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27dragons · 1 year

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A Dreamling Fic

It is really really really unusual for me to get a fic fully-formed in my brain all at once, but I was enjoying this post and I got to the one that was Hob and Dream labeled with "well-read jock / buff nerd" and this high school AU just kind of exploded on me, and I just wordvomited it at the Cohort and they did nothing to discourage me, and it's been quietly refining itself in the back of my brain since then. I have no idea if I will try to actually write this but if anyone else wants the idea, please take it! And link me when you're done because I definitely want to read it!

Okay, so Dream is done with elementary/primary school and he's about to start the 6th grade (or whatever the equivalent is for UK I guess but if I write it they're going to be surprise usamericans because I'm not doing that much research). It's a new school, one of those grade 6-12 academies. It's the first day of school and all the students are kind of wandering around in the schoolyard waiting for schedules to be handed out (which yes is totally unrealistic, just shhh go with it). Dream is terrified; the older kids are like three times his size and everyone is very loud and boisterous and there aren't any good corners to hide in here.

His big sister, knowing him as she does, rolls her eyes and takes his hand and drags him over to the area where most of the other new 6th graders are congregating and says, "Look, you're going to be with these people for the next 7 years, you have to make a friend."

Dream glares at her but she just glares back, so he turns to the nearest other kid and says, "We're friends now. What's your name?"

And the kid's name is Hob, and he's like super excited to make a new friend and maybe this won't be completely terrible.

Except that Dream and Hob are not in the same classes. Or the same lunch block. Or anything. And they don't really see each other at all.

But the next year, when everyone's wandering around waiting for schedules, Dream spots Hob and walks over like, "Hello Hob" and Hob just goes with it, he's like, "Hey it's my friend, awesome!" And that year... they also do not have any of the same classes or lunch or anything.

And so it goes. Every year, Dream finds Hob on the first day of school while they're milling around, and every year, that's the last time they really see each other. And in the meantime, Dream is a quiet nerdy goth introvert who never talks to anyone if he can help it, and Hob is getting into trouble and charming his way out of it and he has a bad patch one year but then pulls himself out of it and tries a whole bunch of different clubs and sports and pretty much everyone likes him.

And then sometime over the summer before 11th grade, they both realize that they, you know, LIKE-like each other. And while Hob is now immediately excited to see Dream again, Dream is having a horrible case of "oh shit I'm GAY" panic because despite being a moody introvert he's about as good at understanding himself as a cabbage.

School starts and Dream locks it down and comes over to say hi to Hob like always and Hob is suddenly like, "Hey! You know what, we get to learn to drive this year and after I get my license how about we get together away from school and go do something! Like a date!" and Dream (who is still firmly in the closet and panicking about it) massively overcompensates and is like "How dare you I'm not gay and even if I was I wouldn't even like you!" and storms off.

And, you know, same thing, they don't see each other for the rest of the year. Hob broods about it some and figures he'll just apologize when he sees Dream and they can go back to their weird friendship, it's all cool. But 12th grade starts and Dream... isn't there. Hob looks all over, but. No Dream. Fuck.

And then, halfway through the year or so, Hob's in the library working on his senior project and the chair across from his pulls out and he looks up and... it's Dream.

And Dream is like... his folks split up the previous summer and there was a whole custody thing and he had to go live with his crazy Uncle Roderick and horrible cousin Alex in another state and he absolutely hated it. But he just turned 18 and told told Uncle Rod to fuck off, and he moved out and switched back to this school and they can still be boyfriends now right?

#the sandman #dreamling #plot bunny #free to a good home #or maybe i'll write it myself #but if you want to write it anyway because two cakes #pique queue

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tea-moon-ster · 6 months

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Fic-O-Ween Dat 9: Sugar Rush

Hello! Here's another tremendously late work for Fic-O-Ween. Life really got in the way and I was not able to participate as I had planned.

This work is not part of the Fantasy Magic Au I've been posting during the fest. Instead, here's some slices of life of older Cubs managing a café and safe place for youth! The general idea is that as life got less busy, they opened a library-café that is open 24/7 to everyone. Here are just some random slices but I'd love to come back to this idea in the future!

Note: This work is takes inspiration from a conversation in the server and many ideas are not my own.

Credits to @lumosinlove for the characters (except Helias, Elise and Aramaiah) and to @noots-fic-fests for hosting and prompt! read it on ao3 here.

Sometimes nights the café was busy. Those were the nights of book presentations, cultural themed events, study groups at the end of terms, all sorts of clubs -Finn had founded the book club, and Leo could swear that Regulus had attended multiple crochet sessions. Sometimes they simply put on music and danced. Then there were quiet nights. A few people minding their businesses here and there, on the tables or couches in the low lights of the late hours. Logan in his office doing the math for the shop. Finn reading quietly on his favorite armchair and Leo either at their side or already beginning to cook for the following day.

That was one of those nights. A mid-week, cold night with no planned events or full tables. Leo didn’t mind the quiet nights; he needed them as a break from the eventful ones, who had considerably grown in numbers over the years. The café had become more popular, and every member of their stuff or costumer was invited to add suggestions, and that’s why they had a monthly movie night, theatre night, karaoke night, art night, and so on.

Quiet nights were perfect for when sleep couldn’t seem to find Leo. He would silently make his way out of bed, careful not to wake Finn or Logan -who’d become only more sensible to one of them missing from his side with time- and join whoever was at the café that night.

Leo peeked in the kitchen to say hello to Amy, yet another chef assistant they’d hired. There hadn’t really been a need to hire her per se, because the café was only so big, and their staff was at full capacity. But she was a young mother and student who needed a job, and who were they to deny her that?

The long, full days and nights when it had been just the three of them managing everything were now a memory. But for how fondly Leo could remember those times, he was secretly glad that didn’t have to stand for longs periods in the kitchen anymore. His hip had begun to make itself heard, an injury from 2027 that hadn’t bothered him in a few decades and was now sporadically back. Go figure. Finn claimed it was normal.

Leo went to the counter to make sure everything was in place. He spent some time organizing new recipes and what to include in the spring menu. It was once he made his way to the vinyl recorder to put some background jazz on that he noticed one table was occupied.

A young boy was sitting there. A hand supporting his chin and a mildly resigned face in a sea of books and messily written math exercises. Oh, am I glad those days are over, Leo mused as he opted for some low, relaxing music instead so not to disturb him. He smiled at the boy, who looked up at him as he walked back to the counter, and received a small, shy wave of a hand in return.

Leo decided to let the kid study in peace, even if ‘peace’ wasn’t the word he would have chosen to describe the situation. He snooped from his cooking books from time to time, only to see the poor boy writing furiously or turning pages frantically. When the third long, suffering sigh filled the room, Leo decided it was time for him to step in.

He smiled when even his steps getting closer didn’t make the boy look up from the books, and gently cleared his throat. Two big, dark circles -oh, and some eyes, too- were on him as he took a seat in front of him, placing a fuming mug carefully away from his books, and offered a smile.

“Hey, I’m Leo. Care for an herbal? Chamomile and lavender do miracles for stress.”

The boy, after the initial surprise, accepted the cup with a thankful nod. A shy one, then.

“What are you struggling on?”

The boy bit his lip, a light red coloring his cheeks. “Maths.”

Leo made a face. “Aw, hun. I’m sorry, I’d help you if I were able to. But I’m gay, good at sports and I know how to drive. There was no place left for math.” The boy sighed again, shaking his head at the open books.

“I’m gay, too.”

“Oh, shoot.”

The next half hour saw Leo and the young boy, Helias, really trying to make sense of the numbers and letters mixing without apparent logic in the books. Four pages of failed exercises, two additional herbals and various swearwords later, Leo stated that enough was enough. That’s when he saw Logan’s messages. He was awake, as predicted. He dialed his number.

A misty, heavy accented mumble replied seconds later. “Mon soleil,” he yawned. “Où are you? Ça va?”

“Hey lovey, I’m at the café. Tout va bien, I’m with Helias, we’re trying to do…calculi. We have a test tomorrow. Please come here and make it make sense?”

“J’arrive.”

Helias was quite worried about Leo calling his husband in the middle of the night to join them and help him with calculus. Sure, the friends that had introduced him to the café had mentioned the owners, ex-hockey players so sweet and helpful to make the whole neighborhood melt. But wasn’t expecting this. He tried to politely refuse, saying that there was no need, he really didn’t want to bother- who was he to make a grown man move in the middle of the night to help him with calculi, goodness. But the blonde man dismissed him with a hand, affirming that his Logan was already up and would have joined them in a matter of time anyways. And he never minded helping.

So, Helias let Leo push him on a beanbag as they waited, and he closed his eyes to soothing music coming from the vinyl recorder.

Logan arrived twenty minutes later, sitting down at the table covered in books and sheets of paper after a soft hug with his husband -Helias tried not to stare, he really did, but he’d never seen adult queer people interact in sweet domesticity as they did. Logan’s hair was messy, and his face was still drowsy with sleep, but he threw a reassuring smile at the boy as he took a pencil in hand. “Alors, let’s see what we have here.”

Slowly, things began to follow a logic. A contorted, full of exceptions and formulas logic, but a logic, nevertheless. Helias felt the lump of anxiety in his throat gradually detangle as he followed Logan’s patient voice through the equations. At some point Leo joined them again, with a mint tea and a kiss on the cheek for Logan, and a plate of oven-hot cookies that he placed in between them.

As the topics were covered and exercises began to be correct, Helias could feel a warm feeling expanding in his chest. It couldn’t be the sugar rush from all the baked goods Leo was filling the table with. No, it was something else. The way both men had not hesitated to help. Their untold understanding of each other and the kindness transpiring from every gesture. The way they always used we, we have a test tomorrow, we’re gonna try this method and see how it goes. The hands on one’s leg or shoulder and the feather-light kisses. Helias wanted that, someday. With a husband or two or three, it didn’t really matter. But he wanted that love and he wanted to help as he could, like they were doing.

When the clock reached two in the morning, Logan closed the books gently and looked at him in the eyes. Helias almost gulped when being studied by those eyes. They were tired, and small wrinkles framed them, but they were also deep, and intense. Helias hadn’t been warned that he’d need to get a grip in front of senior men in that café.

“I think you’re ready,” Logan nodded. “Now you need to catch a few hours of sleep to do well tomorrow, okay? Do you know how to get home? We can give you a lift.”

“I have my bike,” Helias replied noncommittally.

Leo shook his head as he placed a brown bag in front of him, raised eyebrow and hand on his hip. “Nonsense. You’ll come get it tomorrow, but it’s not safe this late, and you’re already falling asleep. Here’s something for breakfast tomorrow. Your brain needs sugars to give a top-notch performance.”

Helias wanted to cry a bit as Logan helped him gather his things and Leo went to the kitchen to say they were leaving. The drive home was silent with sleepiness and the warm air coming from the AC. In his exhausted state, Helias hadn’t remotely worried about accepting a lift from two random adults. But, he reasoned, if the ex-NHL players with a city-famous little business kidnapped teenagers, someone would have heard of it in all those years.

When they reached Helias’ house, both men turned to look at him, and the boy had to stop himself from pretending they were his parents, concerned and loving. At least not too much.

“You get home and sleep, don’t worry about the test,” Logan said gently. “You know everything you need to know. And it’s a test, anyways, so however it goes, you’ll do great because you did your best.”

Leo nodded, smiling softly. “And you let us know how it goes, yeah? It was a team effort.”

Coming from ex-NHL players, that phrase was something valiant and fierce.

Helias turned the lights off that night without a single worry about the test. He repeated himself what Logan had told him. You’ll have a long and full life, and you’ll remember nothing about this topic or the test. It doesn’t affect your life whatsoever. Tomorrow, you go to school thinking this. Except, he would forever remember that night. Even if math and formulas had nothing to do with it.

There was an old vinyl player in the corner, and a messy mountain of old custodies at its side. Finn and two girls were dancing chaotically to Abba’s, Leo smiling as he dried clean mugs behind the counter, but the moment Angel Eyes came up, Finn jumped the counter to come and get him to dance with them. The two girls laughed as they watched the two men swinging their shoulders in a well-coordinated choreography. Finn put a hand on Leo’s waist, moving them gently back and forth, nose against nose. Finn made him spin once, twice and ended it in a casqué, grinning, cheeks red with the dancing. Leo shook his head fondly, allowing a soft peck on the mouth from the man, before he was pulled up. His hip protested a bit, but it was fine. He went to sit on one of the stools by the counter and watched his husband mouthing the words of Dancing Queen with Aramiah and Elise.

When the last song slowly died down, they returned to the open books on one of the tables nearby. They had an English class to pass, after all. In the following hour, they did much of the work the two girls had been anxious about- Finn got on the table to recite Hamlet, explained everything they needed to know and made them analyze the texts on their own.

Leo supplied pieces of chocolate cake when they made another break.

“Whatcha making?” Logan asked, in a tone that was all Finn and made them both laugh. Leo smiled, a sweet memory on his lips as he chopped strawberries and put them in a bowl.

“Strawberry shortcakes.”

When Leo was met with silence, he raised his head to find Logan smiling at him smittenly, and he knew. They were both remembering the first time he’d made those for them. A smile so radiant, so happy and in love, after thirty years together, that made his heart ache. Leo could still see it all if he closed his eyes. The summer sun on their faces, wind, and splashes of salty water against their bodies. Him leading the motorboat with Logan pressed at his side, and Finn taking pictures and pictures and smiling so hard. Candle lights in the quietness of the bayou, kissing and feeling high on each other, on their first Cup, on their first summer together. Leo remembered feeling invincible.

The present Logan came to tuck himself under his arm, pressing his nose against his neck, just like he had all those years ago. Leo leaned to kiss the soft, greying curls.

Now those pictures were hanging in their hallway, together with many others. Logan had a copy in his office, and Leo had lost track of all the pictures crumpled in Finn’s wallet, almost round with yellowing polaroid’s. The café’s kitchen walls were full of smiling faces, too, because Leo liked to remember what had kept alive his cooking passion for all those years.

“Je me le souviens comme si c’était hier », Logan murmured, bringing a hand to Leo’s chest. I remember it as if it were yesterday.

“Moi aussi, mon doucet,” Leo smiled, putting the knife down to hug Logan properly. “Moi aussi.”

They remained in silence for a while, content in the embrace and reliving the memory. How many boat trips had followed. On their own, then with their kids, and with the team, at dawn and in the middle of the night to escape the heat of New Orleans. Leo sighed happily, tugging Logan closer, a sudden lump stuck in his throat. When he sniffed, Logan parted to bring a hand to his cheek, mesmerized green eyes studying him. But Leo only smiled, and when had that not meant that Logan would smile, too?

#fic o ween 2023 #fic fest #lumosinlove #lou's writing #fic o ween #fic-o-ween

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lorellaishc · 2 months

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A New Journey

(( DWC February 2024 Day 7, Rumour/Discovery, CW: none, @daily-writing-challenge ))

In the weeks and months that followed the blooming of Amirdrassil, much of the dragonscale expedition found itself winding down. The Dragon Isles was secure and mostly safe now, and while there would doubtless be archaeological efforts for years to come, the expedition had accomplished most of its goals, and that meant it was time for many to return home.

Or, in some cases, seek other new experiences.

Lorellai was up like a flash when the captain's call echoed down into the ship where she and her team had been cooped up for weeks. Knowing they were close washed all that travel fatigue away though, as she and the others gathered their things and climbed up on deck. Ghorren was already up there, holding the rigging and wearing the biggest smile she'd ever seen on his face. He turned as they all came topside.

"Well friends, this is it! Welcome, to Zandalar!" Ghorren exclaimed, dramatically motioning to the great city that rose above them to the north.

"Now remember, stay with the group, and do not wander away from the port quarter. War might be over but the laws are still clear about where non-horde citizens are and aren't allowed to be here in Dazar'alor."

"We're still going to get to visit your family restaurant though, right? You said that was in the zocalo?" Lorellai asked, adjusting her pack and all but vibrating with excitement.

"No such luck, but you're getting the next best thing, my sister will be bringing us a whole meal to share tonight." Ghorren replied, eagerly stepping off the ship onto the docks. "Ah, it is good to be home!"

"And yet you are always in such a hurry to leave!" a woman's voice called out, eliciting a bark of laughter from the troll. Pushing through the crowd were three troll women, each distinctively dressed. The eldest of them still had her apron on over a simple dress, and hugged Ghorren even as she scolded him. "Never willing to just stay and work for a living like the rest of us."

"Ah, you know me sister, I like the good things in life, and foreign gold spends well!" he laughed, hugging her back before turning his gaze to the others. "Anwé! Qirra! My beautiful daughters!" he exclaimed, excitedly running over to hug the others.

The younger laughed as her father embraced her, her rainbow colored mohawk standing out next to her very somberly dressed and tattooed older sister. "Welcome home, Papa!"

"Yes, welcome home, Father," the older of the two echoed. She held herself aloof and proper, her robes and skeletal face paint serving to hide her mood. Lorellai couldn't help but note how she smiled as Ghorren pulled her into a hug, nudging Pinapple with a smile of her own.

Ghorren couldn't seem to stop chuckling in joy. "My daughters, please, meet my friends from the dragon isles!

-----------

Hours later, after the introductions, the tour of the docks, and the incredible dinner, the team and Ghorren's family lounged in their rented space. Lorellai looked over at the closed lavatory door. "Think Edmund's gonna be alright?"

Anwé smirked at the dwarf. "I think he has discovered his limit for Zandalari spices. Auntie -did- warn him about it."

"Yeah, but then your dad dared him, so that was a wasted warning."

"Oh come now, he's a big strong man, should be able to handle his spice!" Ghorren laughed, earning a smack from Ulabi.

"Honestly, bringing outsiders here and feeding them the food I make special for you, you'd think you wanted to start a war. And now he's wasting all my hard work."

"Forgive me sister, it was just a joke between friends!" Ghorren smiled. "So friends, I know you're going to be exploring the city tomorrow, but what's next when you leave here?"

"Oh, we got that all planned out, Ghorren." Lorellai replied, beaming. "When we leave here, we'll be on a ship bound for Pandaria. Rumor has it the lorekeepers there have found an untouched vault and need experienced delvers to help them investigate it!"

"Tch, no rest for you youngin's, hm?"

"There's always room for another, Ghorren!" Lorellai replied, all smiles.

Ghorren shook his head, and took a long sip from his drink. "Some other time, I think I've earned some well deserved rest and family time."

"Papa, you know Auntie's not going to let you rest" Qirra said, giggling. "She's going to have you in the kitchen by the end of the week!"

"Tch, we'll see. But that's then, this is now. And for now, I'm going to get some sleep, because I know none of you are going to permit me a moment's rest during tomorrow's trip around the city."

"Until tomorrow!" Lorellai said, and returned to her maps. There was a whole world to explore, and she suspected she'd never be satisfied staying home for long ever again.

#drogar writes #lorellai #ghorren #sturmtide #pinapple #whoever else would have wanted to visit Zandalar after the dragonscale expidition

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skrunksthatwunk · 4 months

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went back to the sketchbooks around when i was going through yyh for the first time in 2019 and found a pile of near-yearly sticky note updates about my relationship with the series next to my first yyh doodles, a page full of kuwabaras. thought it'd be fun to share

+ more thoughts and old yyh art below

(it's crazy i didn't find any kurama-centric pages for months bc i think he's the one i doodled in the margins of class notes and stuff the most. his hair's pwetty and he gives me the least trouble outta any of the main 4)

something i noticed while skimming the two sketchbooks i took these from was how mean i was to myself at the time about my art. i guess it hit me more because i don't really spend hours going through my old sketchbooks over and over to track my progress and growth like i used to quite often. i guess it was only a little after when my self esteem was lowest (8th grade, tale as old as time), but... idk. i knew back then that i'd grown a lot in the few years since i started drawing more seriously (that's why i looked through my art so much), but like... i guess that never translated into being nice to myself about it. i ended up going back through about ten more sketchbooks to find more yyh art, and in the coming years i'm glad to say that negativity in the margins went away. hell yeah

but even so, my love for yyh was a constant and effusive thing, as it is now. it's probably the oldest of my current media interests. i watched myself get into rgg and develop my ocs and watched others fade in and out, watched my style loop back on itself and go all over the place, passed by pages of writing about crushes and album releases and gender discoveries and my grandparents dying, all surrounded by little drawings of the characters i love. including kuwabara in a maid dress right next to my dead grandma grief rambling that one time (no i'm not kidding. my grandma died in like late 2020 and the page where i poured my heart out after finding out she was gone just trying to process everything had one with catboy maid dress kuwabara directly opposite it, who i'd drawn like the evening before she died in her sleep. he killed my grandma from like 100 miles away he was that powerful. that wasn't even the last time i drew him like that and i don't even care about catboys or maid dresses much. i think it was just a bigger meme and he was the guy i most associated with cats. i put that man in a situation and he fucking got her because the book couldn't contain him. some victor frankenstein shit. anyway)

i took about 150 pictures, most with multiple sketches. i decided not to add any more though bc 1) i posted some of them on old accounts but i don't remember which ones, and tbh i value my anonymity a little too much 2) All Of The Pictures Turned Out Bad in ways i don't feel like getting into but just trust me it's like 6 layers of fucked up illegible image bullshit 3) i found it hard to narrow it down to things i felt were indicative of the development or interesting or anything like that. idk. i figured it was an interesting exercise for me and it probably wouldn't really mean anything to anyone else. and that's ok :) it was nice anyway. i mostly mention it to be like Oh My God i've drawn these guys a lot and i STILL don't know what i'm doing... :| it's fun

however i did transcribe the notes i left:

7/9/19: yo it's been less than a week & i'm on ep. 80 wtf i love this show

8/14/20: 1/2way thru my 3rd watch (first dub, first [with older sibling]) & honestly still love it & kuwabara being the first one i drew makes me happy

7/28/21: i'm watching it w/ [younger sibling] now! 4th(ish) watch, 2nd time through the dub, which is so much better than the sub really elevates the text. we're at the semifinals of the DT, which means this is technically my 5th time through yyh up until that point but eh semantics anyway i still love & obsess over yyh! <3

1/14/24 (present day): hey, i'm rewatching yyh for the.. idk 5th or 6th time. still love it & never stopped. now i'm writing fic & drawing & posting about it. i have friends i talk to about it. [both siblings] have seen it. so much has changed, and so little, but it made me sad seeing how much i insulted my own art. i love you 2019 me. god knows you needed it

[+ this drawing]:

anyway. forever fornever. if you even care

#that's all. just kind of a personal post i thought was neat. skrunklore #skrunkart #yyh #yu yu hakusho #you can really feel the 14 y/o in a lot of the little notes and stuff but that too is part of the growth and change im trying to celebrate.#ripping my fingernails off about it but it needs to be done #also the hearts are because they love each other. and also me in like a cheering you on kinda way #ok more lore but around jr year i started feeling like my art was getting worse or at least stagnating and i kind of wished i could go back #to the era where a lot of that art is from bc there were little things i was better at and also bc i was much more prolific and adventurous #and while i'm sympathetic to it looking back after another couple of years it's like nah. no i was still growing i was just too close to se #like i'll be like oughh i haven't grown at all in years >:(( and then i'll look at the art i made over the course of 2023 and go oh nvm lol #some of it was more 'getting back into the swing of things' + traditional and tech issues being resolved but there was also growth #there is also stuff to be proud of and there always is and there always will be. that goes for you too reader #no matter what your art does or does not look like. i guess that's part of why im posting this too #part of what got me into visual art was seeing how people's art changed (sketchbook tours). it's cool and seeing that learning process so #well preserved and so easily analyzed kinda activated something in my brain. i think it got me past a lot of the 'im just not talented'#stuff a lotta ppl have that keeps them from drawing or sharing it or whatever. anyway art's cool i love art. gonna go draw now probably :D #ALSO really funny watching the way i drew myself change. all in ways that make sense but still funny to me. long hair glasses girl you'd #probably keel over if you saw what we look like now. hell yeah

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phantasticl · 10 months

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@phandomgiftexchange

All my life, I was told what to do and when to do it. When I questioned why, the only response I would get was, “to prepare you for the future.” When I turned eighteen, I had my one and only chance to choose what I wanted to do, and I chose to get a law degree, and man oh man was it the worst decision ever. Dorming, classes, studying, it was all miserable. I finally had enough of it and dropped out in 2010. After I dropped out, I stayed home to “figure out what I wanted to do with my life,” which really meant “staying home and playing way too much Sonic.” This happened for about a year, until my parents threatened to kick me out of the house if I didn’t start helping out with the bills.

I then began searching for jobs. I went to many, many interviews and received way too many rejection emails, until I finally got a phone call from someone who didn’t tell me I was, “not right for their company,” and “wished me the best.” I began my job the next day as the closing barista at a late-night coffee shop.

My hours were pretty consistent: 7:00 pm to 3:00 am everyday except for Friday and Sunday. From the outside, this coffee shop did not make itself apparent, but the inside was quite cozy. Wooden floors and walls, chalkboard menus, soft ambient music playing in the background, you get the idea. It also had a counter with bar stools for customers, where I made and served drinks.

The first month of working there was fine. I worked with my manager for a few days but after training I was usually working alone behind the counter, restocking ingredients and making drinks. Of course, there was never a rush when I started working, so my shifts were usually very relaxed. The only interactions I had with customers were, “what would you like?” and “thank you for coming!”

There were regulars that came in, of course. One of which would come in every Wednesday and Thursday, and order a medium americano with one cream and two sugars. He looked about my age, maybe older, with long black hair tied in a ponytail, He wore brightly colored tees, and had an unusually thick northern accent. His name, which took me about a week to catch on, was Phil. Once I memorized his name, I’d give him a cheeky little smile and ask, “the usual?” and he’d give me a soft chuckle and nod.

After Phil received his coffee he would go to the same table in the corner of the store and pull out a book to pass the time. He came in at around 7:30 pm, and left at 11:00 pm. Although we never talked, he made me feel less alone.

One Wednesday, he came in, and we did our usual bit, following the imaginary script that we had just like every other Wednesday and Thursday. However, rather than sitting at the corner of the coffee shop, he sat at the bar stool, placed his medium americano on the counter, , and started reading a book entitled, “Someone Who Will Love You in All Your Damaged Glory.” It was that day I decided to talk to him.

“Hey Phil,” I started nervously. “What are you reading?”

“Agh, it’s some book that my English professor recommended. How’s your shift going?”

“Eh, it’s alright, exactly like any other day. You’re in uni?”

“Not as of right now, I’m taking a gap year to try out acting. What about you?”

I hesitated. “Oh, I, uh, dropped out.”

“Good choice, I wish I did the same.”

There was then a silence. I ended the conversation poorly by saying, “well, I gotta get back to work,” and then proceeded to stand at the counter and stare at the front door.

Phil continued to come every Wednesday and Thursday evening at 7:30 pm and sit at the same bar stool at the counter. Small talk ensued every time he came, and it felt like this phase took forever. For the next couple weeks, it was just, “how are you doing,”, “what are you reading,”, and “how’s your shift.” Phil would also ask me some surface-level questions about myself, which I appreciated.

I got a call one day from my aunt asking if I could pick up her kid from some library event in the early afternoon. I got the times mixed up and ended up getting there an hour early, so I decided to roam around the building.

I was mindlessly staring at all the titles as I walked around, but then one book caught my eye. The brightly colored book, “Someone Who Will Love You In All Your Damaged Gory.” I picked it up and decided to flip around the book. One of the chapters was entitled, “Missed Connections.” It was from the perspective of a man who would ride the same bus with a woman with whom he shared a silent connection with. They would smile at each other, but never talk. She then stopped taking that train and the man began to think about all the ifs and could’ves. If he began a conversation with that woman on the train, would they have talked? Maybe dated? Had a future together?

I thought about how that related to my personal life. Could Phil and I become friends? Maybe even lovers? I wasn’t opposed to the idea of that. But the only chance of any of that happening was if I put in more effort to get to know him more on a personal level.

And so I did. I drove my cousin home and went back to my job, and waited eagerly for Phil to come at 7:30pm, order his large americano with one cream and two sugars, and sit at the bar stool. And he did exactly that. I went up to talk to him, and I asked him questions. What gap-year projects was he working on currently? What books were he reading? How many siblings did he have? What was his family like? His warm smile every time he had the chance to tell me something about his life made me beam. Rather than leaving at 11:30 pm, he left at 12:00 am. And then the next day he left at 2:00 am. And, to my surprise, he came on Monday and Tuesday. He knew my work schedule, and would come in and stay just to talk to me. From then on, my shifts would involve me serving Phil his usual order, and then staying behind the counter as we talked about our past, what we were doing currently, and what we wanted to do in the future. We talked for hours, and my eight hour shifts felt much, much shorter. I felt less alone, and for the first time, there was someone in my life that I felt fully comfortable with.

One day, it was about two in the morning and it was just us in the coffee shop. I decided to make myself a drink and come around the counter so that I could sit with him and chat. Today’s topic of conversation was about love.

“So Phil, describe your ideal partner to me.”

“Well, I guess I want someone that’s kind, someone that can watch shows with me, just someone I can spend the rest of my life with. What about you?”

“Umm, someone I feel safe with I suppose.”

“That makes sense. Has there ever been anyone that you’ve felt safe with?”

“Yea, there’s one.”

“Well, who is it?”

And that was when I thought it would be the perfect time for me to shoot my shot. So I kissed him. It was a small peck, it wasn’t too much, but it wasn’t reciprocated either.

“Oh, Dan, I-”

“Oh, was it too much? Are you not-”

“No, I am, it’s just-” he paused. “It’s just that, I only ever saw you as a friend. I was comfortable with you as a friend. I considered you my best friend.”

“Right, I guess, I just, I saw you as a safe space and when we were talking about it-”

“I should go.”

“Okay.”

He grabbed his backpack and left. And here I was, all alone, in the coffee shop.

I continued working there for about a week, and he never came back. Although I didn’t expect him to come back, it still hurt like hell. I ended up quitting on the spot, and went back to what I was doing several months ago: figuring out what I wanted to do with my life.

I never talked to him again. In fact, I never tried to look for a possible safe person again.

My dad’s friend offered me some nine to five office job that I ended up sticking at for ten years so far. I only came in when I needed to, and left when I had the opportunity to, so there was no reason for them to give me any sort of promotions. I continued making the same amount of money, and living in my parents’ house. Which is where I am currently at in life.

I still thought about that one chapter in that book Phil was reading when I decided to talk to him for the first time. Was the situation with him considered a missed connection, even though we did connect for a little bit? If I hadn’t kissed him, would we still be friends? Could we have become lovers at some point?

#phanfic #fanfic #dan and phil

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truedairship · 2 months

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For the flower/plant ask game!

Nutmeg, bamboo and papyrus :)

bamboo ⇢ do you change into a different outfit when you get home?

I have a horse, so I usually shower immediately after coming home and then it’s sweatpants or pyjama time depending on how late it is. And even on days where I’ve been in the stable early and went to uni after I tend to at least change into a hoodie or something when I come home. I adore knitted clothes (best made by my grandma) and I am a total sucker for knitted socks. 24/7 at home and often out in public as well during winter. I am also very deeply in love with my bathrobe. It’s super duper fluffy and I basically live in it every evening except for the warmest summer months.

nutmeg ⇢ how’s your room/home decorated? do you have a specific theme or style going on?

The thing is that right now I’m just renting a room, so none of the stuff is actually mine. But the walls are dark purple and it’s very cozy. I’ve begun looking for a place closer to the city though so I don’t know how much longer I’ll be staying here tho. Considering that I moved here directly from abroad after having only gotten a house tour over video I’m very happy with how it turned out.

My room back home which I decorated a lot myself as a teenager has a black wallpaper with gold details and white furniture to add some light (at my mom’s insistence, to stop me from living in a cave during the emo years hah (in retrospect, she certainly had a point)). Our house is pretty old and I love the older style so I tried to keep it that way. Oh and it has a tiled stove! And pictures of my horses. Lots of horse details. And some fandom posters and stuff. And books everywhere.

papyrus ⇢ if you put your ‘on repeat’ playlist on shuffle, what’s the first song that comes up? what do you like about it / associate it with?

The playlist I chose was my Helen Magnus list, and the first shuffled song was Glory and Gore by Lorde. I think it is a good song in and of itself, but associated with Helen it becomes even better. It’s giving me The Five vibes. I can’t help but imagine all the things she has been involved with throughout history.

#ask games #thank you for the ask!

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darsynia · 6 months

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The heart wants what it wants...

Gosh, so I've been writing for a nearly 30 year old fandom, the book/tv show Christy. I was a huge Kellie Martin fan from Life Goes On, and I'd liked the book (evangelical childhood go brrr)-- lemme tell you, Scottish-voiced older smart gruff man & idealistic kind resourceful opinionated young woman will ALWAYS get me. Add LeVar Burton and Tyne Daly and I'm HOOKED. OH I forgot to mention it's set in the Great Smokies and the vistas are magnificent (TWW reference says hi).

Well, the show itself has a religious scaffolding, and it's pretty wholesome, so though the series manages some truly intense unresolved sexual tension, I should refrain from getting too racy in this 'it was a crime to never show these two kissing' 'shipping Neil/Christy for 30 years does something to a person' story, right? RIGHT?

Me: I'll write a brief satisfying M encounter

Me now: he's soaked after checking for a fire in a thunderstorm and she's slowly unbuttoning him while he loses his mind OOPS

Anyway, I'm putting the finishing touches on Shipping chapter 3, but if you ever watched this show or might be interested in a period piece where two people with hidden feelings find themselves married and figuring out what fun that can be, feel free to check out that story! It's got a tiny online presence (under 200 fics on FFN, my fic was #7 on AO3) so I probably won't post again about it, but I'm very pleased by what I've written.

Breathing Fire

Summary: After an unexpected standoff puts Christy in a compromised position, she discovers what a marriage based on love and friendship is really like. With that firm basis, she seeks to heal the wounds that were caused before she even arrived in Cutter Gap.

For fun, here's an excerpt under the jump:

Note: Set the day after the wedding, but their 'wedding night' was interrupted; Neil is a doctor and he was called away for a medical emergency. He hasn't gotten much sleep as a result.

When she woke next it was thanks to the bright indirect sunlight from the window. She’d slept in.

Christy threw herself out of bed, spluttering her hair out of her face as she rushed over to the dresser to grab something to wear.

“Christy,” Neil rumbled from the bed. He had his arm draped over his eyes.

“I’m late for school!”

“You’re not.”

“No, I am! Miss Alice was supposed to take my place, but she was with you.” She supposed she could dress on the other side of the closet door, or at the top of the stairs with the bedroom door closed. When she turned around with a handful of underthings, meaning to race over to the closet and do just that, she ran right into Neil.

“Grantland got back yesterday evening, he’s teaching your students today,” he said, tugging the clothes from her hands to set them on top of the dresser. “Back to bed,” he said, guiding her back with an arm around her shoulders.

Sleepy Neil was a charming mix of impatience and determination.

“But David has no idea where the lesson plans are!”

“He’ll probably spend the whole day sermonizing at them,” he said once they got over to the bed. Neil then yawned so hard he stumbled sideways before shuffling around to the other side.

Christy sat, her sense of purpose deflated. “Is there anything you were supposed to do this morning that I can do instead? Dropping by a patient’s house, or picking up supplies?”

“No one will expect us for days,” he told her, rubbing at his eye with a knuckle. “We’re meant to spend them enjoying each other, which right now should mean you, sleeping next to me, in silence.” There was a daring sort of tease to his voice that sent a thrill through her. How was she meant to sleep after he said something like that?

“I’m wide awake. How about I go downstairs and--”

“Don’t,” Neil blurted. He took in a breath to say something, then chuckled. “Not sure how well I’d sleep knowing you were down there rearranging everything.”

“Meaning you’d sleep better if I stayed up here?” Christy guessed.

His expression sobered, and he rolled onto his back. “I keep expecting to wake up and find all of this was a dream.”

If she were braver, she would have told him about her dreams of him, but instead, she said, “How about I go get a book to read, so I can sit up beside you, while you sleep? I can pull the curtains shut.”

His nod was relieved, and Christy got up, thinking hard to remember where she’d packed her book. It wasn’t with the others, since she’d been reading it a little each night. A glance over at her husband told her he was still ruminating.

“Ask me what I’m reading,” Christy said, crouching down to rummage through the front pocket of one suitcase.

“What?”

“It’s part of distracting you while I look for my book,” she told him. Standing, she put her hands on her hips. Was it downstairs?

“Fine,” Neil said, his voice still sleepy, but more like his confident self. “What are you reading?”

“Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott. It’s a story about four sisters, all very different, and how each of them handle the process of growing up. I loved it when I was younger, and now I’m rereading it to pick out parts to share with the children.” As she spoke, she found the book, drew the curtain, then came back to briskly set things up to sit comfortably beside him.

“You’re an excellent teacher, Christy.”

Praise from him really was worth a hundred kind words from anyone else.

#yes there is forced proximity in this story #christy huddleston #neil macneill #christy huddleston x neil macneill #my true loves are apparently all in 90s tv lol #darsy twirls all her favorite things in romance #thanks to the RP accounts from whom I have borrowed the gifs!#dixie carter is in it too! and a bunch of other amazing actors like WHAT #and the scenery is truly gorgeous!

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ratguy-nico · 4 months

Text

3# The Bleakening

The fandom’s favorite if the polls are anything to go by.

This special have some of my favorite moments, and is the christmas special for excellent, but it just doesn’t resonate as much with me as i would want to. Don’t know why, still love it.

The first episode is okey, Linda being over dramatic about wanting to bring back the christmas spirit with a party is not very interesting for cause I don’t have that much christmas spirit myself.

But then everything takes a turn

WARNING

-The next section has a Bajada de Línea Política-

(couldn’t come with a translation, we said Bajada de Línea in Latam when we talk about how the media deals with political-social information)

Suddenly the episode doesn’t talk about how christmas spirit is getting lost or about a christmas tree thief. Suddenly this becomes a critic about how in holidays the LGBTQ+ community is systematically erase from the picture cause Christmas, as many other holidays, is mean to celebrate the traditional cis-heteronormative family, something that of course is not a thing our community can aim for.

Is not only a social thing, where queer youth (and even older queer people as we see in the episode) have to suffer trough the rejection of their relatives, their own family telling them to not make things uncomfortable or weird. Is bigger than that with all the media around us telling this is a moment to spend with your white family made by a mom, a dad, and childrens, commercials, marketing campaigns, and different conglomerates whose main target is not us.

And yeah I know this had change a little bit since the past 10 years which is not much actually, for context this season was made back then in 2015-2017.

Of course now companies now days acknowledge our existence but just if it suits them for re-newing their brand and trying to appear more politically correct (I hate how some people use this concept)

But in that time and even now, if my experience is anything to go by, we are left out of the celebrations. Is not that we don’t have christmas spirit is just that we don’t fit in the christmas spirit itself, the christmas is not for us. But even if they try to shut us down, we remain, cause we want to celebrate, we have the right to share our love in our own way, with our own family, a chosen one.

The song Twinkle Lights, even if is not one of my favorites, carries this brutal message. A message that thank to the gods is in all Bob’s Burgers series but come to be the start in this kind of episodes.

This is my way of seeing this episode, this could be incorrect, and be fed by my own relationship with the holidays. No soy gringo, soy Latinoamericano, so I don’t know if you would have another perspective. I’m intense and I now. I read to much between the lines.

So for a more cheering comments.

EXTRAS

The kids had one of the best songs in the episode, The Bleaker, and their part is very cute. there’s also a brutal scene at the end of the first episode that I would post later.

The kids are good but for me Linda and Bob carried the episodes, specially Linda, but I live for they exploring Bob’s sexuality, you know it, is just my favorite thing in the serie.

You can not look at this man and tell me hasn’t have his share of underground gay bars.

"I would never call the cops" HE KNOWS! On an underground gay rave you DONT.CALL.THE.COPS.

I love to see Dalton and Marshmallow come back and Marshmallow’s new boyfriend Art the Artist appearance (I really like this lil man I hope he reappears at some point) (I know is been 7 seasons already, leave me alone)

By the way I’m very normal about Bob in his Bleaker costume. Aha. Not drooling at all. Oh and definitely not fantasizing about Teddy and Bob fucking in this costumes. Of course not. Normal.

Teddy using the situation as an excuse to make a semi naked Bob cuddle with him in a inflatable santa? Mhh. Aha. Normal.

#bob's burgers #the bleakening #sorry if you didn't understand shit #there were so many things that i didn't knew how to say in english #las desventajas de ser latino #like gloria would say #I sound more smart in spanish #but for now this is it #i really like this episode #i love when Bob's Burgers get to be a musical #they always nailt it #knock it out of the park #bobs burgers #this didn't hava thata much correction cause im still sick and dying

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dragongutsixofficial · 6 months

Note

Do you have any OCs or fandoms you never get to gush about? I know I do

Oh YES. I've gotta say the Hresvelg siblings absolutely ate up my mind and live in my head rent free 24/7. But there's definitely a ton of other OCs in that lil' old brain !

I could talk about how Bravely Default was my brainrot for half of my teenage years and was the video game series that got me into fanfictions, and how much fun I had with my OCs at the time- the members of the courageous Blue Roses' Legion, led by the amazing (and sorta reckless) Amelia S. Court !

And I will, but for now I'm actually going to focus on my newest OCs. Two of those characters I had created a few years back for an art project but I wanted to give them a makeover and a real story of their own, and one day i'll turn it into a webcomic ! >=D (gotta believe in yourself ya know)

As for a lot of stories with me, this is a story about siblings.

May I present to you: Keuse and Heilig ! =D

At the time our story starts, the fantasy world in which they live has just recovered from a bloody period of political upheavals which led to the overthrowing of the monarchy which governed the country for centuries beforehand. In its stead, a new government was installed: led by seven leaders each representing one of the pillars of the new society (some of these pillars are still to be figured out), it prides itself on being a government of the people, for the people. And to maintain order and authority, they have no qualms developing a really strong military power (in itself seen as one of the pillars).

Heilig and Keuse are among the kids who were drafted to train and become soldiers in this new army. Heilig is the older brother, and was already a preteen when they were drafted: he remembers life beforehand a lot better than his younger sister, Keuse. And as the older brother, he took the brunt of being raised as a child soldier: conscious of everything that could go wrong if he failed, and of the necessity to shield Keuse from the atrocities of this training as much as possible, he took it upon himself to give it everything he got. Over the years, he took on more and more responsibilities and lost everything to his job- including his eye and his happiness.

Keuse, meanwhile, saw her brother deteriorate and unvoluntarily became his unofficial caretaker, making sure he took care of his basic needs and grounding him in reality. When our story starts, and after seeing how this new life basically robbed Heilig of his own, she starts questioning the whole system. She is helped in this endeavor by the appearance of a strange hooded figure with a black-and-white mask who makes Heilig's life particularly hard: an enigmatic wanna-be leader trying to rally the population against the new regime: Didon.

What does Didon want and will Keuse cross the line ? Will the forces of the royal family resurface to claim back their thrones ? Who knows (I do and I will explain if asked xD)

#didon's a they/them btw >=3 #there's actually three more OCs i haven't talked about here in this let's hope future webcomic too ! >=D this is just an introduction

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wacknroll · 2 years

Text

Ya like glitter glue?! PT 1

(Yandere Sun/Moon x reader)

Part 2

I decided I need more content of this unhinged robot and I decided that I'll be getting back into writing again. Tis the first chapter, so it's mostly just setting up for what's gonna happen. Might get dark because I'm an angsty gremlin. Anyways, enjoy!

Word count: 1692

You got a call last night asking for you to come to work at 7 am today and go to the manager’s office.

Probably understaff again, you think. As you walk to where you need to go, you continue to think where you might be working this time and for how long. You then think to yourself that it’s most likely an area you haven’t worked in yet, seeing as they want you to come in a bit earlier and talk to your manager.

Great, new uniform most likely, you think. Usually, each staff member wears a certain uniform for the certain area they’re working in today. Monty Golf is green uniform, Roxanna Raceway is grey and purple, and so on with each other area.

You leave your thoughts once you finally reached the door, giving it a light knock.

"Come in."

When you entered the room, you come face to face with your manager, Brenton, who has his face buried in a file and stacks of paper on his desk.

“Hey, Brenton, what is needed of me today?” You sit down in the chair in front of his desk. You’ve been working as a casual member for the last year, so you’re on friendlier terms with some of the managers, including Brenton, who is like an older brother to you at times.

He finally closes the file and sets it down, giving you his full attention.

“We need someone to work in the day-care area for this week. The full-time employee there called in sick last night and you’re the only person available with all the requirements to work with young children,” he states.

You blink a few times at that. The day-care? You’ve never worked in there before; you usually work in Monty Golf or even the main Atrium.

“Sure, I can do that,” You finally respond.

“Good to hear. I’ll just hand you your day-care uniform, you can go change and we’ll head right there.” He grabs a shirt from a box under the desk and hands it to you. The shirt was a yellow and red striped polo with a little sun logo on the red pocket. Brenton and you both go to leave the office, only separating for you to quickly go and change in a toilet. You then exit and go over to Brenton, who then begins to tell you your morning shift duties.

Once you both reach the day-care area, you both enter and are practically greeted straight away.

“Hel-LO! Oh OH! Did you bring a new friend to play with, Brent? Are you my buddy for today? Oh, I love meeting new people, it means I can learn new things about someone! We can-“

“Sorry, Sun, but we need to quickly get something sorted at the desk here and then you two can play. Is that alright?” Brenton says.

The animatronic in question isn’t bothered by being cut off as he still seems giddy at meeting someone knew. Sun’s face does a 360 rotation before he responds.

“Oh, of course! Staff are always busy, need to her everything ready for our small friends, yes! I’ll wait!” Sun replies. He then turns around and walks over to an area to sit down, tapping his feet like a over energetic child waiting as patiently as physically possible for them.

Brenton and you then walk over to the desk, he proceeds to explain what the phone numbers are for contacting and what to do once your shift is over.

“Okay, that’s about all there is. You’ve got about 15 minutes before opening, so I’ll let you settle and introduce yourself to your new buddy,” Brenton says, leaving the day-care and you alone with a hyper animatronic.

You turn to Sun, still standing behind the desk area. The bot itself is now standing and swaying from side to side.

“Oh, boy oh boy! We still have that long until opening? What should we do until then, new friend? Oh, I know! We can play 20 questions! I’ll go first! What’s your favourite colour? Mine is green! HA, didn’t expect that, did you? Did you? Now tell me your favourite colour! Is it yellow? Red?” As Sun spoke, he slowly inched closer and closer to the point of leaning on the desk and nearly right in your face.

You blinked at him and took a step back.

“It’s blue,” you finally respond.

“I KNEW IT! That was going to be my next guess! But wait, what type of blue? Navy blue? Azure? Sky blue? Cobalt blue?”

He continued to list every blue he could imagine and even started making up types of blue, like “unicorn blue” and even “blue but after someone put glitter in it”. You decide to ignore him for a moment and start getting everything ready for the day. The very long day.

----

Once the day actually got started and the children came in, it was easier than you thought it would be. Sun stopped being all in your face and went to go play with all the kids, who really enjoy his over the top energy. One minute he would be finger painting with a child and the next playing pretend tea parties with others. Your job was mostly recording the names of the children and the parent’s emergency contact, stopping children from convincing Sun to put them on things that are too high up and just telling children off for things that Sun is too nice to do himself, for example putting googly eyes on his face.

Now and again, Sun would shout for you to look at him as he did a handstand or a cartwheel. But most of the time, you were at desk duty and answering questions that parents ask, which is usually the same four questions.

---

Once it hit 1pm, the afternoon shift showed up allowing you to have your lunch break in the staff room.

“How is your first day in the day-care, y/n?” Your friend, James, asks.

“It’s all the same in every area. Loud kids and sometimes even louder parents. But thankfully the animatronic in the day-care actually tries to help, at least before he gives a child their fifth can of Fizzy Fazz.”

“Ha!” You friend laughs and then looks at the clock. “Ah snap looks like my breaks over. See you later, dude!”

You wave back and continue to finish your food before heading back to the day-care to continue the last couple of hours of your shift.

Once you reached the day-care area, you noticed that the lights were dimmer and that the noise inside the day-care was gone, besides the faint sound of a lullaby. As you enter, you see that the children are all napping in the cushioned area by the entrance. You walk over to the other staff member and give him a quick wave.

“Where did Sun go?” You ask.

“Shush, the children just went to bed.”

You nearly jump in surprise and quickly turn towards into the direction of the voice behind you. Instead of meeting the white eyes of the sun animatronic, you’re greeted by the red eyes of his moon counterpart.

“Oh, fuck. Don’t do that to me!” You say as quietly as your startled body will let you.

“You shouldn’t use such language in here either.”

“I’m sorry, I was just startled. I’m going to go back to work now,” you manage to say, becoming a bit anxious having him looking down at you with those glowing eyes. Way to creepy to have around children, you think to yourself. You then turn around and sit next to your co-worker at the desk.

“I promise that I won’t snitch,” your co-worker jokes.

“You better. Because if someone finds out, all I have to blame is you or the robot,” you jest in response.

---

You continue your shift, all the way through naptime until pack up. It was a bit different working with Moon compared to Sun. Unlike Sun, Moon wasn’t calling out for you to pay attention to him anytime he did something and mostly just did his duties of helping children nap or cleaning up any messes made during naptime. You even helped with the children who didn’t want Moon to tuck them in, even going to out of your way to quietly read them a book or two.

“Okay, I have to head out now, see you tomorrow!” You wave to your co-worker, but before you get to the door, Sun is in front of you.

“Do you have to go? We could have a sleepover! It’s too soon! We can paint! LOOK! I made you a finger painting!” He blurts out, shoving a piece of paper in your face and pointing at the blue stick figures with red, green and yellow dots all over it. “See, that’s you and me! We’re playing in the ball pit.”

“I would, Sun, but I’ll be here tomorrow. I need to recharge myself so I can do this again for the next week.” You then gently push his hand holding the paper out of the way.

Though he always has a permanent smile on his face, he lowers his head and drops both arms in a look of defeat.

“Okay… But remember to be here on time, new best friend! We have more fun times to have!”

“I will,” you reply as you open the door and leave.

---

Little to your knowledge, Sun kept watching you through the windows up to the point of you leaving his sight completely. He enjoyed working with someone new, even if you’d cuss under your breath now and again. But what he enjoyed the most was that you didn’t hesitate to help him, even when he was Moon. Most of the other staff do their duties because they have to, but Sun could see that you genuinely enjoyed your job. He thought to himself that you should keep working in the day-care. That you need to keep working in here. And he’ll make sure you keep working in here even if he has to make you stay here.

#fnaf #fnaf security breach #fnaf moondrop #fnaf sunnydrop #fnaf moon #fnaf sun #yandere moondrop #yandere sunnydrop #yandere fnaf #sunnydrop x reader #moondrop x reader

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naruhearts · 3 years

Text

I’m done keeping my composure.

Sorry, this will be a LOADED post! (And I’ll be repeating the points others have made)

for real, to everyone being nasty and telling heartbroken fans that “Dean was always supposed to die get a grip you’re just butthurt etcetera etcetera—” F you royally.

How dare you police the brutal feelings that’s been embroiling us since the Finale That Must Not Be Named aired.

The show you think you all watched, the show you all believe was the same SPN from Season 1-4, changed at some point. Kripke wrote his original vision, put it to screen, saw it through in S5 as he intended, and closed the door on that era.

In 2008, Supernatural was adopted and inherited. As you know, there was a supreme paradigm shift post-Kripke era. The show FLOURISHED (we won’t talk about Gamble thanks). It evolved, transformed, grew beyond trauma-induced self-worthlessness and toxic masculinity and endless death and hegemonic social ideals and conservatism and repressive anti-revolutionary ideas. Castiel, the iconic favourite and beloved staple of the series portrayed by Misha Collins, was introduced in Season 4 as the core lead character, and he ushered in a brand new era of Christian mythos that SPN took advantage of. Longevity SKYROCKETED. Audiences were INTERESTED. SPN amassed an incredibly groundbreaking fanbase infused by non-nuclear principles. A massive subversive wave began, fighting the Status Quo of the times since 2008. It’s precisely why such an abysmal ending to a show of extensive Freud-Jungian metanarratively meta META complex stature and social POWER will render us totally and unbearably broken for years to come.

Point is, DEAN WINCHESTER NO LONGER WANTED TO DIE. HE WANTED TO LIVE. HE WANTED TO SIT ON THE BEACH, PLUNGE HIS TOES IN THE SAND, AND SIP UMBRELLA DRINKS WITH HIS BROTHER AND HIS BEST FRIEND. He said this in Season 13. And then, a season later, he told the ghost of his long-deceased father — the source of his deep-running trauma and the figure of self-reductive authoritarianism permeating his arc since Season 1 — after being questioned why he didn’t pursue the Nuclear Fam, that he already has his own: his brother Sam, his adopted child Jack, and Cas.

Dean’s best friend Cas. Oh god, Cas, who made his inevitably permanent mark on Dean’s soul beyond allyship. Castiel, renamed to Cas, God’s -iel removed by Dean. Dean, the human spark that lit the fire of pre-existing autonomy in the inherently rebellious angel who was, this entire time, the catalyst for free will in God The Writer’s puppet show. Their friendship set on goddamn fire. I can also write paragraph upon paragraph about my love for Cas while devastated tears stream down my face, but I digress—

Cas’ romantic love for Dean pushed our main Heart of SPN to love himself. Love is free will. Free will is also love. Of note, Cas’ love confession in 15x18 was supposed to offset something so vastly important and fundamental...to maybe (read: most likely) pull the trigger on SELF-TRUTHS in conjunction with free will. And The Great Anticipated Follow-Up to the episode penned by the passionate Berens should have included (read: seemed like it was going to be) Dean, closeted trauma survivor in love with his best friend, being given the opportunity to do it right: to SPEAK HIS TRUTH, and then that very singular opportunity was STOLEN so grossly. After poring over it for days, I refuse to believe we made their years-long story up out of thin air, spun it out of fantastical-delusional dream cotton candy, because we DIDN’T. IT WAS REAL.

As I said in another post: “I’ve just been feeling physically ill for the past >40 something hours with the terrible knowledge that 19/20 undid years of vital progression towards healthy interdependence, autonomy, and a positive endgame, where Sam, Dean and Cas close the ring of found family in final empowering self-fulfillment...where Dean, no longer repressed and set free, is able to use his words and speak his truth as a queercoded trauma survivor, henceforth confirming and self-affirming his own bisexuality since S1 by reciprocating — by telling Cas that he always loved him, too, loved him endlessly, which would have altogether divested Supernatural of its cult status and catapulted it into global worldwide significance as the longest running sci-fi genre show in American broadcasting history that actually dared to defy and, by proxy, empower LGBTQ2IA+ everywhere who found profound personal meaning in Destiel through VALIDATION,” — found themselves mirrored in Dean and Cas’ respective character journeys individually and as each other’s queer love interests.

THIS IS WHY DEAN WASN’T MEANT TO DIE.

THEY WERE SO ESSENTIAL, NOT JUST TO THE OVERARCHING STORY AND HEALTHY INTERPERSONAL THEMATICS OF MODERN SPN, BUT ALSO TO THE SOULS OF THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE ACROSS THE WORLD WHO FOLLOWED THEIR JOURNEYS, HOPED FOR THEM, ASPIRED TO BE LIKE THEM, TREASURED THEM, WEEPED FOR THEM, AND FOUGHT FOR THEM, LIKE YOU AND ME.

Heck, how could anyone think Sam Winchester had a well-deserved characteristic ending? He didn’t. Dean’s brother was shafted so badly. He stopped hunting when seasons ago, he had canonically accepted that he no longer wanted an apple pie life. He simply...turned the lights off in a resoundingly empty bunker and left — abandoning his dead brother’s room — never to return (he did return later to get the Impala, family photos etc, I mean this symbolically)...as if — dare I say it — Supernatural itself eerily told us, in the negative-spaced pitch blackness, that the organic show and the wonderfully complex, matured characters we’ve grown to love weren’t going to survive or be revisited...that it was all going to perish, and that they no longer gave a single shit about their own show, which, to me, is the worst cardinal sin, because how dare they throw Team Free Will, an immovable and indomitable and passionate found family they built from the ground up, a found family CHOCK FULL TO THE BRIM OF LOVE AND LIFE RAGING AGAINST THE AUTHORITARIAN MACHINE IN ORDER TO ACHIEVE FREE WILL, under the bus no matter who is to blame. Growth was stomped on.

Then Sam married a faceless wife who wasn’t his textually established (and deaf) love interest Eileen, named his son Dean Jr., and grew old miserably, still mourning the passing of his older brother, shaken and sombre. Back to square one. IT WAS ALL ANTITHETICAL, even OUTSIDE a shipping context, and I ripped my hair out at this point in sheer disbelief.

This 15x20 ending would have fit somewhere between S4-7. Now? IT DOESN’T FIT. IT’S A JAGGED PUZZLE PIECE THAT DOESN’T BELONG ANYWHERE. IT’S THE FOREBODING UNKNOWN STRANGER IN ITS OWN LAND, BOTH LITERALLY AND FIGURATIVELY. This kind of ending was basically an illogical, unsound cluster of metastasized cells that, to me, ruined the viability of previous seasons to sustain bold praise and respect and dignity and rewatches and classic nostalgia in such insidious ways.

Dean Humanity Winchester and Cas, after everything they’ve been through, were silenced and lost in death, ripped apart from each other, unable to love each other the way they deserved, because of disappointing, vile incompetency and homophobia. The greatest love story ever told, again obliterated in less than 60 hollow minutes.

You know what this tells your audience, CW SPN? Death without self-growth is the way to go, and no one is allowed to forge their own path to freedom.

HOW INSULTINGLY HARMFUL IS THAT?

I don’t think I’ll ever stop grieving.

We all deserve answers.

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frosted-night · 3 years

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Jack Frost Designs Review

Yes it’s finally his time. This is going to include his book designs including previous incarnations in said books. There are more movie concept designs than book so, let’s dig in shall we?

This was in fact the first ever Jack Joyce designed while he came up with The Guardians Of Childhood. He even comes with his own backstory! (Which was cut. Sorry Joyce posts walls of text so it’s a girthy read.)

So instead of a young mischievous trickster, we got a much more depressing story of Jack. (Jack by default is sad obviously) but this one... It kind of hits differently and almost reminds me of the story he crafted for Pitch. A dad who tried to defend his family but through tragic events was ripped from them and changed completely. Design wise, he’s a lot more tree than snow. There doesn’t exist a colored version of this so we’ll never know if he sported winter and dull dead leaf colors rather than grassy greens.This Jack has a weird presence to him, I can’t put my finger on it. Rating: 6/10 He’s really neat! Just a little too Autumn feeling rather than a blend of both Autumn and Winter.

Nightlight feels like the baby evolution if Jack was a pokemon and that's what I’m gonna stick with. Below is a more recent version of him colored.

In all honesty that one is easier on the eyes proportion wise because sometimes Joyce has ‘interesting’ anatomy choices but we aint going into that today. It’s interesting how his hair somehow looks shorter and longer than Jack’s at the same time. Could be because the longer strands float seamlessly but star boy hair physics what can ya do. It’s a little hard to tell what is his skin and what is his armor, so that is a casuality in making a character only have one or two colors in their color scheme. I love other artist’s depictions of Nightlight but the canon one feels a little weak color wise. Rating: 5/10 Sorry, get some better LEDs and then come back.

Here we have a book Jack but I can’t entirely recall if this was used in the books or not. I digress. This design looks like him still wearing very Nightlight-esque armor/clothing and slowly growing into his new persona as Jack Frost. The intricacies are hard to make out but we’ll work with it. This one is very interesting to me because he very much looks like an older teen close to young adult. His hair looks very fluffy too. Not many complaints about this one but not much praise either.

Rating: 6/10 Not great but doesn’t stand out that much.

Remember when I said Joyce had ‘interesting’ anatomy decisions? Jack looks like he has half a head here and it bothers me GREATLY. This is the adult Jack design he went with. Supposedly he likes the opera and he sure looks it. This! Exists!! Kind of wish it didn’t. The outfit is nice but it just doesn’t fit Jack as a whole. This just screams to me that it’s someone else with a similar-ish hairstyle.

Rating: 3/10 Guess he’d be the...Phantom Of The Opera. (I’ll go home and so should he.)

And finally the final Jack. This is the one that almost exactly resembles the Jack we got in the movies(Probably because it was made after the movie but w/e) but just add a cape on him. I can’t really tell if hes got a hoodie and a cape, or just a cloak+hood on top of a sweatshirt. It isn’t too important because my thoughts on this one are obvious. Rating: 10/10 Edna Mode would have a field day with you boy.

MOVIE DESIGN TIME

Joyce claims this is a design he drafted when Leonardo DiCaprio was considered to voice Jack and I can kind of see that with how his face is drawn here. This Jack looks a lot more like a warrior and less of that trickster look. I can’t say I’m a fan of the weird antenna his hood has but his sword is really cool looking.

Rating: 4/10 Nice bow and sword but it can’t save your fashion choices.

This looks like a lanky 11-13 year old who would put rocks or slugs in my shoes and relish in my disgust. He has the exact look of a snot nose kid and I’m unsure how to feel about it.

His various hairstyles drafted here sort of make him softer looking or just more of a snot nose, no in between. Maybe even an Anime Protagonist.

The top right one almost looks like Hiccup from How To Train Your Dragon if you squint. It’ll be a little hard to rate them all as one individual but why not.

Rating: 5/10 I don’t hate them but they aren’t my cup of tea.

AH- IS THAT A FUCKIN GREMLIN?

Oh wait no it isn’t he looks like a 10 year old. Whatever don’t feed him after midnight. The staff’s design of not being shaped like a G is an interesting tidbit but the whole design looks like he’s really young or like a troll etc. This Jack looks like he thinks girls have cooties uses outdated slang.

Rating: 4/10 This is me being generous.

It honestly looks like he hiked his pants up all the way to his chest. A late teen with horrid fashion choices once again. Not many other thoughts here.

Rating: 2/10 Get a sweater on or something.

This is one is very interesting looking to me. His clothes looked a lot more leather based and very human-like. The tatters, tears and frays all make him look like he was a victim of an accident that never changed his clothes. It makes me wonder if this Jack had the same death as the final movie Jack or something else entirely. Either way, this one looks like hes a mid to late teen which really adds to my intrigue.

This was another image that greatly resembled the design so I included it here. It almost looks like his skin is blue here which is pretty neat to me at least. He’s also got leaf motifs here, which from the first Jack design Joyce made, we can see a pattern here.

Rating: 8 /10 I was originally weirded out by his head but now its not so bad.

This Jack is definitely dressed more like a nature boy rather than him having human influenced fashion and it’s an appealing touch. The tiny leaf sprouting from his staff is also kind of cute since the designers seemed to want to put leafs somewhere on his designs. His hairstyle is also very cute but it reminds me of Sasuke Uchiha in a sense. (Not a setback for me at least)

Rating: 7/10 13 year old Jack is going thru a phase.

I thought this Jack didn’t show up again in story boards but I was wrong!

They look a little different from each other but just similar enough to pair together, so bare with me. The first one obviously has looser pants, slightly longer sleeves and got his leaf motif going. This second Jack is a VERY green. It gives the impression that this Jack made his clothes out of plants and natural materials. Again I’m not wholly sure if greens fit his color scheme but they sure went for it for a while. I can’t say I’m a fan of it because it heavily reminds me of Peter Pan.

However a very similar looking Jack could be found in this storyboard. It doesn’t look as green as the other storyboards made it out to be and looks more like dead grass. Which is a pretty nice touch.

Rating: 5/10 I don’t hate it but it just doesn’t vibe yknow.

Speaking of a vibe...hoo this certainly has one. This Jack isn’t old but certainly doesn’t look very young, maybe in the 20-30 range, thats just me. He has facial features that remind me of Pitch but resembles the Jack Frost of Santa Clause 3

That being said, I wondered if him looking similar to Pitch was in the storyline of them being brothers.(Which was a scrapped thing, who knew.) He’s a bit more menacing in this design but certainly seems like he relishes in his work.

Rating: 4/10 I’d make it a lower score but I gotta give it props

NOW THIS JACK IS KINDA INTERESTING. This one looks like he’s 16 and going through a grunge phase. He’s gonna play Nirvana loudly and not turn it down even if you tell him too. His staff itself has mini icicles hanging off of it and leafs look stuck to his shirt. Did you glue or staple those on Jack? His hair also looks much longer than his other designs and I kind of dig it( Shut up I’m bias.) I’m not wholly sure why else this design has stuck with me but it just has something about it that I just love. I wish there was a full body drawing of it.

(He also kinda has the same hair as the Jack Frost in Runescape but I wont go on about that hoo hoo)

Rating: 9/10 *Bad Boy by Cascada plays in the distance*

This one definitely feels like middleschooler trying to be in a band. His sticks just resemble drumsticks to me what can I say. I’m a big fan of his shoes and his color scheme screams a hibernating tree in winter. His hair also looks like it’s covered in frost rather than it being wholly white, which is very neat!! He looks like he wants to fight but has slight hesitance. Overall a very balanced Jack.

Rating: 8/10 He’s ready for band practice

Not many thoughts here, I just found these tiny Jack designs cute. His hoodie being a jacket instead just adds to the charm of this one.

No talk to him he angy.

Rating: 6/10 fun sized boi

Now this Jack resembles the one earlier that dressed entirely in leather brown colors, however he clearly is different than that one. I’m gonna say it, he looks like a zombie or undead in this design and its pretty fucking gnarly. I don’t know whats going on with his hair but I’m gonna assume it’s just the wind making it look like that. He just has the vibe that he was once human but was turned into something else entirely. It isnt in uncanny territory but borders that. This version of Jack meeting Pitch and the others would have been *very* interesting. Rating: 7/10 Eat a twinkie Jack you’ll feel better.

The final design! I can’t complain much about this one. The way his staff subtly has a G shape and a hexagon(his signature shape) is a wonderful touch. Additionally, the way the frost is gathered mostly where his hand is such an intricate detail. His signature hoodie is iconic at this point so I can’t bad mouth that either.(I can’t anyway because there's no complaints from me here.) Although, I never understood the leather straps that his pants had or their functions. I couldn’t find any colonial outfits that resembled Jack’s pants so its a total mystery to me at least.

And I can’t go on about this design until I mention the snowflake pattern in his eyes

Pure beauty. It’s at a hue of blue that almost looks impossible to have, combined with the electric blue color of the snowflake in his eyes. The amount of detail in this movie amazes me to this day. Rating: One Great Blizzard <3/10

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alpines-bucky · 3 years

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No one said Starks weren't a little dramatic

This is the first time I write Tony x daughter reader I hope you guys like it :)

Word Count: 2319 ( Things got a bit out of my hands while I was editing and eventhough it's edited I can't promise that there aren't any typos and I dtill wasn't satisfied with what I wrote but 🤷‍♀️Ig )

Warnings: Major character death, a lot of angst

Y/N loses her dad when he decides to save the universe with a snap of his fingers but when did anyone see a Stark not getting what they want? Let me answer for you, Never. ( AKA Y/N gambles with time and space and universes surprisingly there isn't any VA involved cause in my opinion they suck to save her dad but apparently there are always consequences)

Y/N had arrived at her destination albeit being a little late. She wanted to be there when the team tried to go back in time to get the Stones in hopes of saving aunt Tasha too but she had one and only shot at this so she had to make do with what she had. What she didn’t realise was she accidentally changed universes instead of going back in time.

The way she found out that the place she had arrived wasn’t when or where she intented to was Morgan, the little girl with big Brown eyes who had total control over her older sister the second they met. Y/N had to lay low and do her research before approaching them. But when she heard about Morgan she had to meet her before doing what she came to do. And that’s exactly what she did.

She found Morgan in a house by the lake with a woman who she assumed was Pepper.Her visit was short since she couldn’t afford getting caught by Pepper which would mean jeopardising the whole plan she had spent months making. She left a message for her dad before going off to save the man itself.

Her dad was fighting with Thanos when she arrived to the scene. The more she looked around the more it looked like the place she fought along with her dad and that meant one thing, she had to act quick.

‘’I am inevitable’’ Thanos said as he snapped his finger but nothing happened. Confused, he looked at his gauntlet to find that the Stones that were there a minute ago were no longer in their places. He looked around to see that Tony had them somehow.

‘’And I’m Iron Man’’ said Tony full of emotions as he was about to snap his fingers. He thought having all six Stones in his hands would kill him being a mortal and he was fine with it if that meant she could ensure his family’s security but he felt nothing. He thought he had died instantly but he found out that wasn’t the case when he got startled by an unknown voice.

‘’Oh, the hell with that!’’ said a girl who wore a similar suit to Tony’s. She seemed to appear out of nowhere. Which confused both man further.

‘’Who the hell are you?’’ asked Tony. Who the hell was mad enough decided to mess up the only chance of him stopping the big purple psycho of a man.

‘’Who do you think?’’ said the girl, winking at him confidentally but her eyes told a different story. There was sadness in them, grief and loss but it seemed like she was happy at the same time.What surprised him was the familiarity she carried but he couldn’t put his finger on it. So he searched her suit for some clues which led up to him finding the Stones. She was the reason he was not dead, she somehow got possession of the Stones.

‘’Kid, no!’’ yelled Tony. He attempted to get closer to her but she snapped her fingers before he could stop her. Everything stilled for a second. The other avengers thought Tony had done it as Thanos’ soldiers had started to turn to dust all of a sudden but when they found a girl that they’ve never seen before in the arms of Tony with fetal injuries they were puzzled. They gathered around Tony and the girl who struggled tos tay alive.

‘’I made it! I… I saved you, Dad.’’Tony was shocked at her words. He was processing what he heard as Pepper landed next to them and kneeled. They couldn’t Wrap their heads around what was happening but they both were not going to let a dying kid down for sure.

She had a difficulty breathing, she was in agonizing pain but she had a peaceful smile on her face. She tried to lift her hand but it pained her more, she whimpered. Tony sensed her intentions and put her hand on his cheek for her. He put his hand on top of her, gave it a gentle squeeze. ‘’Friday, what do we have?’’ asked Tony.

‘’3 to 4 degree burns from her right hand up to her face. Internal bleeding. Her lungs are collapsing... Life functions critical.’’ Answered the voice from both of the suits. Pepper grimaced, she didn’t know who this girl was but she had sacrificed herself for Tony, the man she referred ‘dad’. ‘’Who are you?’’ asked Pepper.

‘’I’m–‘’ she coughed, blood was pooling in her mouth. ‘’I’m surprised you couldn’t figure it out yet…’’ she let out a bloody laugh. ‘’I’m Y/N. Y/N Stark.’’ She said with her last breath. That shook the whole group to their cores. The girl wasn’t lying or confusing Tony with someone else. The girl who lied in his Tony’s arms nonbreathing was infact the daughter of Tony Stark. From the moment they realised the truth everything was a blur to the Stark Family and the avengers.

Y/N was Tony’s first daughter who had died in a cross fire 7 years ago. She was a teenager at the time. She would have been a few years older than Peter if she had lived. It was a wrong place wrong time type of situation, she had died on the scene. Tony had nightmares after that, his insomnia got worse. He had blamed himself although it had nothing to do with him. The guilt ate him alive day by day. He realised why the girl’s eyes were so familiar to him now, she was his Y/N/N. A grown, older version of her, but his Y/N nontheless.

He didn’t think he could recover from her death but losing her, seeing her die in his arms for the second time ruined him. He had no idea what was happening outside of his head, he was in a trance, he had stayed still looking at his hands where Y/N laid. Until his little girl, Morgan came up to him with a disk in hand and said ‘’Daddy! Daddy! A girl called Y/N wanted me to give this to you’’ That got everyone’s attention.

Tony told Friday to scan the disk and display whatever is in it. When he saw Y/N in front of her, he couldn’t stop the tears from falling and when she started speaking as if she could see her Tony lost it. He couldn’t hear her because of his own sobs, he didn’t even realised the rest of the avengers and his wife as they piled in the room when they heard Tony and Y/N’s voice. He had to stop the hologram a few times to gather himself. When he got control of his breathing, he built up his courage and displayed it all over again.

‘’Hey dad. I’m assuming since you are watching this I suceed. I’ve saved you.’’ She had to stop for a second to take a breath in to compose herself. ‘This time’ she said under her breath but Friday caught it.

‘’You are wondering how the hell I am alive. Well… For starters, I didn’t know that I was dead in this world which… makes you realise that I’m not from this world. I’m actually from what you call an alternative universe. Things got out of hand in my universe after… after you… Oh shit! This is too hard. I knew I couldn’t do this shit! I can’t even talk to my own god damn suit picturing it as my hypothetical dad without messing it up’’ that made a few people chuckle and a few others tos mile. The girl really was his father’s child after all.

‘’Okay I’m hoping you either won’t have to watch this or I can cut that part before giving it to Morgan. Anyways, I’m rambling.’’ Tony saw his younger self in Y/N which put a sad smile to his face. This was something he never got to experience before. To see her this grown up. To see a pieces of him in her.

‘’ So things went down hill after you did the whole ‘I’m Iron Man’ thing –which by the way I’m still mad at you about- You… You died in my hands, dad.’’ She gulped. She had begun crying a while ago but now that she was talking about her dad’s death, she felt like the lump in her throat got bigger and bigger, suffocating her. ‘’ I was all alone for years! You were all I had and then within a second you were gone! I didn’t have anyone else!’’ She tried to calm herself. She wasn’t recording this to make him feel guilty or get answers she was possibly never going to hear. This was a goodbye. A goodbye she knew he deserved just like how she did from him.

‘’That’s why I made the decision to change it but I accidentally changed universes instead of going back in time. But this was my only chance, only shot at making it right. And then I found out that I had died in this universe and you had moved on. Good for you, dad. I’m really proud of you. You did what I couldn’t. It was a relief to know that you were happy and that you had a family now. I thought for a second that maybe the blip didn’t happen. That in this universe, you had a lovely life and I thought for a second maybe I could be in it too. Stay with you but that hope was shortly lived.’’ She gave a sad smile.

‘’And now I’m about to go to the battle field. Before I go, I have to say, I don’t know how if there is any way for me to stop you. I can’t take it all back but I will do anything to not let another girl grow up without her dad. And I ain’t going to let my own sister down. Oh, did you know that I always wanted a sister?’’ she chuckled making Tony’s heart warm. It has been so long since he heard his daughter chuckle the damn way he does. She stopped for a second to think ‘’Well, she has the Stark charm, that’s for sure. I only knew her for a few hours and she had me the second we met. I wish I could be there for her as her older sister. I would give anything to see her grow up but if that has to be for only one of us to see, I’d rather that be you because I’ve been there. I know how hard it is to lose your dad. I could see clearly what she would have to go through and the moment I realised that I knew what I had to do. I would stop you at all costs and since this reacording is being played I could sleep peacefully knowing she has you.’’ She smiled with tears escaping her eyes once again. Tony was full of emotions. His daughter he has been longing for years was right in front of him but way too far away at the same time.

With a sigh she started ‘’ You have people you can hold on to. I never did. Pepper, Morgan, Rhodey, the spider kid... Hold on to them Tony. Hold on to the team. Oh, speaking of the team, tell them I love them and I missed them so badly. I’m sorry. I thought I was going to have more time to talk And maybe if a miracle happens and we all can manage to stay alive I could tell you all about it but I have to go now. Have an old man to save’’ She saluted and looked around right where the broken team of Avengers were with longing in her eyes. She moved closer to the disk to cut the recording but decided against it the last second. Tony hung his head, his heart broke to hear the hope in her voice when he knew what already happened. He thought this was the end of the recording but he looked up when he heard her talking and she had turned to him and looked right at him as if she knew where he was stated. That sent shivers up Tony’s spine.

‘’I know you think I made the wrong decision but I saved you. I refuse to let you down once again. I refuse to see you die in front of me once again. I’m not sorry for what I’m about to do, I knew the consequences when I made this plan months ago. I’m only sorry because although I tried so much to have the future we always talked about with you, I won’t be able to, Tones. But Morgan will be. And I would give up anything for that little girl. And for you.’’ She said as she caressed the necklace Tony gave her when she was a child. She took the chain out of her neck and put it somewhere Tony couldn’t see. And Tony knew this was only a tape but he tried to hold on to his daughter, to stop her from going out there. His breath caught in his throat when his hands went through Y/N’s body. He fell to his knees.

‘’ But hey if it turns out that I, this badass manage to get both of us home in one peace one we can laugh our asses off as we watch me being the drama queen that I am… Well, no one said Starks weren’t a bit dramatic.’’ The heart Tony thought had broken to a million pieces broke further as he heard the tremble in her voice as she tried to put her brave face on. But she couldn’t hide it when one last tear escaped from her slightly swollen eyes as she ended the recording.

Why do I never have good endings? Cause I write in the middle of the night when I feel sad most of the time and it's easier to write sad than it is to write happy.

I hope you liked it. I would love to hear your thoughts on this one. I'd also like to discuss if you'd like the alternative ending that could be a happy one :)

#avengers fanfiction #avengers x reader #avengers endgame #tony x daughter!reader #tony stark fanfiction #tony stark fanfic #tony fanfiction #tony fanfic #stark reader #tony x reader #tony x you #tony x y/n #tony stark #avenger reader #avengers fic #marvel fic

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navalcriminalimagines · 3 years

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Birthday girl

I can't believe I did that, but here we are. This fits the "Multiple partners/gangbang" square from the Summer Bingo. With our favorite boys; Mike, Rafael, Sonny & Mike.

Words count: 3,9k

Warnings: Gangbang, p in v, creampie, spanking (slightly)

Sorry if there's any typos...

@thatesqcrush

You had a lot of hopes for your 30th birthday. Not just for the celebration itself but also in general. You thought that by now, you would be in a serious relationship, maybe with a kid or two, or at least planning on having one. You had many things you wanted to do before you were 30, but now that you think about it, you didn’t do much of those things. You’re actually far from it.

It just hurts to see people around you having their life together. Your best friend is married to a lovely man, she has a two year old boy and is pregnant with a second and she owns her business. Your sister - older than you - is traveling all around the world with her husband and their dog. And everytime you meet with your mother, it’s like she has to put pressure where it hurts. Every single time.

The only thing you can’t complain about is your job, and the people you work with. Being a detective at SVU is hard, it’s challenging, but you wouldn’t change it for the world. And you have the most amazing squad with you. Also, the most handsome men you ever met. Seriously. Mike, Sonny, Rafael, Nick. How could you not like your job when you see those faces 24/7?

You had expectations for your celebration party. You invited the squad to a beach house that you rented. They became your family, they are the ones you want to celebrate with. But little by little, it was falling apart. First, Amanda had to cancel since her sister is in town, and everyone knows Kim is a handful. Then, it was Liv turn. The day before, Noah got sick, so she decided to stay at home with him. That’s fair, Noah’s health first. And last but not least, your best friend and her husband canceled too. “No one to take care of the kid,” apparently. Is that what it is to have kids? Not having fun anymore? Cause if that’s it, maybe you don’t want one.

So, in the end, it’s just you and the boys. Not that you mind that thought at all.

You left early in the morning with Sonny. He offered to help you prepare the house, and go grocery shopping. “How’s the birthday girl?” he asked, gently as always.

“Kinda upset that everyone canceled. But I won’t let this ruin my day!”

“You’ll have fun anyway. We planned a few things with the guys,” he teased.

You spent the entire day annoying Sonny so he would talk. But he didn’t say a damn thing. Whatever they have prepared, you have no clue. It does stress you out a little but one thing is sure; you can trust them with your life.

Everything was ready when Mike, Nick and Rafael arrived. When Sonny opened the door to them, their arms were full. You saw booze, food, and gifts. Way too many gifts for one person. “What the hell is all of that?” you exclaimed when they dropped everything on the floor, in the living area.

“Everything we need to celebrate your 30th birthday. You will remember this weekend,” Mike said with a huge grin on his face. He walked up to you and hugged you softly. “Happy birthday Y/N,” he kissed your forehead.

Nick and Rafael did the same as Mike. Then, they quickly put their stuff in the bedrooms, before joining you and Sonny on the terrace, facing the ocean. The weather wasn’t the best, but you couldn’t care less.

“One rule for this weekend; not shop talk,” Nick warned and everyone agreed with it.

The evening started pretty smoothly. You were having drinks, eating the apéritif you and Sonny prepared earlier and chatting about nothing and everything. At some point, Rafael came back with a bottle of champagne and poured everyone a glass. “To our amazing Y/N,” he said, holding his glass in the air. “You probably have no idea what you mean to all of us and that’s actually what makes you even more lovable. We care about you more than you know. Happy birthday, querida,” he smiled and toast with you.

You looked at Rafael with puppy eyes. He and the three others know you’re not used to being praised like this, even though you deserve any less.

“This is nice! Mike, your turn,”

The sergeant obliged. He stood up and cleared his throat, “Everyone knows that me joining SVU was my dad’s idea, but honestly, I can’t thank him enough for making me. Cause now you’re in my life and girl, you won’t get rid of me. I can’t imagine my life without you, Y/N,” he paused, “and without those idiots either, but that’s not their birthdays,”

“You said it anyway,” Nick teased Mike.

“Shut up, Nick! Let him finish,” you elbowed Nick.

“Well, I was done actually. Happy birthday, honey,” he bent over to kiss your cheek and then toasted with you.

“I love you,” you mouthed to him. “Nick, now you can talk,” you were excited about this. The past weeks before your birthday hadn’t been easy, you overthink a lot about your life. You actually cried yourself to sleep the night before, but none of them know. Their words make you feel much better. You’re lucky to have them.

“Thank you, Ma’am,” he said before standing up, “We didn’t start on the right foot, you and me, probably because you never chewed your words with me and I hated it. But you were right on most of the things you ever told me. You’re - without a shadow of a doubt - the best friend I ever had. I can’t wait for us to fight like cats and dogs at the nursery home. Feliz cumpleaños, cariño,” he smiled at you and extended his glass so you could toast together, “Also, you’re hot as hell,”

It was an understatement to be honest, but Nick added this comment because he saw the tears forming in your eyes and he refused to see you cry on your birthday, because of something he said. Fortunately, it worked and you laughed instead of crying. “He’s right,” Rafael added with a wink. Of course, none of them missed how your cheeks turned bright red, even if you tried to play it cool.

“I guess it’s my turn now,” Sonny spoke and stood up. But he stayed silent for a moment, “What they said,” he simply said before sitting again.

Mike, Nick and Rafael immediately started to playfully boo him, “You suck man!” Nick exclaimed.

“You usually can’t shut up and now, that’s all you have to say?” Rafael teased him.

“Y/N should have the right to punish you,” Mike added.

“Oh yes, please! Can I punish you?” you eagerly asked.

“Oh honey,” Rafael grabbed your attention, “you don’t ask someone if you can punish them. You just do it,”

“I know, Rafi. But he’s a good catholic boy, remember? We can’t have him running out of the house, praying for our souls,”

“Y/N. You know Sonny is worse then all of us reunited,” Rafael said this so casually, he didn’t realize how it sounded.

“Dominick Carisi, you’re such a liar!” Mike shouted, “you told me you and Raf didn’t hook up!”

“Yeah well, about that? I lied,”

Sonny and Rafael exchanged sweet looks, while you were silently drinking your glass of champagne.. “Are you two dating or something?” Nick asked.

Rafael was about to say something, but Mike stood up in one quick motion and shouted even louder, “Oh my god!” The four of you looked at him, “I think what you should be asking, Nick, is if the three of them are a thing!”

One thing you hate about Mike is how he can read you like an open book. It was hard to hide from him, the night you had with Sonny and Rafael a few months ago. Now, there was no point to lie.

“I can’t believe you three hook up and didn’t say a damn thing,” Nick said.

“To be honest, I’m more offended about not being invited,” Mike added.

That’s how the night took a very different turn.

*****

“I think all the attention should be on the birthday girl,” Rafael said as he was unbuttoning his shirt. You and Sonny were kissing on one side of the couch while Mike and Nick were making out on the other side.

“Raf is right. To be fair, we have an entire weekend in this house,” Mike added.

In a matter of seconds, you were standing in the middle of the master bedroom, with the four men around you. “Mike and Nick need to know the safe word.” Rafael commented, and Sonny took his tongue out of your month to let you speak.

“Armadillo,” you said.

You can’t even begin to describe how you feel about all of this. Those four men just for you? All of their attention on you? That thought only could make cum on the spot. You had to remember the ground rules you had with Sonny and Rafael a few months ago, and the first one is not to overthink. You all know you can trust one another. You’re more safe with those four guys than with one single random guy.

Once the safe word was known to everyone, Sonny remained kissing you. You immediately granted access to his tongue, it was sloppy but passionate. Meanwhile, you felt a pair of hands taking off your top and another one taking care of your pants. “Matching underwear,” Mike commented, as he was the one staring, “You hoped for this, didn’t you?” You smiled against Sonny. You didn’t hope for a gangbang, but yes, you did hope to get lucky. But this was better than anything you hoped for.

“Of course, she did,” you heard Nick’s voice coming from behind you. He gently unhook your bra, freeing your tits and he didn’t waste a second before playing with them. Your nipples were already hard, craving for attention. “She knew she could have any of us,”

“Oh Nick, that’s worse than that. She knew she could have the four of us,” Rafael added, as one of his hands slided in your panties, feeling how hot and wet you were. “Guys, she is dripping,” he let the others know, and he gently started to tease your clit with his thumb.

As Sonny kept kissing you, Nick kept playing with your tits, and Rafael kept teasing your drenched entrance, Mike got undressed. You saw him from the corner of your eyes, and your attention quickly fell on his rock hard erection. He smiled when he noticed where you were looking and started to stroke himself. You locked eyes with him while tentatively trying to touch one of the guy's cock. Your hand landed on Sonny’s crotch and he groaned at the sensation, even through the fabric of his jeans. But Rafael used his free hand to grab your wrist. “Such a needy cock slut,” he said, right next to your ear.

“Maybe Sonny should replace his tongue with his cock,” Nick offered and he felt you nodding. So Sonny stopped kissing you, he briefly took a look at your swollen lips, and your naked body being taken care of by Rafael and Nick.

“Well, Mike, get closer,” Sonny said as he undressed himself, “She loves having two cocks in her mouth. Am I right, Y/N?”

Everything that was happening was too much, you struggled to find your words, so you nodded. But it wasn’t enough for them. “You want to hear you say it,” Mike said after he finally got closer to you.

“I--I want your cocks--” you moaned as Rafael finally entered your core with one finger, “in my month,” you moaned even more when Nick pinched both of your nipples, just enough to make it hurt, “All of them,” you finally added.

To make sure Rafael and Nick could still work on your body, Mike and Sonny stood up on the edge of the bed. Your face was right at their crotch. You took one cock in each hand, gently stroking them, “I think Mike should be first. I already know how your mouth feels,” you agreed and focused on Mike’s cock, but with your other hand still stroking Sonny’s. You softly licked the head, tasting the precum coming out, before taking him in your mouth. Mike let out a huge groan at the feeling, “Man, when was the last time you had a blowjob?” Nick joked.

“Way too long,” he managed to say.

You have to admit, it’s hard to give a good blowjob to a man, while two others are worshipping your body. But Rafael decided to withdraw his hand from your panties and quickly after, you felt a cold breeze as Nick’s hands and body drift away from you. “Don’t forget about Sonny, babygirl,” you heard from the other side of the room.

Your jaw is going to be sore as fuck in the morning as you opened your mouth as much as you could, to take both Sonny’s and Mike’s cocks in. Obviously, they can’t both fit in but it is mostly about playing with the heads and your tongue.

You jolted when you felt a very warm body against your back. You recognized Rafael’s smell. He was fully naked. He held your hips strongly, sliding his hard cock in your panties and stroking it against your ass. You felt his hot breath in your neck before he planted a few wet kisses there.

Your face was a mess. It was a mix of saliva and precum from both men. Your pussy was a mess too. You were so wet, you could feel it on your thighs. You kept sucking Sonny and Mike for a short moment before they made you stop. Mike got down from the bed and kissed you deeply, enjoying the mixture that was there.

Someone finally took your panties off, you don’t know who and you couldn’t care less. You were desperate to be fucked.

*****

The first to get inside you was Nick. You were lying on the bed, a complete mess already, and Nick got on top of you. He gently kissed you, teased your entrance for a short moment before sinking inside your pussy in a slow motion. “Fuck, you’re so tight,” he groaned as he bottomed out. He started to thrust you, slow and deep at first.

The sounds you were making were such a turn on to the four men. As Nick was fucking you good, you had no idea where Mike, Sonny and Rafael were, until you felt someone climbing on the bed. When you opened your eyes, you saw Rafael’s face above you and his cock was a few inches from your mouth. “Open that pretty mouth for me,” he said and you obliged. As Nick was fucking your pussy, Rafael was facefucking you. And this was a lot to handle. It didn’t take long for you to feel your orgasm coming up. Your cries were muffled by Rafael’s thick cock as you came, and it brought him an overwhelming sensation that made him groan hard. “Such a good girl, creaming my cock like this,” Nick said. He wasn’t far from coming either. He buried his face in your neck, and he felt your nails crashing on his skull. It took a few more thrusts before he loaded his hot cum inside you, crying out your name.

He stayed on top of you for a moment before pulling out, at the same time Rafael stopped facefucking you and you cried at the emptiness.

“Someone doesn’t like to feel empty?” It was Sonny who talked. He was sitting next to you and he pushed two fingers inside your pussy, taking Nick’s cum back where it belonged. Your body arched at the feeling and you moaned deeply. “So worked up already. But we’re not done with you,”

“You better not,” you laughed.

“Oh, she’s teasing!” Mike exclaimed. “Babygirl, when we're done with you, you won’t be able to sit for weeks. Everyone at the precinct will wonder what happened during the weekend,” he kissed you while Sonny added a third finger inside your core. You felt a second orgams building inside your belly.

“You better not come on Sonny’s fingers,” Rafael warned you, “You’re only allowed to come on our cocks,” you found him in the room and locked eyes with him.

You knew from his expression what he was waiting for, “Yes, sir,” you agreed.

“That’s our good girl,”

Then it was Sonny’s. The man has a soft spot for a good doggy style, so he ordered you to get on all fours and you obeyed. He stroked his cock between your ass cheeks for a moment before sliding inside you so easily. “God, you take us so well, baby,” he said as he started to thrust. He was faster than Nick, and you know from experience that Sonny has incredible stamina. He can rock inside you hard and fast for a long moment.

“You feel so good inside me,” you moaned, “Fuck, Sonny! Yes!”

“That’s right, take that cock, doll,” he said, slamming harder.

As you grabbed the sheets into your fists, you felt someone crawling under you. It was Nick. He laid down and brought your mouth to his in an eager kiss. Sonny kept fucking you, his hands were strongly holding your hips, so you understood it was someone else that spank you. Mike or Rafael, you didn’t know - although, you had an idea; Rafael does love to spank you - and you cried inside Nick’s mouth. Then you felt someone grabbing your arms to lock them in your back. Nick held you close against him, stroking your hair as your second orgasm hit you hard.

Feeling your pussy clenching around his cock, and hearing you cursing non sense, sent Sonny over the edge. He almost collapsed on you as he came deep inside you.

You felt the emptiness when Sonny took his cock out of you but it was quickly filled by someone’s fingers. You were just a pile of lambs on Nick, but you jolted when one of them curled two fingers inside your pussy. “You love that, don’t you? Nick’s and Sonny’s cum mixing inside you,” You don’t know if that’s Rafael that is fingering you but he’s the one talking. You were still catching your breath when the fingers were replaced by a cock teasing your entrance.

“Do you want to keep going, babygirl? We can st--”

“I didn’t say the word, did I, Mike?” you shot.

“Right. Then it’s my turn to fill that pussy,” he didn’t give you the time to answer, he shoved his cock inside your cunt.

“Oh fuck! Mike, yes!”” you cried.

Nick stayed under you as Mike fucked you hard. Mike’s short nails scratched your back as he went in and out of you. He withdrew completely before sinking back and bottoming down. He did that a few times, enjoying your noises every time he hit your sweet spot. “Damn, that pussy is so perfect,” he growled.

“It was made for us,” Sonny said.

On your left, you saw Rafael standing there, stroking his cock as he watched Mike fucking you. You extended your hand to replace his and he let you. “You can’t get enough,” he teased you.

“Never,” you grinned.

Mike grabbed your hair in his fist, bringing your back to his chest. That new angle almost sent you over the edge again. “Holy shit, this feels amazing,” you breathed out. You didn’t notice the look Rafael and Sonny exchanged. You sloppily kept stroking Rafael, while Sonny’s hand found its way to your clit. Mike had to hold you close to him as a third orgasm arrived.

Nick was still laying on the bed, an arm under his head. “This is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen in my life. It’s like my very own porn movie,”

“Get ready to take a new part in it,” Sonny winked at him.

“Working on it,” he said, stroking his semi hard cock.

Sonny chuckled before burying his face in your chest. He sucked on your nipples, and kept playing with your clit. “Jesus, fuck! I--I’m--coming,” you managed to say as your third orgasm hit. You held onto Sonny’s shoulder for dear life, Mike was slamming so hard and fast inside you, chasing his own orgasm. He bit your shoulder as he emptied himself deep inside you, adding his semence to Sonny’s and Nick’s.

You collapsed in Sonny’s arms and he gently laid you on the bed, next to Nick. Mike was catching his breath on the edge of the bed. “Water,” you managed to say.

Not that it mattered, but Nick seems to be the best for the aftercare. He gently stroked your hair, and planted sweet kisses all over your face. Sonny came back with water for everyone. All of this is more than amazing, this can’t be compared to anything you ever experienced before but you gladly enjoyed the water break.

As you were sitting on the bed, Rafael grabbed your face to kiss you. It was soft, almost loving. Your hands traveled his hairy chest as you granted access to his tongue. You fell on your back, taking him with you. “You okay?” he whispered.

“Never better. Fuck me, Raf,”

On the other side of the bed, Nick chuckled. “Three cocks, three orgasms and she is still asking for it. You’re such a pretty slut, Y/N, aren't you?”

“I’m your slut. To the four of you,” you smiled at him.

Rafael teased your entrance with his cock as he was kissing and nipping your neck. Your pussy was a wet and sticky mess. The other men fucked you open, Rafael slided inside you so easily. To be honest, he wasn’t far from coming already after everything he witnessed and you wrapped him so perfectly, it was overwhelming.

You moaned loudly in his ear, your nails digging in his skull. As he thrusted into you, he couldn’t help but to slap your thigh, since he can’t reach your ass for a proper spank. But you could reach his, so you returned the favor. It took him by surprise, so did the growl he let out. “Someone likes to be spank,” Sonny commented, before duplicating your action on Rafael’s ass.

Another spank, but this time from Mike. And one from Nick. You loved having all the attention from the guys, but you have to admit that this brings something else to you. Hopefully this will be repeated before you go back to New York, but this time, this will be an orgy, instead of a gangbang.

You bit Rafael’s bottom lip, as he thrusted fast and hard inside you. “Give it to me, Raf. I need you to cum inside me, just like them,” he crashed his lips on yours, as a hand traveled between the two of you to play with your clit. You were oversensitive, and exhausted, you weren’t sure you could have a fourth orgasm before it hit you. You wrapped your arms around Rafael’s neck, “That’s right, babygirl, let it go. Cum on my cock,” he said in your ear, huskily.

That was exactly what you needed to cum one more time. Rafael’s thrusts became sloppy as he chased his relief. Finally, he added his liquid to the mixture and collapsed on you.

*****

“I have to admit, I’m so glad everyone else canceled,” you confessed, laying like a sea star on the bed. Obviously, the four men agreed with you.

“Happy birthday, Y/N,” they all said at the same time.

Best fucking birthday ever.

#thatesqcrushsummerbingo #rafael barba x reader #sonny carisi x reader #nick amaro x reader #mike dodds x reader

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drwcn · 3 years

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ok but for fem!wwx au does lan zhan believe the rumours? and if so what does that mean for the whole 'i birthed him with my own body!' cause lan zhan did the maths and was like 'no it was just the once and this child is too old' but if he thinks he was just one in a line does he go back to bm after nightless city to rescue a kid he thinks is wei ying's but with another man? does he spend the three years in seclusion cursing every jin whose name he remembers as cowards only to step out, take one look at sizhui, and have an 'oh. i know why wei ying was so determined to save wen qionglin' moment???

Answer: Haha, nah, Lan Wangji was fairly sure Sizhui wasn’t Wei Ying’s, for several reasons. One, Wen Yuan was born before the wen remnants even went to the Burial Mount. Lan Wangji saw the small child amongst the escape party that rainy night at the concentration camp. Also, Wen Ning was several years younger than them, which would make it kind of weird if he were the dad. Before Wen Ning became the Ghost General, everyone just knew him as Wen Qing’s kid brother. Lan Wangji, however, absolutely believed Jiang Yan to be Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian’s child even before Wei Wuxian was resurrected...

《the midnight sun》 —

[original], snippets [x] [x] [x] [x], other posts found under #lanyan or #midnight sun

midnight sun [snippet 7]

When Yan’er turned ten, Jiang Cheng decided it was time for her to accompany him to Cultivation Conferences. Most sect heirs began their training this way; Jiang Cheng still remembered his first time, trailing nervously in Jiang Fengmian’s wake.

Heiresses, in comparison, were few and far between. Even head disciples were rarely girls. Jiang Wanyin had no children. His head disciple was his heiress, and his heiress was Jiang Yueqian (江月千).

长烟一空 - when the smoke clears; 皓月千里 - the moon casts a thousand miles of light 浮光跃金 - which dances upon the water, golden 静影沉壁 - the shadow of the moon itself like jade underwater*

A jade underwater indeed.

“Shifu.”

Speaking of the devil, here she comes, walking measuredly down the long stairs of Jinlintai towards Jiang Cheng, the epitome of an obedient, filial disciple. It had only been a day and Jiang Yan already had the world fooled. Only Jiang Cheng knew how impossibly obstinate and utterly uncontrollable she was when her mind was fixed.

"Ah, Jiang-zongzhu, this is..." Spotting her, Lan Xichen glanced beyond his shoulder, the question dangling in the sentence he did not deem necessary to finish.

Unbeknownst to Lan Xichen, the child that made her way over was his niece by blood. Jiang Cheng was acutely aware that Yan'er actually resembled Lan Wangji a great deal, and despite having weighed the risks and gains against each other repeatedly before deciding to bring Jiang Yan along, now he was no longer so certain in his calculations. Lan Xichen was not a simple peasant; what if he detected a trace or a hint of her heritage between the furrow of her brows or the curve of her eyes? What if...

Jiang Cheng turned, raising an arm towards Jiang Yan, an introduction ready, but whatever words he had prepared in advance died on on his tongue when he laid eyes on the girl. Suddenly, he was no longer worried that others would suspect her to be Lan Wangji's child.

There was a red ribbon in her hair.

Yan'er stopped at a polite distance from the two older men and bowed in perfect form.

Jiang Cheng's heart stuttered violently in his chest at the sight of that red ribbon falling sideway over her small shoulder. If souls could travel, his would have left him in an instant. He stood in disincorporated panic, wrestling with the nauseating sensation of being ripped from his reality and tossed so far into the distant past that he felt whole again.

"Shifu, Lan-zongzhu." Yan'er greeted.

Shifu. Lan-zongzhu. In another world, another life, she would not need to be so formal. She could easily bound up to them, carefree, cooing jiujiu and bobo and ask to be bailed out from whatever trouble she caused.

Instead, he was only her shifu, and Lan Xichen, a stranger in her life. It would be laughable, if fate had not dealt them each such a wretched hand.

Jiang Cheng stepped towards her. “Where did you get this?”

Jiang Yan looked up in surprise, her hand reaching up and making an aborted motion to touch the red ribbon in her hair.

“Qin-shenshen gave it to me. Is it not nice?”

Qin Su. Jiang swallowed down a sigh of relief. Earlier, the Jin servants had sent word that Jin-fu'ren had baked treats for Jin Ling, and the boy had wasted no time dragging his favourite person - his Yan'er jiejie - to his aunt's place with him. Clearly, Qin Su had seized the opportunity to dote on the girl in place of the daughter she never had. Qin Su meant well. She couldn't have known. She's never even met Wei Wuxian.

In this state, Jiang Cheng could barely bring himself to look at his disciple, but he forced himself nonetheless to kneel and tuck an errant strand of baby hair behind her ear. “Very pretty.”

Yan'er smiled.

Jiang Cheng could cry.

They'd been lucky thus far. Yunmeng's Jiang-xiao-guniang was born a taciturn girl who did not like to smile or laugh, not even when she was expected to for polite society. Whether she was happy or sad, one would be hard pressed to tell. Only in front of her master Jiang Cheng or her Jin Ling-didi did she elect to reveal the full expanse of her emotions. Yet, whenever Jiang Cheng bore witness to that smile as warm and incandescent as sunlight, he could not help but shudder somewhere deep. Recalling the radiant days of years gone by, he could still see - every time he closed his eyes - his er-shijie smiling at him in the very same fashion.

Aiyo, Jiang Cheng ~

So...they'd been very lucky thus far, that Yan'er was not so like her mother in that way, not so free and generous with her smiles. Or else this devastating secret —Wei Wuxian's only wish — would not be able to withstand the test of time.

"Very pretty, Yan'er." He reaffirmed. "Did you thank Jin-furen?"

"I did."

Jiang Cheng stood and turned back to face Lan Xichen, and realized they were being joined by two others: Lan Qiren and Lan Wangji. The latter of two stared directly down at Jiang Yan, visibly stricken and unblinking, as though he'd just seen a ghost. After all, he had often been on the receiving end of that signature smile once upon a time. It was probably not a smile he'd ever expected to see again in this life.

In hindsight, perhaps Jiang Cheng should have made Yan'er wear her uniform like all the other disciples instead of her favourite indigo robes.

“Ah, Wangji, shufu -” Lan Xichen was quick to react, sensing animosity brewing in the disquiet that stretched taut between his younger brother and his fellow sect master. "Jiang-zongzhu, perhaps you would introduce us?"

The First Jade smiled kindly down at Yan'er. She returned his kindness with a polite nod.

Lan Wangji finally dragged his gaze up to meet Jiang Cheng's, a rarity since their violent parting at Nevernight. The venerated Hanguang-jun had developed a habit of pretending that Jiang Wanyin of Lotus Pier did not exist at all. He probably preferred, dreamed of it even, if Jiang Cheng had been one to fall of the cliff that day. He probably hated himself for not shoving him into the molten abyss when he could to avenge the love of his life.

Love. What did Lan Wangji know of love? Jiang Cheng sneered inwardly. One did not compromise one's love and abandon her, ill and with child, to bleed out alone in a cave tainted by demonic spirits.

One did not watch idly as one's love and her people are reduced to ashes for the power and greed of men either....

Jiang Cheng buried the offending thought, too familiar with Wen Qing's ghost that still haunted him in his moments of weakness. Without breaking gaze, he laid a hand on the crown of Jiang Yan's head and said, "This is my first disciple, Jiang Yan, Jiang Yueqian."

"Yueqian greets Zewu-jun, Lan-lao-xiansheng, Hanguang-jun."

Jiang Cheng watched as the icy fire within Lan Wangji's eyes flicker, fizzle, and extinguish entirely. Jiang Cheng's vague silence had allowed him the space to make his assumptions, and he had assumed the most insane explanation.

Is it so difficult for you, wondered Jiang Cheng. To believe that she could be yours? So impossible, that you would choose to doubt Wei Wuxian instead?

Fine.

Hanguang-jun. The venerated Second Jade of Gusu. That's all you'll ever be. Yan'er will never call you Father.

Jiang Cheng decided he had spent enough time today making nice. "Zewu-jun, it's getting late. If nothing else, I will be taking my leave. The conference continues tomorrow. I will see you then. Yan'er, come."

Yan'er bowed again to the senior cultivators, perfectly well-mannered. A dash of surprise crossed those bright eyes, however, when Jiang Cheng took her hand to lead her away. She followed wordlessly, trusting him, and did not look back once at the Lans she left behind.

Now that Yan'er was out in society, there would surely be rumours. No matter. Rumours were nothing Jiang Wanyin could not withstand. How ironic, indeed, that this was to be his lot in life.

For the first time, Jiang Cheng felt he could understand his father.

Note:

The poem is from the Song dynasty, by poet 范仲淹 from his work 《岳阳楼记》

Jiang Cheng of course is also working off a lot of assumptions about Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji's relationship. He has his reasons for hating and blaming Lan Wangji, but not all the blame is deserved.

#Anonymous #corie replies #cql #the untamed #lanyan #midnight sun #corie fics #cql ficlet #yes jiang cheng stringed enough brain cells together to come up with a half decent name #ly7

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