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igotyouniverse · 4 years

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Breathe Me - Chapter 1 [nct vamp au]

Description: After dropping out of college and coming home for the first time in two years, 22-year-old Ava Lee gets caught up in a mystery surrounding the people she thought she knew for so long. Between friendship, affairs and true love the young women finds herself being pulled into a nightmare she would never wake up from.

Pairing: Oc x Taeyong , Oc x Johnny [several side-pairing involving Mark, Ten, Lucas and Jaehyun.]

Included Members: Taeyong, Johnny, Mark, Lucas, Ten, Jaehyun, Doyoung, Haechan (maybe more)

Genre: Drama, Romance, Angst, Action, Fantasy

Warnings: none (this chapter)

suggestive content, strong language, violence, blood, death. probably more, not sure yet (later chapters)

a/n: Here it comes! After years of procrestination I finally managed to write the very first (very boring) chapter of my vampire au with nct! Anyway, the main drama will start in the next chapter so stay patient and bear this one with me. It took me long enough, haha. All the warnings will be for later chapters so don't start reading if u dont feel like reading stuff like that qq If someone wants to get tagged please send me a message, ask, comment or whatever qq

I really hope you guys enjoy it, it was a very heavy birth. ♥

ch.2 || ch. 3

†

The girl sighed deeply and took a look outside the small airplane window. She saw how the plane slowly drove into the prepared parking lot and felt how her level of anxiety rose with each second. Even though the flight was 18 hours long and her legs started to hurt she didn't want to stand up. Standing up meant for her to actually leave the plane, get her luggage and meet her family which would sooner or later lead to them asking all these questions. It wasn't like she didn't miss them.

She missed them very dearly. She missed the Sunday morning brunches with her neighbours, the movie nights where her dad would always pick out a movie because he'd pout if not, she even missed her little brother Mark bursting into her room without knocking and asking her some totally stupid questions. She missed catching up with her best friend. She missed all these sleepovers when all they had to worry about was who the cutest boy at school was and what they'll do together once they were adults. She craved for all these past memories. The last time she set foot onto this ground was two years ago at her very first spring break after leaving home, moving to a town thousand of miles away, not knowing anyone.

She heard a beeping noise which indicated that the passengers could stand up and get out but she waited. All of them seemed in such a hurry to leave the plane, grabbing their belongings, everyone trying to get out first which ended in a crowded queue inside of the plane. She stretched her legs as much as possible, not making the slightest move to stand up.

Her eyes wandered back to the window, allowing her to take a glance at the sky, she wished to be into again. It was still quite bright outside, even though it was nearly evening, the sun nearly blinding her when she looked up, leading her to cover her eyes with her hand. The sunsets were so different in the States than here, in South Korea. Her eyes tried to focus on the slowly fading sun, leaving the sky in beautiful pinks and oranges with just a hint of soft white clouds.

Her mind started to spin, thinking about all the things she had to explain to her family sooner or later. But for now she needed to stay positive and hide the fact that she – the oh-so-perfect – student managed to drop out of a university, her parents nearly went insolvent to pay for to allow their daughter to get the best medical education they could think of. At the beginning the girl actually thought that it was her biggest dream to become a famous surgeon but after a short while she had to face the ugly truth that the job she so desperately wanted to do as long as she could remember just wasn't her thing.

She tried so badly to keep on and thought that it's just a phase every young adult went through when they started university but every time she talked to her friends at university she saw that that wasn't exactly the case. Everyone was so focused and motivated to become a successful doctor or surgeon they underwent the torture of endless sleepless nights, insane pressure and the feeling of not being able to even cut an onion correctly, which the professor didn't even care to make better. Every day she got told that she would never be able to work in the medical field and could try herself with some more basic and easy studies. It didn't matter how hard she tried to remember all the lectures and do her assignments – she failed miserably at everything.

Of course, her family didn't know. She was way too afraid to burst the bubble her parents created around her, leaving her in that perfect, white spotlight, portraying her like some sort of angel on a pedestal for everyone to see. They loved to talk about her in front of everyone, telling them that she'd be a successful surgeon, working hard and publishing groundbreaking articles, making herself a name in the medical community. Maybe even getting some famous award. Everyone in that small town knew about the smart daughter who got into one of the best medical universities in the United States, who worked so hard she was barely home.

She couldn't bear to see the disappointment on their faces once they see what she really was – a failure. She managed to hide her dropping out of university so well, she created her web of lies carefully over the last year, she sometimes even believed what she was saying. But as soon as her alarm clock went off, remembering her to go to work at a small corner café to pay her rent and even save some money in case her parents might throw her out, she had to face real life again. The life in which she dropped out only one year after starting, loosing hundreds of thousands of dollars and leaving the incident in her resume forever.

She was glad she got a job in the café as it belonged to the parents of one friend she met at college, who managed to get in because of a scholarship. They allowed her to work as much as she could to save money and even helped her sometimes.

“Excuse me, Miss?”, a soft and gentle voice made the girl leave her deep thoughts and look up. A beautiful, young flight attendant smiled down at her. “You need to leave the plane, please.”, she said in sweet yet demanding voice and got her luggage out of the cabinet above for her. The girl didn't realise that the plane was already as good as empty. She thanked the attendant, grabbed her bag and went out of the plane into the airport, feeling her legs shaking more with each step she took.

She pulled out her smartphone, turning off flight mode only to get bombarded with dozens of messages, mostly from her mom asking if she already landed and that they waited for her at the gate. After that she only texted emojis. Hearts, heart-eyes and some other stuff which made her feel even more anxious. How could she disappoint a mother as proud as her? No, she needed to keep her secret for a bit longer. Maybe until her brother messed up. But what could he possibly mess up which would overshadow her dropping out of college? Maybe if he committed a crime.

Mark was different from her, She didn't know how but he actually managed to tell their parents that he doesn't want to become a doctor or lawyer, and instead insisted of becoming an author or journalist. To say her parents were unhappy would be an understatement. They were more than angry and told him to pay the tuition himself. They believed it was just a small teenage dream he had but when he finished High School and started working at the local bookstore to save some money to actually study creative writing they realized that he was serious. That small incident happened just 14 months ago, yet he continued to work there and save up. He even managed to visit her every couple of months, as she didn't want to come.

When she arrived at the luggage claim the suitcases were already out on the baggage belt and she waited as long as she could, watching her lonely suitcase making its turns on the device, purposely ignoring it until it was the only one left and she had to grab it. Her phone vibrated in her pocket again.

Mark [06.07pm]: Where r u?

She rolled her eyes and just put it back in the pocket of her jeans as she headed towards the exit. The girl took a deep breath, putting on the brightest smile she could manage and stepped out of the doors. Her family wasn't hard to notice. Her parents held a way too big and bright banner in their hands

WELCOME HOME AVA

Ava tried to keep her smile up and waved at them. “Oh, honey welcome home!”, her mother shouted as she lowered the banner to hug her daughter tightly. “I'm so happy you're finally home again, our doctor!.”, she said and patted her back softly. She felt her dad joining the hug and giving her a warm smile as well, joining her mother in telling her how happy he was to have her back home. Ava clenched her jaw, trying to smile as honest as possible.

“You're really squishing me to death guys.”, Ava chuckled and was glad when her parents finally let go of her. She looked up and saw her brother Mark smiling at her.

“Come on, give your favourite sister a hug.”, the girl laughed, making her brother chuckle before embracing her in a loving hug as well. The last time she saw him he visited the campus a few months ago. Of course he didn't know she dropped out then and nearly choked on his water when she told him. She knew he wouldn't tell their parents but he thought it would be better if she told their parents as soon as possible, which she didn't of course.

“Happy to have you back.”, Mark said and squeezed his sister one more time before he let her go and took her suitcase.

Ava stretched her body slowly before getting into their car, really not wanting to sit down for another hour but apparently she had to. As soon as she sat down and put on her seat belt her mother turned around to look at her and smiled.

“Tell us, honey, how is Stanford? Is it going well, yes?”, she asked and Ava felt like she needed to throw up.

“Yeah, everything is fine. I handed in all assignments last week and I have a good feeling.”, she chuckled and felt guilt crawling all over her body. She smiled slightly and turned her eyes away to avoid her mother proud gaze, yet she could feel Mark eyeing her.

“Ah, that's so great, honey. Your father and I just talked to the Lee's from across the street and they told us their son wants to apply to Stanford, too. We told them you could talk to him and give some advice.”

“Sure.”, she just sighed and pulled out her phone again, hoping her mother would understand her silent plead to leave her be. Her mother smiled again and turned back to talk to her father about what she'd make for dinner on this special occasion.

Ava checked the other texts she got, scrolling through them. She smiled when she saw a text from her best friend, sending her a picture from her in her nurse uniform. She looked so cute, proudly standing in front of the mirror in the dressing room, posing with a finger heart.

[Ava 06.54pm] Cute! Just landed, on my way home. Wanna hang out later?

[Yunmi 06.57pm] Can't. Night shift today but pick me up tomorrow morning and get breakfast? The café next to the bookstore finally opened!

[Ava 07.00pm] absolutely! Can't wait. Miss you so much ♥

She scrolled through the remaining texts just to feel a little disappointment in her body after not seeing what she so desperately wanted to see. But then again, she didn't expect to see a text from him after he ignored each and everyone of hers the last two years. He didn't even care enough to wish her a happy birthday in November so he probably couldn't care less texting her when she came home.

She sighed lightly and looked outside the car window, seeing how the landscape came and go in front of her eyes and how the sky got all these beautiful colours in it, she could even see the moon already. A wave of tiredness crashed over her exhausted body as she decided to close her eyes for just a moment.

The girl felt someone poking her arm multiple times, calling her name.

“Wake up, we're home.”, she heard Mark say and groaned, before rubbing her eyes.

“Yes, I'm awake, you can stop poking me.”, she said when her brother continued to poke her arm with a grin on his face.

“Don't make me hit you.”, she warned and slapped his hand away.

“Pff, please.” he answered mockingly and jumped out of the car before her fist could reached his body.

Ava chuckled , getting out of the car stretching her stiff body slowly, hearing all her joints crack at once.

“How old are you? 80?” Mark said teasingly, getting out her suitcase from the trunk.

“Trust me, I feel like it.”, she yawned loudly and slowly got up the stairs to their house.

She inhaled the sweet and calming scent of her mothers vanilla candles as soon as she set foot into the house, taking of her shoes before she walked further inside. It hasn't changed a bit. The beige coloured walls still had pictures of the family on them. Ava smiled and looked at the picture of her and her family from her Highschool graduation three years ago. She smiled when she saw the exact picture her parents had chosen. Mark and her making some weird pose while her parents rolled their eyes.

“Honey, dinner will be ready in half-an-hour, okay?” she didn't realize that her mother was standing right next to her and flinched a bit.

“Yeah, sure, thank you, mom. I'll start to unpack then. Love you.”, Ava said, kissing her mothers cheek softly before going up the stairs into her old room where Mark already put her suitcase and bag.

Her room hasn't changed either. Of course, it looked a bit colder as she took all her personal stuff with her to the US when she moved out, but it still felt comfy with it's cozy beige sofa and her queen sized bed, which her mother already prepared for her. She closed the door behind her and looked outside the big windows, which connected to a small balcony, which was only hers. She remembered how mad Mark was when she got the room with the balcony and not him and grinned. She stepped outside for a moment to breathe in the still warm air, listening to the rustling sound of the trees as a mild breeze blew through them.

The small wooden bench she made herself with her dad back when she was younger still stood in the very same corner and even had pillows on it and a blanket, indicating that someone still used it even while she was gone. Probably her mother when she wanted to have some time and space for herself, she thought and smiled before going back into her room.

She stretched her stiff body once again before squatting down and opening her black suitcase to unpack her things. Ava only brought some clothes and other necessities with her as she didn't believe of staying home for a longer period of time. She rented her tiny apartment, or as she preferred to call it, her shoebox to a friend from university who looked for her own place as long as she stayed with her parents so she didn't need to worry about paying rent. So she just packed her essentials and hoped to keep her pretty little lie for some more months to figure out what she actually wanted to do with her situation now. She wasn't even sure if she wanted to stay in Stanford . She just knew, she didn't want to stay here in this tiny town where everyone knows everyone.

She loved the size of New York, she loved the vibes, the people and even the stink it had. It was charming in some kind of way and she enjoyed the anonymity she had. She liked living in the famous city which never sleeps but it didn't feel like a complete home to her yet and maybe never would. Not to mention, that she was just working in a café which was barely enough to live so she needed to get something more permanent very soon. But she had no idea what that could be. Maybe she'd apply to another university, maybe she didn't want to go to college at all. But what were her options anyway?

Ava groaned, throwing a stack of clothes into her closet in frustration, before squatting down again to fold them neatly. She felt her phone vibrating in the pocket of her jeans and sighed when she saw the name of the person who messaged her blinking in front of her. She opened it and thought about her answer for several minutes before she decided to ignore it for the moment and maybe get back to it later, unsure about her wanting to meet the sender or not.

She furrowed her eyes as she looked at the clock hanging at one of her walls, showing that it was way later than she expected and her mother still hadn't called for dinner yet. She put the last of her belongings in the connected bathroom she shared with her brother and checked her phone to make sure she didn't receive a text from him telling her dinner is ready. Ava didn't realize how hungry she was until she thought about the dishes her mother was probably busy making and her mouth started to water. She really missed good Korean food. There were quite some Korean restaurants in New York but of course nothing tasted as good as her mother's home cooked meals.

Just as she wanted to open her door and check downstairs she heard her mother shout from the kitchen that dinner was finally ready. She opened her door and could already smell the kimchi and meat her mother apparently made and couldn't wait to finally taste it.

“Coming! I'm getting Mark”, Ava shouted back and wanted to knock on Marks door, telling him to come down but the boy who opened the door wasn't her brother.

“Oh, hey Ava. Haven't seen you in forever. How are you?”, Johnny asked, seemingly surprised but a small smile appeared on his pretty face.

He hasn't changed a tiny bit. He still looked as gorgeous as three years ago when she left and never heard of him again. His hair was still black but a tad longer than before. It framed the contours of his face just perfectly which made it hard for her to look away and think about how she was mad at him for ignoring her for the past years, even though the last thing she remembered with him was actually something very nice. Or that's at least what she thought it was. Apparently he thought differently and had to treat her like air. Not even daring to step a foot in their house when she came home for spring break once.

“Umm, fine. Are you staying for dinner?”, she asked, trying to sound as calm as possible but she couldn't hide a tint of anger in her voice, yet the anger mixed up with other feelings she was way too bad at hiding.

“Yeah, I invited him. He basically lives here anyway.”, she heard Mark say behind Johnny who didn't seem to sense her displeasure over his invitation. Why do they have to be best friends? She asked herself and secretly hoped for Johnny to disappear or something. But of course that wouldnÄt happen.

“Please, the food gets cold, come down.”, she heard her mother saying from the foot of the stairs with her hands stemmed in her hips, still wearing her red-dotted apron.

“Actually, I'm not hungry.”, Ava said taking a step away from Johnny as his simple presence made her legs feel stupidly weak.

Her statement got quite unbelievable when her stomach started to growl from the heavenly scent of her mother's food.

“Doesn't sound like it.”, Mark said and raised his brow looking at his sister questionably.

“I'm really not hungry and I'm meeting a friend. Can we postpone our family dinner to another time?”, she said while purposely emphasising the term family to show her displeasure about the clearly unwanted guest guest.

Before her mother could answer something Ava ran down the stairs, giving her mother another short kiss before running outside, leaving her house behind.

She took a deep breath before letting out some vulgar curses towards the situation and especially the person causing her to still feel all these things.

Ava pulled out her phone and messaged the only person she could think of, who might get her thoughts somewhere else, even if she might regret it in the morning.

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ashesonthefloor · 4 years

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baby, you’re a haunted house (ot4)

summary: Michael really wants to go to Sydney’s most famous haunted house. He may or may not get super startled by one of the actors, and may or may not hit them in the nose by accident. And, after that, he might keep coming back to to try and apologize properly. And the haunted house might just have a never-ending supply of cute guys working there. (That’s a lie. There’s only three he cares about). ao3 found here

prompt: “I’m working as an actor in a haunted house and when I scared you, you punched me in the nose. Now I’m bleeding and someone had to get me an ice pack, and you won’t stop apologizing. You’re lucky you’re cute” (except i changed the POV because i wrote the prompt and i can do what i want thank u <3)

word count: 12,433

content warning: blood! there is nothing too graphic, but, as depicted in the prompt, someone is accidentally hit, and there is a nosebleed. it is all handled and fine, though, and it isn’t too detailed. lots of pining :)

A/N: whew! i’ve worked on this baby for the last two months and only just finished her this week but i am PROUD! i actually really love the way it came out, and my plot! please let me know what you think, i’m a slut for feedback! this was done for my sexy, sexy halloween event that is happening right now! massive shout out to @mikeycliffords and @glitterblazercalum for beta’ing this! maddie ur comments gave me endless validation and i adore u, and iba u caught all my sexy grammatical errors and i love u for it (and ur reaction to luke’s major <3). and to both @calumcest and @clumsyclifford for having to listen to me scream and not know what i was writing. unfortunate shoutout to Mr. Gerard Way for the vibey Halloween song i named this after. baby, you’re a haunted house slaps.

Michael loved Halloween. He was pretty sure it was his absolute favourite holiday, and would say that to almost anyone who dared to ask, though most people who knew him knew not to. It was in Fall, so it was nice and chilly, and he had an excuse to bundle up in hoodies and stay there until spring. And he was an absolute slut for horror movies of any sort. He absolutely adored them, no matter how cheesy and poorly-produced. If he had any talent in it at all, he said fairly regularly to his few friends, he’d be an SFX artist. But he didn’t, and he was stuck working as a barista and getting his degree in film studies.

So when his best friend in the whole fucking world landed a job working with Sydney’s infamous haunted house - known for being realistic, and terrifying, and all the makeup being technically perfect - and invited him to come see it, insisted he can get him in, who was he to say no? He absolutely couldn’t refuse - didn’t even want to, and he’d wanted to go for years, so this was the opportunity of a lifetime - and that was that. It was most of his favourite things all rolled up into one, with the bonus of it being sort of exclusive. Because it was so well known, they always ended up having to open a month early, and the line still wrapped halfway around the block every night. Michael was going to get a backstage pass to all sorts of shit.

He dressed fairly warm for the occasion, even if it wasn’t quite cold enough yet to justify it, with his hoodie on, oversized so he could cover his hands with the sleeves. Sue him, okay, it was comfortable and warm and he liked tugging on the sleeves or his hoodie strings when he was anxious. Not that he ever wanted anyone to know he’s anxious. Michael worked fairly hard on keeping that part hidden away, so no one else could ever see it. It wasn’t that he was embarrassed, exactly. He just...didn’t want anyone knowing. It took level eleven Michael friendship to unlock his insecurities, thank you, and even then, there weren’t many he'd really disclose.

Sydney never got properly cold, so the hoodie was more than enough to keep him warm in the chilly end-of-September breeze. He made his way to the haunted house, queuing up in the line with the rest of the people preparing for the best fucking scares of their lives.

The waiting process was the worst part of the whole thing. It was just him standing by himself in line, bouncing slightly on his heels every so often and worrying with his sleeves, from excitement, nerves, and maybe it was actually slightly chilly for once. He texted his friend a few times, only to get no reply. He frowned at his phone after twenty minutes of trying with no success. He was supposed to come get Michael at some point. If he was waiting to show him around at the end, wouldn’t he want to know which group he’d be in, or when he was going through the haunted house? Or at least answer him and tell him what his plan was? Apparently fucking not, though, since he made it up to the front without a single stupid text.

His jitters weren’t helped at all by that, but he eventually just jammed his phone into his hoodie pocket and hoped it didn’t fall out in the house. Michael and the people around him were finally let into the haunted house and given the long list of instructions. It was all the usual shit, that everything inside was fake, and to keep that in mind. To remember that the actors were just actors. And to go over the last few warnings - like that the actors would jump out, target people to scare them, ask questions, and generally, you know, act. Everyone agreed to the rules with varying degrees of excitement, and then they were all corralled into the waiting area.

Michael was back to bouncing slightly in place, hoodie sleeves fully over his hands at this point. The decorations weren’t too scary yet, just meant to keep the haunted mansion theme going. The premise was something about a doctor and his torture chamber and all his patients gone wrong or something. Michael has forgotten a couple of the details, but he remembered the gist of it. He couldn’t make out anything specific, really, not through the awful dim lighting and the light fog rolling in close to the ground, thanks to the hidden fog machines, only adding to the chill in the cold building.

One of the women in front of him was murmuring quietly to her boyfriend, gripping tightly to his hand. She didn’t seem much like she really wanted to be there. Michael hoped, for her sake, she’d remembered the safe word. Which was a nice touch, making sure everyone could yell it if needed. That rule was burned into his brain: if you yelled the safe word - mercy - any actor nearby would drop their act and escort you to the nearest exit, and you would absolutely not be allowed back in. Michael wanted to make sure he remembered it, but this was practically a once in a lifetime chance, and he really didn’t want to blow it.

Finally - finally - they were allowed into the actual haunted house. The first room wasn’t too bad, just the doctor guy’s living room with some narration about who he’d been and a little about his ‘abominations’. Michael got enthralled in the story pretty quickly, gaze lingering on the (fake) family portraits on the (equally fake) mantle and on the walls.

Room two brought a couple of scares, but he still wasn’t doing too badly. They were easily moved from room to room, sticking together in a clump. When the narration ended, basically, that was their cue to move on. Or for some sort or scare to jump out.

But, of course, the greatest horror house in Sydney wouldn’t stay predictable. After room number three, the smooth transition was broken up by a long, dark corridor, with the sides pressing in on everyone as they went through. Michael curled in a little on himself, shuffling forward so close to the next person in line that he accidentally stepped on their heels. They didn’t even have time to be annoyed before they were in the next room.

After room number four was worse. They went down an equally dark staircase, Michael’s grip on the handrail white-knuckled, pale skin almost luminous even in the pitch black. He shuffled forward once he managed his way down, unable to see anything, but didn’t bump into anyone. Which was...odd, given how tightly packed they’d all been up to this point. He took a gamble and swallowed his pride, sticking both arms out and stumbling forward, completely blind in the dark. Only then did the awful strobe light kick on above him, even fucking worse than the dark. He only got vague glimpses of where he was, and he couldn’t even see anyone around him in whatever room he was in. Fucking great, he had the best fucking luck in the entire world. Which he mumbled to himself as he continued his blind zombie-shuffle forward until his outstretched hand brushed a wall. Finally.

He kept that palm pressed against the smooth (fake) stone, moving in one direction he chose to believe was forward. He was pretty sure it was the opposite direction from the staircase, at least. Hopefully he’d make some progress that way. This was so fucked. Where had his group gone? He was very, very sure he’d been with them. They’d filed down the staircase with him, hadn’t they? Where the fuck were they? Where the fuck was he? This certainly seemed like a fucking dungeon.

He kept going until the shadows seemed to stay in one corner. He stretched out his unoccupied left hand, fingers brushing against another wall. He let out a frustrated groan, quiet and under his breath, even though he was pretty damn sure he was alone. He pressed his hand against it, palm against the cool stone, and he felt it open with a soft click. And he really didn’t care what was on the other side, he just wanted out of the stupid fucking strobe lights.

And, of course the strobe lights turned off as he stepped towards the open door. His luck was so fucking perfect today, wasn’t it?

He stepped through the hidden door (or whatever it was, Michael really didn’t care at this point), letting it slowly close behind him with the same soft click that definitely wasn’t ominous at all. This room, at least, wasn’t completely pitch black. There were lanterns hanging from the ceiling, and fake torches along one stone wall, that provided dim lighting. He skirted over to the side of the dungeon that was lit, gaze lingering on the shadowy side. His eyes still hadn’t really adjusted to the lighting, still absolutely fucked up from the stupid fucking strobe light. He would enjoy this a lot more if he knew this was intentional - if it was intentional - or if he was with his fucking group. Sue him, okay, maybe this shit was slightly better with company.

He heard something shift from the direction of the door, gaze sliding over there. The room really wasn’t that open, and was pretty small in size. He felt something brush his left shoulder and jumped, stumbling forward toward the shadowy side of the dungeon room - backward, now, maybe, since he definitely whirled around to look at whatever the fuck had poked him, only to find nothing but the stone wall. What the fuck was this fucking place? He knew that wasn’t a bat. Maybe it was a bat? He really, really didn’t know.

There was a weird sound from the shadowy side of the dungeon, which he was way, way closer to, now. He turned to look at it, only to flinch back when something lunged at him, snarling. Michael whirled around to look and let out an absolutely dignified shriek, reacting entirely on instinct, which was the only reason he realized, seconds too late, that that horrifying crunching noise had been his fist colliding with the thing’s nose.

The thing, that he was now realizing, was an actor, chained to the wall with long chains. They’d made the noise earlier, scraping against the floor, as the actor had shifted. Probably. “Oh, fuck,” Michael said automatically, eyes widening. His knuckles fucking hurt, sure, but he was more focused on the poor actor.

The makeup was, as promised, spectacular. He was a half-turned werewolf, shirtless and covered in gruesome patches of fur and deep, gory claw marks. He had some sort of fangs in, too, and weird orange contacts that definitely made him look feral. What Michael was most focused on, though, was the blood dripping from his nose that was definitely not stage makeup.

The actor had a small frown on his face, two fingers coming up to gently touch his nose. He let out a soft hiss, frown pulling more at his lips. “Damn,” he murmured.

“Oh, fuck,” Michael said, ever so eloquent. “Oh, fuck. Dude, I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry. I don’t- I’ve never hit someone before in my life, I don’t know what the fuck-“

The actor shook his head. “It’s alright. It happens.” He gave him a small smile, one corner of his lips pulling up, before it dropped right back into a frown. Probably aggravated his injured nose. That Michael had done. Fuck. “Hazard of the job, you know? I told them not to activate the strobe lights and then put a jump scare after them. They make people jumpy since they fuck with your vision. They put people on edge. And then to have someone jump at you out of the dark….” He just looked sort of amused. Vindicated, too, maybe. “I figured it would happen at some point. I just got lucky until now, I guess.”

“Fuck, I’m so….I don’t even…..I’m so sorry,” Michael said again, brows drawing together. He really hadn’t meant to. Had he made that clear enough yet? He hadn’t meant to. His panic wasn’t helped by how fucking cute the werewolf was.

The werewolf just ran a hand through his brown curls, pushing them back out of his eyes. “It’s alright. Really. It happens.” He eyed Michael, amusement in his eyes despite Michael’s clear panic. “I’m Ashton, by the way.”

Michael felt like he was still a few steps behind. Shouldn’t the werewolf be mad at him? Or kicking him out of the haunted house or something? “Oh. Uh. I’m Michael.” Ashton was a pretty name. And Michael was pretty sure it suited him, since it was clear Ashton was pretty attractive, even under all the makeup. And the blood. His nose was definitely bruised.

Speaking of his bloody nose, Ashton pressed two fingers right below it again, frowning as they came away covered in blood. “Well, Michael, you can definitely pack a punch.” He looked almost amused again before it gave way to concern. “Are you okay?”

Michael’s internal monologue still hadn’t shifted from ‘fuck. Fuck. fuck. Fuck. fuck. Fuck. fuck. Fuck.’ on loop in his head, so it took him a second to register the question. He still felt like he was short circuiting, adrenaline from the scare and the acute embarrassment immediately after still tingling up his spine and all the way to his shaking hands, fingers trembling a little where they were uncovered by the hoodie sleeves. “Wha- me? I’m- yeah? Fine, I- yeah, uh, think. I think, I mean. I mean I am, I’m fine. Okay. Yeah. Good.”

Ashton raised an eyebrow, stepping just a little closer. Michael was pretty sure he could hear his own heartbeat, too loud and too fast, echoing in his ears. Not loud enough to cover the unsettling scrape of metal against stone as Ashton’s chains moved with him. He focused on breathing, pretty sure he’d stopped for a second, inhaling the stale taste of the synthetic fog, permeating through the entire building, though the air lacked the telltale haze of a fog machine, and the equally stale, dank smell of the room itself. It was grounding, sort of. He was definitely not freaking out, though. Not at all. Not with Ashton right in front of him now, gaze fixed on him, Michael’s right hand still tingling, knuckles still aching. This definitely wasn’t social anxiety nightmare fuel. He was definitely perfectly fine.

Ashton reached for Michael’s hand, Michael numbly letting him take it, unable to do much more than watch. Ashton leaned forward a little, chains scraping again against the floor to make the worst sort of unholy noise, grating on Michael’s frayed nerves, thankfully on the edge of what he was paying attention to. He was too focused on how warm Ashton’s hands were, fake blood splattered over them like he was supposed to look like he’d been clawing at himself. “You’re bruised,” Ashton said, inspecting Michael’s knuckles where they’d made contact with Ashton’s nose. “Or, you will be, at least. You didn’t hit as hard as you could have, so I think you’re okay.”

With Ashton tilted forward, it was easier to see that he was definitely still bleeding - which, fucking duh, it hadn’t been that long since he’d punched him - dripping slowly but steadily onto the floor. Noticing Michael’s gaze, probably, Ashton took a few steps back out of Michael’s space, head still tilted forward a little. He lightly pinched the bridge of his nose, giving Michael what was probably supposed to be a lazy half smile.

“Should you- do you need help?” Michael asked lamely. It was a pretty fucking stupid question, since he’d literally just punched Ashton in the nose. And he was bleeding.

“It’s not that big a deal,” Ashton said, as calm and collected as he’d been the whole time. And fantastic, at least one of them was. “I’d go tell someone, but I’m a little bit stuck.” He raised his free hand, chains rattling a little bit. “I’m actually chained to the wall. Someone comes by and lets me out between every couple groups or every couple hours so I can use the bathroom and grab a drink and all that shit. I can’t get myself out on my own.”

“Oh, fuck.” Michael frowned. “That seems like a pretty big fuckin’, like design flaw. Who the fuck came up with that?”

Ashton laughed, short and sweet before he cut himself off, probably because his nose hurt. Which sent a jolt of regret and embarrassment through Michael. “There’s a lot of stuff like that for the sake of ‘authenticity’. Don’t tell anyone I told you, they’d have my head. I don’t mind too much, though. Only lasts two months every year, and it’s fun. Well, except for the occasional scare that goes too well.” He gestured at his face to prove his point, smile tugging slightly at his lips again before it dropped.

Michael didn’t get a chance to reply before someone came in, freezing at the sight of Ashton slightly tipped forward, nose still dripping, but much slower before, and Michael standing stiff and shocked in place. “Oh, fuck,” the stranger said, echoing Michael’s sentiments. “What the fuck happened?”

“Well, Michael here got so startled when I jumped out that he hit me.” Ashton answered for the two of them. “We’re all good, he didn’t mean to. He’s been keeping me company.” He winked at Michael, making Michael’s face heat up, especially noticeable in the gloomy chill of the fake dungeon room.

“Fuckin’ hell, man,” the strange guy said, immediately moving forward to free Ashton from the stupid chains. “So, you mean, the same shit you kept saying was gonna happen, happened?”

Ashton let out some sort of noise that was probably meant to be a laugh. “Yeah, pretty much exactly.”

“Fuckin’ hell,” the stranger said again, succeeding in freeing Ashton. He leaned in close to look at his nose, frowning. “Well. You definitely need to be cleaned up. You’re out of commission for tonight, we’ll just leave the room empty and the supervisors can suck my dick. Come on, let’s clean you up and get you an ice pack or something, and you can sit down for a while.” He wrapped an arm around Ashton, hand splayed out in the middle of his back. They were clearly comfortable with each other, and had the easy familiarity of close friends. Or something. The stranger nodded his head at Michael. “You, uh, Michael, was it? You can come with us, we’ll get you out.” He paused. “Unless you want to finish the house..? But I’m gonna take a wild guess and say probably not, after that.”

Michael startled a little at being addressed, temporarily forgetting he had a corporal form. “Oh. Uh. No, not really. I”m- that was enough, I think.”

The stranger nodded his head. “Makes sense. You kind of got separated from your group, it looks like. Usually people are in groups of two and three. You sort of had shitty luck tonight, huh?” He said it kindly, though. Like he was sympathetic. “My name’s Calum, by the way.”

“He’s not usually the responsible one,” Ashton teased, shooting Calum an amused look, only making Calum roll his eyes.

“Yeah, yeah. Ashton. You’re always Mr. Responsible. That’s why we’re going to patch up your boo boo.” Calum patted his back consolingly, shooting Michael a grin. “So is this your first time here?”

Michael glanced up, fingers pausing mid-tug where he’d been fiddling with his hoodie sleeves. “Oh. Yeah, it is. Uh. Always wanted to come but it’s hard to get in and last year I got stuck closing most days and couldn’t make it early enough.”

Calum nodded, like it was a solemn affair, or he was thinking. Michael’s ability to figure things out - he was pretty sure it was called perception, but it just proved his point - was absolutely shot through with his adrenaline. He was still waiting for someone to get pissed at him, to kick him out and ban him for life. “It’s a fun place, yeah. I can’t remember if I actually ever went through it before getting to work here and see ‘behind the scenes,’ but we get pretty good reviews.” Calum grinned. “I’d say a bloody nose means you’re pretty fuckin’ scary, Ash.”

Ashton let out a half laugh. “Yeah, I guess so. Or people scared shitless and blind in the dark don’t like jumpscares. One of the two.”

Calum had led them through a couple dark, narrow back hallways, clearly meant for the employees, the whole time they’d been chatting. They get to the doorway of a brighter-lit room and hear a woman gasp. “Oh, Ashton! What happened to you? Oh, god, it wasn’t those dicks from last night again, was it? I swear I’ll hunt them down-”

“No, it wasn’t,” Ashton consoled, stepping into the room where the woman started fawning over him, leaning up to inspect his face and make sure he was okay. Calum, letting her take over, gently nudged Michael out of view and stepped back into shadow with him.

“Look, Ashton’s a trooper, he’s okay,” Calum murmured, nothing but soothing sincerity in his eyes and coating his voice. “I promise. You seem pretty worried but, uh...The floor managers might not be too happy, you know? We’re missing our werewolf for the rest of the night, so the room will be empty...No one else gives a shit, I promise, I just mean that if you want to come back, you might want to leave before anyone figures it out, you know? Not personal at all.” He gave him a sweet smile that probably would’ve rendered Michael incoherent and weak-kneed any other time, but with his nerves as wired and burnt-out as they were, it only tugged at his anxiety-ridden heartstrings.

“Actually,” Calum continued, tilting his head, “I can get you a ticket or something for another night if you want to do this again.” He gave him a lopsided smile. “You know, as long as you don’t hit another actor again.” Michael assumed he must’ve looked panicked, because Calum was quick to console him. “Hey, hey, I’m kidding. Sorry, too soon.”

“Holy, fuck, Ashton, is that real?” Someone else asked, entering the room behind them.

Calum looked back at Michael, expression apologetic. “I’ve gotta- I’ll have to run damage control, Alisha - the girl - is nice but he’ll need, uh, help. Uh...The exit’s right through there, down the stairs, to the left. If you can get back before we open sometime, cut the line and ask for me. Uh. Calum. That should get you in.” Michael only realized Calum had put a hand on his arm at some point when he squeezed it gently and let go.

With another hasty apology, Calum had to return to Ashton and the whole mess Michael had caused. Michael stumbled on nerve-numb feet through the dark employee back-passageways, hearing the occasional shriek from the haunted house proper. He couldn’t help but berate himself and wish he’d done the entire fucking thing differently. And where the fuck had his friend been? Maybe he wouldn’t have been so nervous to begin with if the fucker had actually texted him back at some point.

This whole thing had been social-anxiety massive-fuckup nightmare fuel. Seriously, Michael thought as he finally managed to make his way out of the stupid house into the city, shivering in the much-cooler nighttime air, this was going to haunt him for years. Let alone punching anyone in the first place - his hand still sort of hurt, though not a proper hurt, more like the vague ache wrapped in the anxiety-spiking memory of what he’d done - but punching an absolutely gorgeous guy in the face? Fucking hell. Worst thing he could think of.

It was still fresh on his mind as he tucked himself into bed, fresh from a shower as he’d tried to scrub the stupid memory off his skin. He just hoped he managed to actually get over this and it didn’t haunt him forever. Though, he’d been pretty fucking haunted when he’d gone to grab pizza and when the guy had said “enjoy your meal,” he’d said “you too, thanks, mum.” He hadn’t even realized his mistake until he’d gotten outside with his prized pizza. In his defense, he’d been texting his mom, and gotten mixed up. There wasn’t really a defense here.

Fuck. He really hoped this didn’t haunt him.

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

Well. It haunted him. That first night had really, really sucked. Like...really sucked. It had taken ages to manage to fall asleep after that, since every time he tried, he was painfully reminded of the moment he hit Ashton right in the nose, and how awful that had felt. And everything afterward had just been an anxiety-fueled mess.

He had class the day after, too, which really fucking sucked, but it meant he didn’t have to sit and dwell on every single mistake he’d ever made in his life. The biggest one was obviously his birth, followed very closely by hitting Ashton. He decided, though, by the end of that day, that he definitely wanted to go apologize again. Just because it hadn’t felt quite like enough just saying he was sorry. He needed to actually prove it somehow. Maybe. Or he was just an idiot. Only time would really tell.

He got a gift card for the coffee shop where he worked, because he got a discount on it, and everyone liked coffee. Did Ashton like coffee? He really hoped he did. He was still kicking himself for not getting his number so he could make sure he was okay and apologize, but, in his own defense, everything had gone upside-down topsy-turvy really, really fast.

He got down to the haunted house, still a while before it actually opened. He went straight to the front of the line, remembering Calum’s promise to get him in. Hopefully he could use the advice to apologize properly to Ashton. The guy at the front of the line was kind of a dick towards him, but Michael managed to find a worker in one of the designated t-shirts for the house.

“Hey, uh, is Calum or Ashton here?” Michael asked, praying he didn’t seem near as awkward as he felt. He just wanted to apologize and leave before he embarrassed himself any further, that was all. Everything was fine. It was fine.

“Oh, yeah. Are you one of their friends or something?” The guy glanced at him before shrugging. “Calum’s working customer service and merch. Come on, I’ll show you.”

Michael followed the guy into the house, down a hallway that wasn’t super obvious, to what was clearly right after the exit of the house. There was a booth set up, shirts dangling from the top and displayed in the back, along with magnets and other sorts of merch along the table. Calum was sitting behind it, earbuds in, focused solely on his phone. The guy Michael had been following tapped on the table to get his attention, making Calum’s eyes snap up. He grinned over at Michael, pausing his music and tugging his earbuds out.

“I’ve got to get back to the front, but this guy was asking for you and Ashton. You know him?”

Calum’s smile didn’t dissipate. It didn’t do much to sooth the suddenly overactive butterflies in Michael’s stomach. “Yeah, I do. I’m good, you can go.” The guy nodded and left, leaving Michael alone with Calum.

“Hey,” Calum greeted, grinning again. “I wasn’t sure you’d come back. I was hoping you would. Are you here for the house?” His smile went coy. “Or for me?” He was clearly teasing, but Michael’s face flushed.

“Uh. I- well. Uh. I came- well, I’m here to apologize. Yeah. To, uh. To Ashton. Again. For hitting him. I mean, by accident. I didn’t mean to.” And wow, way to be smooth. Michael just didn’t know how to function around cute guys at all. Especially not when they sounded like they could possibly be flirting with him, if they were on another planet, where people actually flirted with Michael.

Calum just gave him another sweet smile, standing and leaning against the table. Michael definitely didn’t pay attention to the way Calum’s back arched, or the way he tilted his head sometimes without meaning to, or how good his jeans looked on him. He didn’t see any of that at all because he was a good person. He just..wasn’t blind. And Calum was cute. “Ashton’s fine. I think he’s working tonight, but I can shoot him a text.” Michael didn’t even have to reply before Calum was pulling his phone out of his back pocket and sending a text, presumably to Ashton.

“The house opens soon,” Calum continued, “but we’ll see if we can get him up here.” He smiled a little. “You know, after you hit him by accident, they tested out some fake chains. They thought it worked great - until they did a test run, and Ashton broke them when he moved forward. Guess even plastic couldn’t hold up to his upper body strength, huh?” He smiled, eyes squinting a little when Michael flushed darker. Everything was absolutely, perfectly fine.

Calum’s phone vibrated again and he checked it. “Oh, shit. He’s a bit hung up right now. You want to stick around for a minute and see if he can swing up here? I can give you a bit of a behind-the-scenes tour.”

Michael considered but nodded. “Yeah, uh. That would be great.” His friend - who still hadn’t fucking gotten back with him, it had been two days, asshole - was supposed to do that when he’d originally come to the house. Better late than never, at least, even if he’d never gotten to actually make it through the haunted house proper. He just had to survive spending time with a super cute guy in the stupidly narrow employee hallways.

Calum grinned again. “Great!” He slid over the top of the table, knocking a couple magnets to the floor. He glanced at them before shrugging. “I’ll deal with that when I’m back. Come on.” He grabbed Michael’s wrist, his hold warm and gentle, and lightly tugged him towards another hallway. “So what do you want to see first? How we put everything together? How we make a couple of the rooms function? Where we keep all the fog machines?”

“Uhhh……” That was….a lot of options. Michael honestly wasn’t sure where to start. The last comment earned Calum a laugh, short and a little nervous. “Anything?”

Calum nodded sagely, like Michael had made some interesting comment that could be considered, instead of fumbling over his words. “I’ll just start with the basic tour then.”

Calum tugged him into another room, launching into an explanation of how they put it together, and how it matched up with the other rooms in the house. He talked about how they had speakers in each room, and made sure the haunted house genuinely felt like an old rundown mansion with a stone basement. The next room was every bit as interesting, if a bit colder.

“That,” Calum explained, “would be because we keep one of the fog machines in this false wall.” He knocked on it, the sound hollower than a real wall would have made. “It adds to the vibe.”

Michael just agreed that it did, in fact, add to the general vibe of the haunted house, unsure what else to say to that.

“You know,” Calum said, eyes lighting up a little when he smiled, bright and mischievous, “I’m pretty sure they spent most of the decorating budget on the fog machines. In order to get the light fog in the dungeons, we had to keep one every couple rooms. And then the one in the front room, so people know we’re spooky.” He wiggled his fingers with his free hand, his other hand still warm on Michael’s wrist where he hadn’t let go yet.

Michael laughed, earning another triumphant smile from Calum. “That sounds right,” he said honestly. The basement - or what little he’d seen of it, at least - had definitely been neat, with the very light fog swirling around his ankles. He just hadn’t really made it that far.

And, like Calum was a mindreader, he almost immediately said “Hey, you didn’t finish the house, right? Want to get a tour of the basement? I can show you where I had to use Klorox wipes to get Ashton’s blood off the floor.” Another grin, clearly amused with himself.

“Uh...Yeah, okay, that sounds good,” Michael said, ever so eloquent. Being in the presence of a pretty guy did not help him at all, only serving to shut down any critical thinking skills he’d ever had.

“Great! This way-” Calum started to gently lead him out of the room, hand still warm on Michael’s wrist in the chill of the room, before he was interrupted by his phone buzzing. “Fuck, what now?” He pulled his phone out of his back pocket, which Michael found impressive given how stupidly tight they were. Calum let out a huff, letting go of Michael’s wrist so he could send a text back. “Fuckin’ hell. I’m gonna have to go.” He gave Michael a look that really looked like apologetic puppy dog eyes, but Calum somehow pulled it off. “We’re letting in the first group soon. I’ve gotta go back to my booth.”

“Oh, shit.” Michael was pretty sure that was the right response. He was still distracted by the smiles Calum had flashed him just moments before. Sue him, his weakness was cute guys, okay? And social interaction. Especially social interaction with aforementioned cute guys. Like Calum.

“I’m sorry. I guess Ashton will be wrapped up in that, too.” Calum frowned, thinking for a moment. “Are you free tomorrow?”

Michael flushed, a natural reply to being asked that by A Cute Guy. “Uh. Yeah. I have class in the morning, but I’m free after.”

Calum grinned again. “Great. Swing by here again? You can ask for either me or Ashton. We’ll get you taken care of, don’t worry.” He winked at Michael, smile still on his face. Michael felt himself flush deeper, praying it wasn’t too visible in the dim lighting of the haunted house.

“Yeah, uh, okay. I can...I can do that.” Maybe he was reassuring himself a little bit. But it would be fun. Calum led him back out of the room, his hand going to the small of Michael’s back, warm even through his hoodie. If Michael’s blush had faded, that brought it back full force. Calum’s hand dropped once they were back in the hallway, but his hand brushed Michael’s on every other step as he led him back to the front, to the area where Calum’s merch booth was.

“Here we are. I’ll see you tomorrow?” Calum asked, expression earnest. He squatted to pick up a couple of the magnets and buttons that he’d knocked to the floor earlier. Michael definitely didn’t glance at his butt, because he was a very nice person, and very good at resisting things.

“Yeah, I’ll, uh, I’ll be here.” Michael was completely fucking incapable of going one sentence without stumbling over his words. It was annoying. It was like being near any attractive guy whatsoever made his brain completely short circuit and stop working. He was pretty sure he just suffered from Dumb Bitch-itis or whatever. It was fine.

After a quick goodbye, Michael made his way to the exit and started the walk back home again. He couldn’t say that excursion was really a failure but he still hadn’t done what he’d meant to do. How many cute guys could work there, anyway? That had to be it. So hopefully he’d function properly next time he had to go, even if Calum and Ashton both completely shut his brain down. The gift card was still in his pocket, even as he reluctantly shucked his outside-hoodie to switch to his sleeping-hoodie. At least this time he didn’t have too much to haunt him before he fell asleep.

Except punching Ashton, his brain helpfully supplied. And with that, his hopes for some peaceful sleep went out the window, just like his critical thinking skills had earlier when he’d had to talk to Calum.

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

Michael prayed that this was the last time he’d have to go to the house. He didn’t dislike it, honestly, it was interesting and incredibly well put together. But he really just wanted to apologize to Ashton and have the whole thing be done with. Or, half of him did, at least. He hated when things got drawn out like this, and something hung over his head. He didn’t like feeling like he owed any debts at all. The other half of him, though, kind of didn’t want it to be over. Because then he wouldn’t get to see Calum or Ashton again. And alright, maybe he was a bit of an emotional masochist knowing that they wouldn’t like him but it was...nice, kind of, hanging out with people. And he wasn’t going to complain about getting to hang out with cute guys. Like...ever.

The thing was, though, it wasn’t like he could really be friends with them. He’d fucking punched Ashton right in the face for fuck’s sake. The friendship ship had long since sailed, and he’d lost any chance of talking to him like a functional person as soon as he’d panicked and hit him. Which sort of destroyed any chances he had in befriending Calum. And maybe he was a little bit lonely, and tired of spending all his free time by himself. The cute guys at the haunted house were a no-go, though, so he wanted to be done with them as soon as he could be.

Michael tugged his hoodie back on, and made his way back out into the outside world, where people weren’t so kind, and there were cute boys to accidentally hit and regret your entire life over. He didn’t want to think about having to talk to Ashton again, or Calum, doing his best to save all of his brain power for actually having to socialize, rather than wasting it on indulging his anxiety now.

He cut through the line again, though it was a bit earlier this time, so it wasn’t as long as it had been, and made his way to the front of the house. One of the workers, in the same haunted house shirts he’d see the others in the days before, stopped him.

“I’m here for Ashton?” Michael said, still not entirely sure of himself, like this wasn’t the second time he’d come back to the house and had to ask for them. “Or Calum.”

The girl glanced Michael up and down quickly, seeming to assess whether or not he was telling the truth. And really, why the fuck would he bother lying? He wasn’t even really trying to get into the house, but apologize fully to Ashton so he could hopefully stop being haunted by the memory of his major fuck-up.

“Alright, come on,” she said, turning on her heel and leading him inside. He followed her back through the room Calum had been stationed in the day before, the merch booth left empty, now, no cute guys with equally cute smiles there to drag him through the maze of the house.

The girl led her down a couple hallways Michael definitely didn’t remember, but he really hadn’t been paying as much attention to the hallways of all things the last time he’d been there. But he was pretty sure he didn’t remember any of this. Which was only reaffirmed when she stopped in a doorframe. “Luke,” she called in, hand on the doorframe. “This guy’s asking for Calum and Ashton. I’m busy downstairs. Can you try and track them down for him?”

Michael could see over her shoulder, but couldn’t see who she was talking to. Luke gave her some form of affirmative, he guessed, because then she was turning back to look at him. “Right. You stay here with Luke. He should be able to find Calum and Ashton. You can wait with him. Good luck.” She turned and headed off back down a couple narrow hallways, leaving Michael more confused than he had been before she’d tried to help.

“Come in, I don’t bite,” came a guy’s voice from the other side of the room. Michael reluctantly shuffled in, already tugging his hoodie sleeves down over his hands. How many times was he going to be shuffled from person to person before he managed to actually give Ashton his stupid gift card and go back to his life of reclusivity, hidden away in his single dorm room. Then he’d finally get to forget how massively he’d fucked up, and not have to think about all the stupidly cute boys that worked at the stupid haunted house.

The room had several chairs set up, with a couple of tables cluttered with a bunch of weird bottles, makeup palettes, and gallons of stage blood. It was empty, except for a girl sitting in one of the chairs, and a guy working on her makeup. He was tall, with ridiculously long legs, and his blond curls pulled back into a small bun, messy, with flyaways wisping around his temples and a couple strands of hair in his eyes when he flashed Michael a quick smile. “Alright,” the guy said, pulling back to inspect his work. “You’re good to go. But maybe try not to fuck up your chest wound next time? It’s not so easy to fix.” She murmured some sort of agreement - and what sounded like an apology - before heading back out, probably to wherever she was supposed to be stationed.

The guy turned to Michael and flashed him a smile, tucking his brush behind his ear and wiping his hands on his thighs before offering one to Michael. “I’m Luke. But, uh, I think you already knew that.” His smile went a little sheepish. Michael just shook his hand, internally cursing himself for having cute boys as a major weakness. Because Luke was definitely cute.

“I’m Michael,” he said, because he was pretty sure he hadn’t yet, and it seemed like the proper time for an introduction. His brain might short circuit a little bit around cute boys, but he didn’t completely forget everything. Usually. Not yet, at least. He was just hoping to keep at least a fraction of his critical thinking skills. So he didn’t end up hitting him in the face, his brain supplied helpfully, even though that had only ever been the one time, and under very different circumstances. It didn’t make him feel much better.

Luke broke into a smile almost immediately, letting out a laugh - more of a giggle, really - that made his nose crinkle. “You’re the guy that punched Ashton,” he said, eyes crinkling a little with amusement. “Holy shit. You’re a legend.”

Michael flushed, feeling his whole face heat up, even though the room was just as chilly as the rest of the haunted house. “Uh. Maybe just a little. The one time.” He scuffed the toe of his sneaker against the ground, suddenly a little nervous. Or...more nervous. Luke was just as cute as the others had been, stray glitter stuck to his hands (and Michael’s palm, now, after he’d shook his hand), and his hair in that stupidly endearing bun. And apparently he knew about the biggest fuck up in Michael’s entire life, which really wasn’t all that good for his already not so fantastic self esteem.

Luke nodded, still looking only a couple seconds from laughing. “The one time. Yeah. Ashton thought it was hilarious. It worked out, though, he got the rest of the day off, and convinced them to fix his position so it hopefully wouldn’t happen again. Well, I mean, they mostly agreed that he could keep his phone on him as long as it was silent so he could call Calum or something to come get him if something happened. But he counted it as a win.”

Luke leaned against the table, hip causing a couple bottles to fall over. Luke flushed, pink covering his pale skin, as he rushed to sort everything out, right all of the bottles. He knocked one of them off the table, squatting down to grab it and smacking his head against the edge of the table on his way back up. It knocked the brush from behind his ear, which hit the floor with a quiet clatter. Luke managed to stand up properly, though, his face red, and clearly flustered. “Um. Anyway. So you- Uh.” He shook his head, more curls coming free of his bun and dancing around his temples when he moved. “Ashton wasn’t upset, you’re okay. He’s kind of hard to rattle. Calum and him have been joking about it, mostly. They just didn’t mention you were cute.”

Michael had watched Luke’s moment with the bottles, eyebrows furrowed in concern, but he hadn’t wanted to overstep. He’d gotten it sorted, anyway, and his head seemed fine. So he didn’t ask, just watched him with the same slightly cautious expression. Luke’s last sentence threw him off, though, and it was Michael’s turn to flush, staring at Luke a few beats longer than socially acceptable. “Oh, uh- you think- I’m not- I’m pretty, just, you know- uh. Thank you. You’re- the same. Cute. I mean.”

Luke laughed, soft and gentle and warm, meant to be with him rather than at him. Michael’s blush darkened, but he didn’t feel quite so bad about being an absolute idiot. “Thank you,” he said, head tilting a little to the side, smile back on his face. Luke was tall. Taller than Calum and Ashton had been, enough to make Michael aware of the difference. No wonder he’d been clumsy, though he’d seemed to have reclaimed his grace now, lanky limbs seeming only to add to his charm and poise rather than detract from it now that his footing was stable and no bottles were falling on the floor.

“So why’d you come back, again?” Luke asked, yanking Michael out of his reverie. He’d moved to straighten some of the bottles and makeup palettes cluttered on the table. He glanced at Michael before his eyes shifted back to what he was doing. And yeah, that was definitely stray gold glitter stuck to his hands, front and back.

“Oh. Uh. I wanted to say sorry to Ashton again. I just...haven’t been able to catch him. Came back yesterday and same thing.” Michael tugged at one of his hoodie sleeves, watching Luke’s long fingers tighten what looked like a tall bottle of latex. And okay, maybe he’d watched a few too many behind the scenes videos of his favourite horror movies, and wasn’t completely brand new to SFX stuff.

Luke glanced up at him again, interest in his blue eyes and all over his face. His hands paused where they were. “You were here yesterday?”

“Uh. Yeah? I was just with Calum for a while but then he got some text and I didn’t get a chance to see Ashton before I had to leave.” He didn’t know what about that was so interesting, but whatever. At least he wasn’t tripping over his words now and could talk to Luke like a proper functioning human being.

Luke hummed but didn’t offer an explanation for asking. “Do you want me to do your makeup or something while you wait?” He asked, as random and out of nowhere as anything.

“What?” Michael asked, brows drawing together again. He was pretty sure Luke hadn’t said what he thought he’d said.

“Do you want me to do your makeup while you’re waiting?” He repeated, gaze as earnest as ever. He wasn’t lying.

“I mean, holy shit, yeah,” Michael said, maybe just a tad too eager. Get his makeup done by a makeup artist at the haunted house that had won awards for SFX? Hell fucking yeah! He wasn’t turning that opportunity down. Hopefully it went better than attending the haunted house had.

Luke beamed, looking absolutely pleased with himself. “Okay, come over here and sit down and I will. Do you want, like, a cut or something? I have a couple spare prosthetic injuries I could use. I know I can’t do the missing eye one on you, you can’t really see in that one. I have a couple of the small claw ones, like I think I used on Ashton? If you want some of those.”

“Uh. Yeah, that works.” Michael made his way over and sat down in the chair, shifting a little bit. He’d never really had his makeup done before, but he was more excited to get to see someone do SFX up close. On him.

“Can you pull the hoodie off?” Luke asked over his shoulder, starting to sort through his supplies. “I need more space. I can do it right below your collarbone, I think. That’s enough space. With Ashton, I think I slotted some at the top of one of his pecs and then some on his ribs, on his side.”

Michael flushed but tugged his hoodie off, getting his head stuck in the stupid thing only momentarily, before it was off and he could ball it up in his lap. Luke turned back to look at him, humming softly to himself. He tugged his hair free from the bun, curls falling freely to frame his face, before pulling it right back again. Just like before, curls too short to fit in the bun curled around his temples and his ears. Luke ignored it, stepping closer with the small prosthetic in hand.

He hummed a little again, eyeing Michael’s collarbones and chest. He tugged the neckline of Michael’s shirt down a little bit, holding the prosthetic up, just below his collarbone as he’d said. “This should work pretty well. Has anyone ever done makeup on you before?” Luke turned to grab something else, probably his adhesive, before turning back and frowning. “It might be easier, since I’ll need both hands for this. You can put it back on afterward, it’ll sit right above your neckline. Right here.” Luke tapped a finger lightly where he planned on putting the prosthetic.

Michael flushed. “Uh. Yeah, okay, I guess.” He really wasn’t used to this. Going shirtless in front of a cute guy? Yeah, that really didn’t happen. Like, ever. He reluctantly tugged his shirt off, though, still not about to turn this opportunity down. The shirt joined his hoodie, both balled up in his lap. He was rewarded with a sweet smile from Luke, before he was surveying the area he wanted to stick the prosthetic, which did little to help Michael’s blush.

“This might be a little bit cold. It’s room temperature, kind of.” Luke started applying the adhesive, completely in Michael’s personal space. “So did you like the house?” He asked, fanning the adhesive with his hand, gaze shifting to Michael’s face. “When you came? Before the thing with Ashton, I mean.”

“Yeah, I did. Uh. I’ve been wanting to come here for years, and I finally got to get a look. I really, really like horror shit, and thought about being an SFX artist but I don’t have the talent at all.” Michael resisted the urge to shift in place, or bounce his leg. He didn’t want to fuck up whatever Luke was doing. “It’s, uh, really well put together. No wonder it’s won awards and shit.”

Luke hummed, tapping the adhesive before grabbing the prosthetic and leaning down, tongue sticking out a little in concentration, as he carefully stuck it down. He held it in place for a moment, pulling back to inspect his work. He moved to grab one of his makeup palettes. “Yeah, it’s a lot of work to pull it together and get everything set up properly. But I can get out of some of it sometimes, since I do makeup.” He grinned at him before starting to add colour to the prosthetic. “You wanted to do SFX?” His gaze flickered up to him again, before again it dropped to what he was doing. “I could always show you some stuff, if you wanted. I’ve been doing it for a couple years, so I think I’d probably be okay at that.”

“Didn’t you guys win something last year for your makeup?” He asked, tilting his head a little bit.

Luke turned pink. “Well, yeah, but that wasn’t just me, that was the whole team. But, um. If you wanted that, I definitely could.”

It was then that it really clicked what Luke was offering. This was a chance for Michael to actually get hands-on experience with SFX and get to see it up close. Not only that, but he’d get the chance to actually do it himself, with someone else’s guidance, and see if he was actually shit at it. And that someone happened to be award winning. And really cute. “Fuck yeah, I definitely want that.” Okay, he needed to curb his excitement. Just a little.

Luke let out another one of his giggles, still working on the colouring of the prosthetic. “Okay. I’m happy to show you. I’ll get your number when I’m done? So we can set up a time?”

Michael definitely didn’t turn pink at that or anything. He was totally suave, totally used to getting cute guys’ numbers, especially while he was shirtless in front of them. Obviously. And maybe that was a little bit of a lie, and this was brand new. And maybe he was a little bit pink. “Uh. Yeah, that sounds good.”

Luke hummed, attention mostly back on the prosthetic. He was silent for a few moments before he spoke up again. “You said you wanted to do SFX. So what do you do instead?”

“Oh, I’m a film student. I work at, uh, Great Awakenings? The coffee shop a couple blocks down from here on campus.” Michael, again, had to resist the urge to shift around in place. Not because it felt weird, but because he didn’t know what to do with himself, or his nervous energy. He couldn’t even tap his foot or anything on the ground, for fear of fucking up what Luke was doing.

“Oh, that’s neat! I’m doing philosophy right now. Ashton’s doing English. Focusing on literature, I think. And Calum’s doing psychology,” Luke flashed Michael a bright smile before going back to his work, still carefully adding pigment to the prosthetic.

“Oh, that’s, uh...pretty cool. What made you choose philosophy?” Michael asked.

Luke hummed a little to himself. “I dunno. Just thought it seemed interesting. I’m pretty happy doing this, but I don’t know if I can make a career out of it. Or if my skills are even enough to try.” He paused. “I know I’m good enough to work here, I just don’t know about beyond that,” he corrected, fingers stilling where they’d been working. It only took a moment before he was back at it again.

Michael understood that, honestly. “Yeah, I know what you mean. That’s why I’m in film. I don’t know how far I’ll make it, either,” he said honestly.

Luke gave him a frown, more adorable than it had any right being. “I’m sure you’ll be good at it, Mikey.”

Michael flushed at the nickname, but didn’t have any time to add anything before Luke was turning around to face the table. “Okay, I just have blood and then I’m done.” Luke grabbed the bottle and a tiny brush, turning around to face Michael yet again. He gave him a tiny smile before he was back to work, tongue poking slightly from between his lips in concentration.

Luke was pretty. Michael was struggling to think about anything else, even with how desperately he wanted to do SFX, and how much he’d wanted to visit the haunted house. It only took a few minutes before Luke pulled back slightly, surveying his work. Good thing, too, Michael was starting to get chilly. “Okay,” he said, eyes still on the prosthetic, forehead creased slightly, lips pulled into a small pout. He looked thoughtful. Michael refused to admit it was adorable. “I think I’m done.” He gave Michael another smile, nose crinkling slightly with this one.

Michael’s number one weakness was definitely still cute boys, because his brain short circuited immediately. He was saved from having to say anything, though, when a girl poked her head in the door, knocking twice on the doorframe to get Luke’s attention. “Hey, house’s opening in a few. Stand by in case of any fucked up makeup.” Luke just nodded, and then she left.

Luke frowned a little at Michael. “Okay, you’ll probably have to go before we officially open and groups start coming through. I might get busy, and we aren’t supposed to have visitors.” Luke chewed at his lip, thinking. “Okay. Uh.” He pulled his phone out of his pocket - Michael didn’t know how he fit anything in his pants pockets, they were stupidly tight and didn’t look all that comfortable - and offered it to Michael. “Give me your number? I’ll text you and figure the whole Ashton thing out so you can say sorry to him or whatever. And then I can show you how to do makeup.”

Michael nodded, taking the outstretched phone from Luke and obediently putting his number in. “That, uh, sounds really great. Thanks, Luke.” He passed his phone back and earned another smile from Luke that definitely didn’t make his stomach flip. Michael went ahead and tugged his shirt back on, careful not to fuck up his new prosthetic.

“Okay, sweet. Can you find your way out or do you want me to show you?” Luke asked, as sweet as he’d been the whole time.

Michael shook his head at the offer, though. “I’m okay. I can get out. Thanks, though. I’ll...I’ll catch you around?”

Luke gave him another smile. “Yeah. See you, Mikey.”

Michael made his way out of the haunted house for the third time, hoodie balled up in his hands despite the evening chill so he didn’t get fake blood on it. And maybe he stopped in front of the mirror once he got home to look at his makeup, stupid grin on his face remembering Luke (and the other cute boys that worked there). And maybe, just maybe, that was the first night since he’d punched Ashton that he didn’t seriously struggle to sleep.

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

Michael had almost forgotten the whole dilemma, when he woke up to a text from Luke. The phone screen was stupidly blinding in the darkness of his bedroom, and he cursed himself for bothering to check his phone in the first place. To be fair, though, he’d only wanted to see the time - he slept with his phone on do not disturb for this very purpose - he hadn’t expected the text.

Luke H: hey, r u free 2day? :-)

Michael stared at the text, blinking sleep out of his eyes, before he managed to get his brain to function enough to reply. And of fucking course Luke added a nose to his emojis. He might have only met the guy once, but it definitely seemed like a Luke thing to do.

Michael: yeah I should be. y?

Michael didn’t have a chance to even roll over before Luke had replied, phone buzzing again in his hand. Did Luke have nothing better to do? It had to be fucking early in the morning, and Michael’s main priority was going back to sleep. Though, in Luke’s defense, it usually was.

Luke H: no reason

Luke H: can u meet me at that coffee shop @ 1 later 2day?

Luke wasn’t making any more sense, even with his clarifications. And Michael was way too tired to think too much about his cryptic messages. So he just agreed.

Michael: yeah

His phone buzzed again, seconds after he’d hit send. Did Luke have nothing better to do than text Michael at fucking nine am on a Saturday morning? Didn’t he know how to sleep in?

Luke H: great :-)

Michael tossed his phone to the side with a sigh, resolving himself to being awake way, way too early. This wasn’t usually how he spent his mornings; normally, he slept in until noon if he didn’t have work, and spent the day catching up on homework he didn’t feel like doing during the week, and finished the day with pizza and a few rounds of FIFA. He didn’t usually meet cute boys at the coffee chop, for god knows what reason, and he usually didn’t wake up so fucking early.

The rest of his day passed slowly, starting with two cups of coffee to try and keep himself awake and functional. He could hear his mum in his head, reminding him that nine am isn’t even that early, that most people were already awake and functional by that point. So he just shook his head and told his imaginary mum to piss off, and that he wasn’t most people.

He managed to waste most of the day away until he was already running late to meet Luke. He tugged on a hoodie that he’d only worn once that week, making it objectively cleaner than most of his other ones.

By the time he made it to the coffee shop, he was a couple minutes past one. Which was fine, it was pretty standard for Michael. He never really knew what time it was, but he tried his best. At least he was only a couple minutes late this time. Hopefully Luke didn’t mind too much.

Speaking of the devil, Luke had taken a seat in the corner and, when Michael spotted him, was mid-laugh at something Ashton had said to him. Ashton, who was sitting right next to him, grin on his lips. Oh, fuck. Had Michael just been invited to fucking third wheel them or something? You could third wheel a friendship. Michael knew that, from trailing after a pair of best friends when he was a kid, before he’d just decided to be a loner for the rest of his life. But they seemed awfully cuddly now, too. Maybe they’d just invited him to laugh at him.

Or, the much smaller rational part of his brain pointed out, maybe Luke had invited Ashton since Michael had wanted to apologize to him again and had never gotten the chance. Maybe Luke was just being nice.

Michael just did his best to shove all those thoughts aside. There was no point in freaking himself out now that he was already here. Better to just figure out what Luke had planned and get it over with. Or enjoy it, maybe. Maybe.

Michael made his way over to their table, awkwardly taking his seat in front of them. Luke turned and gave him a bright, happy smile. “Hey, you made it!” He greeted, clearly pleased. “I went ahead and brought Ashton, I hope you don’t mind. You said you wanted to apologize, and we both think you’re pretty cute, so-” Ashton smiled fondly, but nudged Luke anyway.

“Don’t freak him out right after he gets here,” Ashton chided gently. He gave Michael that warm smile, shifting in his chair. “Hey, Michael. Good to see you again.”

Michael nodded a little, socialization abilities immediately leaving him. “You look good,” he said, before flushing. “No, you don’t. I mean - fuck - I don’t mean that, I mean you look good now that you’re not covered in blood. Or, you looked good then too. Well, not really, because I hit you in the nose-” Michael snapped his mouth shut. “I mean, it’s good to see you too.”

Ashton just laughed, good naturedly, but Michael was pretty sure he was one fuck-up away from them hating him. Still, though, his laugh managed to calm some of that built-up nervousness he was holding on to.

“You look good too, no worries,” Ashton said, corner of his mouth pulling up into a smile.

Michael just nodded a little, steeling himself before he spoke. “I’m, uh. Really sorry about hitting you. I didn’t mean to at all, and still don’t know how I managed to fuck up that badly.”

Ashton gave him another smile. Luke was busy fiddling with one of his curls, clearly only half paying attention to the conversation, if at all. “It’s okay. Really. You didn’t do any lasting damage, and you didn’t mean to. I’m fine now, and it made the managers have to reconsider the position. Besides, it just meant Calum and Luke were a little overprotective for a few days. I’m fine now, but they were worried for a couple days about bruising and possible lasting damage. You should really be apologizing to Luke for having to deal with blood.” Michael must have looked confused, because Ashton continued. “I don’t know why, but it freaks him out. He’s fine with all the SFX shit, he’s okay with gruesome fake injuries and fake blood, but any time there’s real blood? He freaks out.”

Luke abandoned his curl, tucking it behind his ear, to pout at Ashton. “Hey. I just don’t like it.”

Ashton gave him another stupidly fond smile and draped an arm over the back of Luke’s chair. “I know.” Michael felt like he was third wheeling, again. Which, okay, Ashton and Luke were cute, but he couldn’t help the way his stomach dropped a little. He’d thought they were pretty cute, and he hadn’t deluded himself into thinking anything would happen with either of them. But it didn’t really make it feel much better to realize he was third wheeling.

Sometime into his quiet sulking (which only could’ve lasted a minute or two at most), Calum had come up behind him, because now he was pulling out the chair next to him. Michael was effectively caged in now by attractive guys. Which, okay, was manageable. If his brain would stay functional. At least now he wasn’t third wheeling Luke and Ashton by himself anymore.

“Hey,” Calum greeted all of them, smiling in the way that made his cheeks squish up and his eyes squint. And okay, yeah, Michael definitely needed to get back into the dating world.

“Hey,” Luke said, brightening a little again at the sight of Calum. “Michael came.”

Calum nodded, giving Luke the same fond smile Ashton had. “I can see that, babe.”

Luke reached his hand across the table, towards Calum. Calum took it, gently squeezing his hand. And fucking great, had Michael gone from third wheeling to fourth wheeling? Was fourth wheeling even a fucking thing? It clearly was, if what he was thinking was correct. Because Calum, Luke, and Ashton seemed awfully fucking close - Calum had just called Luke babe, for Christ’s sake - and he was pretty fucking sure they were all dating. Or involved together in some way. So why fucking bother inviting Michael if they were going to act like that? It wasn’t like he thought it was a date or anything, but it seemed...rude to just be all couple-y with a fourth person there.

“I’ve gotta take a call,” Michael said, and the excuse to step out sounded lame even to his own ears. But it had seemed like they’d been...maybe not flirting with him, but flirty, and he felt pretty fucking awkward fourth wheeling them the way he was doing. So he wanted an excuse to step outside for a moment and breathe. He pushed his chair back, wincing at the noise it made, and awkwardly stumbled outside of the door. The bell above the door chimed as he did, which did nothing for his annoyance.

He took a few steps to the side, so he wasn’t in anyone’s way if they tried to go into the little coffee shop. He leaned back against the wall with a sigh, forgetting his excuse, and completely forgetting that he should probably at least pretend to be on the phone. Even if his phone hadn’t been ringing in the first place.

His melodramatic inner monologue of suffering was interrupted by the stupid bell chiming again. It earned enough of his attention to look up. And none other than Luke was standing there in front of him, apologetic smile on his face. “Hi,” Luke said, making his way a little closer.

“Hey,” Michael said, a little unsure.

“I just, uh...I’m sorry,” Luke said, fidgeting a little in place. His gaze shifted down to his feet, where he was absently scuffing the toe of his converse against his other foot. “I should have warned you about us. We just...it’s still kind of new, telling people, and we all...well, we all thought you were really cute, and I thought the rest of it would be easy if I managed to get you here. But life isn’t really like the movies, and I was kind of a dick to not at least warn you. Ashton said I should have, and he was right. I should have.”

Wait...what? Michael was left reeling a little. At least he wasn’t fucking crazy, and he’d been right about the three of them being together. Or, that was what it sounded like, at least. But the rest of it? What did Luke mean by them thinking he was cute? What the fuck? Why did Luke have to be so cryptic? “What?”

Michael was pretty sure Luke blushed. He just scuffed his toe against the ground again, before making eye contact. “I’m dating Calum and Ashton. Or, we’re all dating each other. Um...and we thought you were cute. We think you’re cute. And I fucked up and should have explained all of that earlier. So you didn't, uh...get blindsided by it when you got here.”

Well, that was...a lot. And unexpected. “So...is this a date or something?”

Luke shrugged. “It is if you want it to be.”

Michael considered that for a moment. Did he want it to be? He’d never dated more than one person before - hadn’t really dated many people in general, honestly. But he didn’t dislike the idea. He had gotten along with all of them individually pretty well...and they were already established, right? So maybe it would be easier for him to just join that. Maybe. “I think so, yeah.” He nodded a little.

Luke grinned, shoulders sagging a little with relief as. “Great! I’m sure we’ll talk about everything soon. Like, boundaries and limits and telling other people and the future and stuff like that. Ashton and Calum are pretty good about all that.” Luke reached for Michael’s hand, and he took it, letting Luke lace their fingers together. “For now, though, let’s go get coffee.” Luke tugged him back into the coffee shop, a triumphant grin on his lips. Michael couldn’t help the smile he gave him, just as fond as the ones Calum and Ashton had worn earlier. Something about Luke’s happiness was just...contagious and sweet. It made you happy to see him so happy.

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

The relationship ended up working out like a fucking dream. Michael had never felt so supported in his life, and he was pretty sure his boyfriends felt the same way. After the initial coffee date, they’d gotten themselves established, and talked about what they wanted and what they wanted the relationship to look like, and the future, just like Luke had said. And, to absolutely no one’s surprise, the conversation was guided by Ashton.

Telling his mum had arguably been the hardest part, but even that was made a little easier with their support. Answering her questions hadn’t been fun - he’d deflected the over-the-line questions, as anyone else would, and flat out refused anything rude - but they’d gotten it taken care of, and she’d been about as accepting as Michael could have hoped.

As promised, they managed to get Michael a job at the haunted house the following year. One of the managers had gotten fired after the incident with Ashton - not that that had been the cause, but he’d been a massive dick about it, according to Calum and Luke, and it hadn’t been a good look, so he’d gotten canned - which let Calum get a promotion. Ashton was happy to stick with being an actor. As long as, he’d said when they’d broken the news to Michael, stupid grin on his face, no one else punched him in the face. He didn’t want another boyfriend. It had earned him three eye rolls, and three fond smiles, from each of his stupidly indulgent boyfriends.

But it had meant there was an opening for the merch stand, and Michael would get three glowing reviews. So they’d managed to get him the job. And, Calum had reminded them at the time, pleased smile on his face, they had a lot of sway with one of the managers.

So after everything got settled, Michael’s life was the best it had ever been. He had three loving, supportive, wonderful boyfriends, a job he loved, and date night every Friday. Even if he was working, they were happy to come sit and entertain him until he was off. He didn’t feel left out with them anymore, either; after that first time, they’d gotten it sorted, and were quick to comfort and console him.

Ashton never fucking let him live down the way they met, though. He made dad jokes about it as often as they let him - “watch out for Michael, he packs a punch,” “ah, Michael’s got quite the feisty personality,” “Michael’s really got a nose for this sort of thing. He fucked up mine, so it’s only fair, I suppose” - which was way, way too often, given how bad they all were. Michael couldn’t even bring himself to care, though. Not when accidentally punching him in the face had been the one thing to pull his life together. Ashton’s dad jokes were definitely worth all of that.

#5soshalloweenevent2020 #5sos fanfic #ashton irwin fanfiction #luke hemmings fanfiction #michael clifford fanfiction #calum hood fanfiction #my writing #queue #yall i am BUZZING im so excited for this and that i wrote PROMPTS and people are WRITING THEM #like i DID THIS SHIT!! and people participated!!#VIBRATING w excitement...#i mean this is scheduled #but its likely that im around when it posts #i need instant gratification u see #i will b getting ready for virtual halloween tho <3

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reginaofdoctorwho · 3 years

Text

weird shit that would probably have something to do with me in a horror movie

no one wanted this but i’m bored and found a bottle so you’re all getting it. yes these are all true. check the tags, if u think i’ve missed something please let me know!

there was a murder (technically, i don’t really count it as a murder) next door when i was four years old on christmas morning

the weird antique glass bottle i found half-buried in the woods in the woods yesterday with living bugs in it that made no attempt to leave it once i uncovered it

there is a local cult in the next town over. this is not the same as the local cult that was in the other town over where my mom grew up

random completed animal skeletons in the woods behind our house, i’m talking prey and predator, both laid out like in a goddamn scientific diagram. for a while there’d be ones in the middle of our yard, always the same type of animal, always just the bones and nothing else, laid out like it was posed. this has been happening for over half a decade and we have no fucking clue how, why, or who is doing it

the screaming from the woods that i’m going to assume is a fox

my sister almost dated a murderer. his niece or something is in my class

there is a house that is now part of a “local ghost tour” that belonged to my great+ grand parents during the civil war where my great+ aunt died allegedly murdered by her husband who is actually blood related to me. family history says she died of childbirth, which given that it was the 1800s... probably is true

there was an actual murderer in our family a few generations back but he married in and killed his wife and her sister. they didn’t find out about it until they read his journals after he died where it apparently told everything he did and they decided. “well, that wouldn’t look good for the family, and they’re already dead anyway” and just kept it hidden??

the fact we have my great great grandmother’s dress from probably 1890s or 1900s. even more so the fact that i fit in it. if this was fantasy horror (vampires, some immortal thing or ghost) i’d be fucking dead or cursed

fairly certain i was possessed by the ghost of a puritan as a kid

my family seems to have a curse with babies and nurses? my great uncle died when he was born because long story short, hospitals were the new hot thing, he was perfectly healthy, then a nurse dropped him and he died instantly. my sister died when she was a toddler and the hospital actively tried to delete her hospital records to cover it up and ended up getting fined by the state for it. the nurses responsible were not arrested or punished in any way.

my family all has fucked up connective tissue, in my brother it was bad enough he had to get a steel bar in his chest so it wouldn’t cave in.

the many times i have almost drowned, sometimes due to intentional actions by humans (my dad, it was my dad)

this in addition to the other fucked up shit he did before the divorce when he still lived here, including but not limited to: killing my mom’s favorite pet goat, hanging its skull in a tree, and leaving the body in the woods. not letting his kids learn how to cook. anytime someone asked him to cook he’d put as much pepper/hot sauce in as he could (even for like, scrambled eggs) and give it to the youngest person, usually a toddler. this was me at times. taking his kids out to the woods and threatening murder. taking his kids out to the woods and threatening burning. purposely locked the basement from the inside so we couldn’t get the gaping hole in the stairs leading to one of three kids rooms fixed. tearing up pictures of the kids whenever my mom did something he didn’t like. i had more here but i tried to cut it down a litttle

people have threatened to murder me before. one time a girl didn’t threaten, and actually acted like she was starting to like me, but her cousin read her diary or something and found out she was planning to commit a lot of murder, and told her parents and she got sent to a psychiatric ward for a couple weeks

my mom lived down the street from a family that got axe-murdered by one of their two sons when she was a kid. the murderer did get out on an insanity plea and is still in the area. also their neighbor’s mom “lost her mind” (how the story was told) when she had to protect their kids while her husband went over to try to protect the non murderer son when he got home from school and ran over screaming about his brother trying to kill him and had killed their parents

also she knew a girl who almost got kidnapped by this really fucked up traveling serial killer that has his own wikipedia page that is,,, lengthy. the girl had [alleged] mafia ties, and the guy ended up dying shot by police despite them being told to bring him in, which sounds kinda suspicious

long story short i’d probably be the sequel where one comes back

apparently i go to the “bad” school, which i found out in a coffee shop when i overheard two girls talking about how one’s dad went there and how horrible and dangerous it is

school fights are weird. either they don’t happen or they come freakishly close to murder. people slam heads into lockers, stomp on bones, drag people by hair along the ground. one time in my brother’s class a 4′9″ girl sent a 6′2″ football player to the hospital. there was video of a fight a couple years ago that’s still around. it was brutal, but also one of the girls fighting was taking one for the team in it and got the other kicked out

we don’t have a ceiling in all of the third floor, and the cafeteria has 2. this is not relevant in any way, but it’s important to me that you know this

also the guys kept ripping the heating vents/radiators/whatever off the walls in their bathrooms and got almost all the bathrooms locked. including the girls’ ones.

also everyone kept punching holes in the walls so on some of them it’s just,,, metal sheeting down the whole hallway

there are so many fucking shootings in the next town over. literally five years ago it was this nice place where kids would go on history tours, i did when my sister worked for that group. now there is pretty much one business that has not been held up at gunpoint, and if u look up to the serial killer bullet point, it is for v similar ties. it’s a pizza place and if u ever stop by u gotta try it

women in my family have weirdly good intuition but every couple generations we get doubtful. my great grandma didn’t want a hospital birth but decided “hey it’s the hot new thing for a reason”, my mom switched churches based on nothing but intuition and it turned out someone was a pedophile there (found out years later), i instantly could tell my friend’s boyfriend was a pos and wasn’t surprised later when he told her he’d murder and dismember me in front of her, and upon meeting him told him he was a fucking coward and couldn’t do it. he broke up with her a month later.

i was really good friends for a while with two guys that burned a building down. yes they were arrested. i was friends before and after the fire. they’re pretty nice, but this girl they used to date (at different times, they were brothers, yes it was fucking weird and uncomfortable for everyone involved except her but that’s it’s own thing) said some fucked up shit and it was the closest i ever got to starting a fight. anyway i’m still friends with both on facebook. one of them shares a lot of king of the hill memes

speaking of that fight, i 100% would’ve tried to kill her in that moment. u know that john mulaney quote like “i didn’t understand how a person could want to kill another person. then i got cheated on, and i was like ‘oh, okay.’”? that was me, but replace “cheated on” with she told me it was good my five year old sister was dead because she was a waste, and told me she hoped i’d die of covid”. it was mainly the sister thing. i couldn’t move because if i did i’d start a fight with the [way] above mentioned shit.

my family has a literal feud with a local farming family. i mean, we keep farm animals (sheep, goats, chickens), these people have that, pigs, and crops too. the feud was because their great uncle (or great grand uncle, i’m a little fuzzy on the details) published an autobiography (despite not being anyone famous/important) and in it talked about when he was friends with my grandfather and how creepy my great grandfather was (this was the one with the dead firstborn son) because he kept newspaper clippings of the Lindbergh baby’s kidnapping and murder pinned to a board on the wall of his office/basement. also because he was a child of german immigrants who wanted to fight against nazis in WW2 (how suspicious [sarcasm]). members of their family are in my grade. they charged my sister for almost half an extra pound of goods, too, which just revitalized it.

i live by corn fields. i am surrounded by cornfields. (joke one)

i was friends for a while with this girl whose baby teeth,,, didn’t really fall out completely? she was 17 the last time i saw her in person, she’s probably 19 now and judging by her facebook pictures they’re still Like That. she had a very symmetrical mouth/teeth, which made it weirder. just to clarify, she had some of her baby teeth pushed forward and up, so they kind pointed out a little? and all her adult teeth. she was literally so pretty.

a teacher who is v sexual with his female students came into my english class (he is a science teacher) to demand why i wasn’t signed up for his class. we then both became increasingly passive aggressive and he told the whole class where i live with specific directions and landmarks. the guy sitting next to me had to try to tone things down despite being obviously confused as to why it was even happening (me too buddy). he lives down the road from my sister. when my niece had her birthday party at our house i was outside setting things up and he slowed his car down and honked at me. fuckin creep

#tw child death #tw animal death #tw arson #i guess?#tw shooting #tw murder #a lot of that one actually #tw child abuse #tw violence #let me know if u think i should tag anything else #no one wanted this #except for me #tw cult

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wreckofawriter · 5 years

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Not Yet

Pairing: Harry Potter x reader

Word Count: 3,270

Warnings: None

Request: Could u do something Harry Potter x reader were the marauders are alive and the reader is Harry’s gf and is as good as Dumbledore in dueling. And she was staying at Harry’s house for spring break and (Harry is still the boi who lived) Voldemort attacks them and says something like “if she wins she safe but for now I am going to take the most important thing in ur life” to Harry and he starts crying but then she out duels him and comforts Harry and Jily notices how much they love each other?

A/n: Ok so I know that the time line wouldnt exscatly be perfect for this fic but whatever I dont care. Also I'm sorry it tooks so long I had restart it because I didn't like my first draft. Anyway hope you guys enjoy!

"Harry, they're going to hate me." You groaned falling back from your sitting position on his bed to laying and burying your head in your hands.

Harry rolled his eyes smiling. "Y/n there is no possible way they are going to hate you, so stop stressing."

You turned your head to glare at the boy who was struggling to close his suitcase, "Oh yeah because when you met my dad you weren't stressing at all." You said voice dripping with sarcasm.

"That's different," Harry defended still attempting to get the buckles on his trunk closed.

"How is it possibly different, if anything I have it worse because you have like three dads." You pointed out.

"I don't have three dads." Harry grunted, cursing those textbooks that were making the task at hand nearly impossible.

You muttered a spell under your breath and watched as the items in his trunk shifted before the straps snapped closed neatly "You most certainly do have three dads." You iggled when he looked back up at you in amazement.

"I forgot you could so stuff like that." He murmured making his way towards the bed.

"Well you should try remembering." You smirked before Harry climbed on top of you meeting your lips with his. The kiss was soft sweet and short.

"Bloody hell!"

Harry quickly rolled off of you.

You both blushed heavenly looking at Ron who now stood in the doorway with Hermione.

"Sorry." You muttered looking down at you hands.

"Thank god you were only kissing I thought you were doing other stuff for a second." A book promptly shot across the room and hit Ron in the side of the face. He glared looking up at the beat red girl across from him "Can you stop with the no-wand spells? It's very confusing for us."

"Speak for yourself Ronald." Hermione chipped, "They are quite brilliant in my opinion."

"Thanks Hermione." You smiled the color trickling from your cheeks. You had always had a particular talent for performing spells without a wand. You barely touched it nowadays, you would simply do the spell without it.

It was a "rare but exceptional gift that very few acquired" McGonagall had informed you in your first year when you had performed a Relashio spell without a wand on your second day of charms.

You had noticed at a very young age that you could simply read about a spell, murmur the name under your breath, envisioning the result and said result would happen. It was quite helpful for dueling and protection

"We are leaving in a few minutes so we just came up to get you guys." Hermione explained looking at Harry's packed trunk, Hedwig placed beside it.

"Y/n where is your stuff?"

"Oh shit." You muttered.

"You aren't packed?" Harry asked worry covering his features.

"I was stressing so much I forgot." You hissed under your breath closing your eyes and thinking. Finally after a few seconds you remembered the spell and murmured it quietly.

You heard a shriek followed by "Merlin's Beard y/n can't you just pack like the rest of us, you almost killed me with your bloody broom!"

"Sorry Parvati!" You shouted back before your wand came whizzing into your hand followed by your trunk and your owl cage, your barn owl locked securely inside, and of course your broomstick which had been an unnecessarily expensive and fought against birthday present from Harry. "Packed." You smiled up at the other three.

When the four of you had finally boarded and settled on the Hogwarts Express nerves took you over once again. You found yourself tracing the scar on your hand feeling out every letter of the sentence, "I will not tell lies" engraved on your hand. You remembered Harry's fury when you had walked out of Umbridge's classroom tears pricking at your eyes as blood dripped from your hand. Fred, George and Ron had to physically hold the boy back from beating the pick monsters face in with his fists.

Harry quickly noticed your nervous state and slide his arm around you pulling you closer. "They are going to love you y/n/n."

You sighed and looked over at his breath-taking green eyes, "You don't know that."

"Come on you already met Remus and he loved you." Harry said trying to comfort you.

"Great only two more dads and a mom to impress." You said staring out the window.

"Hey look," Harry pushed your head back to meet his eyes gently, "Remus already likes you and my Dad will be easy, just tell him your a chaser and he will talk for hours. For my mom just talk about spells and all that stuff you are so bloody good at. And for Sirius just mention a few of the pranks you pulled on Malfoy and your in the clear. You are too amazing for them not to like."

"But what if they dont think I'm good enough for you, I mean you are 'the one who lived' and everything and I'm just...me."

Harry scoffed, "Just you? You mean the girl who has the best marks in every single class she takes. The girl who could take down there own professors when it came to dueling and knows how to perform more spells and charms without a wand than the Charms teacher does with one?"

You blushed looking down, "I don't have the best marks in Herbology, Transfiguration or Potions." You pointed out.

Harry sighed, "They are going to love you y/n. I just know it."

When the train stopped at platform 9 and ¾ so did your heart. You were jumpy and anxious, you felt as if you were running on adrenaline and caffeine.

Hermione and Ron said goodbye wishing you luck as Harry looked around for his parents on the crowded platform.

"There they are." Harry said grabbing your hand and heading toward a man who looks stunningly like Harry and a woman with bright red hair.

You gulped hoping you didn't look as nervous as you were.

When you reached the couple Harry hugged both of them as you stood awkwardly to the side trying not to draw attention to yourself.

"Mom, Dad this is the girl I told you about, y/n." Harry introduced.

You blushed a bit waving and to your surprise the women stepped toward you and brought you into a hug.

"It's so lovely to finally meet you, we've heard so much about you from Harry." She said pulling away to look you in the eyes.

"It's nice to meet you as well Mrs. Potter." You smiled.

James stuck out his hand and you shook it firmly greeting him as well.

"Well we better head home before Sirius burns down the house." Lily sighed.

"Its fine." James said brushing the issue away, "Moony is there too."

You looked at Harry "Who's Moony?" You mouthed silently.

"Professor Lupin." He whispered back.

You bit your lip hoping that he still considered you a good student.

When you reached Harry's house your nerves were buzzing again, you could hear the thumping of your heart loud and clear as Harry opened the front door.

You heard a loud "Harry!" Bellowed form inside the house and Harry was soon thrown into a hug by a man with long dark hair.

"It's great to see you again." The man who you were guessing was Sirius smiled.

"You too Sirius." You suspicions were confirmed. "Oh this is y/n." Harry said moving to the side so you were face to face with the man.

"Hello, it's nice to finally meet you, Harry has told me so much about you." You greeted sticking out your hand.

"I could say the same for you." Sirius winked taking your hand. You glanced over at Harry whose face was tinged red and glaring at the man.

You giggled as Harry pulled you away, "You can put your stuff in my room." He chatted as he dragged you up the stairs to the first door on the right.

When you entered you couldn't help but smile. The room was so… Harry.

The walls were painted a vibrant crimson, he had quidditch banners and famous wizard posters plastered on the walls. There was a wooden desk in one cornor, a dresser and a double bed against the other wall. A door which you guessed lead to a closet on the other. There were two hooks in the center of the wall above the dresser. Different posters and papers were sprinkled around the hooks where Harry had now walked over and placed his broom.

You walked closer to the wall to find that all of the papers and posters were tickets and brackets from various quidditch matches.

"My dad always takes me to them." Harry chimed in walking closer to you.

"That's brilliant," you nodded continuing to look at the items sprinkled on the wall.

"How many have you been to?" Harry questioned snaking his arm around your waist as you stood admiring.

"Oh, I haven't been to any." You shrugged turning to face the now appalled boy.

"What!?"

You shrugged again

"Really?!"

You nodded rolling your eyes playfully; "My dad just never took me."

"You have to come with us next time." Harry declared.

"I'd love too." You smirked leaning in to kiss the boy. Your lips had barley brushed his when you were interrupted by the bang of a door.

"Harry dinners ready…" Sirius' voice trailed off when he saw the position of your red faces. He smirked, Harry once again glaring at him.

"We're coming." Harry growled cheeks matching his walls.

"You are now?" Sirius jeered before descending down the stairs.

The second he was out of sight you burst into a fit of giggles.

"What's so funny?" Harry asked.

"I don't know," you laughed out.

With that you made your way to the stairs.

When you sat down at the dinner table you looked up to see your ex-professors eyes sparkling at you.

You smiled at the man and then turned your head to see Harry serving you some food. You thanked him then thanked the chef who sat proudly next to the professor his head of long midnight hair held high.

You quickly launched into a conversation with Mrs. Potter about your plans to be an Auror after Hogwarts while Harry laughed with his godfather.

Your conversation was cut short by Mr. Potter.

"So I saw you had a broom, you play I'm guessing." He inquired.

"Yes I do sir." You spoke politely before placing a tomato into your mouth and feeling its soft skin burst with flavor against your teeth.

"No need for the 'sir'" the man explained before adding, "What position?"

"I'm a chaser si-" you cut your sentence

short blushing.

James eyes widened under his glasses, "Really?"

"Yes, I have been playing since second year." You nodded.

"Wow, that's pretty young for a chaser."

"She's incredible, probably better than you Dad," Harry cut in, "She once scored 180 points in one game. That's only 30 points below the record." Harry gushed making you flame red, "And she's only in her fifth year." Harry added proudly smiling.

You felt on fire when all of the adults at the table looked at you in amazement and surprise. "It's really no big deal, I don't win the games your son does." You mumbled looking down at your food.

Harry rolled his eyes at your modesty even though it only made him grin impossibly l that's quite impressive." Sirius noted, "I didn't take you for a jock."

You bit your lip before hearing another voice cut through.

"She's not just a jock Sirius." Remus rolled his eyes. "When I had her in my class she had the highest marks of all the students, she's quite talented, especially when it comes to spells and charms, she would make a brilliant Auror."

You felt your face once again fill with fire as you looked across at the man who had spoken, "Thank you Professor Lupin."

"Just Remus." He said before taking a sip of his wine.

You nodded and looked at Harry who was smiling brightly at you his eyes sparkling like rare gems.

Lily opened her mouth to continue the conversation when suddenly Harry's smile turned to a grimace of agony. He bent over with a gasp, clutching his forehead.

Everyone instantly began to move, you moved toward Harry wrapping your arms around him, James and Lily reached for their wands as Sirius and Remus leapt from their chairs flicking their own to lock the doors and windows around them.

You and everyone else in that room knew what that anguish Harry was feeling meant.

Harry hissed air through his teeth in pain, "Y/n, you need to get out of here, he's coming, Voldemort's coming." He spit out.

You turned to Lily for an answer but it was too late.

The women flew across the room in a gust of wind

"Lily!" James yelled from across the room before he was thrown backwards into the china case with a crash. You turned to see five figures in black standing in the living room. Sirius leapt into action deflecting two spells before being hit with another.

Remus yelled in anger hitting one of the figures with a spell before being hit with two of his own.

During this you gathered your scattered thoughts and muttered a small protection spell under your breath.

Your heard Harry shriek with misery as another figure appeared in the room. You recognized the man -if you could even call him that- instantly. He started toward you and Harry who had somehow ended up on the floor your arm still sealed over his shoulders.

"Move girl." The thing headed toward you stated.

You rose to your feet to meet him as he neared. "No."

A cackle rose from the throat of the monster. "Look around you," he said gesturing to the four wizards all now caught by a figure in black, wands held by tattooed wrists at their necks.

"Move and you may live." The thing promised.

"No." You repeated grasping your hands to fists as you stood in front of the boy shaking in torment.

"Imperi-"

You didn't let the dark lord finish his spell before you whispered one of your own.

The most forgiving of the unforgivable curses bounced off your shield and hit the window with a crash. You then whispered a small healing spell to Harry and heard him gasp for breath finally being released from pain's cold grasp.

The white faced man now glared at you shooting another curse you deflected with ease. His frustration was now visible as he shot a series of painful spell at you. You muttered deflections and counter curses smoothly.

You almost smiled at the man's great surprise and rage at the new obstacle that stood in the way of Harry's death. Your joy was swept away quickly.

"Y/n move!" You heard Harry yelled before you were hit with a blinding sting in your chest. You fell back in pain gasping for breath. You turned your head to see Remus laying on the ground in a heap, his guard standing over you in triumph.

Suddenly you began to float up in the air. You tried and failed to regain your bearings as you were suddenly flying toward he who must not be named. You felt cold as his fingernails closed aground your neck.

You could smell rotting flesh and the metallic scent of blood. You could sense the hunger of the thing holding you, you could sense its hunger for death, for blood, for pain, he fed from it.

Voldemort cackled watching as Harry screamed, writhing in the grasp of the death eater holding him.

You began to feel adrenaline rush through you with new found terror. You couldn't die. No no no. Not yet. Please dear God not yet. You began to feel tears prick at your eyes. Please. Please not yet. Not yet.

"I can't kill you Harry." The monster paused "Not yet. But I can kill her. I can kill her easily as a bug, she's nothing." He howled in laughter. "The most important thing to you in this miserable world is nothing, its pathetic."

Harry sobbed attempting to throw himself forward as Voldemort's wand raised to your throat.

"Please not her, please, take me instead, not her dont kill her, let her live please." Harry begged, sobs making his words almost incomprehensible.

You watched in horror as Harry broke in front of you. You could hear his parents screaming in the background and Sirius crying for Remus to wake up.

Your body shook with anger and fear at the scene taking place in front of you. You squeezed your eyes shut and focused that energy. You focused just as your dad had thought you. You focused all that pain, fury, fear onto one thing, one spell, one person.

"Crusio." You murmured softly.

Suddenly you were released and sent sprawling towards the ground. You heard a blood curdling shriek of agony behind you and stood to see the dark lord writhing on the floor. As he did your head felt with a splitting pain and you screeched grasping at your temples in an attempt to stop the pain.

It ended as abruptly as it started and you stood over the man so many feared and you saw him look back up at you to see the one thing you were sure this man had never felt before in his eyes. Fear.

He was gone in a whisper of black smoke, his followers disappearing just as quickly.

You turned sliding to the floor next to the boy you loved, tears of relief springing from your eyes.

"She's gone, she's gone, she's gone." You heard him sobbing slumped on the ground defeated.

"Harry, Harry it's me." You said voice breaking. He looked up his glasses were long gone his emerald eyes shining with tears.

"Y/n?" He mumbled.

"Hey, yeah it's me." You cried.

"But y-you, you, you were g-gone."

"Not yet. Not yet." You sobbed tears of joy as you were tackled in a hug by the boy.

You sobbed on to his shoulder as he pulled you into him grasping you desperately, wetting your y/h/c hair with tears.

He pulled away from the hug grabbing your damp cheeks and smashing his lips onto yours.

The kiss was desperate and needy, Harry moved his lips roughly against yours, you could taste the salt on him left from his tears, the same salty droplets still leaking from your eyes.

When you broke away he pulled you into his chest again. "I love you. I love you, I love you, I love you y/n, I love you so much." The words fell from his mouth in a slur.

"I love you too Harry. I love you too" You cried into his chest.

Lily and James watched as the two of you reunited and looked at each other with the same eyes. They knew what the two of you had, they had seen very few like it, very few indeed. It was love. Not fake teenage dream "love". Not abusive of forced "love". Not one sided or used "love" but true and actual love. The same love they felt for each other. They watched as the young couple picked each other up and put each other back together and they knew that those two teenagers were in it for the long run.

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roseprincesskristina · 3 years

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The Crimson Doctor And A Patient

((Heyo! Today's special surprise goes out to the ladies out there whose unbeatable for White Day Zero never cease to die down. In this story, a very non illed patient has been called for check up at Maverick Hunter HQ located to the medical office. But what she didn't realize during her appearance is that a familiar "physician" plots a "special treatment" in store. Anyway, with that aside, please enjoy! 😊✌))

Daylight made its brightening occurrence to reveal a healthy smile upon the town of Abel City, homeland to the freedom fighting organization known as the Maverick Hunters who clash against unruly tyrants such as mavericks, with an unreasonable desire to do as they please like creating felonies on purpose without practicing the apologetic act or clemency towards humans. Lead by the previous commander, Sigma, wielding a soon-to-be dream of hoping for a perfect future when all of humanity has become swept out of Earth, leaving the powerful reploids to rule of an iron grasp without anyone to stop this nightmare. Until luckily, his schemes have yet again become silenced from the duo of upper class hunters X and Zero to restore peace by defeat him multiple times despite of the resurrection. No matter how unstoppable his power will be, companionship will always overdraw brawns.

Today is yet a lovely morning to enjoy life accompanying both humans as well as reploids together in existence, never the matter of differences. Birds tweeting in a cheery tone helping to rise up the evening mood, clear breeze easing away all stress penetrating inside the bodies, and the perfect balance between man and robot will always be much more peaceful than it was in the past. Life for this city along of its inhabitants, is what makes it ever so graceful as it is now.

You, a young human woman, are enjoying yourself to learn more about this city, since the first time arriving here to meet everyone, including the famous irregular slayers themselves in the flesh. While strolling throughout this section for a further enjoyment of a lifetime, a tall but familiar figure in red with golden locks tied in a ponytail gazes at your presence since he walked past you minding his own business, which cause him to stop for a moment. Not realizing about this person before yet finds her rather innocent, also beautiful unlike the rest who visits his office at headquarters. Inspires nature at most, being kind to others, helping, all of these things about you have gave him a pumping love struck. But as a wonderful pill to take. The perfect plot to gain her attention just pop up within his mind. In order for her to come towards him, he must pose himself as someone else that would woo her. Perhaps as a doctor like Lifesaver, however, a sexy version flashing his unbeatable charms to the hearts of women. The scarlet hunter wrote down this message on a paper, quietly places it in your back pocket with a lack of notice, then beams away to his dorm for an upgradeable change of armor. Chuckling menacingly yet flirtatiously to himself at the similar time.

"Mm he he he he... Oh this is gonna be too easy... As soon as she receives my form for tomorrow's health examination, I'm gonna give her a special present in mind for later just in case..." He schemed quietly, clothing his wardrobe into an unlicensed love physician as well as a long diamond colored operating robe to suit him better. Confiscating his upper armor part from the body, joined with losing an entire inner suit to pose as a "curing pill" should be the only powerful supplement there is to have patients fall into a hypnotic state once taken. He began to gaze to his divine reflection along of the secret "tranquilizer" to use for later. The smug expression reappears as he said... "The doctor...is in~"

The next day has occurred, you have been summoned here by a strange doctor for a visit about getting a checkup exam, due to a message given from the personal "assistant". Right in front of Maverick Hunter HQ while entering inside for an appointment today, one of the elite hunters began to escort you over to a different location by using an elevator that ascends directly to the room.

"Hello miss. I apologize for proceeding you so rudely, but the doctor wishes to see you immediately for your check up. Please follow me to the elevator." Nodded to the respected hunter, you proceeded with him while being escorted.

Meanwhile into the doctor's office, the other novice hunter reported that you'll be arriving very shortly to take a physics test, then an unknown medical reploid responded with a smile.

"Good~. Bring her into my office~." He said, spoken of a deep seductive tone. "Time to give my lovely patient a special treatment in store for her~... He he he he~...." Underneath his snow white operation coat, he refuses to wear his full red armor that he stripped out of but to have the briefs remain on along with the boots and helmet.

Making your way through a long hallway and appearing in an early time for the "treatment" to cure your body from illness that you don't have right now, you began to take a seat while waiting patiently for anyone to see you. Looking around this facility to keep you fully occupied would lower the boredom level to none even to ponder of your favorite spots in the park staring towards the clouds flowing by, along with spending time with your family, friends, including fun activities to do in a spare time. Until a sudden door has opened automatically catching your attention to peer who it is that exits the other room, revealing the similar yet unknown stranger from before who mistakenly sent an invitation to your bottom pocket when you return home. Wore a long white lab coat representing a medical expert that studies the anatomy along with holding a clipboard in his hand, geared with a pair of glasses. Standing in front of the desk with his back turned while awaiting for your attendance, he greeted you with a smile.

"Ah. Good evening, young lady. I've been excepting you." A gentle voice aims forwardly to you during his existence to check on you. "Thank you for coming in with a short notice to have an appointment. How are you feeling today? Are you physically active?" You replied at his greetings by a polite nod. Even though you're not an a crucial condition, he still needs to examine your well being clearly to make sure of it. "That's good. I see you have obtain the message that my assistant gave you at your house, correct?" Once again, you said yes. Showing the paper to him about getting a different medicine. Deep inside his mind, he's fully prepared to offer you something even more than a shot or anything else. The grin on his face made its return, meaning that you are in his trap for a romantic event to happen very so that you're fairly unaware of.

"Good. Very good. I'm glad to hear that you're perfectly well." Again he smiled towards your answer. "Now then, let's begin the study for your examination about yourself along of your health. Would you prefer the normal blood test? Or...." Slowly opening the long doctor's robe to reveal his stunning gorgeous abs by a flash, the visible blush shown itself into your face due to the witnessing dream before you. "Maybe I should give you a very sexual procedure instead~?" Without seeing this coming, you should've realized that something was completely off about the whole "appointment meeting with the doctor" phase, has been a scam the entire time. Even to notice of his voice more carefully, it was rearranged from original to sexually deep that gave women quite thrilling shivers. Hearing from the word "sexual" is not what a real doctor would say or has been printed into the dictionary, but surprisingly this person said it informally who imitates as one is obviously known as....

"Hey there, kitten~ Fancy having you here~ Ya miss me~?" Removing the glasses from his face steadingly to show a familiar expression, even a sexy voice shooting at you through the brain to assist your memory by remembering slowly during your later visit for a Valentine privacy, the "medical reploid" forms himself as none other than Zero. Upperclassmen of the maverick busting group that fights to remain balance for the city as well as the 0th unit captain. You silently gasped by a flush, covering up your full expression due to his irresistible "operation procedure" that he plotted only for you. Approaching seductively as he goes to you with both arms hidden behind his head licking his flawless lips in a rotating fashion, the heart shaded swordsman grasps under your chin. Winking a kiss upon your head proudly to see you again for a visit.

"Mmmm~ Glad to see your lovely mug again, my sweet little patient~ How's it going~? Surprised~? You should be, because I'm gonna cure your sickness from those dull worries spinning all over your cute little mind with a special antidote to cheer you up~" He said, circling around you romantically. Very much closer than ever, his body had almost planted onto you or face, releasing the inner urges trapped within your soul. Having your soft cheeks painted of the color pink because of the medical stud flexing passionately in front of you has surrender to him very quickly. However, the strongest sense of your will accompanies you to remain calm by doing as your hot host requires you to do. Surrender yourself within his grasps is the only option acceptable to make his evening a lot easier when it comes to mute types like you.

"So~ What's shakin, dollface~? Happy to see me~? Bet you are~" The handsome android said with an attractive spell waiting for anyone such as yourself to become its victim. "Guess you're wondering why the note I send ya wasn't a real one, right~? Well, that's correct~ Cause it was me all along~" The flustered gasped must've escaped from your mouth after his confessions. Slightly bamboozled of his plans, but have understood it very positively with an apologetic flush. "Awww~ Even though it was a prank, I'm still glad you're not upset about the false appointment~ Thanks for forgiving me, sweetheart~" Grinned the flamed colored love doctor, smooching your forehead. "Now, how about we start our own private meeting alone~? With me~ Holding you in my muscled palms~ In my medical lair~ Together~" Hands placed upon your shoulders quite so calmly, one knee landed onto yours caused your entire anatomy to burst into the shady burn of redness unlike any kind of sunlight in the summer, but a nervous highlight covers your body wholeheartedly. A replied nod answers his question has lend a satisfied smirk towards him.

"Mmmm~ That's my patient~ Just the way I like it in a human girl~"Purred the charming expert, sitting onto your lap for a comfortable view of you, existence, the rest. Such as the preparation pouring downwards on both by his unavoidable sexiness clearing a severe fever, which you hardly gain. "Hope you're ready to have your pleasurable surgery, cause I'm change your poor life like you did mine~" You flustered yet another with a blush and very psyched at both.

"Are you excited, little lady~? From the looks of your inclinations, I'd say you are prepared for a love making check up given by yours truly~" He questions you with a finger traveling around your body, sided by his lips advancing towards the ear. Already aware of that, yes has been answered once more.

Inside your thoughts, multiple visions about this miraculous hunk in glimmering crimson showing off his god like steel dancing erotically without an end to go by. Blowing kisses for no reason whatsoever, shushing your sadness in a minimum of his unstoppable flirts about you. Especially to a certain someone he utterly admires mostly in his dreams to help him rest peacefully at night, lowering dreadful memories of violent past back to the sewerage dump where it rightfully belongs. Never to be recognized anymore. All that remains forever in front of him, is a ravishing angel of the heavens dragging him out of the frighten memories that would engulf his existence from the world across him. Replacing the former thoughts along with the ex irregularity days due to his beginning since he was made by the late Dr. Wily. Vanished from his conscious permanently. The real focus he stares rapidly is the newly symbol of life, meaning you, rehearsing the balance to its regular rate, allowing peace to perform the rest. No more maverick infiltrations, people involved in death, either to realize about the crazed used-to-be maverick king's comeback. Just some good old fashioned treatment sucking several stresses right out of his soul. Siding with a loveable victim in his sights, pressing his "ultimate tranquil supplement" against you in a grinding position just to arouse your emotions to its knees.

"Ohhhh~ Man, you're looking pretty healthy since our last encounter in my dorm~ Have you been exercising all night~? Or are you thinking of little ol' me~?" He was starvingly interested from your improved figure than before despite of last month's enchanting love event which morphed his exhaustion into a craving appetite waiting to be served on a golden platter. Two shades of red reopened themselves in your cheeks, feeling his harden yet soothing hands cushioning everywhere around you by the shoulders, chest, even your body colliding with his.

"Mmmmm~ Even your cute little fever is smoking hot too~ But in a loving way, it always turns me on~" Yet another, your eyes were yanked in complete shook, leading you to shed a sweating tear drop all over your clothing. Heart beating of a repeatable rhythm, hands held on the chair, breath zooming right out of your yap. Unable to control yourself, he viewingly cools away your steam by speaking into your ear.

"You know~ I always love it when your nervousness never fails to amuse my thirsty needs~ It pours all over my succulent, gorgeous armor so nicely~ Making me a very naughty hunter wanting to be punished for being bad~" You hardly gulped while hearing his erotic sayings of himself about your shyness showering him. " But most of all~...." Shockingly, he whispers comely at you. "I'm very~... Very~... Also~.... Hungry to have you for dinner~ Mmmm~" Slurped the ruby painted blonde, without wearing his brighten armor and under clothing still. His traveling tongue have commenced to taste some elegant skin by laying it on your cheek, slithering up, down, the neck, anywhere but the body. He couldn't get enough of your sweetness, seconded to the soothing sensation of his voice entering your imaginations including to polish your dreams into reality. Pondering of his graceful anatomy washing off a few negligence torturing your goals, likings, inspirations. Gone with a single assault, no longer coming back to mind. Your urges were calling to him saying "Please don't stop~... ", or "More, daddy~...". Either way, it doesn't really matter for as long as you, an angelic patient, are into the golden locked physician's clutches, all has been going smoothly as predicted.

"Ohhhhh~ Mmmmmm~ God, you taste so better than the others~ Mmmmm~ So clean, even my taste buds went totally berserk over you~" Intrigued insanely, he obtains another lick of your scarless facial religiously. Thinks of you as everyone's favorite candy that he wouldn't dare try to resist from. Eating famishingly of your creamy substance away, he then sips for a deeper kiss so desperately that the new memory will last eternally. The shading scarlet blush in your skin, shoots its volcanic blast to the skies, ascending to all the stars of space. Blinking lashes accelerated by a flicker. His breath took yours, piercing the corrupted heart of the bad ordor. Slain for good to make sure it was turned to ash. Continuing his solo procedure upon the patient makes it so simple to do than an ordinary practice. Plus by this, it refers to satisfaction of his lips advancing all over you.

"Mmmmmm~ Mmmm~ Oh baby~ I wanna taste you more~"

Panting like crazy almost as "getting ready for school" reaction setting your insane inner desires free that yearns for the red charmer's fascinated treasures tangling you. Shutting down everything of your life, hobbies, friends, family relatives, including schoolwork in your head. Changing them into quadruple images of Zero whistles more than one smooch clearing any kind of illness that gets in the way to live a delightful life. Slaying viruses in one strike of no problems, demolishing boredom cells damaging multiple reputations with a swooning sword.

And thirdly, a most powerful shield of all to deflect thousands projectiles of allergies fired toward anyone clean from the ignorant snot of assumptions. Immune to all twisted disasters, lack of weaknesses, especially the gifted immortality to overpower any weak obstacles shooting their way. Nothing will ever penetrate his invulnerable barrier of hotness. Holding you in his arms will grow a hundred times tougher than the normal state, by purifying the tiredness you never had into a sleepless cycle of pleasure.

"Ahhhh~ You're easily delicious when your anxious persona made my stethoscope so wet~" He purred of enjoyment, rolling his pink licking buds in a circular part. "You remind me of someone I know whose also soft but compassionate~ Getting well with people, loves peace, all that~ He's an amazing partner when you get to know him~" No clue of who this person is, but you nodded towards his concern of X, 17th unit commander.

"But enough about that, let's focus on you for an example~ Placing my chilling shot in your warm heart~" He smirked purringly, rubbing his pecs followed with the bod pressing into you. A blazing blush had overtaken your emotions, thoughts and even the will to resist.

Attempting to flee from something incredibly challenging, he mashed the lips in yours much further. Forbidding your chances to leave so hastily, you have been carried towards and pinned to the table during an infinite smooch.

"Mmm~ Sorry, doll~ But it ain't gonna be easy to escape from me once you're already sealed in my restraints~ So just relax, and lemme give you my.... "health shot" to ease your painful anxiety~ Very~ Slowly~" Once again, the aired shade returns in your conscious than just a face alone. Inserting his best "shots" to freeze your movements gave him the opportunity to perform a lustful dance in order for you to give yourself up, his fingers formed into a snap to crank the sensual music.

Red lights beamed all around the room when activated, desk remodeled into a comfy bed decorated only for you, an exercising pole, and of course, the cherry on top. A talented beam sword wielder proceeding to the silver pole, dancing the night, since it's daytime, in a tango by polishing his body onto it, licking, twirling so passionately, all the things he can do just to lasso your attention up to a tied position.

"Oh pussy cat~" He called you by an alluring finger wiggling toward at your body, having the head glanced to him forwardly. However, both yourself even the desires were pierced from his tendering view as he took off his faux operating faux coat slowly. Caught off guard, the only choice you have now is to witness wholeheartedly of the magnificent medicine he has kept for so long, beginning to show it by flashing more of his holy remedy before you.

"Remember when I said about my special cure that I'm gonna offer you for being a good girl~? Well here's a beautiful reward just for you~ Mmm he he he he~" Winked the glamorous boy toy. Blushing in a harden figure, the ravishing blonde in red flexibly dances across the pole then shoots a blowing kiss. Flowing tied locks fly so freely, hands caressing on the body in a loop, makes you a little bit woozy. Like an a perfect kind of dizziness to keep you occupied.

What you could ever dream of for the rest of your life is honestly a real thing, thus is one of the best cure that you would even ask for. Allowing his "virus" of a spell casted on your very soul to feel its sting burrowing into the bones, spreading widely as it is. Causing them to be numb, losing its control to ignore something or someone uniquely handsome such as the superior hunter. Parts of your body, in which you're controlling, are now under his dazzling influences without a strength to retaliate. Everything within your consciousness, now belongs to him. Which means, you are his permanent plaything to pleasure with all day and night long. Imagine it, a famous sword expert embracing your innocent well being, all to him. None for anybody to steal you.

Concluding his delectable performance to place a peaceful birdie such as yourself to a slumbering state, the serious Class A crusader climb into you into a lover's bed by flatly laying against your body, in a numbing condition still, gives you once more an eternal kiss.

"Mmmmm~ Thanks again, sweet cheeks~ For accepting my just desserts to make this operation an easy success~" He thanks you, purring all over your anaesthetic form with a finger vertically to the lips. "I knew you'd appreciate my expertise as an unlicensed physician~... Of love~" Your smile meant with a blink since you can't move your arms, legs, especially head. Enjoyed his company to the fullest in a new and improved memory to hold in store. His grin reveals as a rotating tongue on the lips, eager to do a second examination on you to increase a hotter mood. Closing the curtains of both windows, also the bed for a decent privacy away of the crowd. A romantic event between a doctor and patient, lady luck has always been by his side or not. But, it hardly matters for as long you are present with the only doctor who's very great with ill patrons. As for him, the only skill he has is wooing the ladies. Much like you as well.

"So, my adorable little doll, now that we're finally alone, how about another.... "secondary procedure" in secret~? Whaddya say~? Hmm~?" Prepared for more of the private procedure once again, the answer still remains the same like always. During your paralyzed fashion, he smiled seductively after his question.

"Mmmmm~ That's what I like to hear~ Now~ Where were we~? Oh yeah, the second treatment I'm gonna give you~ He he he he he~" Closer yet again to your unstable state, smushing his upon yours gently, readying for a permanent kiss in the lips of all the century. While your spirit is still active, love has cured the dangerous bacteria that ruined nature's remarkable time. Especially you.

"I love you more than anyone or anything in the world, kitten~ Thanks for turning my day into a fabulous paradise~" Showing his gratitude because of your inspiration to him, he gifted you a much more longer kiss than today. Second with his body massaging your needs.

"I really love it when you're fully relaxed, cutie~ Now ~ Stay still for me, and lemme give you a tasty cure to aid your cold fever.....with my scrumptious body to help you get well~ Purrrrrrrr~"

Midnight has shown its quiet face to the city, different than the jubilated sunshine from earlier. The civilians headed home for a new starting day to appear tomorrow after a wonderful evening bringing humans, including reploids, altogether in equality just as the sapphire android whose been created by the late Dr. Thomas Light requires it. All threats as well as the maverick troublemakers from the past have all been avoided as they speak. At last for now.

So as the red tough guy enjoying his perfect off duty, comforting a special whose funtime had been a real supplement along with a well balanced breakfast to help the anatomy by growing big and strong. Even to make his life a living heaven than hell: You. A darling angel that makes everybody including Zero, change from a sorrow frown into a joyful grin.

"If any of you ladies like to have your personal checkup, then don't be shy to visit yours truly~ I'm always here to cure your illness anytime~ *Wink*."

Dr. Zero, Crimson Maverick Hunter

The End

#megaman #mmx #rockman x dive #zero #white day zero #fanfic #reploidpov #hot doctor #class a #maverick hunter #fanservice

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barnesxplum-blog · 5 years

Note

Imagine being close friends with Seb for 2 years now, but also in love with him. U don’t think he likes u back, so u decide to get urself drunk to confess to him so that he rejects u in the morn. But thing is, he does like u back and is desperately tryin to get u to understand that despite u being in ur drunk denial. If u can, a lotta fluff would be hella cool, xx!

Sorry this took so long @blueskiesbleakeyes! I love this idea, I hope I did it justice :)

Warnings: None (please let me know if there should be some!!)

not my gif!

If hell was a place on Earth it would be here, in this bar, right where you were, engulfing you in it’s hot and merciless flames.

Fine. Perhaps that was a tad melodramatic.

You were sat slumped in the bar stool, twirling the umbrella around in your cocktail glass with a forlorn expression plastered on your face.

You almost regretted accepting Sebastian’s last minute invitation to come here, but the look in his eyes almost dragged the word “yes” out of your mouth against your will.

No one could really say no to Sebastian and not feel terrible for it for at least 3 business days afterwards. Come on. The guy was an unruly puppy confined within in a grown man’s body.

So here you sat, reluctantly watching him smile politely and converse with a group of attractive ladies, all vying for his attention, asking about how he gets into his metal arm and whether he would grow his hair out again.

“How original.” you thought, surprising yourself at how bitter you sounded.

You rolled your eyes as one particularly pretty girl giggled at Sebastian, (who really wasn’t doing anything funny, in your opinion) and gripped his upper arm, getting a good feel of his toned bicep.

Sickening.

You had even reached the point where you had to mentally repeat in a chant like fashion:

“He isn’t yours, Y/N. He is not your boyfriend”

You couldn’t exactly blame her for turning up the charm. Being friends with Sebastian didn’t make you blind to his attractiveness. He was definitely hot, talented, kind, funny and sweet... you knew this and you could see why it would be difficult to resist his charms. What stung the most is that he either refused to accept that he had all of these features, or didn’t believe it at all, forever shrugging off compliments and burying his head in his hands whenever fans or interviewers would flirt with him.

In fact, in recent weeks you’d found yourself in quite the predicament.

You returned your focus to the illuminated display of liquor behind the bar, and asked for a bottle of the strongest stuff they had.

It all started around a month ago. Sebastian was over at your apartment and the two of you had made some homemade pizzas together, of course, not without a small food fight ensuing, since the two of you had a combined mental age that equated to 12 years.

You were both covered in flour, smearing tomato sauce on each other’s cheeks every five minutes. Each time you did so, you would swear it would be the last time you did it, but betrayed your promise within seconds, just to attack the other with food items again. It was all very juvenile, but at the same time, you wouldn’t have had it any other way.

His flour-y smile and little yelps every time you attacked him made the sticky feeling that lingered on your face feel a lot less irritating and uncomfortable, and more of a reminder of how much you loved to spend time with him.

After consuming a substantial amount of pizza and ice cream, Seb decided he was far too full and sleepy to make the journey back to his own home, which was only a 15 minute walk from yours, sounding a lot like someone who was at least 20 years older than he was, which you made sure to tease him about.

“Well, when you get to my age, maybe you’ll be more aware of the importance of conserving one’s energy,” He retorted, half yawning in the middle of his sentence.

Even you were feeling drowsy from the mammoth amount of food you had eaten, so you admitted defeat and drifted off into a joint food coma on your couch.

You awoke early the next morning to see light filtering through the the blinds on your window, warming your skin, and illuminating both of your legs, tangled in the single, patchwork blanket you used for the night that honestly didn't do much to cover you. Seb was a proud blanket thief.

The said blanket thief was clutching you to his chest in a tight, but comfortable grip, making small snuffling noises in his sleep, his hair unruly and slowly returning back to its natural curly state, freeing itself from its gelled back prison.

He looked like an angel, in the golden sunlight with his skin glowing, and his lips parted slightly. You almost wanted to take a picture of him looking like this, but you restrained yourself, not wanting to risk him catching you and having to live down the teasing and embarrassment.

You didn’t know what came over you, but you felt a strong instinct to nuzzle into his chest, taking in his natural scent- faintly of his day-old cologne and rain.

You smiled, basking in this rare moment of affection, wanting to enjoy it before it came to its inevitable end, and you were just friends once again. You felt a pang of sadness, just at the thought.

Looking up slowly, you dared to sneak another glance at him. You jumped, noticing his eyes were already partly open, the blue irises focused intently on you in a sleepy gaze.

The corners of his mouth twitched upwards into a juvenile grin, and his eyes fluttered closed once more, so his long, dark lashes fanned out almost touching his cheeks below.

“Five more minutes, Y/N” he sighed, planting a chaste kiss on your temple, before falling asleep again.

Back in the present moment, you were seriously drunk, having downed countless shots on an empty stomach. The world was spinning. There were now four identical bartenders all mixing the same drink before you.

You raised your arm, despite this.

One more couldn’t hurt, could it?

You only wanted to forget ever wanting your best friend as anything more than a friend. You felt silly for even thinking that could Sebastian see you as anything other than his little, non-famous platonic sidekick.

Especially when beautiful and talented women were prone to throwing themselves at him at every opportunity. You didn’t stand a chance.

“Y/N, enough,” you heard a soft voice through the mayhem of the bar, as karaoke was starting up. His favourite.

Sebastian gripped your hand in his, softly peeling you off of the bar stool. His eyebrows shot up as they usually do when he’s even mildly surprised, when your knees completely buckled under your own body weight.

He gripped you more firmly so you didn’t fall to the floor.

“How much did you drink?”

“Enough to allow me to tell you this,” you hiccuped.

It was now or never. At least your inhibitions we’re out of the way for now, and you wouldn’t even remember this, come morning time.

He furrowed his brow as you took his hand and led him with great difficulty to a more quiet corner of the room.

“Sebastian, I love you.” You blurted, holding his shoulders and staring deeply into his eyes.

He broke out into a chuckle and patted your shoulder.

“Love you too, Y/N” he replied, rolling his eyes. “Now let’s get you home”

As he escorted you outside towards his car, you began to resist him with all of your strength, which when comparing to Sebastian, was not much.

“No! I mean..I mean I love you!”

This made Sebastian finally stop in his tracks, and look sideways at you.

“I mean I’m in love with you. Like holding hands and kissing kinda love. And maybe even having s-“

“Y/N stop,” he whispered, cutting you off.

it was like the blood in your body had run cold, and your heart plummeted from your chest to somewhere in your lower abdomen. He continued to escort you to his parked car behind the bar.

It was almost unbelievable how stupid you felt.

“I knew it!” Tears pricked your eyes, and you felt your cheeks growing hot and red.

“I knew you’d never love me back. Especially when women with big boobs and pretty faces are always smiling at you”

“You don’t know what you’re saying, Y/N” he persisted, opening his car door for you.

“I do! I just told you- I. Love. You.”

“No...” he replied, breaking every last piece of hope you had stored in your heart.

He sighed, as you sat in the passenger seat of his car, and he helped fasten your seatbelt while a tear rolled down your cheek.

Everything seemed to be a blur of darkness and engine noises for a while. You could see Seb’s outline, a portrait of stress hunched over the wheel, his hands gripping the leather tightly. You wondered whether his hands would leave visible marks in the material, from how his knuckles had turned white with strain. The last thing you remember was him carrying you into your apartment before it all went completely dark.

You awoke with a throbbing headache, and fragmented memories of last night and how you even made it to your bed.

Fortunately, or rather, unfortunately for you, you managed to recall, in astounding detail, every minute of you confessing and then getting shut down.

“Fuck!” You sighed loudly, rolling over.

As you did so, you realised you were in your pyjamas. You definitely were not sober enough last night to change into your PJs and stow away your heels so neatly by your bedroom door. You narrowed your eyes in confusion, but also partly due to the migraine coming on.

As if on cue, your door flung open, and a shirtless, wild haired Sebastian burst into your room, his eyes wide.

“What happened? I heard you swear” he said breathlessly, his toned chest rising and falling rapidly.

You screamed helplessly and jumped out of bed, your duvet still wrapped around your waist

“What are you doing here?” You yelled.

“I stayed on the couch because I didn’t want you to be alone” he explained “you could have choked on your own vomit or something”

You calmed down instantly. Well, at least he wasn’t completely scared off from last nights conversation.

“My clothes,” you mumbled sheepishly, avoiding eye contact.

“You looked uncomfortable in your dress.” He shrugged, seemingly unfazed by having to strip you down and dress you again.

“Here, I’ll get you some water and painkillers,” he motioned for you to follow him into the kitchen/ living room space.

As you gulped down the pills you watched him tidy up your house for a while, before deciding to speak.

“I’m sorry about what I said”

His body visibly tensed, and he turned to you, his eyes unreadable.

“There’s nothing to be sorry about.”

“I made it weird. You obviously only see me as a friend and I’d like to keep you as one, only if you’d let me of course” you said, though your nerves got the better of you and it all came out as one convoluted sentence.

He regarded you for what felt like an eternity. His blue eyes, scanning over your face. Almost as if he was mapping you and memorising all of your features. What scared you the most is that his lips were still. His usual goofy smile was nowhere to be seen.

A serious Sebastian is one you hadn’t had much experience with within your friendship, and that was something you loved about him. He was always laughing, cheerful and poking fun at somebody or something. But now, he seemed so severe. It scared you.

You rubbed your thighs with your palms nervously. Thank god the medicine was kicking in, otherwise there would be no way you’d be able to face the pain of the headache coupled with Seb turning you down twice in 24 hours.

“I don’t blame you if you can’t look at me the same, Seb. And I-“ You added.

“You weren’t listening to me last night,” he blurted out of the blue, cutting you off.

He padded towards you in his mismatched socks and stopped until he was mere inches from your face.

“And I wanted to make sure of something, too.” He sighed “It breaks my heart to imagine you think I can’t look at you the same”

You shook your head and placed a reassuring hand on his arm for him to continue. You could have sworn you saw his eyes glisten a bit from tears.

“Y/N...I wanted to make sure you’d remember everything I say to you. I’ve loved being your friend for the past couple of years, don’t get me wrong” he was now wringing his hands, his face flushed and his eyes darting from your face to the floor.

“But I’ve come to realise, it’s not enough. I can’t hold you, and know that you’re not mine. Not completely. It sounds cliche, but I feel empty every time we’re apart. I try to fill the void but, honestly, no one will compare”

“Every time I see you, my heart feels so fucking full.” He continued, now the smile was starting to appear on his face.

“I just want to grab you and never let go, but I felt so selfish. I felt like I was throwing our friendship away, Y/N”

By now your jaw had completely dropped. You didn’t even care what you looked like at this point with your bedhead, dark circles and chapped lips from dehydration. All you wanted to know is if what you were hearing was correct.

“You have no idea how much I wanted to kiss you last night, but I knew you wouldn’t remember it” He whispered, leaning closer to you now. “I want you- us- remember it” He whispered.

In one swift motion, his hand was cradling the back of your head and his eyes were staring down at you, his lips parted. He kissed you deeply, wrapping his other arm around your waist and pulling you impossibly close to his bare chest. You could almost hear his heart beating excitedly beneath his ribcage, threatening to burst out

When he released you, his beautiful, stupid smile was back. He almost looked embarrassed at how much he was grinning.

“Sorry it took this long” he whispered, grabbing your hand and placing a kiss on your knuckles sweetly.

“I suppose it was worth the wait.” You retorted, shooting him a wry smile.

He cocked his head to the side, taking you in for a while.

“Next time I undress you, you’re gonna be able to recall every second of it,” he winked at you.

#sebastian stan #bucky barnes #the winter soldier #avengers endgame #bucky x reader #sebastianstanedit #avengers #bucky #captain america #sebstan #sebastian stan x you #sebastian x reader #young sebastian stan #steve rogers and bucky barnes #requested #sebastian stan imagine #sebastian stan fanfiction #sebastian stan fluff #sebastian stan fic

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biscuitreviews · 5 years

Text

Biscuit Reviews The Witcher III Wild Hunt (2-year Anniversary Review)

The Witcher III: Wild Hunt is perhaps my favorite game to come out of the PS4/Xbox One/Wii U-Switch console era. It’s won tons of awards and was game of the year for many people in 2015. I didn’t get into the Witcher series until Witcher II: Assassin of Kings was a free download for Xbox Live members in 2016.

After I finished Witcher II, I immediately went to Witcher III and my god, talk about an amazing sequel. It was bigger, it was better, and for being the end of Geralt’s story, it did a great job for making newcomers such as myself, not feel lost at all.

I’m going to be spoiling the game so if you haven’t played Witcher III, definitely play it before going into this review.

The story of Witcher III, revolves around Geralt of Rivia, a witcher looking for his adoptive daughter Ciri alongside his on and off again lover Yennefer of Vengerburg.

Geralt will travel through large open world zones during his quest. Velen took inspiration from the Polish and Northern German countryside, Novigrad is reminiscent of the Polish city of Gdańsk during the medieval era, and finally you have the Skellige Isles, taking inspiration from Ireland. Each of these areas are massive and beautiful to look at. It’s easy to forget that you’re in a world currently being ravaged by war or filled with monsters until you stumble across areas that give you a stark reminder that there is a war happening.

One thing that I love about the game is how it handled decisions. There’s no clear good or bad decision, everything has a shade of grey. Sure there are choices that sound better in the short term, but it could have long term ramifications that could come back to haunt Geralt. One example is Triss’s quest line in Novigrad. Sure, you’re helping mages escape the city to where they no longer have to fear for themselves, but by doing so, you give the witch hunters a new target to pursue, which are non-human races such as elves and dwarves. However, if you don’t help mages escape, than later in the story Geralt’s dwarven friend, Zoltan, can help him with a jailbreak. If you do help the mages, Zoltan won’t be able to assist Geralt due to not wanting to face the wrath of the witch hunters.

Even the types of decisions you make are fantastic as well. All of these choices are actions that Geralt himself would make and do in that situation, it’s just a matter what you believe would be the overall choice he would go with. With many choice based games, dialogue options cover many aspects of a character archetype, because normally, you are making a character and are taking that character on the journey. In this case, Geralt is a character, he has his own beliefs, likes and dislikes, and dialogue choices reflect his specific personality rather than a personality a player would create.

It’s also why some aspects in gameplay are limited such as crafting. Geralt is able to craft oils and potions on his own as long as he has the formula and the ingredients. Applying the proper oil and drinking the necessary potions are necessary for fighting monsters in this game, which I’ll discuss more about later. When it comes to making armor and swords, Geralt has to seek out a Blacksmith to make these items as Geralt himself doesn’t have the kind of skill set, therefore he has to seek out a person able to build these items.

I also love how story quests and side quests interact with one another. Main story quests could go differently if you’ve done some side quests that relate to that specific quest and vice versa. Also the fact that side quests have just as much weight as the main quests make them feel more important and worth doing for that extra bit of lore or for that impact it could have on the main story.

As well polished and built the Witcher III is, it does have some minor glitches being an open world game. Sometimes you’ll find objects just randomly floating in air. Occasionally the input to talk to NPCs won’t work and you’ll have to either step back and walk forward to have the prompt reappear or just reposition Geralt himself for the NPC to talk to you. The fact that Geralt can either die or get heavily damaged from ridiculously low heights is also highly annoying and instills a fear of any small dropping points.

Another issue I would like to point out is that it’s not exactly the most socially inclusive. A lot of the main women are highly sexualized and sometimes feel that they’re nude for the sake of it. There are moments where you can choose anti-LGBT dialogue options when you encounter those characters, which I found exteremly baffeling that it was an option considering Ciri is bi and Geralt seems supportive in the dialogue they exchange. I get it, it’s a choice, you don’t have select those options, but the fact that they’re there to begin with just leaves a bit of a bad taste. Let’s not forget the entire ocean of white people in this game. I’m sorry, but including two people of color in a DLC just doesn’t cut it. Does it break the game for me? No, but I think not acknowledging that this exists within the game is even worse.

As mentioned previously, monsters have certain weakness and you are expected to exploit those weakness when fighting monsters. Using the proper tools to easily take down a monster feels great and makes you feel more invested in the world as you have to research these creatures in your bestiary to know their weaknesses.

Going above and beyond to take on an extra tough enemy or a monster clearly above your level although feels great at first, it’s quickly brought down when the experience gained is very little and the loot isn’t something that equates the struggle you went through. It’s just a bit disappointing that you’re encouraged to research monsters and exploit weaknesses and when you do just that, the rewards just don’t reflect that.

There’s also one quirk with dialogue as well that’s honestly more funny than terrible, but the way it happened just made it more memorable to me.

This instance is going to a wake party with Yennefer in Skellige. She’ll comment on how she likes that Geralt is growing out a beard. Now if Geralt does have a beard in this instance, it makes sense, however if Geralt is clean shaven, Yennefer will still make the comment which I always found that to be a funny little programming quirk. It’s obvious that this response was to happen when Geralt has a beard and the programming within the game was supposed to read that. There are a couple of instances that NPCs will react to Geralt’s appearance and the reaction is appropriate in those moments. But the beard moment, always brings out a chuckle.

Granted for a game as massive as Witcher III to only have a few minor issues, it’s actually rather impressive. However, I will admit that it has been four years since it’s initial release and there might have been more bugs then, but now it’s a mostly smooth experience.

As mentioned in a previous post, I do refer back to this game a lot for professional research as well. CD Projekt Red used a branching writing program known as Articy Draft, a program I use in my day job. I’ll do different decisions, I’ll change the order of when I do quests and just imagine how the branching dialogue looked within Articy and the type of variables used to determine how certain events play out.

One also can’t talk about Witcher III without mentioning Gwent, what is perhaps one of the best mini-games within a game since Final Fantasy VIII’s Triple Triad. Gwent is an easy to learn, but tough to master card game at the start. It’s tough at first as Geralt doesn’t have many cards at his disposal, but once you finally get a win, the dam starts to break little by little. Geralt will begin winning more powerful cards that can be added to his deck. Eventually it does get to a point where everyone becomes a bit easy to defeat as you gain more powerful cards and build your deck for effective strategies. Regardless it’s a game within a game that you can easily get lost in.

Witcher III also set what many gamers regard as the “Golden Standard” for how DLC should be treated. Witcher III includes 16 free DLC additions ranging from additional quests, items, additional costumes, and Gwent cards. Then there’s the two paid DLC expansions, Heart of Stone and Blood and Wine, which involves two new stories.

Both of these expansions also add additional gameplay mechanics to make Geralt stronger, which you will need to take advantage of for Blood and Wine as monsters and enemies in that particular expansion are a bit tougher than in the main game and Heart of Stone.

Blood and Wine also contains my favorite quest in the entire game. The quest is called “Paperchase” and it’s hilarious. Something about a legendary monster slayer still having to adhere to the bureaucracy of a bank to get a reward for saving a guy years ago is just amazing. It shows that not all great quests have to involve you having an encounter that puts you on the edge of your seat.

The Witcher III is a game that deserves the praise and reception it has received. It has made a mark on the RPG genre that many developers are taking note and implementing in their games. The most famous case being Ubisoft with the Assassin’s Creed series by following a similar dialogue decision based structure and having side quests impact the main story and vice versa. This is a game that has earned its status as a modern classic, which I’m sure will keep that status for a very long time.

As I’m sure it’s no surprise to anyone on Tumblr or any denizen of the internet, The Witcher III: Wild Hunt receives a 5 out 5

So far it’s been quite an interesting two years on this site. Frankly, I expected to just be a reviewer that would continuously scream into the void. To my surprise, I’ve had quite a few of you that like and share my posts adding more to the conversation whether you agree or disagree. I’ve also recently passed the 50 reviews milestone as well so the 50 and the two year mark happened rather quickly!

Here’s to the march on getting to 100 reviews...at some point!

#Witcher III #Witcher #Witcher III: Wild Hunt #geralt of rivia #video games #gaming #video game review #game review #gaming review #review #biscuit reviews

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huahsu · 5 years

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YEAR OF THE GHOST DOG

[TL;DR version for the New Yorker -- I loved many great short songs and became obsessed with (1) a very old, much longer one (2) and YouTube comments this year.] [links to previous year’s lists at the bottom]

A while back, I found myself in an extended funk. The reasons are uninteresting and honestly a bit dumb, a mix of everyday bummers and more existential stuff, all of which manifested in a kind of 360º sluggishness. I couldn’t really figure my way out of it but I believed that I would eventually stop feeling this way.

One night, I saw that someone online was selling a copy of the Emulations “These Are the Things,” a magnificent soul ballad 7″ out of Oakland. I wasn’t exactly homesick for the Bay Area, but something about the song’s roots, as well as its overwhelming feeling of optimistic yearning, resonated with (through?) me. There’s a moment when the singer’s falsetto peaks, and the piano starts cascading, and things feel like they’re going to work out after all. The copy for sale wasn’t in great shape, and it cost $100, an extravagant amount of money to spend on a piece of music. But I convinced myself that I’d feel better at some point, weeks, months, or years later, and I’d listen to my Emulations single, and recall that weird summer/fall.

As often happened with independently produced records of the sixties and seventies, “These Are the Things” was pressed on styrene, rather than vinyl. Styrene is a kind of plastic that’s lighter, cheaper and much more fragile than vinyl, and you can tell the difference by a kind of hollow plink when you put it on a turntable. Styrene also means that it has a limited life, and that each time the needle drags across its grooves, the record degrades a little bit. Over time, styrene records that get played a lot no longer sound as crisp or clear (or so it seems). I listened to it once it arrived, feeling a bit of regret at this wild expenditure, but also imagining my future self’s gratitude. I imagined entering into communion with everyone who had played this copy before me. I decided to only listen to the song once a year, if that--after all, each time I listened to the record, the song was changing, slightly.

A few months later, I felt normal (whatever that means) again, and the record became a marker of...I’m not sure what--maybe a kind of blind, stubborn optimism. Someone years later uploaded the song onto YouTube, which means I can listen to it whenever I want. This fall, I was trying and failing to spend less time on the Internet. But I decided that, instead of going on Twitter and Facebook, I would just read comments fans left on YouTube. I became obsessed with reading all the intimate histories people shared with one another--the chance encounters, the teenage dates and breakups, the seventies shop owners who recalled the days when stocking the right hit single could cover an entire month’s rent. I was listening to the Emulations when I noticed this comment, from Deric Jackson, who was apparently one of the group’s members: “I sung this song when I was 19yrs old. It was a pleasure to record and send this messageout into the airways. I have been with the women that God had given me to marry when I was 22yrs old. I did not understand at that time I was singing about my own life and the women who I had not met, but how wonderful it is to be with my wife fo 35yrs and life is still a breath of fresh air and wonderful. I would like to say to all real men love your wife, never worship her only one to worship is God alone.“ I’m pretty agnostic about most things relating to providence. But I felt as though I had been living in these words: “I did not understand at that time...” Jackson’s song was a prophecy, maybe even a conjuring, of his own path, and I wonder what he hears when he listens to it now. Sometimes you don’t know what’s coming next. But there’s always another song, and it doesn’t always sound the same as the last time.

(LATE 2017 BUT I REALLY DOUBT ANYONE NOTICED AKA THE FRENCH “MO BAMBA”) Junior Bvndo, “T’as ça #3 (Kylian Mbappe)”

I WILL LISTEN TO ANYTHING THAT USES DISTORTION Sheck Wes, “Wanted” OR OLD SCHOOL STABS Santi feat. Shane Eagle and Amaarae, “Rapid Fire” EVEN MORE THAN THAT, I LIKE THINGS THAT SOUND MESSY AND SLOPPY BUT ARE ACTUALLY PERFECT Caleb Giles featuring Cleo Reed, “Name” WOULDN’T HAVE BEEN AS GOOD AS IF IT HAD BEEN PERFECT, THE WARPED AND SMUDGED BEAUTY IS WHAT MAKES IT BEAUTIFUL Tirzah, Devotion Niagara, Apologia SAME, BUT SLIGHTLY OFF-STEP Blood Orange, “Charcoal Baby” THE BEST GENRE OF MUSIC REMAINS “SADE” Sade, “Flower of the Universe” and “The Big Unknown” Amber Mark, “Love is Stronger Than Pride” Bon Iver and Moses Sumney, “By Your Side” Kelela, “Like a Tattoo” 808s AND HEARTBREAK AND NEAR-OCTOGENERIANS Swamp Dogg, “She’s All Mind All Mind” I WASN’T AS ENAMORED WITH A LOT OF “NEW JAZZ” BUT DID LIKE Sam Wilkes, Wilkes Sam Gendel and Sam Wilkes, Music for Saxofone & Bass Guitar …WHICH REMINDED ME A BIT OF THIS FACEMELTING REISSUE (RIYL: ALICE COLTRANE, DON CHERRY, ETC ETC) John Tchicai, With Strings SPEAKING OF TERRIFIC JAZZ-ADJACENT STUFF Dos Santos, “Manos Anjenas” THE ORIGINAL “BIG MOOD” Okonkolo, Cantos THE YEAR I REALLY REKINDLED MY LOVE OF THE CELLO Clarice Jensen, For This From That Will Be Filled Oliver Coates, “A Church” …WHICH I DEFINITELY PREFER TO VIOLIN--ESP PIZZICATO--THOUGH THIS WAS QUITE GOOD Sudan Archives, “Nont for Sale” HARPS ALWAYS SOUND GOOD Leya, The Fool Meg Baird and Mary Lattimore, Ghost Forests ALWAYS HAVE TIME FOR WOODBLOCKS AND VIBES Kate NV, для FOR AS WELL AS MIAMI BASS SIGNIFIERS (KICKSTARTER FOR CITY GIRLS TO RAP OVER DJ BATTLECAT IN 2019) City Girls, “Act Up” AND BANJO DRONE...WHY NOT Nathan Bowles, Plainly Mistaken ALBUMS THAT I LIKED IN 2018, AND THAT I SENSE I WILL LIKE EVEN MORE BY THIS TIME NEXT YEAR Ben LaMarr Gay, Downtown Castles Can Never Block the Sun Neneh Cherry, Broken Politics AN ALBUM THAT I WISH WAS TEN ALBUMS Tierra Whack, Whack World AN ALBUM I WISH WAS JUST A LITTLE BIT LONGER Pusha-T, Daytona OF THE MANY REASONS I MOURN THE DEATH OF “THE ALBUM,” ONE IS THAT I ALWAYS LIKE TO HEAR WHAT PEOPLE DO WITH THAT LAST SONG YG, “Bomptown Finest” OR HOW ALBUMS, FULL OF SIGNS, ANGLES, FLEETING MOMENTS, CIRCULATE AND RE-CIRCULATE Angelique Kidjo, Remain in Light AND HOW THEY ARE LIKE WHAT NOVELS REPRESENTED IN THE AGE OF POETRY—OPPORTUNITIES TO LIVE INSIDE COMPLEXITY, SPACE, A DEMOS U.S. Girls, In a Poem Unlimited ONE OF THE BEST ALBUMS OF THE YEAR WAS A SOUNDTRACK... Kendrick Lamar et al, Black Panther AND TEASER FOR Jay Rock, Redemption AND ANOTHER WAS JUST SOME RAP SONGS Earl Sweatshirt, Some Rap Songs WHICH ISN’T TO SAY ARTISTS DON’T STILL VALUE AND HAVE FUN WITH THE FORMAT Vince Staples, FM A TWENTY-FIVE TRACK ADVENTURE INTO VIBES Pink Siifu, ensley AND SOMETIMES TWENTY MINUTES OR SO IS ENOUGH boygenius, boygenius ONE MORE ALBUM THING – FIRST SONGS HAVE ALWAYS FELT LIKE THESIS STATEMENTS, AND STREAMING HAS ONLY APPLIED MORE PRESSURE TO THE SOOTHING, BEWITCHING, PERFECT WELCOME Mac Miller, “Come Back to Earth” MAC MILLER AND THUNDERCAT LOOK SO HAPPY HERE whole thing, but esp six minutes in, and even more so about nine minutes in THE BEST VIBES Show Dem Camp feat. Boj and Ajebutter 22, “Damiloun” Koffee, “Toast” HAPPY-GO-LUCKY B/W DEVIL-MAY-CARE Shoreline Mafia, “Nun Major” I LIKE NEF AND EPs PERFECTLY SUIT HIM Nef the Pharaoh and 03 Greedo, Porter 2 Grape

RAPPING AS FAST AS YOU CAN OVER FREESTYLE/HI-NRG WILL NEVER SOUND BAD TO ME… SOB X RBE, “Paid in Full” SOB X RBE, “Carpoolin’” …ALTHOUGH THEY ALSO SOUND SICK OVER FAKE GHOST DOG BEATS, TOO, THIS WAS ONE OF MY SONGS OF THE YEAR SOB X RBE, “Paramedic!” SAME WITH MEDHANE Medhane, “The Garden” TRIPPIE REDD PUTS OUT A LOT OF MUSIC FILLED WITH TRANSCENDENT MOMENTS, BUT RARELY MAKES TRANSCENDENT SONGS, AND IT PAINS ME A BIT THAT MY FAVORITE SONG OF HIS THIS YEAR WAS Diplo featuring Trippie Redd, “Wish” TRIPPY-ASS DOO-WOP Cuco, “Sunnyside” A STRONG HARMONY IS A VISION OF WHAT LIFE COULD BE Ben Pirani, “How Do I Talk to My Brother?” WHERE WERE U IN 94 Young Echo, Young Echo SWEAR I'VE NEVER HEARD MUSIC THIS “GREY” ManOnMars, ManOnMars IF YOU ARE GOING TO MAKE A FAKE D’ANGELO SONG, IT SHOULD BE THIS GOOD Patrick Paige III, “Voodoo” LIKED THIS, BUT IT’S ALSO POSSIBLE TO BE A BIT TOO FAITHFUL TO THE PAST Teyana Taylor, “Hold On” NOT QUITE FAYE WONG DOING THE CRANBERRIES (RIP DOLORES O’RIORDAN) BUT STILL MEMORABLE Katherine Ho, “Yellow” LIKE THE BEST PARTS OF FEELS-ERA ANIMAL COLLECTIVE, BUT TAIWANESE Prairie WWWW

NEVER THOUGHT TO VISIT THE LOUVRE UNTIL The Carters, “Apeshit” video BROWN EXCELLENCE Humeysha, Departures "BROWN BEATS” FOREVER RIP Cameron Paul

MY FAVORITE DISCOVERY OF THE YEAR Pharoah Sanders playing “Kazuko” in a tunnel near the Marin Headlands LIKE NONE OF ITS INFLUENCES (FOOTWORK, AMBIENT), LIKE NOTHING ELSE OUT THERE, REALLY Foodman, Aru Otoko No Densetsu DARESAY SKI MASK WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN BOOED OUT OF THE CIPHER Ski Mask the Slump God, Beware the Book of Eli THE MOST FAMOUS PERSON I’VE SEEN ON THE BIG SCREEN AT THE PAST THREE YEARS’ NETS GAMES IS Young M.A., “PettyWap” DEMOS FROM A GROUP I HAVE ALWAYS ADORED, BEFORE THEY FOUND THE SOUND THAT I ADORE The Nonce, 1990 EXTREMELY GOOD AND LARGELY OVERLOOKED REISSUE Suzanne Menzel, Goodbyes and Beginnings FOUR TET IS GOING THROUGH HIS LIVE ARCHIVES, AND IT’S A TREAT TO STUDY HIS ARC/EVOLUTION Live at Hultsfred Festival, 18th June 2004 Live at LPR New York, 17th February 2010 Live in Tokyo, 1st December 2013 Live at Funkhaus Berlin, 10th May 2018 STRANGE TO LIVE IN A MOMENT WHERE BEING WEIRD SEEMS A BIT DERIVATIVE. STILL, THIS IS BLISSFUL SahBabii, “Anime World” HAPPY FACE Smino, “Klink” SAD FACE Drake, “In My Feelings” (especially this version) “JIM FROM THE OFFICE” FACE Pusha-T, “The Story of Adidon” STOLE YOUR FACE Sophie, “Faceshopping” FACE/OFF YG and Mozzy, “Too Brazy” Sammy Bananas feat Antony and Cleopatra, “Slow Down” Kode 9 and Burial, Fabriclive 100 GASSED FACE E-40 and B-Legit, “Whooped" ABSOLUTELY FACEMELTING Todd Barton and Ursula K. Le Guin, Music and Poetry of the Kesh VACATION AWAY MESSAGE SiR, “D’Evils” Bad Bunny x PJ Sin Suela x Nejo, “Cual Es Tu Plan” BEST OPENING DISCLAIMER TO A VIDEO 808INK, “Come Down” “TAGS: LATIN CHORAL CUMBIA GOTH LOS ANGELES” San Cha, “Cosmic Ways”

BEST USE OF “OOCHIE WALLY,” STILL ONE OF MY FAVORITE BEATS EVER Stefflon Don, “Oochie Wally freestyle” BEST USE OF “SUPERTHUG” Rico Nasty, “Countin’ Up” EVERYTHING ABOUT THIS--THE HEADBANG MINIMALISM, THE LAS VEGAS WALGREENS--BUT ESPECIALLY THE LINE ABOUT WELLS FARGO Rico Nasty, “Trust Issues” “ORGASM ADDICT” (RIP PETE SHELLEY) Victor Oladipo, “One Day” “I JUST TOOK A FLIGHT TO FRANCE TO COP CARDIGANS” Black Thought and Styles P, “Making a Murderer” “AT THE EMIRATES I MILLY ROCK” Manzo and Malachi Amour, “Lingard” DOPE TUNE, AND UNEXPECTED KELLYANNE CONWAY REFERENCE JPEGMAFIA, “1539 N. Calvert” YEAH YEAH YEAH (RIP MARK E SMITH) Travis Scott and Drake, “Sicko Mode” R-E-S-P-E-C-T (RIP ARETHA FRANKLIN) Rosalia, El Mal Querer REEL DEAL, “DRIPPIN’ DOPE (SAXAPELLA)” (1989) Gunna, “Top Off” WAMP WAMP (WHAT IT DO) B/W WAIT (THE WHISPER SONG) Vallee feat. Jeremih, “Womp Womp” SAD REGGAETON IS NOT BAD Bad Bunny, “Solo De Mi” SOUNDS GOOD TO ME, 2002-PRESENT Temani, “Power” Westerman, “Confirmation” REAL LIES, POET LAUREATS OF “YOUNG PEOPLE THINKING ABOUT BEING OLD” Tom Demac and Real Lies, “White Flowers” A SONG DESIGNED TO SOUND LIKE IT CAME OUT THIRTY YEARS AGO, WHICH ALSO FEELS LIKE IT CAME OUT A MILLION YEARS AGO (IT WAS JUST JANUARY) Bruno Mars feat. Cardi B, “Finesse (remix)” TAY-K WAS JUST A YEAR AGO Comethazine, “Highriser” FAVORITE 2 BRIDGES MUSIC ARTS “MIGHT AS WELL” RANDOM PURCHASE OF THE YEAR Kizaki Ondo Preservation Society and Clark Naito, 木崎音頭 Kizaki Ondo FEELS LIKE IT CAME OUT TEN YEARS AGO (IT WAS JUST JAN/FEB) BUT I NEVER GREW TIRED OF IT Rich the Kid, “Plug Walk” ODDLY REASSURING THAT PEOPLE STILL JANGLE Massage, “Oh Boy” Earth Dad, “Walter” ...AND DISCOVER WORLDS FROM WITHIN THEIR BEDROOMS Soccer Mommy, Clean ...AND EXPLORE THE CONTOURS OF GROWLING AND NAGGING Sada Baby and Drego, “Bloxk Party” ...AND CAN USE THE PAST TO MAKE SOMETHING SO VISIONARY AND FORWARD-THINKING Virginia Wing, Ecstatic Arrow Mitski, Be A Cowboy ...AND LOOKING FOR FOURTH WORLDS Arp, Zebra ...AND MAKE IMPOSSIBLE RHYTHMS Heavee, WFM ...AND THAT ARTISTS I HAD NEVER HEARD OF, WORKING IN IDIOMS I HAD NEVER HEARD OF, MIGHT STILL BLOW MY MIND Odunsi (the Engine), rare. JUNGLE LIVES X-Altera, “Blowing Up the Workshop” mix TOP THREE TIMES I SAW STANDING ON THE CORNER THIS YEAR 3 - The Merciful Allah Black Hole Theatre 2 - The Time it All Ended with Fireworks on Grand St. 1 - An Empty Storefront During a Blizzard

{HONORABLE MENTIONS -The Time They Brought a Monolith -THEME DE YE-YO [Respect to the Gods]} SONG OF THE SPRING, SUMMER, WINTER, YEAR, STILL UNDEFEATED ### A CHURCH AND JOHN LENNON’S “IMAGINE” :: 2017 SIKH DEVOTIONAL MUSIC :: 2016 SPOOKY BLACK :: 2015

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maggotmouth · 5 years

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hullo it nora, back for more mess. this unhinged little nightmare is cecily who i first birthed around 3 years ago and i am so excited to finally be playing her again. feral wolf girl who loves silk babydoll dresses and bubblegum but would also cut your femoral artery if she was bored. is the eptome of that “somethin dangerous about the boredom of teenage girls” trope. amma crellin meets harley quinn meets addy hanlon. ( pinterest )

APP.

( nora. 22. gmt. she / her. ) it might be HER FRESHMAN year but I still think CECILY DE ROSA looks exactly like FREYA MAVOR and sometimes I think the FEMALE is actually them. Of course I’m wrong, as they’re 19 and studying THEATRE while living in FIDELIS here at Lockwood. The GEMINI can be rather PUCKISH and CANDID, but also kind of SELF-CENTRED and HYSTERICAL. Their most played song on Spotify was CELL BLOCK TANGO by CATHERINE ZETA JONES AND THE COMPANY OF CHICAGO, so I think that says a lot.

BACKGROUND.

tw death suicide murder proceed w caution

born as ‘lamia romana’ in italy to catholic parents. her father was a struggling alcoholic and incredibly depressed. when cece was 4, and her brother was 3 her father fed the gas pipe through the back of their car whilst they prepared to go on their family holiday because he knew suicide would leave his wife and children penniless so he decided the most selfless thing would be to take them with him

cecily (lamia) and her brother luc by some miracle survived the accident, but were left orphaned. they were sent to a convent where they were raised by nuns. cece was incredibly religious. it became her whole life. she was devoted to god completely, almost crazed, because in the absence of parents she transferred the need for a guider and protector onto this spiritual other evoked by her religious beliefs.

she always had a strained relationship w her brother because she believed he wasn’t as devoted to catholicism as she was. when she was 13 he claimed that god wasn’t real and that she was a freak, and in a violent rage cecily thrust a crucifix through his throat. it was completely out of character for her. she screamed until her throat went dry. eventually, when the nuns managed to tear her away from her brother’s body, she was taken to a psychiatric hospital in manhattan where she stayed for two years. driven to madness, she convinced herself that she had been possessed by the devil the moment she killed her brother, and soon she began to accept her fate, as not holy, like she had anticipated, but in fact it’s ungoldy antithesis

when she was released, she was adopted by an american distant aunt and uncle and sent to a manhattan boarding school under the new name ‘cecily de rosa’. see also: st. trinnians. lifted of any religious obligation, cecily grew wild. she delighted in acting up, cheeking her superiors, causing havoc and chaos, terrifying the other girls. sex became her weapon – she would seduce the boys from the local comprehensive and drop them like flies. to her, it was merely a game.

uses sex as a weapon, a way in which to manipulate men, having filmed sexual liasons with both a former acting coach and a TA to use for the purposes of blackmail.

her expulsion from school was threatened after she streaked the school naked and doused in pig blood, but her academic prowess was an asset to the school, so they learnt to put up with her antics. she applied for yale but didn’t get in.

she atended juliard for a year but was thrown out for indecency

theatre-wise, one of Cecily’s most commendable traits is her sheer tenacity and lack of inhibition – she is willing to do whatever it takes to climb to the top, and kick as many other people down as necessary on her way there. tthis unhinged hunger for success was evidenced when, in her breakout role, cecily played Tamora in Titus Andronicus. feeling the presentation of one of shakespeare’s most terrifying women was ‘pussy-footed’ and dulled down for a male audience, cecily took matters into her own hands, and during the famous banquet scene where Tamora is fed her own sons, she ate a pig’s heart live on stage – receiving both awestruck and horrified press reviews for her performance -- and getting expelled from her drama school. (thats why she is now at lockwood)

she is in a sorority house n the gymnastic squad. she speaks fluently in four languages. the kind f sociopathic lana del rey writes songs about.

was raised Roman Catholic, and although she is now estranged from religion, it’s still an integral part of her identity. She holds it partially responsible for the need to repress emotion she still experiences. The only time she allows herself to truly feel, without perceiving it as a weakness, is when she’s performing

cecily was raised with dual-nationality and is multi-lingual. Her parents frequently spoke both Italian and English around the house, leading cecily to do the same. She is also somewhat familiar with Latin, having studied it alongside Literature, Contemporary Dance and Theatre at a manhattan-based performing arts boarding school.

ethereal wood elf. plays flute and does ballet. her favourite tv shows are making a murderer and dance moms. she is big on Tchaikovsky and Bukowski. poetry to cecily is soup of the soul, despite the fact that the only things she really feels are apathy and mild disgust. her poems mostly centre around the beauty of violence -- writing about it often prevents her from committing violent acts -- and also her cat.

loves gettin fucked up. always high on sometin -- cocaine, ecstasy, love, her own ego.

had her first taste of alcohol at 15 and has stayed fond of spirits ever since. likes literature of the macabre, isn’t fond of social media, and loves knee high socks and glitter. she bites her nails, will only take cold showers, and doesn’t drink coffee. loves cats. is vegan.

she sleeps like a cat, regularly but short amounts of time, and is usually found awake at night stalking the streets in the pursuit of self-destruction. she views herself as pansexual because she is attracted to people rather than genders but she thinks men are trash. probably biromantic or homoromantic. she loves the chase. she likes meaningless sexual liasons, but if hearts are broken in the process, even better. hearts are breakable and she believes those who have them are foolish.

aesthetic: peroxide hair in a bathtub, bleach, glittery socks under spaghetti strap heels, silk slip dresses, glitter smeared beneath eyes, split knuckles, nose bleeds, a bubble of blue gum snapped against cherry flavoured lips, orange peel, knee-high socks, tartan two-piece skirt and blazers, kate moss posters ripped out of vogue, littering a bedroom wall, yearbook photos tacked together with red thread, clip in highlights, stick on earrings, french music humming from a crackly gramophone, a hip flask covered with hello kitty stickers

PLOTS.

i currently have NO PLOTS for her so everything is open. if you want a cousin / ex-lover / friend with benefits / bully, or are dying for a specific connection, let me know or like this post and i will msg you!! LOVE U ALL xoxo

more plots all of these are plagiarised:

“you were drunk and you climbed in through my apartment window and I’m not really sure how you managed it because not only is the fire escape broken but you are really fucking plastered wtf please, teach me your skills?”

“i set your kitchen on fire ‘by accident’ because i hate your guts, and you know it was me but you have no evidence”

“we’re in a breakfast club style all day detention”

“you came over for ‘help studying’ and my roommate came home five minutes after we were done hooking up and you got roped into a conversation about her dogs and everyone is uncomfortable”

“we’re friends but it’s a really toxic relationship made up of trying to one up each other all the time”

“I caught you writing gay porn in the library and now you’re terrified i’ll tell everyone, but really i’m just waiting for the next instalment”

“i asked you to help me sneak my cat into my dorm but we got caught by the janitor and now we’re both in the principal’s office”

“you saw me come back to my apartment covered in blood one night, but you’ve never asked about it because you’re scared that yours might be the next blood i’m covered in”

“you broke into my apartment while I was out for whatever reason and when I came home I knocked you out and now you’re unconscious on my floor and idk what to do?”

“i just decked you in the face because i’m drunk and you were pissing me off but ow my hand really fucking hurts i think i might have broke it and oh look your nose is bleeding and now we’re both sitting awkwardly in the hospital while i glare at you from across the room. but wait are you giving me sex eyes?? stop that i’m supposed to mad at you??”

“you keep dragging suspicious sacks up to and down from your apartment and I don’t know what your deal is or why I still wanna bone you”

“we’re in the same rocky horror troupe”

“i stayed over at your house and woke you up in the middle of the night to have sex while your roommate is asleep and every time, your room mate yells “STOP FUCKING, JESUS CHRIST” right when we’re about to finish”

“we used to have a thing but now we hate each others guts and can’t be in the same room without yelling at one another”

“i had a drunk one night stand with your brother last year and i threw up in your room, and now we’re in a class together and it’s really awkward.”

#tw:intro #tldr - crazy bitch like 4 plots

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shanekelly1 · 4 years

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Why is Hair Important to Men?

The matter of hair grooming is not entirely all about the women. Keeping a well-groomed head of hair for men is as important as it is for women. As the cliché goes, “Your hair is your crown and glory” no matter the gender. The hair, after all, is your best accessory. And for men, a well-kept, thick head of hair brings added good looks to an already good face. To a certain extent, it adds character to your personality and even embodies your identity.

Hair Grooming Trend in Men

The obsession over keeping a great looking head of hair is apparent. Just take a look at your local supermarket, you will find shelves of personal hair care and grooming products especially formulated and intended for men’s hair to keep it healthy and well-maintained. In an article for Hairdressers Journal Interactive, a poll conducted by money-saving site Net Voucher Codes UK revealed that 57% of men use between six to ten grooming products per day, which include hair shampoo, conditioner and hair styling products, among many others. And it added that hair shampoo and styling products, came out as the top products men cannot live without.

One of the respondents said that, “I sometimes surprise myself by how many grooming products I have but I do use them all. The ones for my hair are essential otherwise it would look a complete mess.” In addition, Sheriff Mehmet, men’s grooming director of the British Barbers Association even commented that the male grooming industry has certainly boomed and went on to say that, “For many men this is a daily ritual. The male grooming market is booming with new products hitting the shelves every week. In my Envy Barbers shops there is a growing clientele who will specifically buy the latest products for their hair as well as skin.”

The poll also revealed that, while a third of the respondents were encouraged by their partners, 44% shared that they simply wanted to look their best and 13% were inspired by celebrities like David Beckham and David Gandy.

Biological Significance

Apart from the aesthetic value of hair, it has biological importance that most people may not be familiar with. Interestingly, the defining characteristic on top of your head is nothing more than a composition of a tough protein called keratin and dead skin cells. Also, our bodies are almost literally covered with hair. The hair on your head is the first line of defence against the sun’s UV rays. The same goes with the hair on the body; eyebrows and eyelashes also help protect the eyes from UV rays as well as debris.

Apart from keeping the head protected from harmful rays, it protects your head against excessive heat by helping to circulate the air around the scalp and shutting out ambient heat. It also acts as your body’s natural insulator by trapping body heat and keeping it close to the skin, which helps to prevent a drop-in body temperature.

A fun fact about the hair is that it has the ability to retain concentrations of heavy chemicals of ten times more than in blood and urine, like lead, mercury and arsenic. And because of this, hair can be used to detect these harmful substances in the body during testing. And did you know that hair cells stimulate neurons, which give us the sense of orientation and helps maintain equilibrium in our body?

Hair as a Sign of Virility in Men

Aside from muscles and brawn, hair is the embodiment of masculinity and virility in men. A thick head of hair, coupled with a well-toned body, signifies a perceived image of a testosterone-filled man. The bigger the muscles and the thicker the hair means that a man is super charged with the male hormone, which symbolizes the penultimate machismo. After all, testosterone is often associated and synonymous to sexual drive and stamina.

So when a man is showing signs of hair loss, it creates a perception that a man is also losing a part of his maleness. This creates a dent in the self-esteem and self-confidence of a man, with the perceived idea that he has lost a chunk of his manliness when he starts to lose his hair. That is why more men, who are showing signs of male pattern baldness, make a lot of effort in either concealing or treating their thinning hair as soon as imminent signs are showing.

Ironically, according to a compiled statistical data on hair loss, 30% of hair loss sufferers would gladly give up sex just to get their hair back.

Looming Sign of Aging

The likelihood of losing hair increases as men age. According to statistics, 70% of men will show noticeable hair loss by the time they reach the age of 60. However, the same statistics show that 40% of men will begin to show noticeable signs of hair loss by age 35. This significant number of young men losing their hair could be due to genetics, stress and unhealthy lifestyle choices. And if you think you are the only ones suffering from hair loss, young celebrities like British actor of the Harry Potter movies fame Tom Felton, soccer player Wayne Rooney, Backstreet Boy AJ McLean and N’Sync member Joey Fatone are just some of the famous celebrities who have succumbed to hair loss at a very young age.

As posted on the International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery website, 62% of balding men experienced a loss of self-esteem according to a Spanish study as reported in Men’s Health. Albert Mannes, PhD, University of Pennsylvania researcher, said that, “Hair loss is associated with aging and thick hair has always been associated with youth and masculinity.”

Keeping the Important Hair Thick

Out of these young celebrities, three have made the gallant choice of finding a surgical solution to keep their head of hair. These celebrities have admitted to have undergone hair transplant to combat their hair loss situation. McLean, specifically, even proudly displayed his all-important new hair through his Instagram account saying that he could be happier with the results. He went on to say that, “Some girls get their boobs done some guys get ab implants all to make them happy! This was the one thing I did and I couldn’t be happier thank u dr G!!!!”

In fact, based on 2013 statistical report from the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS), hair transplant is listed as the 6th most performed surgical cosmetic surgery among men trailing closely behind with facelift. About 71% of hair transplant patients are performed for men, showing that the issue of keeping hair thick and growing is very important. And the older the demographic gets, the percentage of men getting the procedure is also increasing.

Hair is certainly very important for men. From the biological importance that hair holds, looking aesthetically pleasing to maintaining their youthfulness and perceived virility, hair plays a significant part of any man’s life.

If you are one of the unlucky ones suffering from hair loss, there is no need to fret. Medihair Transplant Clinics in Melbourne is here to help you with your hair loss situation. Our hair restoration specialist will thoroughly assess your condition and provide you with an in-depth solution that will address your personal needs.

Ask for a free private confidential consultation with Medihair Transplant Clinics today. Call 1300 355 325 or email [email protected]

#hair treatment #hair replacement #men hair #mean hair treatment

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newagesispage · 7 years

Text

OCTOBER 2017

*****The beautiful dino, Sue will be moved to her own gallery in Chicago’s field museum. New to her long fixed spot will be a cast of patagotitan mayorum, the biggest dinosaur ever found.

*****Richard Thomas is selling his NY midtown coop for $2,995,000 and is located at 7th Ave. and w. 58th.

*****California is waiting for Jerry Brown to sign a bill that bans puppy mills.

*****WWF has released wild tigers back into Kazakhstan. Scimitar horned oryx were released into the Sahara desert and indigo snakes were reintroduced into Florida.

*****Toys “R” Us has filed for bankruptcy.

*****Tom Price, health and human services secretary, has resigned after hic charter flight scandal.

*****After 50 years Rolling Stone may be up for sale.

*****Doc Martin is back on Acorn for series 8.

*****As social media has been telling us, we don’t need a border wall. Tourism is down about $37 billion. Thanks Trump!

*****Trump supporters don’t seem to like him fraternizing with the Dems and waffling on DACA. They have been burning their red hats but scary clown already got the money for selling them so what does he care. Anne Coulter wonders if there is anybody left who does not want Trump impeached.** Some states are suing over DACA.

*****”Holes separate men and women.”- Billy Connolly

*****The dreamer program has been signed away. The Deferred Action for Children’s Arrival has been handed to congress for 6 months to deal with. The administration says it violates the rule of law.

*****The Peoria Blues and Heritage fest went off without a hitch. The weather was perfect and we should all be looking at the Jamiah Rogers band, these guys are fucking awesome. John Butler checked them out before his own set and was great with his fans.

*****Bill Withers has his first solo record since 1985 with a cover of (You’ve been quite a doll) Raggedy Ann.

*****In this country, a woman dies every 2 hours of cervical cancer because of improper health care.

*****Can I just say that I do not want to see reporters in the middle of hurricanes. Can they just stay safe in a room and fix a camera outside? I would much rather see different angles of the storm and see no people out there. It was often impossible to hear then anyway. The communication between the studio and location was fucked up and did not help anyway. It also seemed like they showed an awful lot of Shell stations. JS

*****An estimated 70 million Americans saw the fake Russian ads during the campaign. No impact??

*****The Stones are on their No Filter tour in Europe and they brought out ‘Dancin with Mr. D’ which hasn’t been played live since 1973.

*****Trumps lawyers seem to want Jared out.

*****Steve Bannon’s Great Great Grandfather was an immigrant from Ireland who needed no papers to get in this country.

*****Montgomery , Alabama is going to open a Museum of lynching. There is a wall lined with jars of dirt that were collected from sites of lynching’s from around the country. Very powerful.

*****Thanks Trump administration for removing references to ‘LGBTQ’ youth from a federal program for victims of sex trafficking. It also eliminates funding to international groups that provide abortions. This comes from mostly evangelical lobbyists who are reporting that they are having more discussions with this administration than they ever had with any President.

*****Vanity Fair has their best dressed list out which includes Harry Styles, Rihanna, Solange, Jack Schlossberg, Justin Trudeau, Janelle Monae, Dev Patel, Cate Blanchett, Zoe Kravitz, Ruth Negga, and Donald Glover. The hall of fame mentioned Lauren Hutton, Jeremy irons and Prince Phillip.

*****More police brutality against the black man with the subduing of the Seahawks Michael Bennett for no apparent reason.

*****Leslie Van Houten has again been granted parole. As last year she is waiting out the 120 days to get the word from Gov. Jerry Brown.

*****Lovin’ Greg Garcia’s The Guest book on TBS. What is not to love about seeing Charles Robinson and Carly Jibson again. It made my day to see guest Orson Bean!!

*****The U.S. office of government ethics has changed a policy that will now allow lobbyists to donate to staffers legal defense funds.

*****Cameras have taken the first pictures of white giraffes in Kenya.

*****The Simpsons will be going to New Orleans this season!

*****The Middle is starting its last season. We will miss U!

*****Jay Pharoah has a new show on Showtime. White Famous is loosely based on the life of Jamie Foxx who is the executive producer.

*****John Davis Washington, son of Denzel may head the cast of Black Klansman. Spike Lee will direct and Jordan Peele will produce the true story of an African American who in 1978 infiltrated the KKK. Ron Stallworth used phones and his own writing to communicate with the organization. When he had to appear in person he sent a white officer in his place. They were able to sometimes sabotage cross burnings and other activities.

*****IT just had the biggest horror movie opening ever. The acting is quite nice for chapter 1 but the ending a bit long.

*****Netflix is bringing a delicious doc : Jim and Andy The great beyond featuring a very special contractually obligated mention of Tony Clifton. Spike Jonze is producing with the hundred hours of footage from Man on the Moon. ** Other new docs on the way look at Eric Clapton, Grace Jones and Sammy Davis Jr. It is the first time that Kim Novak will talk on camera about dating Sammy.

*****September 16 brought the Juggalos march on Washington. They have been bringing awareness about their gang designation and the harm that it has caused. The running man with a hatchet is considered a gang symbol and gives cops probable cause to search. The FBI labeled Juggalos a hybrid gang in 2011. Also marching were some of the alt right calling their march the mother of all rallies but it only produced about 500 people.

*****Treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin requested use of a government jet for his honeymoon and he later withdrew that request.

*****Finally there was a confirmation from a charity that Trump claims to have given to after the Hurricanes. Direct relief received 25 thou. ** There have still been no charities that received money from the inauguration fund.

*****WGN is bringing us a new show called Bellevue.

*****Howard Buffett will be the new Sheriff of Macon county in Illinois. His father Warren had donated millions to the area.

*****Prophets of Rage are here to raise awareness with members of Cypress Hill, Rage against the Machine and Public Enemy.

*****LA summer Olympics in 2028?!

*****Sean Spicer landed on Jimmy Kimmel. Wow.. What a kiss ass whiny bitch. He tried hard to stay in Trumps good graces with compliments for the Pres and constant berating of the press. He reminded me of a ventriloquist dummy with a hand up his ass.** His cameo at the Emmy’s did not go over very well either.

***** Model Monroe Bergdorf was fired by L’oreal because of her anti- racist remarks. She has now been hired by Illamasqua.

*****Boycott Dragon Dumps! Don’t pay your bill on time and the owner dumps garbage on your lawn.

*****It looks like Trevor Noah will stay with the Daily show until at least 2022.

*****James Woods used his twitter account to try and shame a movie about a gay romance between a 17 year old and a 24 year old. Amber Tamblyn tweeted that Woods had hit on her for real when she was only 16.

*****Scientists are trying to bring back the chelonoidis elephantopus Galopagos turtles. 80 blood samples of modern day island turtles have genetic traces of the lost species. Even though they have been extinct for 160 years, scientists think they can reproduce though not to 100%. Could they reverse the negative effects that humans cause in the environment?

***** Why do bullies feel the need to use the art of artists who want nothing to do with them? It is like using ‘You can’t always get what you want’ for Trump when there are plenty of artists who agree with you that would love for you to use their art. Now Universal music and American recordings had to send a cease and desist letter to the white supremacist site Stormfront to stop using Johnny Cash’s version of ‘I won’t back down.’ The host blames the Jews.

*****Tru tv will bring us At home with Amy Sedaris.

*****North Dakota paleontologists have been uncovering so many bones that they are inviting the public to help. It sounds like a dream come true.

*****Paul Newman is Jake Gyllenhaal’s Godfather. JS

*****St. Louis exploded into protest with yet another acquittal of a police officer after the shooting of a black man, Anthony Lamar Smith. Peoria, Il is also dealing with the shooting of an alleged bank robber who was shot 18 times.

*****The NFL is standing together in solidarity for equality and scary clown is sniping at them like a bitch. Our leader would not know respect and maturity if it bit him in the ass.** The Packers asked their fans to stand arm in arm with them on their Thursday night game with the Bears. Respect to Aaron Rodgers and the guys for speaking out before the game on equality. Some ‘fans’ are burning their Packer stuff. .. Why do these Trump supporters always want to burn everything? Do they have any idea how racist and ridiculous that looks?

*****Veep is going to bring us their last season while Julia is battling breast cancer. Joe Biden tweeted that us Veeps must stick together to show his support.

*****The Emmy’s with Stephen Colbert have come and gone. My best dressed were Ellie Kemper, Jessica Biel, Michelle Pfeiffer, Susan Sarandon, Leslie Jones, Matthew Rhys, Claire Foy, Evan Rachel Wood ,Gabrielle Union, Donald Glover, Emmy Rossum, Zoe Kravitz, Nicole Kidman and Julia- Louis Dreyfus. My worst dressed were Uzo Aduba, Debra Messing, Anna Farris, Tracee Ellis Ross and Prianka Chopra. I love Sarah Paulson and the back of her dress was great but …?? There was so much black fabric which was awesome. Was it mourning for the earthquake and hurricane victims or just a general sadness for the country? Whatever the reason.. hooray black!!**Also happy that hairstyles were mostly long and loose.** I was happy to see Laura Dern win for supporting actress in a limited series or movie. ** The Handmaids tale won for show, directing and writing , for Anne Dowd who looked more shocked and appreciative than I have ever seen and Elisabeth Moss. ** I was happy for Alec Baldwin for best supporting actor but was really routing for Louie Anderson. ** When the noms came out, I could not imagine anything beating out FEUD but everything did. ** The girls from 9 to 5 stole the show with their mention of a sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical bigot. ** Donald Glover won for directing and acting. **Alexander Skarsgard won which gave he and his brother quite a week. ** John Oliver won two and he again flew in his whole staff. ** Julia- Louis Dreyfus has now won the most Emmys for the same character in the same show. Veep got best comedy.**It was a wonderful moment when Carol Burnett and Norman Lear came out but DeNiro looked so disinterested.** Cicely Tyson has often been described as a bit of a diva and seemed a bit out of it on the broadcast but her counterpart saved the day.** So sad that Bob Odenkirk did not win but kudos to sterling K. Brown. They seemed to play him off too quickly while Nicole Kidman and big little lies had all the time in the world.

*****Bobby Moynihan stars in the new ‘Me Myself and I’ on CBS.

*****Word is that the Trump campaign is asking supporters to contribute money to build the wall.

*****Can we pay a little more attention to Puerto Rico? Why is the Pres giving them grief? Things were tough enough before the devastation. Puerto Rico has no bankruptcy and running a business is so costly there. Companies there must buy American which we don’t have to do. Forty percent of residents don’t have insurance. So many of the supplies sent to help are just sitting there in San Juan.

*****Angela Merkel has won a 4th term as German chancellor.

*****Singapore got their first female President, Halimah Yacob. She was the only candidate.

*****There was a settlement in a lawsuit against Club Cabaret. Dancers sued to be employees instead of individual contractors. The dancers won a million and cost of legal fees.

*****Art Garfunkel has a memoir/diary/ book of musings out called ‘What is it all but luminous.’

*****The personal account of Ted Cruz hit ‘like’ on a porn site on 9/11. He calls it a mistake by a staffer. A college roommate of Cruz said that he was not surprised.

*****After a tweet from the Pres about hitting Hil with a golf ball, Stephen King tweeted: Thinks hitting a woman with a golf ball and knocking her down is funny. Myself, I think it indicates a severely fucked up mind.

*****Brooklyn 99 is back and funnier than ever with the same great cast and opening.

*****Bill Maher and Jimmy Kimmel are rated number 1 of tv personalities based on Facebook, Instagram, twitter et al.

*****R.I.P Richard Anderson, Walter Becker, Don Williams, David Tang, Troy Gentry, Murray Lerner, Mexico’s earthquake victims, those lost to hurricane Irma, Frank Vincent, Len Wein, Grant Hart, Harry Dean Stanton, Michelle Rounds, Bonnie Angelo, Hugh Hefner, Jake La Motta, Eddie Russell Jr., Edith Windsor, Tony Booth and Monty Hall.

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imagining-star-wars · 7 years

Text

The Awakening

Requests are OPEN

[x] - requested by anonymous

Pairing: Cassian Andor x Reader

Word Count: 3,925

Warnings: Some Fluff, Minor Violence

A/N: I went way overboard with this request, and now I love it so much. It wasn’t until recently that I really felt a spark of creativity for this. It wasn’t exactly what was expected because I tied in a future imagine into this because it seemed to fit really well. Enjoy!

*Cassian’s POV*

Making my way through Jedha City was daunting enough what with the Imperial troops patrolling every inch of the place and terrorizing the locals. The constant fear of perhaps needing to produce identification put me on edge as well as the fear that I would be recognized as a rebel and outed. Tensions were high between Saw Gerrera’s rebels, stormtroopers, and the rest of the occupants of the city. After countless times being there, I learned that it was best to just keep your head down, wear basic attire that helped you blend in, and not say a word to anyone unless you knew exactly who that person was. I had contacts in many of the cities on different planets, normally more than one. In Jedha City, I was left with only one contact. If anything happened to him, I’d be pretty much on my own. I was on a mission to locate Saw Gerrera or at least find someone who would tell me where he was. It was a long shot since his rebels were pretty tight lipped, but word had to get around at some point. There had to be some rumors, and rumors were better than nothing. I anticipated the reluctance of others to point me in the right direction.

However, I never anticipated running into...her. Striking (e/c) eyes like nothing I had ever seen before, and I had seen my fair share of women. Saying she was beautiful would have been an understatement. Clad in blue robes, she stood out in the crowd, but it was as if she wasn’t afraid to, like she wasn’t in a hostile area. If you weren’t an Imperial, you were their enemy, and they didn’t care who they took prisoner or who they killed. My eyes flickered over every inch of her body as I drank in the brilliance. Grey pants were clinging to her legs only to be cut off just below the knee by a pair of black boots. She was fascinating and mysterious, an incredible creature. She stood next to a larger man with his own set of armor and a blaster on his other side. He was large enough to break her in two if he wanted, but something strange told me that he wouldn’t. When I saw the man they hovered around, I knew that they all must’ve been the Guardians of the Whills. She seemed a lot less threatening than the blind man and the soldier, but I knew better than to underestimate anyone. A set of eyes like hers was just as dangerous as the blaster in the soldier's hands.

Just as her eyes caught mine, I stopped moving, and it felt as if my breath caught in my throat. Her eyes had been scanning the crowds of people roaming the streets of the city, and her gaze always made its way back to the soldier or the blind man who was calling out, “may the force of others be with you,” like it was his mantra. She just stood behind him like a silent guardian along with the soldier. When her eyes met my brown ones, though, her lips curled up into a slight smile, which only pulled me in even further. I couldn’t help myself, and I just continued staring at her, completely and utterly captivated by the young woman. Even in my wildest dreams or in the depth of my imagination, I had never thought there could be someone who could pique my interest quite like she had. I wasn’t interested in taking time out of my life to swoon over women, and I certainly didn’t go out looking for them. Until that moment, I couldn’t care less about other people, but this stranger sparked a curiosity within me that I was sure would never leave. Even when she looked away, breaking eye contact with me, I was left starstruck by her. I knew that I couldn’t approach her because I didn’t know who she was, but I certainly wanted to. Instead, I walked through the streets in a daze, unable to shake the sight of her from my mind. It was like I had committed her to memory, but something told me that I wouldn’t need it.

*Reader’s POV*

The stranger who had caught my gaze was none other than the famed Captain Cassian Andor, a fellow member of the Rebellion. I had joined up long ago, wanting to find a place in the galaxy that seemed to have forsaken me time and time again. Instead of sitting around feeling sorry for myself, I took control of my life and did something about it. I heard plenty of stories about the captain, but I never had the pleasure of working with him. I wish I would’ve gotten word that they were sending more rebels into the city, but I knew that I had a specific task to complete, and so did he. It was my job to find Saw Gerrera, and I had been undercover for far too long to just let that job go. Whatever his mission was, I knew he would complete it because he was famous for following orders. When I recognized him, though, I was terrified that he recognized me as well, that he would come over and blow my cover which I had built up over weeks and weeks. The way he looked at me, though, was almost as if he didn’t recognize me at all. I had seen him in passing on Yavin 4, and I heard plenty of stories about him. He paid attention to no one if it didn’t have to do with his mission, so I wasn’t surprised that he didn’t recognize me-it wasn’t like we had ever formally met each other.

Being undercover was a difficult task, and it wasn’t for the obvious reasons. I didn’t find it difficult to formulate a different backstory to fit the new “character” I was portraying, and I didn’t find it difficult to fall right into a life that wasn’t my own. I was playing a role, and that was it. The only problem with being undercover for so long was the relationships. Usually, I was able to distance myself from the mission enough to keep from actually getting close to people, but the men I was with, the men who took me in under their wing and saved my ass over and over again-they were the real deal. I couldn’t distance myself enough to not truly care about them. Chirrut Imwe, a blind warrior, was a spiritual guide, and I could sense his unity with the force. Baze Malbus was the silent protector and just like an older brother to me. He cracked jokes with Chirrut every once in a while, and he teased him for his faith in the force, but they cared about each other like they were their last links to family. In all my time in the rebellion, I never found it difficult to separate myself from my mission, but these two men made it the hardest for me. They made me want to stay in the war zone that was Jedha city just so that I didn’t have to leave them.

Suddenly, an explosion on the other side of the city pulled me from my own thoughts. Saw’s rebels were attacking again. If I could just get my hands on one of them, I knew they would have no choice but to tell me where Saw was. My persuasion skills were top of the line, so they wouldn’t be walking away without giving me an answer. As soon as that first explosion hit, I took off toward it, ripping my arm from the iron grip of Baze’s hand when he saw me start to leave. He didn’t like seeing me fight, so he tried to keep me as close to him as possible at all times. What he didn’t know is that I was trained and built for fighting, that I thrived when given the opportunity. As I ran through the streets, I listened to my own blood pumping in order to steel myself for what was about to come. However, it wouldn’t matter as right before I could reach the heat of the fight, I was pulled into one of the small alleyways by a fellow rebel, Tow. Before I could ask him what he was doing, he began explaining, “Senator Organa ordered for you to return to Yavin 4. He organized a group to come into the city to pick up where you left off, but he needs you back at the base. It sounded urgent”

I furrowed my eyebrows, “I can help out there”

He shook his head, “I can’t let you go out there and fight. Our guys will have it under control, and we’ll capture one of Saw’s and do whatever is necessary to get him to talk. You need to get back to Yavin 4 before Senator Organa comes to collect you himself” he explained with a completely stone face, almost like the change didn’t faze him whatsoever. I clenched my jaw, irritated that I wouldn’t be able to see the mission to completion. However, a piece of me felt lucky that I would at least get to sleep in my bed for the first time in a long time. I knew that if Bail came all the way to Jedha just to take me back to the base, I would be in for the lecture of a lifetime. He wouldn’t scream and yell at me, but it was far worse to know that I disappointed him. I nodded my head as a sign that I had heard and accepted my new orders. Tow continued, “there’s a U-Wing waiting for you just outside the city. You’re capable of flying it back to Yavin 4 on your own”

“I just need to get my bag, and I’ll be on my way” I said, turning around and walking in the opposite direction of the fighting. It always died down within minutes with the stormtroopers on the ground succumbing or the rebels pulling back and going into hiding. They attacked with so much force and so quickly that no one could ever expect them or overcome them. I had the thirst for fighting, but I knew that it wasn’t my turn. Tow had run off behind me to fight as I made my way back to Baze and Chirrut. They were still in the same place as before, almost like the fighting was nothing concerning. Of course, they had seen it every day for quite some time, and they didn’t have the same reason for fighting as I did. Saying goodbye was the hardest part because I knew the chances of me seeing them again were slim and almost non-existent. While Baze didn’t always show his softer side, I saw it because I looked for it. Wanting to avoid all sadness, I just scooped up my bag, hung it over my shoulder, and proceeded to walk away. With every step, my heart sank more and more because I knew that they knew I wasn’t planning on coming back. This wasn’t just me needing some time alone, and they could sense that.

“I knew it would happen today” Chirrut’s voice stopped me dead in my tracks. I closed my eyes, trying to stop the proof of my sadness from streaming down my cheeks. I couldn’t bring myself to turn around and face him, so I just continued to face my back toward him, but I wouldn’t move as he continued, “you don’t think I knew, but I did. You could hide from everyone else, but you cannot hide from me. I may be blind, but I can see right through you”

When I finally found the strength to turn around, I saw that Baze stood almost right behind me. In my sorrow, I hadn’t felt his presence so close to me. He didn’t speak a single word but pulled my body into his strong arms, encasing me almost completely. He was a man of few words, but I didn’t need to hear him tell me how much he cared for me because the embrace was enough to know that I was loved. Once Baze pulled away from me, we locked eyes for a short moment, and he gave a slight nod, “you will do so many great things, little one” he said

Before I could respond, Chirrut reached out and took my hand. His eyes were cast away from me, but I knew he was giving me his complete and unparalleled attention. His thumb ghosted across my knuckles, and I knew he was taking this last time to commit my hands to memory. He had been so fascinated by them the first time we met, and he knew-just as I did-that this would be the last time we would see each other. He smiled, “I can sense it. I could sense it from the very beginning. The force is strong in you, (Y/N)”

My throat tightened at his declaration. I didn’t know if he could see something or if he just meant it as a compliment. Either way, it was dangerous to speak of the force in the midst of so many skeptics. I gave his hand a gentle squeeze, “thank you, Chirrut, but...like Baze always says, there are no Jedi anymore” I lied like I was trying to convince not only him but also myself of it. Even after departing and heading off to look for the U-Wing, I continued to repeat those words over and over again, wondering if he could possibly sense that as well. There are no Jedi anymore. There are no Jedi anymore. There are no Jedi anymore. When I finally made it outside of the city, I caught sight of my ship as well as a lone stormtrooper surveying it. I knew that the only reason he was taking note of it was because it was out of place. Trying to get to it and take off wouldn’t be as easy as I had anticipated previously, but I always had a few tricks up my sleeve. Without a second thought I walked right over to the U-Wing, and, as expected, I caught the attention of the lone stormtrooper right away. Since I startled him, he started to aim his blaster at me. Before he could, I held out a hand, stopping him from making any further movements and freezing him in place. My whole body quaked as I realized what I had done.

There are no Jedi anymore. There are no Jedi anymore. Once I lowered my hand, he aimed the blaster at me, shaking off what had just happened. I knew that he must’ve chalked it up to just coincidence, but it terrified me so much that I actually began trembling. He took a step closer to me, “let me see your identification” he demanded

I took a deep breath, remembering how this worked the last time. As soon as I collected myself and forced my body to stop shaking, I stared up at him, completely relaxed, “you don’t need to see my identification”

He paused for a long moment, and I wondered if it was just a fluke the last few times it worked. The only person I had confided in about it was Senator Organa, but it was only because I knew I could trust him more than anyone else. When I told him about the incidents, he wore an expression of fear-one I had never seen on him before. He was always the person I could fall back on for anything, and I was always more than just a rebel to him. He took me under his wing and showed me the beauty in the galaxy and taught me compassion. I didn’t always listen to his advice right away, but I always took it to heart. Right when I was about to knock the stormtrooper out in order to protect myself and my identity, he spoke, “I don’t need to see your identification”

My heart thudded against my ribs as excitement overcame me. At the same time, I continued my mantra. There are no Jedi anymore. There are no Jedi anymore. With the sudden boost in confidence, I continued staring up at the stormtrooper, “you will go back to the city and forget all of this” I stated

He straightened his shoulders and lowered his blaster, “I will go back to the city and forget all of this” he repeated before turning on his heel and walking away.

As soon as I was sure he wouldn’t turn back, I scrambled into the U-Wing, wondering how I could’ve possibly achieved such a thing. As I sat in the pilot’s chair, my heart continued to race, beating against my ribs so hard that it was physically painful. I shook my head to myself, wishing that I could just forget what just happened. I closed my eyes as the ship roared to life, trying to keep myself calm, “there are no Jedi anymore. There are no Jedi anymore”

When I returned to the base, I began making my way to the war room, hoping to have a quick meeting with Senator Organa so that I could go about my business and meditate to clear my mind. It was one of the things he had taught me to do once I told him about my incidents. Other than that, he remained tight-lipped about it and didn’t want to speak about any of it at length for “safety reasons” as he called them. I wanted to go about my day without any further conflict, but when I saw those eyes again, I knew that it was inevitable. I knew he was trouble as soon as we locked eyes in the city, but I hadn’t expected him to return to the base almost immediately after me. He was only moments behind me, but I alo took my time getting back to Yavin 4 for my own reasons. I wanted to calm my nerves before having my conversation with Bail, knowing that he could always sense when something wasn’t quite right. I always saw him as the father I never had the privilege of having even though I knew he had a daughter already.

I tried to avoid Captain Andor to my best ability, but I couldn’t help it when his eyes met mine just like they had in the city. I thought he was a magnificent creature with wild, dark eyes and a ferocity in his expression. The sight of him made my stomach twist into a knot, especially when he caught my gaze in that moment. The sudden anger that overcame him was enough to excite me. His lips were in a tight line, and he narrowed his eyes at me as he began closing the space between us. I knew that I wouldn’t be able to hide from him after he recognized me, but I still wished that I could just curl up into a ball and evaporate. When he finally reached me, his hand wrapped around my throat, and he shoved me against the wall, “who are you?” he growled, glaring at me like I was his enemy. Thankfully, the wall kept me standing straight because my knees could’ve buckled beneath me at the mere sound of his voice. I knew how it must’ve looked. We never met each other before, and the last time he saw me was in a war zone where you couldn’t possibly know who was an enemy and who was a friend, “you’re following me, and I want to know why”

I clenched my jaw, knowing that I couldn’t…”persuade” him like I did the stormtrooper on Jedha. I found that individuals with stronger minds were far more resistant to my persuasion, and Captain Andor would be one of them. My eyes locked with his, and I took a short breath due to the grip he had on my throat, “remove your hands, or I will remove them for you” I ordered, not wanting to take action if I didn’t have to. He cocked an eyebrow in clear amusement, but he still listened. I guessed that it was because he was stunned by my straightforward nature. I could be pretty unpredictable. When he dropped his hand from my throat, I stepped away from the wall and closer to him, “I was on a mission, and I was working undercover until you got there. Then, I was called back here so that your little group of rebels could finish what I started” I spat out like it was a bad taste in my mouth. I was bitter about having to leave Jedha, but I had to trust that Senator Organa had a good reason for it, “now, Captain Andor, if you don’t mind…” I trailed off, heading toward the hallway I had been making my way to before I was so rudely interrupted.

He was still in a stunned silence, but I didn’t know why. I gave him my answer, and I was leaving before he could launch a full interrogation. From behind me, I heard his voice call out to me one last time, “what’s your name?”

My lips pulled up into a smirk, and I could sense that he was just as enthralled by me as I was of him. The playful nature that I had adopted so long ago came out again, “none of your business, Captain” I called back to him before continuing on my way to the war room.

It was completely empty except for Bail. He stood in front of the round table. Seeing him so...tired was new. It had been 5 weeks since I last saw him, and I could tell that something was weighing on his mind. As soon as I walked into the room, he stepped away from the table and straightened his shoulders as a sign of respect for me. For weeks, I had been afraid for my own life, constantly having to look over my shoulder, and I was finally back home. Without second thought, I ran over to him and threw my arms around his shoulders, pulling my body close to his. He never pushed boundaries because that was my job. He maintained a professional distance when we were in the midst of anyone else, but he always treated me like I was one of his own. His arms finally wrapped around me in a warm embrace as I buried my face into his chest, “I’m so glad you’re safe” he murmured, “and I’m so glad you’re home”

I could sense the bittersweet sound of his voice, and I knew there was an addendum that I wouldn’t like. When I pulled away from him, I took a deep breath. Just from the way he looked at me, I could tell that he knew something wasn’t quite right, “it happened again” I murmured, referencing my unique persuasion technique. He would know.

He sighed, “that’s why I put in a request to pull you from Jedha” he confessed, “during the time you were gone, I reached out to an old friend, someone who could teach you better than I ever could. He’s on Tatooine, and he can help you get a hold of these changes”

I cocked my head to the side, furrowing my eyebrows, “who is he?”

“His name is Ben”

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