#there are parts that are intentionally hidden but you can guess by the shapes of the shadows

[dellalyra]

Family Formation - Part Ten

Summary: The school’s exchange event endangers your family, but it’s okay, mom and dad are here to help.

CW: swearing, fluff, found family stuff, canon typical violence, I guess some angst ? megumi needs his mom rn

A/N: so!! It seems like nothings showing up in tags!!! If anyone can help pls do i am dumb and confused!! But ! Here is part 10 I have absolutely no impulse control and now you get 2 parts in one night bc adhd. I like this part nd pls don’t forget that requests are open and I love getting them!! Also! Just send shit idc I’m lonely man

Recommended Listening:

In The Woods Somewhere - Hozier

Masterlist

Nothing felt right.

You couldn’t sit still in your chair beside your husband.

There was a twisting in your gut. Akio, now 6 months old, was safe and sound with your parents – Grade One sorcerers and your home were hidden by your husband – so you knew Akio was safe.

But call it mother’s instinct – one of your kids was in danger.

You tried to pay attention to the exchange event, watching the fights but the feeling grew and grew and was soon confirmed when all the student’s lights burned red.

You sprung up from your chair and vaguely heard Mei Mei and Yaga speaking – you gripped Satoru’s arm and soon you, him and Utahime along with Gakuganji were running toward a descending curtain. Gojo reached out only to be violently rejected by the curtain, you frowned in confusion but realised a second too late as you too, were blasted backwards.

You looked at Satoru.

“An anti-Gojo veil, I just don’t think it specified which one.” He said, as you realised this was meant to keep you both out as Utahime managed to slide her arm through the veil.

Panic seized your stomach. Megumi. He was in there, he was in danger. Nobara, Yuuji. What about Maki and Toge, Panda too? All the Kyoto kids? You needed to get in. That anger panic soon turned to anger as you realised someone intentionally made this veil to keep you and Satoru from the kids.

“Utahime, gramps, you two go ahead. Protect the kids. I can break this down, but only with Y/N’s intellect.” He waves a hand at them, he may be calm but you can sense his frustration.

Utahime looks at you.

“Hime, please, get me, my kids.” She only nods and they disappear through the curtain.

“Okay, Satoru. What do you see?” You ask. You and your husband work together like a well-oiled machine by now – techniques working in perfect unison after so long of working together and the intimacy of marriage.

“Veil, the cursed spirit made, specifically meant to keep us both out. 2km radius.” He recites, knowing what you need.

“Okay, I’ll create a diversion – then red?” You don’t even realise it by now but you working on sheer instinct and muscle memory. Trying to clear the emotions swirling through your gut right now is taking everything you have.

“It’s a deal, sweet cheeks.” He replies. God, where would you be without this man beside you?

You activate one of your techniques, one of the more durable and as teenage Gojo when training said ‘damn annoying’ ones, Fae Conjuration, and shape an ancestral spirit’s cursed energy into a gigantic elephant.

“I love your flair for drama, princess,” Gojo says, kissing your hand.

“Go big or go home, right.” You reply, which makes him laugh.

As you send the elephant charging into the barrier, just as it hits and bursts into thousands of small blue petals, Satoru sends a bright red burst of energy into the curtain and you see it shrink back into itself.

You both immediately begin running toward the smoke and dust emanating from where you know the river lies. You pray to whoever might be listening that your kids are safe and that you weren’t, once again, too late.

“Y/N, get them out of the way,” Satoru says from behind you, before branching off behind you. You knew what he meant immediately.

Not far away, a series of flashes come and you see, your Yuuji, sweet, kind, loving Yuuji – has hit the curse with four consecutive black flashes. Pride swells in your chest and a giggle at how Kento will react. Next comes several confusing images which you recognise as Todo switching everyone’s places and before you know it the curse has greatly increased their cursed energy output. Yuuji comes running to Todo and just as the energy reaches its peak, you slid into the riverbed in front of the boys, using your cursed claws as anchors and shouting.

“Cursed technique: Wall of Thorns” comes tumbling from your voice, raw and powerful and the magnitude of energy pulsing from your technique quells the curses own but also wraps it up in piercing tendrils of impossibly thick, strong vines.

You look at the curse, a spirit imbued by nature – a being similar to yourself. You smile sadly at it.

“The Dryad. The monk warned me of you.” The curse speaks in a shockingly gentle voice.

“Hanami. I’m sorry it came to this. Return to the earth, and be at peace.” You say as you’ve spotted a shape lingering in the sky.

You turn as fast as you can, as you spot a figure in the sky and grabbing Todo and Yuuji by the arms you shout again.

“Cursed technique: comments flora.” And with that, you and the boys are standing, by a camellia bush about 100ft away.

“Why have we run? Y/N-Sensei?! Todo?! It’s not dead!” Yuuji shouts and leaves to run but Aoi grabs his arm.

“Hold it, brother!” Todo says.

“Do not go closer, Yuuji. Satoru has it from here.” You say.

“Don’t take another step closer, or you’ll get caught in it.” Todo and you push Yuuji behind you both and just in time as a rumble comes through the ground and you’re all soon swathed in a deep purple light.

You giggle a little, Satoru has had a chance to play a little rough today, he’s probably in heaven.

“Ha, he’s as nonstandard as ever,” Todo says.

As the light clears and you release Yuuji from your grip, you look at them both.

“Where is Megumi? I can feel his cursed energy. Is he safe, is he hurt?” You say, patting them both down and spinning them to assess injuries.

“He’s been taken to Shoko Sensei, he was injured, along with Maki. Panda has escorted them to safety.” Todo informs you as you squeeze the (much taller than you) Itadori into your chest.

“Well, maybe I should have Aoi here as your Sensei if he managed to get a black flash from you.” Coke from behind you, as your husband floats down to stand beside you all. Yuuji immediately starts spouting at him about how cool the ‘purple neon flashy thingy’ was and how he’s ‘so OP Sensei’ and Aoi claps and agrees and admires his panache.

“Satoru – Satoru! Megumi! He’s hurt, Shoko has him.” He whips around and grabs your arm and the next thing you know you’re warping into Shoko’s office and you realise the last time you did that your waters had broken and Akio was on his way. But now, it’s your other son, and it’s fear – not joyous apprehension you’re feeling. Satoru is stock still and stiff beside you. You know you’re both worrying you didn’t get to him in time. Your darling boy.

But much to your relief, sitting up with a scowl in front of you is the spikey-haired boy – seemingly unscathed, with Maki opposite him.

You dive into him, wrapping him in your arms.

“Shoko! Ieiri Shoko! Come here now! SHOKO!” You’re shouting through the room and Megumi is hushing you Satoru is pulling at every limb on Megumi checking for damage and Maki is laughing her ass off at the look on her cousin’s face.

“Jesus, Y/N chill the fuck out, your kids fine. He got a nasty gash in his stomach but it’ll heal fine, was more of a cursed technique issue than a health one. 2 weeks bed rest and some painkillers and he’ll be all good.” Shoko says, wiping her hands on her doctors coat and rolling her eyes at you. A flash of a memory of you and Gojo fussing like this over an injured Geto back in the day with her only learning to heal passes through her mind as she witnesses the scene.

She’s soon knocked back by you tossing your arms around her neck and kissing her hair.

“Thank you, I chose the best best friend ever, thank you I love you.” You finally let her go and then begin to fuss over Maki and Megumi together. Telling them that you’re taking both of them and whoever else needs recovery time to you and Gojo’s house and you’ll take care of them.

Shoko raises an eyebrow at Gojo, wondering how he’ll react to this decision.

“What my princess wants, I’ll give her. And if it’s time to look after her kids, then that’s nothing I’ll object to.” He shrugs, grabbing a candy from her desk.

Shoko leaves to check on Inumaki and Noritoshi Kamo and Maki is given permission to leave back to her dorm, with an open invite to the Gojo Cottage to recuperate if she wants.

You sit beside Megumi, with Gojo sprawling his ridiculously long limbs over the legs of the chair he’s on, playing candy crush with one eye and observing you two with the other.

“You okay, ‘gumi?” You say.

“I’m good, don’t worry Mom.” He says, awkwardly patting the top of your hand.

“You did really good today kid, saved a lot of people. Proud of you.” Gojo says, beaming. “You really take after your old man, and by that I mean me, in your levels of extraordinary talent.”

Megumi rolls his eyes and you just laugh at the two boys. You text your mom that Satoru will be home to take Akio to bed tonight, but you’ll both be staying the night in the chairs beside your eldest before you can take him home to rest tomorrow. She replies, after crying for 10 minutes over him being hurt asking if ‘her darling Megumi needs his Nana’ and he blushes and says it’s okay he’ll see her when he’s home. She tells you she loves you, tells Gojo she loves him, and tells Megumi she loves him the mostest and then you hang up. All of you drifting off, you and Gojo curled together on the armchair beside your kid’s bed.

You guys would be okay.

TAGLIST: @vesta-ro @lilithlunas @mialexandruh @sassy-cat-in-town @madam-ri @cjm-cookiethief

Requests open <3

#recommended #gojo satoru x reader #gojo x reader #gojo satoru #jjk #jjk x reader #gojo fluff #anime #gojo smut #dad!gojo #pixie writes: family formations #jujutsu kaisen megumi #jujutsu kaisen yuuji

[sharlmbracta]

i can't help but think that the two firelords in aang's fever dream would've been ozai's previous, early-staged designs, from the concept of the "firelord" to the concept of "ozai"

1.

this guy literally has fire shaped eyebrows and a fire nation insignia (or what it used to be?) stuck on his forehead. his blatant (stereotypical?) theme from his appearance is powerhungry(small eyes, bulky form), greedy-arrogant(eating grapes as a symbol?), brute-forced(war-themed clothing). I think this could be the very first design of him when creating the first idea of the "ultimate hero" and the "ultimate villain". The marks of the "first" can also be seen from the clothing design (the scarf? napkin? thingy around his chest) and simple color choices (simple red with simple yellow).

also you can see that he was agreed to have a very long and thin beard from the beginning which would feed on the "wisdom" "intelligence" and "strength" propaganda

2.

again, simple red and simple yellow.

clothing looks rather flashy, which means this look of him was also made at early stages of development and the atla fashion in general hasn't yet been stabilized. (: the flair in his wrists and the thing that goes across his shoulders to his chest. makes no sense. the top half looks like a flashy sleeping robe while the bottom half looks like... an outdoor activity metal skirt?)

he looks older than the previous one. does he? he looks more manipulative though. i think this is where his "slick tongue" personality was established bc a narrow eyes, narrow eyebrows character design kinda points to a stereotypical "rat person". i think. again long beard. that points to his high status or whatever.

this design looks like it was given to an earthbending trainer who haggled on money rather than actual teaching, who was assigned by toph's parents to be her earthbending teacher

3.

this is the very first time his face is actually shown. in seasons 1 and 2, his face was intentionally hidden, probably a tactic to bubble up the audience as "what could a monster like him look like 😱".

but ironically, he's a very normal looking guy. in fact, the most normal looking guy the designers could ever make intentionally. No part of him that could make anyone go "yep this is the face of the villain." this design of him is meant to convey that looks are often the most deceiving to your judgement. this ALSO shows when the gaang finds his baby picture in his beach house on ember island and mistake him for baby zuko.

it represents that everyone can go crazy with propaganda and an insane amount of power. like aang said, how everyone is capable of "great evil" and "great good".

taking katara's quote on the baby picture, "but he looks so sweet and innocent": his "innocent" look acts like a mask he puts on, as well as the mask of neutral expression, on top of the mask of his slick tongue.

the only thing that changes from here on is the frame of his face for anatomy i guess

below is also an impacting scene in my viewpoint:

how his face contorts from this

to this

in less than a second at azula's proposition of "burning it all to the ground". shows him that he's able to mask everything as he want it to, especially about stuff like neutral-face and power-face as that is NOT his ego-high power-tripping face:

THIS is his ego-high power-tripping face

and this is him putting back on his slick face right after a moment of being unable to mask his shock-rage and consequently rage-stripping himself

"now the universe delivers you to me like an 💅act 💅 of 💅 providence 💅" yep the providence that single-handedly blew your fucking ship up

also i forgot that the scene right after defeating ozai existed, i forgot how much of a drama queen he is:

"i'm STILL ALIVE"

and "i AM the phOEnix KING"

ok girlie fellow girlie

one more thing: he sounds genuinely proud of zuko when he commends him for "slaying" the avatar. and he reprimands aang for being "weak even with all the power in the world". looks like he really does think everything around power and ONLY power. hmm, i wonder who taught him that, hmm? tragic.

#ozai #atla #character #study #i guess #or not #may be wrong #fire lord #i did not beta read or proofwrite or stuff like that on this

[monstermoviedean]

unparalleled media experience especially because there is no equivalent to jacting joices in any other media. i'm serious. it's some combination of winchester derangement syndrome + an ever-changing list of writers and directors + 15 seasons' worth of material and it means that at many points jensen knew dean winchester better than anyone else in the room. and i know, i know some of the joices were likely suggested by directors or producers or the scripts or other cast members. but every time we get a new script there's something on the screen that's different, something better, some missing piece of the 4d puzzle that is dean winchester.

#i'm watching peaky blinders and cillian murphy is a very good actor! #but i have never once gone 'wow he did this when the obvious choice was to do this' #or 'look at this tiny insignificant bit of body language which clearly says this' #it's partly because i'm normal about this show #but partly because the show does not ask you to assemble its characters #his character is supposed to be entirely legible #there are parts that are intentionally hidden but you can guess by the shapes of the shadows #but dean winchester is all constantly shifting shadows interrupted by periodic bursts of light #and jensen knows exactly when and where to shine that light #i said before thst dean is supposed to be legible and cas is the constantly shifting one #and i still believe that #the way tptb created dean was to be legible #but on-screen there's nuance and depth and life #you can see an entirely new world out of the corner of your eye #okay i obviously need to go to fucking bed. good night #spn

[sagemusesoutloud]

Anti-Romantic, Part 3

(credit to the original owner of the image)

Character | Jaehyun x reader

Genre | nonidol!au, Mutual Pining, Slowburn, Fluff, Angst

WordCount | 2.5 k

Author'sNote | I know I promised this would be up Monday, but life has a funny way of getting in the way sometimes. I honestly don't know what came over me, but I woke up at 3 am and just HAD to write this down. Hope you like it ^^

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

Sorry I’m an anti-romantic, I want to run far away

My heart that already chases after you, Blazes up with a small flame

You begin to regain consciousness as the pain in your neck increases. Ugh, this is why you brought your pillow from home. Rolling your neck in the other direction, you reach your hand over from the warmth to fluff the pillow when you feel movement under you.

You freeze and open your eyes, the light so bright that you immediately shut them again. Once your watery eyes calm down, you try opening one at a time. The sun was shining directly on you from the window behind you, you’d guess it was probably early morning. What shocked you into panic mode was the fact that you were still on the sofa and not in the guest bedroom like you had planned last night. Lightly lifting your head, you peek over at Jae to find him still sleeping.

Sometime during the night, both of you must have shifted to a laying position on the couch. Jae was still under you, his arms wrapped around your lower back. Well, there are worse things to wake up to. But now that you were up, so was your bladder. Do you just get up and leave? You didn’t drink that much water; you eyed the half empty water bottle on the coffee-table. Yeah, you could hold it. You relax your body and plan to drift off again when you feel Jae’s chest move with a deep breath, stretching an arm over his head. Crap, maybe I should have moved earlier…is it gonna get weird? Will he be mad?

You’re so deep in thought, it takes you a while to realize he’s not pushing you away but pulling you closer. He places his arm back, this time cradling your head as he peeks at you. “You’re awake?”

“No, I’m sleep-talking.”

You feel him rather than hear him chuckle. He rolls you both over so that you’re lying side by side and able to see you better.

“We fell asleep on the couch…did you sleep ok?” the sun hits half of his face, one of his eyes shining a deep honey color. Even the dust motes help make him look ethereal. Curse him for looking so beautiful first thing in the morning.

“hmm, yeah. Don’t get too close though, I have eye-boogers,” you try to bring the blanket up from your waist but it’s stuck so you opt to covering your eyes with your hands.

“shut up, as if it weren’t normal,” he groans as he pulls you into his chest. “It’s still early, just go back to sleep.”

“I can’t”

“…You can’t?”

“no”

“oh…” he lets you go and scoots as far back in the sofa as he can, “sorry.”

“I’m just gonna go freshen up,” you say as try your best not to fall flat on your face trying to untangle from the blanket, “I’ll be back.” Your only response is a groan before he presumably falls right back to sleep.

As you take care of your business, you can’t help the heavy feeling in your chest. What you were both doing, was it wrong? Did something change or are you overthinking things? It’s happened to you before, where you get too ahead of yourself and end up in misunderstandings. You wanted to enjoy whatever step it was that you both took together last night, but you needed that reassurance or confirmation that it wasn’t all just in your head. Jaehyun would never hurt you, not intentionally. But his cold exterior had been known to break a few hearts here and there throughout your childhood. Heck, even at work nowadays. Now that you think about it, the only times he’s hurt you he hadn’t even been aware of it. You desperately wished you could just waltz right up to him and demand answers; you just didn’t want to make yourself look like a fool for diving straight in to the ‘something more’ stage.

Up until the night before, you had been content with the game of push and pull and if someone would have told you yesterday that what transpired the night before would happen, you would have thought they were joking, but…they do say that the body makes known what the heart wants. You were still in a mess when you realize that you’d been washing your hands for long enough that the water ran cold. You decide that now was a good time as any to wash your face and brush your teeth, combing your fingers through your hair. If he wasn’t going to say anything, why should you? Yeah, this is all probably too much too soon to mean something more, so you were just going to enjoy it while you can. If anything, this could be like a free trial before committing to the long-term subscription. Yeah, that’s simple enough.

You get back to the living room to find Jae still on the couch. An arm covered his face blocking the sun and the other splayed out next to him, an invitation. Or was it? Stop it. You can’t be the one to blame when he’s taking up the whole space. You pick up the blanket from the floor and lay it half on him, leaving an opening for you to slither into. Leaning over the sofa, you move the sheer curtains to cover half the window. they didn’t do much but Jae did move his arm in alarm at the change of lighting, “oh, you’re finally back.”

“yup, all good now.” You nudge your way back into his chest as you laid down facing the room. If you really were going to sleep, you don’t know how much rest you’d be getting if you were facing him again. “good, we can sleep an hour or two more,” his arm reaches around you to pull you even closer, “don’t want you to fall off.”

And there it is, the ‘excuse.’ Is that all this was?

It all felt so intimate and personal. Jaehyun wasn’t sure if the excuses he kept giving you since last night were even believable anymore. He just couldn’t get enough of your closeness. Like a man starved, he kept drinking in the sight of you next to him, the feel of your body along his. This had officially been his best birthday to date.

He was aware that some deep, deep part of him was tensed up waiting for something to go wrong or to bolt at the first chance. But for once, his heart was louder than those thoughts. He wanted this, he wanted to have you. All of you. In turn, he wanted to give you all of him as well. That’s what scared him the most, he’s known he’s wanted you since forever, but the fact that he needed to you to embrace all of him? That he needed you to be his safe space?

In a way, he’s always known about all of this. It’s why he’s kept you at a distance for so long, but maybe he was finally ready to open up to you and be completely honest and vulnerable. Fuck, he can’t even believe it took him this long to actually do something about it.

You both wake up later in the morning. Jaehyun’s preparing coffee while you whip up breakfast, an easy pattern you both fall into. He’s not sure if the silence is a comfortable one or a heavy one, but you did seem to be in a good mood. While he’d gone to freshen up, you had connected your phone to the Bluetooth speakers and had a light melody playing. He makes a mental note to ask you over more often, he would gladly become a morning person just to see you fit so seamlessly in his home.

As you both settle down to eat, he hears you let out a gasp, “I forgot!”

“What is it?”

You whine, “aww, I wanted to give it to you on your birthday. It’s the whole reason I needed to see you.” You get up and dash over to the guestroom before he can even stop you.

“So you didn’t come just to spend time with me? Ouch,” he zeroes in on your form, hiding something behind your back. “Don’t tell me you got me flowers.” Your smile drops.

“No, they’re not flowers,” you roll your eyes. You pull his arm out, guiding your hand down until you grasp his hand. He hopes you don’t see the way he shivers at the contact. “Here,” you place the red-velvet heart-shaped box in his palm. He gasps, “oh.”

For a moment, he doesn’t know how to react. Is this what he thinks it is? No, you couldn’t possibly have, you for sure would be way more nervous if you did. But it did look like jewelry, expensive jewelry. “well, are you gonna open it?”

He wordlessly lifts the lid and finds an exquisite bracelet inside. Jaehyun wasn’t much of a guy for jewelry, but it was simple enough to be worn as everyday type of accessory. It was a thin silver type of chain, the clasp had his initials and a heart hidden on the inner-side of it. “Just so you know, the heart was part of the model,” you begin explaining, a nervous shake to your voice, “but I did ask them to engrave your initials on it to personalize it. You don’t have to like it, like I said, I saw it while out shopping and thought of you.” He glances at you to find your ears red but your expression was drawn. Fuck, were you even real?

He hands you the box back, for a second, he sees your shoulders deflate before clarifying, “I’m gonna need some help to put it on.”

“Why do you always tease me?” but you concede his request, taking out the chain carefully and pulling his wrist closer to you. Because I love you…

Because this is the only way I can show you affection without scaring you…

“Because I love your reactions.”

You let go of him as you finish your work, inspecting the way it looks. “I’m glad I knew your size,” you mumble, “it fits you perfectly.” He doesn’t miss the way he feels it weighing down his wrist. Was it a comfortable weight?

“Of course it does, you got it for me.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” your eyes are piercing his, no doubt that your thoughts are probably going a hundred miles per hour. “What I just said,” his eyes are staring you down, “anything you give is perfect to me.” You weren’t going to make him spell it out for you, right? Not after last night.

You frown at that, “what if I don’t want to ‘just’ give you this?”

He finally looks away as he finds the courage to say, “what are you willing to give?” He’s treading carefully, he can’t mess up now.

“I don’t know.”

That stings. Are we back to playing games? So soon?

He’s tired of it. Forget tired, he’s exhausted from it. And all it took was one night to help him realize that he really doesn’t want to continue playing, not when it comes to you.

“Then, I would be happy for the time you spent together with me last night. I would be grateful it happened but I probably wouldn’t feel comfortable being that close to you again.”

Did he just say that? Maybe this was all a dream still. A cruel nightmare.

So he doesn’t want to move things further, is that what he’s saying? After all the moments you just shared, that’s all he’s got to say to you?

“I’m sorry I crossed the line then,” you need to go. Before you say something more and before he sees the tears that are just itching to be released.

You force out a laugh, “but thank you for being honest, I guess.”

You grab your plates and move towards the kitchen. Almost there, please don’t fall. He will not see you cry. God, you knew this was getting too good to be true. You knew it had to be a trick, you were back to square one! Man, you felt so stupid now. Did you really think one night would change everything?

You don’t realize he’s quick to go after you, grabbing your arm to face him. You let the plates crash on the sink, the sound startling him as you push his hold off you. You almost make it out the kitchen when he pulls you back again, this time pushing you against the counter standing chest to chest.

“No, you’re not listening to me.” He grabs you by the shoulders. Your heart is pounding furiously against your ribcage. You finally break down, “No, you’re not being honest.”

“If you had told me last night that I make you uncomfortable, I would have respected your boundaries, Jae.” You push down a sob, “If you had no intention of—of being that close—” You can’t even find the right words to express yourself. You spent so much time thinking about what you wanted to say earlier and now you couldn’t recall a single sentence.

He cuts you off with groan, “How can I make myself any more clear? What do you want me to say?” He lets go of you and takes a few steps back, “that it scares me? How much you know? How much you hold over me?”

“Hold over you?? You keep me at a distance! You always draw the line! Even last night, all you could do was excuse each and every one of your actions. What, you thought I wouldn’t catch that?? You don’t leave room for misunderstandings; you are crystal clear.”

You get close enough to poke his chest, “YOU—it was always you! I’ve always just been happy to go along at your pace. FOR YOU. And for years, too. So no, YOU don’t get to throw it back in my face like that. YOU—”

He pushes your hand away, “Me?! Ok no, you’re joking right? This push and pull cycle? I’m not the only one to blame and you know it! What about all those relationships you’ve been in? All those relationship questions you’d ask me, literally just a few weeks back! This is not entirely my fault either. Because guess what sweetheart, it takes two to tango.”

You’re so angry at upset, because how dare he?! Was he not the one that would sleep around in high school? The one that decided to study in a different freaking country?! Leaving you and your friends behind? Leaving the sport he oh so loved behind? He’s just running away again.

You don’t realize how hard you’re breathing and how close you’re standing until you can literally feel his breath on your lips. It’s the whisper you barely catch against the loud ringing in your ears, “You want me to be honest?”

You freeze.

“I’ll be honest with you, you can’t fault me for what I honestly need to do.”

Who made the first move, you’re not sure. But the moment his lips touched yours, it was game over.

EndNote | hahahaha... and there it is. Will there be more tension or are they finally gonna stop being so stubborn?? I honestly don't know, but this has to have been my favorite chapter to write 🙊

In the future, is it ok to post short but daily? Or would people rather I post the whole story in a single post?

Previous: Part 2 | Next: Part 4

#anti romantic #jaehyun fic #jaehyun fluff #nct #nct 127 #kpopfanfic #nct x reader #jaehyun x reader #nct fluff #nct jaehyun #jaehyun scenarios #kpopfluff #nct u #nct 2020 #nct imagines #nct 127 jaehyun #office au #fic #stream #txt #anti-romantic!! #will this be a 5 part series? #slowburn series #maybe a smidge of angst here

[sepublic]

Construction Relic Theory

           In the Relic Room, we see magical relics representing each of the nine covens, such as the Green Thumb Gauntlet for the Plant Coven, Oracle Sphere for Oracles, Healing Hat for the Healing Coven, etc. The only exception is, curiously, the Construction Relic; There is no artifact for the Construction Coven! Now, speaking from a meta animators’ perspective… Perhaps there is no Construction Relic, because this could imbalance the otherwise symmetrical layout of the relics, four on each side from one another… Or, maybe the crew forgot to include the Construction Relic, and decided it wasn’t necessary alongside most of the Relics anyway, as it’d just be another static background detail.

           But what if the Construction Relic is intentionally missing- What if it was Belos’ castle?

           I mean, think about it- What we know of Construction magic, and how we’re specifically introduced to it, is the creation of buildings. And Belos’ castle is obviously an incredibly important location for him, pragmatically and thematically, and I’ve speculated in the past that it might serve an additional function as well; Perhaps something to do with the Titan’s heart? It’s also chock-full of pipes and technology, the likes of which we’ve never seen before…

           So what if the Construction Relic was used to create Belos’ castle… Or even, it took the form of it? And that’s why it’s not present with the other artifacts; Either it’s in another location, serving as the core and foundation for the castle itself… Or it just straight-up turned into it, as the culmination of Construction magic, devising and transforming into a massive fortress!

           Alternatively- What if it was Belos’ staff, instead? We’ve all talked about how technological it looks… Perhaps Belos built and upgraded the Construction Relic into the staff we see today, in order to better enhance his magical abilities? Again, he’s associated with the creation of technology, machines, and automatons- Construction magic fits well with engineering, so it makes sense that this would be the artifact most important to Belos, and the only one he keeps on his person… And it’s potentially how he managed to create so many things such as the portal, and even the castle itself!

           Furthermore, we see how Belos can essentially ‘create’ fleshy monsters, like the Intro Worm, and those stone and meat constructs when fighting Luz. This could also fit into the speculation of Belos shaping people, such as members of the Emperor’s Coven and Guard, into uniform bodies… His power could be related to that of reconstruction, of transmutation; But he does so with living bodies, and not just buildings or technology! Maybe it could play into how Belos is able to reconstruct his body, how he’s able to create his own version of the portal…

           In fact, maybe that’s how Belos would’ve been able to heal Eda; Not with the Healing Hat, but by using his Construction Relic to literally reconstruct her body, back into its original, normal self! Maybe that’s even how the Curse works in the first place; Maybe it’s actually Construction Magic, and it reconstructs the victim’s body into an Owl Beast! Construction magic, but the building materials are the parts of a person’s body… And so all this time, Luz and Lilith were looking for the wrong artifact; The Healing Hat was not the solution, it was the Construction Relic- Because the Curse is Construction-based, and unlike Belos, they never realized this!

           In fact, whether or not it’s Belos’ staff, maybe that’s why the Construction Relic is unseen- It’s deliberately hidden so Lilith can’t just steal and use it for herself on Eda, and then be done! Maybe Belos even intentionally put away the Construction Relic, to manipulate Lilith for this reason! Getting into a meta perspective, Dana Terrace says that her choice of Magic track would be Construction, given how artsy it is… And Belos is possibly that favorited masked character of hers she alluded to, in the Reddit AMA; Although it could just as easily be Owl Mask. Additionally, Belos has a bit of brown in his color scheme himself, in the form of his cowl-mask… Maybe THAT’s the Construction Relic, even! And Construction magic fits Belos as someone with a machine motif, who wants to build an entire empire and Coven System.

           Construction Relic is unusually underrepresented, despite it being Dana’s choice- Aside from Mattholomule, we barely see any practitioners. Perhaps Belos could help to fill that role in the story, even if he’s also capable of other forms of magic; Coven Leaders notwithstanding, it’d be neat to see each form of magic get fleshed out with a witch tied to it, with Construction being Belos’ favored manner of magic. If the Curse is Construction Magic, maybe it was made by Belos, given the red coloration it gives off; Though whether Belos intended for Lilith to use it on Eda, or if he just lost it and it passed through hands on the black market, until Lily bought it… And then Belos was able to recognize his own work and thus reverse it- I can’t say.

          And once again, I’m going to bring up Fullmetal Alchemist; Because if I AM right and Belos and Father have parallels, and transmutation and alchemy from that series helped to inspire the Glyphs… Then given how Fullmetal Alchemist places emphasis on the terms construction, deconstruction, and reconstruction as a central part of alchemy; Perhaps this could factor into Belos, who’s essentially doing this show’s equivalent to Chimeras and Human Transmutation… Possibly on himself, even! 

          If we got by his ability to create living constructs AND buildings with this theory, then suddenly this could recontextualize all of those buildings in the Boiling Isles that have body parts in them… With Belos either having a hand in their creation, or Construction Magic being foreshadowed as including some meaty bits as well! This could even tie into Hooty, who himself is a meaty part of a building, and is even brown himself! Maybe House Demons are a variety of demon created by Construction Witches, who incorporate body parts into buildings (possibly supplied by Beastkeepers) and bring them to life- And Belos is using the same principle with the Construction Relic, just with more emphasis on flesh!

          Buildings probably require a lot of stone and other earthen materials, and Belos can create rock formations and even move statues, or make them out of people... Suddenly I’m wondering if the Petrification Machine is connected to this relic? And if we go by the idea of construction magic assembling and fusing parts together, perhaps House Demons are regular demons who have been disassembled, and put back together with building materials to create a living house! Beastkeepers could supply body parts and demons, and maybe even help tame/subdue the resulting House Demons for usage afterwards- Working with the Construction Coven to create things like living alarm bells, watches, etc.!

           And if you even want to get REALLY meta, Construction Magic being underrepresented could be as part of a twist to get the audience to not think about and notice it… Before it REALLY comes into play! I guess amidst the comparisons to Hooty and Construction magic, that’s another similarity, based on @fermented-writers-block and their speculation on Hooty being intentionally played off as a joke for distraction…

           Granted, part of the problem with this theory is that the Relics are revealed to actually be pretty weak; Or at the very least, not particularly legendary- Anything they can do, a decent Witch trained in that magic could also do as well, I imagine. It’s why Lilith has no qualms with destroying the Healing Hat… But then again, if the Healing Hat didn’t work because it had no effect on a Construction-based Curse, then maybe it WAS powerful, but Lilith dismissed it as weak, because it couldn’t fix the curse like she needed it to?

          Perhaps the Relics are indeed what they’re hyped up to be, but because Lilith misunderstood the Curse’s nature, she thought the Healing Hat was much weaker than it actually was for not being able to fix it… If so, RIP- Lilith DID destroy a powerful artifact, then! Maybe Belos drained the Relics of most of their power, but saved the Construction Relic because of how important it was. Or, the Relics aren’t normally powerful, as Lilith claimed- But Belos was able to perform modifications to the Construction Relic, turning it into the mechanical staff we see today! Maybe the Construction Relic even created machinery that could enhance the original relic’s own magic; Potentially making it the most dangerous Relic, for its powers of Creation that enable it to bypass its own limits, unlike the other Relics!

          So of course Belos would want to keep it… And we’ve seen him capable of adding technology to supplement magical artifacts, like with the portal in the Season Finale. And with how Construction Witches from the Emperor’s Coven are clearly vital to Belos’ creation… Then it’s possible that Construction magic will be the hidden, overlooked, but ultimately invaluable ace up Belos’ sleeve, that everyone has been dismissing and underestimating this entire time! Construction magic being overlooked yet so important would be an interesting theme- Especially since out of the Coven Leaders, the Construction Head is the first and only one we’ve seen, and yet HIS appearance was played off so normally, that the viewers wouldn’t have recognized his relevance until The First Day!

          Just a normal part of the background, just another witch… But like the magic of his that is underestimated, the Construction Head turns out to be far more important than we could’ve imagined; And initially, we dismissed him as just an extra, as part of some minor world-building and even a brief joke! Suddenly, the Construction Head empowering Tiny Nose, Dana’s self-insert, with a Power Glyph derived from her magic of choice, takes on a WHOLE new meaning…!

#the owl house #the owl house belos #emperor belos #the owl house eda #edalyn clawthorne #the owl house hooty #construction magic #speculation #theory

[mozillavulpix]

super anti-komahina salt

and this is to go further beyond

I saw a komahina fan post a write-up and it just irritates me so I want to break it down:

“If you think Komaeda is batshit insane or that his character is only about his obsession with hope and you interpreted Hinata's feelings about Komaeda as just hate of course it wouldn't make sense. Except neither of these are true for their characters.”

This is the basic surface-level narrative Komahina fans argue against, and fair enough, it’s a massive generalisation. But this argument also just irritates me because it implies everyone who doesn’t ship them do so because they don’t understand the characters well enough.

“long story short Komaeda's obsesses over hope as a coping mechanism, because it's the only thing he can cling to.”

I can agree with this in a way, but in my opinion I don’t think he’s so weak that it’s impossible for him break free from that mindset (during the game) if he really wants to.

“Komaeda doesn't like Hinata because he thinks he is talented and above him, Komaeda says he loves all ultimates but it's not real love. His love for Hinata is different. In the SDR2 drama CD he mentions that he loves Hinata because he tries to understand him.”

I can agree with this. Although the Drama CD is literally just the Free Time Events, I don’t think it’s some kind of ‘gotcha’ like people think it’d be.

But also keep in mind, yes, Hajime tries to give Nagito a chance and doesn’t immediately run away screaming because scary person he can’t understand, but Hajime also doesn’t particularly act more saintly than all the other kids towards Nagito after Chapter 1. Nekomaru and Kazuichi seem to at least try to hear Nagito out before they punch him in the face. Mahiru seems like she was the first one to consider giving him breakfast. Hajime tries to stop Akane from attacking him after the Chapter 1 trial, but mostly because he’s resigned to the fact it won’t change what he did, and he then changes his mind and gets pissed off when Nagito decides to taunt him about his amnesia in response. And it’s Sonia who finally settles everyone down. So yes, Hajime tries to understand Nagito, but in the actual plot itself that’s not a special trait unique to him.

It’s only ‘unique’ if you choose to do the Free Time Events, and the Free Time Events...are basically not canon. They’re more like a what-if scenario the player chooses to view, and the dialogue was written from that perspective.

As in, maybe it’s canon that they’d interact like that if they spent time together on the island, but it’s not canon that Hajime does and wants to do that during the story. Because you can do them for everyone.

“And they reach a mutual understanding in DR3 because the two of them are more alike than Hinata would like to admit.”

Um...

Well, this is why DR2.5 is bullshit

I agree they’re similar, but I think both of them knew this from the very beginning. It’s not exactly a reason for reconciliation and forgiveness. The fact they have similarities is the exact reason why Hajime is so upset at his betrayal, and snaps back at Nagito every time he brings that up. So I don’t know if that’s really a good reason to explain why they’ve forgiven each other come DR3.

“Komaeda doesn't see himself as above untalented reserves either, because in 2-4, after realizing the truth about Hinata he says that they are the same, stepladders for hope. He was lashing out at all the students for being despair. They are similar, because they both share the same views that talent is everything.”

And then Hajime gets his character development for the rest of the game all so he can realise talent isn’t everything. So...?

“Now from Hinata's end, a lot of people seem to miss this about him, but he is someone who denies his feelings when they get inconvenient, he is called a tsundere by monokuma” 

I guess this is a diss against the surface-level people and people who are like “but the text literally says this”. But even then, the game literally shows Hajime’s inner thoughts. If he’s conflicted about things, the text generally shows that too, even if it’s with a careful inclusion of a ‘...’

So I don’t think we should take that trait as an excuse to literally ignore what the text says.

He was felt pumped when Komaeda was out of critical condition, but he thinks "why do I have to feel pumped, oh well best not to think about it"....because Hinata likes to avoid facing things that inconvenient him. Hinata finds it hard to trust Komaeda and doesn't play along with him, because he is afraid of getting caught in his pace, and not because he hates him and thinks he is better off dead.

This part literally read like a high-schooler’s english essay, and maybe this kid actually is a high-schooler, tbh. Because that is one big leap from “Hajime finds it difficult to deal with his feelings” to “since Hajime finds it difficult to deal with Nagito, it means he doesn’t hate him”.

“I don't think Komaeda is a fundametally bad person but is shaped to be what he is because of his luck cycle. In his last FTE, Hinata asks what Komaeda would do if didn't have his luck cycle, and his answer was something along the lines of " a normal life, devoid of hope and despair". And we get to that his innermost desires is to live a normal life in the OVA, and his character song zansakura zanka.”

He can also just decide to not believe in his luck cycle.

Also, in the OVA, he’s embarrassed by that inner desire and tells World Destroyer he hopes no one saw that maybe he wishes for a world without talent.

Like his desire to be a good person is so hidden that he doesn’t want people to know.

“Hinata even mentions Komaeda isn't trying to trick anyone for selfish reasons in his report card, so it's a shame to see so many people attribute all of Komaeda's actions to malice just because of what Hinata thought of him in chapter 5 because it wasn't clear what Komaeda's reasons were at that point.”

Okay, a few things to unpack here:

Just because Nagito is doing things ‘for the greater good’, doesn’t mean it’s not also selfish. Hajime isn’t going to say that because Hajime doesn’t realise that. You can’t exactly trust him with being able to articulate everything about a character’s worldview. Izuru would. He probably does in Chapter 0. (And that’s why he seems disgusted by him).

Also, there’s “maybe Hajime is a slightly unreliable narrator because he tries to avoid thinking about difficult things”, and there’s “actually, the majority of how Hajime views Chapter 5 is unreliable because he didn’t know for sure if Nagito’s plan was malicious or not, it was just his gut feeling”.

What about the video message after Chapter 5? What about having to spell out ‘KILL US ALL’? What about Chapter 0 showing how in the real world Nagito had completely lost it? It’s not like the game was trying to present Nagito as any little bit more sympathetic after the trial. If anything, every piece of new info reinforced that mindset Nagito was filled with malice, up to the ‘fake Makoto’ saying that he somewhat understood him. The fake Hope made by Junko to trick them.

If you compare Chapter 5 in 2 to Chapter 5 in V3, you can see how the positioning is different. V3 does the “the villain tries to make himself look the worst he can in the mind of the heroes when in reality his real intentions were different” a lot better. More flat-out intentionally - the protagonist kind of literally giving a monologue about how the character was morally grey and even at the end there they couldn’t say they knew their true intentions. But also it’s just not as...sinister as 2-5. No ominous chanting, no dismembered limbs, none of the characters feeling completely out of their element and terrified. I think it’s text that Nagito is supposed to be villainous in Chapter 5 and even past Chapter 5.

So...

I can at least understand where Komahina comes from, but god it annoys me

Unpacking it like this, I can see it’s not even fair to argue back a lot of it - the stuff people are saying do make sense and are arguing against kinds of people I have seen.

Besides, I’m not arguing Komahina ‘can’t be canon’.

My view is just I think Hajime deserves better than a character like Nagito, who never repented for his actions on-screen or even gave much of a hint that he wanted to repent for his actions.

And that it’s still easy to argue that Nagito is a bad person even with his trauma.

Not everyone who calls Nagito an awful person is an idiot who doesn’t know how to read text past the surface, you can still make a nuanced take with that conclusion

for god’s sake

#danganronpa #anti #it's just my opinion man #fandom

[mallorycastle]

In her haste to reach the beach and the sweet escape she senses at hand, @tamyrawilliams​ finds herself snared in a net. Nearby, @no-gambit​ and Mallory respond to her calls for help, but like all things involving Mallory and Tamyra, it soon comes to sharp words. 

After setting off the flares with Aurélie in hopes that the ship would see, Tamyra wanted to find some kind of higher ground to see when the rescue would come from the ship, she could know which part of the beach to run towards as fast as possible. SHe wasn't a good runner, but she would run as fast as she possibly could once she knew rescue was coming.

Going up the tree wasn't a problem, she got up relatively quickly, and when after about five minutes, she saw some kind of light flare up from the ship and keep up, she was certain it had to be the people on the ship signaling back. They took their time with it, but it only mattered that they acknowledged the flares and they were coming. They were coming.

She needed to get to the beach. Damn waiting for people coming, there was a sign, she needed to go.

Going down didn't go as planned, though, and Tamyra ended up slipping and falling - and it wasn't enough that she hit her shoulder, no, she also activated a fucking trap and the next thing she knew, she was hanging in a net, no idea how she got down. "Shit. Fuck. Who the hell--" but it didn't matter. Not now. Not now, when she was so close to getting out. Instead she started yelling, "HELP! SOMEBODY, PLEASE HELP!"

《❀》

Magnolia trailed Mallory close enough to see, at least, her vague shape in the gloom. She forced the wind to carry every minute sound to her down to their very breaths to compensate for the fog, to patch together the terrain. She was about to protest once more, to urge them to turn back towards the more populated areas because surely this was just another trick of the island, one meant to trap and to maim and haven’t they been hurt enough lately, when she heard it. A cry, familiar in cadence.

No grabbed Mallory’s wrist, already hauling her towards the plea. “Someone-“ she knew it was Tamyra, but she doubted Mallory would be so easy to pull forth if she knew-“Needs help. See? This is why we don’t fuck off into the island bullshit for no reason, Mal.”

Mallory can't help thinking this is the creepiest the island has been. Ghosts are one thing - she can pretend it's a hallucination, for one, but this impenetrable fog? She squints, hand flailing about in front of her. Her fingers brush against a tree in the same moment a scream, low and far, reaches her ears. "What the--" Her swear turns into a yelp as No touches her wrist. "Hey, we were doing fine, we used the buddy system. It's not my fault someone else didn't."

Despite her retort, she doesn't protest as No hauls her towards the noise. "Weren't you hear for the ghosts? Isn't running towards screaming a bad thing?" she murmurs, gaze darting around. They aren't quite in the jungle, or she doesn't think so at least. Mallory swishes water around in front of them, hoping to clear the fog, but it does nothing. So much for finding this quick and easy. "Ugh. Okay, fine. Hello? Who's out there?"

《❀》

Somebody was out there and listening, and Tamyra only cared about that. The voice that called back even sounded familiar and she didn't even think about who it was, didn't even occur to her that the person who was asking her who she was could have been Mallory, she was just happy to hear a familiar voice. "It's me," very telling, Tamyra, very telling. "I got caught in a net trap, please help me!"

She looked around, wondering if she could do anything to speed up the process of getting down, but she couldn't see anything, and figured that her best chance was making sure whoever was out there found her anyway. "Here! Come, follow my voice, it's Tamy--" No appeared among the mist and Tamyra breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank god it's you, I was afraid that nobody was going to hear me and--" and then she noticed Mallory Castle and she stopped in the middle of her sentence. "What is she doing here?"

《❀》

Rumor had it that net traps had become the second most dangerous thing on the island, directly after human stupidity. No had to choke on a snort rather than let Tamyra hear her exasperated laugh, while resolutely ignoring Mal’s retort.

She slid her hand from Mal’s wrist to her hand as she ventured within sight of Tamyra, huffing in relief to find her relatively unharmed. “Tam, I heard you—“ she began only to roll her eyes. The dramatics between them were getting tiresome. “Being next to me, that’s what she’s doing, which is much more sensible than whatever you are doing.” Magnolia had left the machete that usually graced her hip behind that morning. Stupid, she thought as she fiddled with her belt, but she hadn’t exactly anticipated this. “We might have to actually untie you from the tree…” she mused, ready to act rather than dawdle.

《❀》

Someone cursed her. It's the only reasonable explanation for why Mallory is peering up at Tamyra, contemplating how to fetch her down from a net. She considers leaving her there, eyes narrowed, and it's only No's hand stilling her from the sharp retort. Instead, she says idly: "We followed the yellow brick road to see who was screaming at the end of it. We better watch out, a house will fall on our heads next. That's how the movie goes, right?" Her eyes flicker up, but it's just fog, fog, and more fog. No house in sight.

She shakes her head, mildly disappointed. "Ah, well, you're the boss, No. I guess I wouldn't want a cursed house." And letting Tamyra get squished by one is a surefire way to get a haunted house. Mallory wanders to the tree trunk, trying to figure out whether this is Luke's contraption or another person's. His, at least, she knows how to untie without too much fuss. "Hm, I think this is some castaways, I've certainly never seen this style before."

《❀》

"It's not like I wanted get trapped here! It's not like I saw the net trap and intentionally walked into it thinking, 'oh, how fun will it be to spend way too much time today wasting it in a net when we can get saved any moment now'," Tamyra rolled her eyes at No. Despite her annoyance, though, she was glad to see No there. At least she could trust her to make sure Mallory wasn't doing anything unacceptable.

She ignored Mallory's dig (wicked witch of the west? really?), but followed the woman with her eyes to make sure Mal wouldn't do anything to jeopardize her getting down from here. "No, please check the trap too, I don't want her to try to keep me up here. And really, if you can just cut me down, I'm good with that, too, I don't get if I get hurt or something. Just get me down as fast as you guys can so I can get back to the beach." She looked to her side - most of the beach was hidden behind the tree canopy at this point, but she still remembered the light. "Have you guys seen that light as well?"

《❀》

Magnolia sighed, pitying and worried. She knew already that Tamyra was likely amongst the most desperate at this moment, the most invested in this phantom ship being real. The island was just taunting them now with a treat on a stick, as it always had. “I care if you get hurt, and Mallory has it in hand. I’ll try to slow your descent so you don’t just crash.” To punctuate her plan, she pulled a stout updraft around them, rustling their hair. It could at least cushion her inevitable fall from the net.

“I have,” she said slowly. The light, the ship, the fog all spelled strife. “Mal have you? Tam, it’s just the island. Or it’s a ship that’ll never reach the shore, we’ve seen plenty of those." Perhaps leaving Tamyra in the net would honestly be safer for her. She wouldn't be amongst the fools trying to swim to the light. “It’s just a trick, you have to realize that by now.”

As Mallory inspected the knots, No looked to her. “I don’t have anything sharp on me. Can’t you untie it? We can try to find a rock to fray it apart.”

《❀》

Mallory huffs, crouching. She prods the knot for a loose edge, eyes rolling at Tamyra's worry. "I'm not going to leave you in the tree, you'd probably scream like a banshee until our ears bleed and I'm squeamish around blood. Or it'll scare the boat off before my brother is on." She can't have that, not until Harvey is on its deck. Then it can sail off into the sunset with no one else and she won't care.

Has she? She halts, frowning. "I think so. I try not to pay attention until its responding to us, or closer than this one. Seems a bit strange that we've got this fog and this ship, doesn't it?" She asks, skeptical. "I don't think it's real."

She lets out a noise of triumph as she finds the edge of the knot, pulling on it and letting the knot unravel. When she finishes unwinding it, Tamyra only lurches down a few inches. Her lips purse in annoyance. Her knot is gone, but another one is beneath it. "This was built to be annoying, wasn't it? Look, it's knotted in like four spots. Let's try a rock, this is going to take too long to untie. Or we can try to freeze it and hit it hard enough to break. Dunno if we'll find a sharp enough rock in this mess."

《❀》

No's reassurnce only worked slightly because it was coming from No, and Tamyra was sure she wouldn't let Mallory do anything unacceptable. "Screaming like a banshee around you might not even be a bad idea... Maybe you'd actually listen to that," Tamyra pondered. Their insistence on the ship not being real, though, that was confusing and annoying in that moment. Why did nobody believe it was real? That it could be and was real? "If you ask me, the fog is the island. It realized that ship penetrated its defenses and is about to get us out of here, so it's trying to stop it as much as it possibly can. Can't exactly throw ghosts at the ghost, right? It would just go right through. Hence the fog."

She let out a small shriek when the net lurched down a few inches and grabbed onto the net itself, but she was still hanging high and the rope was starting to hurt. "A little warning next time?!" she snapped towards Mallory before turning to No. "Please, look at what she's doing. Can't you see how reckless she is? Not even a word of warning, anything."

Tamyra tilted her head, squinted her eyes at the trap, but she couldn't see it properly from up here. "You could always try to steal a rock... Oh, sorry, you don't steal unimportant items like rocks, only shiny, pretty, important stuff, hmm?" She couldn't help the jab as she reached up to touch her necklace just for a moment. "I think freezing it is your best option. And possibly the fastest, I vote for that one."

《❀》

Magnolia shook her head throughout Tamyra’s musings. The ship could not be real, it had to be a phantasmic tease, a trick, a cruel torturous image meant solely to prey on people like Tamyra. “If the island wanted to stop that ship, it would have sunk it or sent a monster after it or any number of things. Fog is just fuck with us, just as that horn and the light and the ship is. Come on, Tam, you’re smarter then this.”

Her power surged as Tam dropped, but she let it flit away into the smog when nothing else happened. “You did ask to be let down as fast as possible,” No shot back. “Mallory is the reckless one? At least she’s not desperate to get fall into the island’s trap. I trust her and-“ Magnolia looked towards her, though the fog showed only her silhouette and said pointedly-“I trust her not to do anything stupid, right?”

No groaned and leaned back on her heels. She saw the necklace, and felt the barbed implication, but now was not the time. She poked Tam in the side through the netting. “For fuck’s sake, the both of you. Enough of your idiotic feud. Mal, I have a bottle of water, can you use it to freeze it?”

《❀》

Sympathy wells in Mallory against her will. For all her anger with Tamyra - and she has enough to fly off the island using steam power - she doesn't feel right ripping the rug out from underneath her. But then she remembers the last time she spoke and her sympathy fades. "Yes, yes, I won't do anything stupid. Scout's honor. And I was a scout, before you doubt me."

She glares at Tamyra. "At least rocks are most useful than pretty shiny--" Mallory stops, but only because No's frustration boils over. She huffs, but doesn't respond except to wiggle her fingers for the bottle. "How good are you at freezing things?" She asks Tamyra, upending the water over the vine and freezing it with a touch. "Need it to stay frozen until we hack through it, but I can't do both." Freezing isn't her strong suit, even if she can manage well enough if she concentrates. "No, maybe you should hit it. You have the arms for it - or the attunement if you're feeling fancy."

《❀》

No had good points, but Tamyra didn't want to hear them, didn't really want to listen enough to start thinking about it and let it all sink in. In her mind, everything she thought made sense and No was just being skeptical because she's given up so long ago. So she didn't say anything, just huffed out some air and kept looking at what Mallory was doing.

No's promise that Mallory wasn't going to do anything had more weight than Mallory's - really, if she was lying about the scout thing, she was still say she was, so that didn't reassure anything for Tamyra. She let out a yelp at No's poking, and she wanted to tell No that it wasn't actually an idiotic feud, but Mallory stopped dead in her sentence and damn if she was going to seem the childish one out of the two of them.

"If you freeze, and No hits, you two should be good to go, I can't really reach that rope from here," Tamyra said, even twisting her arms somewhat to show that it was at the wrong angle for her. In reality, she really wasn't good with freezing and had too much pride admitting it in the moment. "And if you keep holding onto the rop while you keep it frozen, you can hold it after it's broken and let me down a bit more gentle." Another horn came from the beach, and Tamyra closed her eyes, her heart beating fast. "Just please, guys, hurry, I want to-- we need to... Please."

《❀》

Magnolia narrowed her eyes between the two of them, armed with another reprimand if need be. It had been decades, they ought to have used the semblance of sense the both of them possessed to settle this years ago.

She handed the water to Mal without further comment before stooping and running her hands through the short grass and dirt until she found a sizable rock. “Okay,” she murmured, bouncing it in her hand until she gripped it well. “Mal, freeze when you can. Tam, get your head on straight.” She waited, poised to hit the knot.

《❀》

Mallory sighs. "I was really hoping you were someone who could freeze from a distance like Matthew or Prince Charming, but oh well. We all have our faults." Or many of them, as the case may be for some of them. She taps the water with her pinky, sliding it along the length of the rope with the edge of her finger, wary of being anywhere close to where No will hit it.

"This fog is... not helping with a talent I'm not so good at anyway, so try not to break any of my fingers. These are my money makers. But, go, hit it." And as the rock strikes, shattering the ice and the vine with it, Mallory lets out a shriek of surprise as the vines unwind with a whoosh. It unravels and unravels, the net flying towards the ground, and instinctively she grabs the nearest edge, yanking on the edges of it, heedless of the burn against her palms.

《❀》

Tamyra grabbed onto the net - as if that would actually save her or help her from the fall while she watched as Mallory froze the rope and then No broke it. She fully expected Mallory to hold onto the rop and keep her up and then slowly release down. Maybe release her fast from the last bit at the end, but not instead she could only feel the pull of gravity in her stomach and then she was falling down. She completely missed the part when Mallory tried to grab onto the rope and tried to hold her upright, she just registered the hit to the ground and she groaned, pain surging through her back.

"Shit," she groaned and remained there for several moments before she snapped. "Was that really necessary, Mallory? I know you hate me and want to fuck with me, but did you really have to just let me drop down like this when you could have just let me down easily?"

《❀》

Too intent with aiming and not accidentally hitting Mallory’s hands No could only conjure the slightest of winds to try and ease Tam’s descent and winced when she heard the thud. She saw the rope burns on the former’s hands before she heard the latter’s words.

Magnolia hissed, her patience expended. “Enough, Tamyra,” she growled low and furious and imposing through the gloom. “Both of you, enough. This is needless, idiotic bullshit. You two think this island needs help torturing you? You want to be the tools of this place now as well?” With gentle hands, if not gentle words, No reached for Mal, turning her hands over to fuss over them. “Use the rest of the water for that.”

Her capacity to tut like a mother hen went just as quickly as it came and she turned to haul Tamyra roughly to her feet. “Listen to me, I don’t give a shit about your resentment for each other or whatever relief you get for sticking and poking and provoking the other. You want the selfish reason I want you to stop, too? I love you both, you hurt each other you’re hurting me. Do you want that? Do you want to help the island fuck with me too?” She paused, letting it rest for only a moment and glancing between the two of them, helpless rage alight in her eyes. “Put your useless feud to fucking rest.”

《❀》

Mallory hisses, shaking out her hands and then cradling them. "Oh, go cry me a river, you're fine," she retorts. Then winces as No rounds on them with fiery eyes and equally sharp words. A retort comes to her lips, but No silences her when she grabs her hands. She winces again, but reaches for the rest of the water with little complaint.

"I don't know if it's that easy," Mallory mutters, dumping the water on her hands and holding it in place over her palms. It eases the burn some, but the mark will remain for a day or two longer unless she finds something more fresh. Her eyes land on Tamyra, the same bitter swirl residing there, and she wishes she could swallow it as easily as she once did. "You know I don't want to hurt you," and yet she doesn't know if she can do that. "But this--" she gestures between her and Tamyra, frowning, because looking at Tamyra invokes outrage and useless nostalgia. "I don't think this will change, even if you're the one asking me to let it go. How can I?" She doesn't meet No's eyes, rocking on her feet.

Her heart pounds, and she nods to herself once, before turning around, putting her back to them both. It's the best she can do. "It's best if we just don't interact. You don't fuck with me, I won't fuck with you, Tamyra."

《❀》

No was at her limits, apparently, because suddenly she snapped, telling both of them off (it was a bit of a satisfaction to Tamyra that she wasn't getting all of it, despite how Mallory kept trying to put all of this on her, as if all of this was her fault), but as much as Tamyra loved No, she couldn't agree with her. And she could definitely not just up and forgive Mallory for anything.

To be fair, Mallory did seem to try to catch the rope at least, based on how her hands looked, but Tamyra was too proud to admit that out loud, and she just let out a small huff when Mallory said that she didn't want to hurt her. As if she wasn't the one who crashed their plane. The only reason she didn't say it out loud was because No was there. So, in a way, she was helping, even if just momentarily, and on the surface level. (She was irrational, of course, but she didn't realize that.)

"For once, and I can't believe I'm saying this, but this once I do agree with Mallory. I don't think this will change. I can agree to staying out of your way, I'll be the happiest person if I don't have to deal with you," she addressed Mallory for this, "but that is it, No. And since we're getting out of here today, we won't have to deal with each other much longer anyway." Which only reminded her of what was still happening. "Thank you, for getting me down," maybe it was petty and childish, but she pointedly looked at No for those words, "but I'm going to the beach now to see if anything changed and if we could start boarding again."

《❀》

"I don't care how you feel right now, just stop feeding the island and being idiots," No snapped. This wasn't a battle she could win and wasn't a war that belonged to her. It was frustrating beyond all belief. Their delusions with each other and their delusions of escape. There was none, they were trapped beside each other whether they liked it or not. "Tamyra," she began, fierce and angry. "Do not do anything idiotic, it is a trick. Nothing more. It will be my turn to shout at you if you fall for it." Magnolia shook her head a final time, spared Mallory a glance to check her hands and gauge if she would follow, and turned to stride towards (hopefully) the populated beach.

#Tamyra #Magnolia #Tamyra 04 #Magnolia 03 #chapter three: the gloom #this was a ton of fun!! as usual Mal and Tam entertain me with their bickering #and it was interesting to have No along the way stuck between them

[starship-squidlet]

Wordgame: Truth - Tryst

(Okay, so I’m not doing these in the order you sent them—I’m doing them in order of which I have an idea for 😂)

I decided to do this one in the Space Pirate AU I’m working on!!! It’s sort of a Newsies/Star Wars crossover, because I was too lazy to do full world-building for a whole galaxy, but all that’s coming from Star Wars is names of places/things/species/etc. Hope that makes sense.

Fandom: Newsies (and sort of Star Wars)

Word count: 1,441

(I’m also tagging @the-cowbi @fifty-for-the-racer @aggressive-bucky-barnes-stan because I know you guys were at least a little interested in the Space Pirate AU/Yo Ho Hero so I thought you might be interested in this!)

.*.*.*.*.*.

“Hey, JoJo! Where ya goin’?” Romeo dropped down from the crossbeam of the mast and cocked his head to the side, ears swiveling, one to face her, one turning towards some noise from the other end of the ship that only he could hear.

JoJo rolled her eyes and shrugged. “Just out,” she said, intentionally vague. She didn’t need anyone knowing her business, least of all Romeo, who quite possibly had the biggest mouth on the ship. “Even I need to get off the ship every now and then.”

“Aw, come on,” he whined. “Tell me the truth.”

“What makes you think that’s not it?” JoJo laughed. She brushed past him, the rainbow crest of feathers that ran from the bridge of her nose to the small of her back rippling. “Tell Spot I’ll be back well before we cast off if he asks.”

“You better be,” Romeo called after her. “He’ll leave without you!”

“Yeah, I know!”

JoJo pulled her hood up as she stepped off the gangplank and onto the crowded platform of the space dock. While the people around her were quite literally of all shapes, sizes, colors, and more, the kaleidoscope of brilliant colors of her feathers tended to draw a few stares. Onotorans weren’t common even in the Outer Rim, and they were currently in the Core. Most people around here had never even heard of her people, planet, or system. She didn’t want to draw unwanted attention.

The spaceport was fairly easy to navigate. She’d been there enough times that she knew her way to her destination. It was a small corner of an overgrown garden, hidden from the paths around it behind curtains of wild ivy and tall hedges in desperate need of a trim. JoJo glanced over her shoulder as she approached the garden. This part of the spaceport wasn’t as busy as the main roads, but, in the name of privacy, she didn’t particularly want to be seen.

When she was certain no-one was watching, she slipped a hand under the ivy and pulled it aside so that she could step in. As her eyes adjusted to the dimmer, green-tinted light, she smiled to herself. She wasn’t the first to arrive.

Sniper grinned as she stood. Her cloak had been pushed back behind her shoulders, her lekku resting against her chest to brush against her stomach. She reached out a hand towards JoJo to help her step up onto the small platform concealed by the ivy. JoJo accepted it, her own lavender skin turning a dull brown in the green light, while Sniper’s yellow skin wore a chartreuse hue. Sniper pulled her up and into a long, tight hug.

They stood there for several minutes before JoJo pulled away just long enough to press a kiss to the other woman’s lips. “Hi,” she giggled, resting her forehead against Sniper’s.

“Hi,” Sniper laughed. “Welcome back. How was the Mid Rim?”

“Boring,” JoJo rolled her eyes. She took a step back and slid her coat down and off, tossing it aside as she revealed the feathers on her forearms and back, all laid flat against her skin, as she was undeniably relaxed for the first time in weeks—since the last time she and Sniper had been able to meet for one of their trysts.

Sniper grinned and unclasped her cloak, tossing it on top of JoJo’s discarded jacket. They settled down on the moss-covered platform, staring up at what little of the sky was visible through the ivy-covered lattice over them. They chatted for a while, side by side, hands clasped. JoJo rested her head against Sniper’s shoulder, smiling at the familiarity of her scent. It was oil and spices and hints of fuel all at once, and they combined to smell like happiness. Like love. Like home. Sniper pulled her hand away and squirmed around to wrap her arm around JoJo’s shoulders, pulling her even closer.

“How much longer do you have?” Sniper murmured.

JoJo sighed and lifted her arm, shaking her wrist to get her timepiece to display. “Ten minutes before Spot starts to get angry. Thirty before he gets really angry.”

Sniper laughed. “Guess I’d better get ready to let you go again.”

JoJo groaned and rolled onto her side, slinging her arm over Sniper’s stomach and burying her face in her shoulder. “Do we have to?” she grumbled, voice muffled.

“Only if you want to keep your job.”

“What if I don’t want to?”

“It’s a good job.”

“And I’m good at it. Everyone always needs a good navigator. I can find another job. One that doesn’t take me so far out from the Core.”

Sniper smiled to herself. “And you’d be miserable. You like exploring.”

“I love you.”

“Well, I love you enough to know that we’re both happier with you going out on your adventures. Because otherwise you’re miserable, and then I’m miserable because you’re miserable.”

JoJo laughed and pulled away into a sitting position. “I wouldn’t be miserable. I can’t be miserable with you around.”

Sniper rolled her eyes and sat up, slinging her legs over JoJo’s and pulling her down so that their foreheads rested against each other. “One of these days we’ll settle down together. Just… not yet.”

JoJo smiled and pulled her into another kiss. “Hopefully ‘one of these days’ isn’t too far off.”

“Hopefully.”

A few minutes later, they reluctantly separated and retrieved their outerwear. JoJo pulled on her coat and raised the hood again, while Sniper settled for wrapping her cloak loosely around her shoulders, lifting her lekku out from under it and letting them rest on top of the garment while she fiddled with the clasp. After a moment, JoJo pushed her hands aside and fastened the clasp for her. “Honestly,” she sighed. “A mechanic, and you can’t even get the clasp on your cloak fixed. How do you repair ships?”

Sniper laughed. “Sometimes I don’t even know that myself.”

They walked part of the way together before separating, JoJo for the dock where The Banner was waiting for her, and Sniper for the repair bays where she worked. “Let me know when you’re heading back for the Core,” Sniper whispered, leaning in to press one last kiss to JoJo’s cheek.

“I’ll call as soon as I can,” JoJo promised. “Maybe we’ll go to a big enough spaceport that I can find a holonet terminal.”

Sniper snorted. “Good luck with that.”

JoJo laughed and waved goodbye as they split apart. She took her time walking back to The Banner, even though—or maybe because—she knew it would annoy Spot.

Sure enough, the captain was waiting for her, arms crossed and ears back as he scowled down the gangplank at her. “You’re late.”

JoJo sighed. “Sorry, captain. Won’t happen again.”

Spot barked out a laugh. “Sure. I’ll buy that lie when pigs fly.”

“I’m pretty sure there’s somewhere in the galaxy where they do,” JoJo quipped, slipping past him. “Do we have our heading?”

“We do,” Spot said, falling in step beside her as they headed for the control board. “Coordinates are already set; just waiting for you to plot our course.”

JoJo nodded and took her place behind the navicomputer, running quickly through calculations and dialing the directions into the computer. “Ready when you are, captain!” she called once it was done.

Spot nodded, once, and went through the ignition sequence. The huge, barrel-shaped engines on the sides of the ship roared to life, the third on the keel following suit as they began to lift away from their berth. As they rose, the transparisteel walls that formed their protective atmosphere bubble unfolded and rose, meeting at the top of the mast. The shimmer of the outer shield was only seconds behind the dome, tinging the view with the palest of blues.

Finch, Specs, Romeo, and Skittery were perched in their positions in the rigging, hair and fur and feathers fluttering in the “wind” generated by the moving currents of recycled air that filled the ship with atmosphere. The last three occupants of the ship stood behind JoJo and Spot: Katherine and Charlie, “princess” and “prince”, respectively, of their illustrious father’s semi-legitimate shipping empire, and Davey, their magic-wielding babysitter, for lack of a better term.

“Loose the rigging!” Spot called, and the boys up the masts scurried to follow the order. In seconds, the massive solar sails that collected power for the ship were unfurled, billowing outwards towards the closest source of ultraviolet light.

JoJo smiled to herself. I may not want to admit it, but Sniper’s right. This is where I belong right now. This is where I want to be.

#asked and answered #karen’s tag #newsies #fanfic #fanfiction #newsies au #the space pirate au #yo ho hero #yo ho hero (newsies) #star wars au #jojo de la guerra #jojo (newsies) #romeo (newsies) #spot conlon (newsies) #sniper wah #sniper (newsies) #finch (newsies) #specs (newsies) #skittery (newsies) #katherine (newsies) #crutchie (newsies) #davey (newsies)

[greekgeek21]

Percy Jackson & The Avengers: Convergence - filler chapters save lives

Hey...

- your (extremely sorry and depressed) author

Disclaimer: I don't own PJO or the Avengers.

Ω ♆ Ω

This was inevitable. Percy was a ball of nuclear energy just counting down to an explosion. It wasn't a matter of if that energy broke free, but a matter of when. The group had thought it had happened when he set off a tropical storm in the middle of Nevada, but they were wrong. He had truly lost control only moments before...

when he killed a man.

Ω ♆ Ω

Percy didn't even spare a glance at the crumpled body before he rushed to Annabeth's side. His eyes raked over her body, checking for injury. When he found none, he pulled her into him, hugging her like she was his lifeline (and she practically was).

"I'm sorry I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry..." he whispered in Ancient Greek over and over again in her ear, "I love you, I love you, I love you..."

Tears were slipping down both their cheeks, but they didn't move to wipe them away, likely neither of them had even realised they were crying. The couple was in their own world. One where only they existed and nobody could bother them.

It wasn't to last, though.

Someone on the team had to break the silence, and of course it was Tony, "As much as I hate to break this up, can we please get off this goddamned island now?"

He was speaking with false-sarcasticness, but nobody pointed it out. Everyone but Annabeth and Percy's eyes were on the body, or what was supposed to be one. Instead of a humanoid shape, it was a crumpled ball of bones, tissue, and blood. It was an awful sight, truly. Nothing was natural about it.

For everyone there, including the other demigods, it was eye-opening into the more blood-thirsty side of the divine world. Percy's powers were derived from the gods, and they allowed him to be able to do something like this. It was horrifying.

Ω ♆ Ω

Annabeth was the first of the two to come to her senses. She gently pushed back against Percy's embrace, signaling that it was time to come back to the real world; where they had to address what he had done. But that could wait. For now, Annabeth decided the best thing to do was to get everyone home safely.

"We should go, Percy," she whispered.

"I know. I'm scared, though," he spoke in Greek.

He did that sometimes, when he had a particularly bad PTSD episode. It was his mind's way of protecting itself. Even though he had spoken only English for the first twelve years of his life, his first language would always be Ancient Greek, just like all Greek demigods. It was the same for any type of demigod. They were born that way.

However, this wasn't an episode. This was his actions catching up to him. This was his world spinning on its axis once again.

Secretly, Annabeth had feared something like this would happen eventually. He was pushing down so much power, it was bound to break through at one point. That's why she had slowly been trying to coax him to use his powers fully again. Her theory was that the more he used them, the more control he would have on them, and the less they would be fighting against his willpower. He was a battery, and he needed to let some of the energy out every so often.

She would have to be more direct about her suspicions now. When they got home, that is. After he had time to adjust again.

It seemed like they were always adjusting now.

"I know, Seaweed Brain, I know. Let's just work on getting home, first, though. Ok?" she said.

She felt him nod against her neck before he pulled away from her, only to wrap an arm around shoulders a second later. He needed to feel her against him as a calming reassurance. And she needed him for the same reason.

They faced their team. Because that was what they were now, a team. They weren't the Seven and the Avengers anymore. They had been through too much in such a short span of time for them to be separate teams anymore.

"Let's go home," Annabeth announced, and started the trip back through the tunnel with Percy at her side, just like he would always be.

Ω ♆ Ω

Later, after Percy and Annabeth had disappeared into one of the cabins together, the rest of the team met up on the deck. Hazel would normally not like going behind their friend's backs to talk about them like this, but even she thought this meeting was important. This would decide Percy's fate once they reached the mainland again.

"Ok, who wants to start?" Hazel asked, after they had all just stood there in silence for a minute.

If nobody else was going to speak, then she was going to. She wanted this to be over as soon as possible. She had already made her decision regarding her cousin, and it would never change. That she was sure of.

"I can," Jason answered.

All eyes turned to him, but that did not phase him. He was trained to be a leader from a very young age. Having people look at him while he made speeches was part of the job description.

"I support my family, and Percy is family. What he did was horrible, obviously, but it wasn't anything the rest of us wouldn't have done in the same situation. He probably is going to punish himself more than anything else we could do to him. We need to show him that we are still his team, his family."

The rest of the demigods nodded firmly, agreeing with this. They knew Percy. They knew that what Jason had said was very true. Instead of punishing him, they needed to help show him that he was not a horrible person. Otherwise something like this would just happen again.

Time would just keep repeating itself.

The Avengers all glanced at one another, all unsure where to stand in this. Sure, they had learned a lot about the teen since they had first met, but none of them could be sure that this was just a fluke; that something like this wouldn't keep happening if they didn't do anything about it.

"How can we be sure that he won't do something like this again?" Natasha asked, a firm expression trained somehow on all five demigods present.

"We can't. But we CAN try our best to ensure that there is almost no chance. Percy has SO MUCH power, and he has been pushing it down in himself for months. That caused it to react harshly with his emotions. I'm sure Annabeth and Percy both know this. He needs help, not punishment," Piper answered, almost matching Nat's glare perfectly.

Steve spoke up next, "He killed someone, Piper. That can't go unpunished."

Piper kaleidoscope eyes seemed to flash brightly at the captain, "And you haven't killed someone, Captain? In the name of war? Love? How is what Percy did any different than you blowing up some hydra base?"

"That man down there is the best and most loyal man you'll ever meet. I can promise you that," Frank added in, "He would never do something to hurt a good person, not intentionally, just like the rest of us."

Bruce spoke up with fire, surprising everyone, "But that's exactly our point! He would never do something to hurt a good person INTENTIONALLY! But what about unintentionally?!"

Leo's nostrils flared, "You, out of everyone here, have no right to say that...Hulk."

Bruce looked like he had been slapped at first, but then his expression shifted into something resembling sheepishness.

Leo's flaming gaze (literally, his hair was smoking) passed over the rest of the Avengers, looking for any more objections. When he found none, he gave a curt nod of approval.

"I guess that's that, then, isn't it?" he said, and promptly went below deck.

Ω ♆ Ω

Percy and Annabeth were snuggled as close as possible on the bed in their cabin. Not a word beyond 'I love you' had been spoken between them yet. They just clutched onto each other like the other would disappear again any second.

Finally, after an hour had passed, Annabeth spoke, "We need to talk about it, Perce."

His head childishly shook. The sides of Annabeth's mouth lifted just a bit at the sign that her Percy wasn't completely hidden.

"I know it's hard, but we have to. You have to be ready to talk about it with the rest of the team later. They'll want answers, and I want you to be able to give them. It'll be easier with me first," she said, pushing a hand gently through his unruly raven-colored hair.

"You can answer in Greek if you have to. And you don't have to give long answers, you just have to say something," she reassured, "Does that sound ok?"

Percy took a deep breath before nodding his head.

"I'll start off simple. What are you feeling right now?" Annabeth asked.

He took a second to respond, but Annabeth was willing to give him all the time needed to form an answer, so long as he gave one.

"I'm tired. So tired, Wise Girl. My stomach hurts and I feel like my skin is on fire. But most of all, I feel like I don't even know myself anymore. I killed a mortal, Annabeth! How could I even look at myself again?" he answered in Greek.

Annabeth's heart broke just a little, "Oh, Percy. I know who you are. You are my adorable, powerful, and loving Seaweed Brain. You love your mother and blue food, and most of all, you love your purpose. You were put here to protect people, and that is what you did today. You protected me, okay? You didn't do anything that I wouldn't have done to save you. And I love you for it."

"But I KILLED a man, Annabeth! How can you even stand to look at me right now?!" he shouted, bursted out of her arms and off the bed.

Tears were starting to form on his lower eyelids.

"Because you are the love of my life, Perseus Jackson, and nothing you could ever do would make me love you less!" she shouted.

Good, Percy thought, Yell at me. Punish me for what I did. I deserve it.

As if she could read his thoughts, Annabeth yelled, "No! You do not get to manipulate me into punishing you for doing something that that horrible man deserved! You are not perfect, Percy, and neither am I. If you hadn't killed him, I probably would have! We are not perfect people, and we never will be. We're screwed up in the head, but we have each other! I will NOT let you go back into yourself."

"But that's the only way I can protect you! I have to hold it in!"

She sighed, "Percy, look at the facts. The only times you've put people in danger have been when you were holding your powers in. You need to let them out consistently in order to stop these large bursts from happening every time you get pissed off!"

Percy was silent, staring at the floor and mulling over her words. When he looked up, a tear had slipped down his cheek, "What if I'm too scared?"

"I'll help you. We all will, Perce. The entire team wants you to feel comfortable using your abilities. We can start off with taking you to some uninhabitable island or something. You just need to make sure you aren't pushing your powers down anymore," Annabeth answered, "Okay? Can you promise me you'll try?"

Reluctantly, Percy nodded, "I swear on the River Styx that I'll try to control and understand my powers."

Annabeth's eyes widened, but then she was crushing Percy in a hug, pulling back only to kiss him.

"I love you, Seaweed Brain."

"I love you, Wise Girl."

Ω ♆ Ω

"Well I guess that settles it then, doesn't it? We trust those ungrateful ingrates now apparently," Tony sighed, tacking a swig from a flask he had procured from somewhere and walking away from the Avengers.

You could always count on Tony Stark to simplify emotional situations. His only goal was to make them last less, though, whereas most of the Avengers wanted to talk it over some more. That wasn't on his agenda. Tony had his own agenda and discussing whether or not a teenager killing a terrorist was warrant for serious punishment was not on it.

Steve shared an annoyed look with Bruce before he nodded, "I guess it is. We'll have to discuss it with Percy when we get back to the tower, but for now, let's just get some rest."

"Yes, sir, Captain," Clint smirked, mirth flashing in his irises before he pulled Natasha over to lean against the railing around the deck.

They were no-doubt not going to let themselves get any rest, but Steve knew well enough by now to let it go. The spies ran on their own fuel and it clearly did not come from sleep, if the amount of times he'd actually seen them asleep counted for anything.

Bruce however, he could count on to actually follow orders, even if they were thinly-veiled ones. The scientist nodded his head at Steve, a small smile curving his lips, before he went below deck, likely to find a nice place to take a nap.

Steve, not wanting to seem like a hypocrite, followed after Bruce. He found an empty cabin quickly, and let himself fall into a light nap. If he had to, he could jump right into action, but he had to let his body get some rest.

He only hoped that the teens on board were doing the same.

Ω ♆ Ω

Steve was right, for the most part. Almost all of the Seven were resting. Key word: almost. Leo Valdez, ever the hyperactive inventor, was down in his makeshift shop, working on the design for his newest project.

The idea had come to him that day, when he saw how broken Percy looked. He had seen that look in his eyes before, right after the man had come out of Tartarus and he was determined to never see it cross his friend's face again. After everything Percy had done for him, Leo thought he deserved some peace of mind.

His idea was to design something to allow Percy to sleep peacefully. Something like this could help present and future generations of demigods forever. But if he was being honest, he had gotten the idea from the dreamless-sleep draught potion from Harry Potter. Before he had learned he was a demigod, he was a diehard potterhead. It was something he had managed to keep a secret from his new life for now, but it was coming in handy now.

Since he didn't have magic abilities like the wizards from the books, he had to compromise with what he DID have, which was a genius-level intellect, spare scrap metal, and some duct tape.

He had come up with more from less.

Leo figured that he could make a contraption that could connect with Percy's brain synapses and withhold some from firing, but only the ones in the hippocampus, the part of the brain that controls dreams. He also had to restrict it to nightmares only, because demigods needed dreams to make sure they didn't die. He just had to make sure he didn't accidentally cause Percy permanent brain damage. This particular part of the brain was vital in his daily function, so it would really suck if it stopped working properly.

At the moment, Leo was drawing out his designs on some paper he had pulled from his belt. His mind was working faster than his hand could, so it was taking longer than he would have preferred.

After an hour of careful and deliberate strokes of a pencil hitting paper, his head popped up from the desk, with a loud shout of "aha!", signalling his completion.

"Gods, I really am a genius, aren't I?" he muttered to himself in awe had he inspected the blueprint for mistakes.

"Talking to yourself again, Leo?" Jason commented, startling Leo as he entered the room, "That's not helping your case claiming sanity."

"Sweet Circe! Don't DO that, Sparky!" he shouted, nearly jumping out of his seat.

"If you were paying attention, you would have noticed me knocking on the door for the past two minutes, weirdo," Jason responded.

Leo rolled his eyes. His best friend knew very well that he lost himself when he was working, especially when it was something this important.

"What are you working on?" The son of Jupiter asked.

Leo grinned, eager to present his project, "I can't build it here, not without the proper equipment to test it, but I already designed it. I call it Papa Leo's Nightmare-restricting Device, or P.L.N.R.D. It's to make it so demigods can sleep without having nightmares. Like it?"

The son of Hephaestus wished he had a camera to take a picture of Jason's face at that moment. It was priceless.

Just when he was contemplating trying to pull on out of his belt, Jason pulled him into a rough hug, squeezing him until he couldn't breathe.

"Jace, I. Can't. Breathe!" he wheezed out.

He was ignored.

"Oh, you beautiful genius! I could kiss you!"

He was spun around in a circle.

"Please don't, it would suck to explain that to Piper," Leo joked once he had been allowed to stand again.

"I gotta tell the others! They're gonna be so excited!" he went to rush off, but Leo grabbed his arm before he could.

"Let's not...yet, okay? I just want to make sure that I get it finished and working before I tell the others. I don't want to let them down if I can't make it work," he said to explain his actions.

Jason looked like he didn't believe that would ever happen, but he gave Leo a brotherly pat on the shoulder, "Ok, McShizzle. I'll keep it to myself for now."

"Thanks."

"No problem, bro."

"Gods, you are such a bro-boy. It's like living around a frat house."

"You take that back!"

"Never!"

Ω ♆ Ω

Sorry for how many time skips/section separators I'm using. I guess it's part of my writing style now. This is on FF, Inkitt, Ao3, Webnovel, and Wattpad too. Like, reblog, & follow!

- your (extremely apologetic) author

other chapters :)

#pjo #fanfic #ao3 #wattpad #inkitt #ff #percy jackon and the olympians #heroes of olympus #the seven #the avengers #mcu #marvel #webnovel #sorry this is so late

[squidpro-quo]

can we have more blind!kaito au? i really love it so much, your writing is really warm and pleasing

Ahhh thank you so much, anon! I tried to make this installment warm and pleasing in content, so I hope you enjoy it! I’ve always loved this commonality between them, so I couldn’t resist. 

Part 5

Hakuba was annoyed to admit that he didn’t have a good guess as to where or what Kaito intended to do for their date. He’d picked up on what he’d thought were clues during lunch, when Kaito had been far too enthusiastic about his chicken curry to be normal, and tried to catch sight of any braille pamphlets in Kaito’s desk or backpack but all he’d found was a ziploc bag of raisins. 

The best he could figure out was that Kaito was being overly eager about food, although he couldn’t condemn the practice of carrying extra snacks as all that suspicious. It was a habit he’d found Kaito was fond of, even going so far as to pass him small pieces of chocolate or candy during class as if it were a personal point of pride for how many Kaito could line up on the edge of Hakuba’s desk before he started eating them. In lieu of notes, he took this to be their way of communicating during lessons, he’d taken keeping a few packets of pumpkin seeds in his pocket to pass back, as a counterpoint to Kaito’s sweet tooth. 

But none of that helped him unravel this current mystery. As much as he hated to admit it, Kaito was still good at surprising him both intentionally and unintentionally. On the other hand, he found he didn’t mind it when Kaito was the one on the other side of the puzzle. It wasn’t a case to solve for the police, it invoked no harm on anyone and he could enjoy the way it tickled his brain without the shred of guilt that sometimes overtook him when he was working a murder. He could understand the allure of KID’s heists, with their spectacles and captivating performances that left no one hurt beyond the momentary sting of bruised pride over another victory for the thief. What guilt did niggle at him though was on the count of his actions at the heist and what he could almost certainly say he knew… and what he would do about it. 

He stood by the school’s gate lost in those considerations, the curiosity and the uncertainty warring in his mind until he was taken unawares by a stick thwapping against his legs. 

That was another thing he’d grown used to. Kaito let him pass safely by his desk now, but his customary greeting remained a swift tap on his shins whenever they met, as if to remind him where they started out from. It was accompanied by a hand curling around the crook of his elbow and Kaito tugged him immediately into motion down the sidewalk. 

“Wait, Kaito, where are we going?” Hakuba asked, not resisting and falling into step beside him easily. His stick swept out ahead of them, with Kaito leading the way as they crossed a street to the beat of the beeper in the walk sign. 

“You didn’t figure it out? Saguru, I expected you to know by now.” The sly grin that stole across Kaito’s face made Hakuba’s spluttering protests a little less indignant. “Going soft because of my wonderful charming self?” 

Hakuba’s heart ached at the playful jibe, both because it was true and because he didn’t know how to reconcile that softness with what he did and what he might have to do. Focusing on the sun filtering through the leaves overhead, the signs along the roadside, he struggled to stay in the moment. 

“Maybe.”

“Maybe? Guess I’ll have to work harder then, I thought I’d made some headway! But this should help me out with that.” With those words, Kaito turned sharply and pivoted Hakuba around his axis until they were facing into a park entrance, the path leading to a large domed enclosure that blocked almost all views past it. The sheer scope of it was breathtaking, the hemisphere composed of panes of glass that revealed the greenery inside, a door set in the side that Kaito quickly made a beeline towards. 

“Kaito…Are we allowed—”

“I asked. And this is its inaugural day, they want people to spread the word.” 

Hakuba pulled the door open for them both seeing as both of Kaito’s hands were full, the noise inside washing over him at the same time that realization did. 

Chirps and calls flooded his ears, the small waiting area they stepped into filtering out none of it despite another door separating them from the true interior. After that, the true breadth of the aviary opened up before them. Birds roosted on almost every tree, flitting between branches and sounding off mating calls with persistent regularity. He could see an owl perched in the back, a nest of robins sheltered in a nearby tree and several pigeons cooing on a high roost. 

“They’re all rescues, either injured or found as abandoned chicks. Released when they’re old enough, or kept safe if they can’t.” 

“A ryukyu scops-owl...an okinawa woodpecker too.” Hakuba said, voice hushed as he craned his neck slowly around the space, trying to catch a glimpse of every species present. There were some he’d never seen before, though he could identify them by their coloring and distinctive shape from perusing the ornithology dictionary he kept beside Watson’s perch for when they ventured out into the back gardens. It was one thing to spy these species from afar, and another to see them flitting overhead only meters away. 

“Maybe I should have held back a bit, it sounds like you’re more enamored with these guys than you are with me,” Kaito chimed in after another minute of Hakuba’s continued name dropping. “You haven’t even found the greatest treasure here yet.” 

“What do you mean?” Hakuba finally focused back on Kaito, who tilted his head while he stowed his folded stick in his pocket. He shifted his arm from Kaito’s grasp and threaded his fingers through Kaito’s free hand, squeezing it gently as he tried to comprehend how warm he felt inside, how indescribably soft his heart was from the care that Kaito had taken in planning their date. 

“Just listen,” Kaito said, smiling enigmatically. Pursing his lips, he whistled a distinct note that morphed into a higher register, before pausing. The same unique sound came back, shrill with the caw of an answering bird. Kaito repeated it again, one hand held straight out as he mimicked the bird’s call with unnerving accuracy. Hakuba couldn’t have told the two apart if he’d tried, the cadence and scratching trill were one and the same, the level of skill required to be the real parrot in the aviary was not lost on him. 

A flap of wings and where Kaito’s fingers had been splayed now rested a small dove, beak colored orange and a stripe of white splashed across its face like a mask. Its feathers were  a beautiful green, vibrant as a spring bough and it ducked its head to preen briefly. 

“How did you…” To say Hakuba was impressed would have been an understatement, he’d had to coach Watson to come on command for weeks before the falcon responded and Kaito had charmed a bird down with just a few notes. 

“It’s an emerald dove,” Kaito answered the question Hakuba hadn’t asked, shifting his hold to reveal the raisins he’d hidden in his palm.

Hakuba huffed out a laugh, careful not to be too loud lest he scare the bird but the implication of the name was not lost on him. However, he couldn’t agree with Kaito, because the greatest treasure in there wasn’t resting in Kaito’s hand, but in his. It was a sappy thought, one he’d never expected to have, and it cemented a resolution in his mind.

#hakukai #dcmk #Kuroba Kaito #hakuba saguru #magic kaito #anonymous #ask tag #prompt response #my writing #blind!kaito au #i always forget what tag i use for that #dcmk fic #i had fun with this one #thank you so much for the request! #i'm always surprised when people ask for more #i just assume otherwise no one wants to read it so it's nice to hear!

[yakocchi]

Melted Down by an Extreme Love // Count

beh, the count card is a ranking prize so I can’t use a nice rip of it as the header until after the event so... this will have to do. idk i guess i could use the faust one but that’s false advertising 

Honestly, I probably could’ve gotten that all-chara card in that set and it’s more worth it than having to try to rank but… I just can’t spend 8.5k dia on an expiring set of event points it just sounds especially wasteful. Man, if you’re going to do that just bundle it with stamina items instead. Though I guess that would be too good of a deal

I just want the Count card bro. smh. I think Charles might even shape up to be more popular than he is, so why is his card the lower tier one… yea I’m salty but as you’ll see in this event route easily salty people are attracted to other saltines

Spoilers under the cut. Please credit if you take any of it, thenk u (･ω･*) image heavy!! bc i decided to use screencaps to break down this post. tumblr formatting ehuehhh???

—It was a still night in a single room, when a deep voice sweetly rang. [Count]: “So, it is time to administer your punishment.” He pulled my arm with great strength and my body sank into the bed. [Kara]: “A-ah…!” The Count, slowly… as if to steal away the possibility of escape, hung over my body, the bedsprings thickly creaking under the added weight. [Count]: “Did you not expect me to do this to you tonight? Not even a little bit?” [Kara]: “—Hn-” (“Expect”…I couldn’t have expected anything like this, at all.) (I hadn’t realized it at that time...)

...

—It had all started today, early in the afternoon.

[Kara]: “Leonardo, are you in? I brought your things, but…” I had received a parcel during work and was thus summoned to Leonardo’s room. I called out from outside the door, and there was a reply after a moment. [Leonardo]: “Come in. Just - tread lightly, all right?” (Tread lightly…?) Tilting my head, I opened the door the way I usually do when… [Leonardo]: “Wh- Watch out…!”

The moment I opened the door—

With a rustling sound, a tall pile of books came tumbling down like an avalanche.

[Kara]: “Waah…?!” (There’s no way I can avoid that…!)

The very moment I had thought that, I was struck by the drifting scent of sweet tobacco. Returning to my senses, I found myself collapsed over the floor - with Leonardo hanging over me as cover.

[Leonardo]: “…Sorry about that, sweetheart. You’re not hurt?” [Kara]: “I-I’m all right…” (That surprised me a bit, but—…) [Leonardo]: “Nice. Well… I knew it was gonna fall over one of these days, but I didn’t think that would be now.”

⋆ i was about to say, wow my hero we stan etc. but yea this was kind of your own doing huh

Looking over at the mess of books on the floor, he chuckled. But then… [Count]: “Leonardo, I heard a loud noise, but…” Those words were coupled with the sound of footsteps coming through the open door. My eyes widened and turned to face that direction… (Th-The Count!) [Count]: “…Kara, what on earth are you doing?” When I had turned my gaze, I was met with my favorite golden eyes looking down at me scattered across the floor.

[Kara]: “Umm, that’s—” [Leonardo]: “As you can see, I’ve pinned her down here.” [Kara]: “Wha—! Hold on, Leonardo, what are you saying?!” [Count]: “…” I hurriedly rose from the floor to look up at the Count, who had fallen silent. [Kara]: “Count, that’s not true. I…” [Count]: “Ah, Kara, I know.” The Count replied with an apparent smile, before shifting his eyes back… [Count]: “Leonardo. It would be well to tidy your room a bit more already.” With only those words, he left the room.

[Kara]: “Ah… Count…” [Leonardo]: “…Heh.”

Leonardo let out an amused snort, and I naturally puffed my cheeks at him. [Kara]: “Jeez... Leonardo, why would you say something like that?” [Leonardo]: “Yeesh, don’t get too mad. From time to time, it’s a bit fun to tear off our beloved Count’s mask of complacency, eh?” [Leonardo]: “He’s the type of guy who hides his passion and other troubling emotions behind a mask, you know.” [Leonardo]: “So it’s amusing to get to that point where his true thoughts come out.” [Kara]: “’Amusing’…” I could only sigh at Leonardo’s typical devilishly-smirking self. (The Count said that he knew the situation, but… I should make sure that there isn’t a misunderstanding.)

...

That evening after work, my thoughts were naturally occupied with the Count. (Even if what happened earlier was just an accident, I want to discuss it properly this time.)

I peek into the dining room looking for him, and there sat the man himself. With lowered eyes and a teacup on hand, he appeared to be deep in thought about something.

[Kara]: “Count…?” [Count]: “…Kara. Is something the matter?” He wore the same smile as he always did; but for some reason, I couldn’t shake off this awkward feeling. [Kara]: “Um…” (I really want to explain the situation from earlier, but… something about it is hard to put into words.) While I was searching for the right words to say, the Count’s eyes narrowed… [Count]: “If this is about what had happened with Leonardo earlier, I already understand.” [Count]: “Leonardo had protected you from some falling books, correct?” [Count]: “And about that claim of having ‘pinned you down’ - he was only playing around too much.”

My heart finally relaxed at his gentle tone. (I wouldn’t expect anything less from the Count.) (Well, if I think about it… Since they’ve lived together for a long time, it’s not a surprise that they would know each other’s ways quite well.) (With that, he would never make that big of a misunderstanding.)

[Kara]: “Hehe, I’m glad that there wasn’t a misunderstanding. Since Leonardo’s always purposefully messing around, I was restless about it.”

[Kara]: “But, I really was worried. I thought you would care about that sort of thing—” [Count]: “… ‘That sort of thing’, huh.” [Kara]: “Eh?” Turning my eyes at the sound of a low mutter, I see him get up from his chair.

[Count]: “—From my angle,” [Count]: “I had said that I understood the situation, but I do not recall saying that I do not care about it.” (Huh…?) [Kara]: “…Count?” He had swiftly rose from his seat and was slowly making his way towards me. (The Count, he… the air around him is different.) It was... the mood that surrounded him when it was only the two of us.

[Count]: “Of course, I understand that he intentionally instigated the matters of the situation.” [Count]: “But, even then…” The crisp clicks of his footsteps approached, step by step, before promptly stopping right in front of my eyes.

[Count]: “That the sight of you, before my very own eyes, pinned down by another man, would not incite jealousy… Is that what you are thinking of me?”

[Count]: “If so—” [Kara]: “…!”

He captured my chin into his long fingers, turning it upwards. His focused golden irises were filled with so much emotion that a single glance could not capture its entirety. My heart leapt a beat.

[Count]: “Kara, you do not yet understand me.”

The moment my eyes widen, with my chin in his grasp— He stole my lips.[Kara]: “Nn… uh-“ His wet lips joined mine over and over, and a sweet sensation kindled in the air.

[Kara]: “Count, someone might come-… ah, mm-“ [Count]: “Do not get distracted, Kara.”

When I protested between kisses— He immediately grabbed my jaw, sealing my lips to swallow my words. (Even though it’s still bright out…) The fear of potentially being seen by someone melded with the aggressive heat, and it heightened this strange sense of immorality.

[Count]: “…Hah…Hh,” Our lips separated for a moment and his breath mingled with mine. At that moment, my mind suddenly recalled something…

[Leonardo]: “Yeesh, don’t get too mad. From time to time, it’s a bit fun to tear off our beloved Count’s mask of complacency, eh?” [Leonardo]: “He’s the type of guy who hides his passion and other troubling emotions behind a mask, you know.”

(Could it be that… Just now, the Count…) With his face right by mine, I could see his hidden passion, now unmasked of the veneer of placidity. When I had realized this, there came the sound of footsteps in the hallway and the Count’s hands promptly released me. Instead, his lips approached the shell of my ear—

[Count]: “—Let’s continue this tonight, shall we?”

[Kara]: “… Mn.” His voice, tinged with heat, made my cheeks burn... and I inadvertently detached further away from him when I heard the door open.

[Leonardo]: “Oh. Did I intrude on something here?” (…The footsteps from before must have been Leonardo’s.) [Kara]: “Ah, no, you’re fine. I’m done here,” Shaking my head in a fluster, I briskly slipped past Leonardo to leave the dining room.

...

(That moment from before… was that really the Count’s jealousy?) (I know it would be in poor taste to make him jealous on purpose. But…) There lied a part of me that wanted to, once again, touch upon the heat that I had witnessed behind the mask.

[Count]: “—Let’s continue this tonight, shall we?” (The Count’s feelings… I want to feel them more.) Pondering his whispers in my ear, my heartbeat quickened… and I felt my face burn up to my ears.

...

Watching Kara leave, Leonardo gave a small chuckle towards the Count. [Leonardo]: “That face on the little sweetheart… I reckon you’re guilty of that? And to think you ragged on me earlier.” [Count]: “A certain someone had riled me up to begin with, so I merely went along with it. Besides…” [Count]: “Even if you didn’t ask about me that, on purpose— I would think that you of all people would know what’s going on in my head?” The face he gave Leonardo was a composed one, but the heat from just a moment ago still lingered within it.

[Leonardo]: “Well, whatever. Our beloved Count has finally realized how unbearably adorable the sweetheart in his arms is, but…” [Leonardo]: “…Don’t go overboard, all right?” [Count]: “…” The Count simply smiled. Leonardo shrugged his shoulders at his masked old friend before lighting a cigarette.

⋆ The Count simply smiled, knowing that because Leonardo had been a punkass beech to him today he was going to ignore his advice. both of u deserve each other ( ´_ゝ｀)

...

That night—

Surprised by the knock at the door, I slowly opened it to find… [Kara]: “The Count…” [Count]: “Kara, may I come in?” I nodded, and the Count slipped into the room before shutting the door behind him. As if that sound was a signal (for something)— I was suddenly aware of the distance between the two of us and my heart noisily thumped, quickening in pace.

[Count]: “Could it be that you were obediently waiting for me?” (…guh. Appearing as if I had waited for him to “continue” is pretty embarrassing, but…) [Kara]: “…Yes.” He smiled at my straightforward answer. It was a gentle expression, but there was visibly some sort of implication behind it. [Count]: “…”

⋆ i like to imagine that he was just standing there like ( ﾟ∀ﾟ)ｼﾞｰｯ for like 5 minutes. sir you’re scaring me

While calming my rising heartbeat, I stared at him smiling right before me. (First, I need to properly apologize for what had happened earlier today.)

[Count]: “That the sight of you, before my very own eyes, pinned down by another man would not incite jealousy… is that what you are thinking of me?”

Though I am a bit happy about his jealousy, having made him feel that way had been on my chest for a long time. When I had opened my mouth to speak these thoughts—

[Count]: “So, it is time to administer your punishment.”

⋆ ctrl c + ctrl v haha aw ye

He pulled my arm with great strength and my body sank onto the bed. [Kara]: “A-ah…!” The Count, slowly… as if to steal away the possibility of escape, hung over my body, the bedsprings thickly creaking under the added weight. [Count]: “Did you not expect me to do this to you tonight? Not even a little bit?” [Kara]: “–Hn-”

Looking down at me from above, a smile began to slowly spread over his face. [Count]: “So that from now on, you will no longer carelessly enter men’s rooms and get pinned down…” [Count]: “I’ve been thinking that tonight, I shall violate even that easy nature of yours.”

⋆ or “trample on”, if you want something a little more visceral

I was left speechless by his extreme words, unfitting for the soft smile on his lips. [Kara]: “Ah- Please, wait…” Placing a hand to his chest, I tried to resist, but… these hands were easily pinned to the sheets. [Count]: “Do you honestly think… that I will grant that wish of yours tonight?”

Premium Ending

⋆ the Sweet Ending tl;dr pretty much lets her explain her thoughts but they reach the same boning conclusion because she wants to be punished anyway. wowee

[Kara]: “…kgh.”

My body instinctively trembled with a jump, and without an answer to give him… his finger suddenly traced along the vein of my neck.

[Kara]: “Mn, Count..?” [Count]: “First, let’s help you to properly understand just who you belong to, shall we?”

The next moment, he buried his face into my neck— and sharply sucking the skin, a sweet pain ran down my body.

[Kara]: “Ah…” The Count lifted his body slightly, dropping his gaze to my throat. [Count]: “When I leave a mark, it looks just as if I had bitten you.” [Kara]: “Cou-… Ah…” Speaking in a seemingly-amused tone, he buried his face once more. Trailing down, his lips… on the collarbone, on the chest… teasingly left traces of both pain and pleasure. Every time a red mark was left, this heat rose like a flame. (My skin… little by little, it’s like it’s being dyed by the Count.) (Dyed only in... his color.) [Count]: “The only person who can push you down like this should be me. Isn’t that right?”

[Count]: “Next—…” Smiling, his finger touched my lips— While pushing my gently-shut lips open with his thumb, he continued to speak.

[Count]: “I’ll help you to properly understand my thoughts— My bare jealousy and desire to keep you all to myself.” [Kara]: “Eh–…Mn, ah-“ With a kiss that swallowed my voice, he teased my mouth with his tongue. (Nn…This kiss, is more intense than usual…) Our tongues tangled with a wet sound, our sighs mingling. In his kiss that seemed to devour everything, both my breath and mind gradually muddled. (The inside of his mouth… it’s hot enough to burn.) (Is this, the Count’s thoughts…?) Finally, my lips were released… and my vision was blurred from my teary eyes, having been enraptured by the kiss. Wiping the corners of my eyes, the Count gave a bewitching smile. [Count]: “…Do you understand now?” [Kara]: “Y-Yes…”

⋆ (made her cry) expectation: “oh fuc im sorry child” reality: “lmao (more turned on)”

(That passion… to the point where it makes my head all dizzy…) (Ah… I can’t even think about anything but him.) When I nodded obediently, his eyes narrowed before his lips took on a dubious curve… [Count]: “But… it doesn’t end here.” The fingertips that were stroking the corner of my eyes began to move down along the contour of my body.

[Count]: “Kara. I am not saying that I do not want you going into any other man’s room.” [Count]: “Everyone in this mansion is, indeed, like family. I would like you to deepen those bonds as you wish. It is just that…” [Count]: “Even if they are family, I am not taken with you showing your vulnerabilities to others.” [Count]: “—Much less something like getting pinned down.”

As his words trailed, a long finger slid down the line of my neck…. down my chest… [Kara]: “Mn…”

I subconsciously teared up once more, as there lied the sensation of my body being traced over the surface of my blouse - to tease me. His gold irises locked with mine, as if aiming, shooting for prey.

[Count]: “Kara. The ones allowed to your heart and body… you know who they are, don’t you?”

(Ah…) Even my very thoughts were stolen away under those firm eyes. A small, bleary voice came out— but it gave a definite answer.

[Kara]: “Only to the Count… They’re only, for Abel.”

[Count]: “…Correct, Kara.” [Count]: “I won’t allow you to accept any man besides myself into your heart and body.”

A large hand snuck under the hem of my blouse, gently caressing the skin. [Kara]: “Hn… Abel-…“ [Count]: “…The one who may reveal every part of you, is only myself.” He tore off my blouse, dropping kisses all over my exposed skin. Pecking here and there, it gave only this frustrating sensation. Heat slowly rose from the core of my body.

[Kara]: “…Mm, hah…” [Count]: “What’s the matter…? You look unsatisfied.” [Kara]: “…Mh, it’s not…” “like that,” is what I had meant to say, but my words had faltered into nothingness. [Count]: “Truly, you are so lovely with your open heart... it is wicked.”

⋆ versus [Count]: “You are, truly, so lovely with your openness/honest nature… it is an ill-natured trait (to have).” when he means by her “openness”, “easiness”, etc. he’s saying that mc is very frank with her feelings. the sort of person where it’s really ez to tell wat they’re feeling and/or thinking abt, u know

[Kara]: “Ah…” With a smile, he dropped a sigh on my skin.

On one side, my body desired more of him, while the other was that in my heart, a different emotion was welling within. (This is “punishment”… but even then…) (His words are cruel, his touches are meant to tease… and yet, I’m somehow completely happy... It’s strange.)

The kisses suddenly stopped, and pulling my arm, he set me upright on the bed. [Kara]: “…?” Foggily looking back at him, I saw him guiding my hands to his clothes…

[Count]: “Now, you try and reveal me too.” [Kara]: “Eh- But.” [Count]: “I know you can do it?” (kgh- It’s embarrassing, but…) Simply nodding as his words had no room for objections, I slowly moved my fingers to loosen his clothes.

(…Ah, just doing this is making my heart beat like crazy.) His shirt finally fell with a light thud, and when I touched his bare shoulder… His skin was carrying a heat that was hot enough to melt. (It’s so hot…) (Could this be, the passion… that he’s always hiding behind a mask?) In that moment, that heat… I was touching that very heat born from his heart.

The intimate touching became unbearable— and as if that heat from inside (of him) was then released, I let out a sigh. [Count]: “Is something wrong?” [Kara]: “You’re being meaner than usual… so my heart feels like it’s about to burst.” Saying this, Abel’s smile deepened. It was not the usual smile of a composed adult, but of a man. [Count]: “Well, that’s quite the problem.” [Count]: “—Because the show starts from here.”

FIN

As usual, there’s an Epilogue with these routes. The Count one is pretty good (*´▽`*)b dunno abt the others but they’re… probably good? idk. they can’t skimp out on Arthur stuff, his JPN stans could probably single-handedly fund the game. and they’re already being spicy with the new guys already for some reason. ( ´_ゝ｀) gotta do that now to prevent audience disinterest amirite

ok sorry about the inconsistent screenshots but i want to buy my cosmic brownies now. ty for reading  (*´▽`)

#ikemen vampire #spoilers

[peterpan-ouat-imagines]

In Hell I Will: Part 2

What the heck I met the guy I’ve been dying to find out more about within under an hour?  Not even intentionally!  This is crazy and I’m a bit unprepared because I’m taken aback by his appearance.  He looks so professional and serious in a suit... not a ginger head wearing green.  Plus I was not prepared for this like how do I act around him?  I start feeling nervous.

“Um, sorry,” I put it down gently, “Can I just look around for five more minutes?” I smile hopefully.

“That’s fine, take your time,” he tells me and I keep looking trying to find hints or things that belong to Hook having trouble not focusing on Peter Pan in the same room as me, “I haven’t seen you around here before are you new?” he asks.

“That’s a bad pickup line that won’t work on me, but since you asked, I’m temporarily new I guess. I am not dead though, I’m on a trip to find Captain Hook, who you obviously know because of your story.  My family is gonna save him,” I share.

He chuckles.

I stop searching and turn to him, “What’s funny?”

“One, I wasn’t flirting, I was simply asking a question, and the really funny part is that you say your going to save him like it’s easy,” he explains.

I start feeling a bit attacked and the confidence in my voice starts to quiver, “Well obviously it won’t be quick and simple, but it’s not like it’ll take a week or anything,”

He catches me off guard and suddenly goes from across the room to two feet away, “Well maybe I can help you with being more prepared,”

I jump,” Ah! How did you do that?  You were all the way over there less than a second ago!”

“It’s magic, which I’m pretty sure you know of because of your families story,” he answers using my words.

“One, you don’t need to make me eat my words, two they were right, you aren’t like the movies and stories I grew up with, and three, you don’t scare me which apparently you’re trying to do I think,” I tell him.

He chuckles again, “I don’t get it why do you keep making fun of me?!” I exclaim.

“No reason, you’re just funny.  And just so you know, I am as bad as they tell you,” he tells me in a low, serious tone.

I roll my eyes and go to the backroom to get away and he follows me.

“I can help, we can make a deal, just say the word,” he tells me.

I look in his eyes and see the thirst for getting what he wants, which is off-putting but attractive at the same time, “I was told that making deals is a bad idea, so I appreciate the offer but no,” I say politely.

“Alright then, it was nice meeting you...?” he waits for my name.

“Y/n, and thanks.  And you don’t have to go, I’m finished here.  But I’m not going to lie I don’t know whether to say the same about you because your kind of annoying, I hate to be blunt but it’s true,” I admit with no filter.

He chuckles once again but I ignore it and go.  So much for meeting the person I was so defensive about just to be wrong.  But if I didn’t like him why did his voice and eyes, and everything else make me drawn to stay and talk to him?

Henry is waiting for me outside.  “What took you so long?  You were in that shop forever!” he asks.

“Sorry, the things down here are just more interesting than normal Storybrooke,  haven’t seen some before ya know,” I tell him low-key referring to Peter Pan.

“Hey follow me, there’s someone I want to find and I want you to meet him,” he walks towards the bed and breakfast and I walk with him.

“How are you dealing with all of this?  I know it’s your first real adventure,” he asks me standing kind of close.

“I haven’t been here very long but it’s all so interesting and different, I like being in on something like this!” I tell him.

“You can stick with me if you’d like, I have some experience when things go south,” he says.

“I’d like that,” I smile.  I can tell he’s kind of liked me romantically for a while and I wasn’t so sure about it but lately with being around him more and him trying to make me feel better and help me out just shows how sweet he is.

We arrive at the bed and breakfast and he goes behind the counter and grabs a old dirty bronze key with a tag attached but I’m not at the angle to read it clearly.  I follow him up a stairwell and he opens the door to room eight.

“Dad?” he asks as he steps inside.  He looks around, “Dad are you in here?” I walk in a little watching him.

He looks all around the room and I put a hand on his shoulder softly from behind, “Henry, I don’t think your father is in here,” I say gently.

“Yeah I think you’re right, we should go back down to the diner,” he says and I follow him.

We get down and some of the normal gang are already there regrouping.

As usual Mr. Gold left and went his own way because he never believes in teamwork to get things accomplished.  The rest of us stayed and tried to workout a plan.  

An hour passes by and Gold is back holding a small, white, dainty, glass bottle.  He explains that if we pour it on Hook’s grave than we will be able to see and communicate with Hook.  We do just that and apparently he’s in some really crappy shape because Regina and Robin Hood, who’s also her boyfriend block him from me and Henry’s view.  It turns out to be a bust which is really unfortunate because I really want to find him and save him.

We go to Mary Margaret’s and David’s apartment to regroup later on.  We all split up and me, Henry, and Robin go to Regina’s office to get maps that are a replica of the hell Storybooke.  There is a protection spell on it so me and Henry crawl through the air vent.

“It’s so dusty in here,” I cough.

“Don’t worry it isn’t much of a distance just keep following me,” he tells me.

We continue to crawl until we finally bust in.  I get up and see a older woman dressed in black and white with her hair half black and white in color.  It isn’t a “I’m an old person” type of white but intentional as if she dyed it like that, “Henry who is that?” I whisper.

“Don’t worry,” he tells me avoiding the question.

She starts talking to him about this pen that I’m confused on and goes on about  writing the fairytales in the book and bringing her back to life and Henry finally confronts her, “Cruella, why would I do that?” 

She explains and when I hear how Emma killed her I blurt out, “Oh shit,” shocked that Emma would do something so awful.

“And who is this here?  Your little girlfriend?” she asks walking up to me slowly and I hear her heels slowly click.

“Leave her out of this,” he tells her stepping in front of me but she lingers.

I stare at her kind of afraid as she looks me up and down slowly, “pretty face, but I can tell you don’t have a clue what your doing,” she ridicules.

“And why’s that?” I ask a bit angry stepping in front of Henry .

“Y/n, don’t let her get to you,” Henry tells me being protective but I roll my eyes.

“Why don’t I know what I’m doing?” I ask her ignoring Henry.

“Where do I begin?  Your with him, using him as protection, you’ve just been standing here and not trying to talk or intervene with me, and you just... look... weak,” she criticizes telling me I look weak in a slow way

My jaw drops and I clench my fists shocked by her bluntness, “y/n don’t let her get to you,” Henry whispers.

I huff, “Fine,” I unclench my fists.

We exit not finding any maps.  

We all meet Mary Margaret and she says Hercules can help us and like half my family go to find and get him to defeat some 3 headed thing that’s guarding where Hook is but leave me and Henry behind which is annoying.

I kinda want to spend the spare time seeing Pan but remember how he was annoying and I need a reason to visit so me and Henry just go back to the apartment being useless.

The following day Gold says he knows how to get Hook back and my mom and him go off to save him.  A few hours after they return with Hook and even later his brother arrives and joins us all.  We all talk about Hades and try figuring out his story.  Everyone but me and Henry go off in search of answers.

“Hey I need to go see someone I’ll be back,” Henry tells me, “It’s about the quill that Cruella was talking about,”

I get up to follow him and he stops me, “Y/n, this is kind of awkward because I know I said you can stay with me, but this is something I have to do alone,”

“So your just gonna leave me alone? It’s not like anyone will let me in on what’s going on with their plan,” I tell him feeling left out.

“I’m sorry,” I can tell he doesn’t want to leave me but he leaves anyway and I watch him get in this black and white hurst from inside.

The car speeds off and I just sit where I am being useless.

I think about how Pan said he could help contemplating going there.

After a lot of talking myself out of it I decide to do it anyway because what else can I do?

I walk on in and look around the shop and the backroom but don’t see him anywhere, “Pan!” I shout.

“Hello y/n,” he appears directly behind my shoulder after I shout that, “What do I owe this visit?” he asks.

I take a deep breath and turn to him and he’s awfully close to me, “You said you could help with Hades, and I want to make a deal for it,” I say.

“I said I could help with Hook, not Hades.  Sorry love,”

“But! I was going to make a deal!” I complain.

He smirks, “A deal can be made still, what else can I do for you?”

I think for a second, “Well everyone is trying to figure out what Hades story is or where we could find it.  Can you help me there?” I ask.

“I can give you information, but it might be too late,” he tells me.

“Any lead would be helpful right now,” I tell him.

“I will tell you where you could find his story and let’s just say you’ll owe me a favor at some point,” he tells me.

“It depends, is it a bloody favor, that ends with people getting hurt, because I really don’t want to darken my heart anymore,” I tell him.

“Your heart is dark? You seem so innocent so sweet,” he avoids the answer.

“Whatever, avoid the question, I’ll do it,” I gulp and take a deep breath, “It’s a deal,”

He smirks, “I’m glad.  There is a mansion that has the popular storybook, you know the one, it is hidden inside it.  Find that, you find his story,”

“Can I have details on the mansion?  Like where is it?” I ask.

“Ask your brother, he knows,” he tells me.

“Thank you,” I say sincerely.

I head out of the backroom but something in me makes me pause where I am once I walk past the register.  It isn’t magic, it’s just me staying still.

“Something tells me you came in here for more than just to be resourceful,” he tells me following me.

“Okay, yes, maybe a part of me did come to see you, but I have my reasons,” I say still not heading towards the exit.

“And what are those reasons?” he asks leaning in some.

I can feel him have a hold on me as I stare in his green eyes but have to remember Henry is good and who I’m starting to like, unlike him who I know nothing about and could be a bad idea if I get involved.

“I’m leaving before I do something I regret,” I walk towards the exit.

“And what is it that you’ll regret?” He asks appearing in front of me standing very close again and I skip a breath staring in his eyes.  I turn my head again to ignore him reminding myself it is a bad idea and keep going.

“If you need me again you know where to find me,” I can feel his smugness which has a certain charm to it as I walk out.

I walk back into the apartment where everyone else already is, “Y/n, where have you been?”

“Just a walk, no one needed me so I thought why not?” I lie.

“You could have told us you had nothing to do, we could have had you do research on Hades while we were gone,” Regina tells me a bit annoyed.

“I think I know how to figure out what Hades story is though!  Apparently there’s this mansion that has the storybook inside.  I figured if we find that we will see what his story is,” I explain.

“The sorcerers mansion,” Henry says.

#peter pan #david nolan #neverland #regina mills #emma swan #ouat #prince charming #snow white #evil queen #lost boys #captain hook #henry mills #mary margaret blanchard #peter pan ouat #ouat s5 #lost girl #love #once upon a time imagine #once upon a time #robin hood #cruella de vil #imagine #mr gold #rumplestiltskin #hate #killian jones #fanfic #ouat imagine #peterpan ouat #ouat s3

[beggingwolf]

22, 9, 7 — sincerely, jes

thank you jes!!!

22. how much of your own self/experiences do you believe pours into your projects? if this differs per project, which projects have the most and least of you?

honestly too much, I think 🙃 not so much in experiences but I think I sometimes reveal a bit too much of my thought process or internal logic or desires when writing. I think it becomes really obvious when I'm INTO what I'm writing; I linger and I just churn stuff up endlessly to hover in moments that I want to hover in. it's my inner hedonist just wanting to luxuriate in stuff for forever. all my stuff FEELS like me, even if I've never experienced anything remotely like what's happening in the fic. writing, to me, is a really natural extension of thinking. I write how I think and I think how I write, for better or worse.

9. what are you best and worst at when writing?

I'm breaking "best" up into two categories: what I think I'm good at and what I have been TOLD by others I'm good at (that has surprised me) in the first category I'm gonna stroke my ego and say I think I have decent prose. I don't think I'm perfect but I think I sound like me, and I sometimes can do stuff that lands or hits right. also, I think my love for canon-accurate details is really fun and neat even though it is entirely self-indulgent. and, lastly for this category, I think I have interesting stories to tell. this is 100% biased because the stories I want to tell are stories that I want to read, but I have some bigger plots that I've been cooking for a while (and will need to stay cooking for a while longer) that are just... I like them a lot. perhaps even love them. as for the second category, I've been really flattered by people telling me I'm good at tension and immersive writing. I hadn't written publicly consumable fiction in many years, so seeing public response to it has been VERY interesting. I've gotten a LOT of very nice comments about my ability to create atmosphere (often through small details), which is cool because it's not something I do intentionally. it is, however, an enormous part of how I consume media (of all sorts), so it's neat to see that translate into me generating atmosphere automatically.

and lmfao as for things I'm bad at: I'm horrible at planning. just atrocious at it. I try and try but I inevitably end up convincing myself that I want to write a story so aching and overarching that it becomes out of my scope of Things I Am Capable Of Writing. I'm an incredibly mercurial writer and I can either write 10k in two days or I can struggle to get 100 words out in a night. I just have Chronic Overthinker Disease and my case is particularly bad 😅 I'm working on overcoming it! also I'm not convinced I have pacing down. several people complimented the pacing in BatC but since I didn't even have an outline for it when I wrote it I'm baffled at my success with it and will need to perform a vivisection on it to figure out what the hell I did there

7. what books have shaped the way you think about writing the most? why?

THE FUCKING QUEEN OF ATTOLIA. THE QUEEN OF ATTOLIA. this book almost made me get into a car crash while I was driving and listening to the audiobook because of the heel turn it takes. I was fucking gobsmacked. the fucking character arcs. the growth. the INTRICATE, CLEVER WRITING. the mystery that makes you IMMEDIATELY need to reread the entire book to pour over the text with fresh eyes and the KNOWLEDGE that has been HIDDEN FROM YOU. just jesus christ MWT is a genius, flat-out. the first book in the series is boring but short. the second book—the queen of attolia—is my favorite book of all time. and after that I'm going to go with The Dream Thieves (guess I'm big on Second Books for this question) because, back when the author Stief was on this blue website, she mentioned once that she ripped out her spinal cord and gave it to her character Ronan. I found that imagery gross and beautiful and incredibly accurate (from what we knew of her persona on social media, at least), and it was really heartening and beautiful to see an author sort of... deconstruct their worst characteristics and impulses and past choices and fears and put them in a character through which they could experience both pain and healing. Ronan's character arc in TDT is incredibly personal to me and it's obviously very personal to Stief as well. seeing an author sort of give themselves closure and purpose and meaning through a fictional character built off of their pain is really cool and something I think about when I write harder, angstier stuff.

#tag game

[songxiaolin]

untamed fall fest

day 6: foliage 

word count: 1,090 rating: general

Fall was the herald of hard times to come; of being cold, sleeping on frozen ground, of being hungry, the scraps thrown away even more meager than normal. It was not a season that held fond memories for Lin Ming though she didn’t have many fond memories to look back on, from fall or otherwise. 

Something that was slowly changing. There were bright spots now, moments of soft light in an otherwise dark past. 

A light crunch came as she took a step forward and Lin Ming paused, moving her foot to the side. A yellow gingko leaf, shaped like a fan, was stuck under her shoe. Leaning down, she picked it up and turned it over in her hand; part of it had ripped but the color was still vibrant. 

She sat on the porch, running her fingers over the uneven edges of the leaf, thoughts somewhere far away.

“Is that a gingko leaf?” asked Song Lan, who could clearly see it was but knew what that look meant and didn’t want to startle her, knew that the man in white at his side couldn’t see what she held. 

Lin Ming nodded and rang the bell once. 

Using the sound as a guide, Xiao Xingchen sat next to her. He touched her wrist, fingers travelling upwards, tracing bother her hand and the leaf with a smile. 

“When I was young, I would always collect leaves as they changed color. By the time the first snow fell, there would be a pile of them hidden under my bed.” His smile was wistful, embarrassed, shaking his head as if he couldn’t believe he had done so.

Against the post where he leaned, Song Lan gave a small snort of laughter.

“Zichen’s laughing because he used to do the same only he would press them in books,” said Xiao Xingchen.

“I did,” he admitted.

Xiao Xingchen held onto Lin Ming’s hand, careful not to crush the leaf she held but not willing to let go. He leaned into her shoulder.

“Did you ever collect leaves as a child?” he asked.

The question was simple, innocent, but Lin Ming tensed immediately, hand curling into a fist without thinking. The leaf crumpled. Song Lan straightened, face full of concern as he took a few steps forward.

At her side, Xiao Xingchen drew in a breath through his teeth.

“Ah, Lin Ming. I’m so sorry,” he said, taking both her hands in his and kissing her forehead. “I didn’t think. Next I won’t be so careless with my words.”

She looked at him; his mouth trembled the way it did when he was close to tears and his eyebrows were pulled together in worry. He would never hurt her intentionally and once that fact would have been foreign to her. Slipping her hand from his, she turned his palm upwards.

It’s okay. I’m fine, she wrote.

Xiao Xingchen sighed.

“Still—” He knew enough not to push, to let her come to them, trusting that now she would. He felt the pieces of the leaf, still held in her other hand. “Your leaf was ruined.”

Reaching out, Song Lan touched the top of her head.

“We’ll find another. Fall is just beginning.”

Looking up, she smiled.

They found plenty.

They would bring her the leaves that they found; orange pistache leaves, yellow gingko leaves, deep red maple leaves, whatever either of them had come across. For Xiao Xingchen it was something of a game, guessing what color it was, what sort of tree it had come from as he traced the shape with his fingers. Song Lan took it as a duty, presenting each one to her solemnly, making sure it was near-perfect and vibrant in color.

Sometimes they would give it to her directly, sometimes she would find it centered exactly on the bed or tucked under the cup of tea Xiao Xingchen set on the table for her.

Neither of them said a word about it, acting as if it had always been routine.

It was a silly thing. She didn’t need to be given leaves, no matter how pretty the shape or color, but Lin Ming couldn’t bring herself to tell them to stop.

“I can’t believe Lin Ming is up so early,” said Xiao Xingchen as he approached. He had already been up for at least an hour, feeding the chickens and starting his day. Lin Ming wanted to crawl back into bed.

Squinting at him with bleary eyes, she yawned loudly. He laughed and reached out as if he was going to pat her on the head but instead he placed a leaf on top of her head, yellow contrasted against black.

She plucked it out of her hair and twirled it between her fingers with a smile.

“Do you want to go with me to town? I was going to ask Zichen as well.”

As she got to her feet, Lin Ming rang the bell once. Xiao Xingchen smiled and touched her arm.

“Are you ready, then?”

She took his hand.

Give me a minute. I’ll meet you at the gate.

“Alright.”

Lin Ming watched him walk away for a moment before turning back to the small house. As soon as she was inside, she went straight to a small cupboard and took out a box. It was plain wood, light in color with a top that slid to the side. When she opened it, she breathed in, the rich smell of dried leaves hitting her nose. She placed the leaf Xiao Xingchen had given her on top, along with all the others.

“So that’s what you’ve been doing with them.”

A smile was on Song Lan’s face, soft and amused, brown eyes watching her carefully. Her expression mirrored his as she slid the box closed and tucked it back into its hiding place inside the cupboard. She stood and pressed a kiss to his cheek once she was at his side.

I didn’t have a book to press them in and it won’t fit under the bed, she signed.

“Did you want a book?” he asked, all seriousness.

Her shoulders shook slightly as she laughed.

No, this is fine.

He took her arm.

“Xingchen is waiting,” he said, steering her back outside. “We can look for more as we walk.”

She nodded; whatever they found, Lin Ming would keep, like a child’s secret, held close to her heart, each leaf lighting up that darkness, fall no longer a herald of hard times but of memories to be made.

#i'm neither tagging this or proof reading because i've been crying most of the day i just wrote this to feel better okay #songxiaolin #drabbles

[dualumina]

Day 1: 3rd of August (Monday) Who are you? What’s your Zexal story?

Ohhhh… fine I’ll cave. I might lose followers for this, but whatever. Easy come, easy go, I guess. (checks count for future reference: 34 👀💦)

I don’t know what the general mentality of tumblr is concerning this subject but… sigh, here goes nothing. This is going to be a long post.

MENTAL HEALTH-RELATED TRIGGER WARNINGS AHEAD

I learned early on that my imagination was the safest place I could be in, and for a time, the only environment I had any semblance of control over.

As I hit my adolescence, I realized that the environment around me was worse than I’d initially feared. On my own, I knew I wouldn’t make it, so in the only place of safety I’d known all my life, I sought help. Wished for it, dearly. In any shape or form.

It took some time, but, help did come.

At first, I would dream of them. Always a boy around my age, always different in appearance, but every time, they were familiar to me. Their mannerisms, their personality. I didn’t know anyone in my waking life like this person; they were unique, despite having no appearance, or name, to call their own.

These dreams of the two of us together would consist of us doing incredible things, sometimes dangerous and exciting, other times calm and serene.

I looked forward to these dreams, considering the alternative was… the nightmares.

Always myself, alone, chased like someone’s prey, with no one to help. Constantly… struggling to stay afloat.

The dreams gave me life, and hope, while the nightmares would take those same things away. It was always a gamble when I closed my eyes, but, my curiosity to know more about the dream boy made me willing to place down my bets.

At some point, I started writing my own stories, putting my imagination into a physical form. I’d been drawing since as long as I could remember, but this was my first time putting a story to the drawings.

I soon realized that my stories contained interactions between characters, and while I could imagine the grandest mountains or the tiniest insects, my ability to imagine connections between others was lacking. My solution to the problem ended up being to treat the interactions between characters like actors rehearsing a scene together.

I would play one character, and… someone… played the other character.

It��s odd I never put much thought into this.

Years went by, many stories were written, many more never made it onto paper, but one thing was certain; I became very good at these “practice conversations”.

It’s now 2013, and after graduating high school, I experienced my second depression. My best friend was growing distant, I could tell it was only a matter of time before the “end” in “friendship” was fulfilled, and I wasn’t looking forward to going to the local college in the slightest. I had no idea where my future was going.

In my daze, I happened to notice a familiar name in the list of shows airing during that time; Yugioh. I remembered once watching DM and GX excitedly before, though never had much interest in 5D’s. Zexal it was called, might as well see if it’s any decent.

Hearing this protagonist’s voice was akin to listening to a blender for no reason, but at least he was interesting to watch. That blue character beside the new “Yu” though… why is his crotch glowing like that? Apart from the holy crotch… “he” does look cool, and he seems to have an interesting story to him. I’ll probably tune in again if I happen to see it in the channel listings.

I didn’t see many episodes of Zexal around this time, maybe five at max. I could tell that the dubbers had butchered this poor show, but it wasn’t until later that’d I’d feel compelled to seek out the sub.

This is where I suspect I may lose followers.

Considering the entertainment in my small town was limited, and I had essentially lost the one person I’d normally hung out with, the internet became my new pastime.

And by accident, I was introduced to the concept of tulpas.

I’d consider myself a nerd for psychology and other things involving the brain, so upon my discovery of this concept I did a bit of reading on the subject. “Mental companions with their own autonomy” as the subreddit described them. Neat.  

I had no interest in trying to make one for myself.

But suddenly, I had one.

It didn’t help that this tulpa decided to assume the form of Yubel in that moment. Suffice to say I was convinced my imagination had finally gone off the rails and was trying to trick me into thinking I had one of these tulpa things.

I tried ignoring them. That failed, as they were exceptionally chatty, and curious as to why they were suddenly there. I should mention, that this occurred around midday, so my hope that they’d go away after I went to sleep was still several hours away.

Suffice to say, after I woke up the first time, I realized they weren’t going away.

Time went by, and they’d dropped the Yubel form, which certainly helped in getting me to stop thinking that there was a chance that they were actually a demon. Now I had a new problem.

They’d chosen Astral’s form.

By this point I had no idea what to call them. Astral? Yubel? Tulpa? They didn’t like any of those names. Oh, apparently they’re a he, alright sure, I guess.

“So what name do you want then?”

He thought for a moment, before this naked-blue-floaty-elf-creature-living-in-my-imagination responded very matter of factly with, “Clay.”

That certainly wasn’t a name I would have chosen for such a being, but that was one of the things that helped convince me that perhaps this… entity, does have thoughts that are separate from my own.

This tulpa territory was very unfamiliar to me, as it would be several years before the realization would dawn that the dream boy, the other “actor”, and Clay were one and the same. At the time, I hesitantly trusted him, but the depression kept me doubting this “stranger”. I asked him at one point if I could put him through a few “tests” just to see how much Clay was both apart of and distinct from my imagination.

At first the tests were simple, like what happened if I pictured a rain cloud above Clay, would he get wet? (he did) Several similar, harmless, tests occurred. However, I was getting frustrated; Clay’s reactions were ones that I’d expect. Part of the purpose of these tests was to determine just how autonomous Clay actually was, or if he truly was just my puppet on strings.

I proceeded to do something I’d immediately regret;

Imagining a handgun into my “mental self’s” hand, and I shot a bullet towards Clay.

Either he dodged it or I intentionally missed. It’s been too many years to remember for sure. Probably a mix of both.

The reaction I witnessed from Clay that day cut straight to my core. The poor guy was in tears, scared out of his mind, and questioning why I’d do something like that in stuttered words.

I learned three things in that moment:

1. If I ever set my mind to it, I had the capacity to kill Clay.

2. Despite his appearance, Clay possessed real human emotions.

3. I could never bring myself to try and kill Clay.

After apologizing repeatedly and consoling him to the best of my ability, I made a promise to him that is now quite literally tattooed on my skin; I will not kill you, and I will not kill myself, for my death is your murder.

This promise, and my inability to bring myself to harm another sentient creature, would be the same thing that prevented me from doing several irrevocable acts. If I harmed myself, I was harming Clay, and I couldn’t bring myself to do that.

While I could draw Clay to help with visualizing him, I quickly found that I needed some sort of reference to improve. Just some sort of a base so I knew which elements to add to make my drawings more “Clay-like”. Eventually the obvious answer came; I needed to watch Zexal, or more specifically, I needed to watch Astral.

Clay originally looked identical to Astral, but with time he modified his appearance to be something unique to him, even if one could still see the Astral inspiration behind it.

In a truly “chicken or the egg” situation, as I watched Zexal I saw similarities in the relationship between Astral & Yuma and Clay & myself. It wasn’t long before my interest in keyshipping spawned due to both the warm fuzzy feelings I’d get for being reminded of the person who’s supported me for 7 years (and counting), and from the memories of such a wholesome (and potentially gay) partnership in an overall compelling shonen story.

An older photo, but still one of the better ones I’ve done of the guy. Like the shapeshifter that he is, both the wings and tail can appear and disappear as he pleases. Generally, Clay keeps them both hidden for convenience.

Seeing as it is a side view, I’ll clarify that all of Astral’s markings and piercings are GONE, the sort of exception being the “fake eyebrow” markings which Clay did keep (which are indeed markings rather than actual eyebrows).

And no, none of Clay’s appearance I have direct influence over. At one point I implored him to wear clothes, which Clay did try doing briefly. …That didn’t last long though.

@zexalmonth

#zexal month

[hayjeon]

Lavender (ft. Taehyung) drabble

→ painter!taehyung / apollo!taehyung? Honestly idk yet  → 1.3k words, warning for basically only a ton of sexual tension

Wow I haven’t actually written anything for months. I’m super rusty but I got this idea out of the blue while watching videos about teenagers painting on their jeans. I missed you guys so much, and this officially marks my return to tumblr writing. Enjoy, lovelies. 

“Stay still,” he hisses, a large hand splaying over your ribs. Your breath hitches at the motion, his long, cold fingers a little too close to the bottom of your breast for comfort. His eyes flicker up to you, and you frown at his gaze, but tighten your lips in a silent frown anyway and avert your gaze to the other paintings in the studio. The corner of his mouth twitches quickly in a smug smile, before disappearing along with his eyes, which refocus on the task at hand. 

He takes his brush, dipping it into the purple on his palette, perched dangerously on the edge of the bed that also somehow houses your figure, his torso, and a full cup of water on it without tipping anything. One, two. The bristles glide through the lilac oils, picking up the pigment that you had painstakingly mixed and taken measurements of earlier. 

He then lifts up the fine brush, and rubs the part of your rib, just underneath your breast with the thumb of the hand that lies there already. Then he gently presses the bristles to your skin. 

It feels like...you can’t describe it. It’s not just the feeling of a wet brush gliding over your skin. Here, at this particular area he’s chosen to paint on, you can feel everything. The microscopic rocks that you failed to crush completely when grinding the color. The oils gliding over your skin. The other parts of his painting that are slowly beginning to dry in the brisk air of this particular morning and underneath the warm glow of sunlight that filters through the windows covered with white chiffon curtains. The way the bristles aren’t just uniform, but actually truly different in sizes, conformed to create a beautiful raindrop shape only the most prestigious artists can purchase. The way his fingertips press into your skin, not harshly, but firmly enough to make your breath stutter. The way the air filtering through the curtains caresses your skin, creating goosebumps over your ribs, and the way his fingers gently smooth down the area in an attempt to get you to calm down. 

It’s a good thing all of this makes you basically unable to breathe, because, quite frankly, if you took too big of a breath, he would probably glare at you again because you would move your ribs too much. 

He swishes the soiled brush in the clear glass pitcher, and then dips it into a darker purple, repeating the motions over, and over again. 

His hands carefully maneuver your torso, sometimes dropping down to your hips so that he can angle you ever so slightly to the right, or to the small of your back as he asks you to slowly turn onto your stomach. It feathers up to your neck, and sometimes your shoulders, brushing your hair out of the way or pressing a little harder to have you straighten out. But, this....it lighted your insides with a fire you couldn’t describe. 

Your skin prickling with licks of light and darts of heat. The hairs on your skin rising everytime his fingers dance over your body or graze much too softly to be accidental. And your cheeks igniting with a heat caused by the intimacy of the feeling of his breathe fanning over your lower back. 

Brush into the water, paint, then back again. 

You’re basically on your stomach now, and you let go of the blankets you’d been clutching so tightly as you situate yourself so your breasts are completely hidden by the mattress of the bed. Taehyung doesn’t say another word, and continues painting. You’re honestly not sure how long he’s been painting. But you’ve heard stories. 

You’ve even seen some of them, sculptures of naked women or paintings of the nymphs that are too detailed to be a guess. You’d heard the panicked whispers of gossipers in town, those who were bold enough to speak of the god that ruled your entire lives, talking about the way Apollo would seduce hundreds of women with his art and his music, his beauty, and his sweet words.

And you’ve seen it too, in person. Even the slightest movement, the way he moves his hair out of his eyes, or licks his lips when he’s focused. Even his gaze, sharp and dark, yet intentionally gentle, is provocative in nature, whether or not the god is trying to. His jaw and nose seemed to be shaven of marble by the world’s most talented sculptors, hair and eyes so dark even Hades would envy. Hands so beautiful, fingers long and slender, yet possible of so much destruction, and so much blessing. 

Now, resting two inches below your breast, wrapped around your rib. Lovely. 

Time ticks by, and slowly, you become used to the sensations. Your eyelids become heavy. Taehyung continues painting. 

It was a bit odd, too quick and too disorienting the way you ended up here. You had stumbled upon a beautiful field of purple flowers one day, lavender, you think, by the smell of the field. Your parents were elsewhere picking flowers for an event, and then one moment you were playing with the flowers, and then at another, you were whisked into a room of light. 

Chosen, by the gods. 

The highest honor a young woman could ever desire. 

And then, he’d revealed himself, dimming down the luminescence so you could at least open your eyes and adjust to his features. He’d introduced himself as Taehyung, and he told you he’d chosen you because of art. You had no idea then, and you’re still confused now. You were never particularly interested in arts, much less the arts, and had never played an instrument well or sung like your sister. Your interests lay elsewhere. But he’d just smirked knowingly. His beauty captivating you and everyone else. Your parents were ecstatic and your community put on a shrine for Apollo in the center of the town, and it was too late. Everyone was under his spell. 

When he’s in human form, he spends most of his time here, in a studio, in which constant warm sunlight filtered through windows covered with long, cascading white curtains. From wall to wall, lay canvas or hides covered with intricate paintings of history, portraits of other gods, landscapes you’d never seen or heard of before. Everyday, you would come in, mix the list of colors and pigments that he demanded, and you would leave. 

Until today. 

“Let me paint on you.” He suggests, tone light as if discussing the weather. 

“I-I beg your pardon?” you almost drop the bottle of crushed cayenne. 

He sits on his stool, gently running a towel over his brushes. “I said,” he looks up at you, “I will paint on you.” 

“Where?” You blurt, and at his eyebrow’s flicker, you bow your head gently, “where would you paint?” 

He stands from his stool, slowly taking steps towards you, and you inch backwards, step by step, until he’s a hairs-breadth away from you, and your knees hit a bed. 

Immediately, by reflex, you scramble, arms coming up to cover your chest and you screech, “Please! Don’t!” 

He watches you from a standing position with his hands still occupied by the towel and the brush, and an eyebrow raising into his long hair. He laughs lowly, the chuckle sounding throughout the temple. “Human, I won’t do such things to you.” He chuckles, setting down his tools and sitting at the edge of the bed. “I prefer consenting women. Makes it much more fun.” He laughs to himself again, and stands, heading towards his pigments. 

“Take off your shirt, I won’t look. Cover yourself up with the linens there, but I want to paint on your side.” 

You let out a heavy breath, and roll your eyes secretly as you cast off the top of your dress, your back towards him. Gathering up the white soft blankets, you press them to your bare chest and lay on your side, careful to not let anything show. The rest of your skirt remains bunched around your waist, down to your ankles. 

He comes over with his palette. 

“Now. No looking,” he states, and smirks up at you. 

“Wake up.” 

“Human, wake up.” His low voice timbers through the fogginess of your mind, and you blink once, and twice before darting up with the covers pressed to your chest. 

“Be careful,” he hisses, a hand heavy on your shoulder to make sure you don’t move too quickly, “The paint is still not completely dry, and even yet, you can still smear it. Stand.” He holds out a hand to you, and you warily gather as much fabric against your chest out of the way of the painting before standing with him. You can see a glimpse of a few of the purples, blues, and lilacs he’d been dipping into earlier, curling around your side. 

“I want you to see it here,” he murmurs, and you follow him to the huge mirror on one side of the studio. 

You approach it, bundled up in white, and he lays his hands on your shoulders, and turns you slowly so you catch a glimpse of your where your shoulder blade is. 

It’s stunning. 

Swirls of lilac, lavender, purple, darker blues, limes, greens, and even golds and silvers spin together into a marvelous mural of a lavender field. The flowers start from your right shoulder blade, curling up inquisitively to your shoulder and neck, and drops down to your mid-back and borders your ribs and your side there. 

“It’s...gorgeous.” You breathe out, and Taehyung lets out a low chuckle at how breathless you sound. His eyes in the mirror are trained onto your back as well. 

“Do you recognize it?” He murmurs, and you nod. “The field...the lavender field where you...chose me.” 

“Where I chose you.” He echoes, and his eyes flicker up to meet yours in the mirror. “Precisely. Because you are art.” He murmurs, and you finally turn your head from the mirror to where Taehyung stands in front of you. 

He reaches out, eyes fanning your features, and a finger intertwining with a lock of your hair. 

#fics #bts fics #taehyung fics #bts smut #taehyung smut #writing #mine #hayjeon #taehyung