flowers.

“Are you bloody mental?” A familiar voice called out, footsteps stomping towards you.

Choking on your breath, you spluttered, the cigarette shooting out of your mouth and onto the grass, the wind blowing it away before you could pick it up or put it out.

The group of footsteps got closer and then stopped, you stared at the familiar mucky and well-worn shoes that stood out next to the shiny pointed flats in perfect condition, looking up, you were faced with Ron and Hermione.

Feeling your heart drop in your stomach and bracing yourself for another lecture, you continued to stare at them, darting from one pair of eyes to another.

“What do you want?” you sighed, too tired to argue, too drained to explain yourself all over again.

Ron squinted at you “leaving Hogwarts just as you’re about to start your O.W.Ls, Y/N, have you gone mad?”

Your heart started to pound, your stomach suffering fatal blows with each heavy beat.

“It’s nothing to do with you” you replied “I told you that last week!”

Hermione held Ron back from losing his temper, flashing him a look and pulling him behind her. She looked down at your book filled bag and pouted for a moment, pondering her thoughts.

“But why?”

But why? are you kidding me!

Rolling your eyes, you scoffed and laughed lightly, grabbing your bag and slinging it over your shoulder as you got to your feet.

“You’re a smart girl, Hermione.” you glared “don’t ask stupid questions.”

Turning away from her and walking away in the other direction, Ron pushed past his girlfriend and grabbed hold of your wrist, pulling you back, his other hand gripping the wand in his pocket tightly.

“Ron!” Hermione hissed.

“No!” You raised your voice “It’s alright, I’ll give you what you bloody want.” You snatched your wrist away from Ron and pushed him away from you, almost causing him to fall onto the grass.

Hermione tried to speak, so did Ron but the fire burning in your stomach became uncontrollable and the embers that flew off spread around your body like wildfire.

Draco, Pansy, Blaise, and his other cronies strolled down the path towards the lake, your raised voice catching their attention and pulling them into the spider web you were accidentally forming around you.

“I fell in love with Draco and he happened to already like me back!” you yelled “I got to know him better than anyone, better than Pansy, better than Blaise, better than Snape!”

Hermione still tried to speak, but only managed to stutter.

“That lad has been treated like shit by his father, he has been forced to do terrible things he didn’t want to do, he was never given a choice and still can’t decide what he wants to do with his own life for himself!”

The fire in your stomach shot up and travelled past your ribs, Draco’s mouth hung wide open, his heart pumping like it never had before in his life, Pansy stared at him out of the corner of her eye.

“He isn’t a death eater by choice! I am not a death eater for helping him gain the courage he so desperately needs to break away from the poison in his life!” you walked towards Hermione and Ron, your index finger pointing at them. “I didn’t decide to fall in love with him, it just happened, I could smell his green apples in my bloody love potion, he could smell my fucking cigarettes!”

You inched closer and closer, now trembling with fury.

“Is this true, Draco?” Pansy snapped, staring at him in horror.

“Well don’t just stare at it, what can you smell?” Snape droned on at you, gliding down the empty classroom.

You closed your eyes and swallowed hard, allowing the scent of green apples and expensive shoe polish to engulf your senses, drowning you.

The scent pulled you away from reality and forced you to relive the picnic with Draco, the perfectly sliced green apples sitting on a plate before you were pulled from that moment and thrust into his arms as the two of you danced slowly and silently in the dark and empty courtyard, his expensive shoes shining in the moonlight, the smell of his shoe polish breaking out into the cold air.

You cleared your throat “I can smell Draco, Professor.” taking a deep breath you opened your eyes and stared into Snape’s pits of darkness “I can smell the green apples he eats, and the expensive shoe polish his dad buys for him.”

The corner of Snape’s mouth curled into a rare smile - a sign of approval rather - Snape’s hand rested on your desk, his eyes focusing hard on your cauldron.

“I want you to hold up your bag” he ordered, watching as you did so “and I want you to take out your Marlboro Cigarettes.”

You felt the air get snatched out of your lungs as you were pulling out the exact cigarette brand.

“How did you-”

“When I asked Malfoy what he could smell” Snape paused for a moment, the corner of his mouth curling upwards even more “he pulled a disapproving face and said the same cigarettes in your hands; Draco could smell you.”

“I had no idea that Harry had feelings for me, he never hinted at such a thing, he never told me, and when you thought I was becoming Mrs Malfoy with a burning desire to pledge allegiance to Voldemort-” you bit down hard on your tongue, having never said his name out loud “before I had a chance to explain everything, you publicly shunned me! the whole of Hogwarts shunned me!”

Hermione and Ron’s faces dropped, other students passing by stopped and stared at you, listening in to every word that flew out of your mouth, Harry could hear everything as he ran towards you, his scar prickling, nausea polluting his system, the vision as clear as day in his mind.

“I can’t eat in the great hall - I have to sit with the bloody house-elves in the kitchens! I can’t go into my own common room, or sleep in my own fucking bed!” Your yelling turned into loud screeches, your throat incredibly raw and sore as if you had swallowed the worlds tiniest razor blades.

Harry reached closer and closer towards you all, panting, desperate to catch his breath and spill everything he had just witnesses, the hairs standing up on his back, fear consuming him and guilt suffocating him.

“Everyone hates me! I hesitated for one moment when Draco asked if I were to choose him over you, my best friends, and when I said it wouldn’t come to that, he shunned me too!”

Tears filled Hermione’s eyes, making her vision go glassy, mirroring you, she had never felt so guilty and wrong in her whole life. Harry fell to his knees, gasping for air and pulling on Ron’s sleeve, trying to speak, gasping as he babbled.

“He’s coming-”

“Harry, take deep breaths mate, I can’t understand what you’re saying”

Breaking out of your rant, you noticed everyone circled around you and watching everything unfold in the distance, Draco stood and stared at you, his heart clawing through his bones and flesh to pull you into his arms where you belonged, but his head cursing you and seeing nothing but red for exposing his vulnerabilities to his peers.

“So now you all know why I’m leaving!” you yelled, addressing everyone, getting on your tiptoes, your arms stretched out as you spun around in a circle “and the best news is that I’m leaving earlier than expected!”

“He’s going to attack-” Harry gasped whilst Ron rubbed his back, concern splashed upon his face, trying to put the pieces together.

“Y/N, we’re sorry!” Hermione cried out, her voice shaking.

“No!” you yelled “you’re not! none of you are!” turning your back to everyone you took off in the other direction, your throat burning like your stomach, your eyes stinging from the tears “and after tomorrow it won’t matter!” you yelled again “I’ll be gone when the morning comes!”

Storming off, your bag bounced and bashed against your back, the heaviness of the books pushing you along with each slam, you could feel Draco’s icy grey eyes carve holes into your spine, your heart yearning out and crying for him.

but it didn’t matter anymore, you were moving on with your life and so would he.

“He’s going to attack her-” Harry gasped, finally catching his breath.

“Who-”

“Voldemort-”

“Who is he going to attack? Hermione-”

“No!” Harry shook his head, burying his hands into the grass, pulling on it, everyone now staring at him “Voldemort is going to attack Y/N!”

Draco’s world stopped, his grey eyes focused on Harry - as Harry’s green eyes that belonged to his mother looked back at the lad he hated with every ounce of his being.

“We need to help her” Harry stressed “both of us.”

Tag list: @amourtentiaa @reeophidian @alwaysnforeverfangirl @inglourious-imagines @sycathorn-slush @blackqueens01 @astramalfoy @yesimsleepdeprived @fredshufflepuff @a-dusty-emerald @samineisntmyname @hogwartsbroom

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elsewhereuniversity · 3 years

Text

We Need Backup

So… this is a tough one.

My room-mates and I are in kind of a bind. We have this rental, see? It’s nice enough, for student digs - modern(ish) furniture, climate control, decent (not great, but decent) wifi connection.

The only real downside is it’s kind of not exactly real. Or not always real. Something about N-phase space and the quantum uncertainty principle, idk.

There’s an overgrown path in one of those school gardens the horticulture club set up a few years back - you know, with all the willow trees and roses? It’s made of weird amber-ish stones laid out in pentagons.

If you follow it the right way, it goes to a little valley on the border (so far as we can tell) of Summer territory. The grass is green, the air is warm, the ring of oaks and maples growing around the rim are always in rich, vivid color; it’s full of thick wildflowers that line the slope, and our house is right at the bottom.

If you follow it the wrong way, though, you wind up stuck in either the 3rd back-up spare props room or a life-sized mural on the wall of the Art building’s atrium. And most people follow it the wrong way.

So, as you might imagine, we don’t get a lot of visitors. Like I said, we rent, and the 4 of us - including me - have never even seen our landlord. There’s a powder-blue ceramic bowl on the mail table: it’s due 3 gold drachmas on the 11th of every month, which always disappear by sunrise. It’s a little odd, yeah. We *do* certainly have questions. But, overall, we like to think we’re lucky.

See, none of us can live in a dorm. Believe me, we’ve tried. Euclid’s closing in on a Phd in Irrational Geometry and Applied Mathemagics, so zher homework assignments keep warping the fabric of reality; rearranging furniture, tearing holes in the walls, and adding extra space where it really shouldn’t be. Molybdos was the only survivor of a questing party gone very, very wrong. She has wicked PTSD, which manifests itself mostly in violent screaming and semi-corporeal night terrors. Silphium’s sick; I’m not sure what’s wrong with him, quite frankly, but being in the dorm rooms made it worse. The medicine that helps him can’t be brewed Ironside; there’s a good chance he’ll never be able to leave.

Me? I had a stalker issue. Someone in a few of my classes heard about a particular family heirloom I’m quite loathe to part with, and they got interested. Very interested. Dangerously interested.

But that’s not the point. The point is, we’re really not used to company.

So , as you might imagine, it was somewhat of a shock to wake up one morning and find a Gentry man on our living room couch.

Unconscious.

Oh, Archivist, he’s in bad shape. There are thick ropes of scars around his neck and wrists.

We had to scrub a while to get rid of all the ingrained filth - there was lots of it, dirt and dried gore and other crap - but it turns out his skin is pale. Not normal Fair Folk pale, either; the kind you get from spending too long underground.

He’s got a blade of a nose, eyes a pure gold color, and bright red hair that seems to smoke if you look at it too long. Three fingers on his left hand are fused together by what look like old, pink scars, and his right arm is tattooed with all these crazy woad designs. You can tell that he used to be powerfully built; the guy’s almost seven feet tall, and his clothes (or what’s left of them) hung from his body.

Well, we cut the damn things off. Then we did our best to clean him up. There were 12 open wounds that needed stitches, and lots of raw areas oozing this pale, watery gold stuff. Not to mention all the aforementioned filth.

Anyway, long story short: something must’ve gone wrong. He’s been here for 3 days , gripped by delirium, caught in the throes of a hellish fever. He keeps moaning and thrashing around, raving in some kind of language none of us speak.

Meanwhile, the wifi’s shot. Our phone lines put out nothing but a ‘drone’ noise, like huge clouds of flies in the speaker. Once everyone got home again the next day, the house won’t let us leave. it seems kind of…protective? I guess? The windows won’t open, and none of the doorknobs turn anymore.

Euclid’s busy with zher chalk, drawing out bizarre patterns on the walls that zhe claims are wards. Silph’s working overtime trying to keep our ‘guest’ alive, and Moly…

Moly hasn’t slept. She’s… erratic. She keeps pacing around, staring out the windows, and clinging to her kukri while she mutters about how ‘they’re coming.’

Meanwhile, there’s a bad wind on the rise. The view outside grows darker every hour. Things have taken to lurking about; black and twisted, they hide in the wild grass and wait beneath the trees. Every time someone looks, there’s more of them: biding their time, in no kind of rush at all. They’ve got us where they want us, and they damn well know it.

Since I can fly sometimes (thanks to that heirloom I mentioned) the others sent me for help. Thankfully, my other form is just smart enough to fit up the chimney flue. It was a tight, painful squeeze, and I lost a few feathers, but I made it.

I’m sorry, Archivist, I didn’t know where else to go. Hopefully the goshawk rapping at your window didn’t freak you out too much.

Do you know who our 'guest’ is? Is there someone - anyone - who can take him to safety? Are any Knights available - and, if so, can they please come drive off the intruders before my friends all get killed? I’d be more than happy to guide anyone who needs assistance.

In return, I brought a charm Euclid made. It was zher semester project junior year, and we thought you might have some use for it:

A crystal lense etched with a Pythagoras tree. Perfect, of course. Those bronze rims around the edge are how you set the thing: they move independently, see? The biggest, outer one is for years, the middle for months, and the tiny inner one for days. Pick a date, work them around so the little notches all line up, then wave your hand over the clear part. It will show 13 minutes of an event you were involved in.

Please hurry.

-Hamaliel

___

Congratulations: the heir apparent of the Autumn Court is dying on your futon, most likely from some manner of assassination attempt. You can officially consider yourself Embroiled In Intrigue.

I will reach out to the Knights, but delicately - a good number of them would view your guest as not much better than whatever is coming for him. But there are always a handful more oriented towards protecting the helpless - any helpless - than they are towards eradicating the things that lurk in the dark woods.

I will also try to send word to a handful of Autumn changelings. If you are lucky they will pass on the news of their lost and found prince to someone powerful enough to come to his aid, and do so in time for it to change anything.

In the meantime, for the good it does: a dull knife of iron with a hilt of scorched bone, which will in your time of need become blindingly bright and razor-sharp. A caltrop tipped with iron, and in the same vein, small tangles of rusty nails, twisted into the shape of apples: guard your windows and doorways and hearth. You are not the only creature that can fly.

#Hamaliel #stories #long post #we need backup #euclid #Molybdos #Silphium #charms #the autumn court #the knights #submission

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