#<- tagging him because its the same species . ok ?
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look at him . ok ?
#dhmis#dont hug me im scared#dhmis ocs#pink guy#red guy#<- tagging him because its the same species . ok ?#and there is no like . actual species name#anyways !!#i might make his pink a little bit lighter ... idk !! it still looks too red to me but ...#anyways . i like him#🎨
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ok to the anon thats talkin w me about mental eelness and bro and the "knight of time" line:
id post your entire ask but its Very Long and im struggling to answer all of it in a way that isnt fucking with my head and anxiety so im going to answer with only the character analysis stuff HERE on this post my apologies
for the record i dont even remotely know how to begin tagging this mess down here and i really think itd be better suited for my nsfw blog but yall aint asking about this on that blog which is fair take care of yourselves
JSYK it's stuff about brocal/intrusive thoughts about inc st and c s a SO kids please avert your eyes for my comfort thank YOU
i dont personally have ocd afaik but as someone who Has intrusive thoughts (actual horrifying ones that dirk, gabe and i have to beat back with a stick, not the ones kids think are intrusive thoughts today)
i definitely think that's how bro approaches raising dave; overcompensating for the accusations from his mind and cal[iborn] leading to total icing him out
okay same anon who was asking abt the “i was raising the knight of time” line. you saying “caliborn made [bro] believe that platonic affection is in fact not platonic at all and is instead sexual[the implications when bro is constantly carrying around cal with his arms around his neck btw. insane.]” is fascinating. is this based off the fact that caliborn thinks even hugging or a kiss on the cheek is “filthy?” it makes me think about ocd/bipolar disorder/misc mental illnesses and intrusive thoughts. i have bipolar and im a huge softie for kids but my intrusive thoughts sometimes try to convince me that my affection is somehow sinister.
YES very much
i need to describe to you my thoughts on brocal really quick bc i think that'll help put it in perspective and idk how else to talk about it;
heres the thing
cal is both bro's boyfriend and his fucking family okay
imagine you're a kid and you have this puppet friend that speaks to you using silly words and tells you that you should eat glass maybe :) or cut your fingers off or tear off your own head and hes the only thing thats taking care of you as a person even if hes mean
he tells you that people touching is inappropriate and vulgar and he cant believe theyre doing that in public (but its okay if we hug and cuddle you know?)
but also as you grow up this puppet starts calling you weird shit like stud or hunky or what the hell ever and maybe. youre going to kiss him
this puppet is the only thing you care about because hes the only thing that cares about you youve been with him for years and years and he talks to you and hes all that matters and now youre obsessed with him and you dont know when that happened but you have an obsessive personality anyway
youll do anything for him. (let me kill for you)
hes the only person you love because you dont love roxy this way (consuming, overwhelming, obligating to do what he wants, because he's all you have)
and well shit
if cals telling you that youre a freak for wanting to cuddle on the baby like you did that once (call it the knight it helps keep your distance) then i guess you're a fucking freak because its not even your right to treat it as family anyway; it's bigger than you. it's more than you will ever be and you need to make sure it doesn't fucking die and apparently that involves at least a little bit of affection cal please understand(what a disgusting species)
#mumbling#brocal#homestuck#bro strider#tsgzv#tsgw#gabe and dirk are my mind parasites btw#PLEASE dont call me a system#timaeus posting
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Thanks for all the asks!! :D
Now it's my turn. Rant to me about your OCs. Do you have any favorites? Gimme some background info. I wanna know all the things. And definitely don't be afraid to make your answer post as ridiculously long as mine was lol
Ok so. Slight story context cause all my ocs end up in the same world one way or another. There is a place called Creaturae, a nexus of all worlds known as the End of all Stories. Every story ever conceived of ends up here when it's finished (or abandoned). That usually means locations, magic systems, artifacts, etc, but every so often people will show up as well. Creaturae also has Rifts that connect it to whatever other worlds are closest at any given time (this changes according to my whims).
The tag '#creaturae' has a shitton of content under it about the world and a fair number of the main characters but I'll run through some of them here for ya!
A few of my ocs were born in Creaturae, a few came from other worlds appearing there after their stories ended or they died, and some have unclear origins. Everyone listed here is an oc altho due to the nature of Creaturae the story I'm actually writing down atm is basically a somewhere else tma fanfic.
The main pov characters are known as the castle crew and live at the Castle, a hub for the universe spanning organization TAHVA who are tasked with Creaturae's protection.
Rev is a dragonling, a species that falls under the half dragon umbrella and evolved from interbreeding of many species such as dragonborns and actual half-dragons that ended up on Creaturae. They are the head of TAHVA and are skilled at almost every learnable magic that exists (which is a lot). They're also responsible for forming the main planet which is also called Creaturae.
Iden has been a friend of Rev's since they were children. He started out as an avian (humanoid with bird wings) but interaction with deep Creaturae magic and the creation power he gained from a magic pencil (its. A long story) resulting in a passive shapeshifting. He now has features of many animals including the legs of a goat, feline esqe ears and tail, and tusks like a boar's.
Jay is what's referred to as a ghost- that is, she appeared on Creaturae after dying as the end of her story. She's from a story I'm cowriting called the Coalition Files that exists in a multiverse called Deviantverse. Deviants are similar to mutants in superhero media, born with superpowers as part of their DNA. She has the wings of a great horned owl as well as ear feathers and hollow bones, but her main power is ice manipulation. Since her many adventures on Creaturae she's also become a death-god (complicated but I've explained them somewhere before).
Adrian and Lucien are Jay's husbands who also come from the same story. They're less important to Creaturae's story which is good for them because it means they mostly get to chill in New Coma City, the city that resides on the same island as the Castle.
Mixtape started out as a self insert, like a few other of my ocs, but like them has since gained a backstory tied to their world. They lose their memory to a wizard's curse and now live at the Castle. They started out looking human but now have a monkey tail and a few other animalistic features.
Synth is Mixtape's bodyguard, whose origins are as wacky as they are complicated. His appearance is that of a monkie demon and he was created from deep Creaturae magic.
McKenzie is a half enderman and a good friend of Mixtape. They travel the world collecting stories and ensuring that no story that ends up in Creaturae is ever forgotten. They're not the only story collector, but there aren't many, despite the importance of their job.
Rupee is... Complicated. His physical body was created for him by Iden and resembles an avian with a felines legs, tail, and ears. His... Species you could say... Don't have physical bodies of their own. They exist by possessing the ones who summoned them. They are called different things in different translations of the ancient texts that speak of them: red kings, blood kings, sometimes blood gods. They're an interdimensional species, and between summonings exist in a limbo like state between worlds. Rupee doesn't remember much from before Iden summoned him.
Verne is one of the few on Creaturae who looks fully human. He's an oc from a Scythe trilogy fanfic I abandoned, and as his story never really existed he arrived on Creaturae with few memories of his life before. He's driven by the desire to be important and remembered, and that drive got him jumping up the ranks in TAHVA until he became Rev's personal assistant after less than a year working at the Castle.
This isn't all of the castle crew and there's a loooot of Creaturae lore I didn't even touch in this post, but a lot of the intro stuff are things I've talked about on here before! If you have any specific questions I'd love to answer them, and if you're curious about the world and characters in general feel free to check out the #creaturae tag on my blog!!
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picture me | johnny (m)
title: picture me
pairing: vampire!johnny x black!reader
genre: fantasy, romance, smut, fluff, angst
summary: you meet a vampire-slash-photographer whose self-identity is increasingly lost to him, and you try to help him find some purpose again.
word count: 18.3k
warnings: age gap (cuz you know, vampires...but everyone is legal), mentions of discrimination/prejudice based on species, self-identity issues/self-deprecation, general angst, sheltered!reader, mentions of blood and drinking blood, oral sex (female and male receiving), fingering, thigh riding, loss of virginity, corruption kink, use of lube, unprotected sex (do not try at home), creampie, johnny is packing in this fic ok!
a/n: today (the 28th) is my birthday, so i’m posting this 100% self-indulgent fic that i’ve been working on between requests since september. it was very hard to get johnny’s characterization right for this fic and idk if i actually succeeded but i’m not revising this for the 1000th time lol. i love this fic with my whole heart tho.
i haven’t seen many vampire fics that really explore the whole “doesn’t show up in mirrors/photos” concept (shout em out if you know em) and...there’s probably a reason for that, this shit is hard af to write and there are some logic issues but whatever 🤪
(the beginning quote is from “criminal,” stan taemin!!)
The moment I fall for you is the end of my innocence
—
He sits in the same coffee shop everyday, like it’s a habit he just can’t break. But who are you to judge? You’re there, too. Watching him like a creep. Or maybe like an interested coffee shop patron, trying to be discreet and failing at it.
He wasn’t hard to notice. You’d never been to this coffee shop before, but your friend recommended it to you mostly for their in-house-made pastries; she claimed the coffee was good, too, but she wasn’t much of a caffeine person. You decided to give it a try when you had time between classes and a moment to breathe, not needing to talk to this advisor or that professor.
You saw him immediately when you walked past the shop window. He was sitting at a table near the front, staring down at his phone with a small cup of coffee sitting in front of him. Its miniscule size was almost comical in contrast to his...everything. He was tall—that much was obvious even with him sitting down—and imposing, wearing all black. His hair was equally pitch-black, his bangs hanging to one side and the rest shaved in an undercut. If you didn’t know much better, you’d think you’d stepped back into 2007 and landed dead in the middle of the emo craze.
He was interesting to look at. Not in a bad way, but in a way you don’t see very often. Deciding to walk in before you made yourself look totally weird staring at him through the window, you’d stepped into the coffee shop, the small bell dinging above your head. A barista greeted you at your entrance. Out of the corner of your eye you saw the man, to your left, still looking at his phone.
You’d given your order and waited for it to be ready before taking it to a table on the other side of the shop. From that vantage point, you had a good view of the man. You tried to keep your eyes on your food and your phone, not wanting to spend the whole time looking at him, but it was a little hard not to.
When you took a bite of your pastry, you quickly discovered it was just as delicious as your friend promised—probably even more so. You made a noise of approval before you could catch yourself, and you glanced around the shop in embarrassment to see if anyone nearby noticed. Didn’t seem like it, at first. But then you glanced over to the man again only to find him looking at you below his eyelashes with a small, amused smile on his lips. He only kept his gaze on you for a second before returning to his phone.
What? You hadn’t thought you were that loud. How did he hear you from over there, and above the noise of the café? Even now, you remember how embarrassed you’d felt, ducking your head and looking away.
The man finished his coffee not long after that; he slipped his phone into his pocket and stood up. You glanced up only momentarily when he stood, but your eyes soon slid back to his form when you noticed something odd. On the wall behind him, there was a big oval mirror sitting pretty in its elaborate silver frame. He stood just a few feet in front of it, yet there was no reflection of him. The only thing you could see was the other side of the café reflected back, with another man sitting alone at a booth enjoying his own coffee. The tall man’s reflection was nowhere to be found.
That was when you figured he must be a vampire.
You’d never met one before. At least, you didn’t think you had until then.
Unbeknownst to you, vampires are notoriously able to blend in more easily than most other supernatural beings—until faced with situations like that one in the coffee shop. Ultimately, there’s no faking a reflection no matter how hard you try to remain inconspicuous.
The man had caught your eye again. Thinking back on it, you aren’t sure of what expression you had on your face or what it must’ve looked like to him. It must’ve been something akin to surprise, though; you weren’t quick enough to disguise your reaction at his lack of a reflection.
He gave you another smile, though it felt sadder than the previous one, and walked out of the store, the small bell on the door ringing at his departure. He disappeared down the street in a swirl of black fabric, almost like something out of a movie, and you watched him retreat until you could see him no more.
You scraped your index fingernail over the wood table your food was resting on, your mind whirring with all kinds of thoughts. Your interest was piqued. And yet there was no way for you to know if you’d see him again.
—
At least, that’s what you believed then. Luckily for you, your subsequent visits to the coffee shop have proven fruitful; the strange, tall vampire is there more often than not, always in the same spot in front of that same mirror. Sometimes he reads a book, other times he looks at his phone, and other times still, he stares out the window at the passersby.
He acknowledges you whenever he sees you, either with a nod or a smile. You’ve never spoken to each other, though you know what his voice sounds like from hearing him talk to the baristas. It’s a nice voice, rich and handsome like him, and you find yourself gradually wanting to hear it spoken in your direction. But you aren’t sure how to talk to him, or what you should say.
There’s a lot you want to know about him and his vampirism, but you don’t think it’s fair to bombard him with questions right after meeting him—if you could somehow work up the nerve for that first step.
When you were young, your parents made sure to keep you safely sheltered away from anyone who could potentially be a vampire or any other nonhuman being. This game kept up until you went to college, where they could no longer “shield” you. Because of their lifelong fear and disgust, your knowledge of nonhuman beings is scarce and mostly inaccurate.
The man’s skin isn’t deathly pale like you’ve heard others say vampires always are. It’s nicely tanned, in fact. Nor are his eyes red, or his canine teeth abnormally sharp. And obviously, he has no aversion to sunlight, otherwise he wouldn’t be out here during the day. The only visible marker of his inhuman nature is his lack of a reflection. Maybe he’s not a vampire at all? Maybe he’s another type of being entirely. That only makes you more curious.
It’s not rare to come across supernatural beings, but they only make themselves known if they want to, or if it’s imperative to their survival. Most of them would rather quietly assimilate amongst humans or stay safe and hidden within their own communities. Humans are still too judgmental towards those who are different from themselves for nonhumans to feel truly safe or welcomed—at least not on a global scale. Small pockets of communities forged with human allies are helpful and sometimes vital for survival, but not always enough.
These small tidbits of information cycle through your mind as September gradually bleeds into October. You continue watching the thoughtful man in the coffee shop and making up your own secret theories about his life. You haven’t told anyone from school about this, because you already know the reaction would be nothing short of awful. Your parents would only let you go to school at the one university in the city that explicitly didn’t allow supernatural beings; it goes without saying that your classmates don’t view them in a positive light.
Part of you feels like you might be breaking the unspoken rules just by being at this coffee shop all the time and allowing this man to take up space in your mind. But who will know what’s inside your thoughts except you?
One day, your friend decides to accompany you on your lunch break, finally stopping by the café she recommended to you. The man is already there, as usual, and he smiles slightly when you and your friend enter. She doesn’t catch this, too busy wondering what she’s going to get off the menu today.
“I haven’t been here in forever, I wonder if Sam still remembers me?” You know Sam to be one of the baristas there, having read it on their name tag before.
“I doubt there are very many people who’d forget you,” you answer.
When you both have your food, you take a booth farther away from where the man sits, though you can still see him easily from this distance. Your friend settles into the seat in front of you.
You try to keep things inconspicuous throughout your conversation, but you must glance over at him one too many times, because your friend eventually raises her eyebrows questioningly. She turns around in her seat, making it obvious that she’s looking, and you groan as you keep your eyes in the opposite direction towards the window.
“Who’s that guy you keep staring at?”
You cough. “No one.”
“He’s obviously someone. Someone interesting enough to hold your attention.”
“I don’t know the man,” you say curtly. You shuffle your napkin and spoon aimlessly, your nervousness rising. What if he has some kind of enhanced hearing and can hear what you’re saying right now? He definitely heard you make that noise that first day.
Your friend looks at the ceiling and blows air out of her mouth. “Whatever. I’ll find out who he is sooner or later.”
You take a sip of your drink and lower your voice to just above a whisper. Although you want to leave the subject alone, you’re curious about one thing. “You mean you’ve never seen him before? This café was your hangout spot before it was mine.”
She shrugs. “No, I think I would’ve remembered someone as...visually striking as him. Why are we whispering, anyway? It’s not like he can hear us above all this noise.”
You think to yourself, I’m not so sure about that, but you merely shake your head.
You spend a few more minutes talking before movement catches the corner of your eye. At this point, it’s practically a reflex for you to look in that direction. You try not to, but your friend has already caught you and turns her head to spy, too. The man has gotten up for whatever reason to say something to one of the baristas at the counter. Your gaze darts back to your cup after you’ve gotten your eyeful, but you’re nearly startled into dropping the cup at your friend’s gasp.
Oh. The mirror.
She grips the edge of the table. “He’s a vampire…?”
You don’t know what to say to that, and you feel oddly guilty for some reason you can’t pinpoint. Like you’ve been caught with your hand in the cookie jar. “U-um, I don’t know…?” You can hardly finish your thought before your friend is scrambling to grab her purse. She hurriedly stands out of the seat, tugging your arm as she does.
“Come on. We shouldn’t stay here.”
“Are you serious—?” You feel embarrassed heat rip through your body at her display; some other café-goers are already looking at her curiously, probably wondering what the hell she’s doing. She tugs more incessantly, and you already know she’ll get louder if you don’t get up now and defuse the situation. Leaving your half-full cup behind, you grab your things and follow her out of the store, keeping your eyes firmly on her back as you pass by the man. You don’t know if he looked up, or if he could sense the reason for your sudden departure—you’ve never left the shop before him until now—and you don’t want to know.
Neither of you talk until you’re well down the street and around the corner. “That wasn’t necessary,” you huff, your hands still sweating from the spiked adrenaline at suddenly being rushed out.
“Yes it was! We all know bloodsuckers and all these other weirdos are dangerous...even if they think they’re being well-intentioned by living among humans. I hope you don’t go back there.”
“Whatever...you’re the one who told me to visit the café,” you mumble, unable to muster up the energy to say anything more. You both know very well she can’t tell you where to go, but you hope she doesn’t mention this to your other acquaintances on campus and make it into a bigger deal than it is.
When you part ways with your friend and get back to your dorm, you realize you’re missing your planner. The planner with all your upcoming assignment dates in it. You sigh heavily and roll your eyes, knowing it must’ve happened in the chaos of her pulling you out of the shop. Maybe if you’re really lucky, it’ll still be there, picked up by an employee or simply left untouched. Knowing how many people go through that café in a day, you’re not optimistic.
For the first time since visiting the quaint little shop, you’re not anticipating returning and seeing the man again, afraid he’ll ignore you or look at you with distaste—like you’re just another unsympathetic human. And would he be wrong to think that? You’re only strangers to each other.
You try not to dwell on it too hard when you go to bed that night.
When lunch rolls around the next day, you hesitate a couple times on your way to the café, not wanting to show up. However, the desire to see what became of your planner pushes you forward. You don’t even have to stay; if it’s there, you’ll take it and leave. If it’s not—oh well. You can still leave. It’s not hard to buy another.
He’s there when you arrive, of course.
He nods at you when you step inside, though he doesn’t smile as he’s become accustomed to doing. You nod back, but you can’t ignore the renewed rush of embarrassment you feel. You linger at the entrance for a second longer, wondering if maybe you should say something. Apologize, even? But what if he really didn’t know what was going on yesterday? Then how odd would you look for bringing it up?
You decide to move on and go back to the booth to search for your belongings, but his voice stops you. This takes you by surprise.
“Did you come back for this?”
You turn to him to see him holding your planner in his hand. You stare, momentarily dumbfounded, and almost shake your head before realizing it is yours. Definitely the same sticker-covered, scribbled-all-over planner.
“Oh—y-yeah. Thank you.” He passes it to you, though you notice he’s very careful not to let your hands touch. You’re a little perplexed about why, but then the rumors about vampires having cold skin pop up in your mind. Maybe that’s actually true, too. “I usually don’t lose things so easily, but…” Your voice falters, and you don’t know how to finish that sentence without bringing up the other day’s events.
He doesn’t seem to mind as he replies, “It happens to all of us sometimes...I don’t know what I’d do if I lost my camera.”
“You take pictures?” you ask, a tinge of curiosity in your voice.
He nods. “I take photos of anything that interests me. Which often ends up being everything I see. I work at an art museum, so I guess having an eye for photography comes in handy.” He hesitates for a second, then says, “I could show you some?” He waves his phone, indicating that the photos are there.
“Oh, sure.” The man gestures for you to sit down in the empty chair in front of him, and you do so. He swipes through his phone a few times until he settles on what he’s searching for, then puts the device on the table and slides it to you. You lean forward to look at it and see that it displays an album full of pictures, simply titled with the emoji “🌌.”
“It’s okay, you can pick it up.” He chuckles. You pick up the phone and swipe through the numerous pictures. Many of them are nighttime shots of the moon, trees, half-empty streets, darkened storefronts. Others depict nature scenes at sunset or the beginning of sunrise, with the sky colored in darker hues. No matter what the subject matter is, they all look to be professionally taken, even for an iPhone.
“Wow, these are nice. You said you work at a museum…are you a professional photographer, too?”
The man shrugs, and as you look at his slight grin, you realize you still don’t know his name. “Something like that, I guess.”
“You should be if you aren’t already,” you say, looking through more photos. “I’m sure you’d make a lot of money.” When you reach the end of the album, you go to hand the phone back to him but realize he’ll probably want to avoid contact again, so you slide it across the table. He takes it and slips it into his pocket.
“I don’t really care about the money,” he responds. “I just like it because…” He trails off, unsure how to convey his thoughts, wondering if he should even get that personal with a stranger. “It...helps me pass the time.” He’s not quite satisfied by that answer—it doesn’t feel like enough—but it’s all he can think of on the spot.
“Well, that’s nice too. It’s always good to have a hobby just for the sake of it...not for anyone’s benefit but your own.”
“Do you have one?” He takes a sip of his coffee. You don’t expect to be asked about your own interests, and your mind goes blank as you try to think. Why does this always happen when I’m asked these kinds of questions?
“Um, just different things here and there.”
“You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to,” he says, amused.
“It’s not that, I just don’t have a ton of hobbies or anything. I’m kinda boring, so…” And wasn’t allowed to do much of anything until I left home.
“Being boring isn’t always a bad thing.”
You lean back in your seat, shrugging slightly. “Maybe if you see it that way. My friends don’t.”
“Would one of those happen to be the same one who dragged you out of here yesterday?” He speaks casually, putting his cheek in his hand. You slump further down in your seat, feeling exposed. Of course there was no escaping this topic. He notices your mood shift and shakes his head. “You don’t have to feel so bad about it. It’s not the first time and it won’t be the last.”
“I’m sorry for all that mess,” you murmur, unable to meet his eyes. “Really, I am.” You stand up from the seat, gripping your planner. “Thanks again for this. I don’t want to take up any more of your time today.” You’re about to turn to leave when he speaks again.
“You don’t have to be afraid of me, you know…you could talk with me whenever you feel like it.” That’s the last thing you expect him to say. His voice takes on a quality that’s...not what you’d call begging, but it’s clear he’d enjoy some company. Maybe he’s doing this for your benefit as well as his own, because it’s obvious how your eyes always stray to his little corner.
You nod, giving him an apprehensive smile. “I’ll keep that in mind, then.”
The rest of your day after that is uneventful, full of classes and unexciting lectures, but you keep thinking of one thing. Though he appears to enjoy his time in the coffee shop, how lonely must he really be? There’s never anyone else around him. His eyes when he’d spoken to you held a certain sadness.
And you still didn’t get his name.
You don’t see him for the next few days, mostly because you aren’t at the café. You’ve gotten busy with a new project and haven’t had as much time to return to the coffee shop, mostly spending your time in the library instead.
When you finally get a chance to buy lunch outside campus, he’s not there. This disappoints you more than you thought it would, and you wonder what his absence means. Did he just decide not to come today, or has he found another place to frequent? You kind of hope the second option isn’t the case, though you also don’t know why you’re even caring this much about where someone else goes on their own time.
You get a drink to-go this time, deciding you’ll just take it back to the library and continue your studies there. The entryway bell rings behind you as you wait for your order to be made, though you don’t pay it much attention; half of your mind is still occupied with what you need to do next for your project.
When you turn around to leave the shop with your drink, you’re surprised to see the man standing there, waiting to get his own coffee. “You’re late,” you blurt out. You immediately feel silly for saying it, but he doesn’t seem to mind.
He gives you a slight smile. “Yes, I am.” Then he spots your to-go cup. “Are you leaving?”
“Uh, well,” you glance at your drink, “are you staying?”
He nods as he steps up to the counter. “Yeah, I’m staying. My offer’s still open, by the way.”
Right. The offer to talk to him sometimes. You’re tempted to stay awhile and talk to him now, though you don’t even know what about. Your project? That’s boring. Him being a vampire? Too invasive. Your school? Also boring, and probably not the best idea considering which one you attend.
“I...think I’ll stay, then.”
You both sit at his usual table, with you grinning nervously.
“How are you? I noticed you hadn’t showed up in a while,” he asks, settling back in his chair.
“Yeah, I’m doing fine, I’m just busy with school stuff. These teachers don’t give us a break.” You laugh a little, shaking your head.
“I’m sorry to hear that.” He grins. “I never did go to college, but I’ve always heard others talk about how tiring it is. And expensive.”
“They’re right.” You roll your eyes at the thought of it. “But I guess it’ll all be worth it in the end. Maybe. If the economy isn’t in the toilet.” The sound of his laughter is nice, and you’re glad you could make him laugh. “Also, I’m sorry—I don’t know how this flew under the radar, but I don’t know your name.”
He shrugs. “Nothing to apologize for, really. It’s Johnny.”
You tell him your name, too. “Since I haven’t seen you lately...how are you doing?” You circle your hands around your to-go cup, feeling its warmth transfer to your palms as you await his answer.
“I think I can say I’m the same as always—which is fine. Life slows down a little when you have a lot of time on your hands.” Johnny’s lips quirk up at that, and you think he might be referring to his vampirism. Your eyes widen a little.
“What’s that like? Having so much free time. I wouldn’t know much about that right now, but…”
“Maybe not as pleasant as you think it’d be. But there’s good in it. Like coming and going when you want to. And you can take up whatever interests you want without worrying as much about busy schedules.” You already know he’s alluding to his photography. “I do like having a job, though…it gives me structure.”
“You’re probably right…I wouldn’t know the first thing to do if I had a ton of free time…like, which hobbies to pick up first.” You consider how you initially thought about him being lonely and wonder if that’s one of the unpleasant parts he hinted to. “Speaking of hobbies...did you take any new pictures lately?”
Johnny nods. “Most of them were on my camera this time, but some are on my phone. You want to see?”
“Yes!”
Johnny lets you have his phone again to look through the newest pictures he’s taken. There are varying shots of car-lined streets and storefronts, some of the latter decorated with glowing jack-o-lanterns for the onset of October. A pigeon sits on a streetlamp during the daytime, holding its head up like royalty upon a throne. In another image, a stray cat and her kittens huddle in an alley, the babies grooming each other while the mother looks quizzically at the camera.
You recognize a few photos from the nearby park; he also had some pictures of it the last time you looked. “Do you go to this park often?”
“Yeah, it offers some great shots. It’s especially pretty if you go just before the sun sets...the light filters through the tree leaves and it looks kinda like a kaleidoscope.”
“Ah, I’ve never seen that before…” you say a little sadly. Your parents didn’t much like taking you to that park when you were younger because of how far it is from their house. And since living away from them, you’ve only been able to visit it during the early hours of the day—like now.
Johnny looks closely at you. “Would you ever want to?”
“If it’s as pretty as you say, I should.” You slide the phone back across the table to him, not catching what he’s trying to hint at as you keep talking. “Do you go anywhere else besides here and the park?” As soon as you say it, you realize this might sound a little rude and try to make a quick save. “I mean, do you have any other favorite places? I’m not trying to say you don’t have a life or anything!”
Johnny laughs at your slight panic at thinking you’ve offended him. “Nothing too out-there, I guess. The bookstore, the photography store, the theater. Pretty much all the same places others visit.”
“The movies are fun.” You trace your finger across the table’s surface, thinking of your own favorite spots. “Me and my friends like to go downtown. There are a lot of cute little shops down there…”
You and Johnny talk for a while longer, and you almost forget you have to get back to campus until you glance at the wall clock. “Oh no, I’m gonna be late.” Flustered, you jump out of your seat and crumple your empty cup. “Sorry to cut it short, Johnny, but I gotta go back now.”
He smiles good-naturedly and nods, his dark bangs sweeping his face. “I understand.” As he watches you gather your things and get ready to go, he speaks up again. “Actually, if you want to see the park at sunset sometime...I could show you? It’s up to you.”
You pause, suddenly curious at the thought of seeing him outside the café. In the back of your mind, you feel a little paranoid and afraid of your friend or maybe even your parents seeing you there with him, though the latter is extremely unlikely. It’s hard to shake that familiar fear of judgment and ostracism when it’s been ingrained in you since childhood. “That sounds good. If it’s not any trouble for you…?”
“Never too much trouble. I usually get off around 4 on Fridays, just before the sun sets at 5. Unless the weekend is better for you?”
You nod, holding your books tighter to your chest. “Friday will work for me! I’ll meet up with you then.”
Johnny smiles. “Great; I’ll see you then, kind stranger.”
Maybe he says it to be joking or quirky, to sound like one of those characters in a movie or drama, but it makes you smile. Nodding to him again, you step out of the café and rush towards the direction of your school. Johnny watches as you retreat, your roles reversed.
You meet up with Johnny at the park that Friday, just as you both agreed. You spot him sitting on a bench near the park entrance, waiting on your arrival.
Johnny’s wardrobe is still mostly dark, but it’s a little lighter than usual today. He’s changed things up with a white polo shirt underneath his black sweater. Seeing him dressed like this, you wonder what he’d be like as a student, or maybe even a university professor.
He stands up when you get closer, hearing the sound of your footsteps approaching and turning towards you. His camera sits safely around his neck, the lens catching in the light of the sun.
When you stop in front of him, he smiles at you warmly. You try to relax into the genuineness of that smile and ignore the still-lingering traces of anxiety about being out with him. “Hi, Johnny!”
“Hi, Y/N.”
You and Johnny walk around the park as he looks for something interesting to shoot. He snaps a few shots of the trees, fallen leaves, bushes, and other natural elements along the way, though it seems like he hasn’t quite captured what he wants yet.
“Are you looking for something specific?” you ask, peering at his camera as he holds it in his hands.
“There’s an aster bush around here,” he responds. “It hadn’t fully bloomed yet the last time I was here, but it should be open by now.”
It turns out he’s right as you two finally come up on the bush. Its blooms make bright purple smudges against the rest of the landscape, which is a monochrome red-and-orange palette from the leaves changing their hues. You watch as he comes up to the bush carefully and quietly, like it’s a small animal he’s afraid to scare away. Johnny is very attentive while taking pictures of it, always conscious of getting the correct lighting and securing the exact angles he wants to capture. “Compassionate” is not a word you’d usually associate with the act of taking photos, but that’s the only word you can currently think of to describe this display. He treats the flowers with a peculiar sense of respect, as if they’re a human subject.
After he’s gotten the images he wants, Johnny offers you his camera to take a few of your own. You’re anxious about holding his prized possession and are afraid you’ll find a way to mess something up, but he promises you it’s fine. You take a few shots of the sky, still with a few wisps of clouds left, and a nearby tree that’s almost stripped bare of leaves. You know the shots will probably end up blurry from your unsteady hands, but Johnny tells you you’ve done a good job anyway.
Something about getting his approval makes a pleasant warmth settle in your chest.
As you both walk down a long trail, you finally ask him, “Sorry if this is invasive, but I was wondering how old are you? Like...as a vampire.” Your voice becomes hesitant on the word vampire, even though you’re the only two in this part of the park.
He chuckles a bit. “I’m 85.” You try not to look surprised. “I’ve been turned for 60 years. Old, but probably a little younger than most vampires you’d think of.”
“Kinda,” you say quietly. “They’re always like 2,000 years old in movies.”
“The ancient vampires are purebloods. They keep to themselves and avoid mingling with turned vampires, let alone humans. Some people are even skeptical if they exist. Supposedly, they use humans as servants or blood banks.” He gives you an apologetic look after saying this, though you don’t really know why. You don’t get the feeling he’d do that to another being, but he is still mostly a stranger... “At least, that’s what my mentor told me.”
Your curiosity is roused at all this new knowledge. “You had a mentor?”
“An older woman. She was also a turned vampire.”
“Turned, huh…”
Johnny nods, toeing at a small pile of leaves on the ground. “She went away eventually, said people are meant to pass in and out of each other’s lives. I don’t think she ever had intentions to stay. But I enjoyed her company while she was there.” Johnny stops at a short bridge above a small manmade lake, and you both look down into the water.
You place your arms on the bridge railing so you can lean over more. You notice he doesn’t have a reflection in the water, and this startles you more than you expected. Before meeting this strange man, you’d never thought much before about why vampires don’t have mirror reflections, but it seems even more unnatural to see this phenomenon happen again in the lake.
You find yourself looking at the side of Johnny’s face, trying to read his expression as he peers into the water’s depths. He turns to you, and you flinch at being caught staring, but he only smiles slightly. You force yourself to form words and break the silence. “What—what did you do after she left?”
“Lived on my own. She taught me a lot of things to help me live independently as a vampire, so it wasn’t too difficult to get along without her...but emotionally? A different story.”
“You sound like you had a very close relationship with her.”
“Yes. Quite close…” Johnny’s tone suggests something deeper, more intimate than a regular friendship. You feel a bit astounded at the idea of him having an older, more worldly lover while being only a newly changed vampire. Your reaction makes you feel foolish, inexperienced. Still, you can’t help imagining a scenario of them living in a big, dark mansion somewhere in the mountains, rolling around in a bed with bloody red sheets—and maybe drinking from the occasional naïve, misled human hiker.
Strangely, too, you feel jealous at his freedom, his ability to go wherever and do whatever with whoever he wants without overbearing relatives always just a step away.
You continue staring at the ripples as they circle in and out of the water’s surface, the motions triggered by a small orange leaf falling into the lake. You’re unsure of what could be the right thing to say to his admission, so you blurt out whatever comes to mind next. “You said she taught you to live independently as a vampire. What does that mean? How do you get...you know. Blood?”
“There are ways,” Johnny says cryptically, which makes your own blood rush faster. He turns to you with a grin, like he finds your naivety endearing. “It’s nothing drastic, though. At least, not for me. I never drink directly.” It does make sense that there are other ways to drink human blood without taking it straight from their necks, though you can only speculate on which methods he prefers. “Drinking directly is lethal, and often not worth it.”
“So, it’s true that vampire bites can kill?” You watch as Johnny pushes himself off the railing, and you follow him as he continues down the trail.
“It’s not false. But it’s never really that simple.” Johnny’s answer is mysterious, and he doesn’t elaborate further. He turns to you. “Where did you hear that, anyway? Your university? The one that bans all nonhuman beings?”
“You know where I go to school?” You feel embarrassed, thinking he must assume you’re like the rest of the student body who hates nonhumans but still nurtures an odd obsession with them.
“I saw it on your notebook one day, the school insignia. I’m not a stalker, by the way.” You laugh only slightly, and Johnny seems crestfallen when he notices your apprehension. “I don’t care if you attend school there. Just because you do doesn’t mean you think the way they do.”
“You must think I’m some weird opportunist, then,” you mutter, heat finding its way to your face. “Asking you all these questions...I’m sorry.”
“I don’t think anything except that you’re a pleasant person to be around.”
You’re quiet for a moment, letting the compliment sink in. You think you should probably give him one of his own, but before you can, he says, “Look. The sun’s already setting.” Just like he told you before, the dying rays filter through the tree leaves and create impossibly intricate patterns on your surroundings. You hold your hand out and watch the latticework that the leaves create dance over your open palm.
You let Johnny take a picture of your hand with the tree shadows flitting over it, but you shy away from the camera’s lens when he points it higher to your face, a questioning look in his eyes. “Maybe some other day.”
You walk around for a while longer until the sky bleeds into a dark purple. “I guess I should be going soon. It’s getting late,” you say, though you’re also a bit sad over your evening with Johnny meeting its end.
“Do you want me to take you back to campus? You shouldn’t walk back alone. My car is just in the parking lot there.” He points to it where it sits in the distance.
You look at Johnny with a confused gaze. “But you can’t come on campus. They have...things to ward off vampires.” Like gates made of pure silver, displaying intimidating, elaborately designed crosses. You don’t know if any of it actually works, but it’s probably better not to find out.
Johnny doesn’t seem bothered by this information. “Yeah…I know. I can just drop you at the street across from the main gate.”
You hesitate a moment longer but eventually agree. He is right; you’d rather not walk alone at night, and getting a ride with him is better—and cheaper—than calling for a rideshare.
The ride to the college is fairly quiet, with the radio filling the silence. It’s not an awkward type of stillness, at least, which you’re grateful for.
As he said he would, Johnny parks on the side of the street that sits in front of the main gate, just outside the immediate vicinity of the campus. The metal crosses stare back at the both of you, glinting in the light of nearby streetlamps. You turn your face away from them, biting the inside of your cheek.
You unbuckle your seatbelt. “Thanks again for the ride. I guess I’ll see you back at the shop next week, yeah?” Again, you get the urge to say something, anything, to remedy or cover up the foreboding source of discomfort sitting just in front of you, but there’s no one sentence you could say to wipe away decades of hatred.
Johnny nods and smiles, and still he shows no signs of being disturbed. He doesn’t cast another glance at the gates. “It’s no problem. See you then.”
You get out of his car and cross the street to get inside the gate; it’s early enough in the evening for it to still be open. Any later, and it’d be locked shut to even humans. You risk another wave at him before turning back around and heading for your dorm, which sits a few yards from the entrance. Johnny lets the car idle on the side of the street until you’ve walked into the dorm, and only then does he drive away.
It doesn’t take very long for you to warm up to Johnny inviting you to other places. The next time you and him go somewhere other than the coffee shop, you accompany him as he buys some film for his camera on one of his free days. You don’t know a ton about photography, so you’re more than happy to let him tell you all about how film works and why he buys certain kinds over others.
The place he frequents is a specialty photography shop that still carries older varieties of film—ones that fell out of favor once digital cameras became a thing. The store looks noticeably old, but not in an unkempt or decrepit way. You can tell it’s been around for a while, holding all kinds of history in its structure.
“There are so many different types.” You look over a shelf of film rolls in awe. “How can you tell them all apart?”
Johnny laughs. “It gets easier if you’ve been doing it for a while…or a few decades.” He picks one up from a row of them and holds it in front of you. “35mm is the most common type, which is what you’ll find the most of when you look through any film shop. That’s what I use.”
He sets that one down and walks past another display of film rolls, gesturing toward them. “There’s also 120 and 220 film formats here…those work for even older cameras, sorta like ones you’d see in 1930s movies. You can even turn a film camera into a digital camera.”
You nod to his words, looking over what seems like millions of film canisters—and occasionally glancing at the lines of his broad back as he walks ahead of you. “You should teach a photography class. I’d be more willing to listen to you than some old professor.”
Johnny snickers. “Huh, I don’t know. Not a professor, but I am old.”
You both continue walking through the store, with Johnny giving you the rundown on every item that catches your interest.
Like the coffee shop, there’s another mirror in this store. Many more, actually—there are whole rows of them on a series of shelves, all in varying sizes and shapes. They create a fragmented view of your form as you stand in front of them, though you don’t initially realize you’ve crossed into their glassy line of sight. You’re busier with looking at a roll of film Johnny’s handed you. When you notice your reflection shifting in your peripheral view, you look up.
Johnny’s only a few feet behind you, and you know this because you can hear him and feel his presence. Yet, it’s strange to see yourself as the only person in the aisle.
Eventually, he notices what’s got you preoccupied and comes to stand next to you. Though you see him clearly in front of your eyes, there’s no trace of him in the glass reflections.
Suddenly, you’re hit with the aching loneliness of it—how it must feel to never see yourself. You can see him with your own eyes, and so can everyone else who encounters him, but what must it be like to be virtually invisible outside of other peoples’ perceptions of you? You almost feel utterly alone even though you know he’s beside you.
Noticing your sudden melancholy, Johnny takes the film roll from your hand and tosses it up in the air, making it look like it’s moving on its own in the mirrors. He means to lighten the mood, if only to see the cloudiness disappear from your expression. It works to a degree, though you still feel downcast deep below.
“It’s not good to dwell on it.” Johnny presses the film roll back into your hand, still carefully avoiding skin contact. He has no problem meeting your eyes, though, and you shyly look away from his dark gaze after a few prolonged moments.
“You’re right,” you say softly, turning back to the aisle and away from the rows of mirrors.
—
You and Johnny head to the coffee shop after your trip to the photography store. Once you get your drinks and sit down in your usual spot, he speaks suddenly. “Something’s wrong.”
Your eyes dart around the shop, thinking he’s referring to one of the patrons around you. “What? What’s wrong?” Your voice comes out a bit panicked. He doesn’t want to laugh, but he does.
“No, I mean...something’s wrong with you. You seem far away.”
“Oh…” You wonder if you should even bring it up and potentially ruin the mood. But you have been curious for weeks now, and you don’t think you’ll get a trustworthy answer by asking anyone other than him. “I just...I was wondering why you don’t have a reflection. I know it’s a vampire thing, but I’ve never really known why...you don’t need to answer, though. Like you said, it’s not good to dwell on it.”
Johnny makes a motion like a half-nod once your question is revealed, his eyes darting to the window and back to the table. His fingers trace across the rim of his coffee cup, a thoughtful but stormy expression on his face, and you’re afraid you shouldn’t have reawakened this topic. “You know...being undead means being in two places at once.”
“Two places?”
“We are caught between the living world and the world of the dead. Something that’s not really supposed to exist, yet…” He’s quiet for a moment. “You can only imagine the kind of issues and side effects that can cause. One of them being no reflection.”
“I never thought of it like that,” you say. “Two planes of existence...what does it mean to be a part of the world of the dead?”
“Our blood runs slower. Ours is more like sludge compared to yours. The heart beats only a few times per minute. Don’t need to eat or sleep, either, though many vampires still do.” Johnny pauses. “How much do you really know about vampires?”
“I don’t know much about any of this...stuff.” You gesture vaguely, meaning all supernatural beings and not just vampires. “No one ever told me these things growing up, and it’s hard to tell truth from fiction at school. People will say anything, horrible things, and you just take it at face value, I guess. I never really thought to try to find the reality.” You sigh. “Sometimes I feel like I’m the only person in the world who doesn’t know anything.”
“Learning is good. You can always learn. I don’t think it’s too late for that.” Johnny’s voice is a little lighter. “Anyway, everyone’s knowledge is different. Sometimes it slips my mind that everyone doesn’t know what it’s like to live as a vampire, though the world never lets me forget for long.”
“Then…do you hang out with other vampires who do understand? Or…maybe humans who can sympathize?”
Johnny gives a humorless laugh. “Most humans are hesitant to interact with us, if not full-out terrified or disgusted. At the museum...it’s less pronounced because all the employees already know. They…tolerate it. But every time someone else realizes what I am and doesn’t take well to it?” He shakes his head, acts like he’ll say something else, and then abandons that line of thought. “And do you really think I’d want to spend my free time around other bloodsuckers?” He tries to play it off as a joke, but you’re more inclined to think he actually feels that way. You can only nod, feeling bad for him but also a little disturbed by his view of his own kind.
“I think you’re a kind person, and you being a vampire doesn’t affect that,” you say hesitantly. “I like talking to you. And even if you feel that way about other vampires, I…wish you wouldn’t feel that about yourself.”
Johnny remains quiet, but he nods. You wonder about the struggle occurring in his mind. The only outward hint of his uneasy state shows in the furrow of his eyebrows and the tense set of his mouth. With his right hand resting on the table, he rubs his fingers together absentmindedly, like he’s analyzing your words. You have a sudden and startling desire to hold his hand, to twine your fingers together and feel his skin on yours for the first time, but you don’t dare cross that boundary.
He finally replies with, “You’re much kinder to me, an old and bitter vampire, than you probably should be. But maybe that’s a good thing about you.”
“I think it’s a good thing,” you agree, your voice low. “Every living being needs companionship. Good companionship, anyway.”
The corners of Johnny’s lips shift in something reminiscent of a smile. He turns a rueful gaze once again to the window, lifting his coffee cup to his lips. “Aren’t I lucky to have yours, then.”
On a day when you don’t have as many responsibilities to juggle, you visit Johnny at the art museum after his working hours are up. He’d already invited you to come to the museum any day you felt like so he could show you around.
When you get there, he’s waiting in the visitor’s lobby for you, framed by receding sunlight as the day starts fading into night. He looks the same as he always does when you see him in the café on his lunch breaks, but within the context of the museum, he suddenly seems more…alive? Vibrant? He could’ve served as a muse for one of the many statuesque, perfectly proportional sculptures in the museum, and you’d never know anything different.
Your heartbeat increases at the sight of him, just enough to be outside the normal range.
“Hi, Johnny. I hope your day went well?”
“It was fine, nothing too crazy. But it’s better now.” And he smiles at you, sincere enough to make your heart ache.
“Oh—that’s great.” That’s it? You scold yourself internally, but you aren’t quick enough to think up a witty reply to his comment before the topic shifts.
“Is there anything in particular you wanna see first?” Johnny asks, leading you further into the museum.
“I guess I hadn’t thought too deeply about that…do you have a favorite exhibit? I want to see what you like.”
Johnny smiles faintly. “Let’s see, then.”
The dark-haired man takes you to a section of the museum filled with oil paintings, all by one singular artist. At first, all you see is varying shades of black and gray and red, with some white splashed in between. When you begin looking at the paintings more closely, it’s easier to see that each one depicts a different scene of chaos. Maybe a sort of organized chaos, but disarray all the same.
There is one picture that holds a clearer subject than the rest. One of the oil paintings is of a vampire—obvious by the fangs—with bloodied lips and anguished eyes. You pause when you catch sight of it, your steps stilled by the sheer frenzy in the other being’s painted eyes. Their hands reach out for the viewer as if begging for an escape that can only be provided by whoever’s observing.
“This one was painted by a fellow vampire, you know. The same one who did all the rest of the paintings in this gallery,” Johnny explains. He points at the placard next to the painting that displays the artist’s name and a short description of the piece. The word fellow comes off his tongue wrapped in cynicism. “And it was one of the ones I personally chose for this exhibit.”
You glance at him, a tinge of surprise blooming in your chest. “Really?”
He nods. “Who better to depict the ills of vampirism than a vampire themselves? I thought it was a…fascinating change of pace from all the humans who try and fail to do so, ironic as that is.”
If you look at the painting for long enough, you think you can recognize sadness in the corners of the vampire’s eyes—pure, unadulterated sadness. Different from anguish or panic. A similar mask of sadness you’ve seen on the man next to you.
You say nothing for a while. You simply feel the painful throb of your heart in your chest and listen to the small sounds around you. Even now, there are still other people exploring the museum and walking through this very exhibit, but you can’t hear or see any of them. Johnny notices the disconcerted look on your face, and his forehead creases. “But I’m sure you want to see something less…morbid than this, right? Come on.”
“Uh, I-I don’t mind,” you insist, even though you feel like you’ve just awoken from a painful trance by the sound of his voice. But he’s already gesturing for you to follow him elsewhere.
The next set of paintings you end up in front of are a series of sunflower studies. One frame depicts the long green stems; another provides an up-close view of their lined petals. One zooms in close on the flower’s brown center, only small glimpses of yellow left at the edges of the frame.
“This is definitely very different.” You look at him, a small smile pulling at your lips. “But it fits you. I see why you like it.” You remember him back in the park, taking careful pictures of the aster bush and of your hands…and then offering to take one of you. You don’t know why that last one makes your stomach jump.
“I thought you might like it.” Johnny’s eyes linger on your face as he observes your reaction to the paintings. He’s seen these flowers probably a hundred times by now in this permanent exhibit, but the wonder in your expression is new to him.
—
You both walk through a few more exhibitions after that, all with different subjects and mediums—some consist of sculptures, others are clay vases and figures. There’s still a lot to see in the museum, but you’re starting to get hungry, and you know Johnny has already heard your stomach growling.
After the 2nd time it happens and you think you might melt from embarrassment, he grins at you and makes a suggestion. “Let’s go to my office. I’ll get my things and we can eat. The restaurant here is pretty good—or at least that’s what everyone else says…”
When you get to his office, you feel almost like you’ve stepped into a room from years past. Your gaze drifts across his desk immediately; it’s not sleek and modern like you’d expect, considering the rest of the museum’s aesthetic, but wooden and heavy and vintage-looking. It’s olden quality resembles everything else in his personal space. Even his desk chair, a big and plush thing, feels vintage with its soft leather and rustic design.
This feeling is far from a bad thing, though. You enjoy the aged look of the bookcases, the picture frames, the chairs, the small decorations here and there—everything about this room.
Johnny notices how you look around, studying everything in sight, and smiles. “It’s not the most modern, but I like it.”
“It’s perfect. Like a world of its own.”
“A woman of taste, I see.” Johnny puts a hand over his heart, giving an expression like he’s truly touched, and you can only grin sheepishly. When he has his belongings, he leads you out and locks the door behind him.
“Let’s see what they have on the menu today, then.”
—
You get dinner at the museum’s restaurant, just as Johnny recommended, and he even decides to eat too. Maybe he does it so you won’t look odd being the only one eating, or because he really just wants to; he doesn’t let on. Either way, sitting across from him like this in a fancy restaurant with both of you having a nice meal feels almost like a date. You let that thought amble around for a few minutes longer before tucking it back into one of your mind’s many small niches.
“I’ll probably be digesting this for the next few weeks,” he says jokingly, pulling a mock-disappointed face at his plate.
“That sounds like the worst constipation in history.” He snorts at your comment, his eyes creasing as he laughs. You notice he has a dimple when he smiles, and your grin mirrors his. You don’t think you’ve seen him laugh quite so genuinely before, but now that you’ve experienced it, you want to hear it again and again.
Anything is preferable to the perpetual gloom, always slinking around the corner.
—
When Johnny gets back home after dropping you off at the university, he undresses himself and showers and pulls on his bedclothes, which are nothing more than his underwear and a pair of sweatpants. His upper canines ache in his gums the entire time he goes through these motions, like two pulses of red-hot heat positioned on either side of his mouth.
He takes a blood bag from the fridge and drinks it in bed, leaning his arms against his knees. A sudden remembrance manifests itself in his mind; he hears the hazy echo of his mother’s decades-past voice in his head, reprimanding him for eating in bed. A sharp pain grips his chest, and he tries to send it back to the depths where it belongs.
When the blood hits his stomach, the pain is eclipsed by the bloodlust, which is no better. His fangs drop immediately, spiking into his lower lip. Johnny closes his eyes and, very gingerly, allows himself to draw a picture of you in his mind, of your blood in his mouth and your heartbeat roaring in his ears. The way your blood would flow out so delicately, crashing into his tastebuds like the high tide. He is usually better than this at curtailing his bloodlust, not even letting it reach the point of his canines hurting—he can’t remember the last time that’s happened—but being around you sets him on edge. Awakens him in some strange, raw way.
That only makes him more wary. And more guilty about imagining himself drinking your blood. He shouldn’t even be around you if he’s losing his grip on his hard-won control. But although it makes him feel ashamed, it also causes his heart to rush.
He drains the blood bag to the last possible drop. To his relief, it calms him significantly, though the thoughts of you don’t leave. More innocent ones now, of your outing earlier in the evening. Deep beneath, they are tinged with his ever-present guilt at his vampiric nature.
Johnny doesn’t need the sleep, but he drifts off anyway, if only to quiet the conflict sending daggers into his mind.
You’ve known Johnny for a few weeks now, not counting the time you spent silently staring at him in the café, but you find yourself intertwining yourself further into his life. You end up visiting his apartment sooner than you anticipated. You didn’t think of anything as ridiculous as him living in a coffin or sleeping in the rafters like a bat, but you also had a hard time imagining what his place might look like.
You come over on a weekend when you have more time to simply hang out and not worry so much about anything else.
Like usual, he waits in that spot on the side of the street for you to come out. In the daytime, you’re more apprehensive about him being here and someone potentially seeing him and trying to cause trouble for him, but there’s a part of you that likes the rebellious aspect of it. And if he truly doesn’t mind coming near the campus to pick you up, you don’t have much issue with him doing it.
Johnny’s apartment is clean—and a little sparser than you’d expected. Maybe he’s a fan of minimalism. One side of the wall is taken up by a wide bookcase, which features a bunch of different knickknacks, books, and a collection of larger hardcovers that look like photo albums. On the other walls are a few framed pictures of different scenes, and you assume they’re ones he must’ve taken.
“This is a nice place,” you say as he takes your jacket for you and puts it up. “It must cost quite a bit, too…” You sit down on the couch, stroking the soft material of it.
Johnny shrugs. “Thanks. It’s nothing I can’t handle...being nearly a century old gives you plenty of time to save money.” He appears charmingly self-satisfied when he’s able to make you laugh. “Do you want anything?”
“Water is fine…thank you.” Johnny nods and goes off to the kitchen.
Despite trying to keep your eyes on the wall photos, your gaze follows him as he leaves. You discreetly watch him move around his kitchen. With his dark clothes, he’s like a splash of black paint against the pale tile and stainless steel.
There are blood packs in Johnny’s fridge. Lots of them. You know because you saw them from your vantage point on the couch when he opened the fridge door. They look like the blood bags you’d see in a hospital, which makes you wonder how he even gets access to those. Another mystery you struggle to wrap your head around.
He comes back to the living room with your water, and you take it gratefully, though you also feel a little awkward. You think maybe the blood bags are something you shouldn’t have seen, although you know he probably would’ve made more effort to hide them or put them away if that were the case.
“You have a good supply of blood, a nice apartment, and a great job. Does every vampire get these kinds of perks?” Admittedly, it sounded better in your head. Your attempt to stave off the awkward feeling—which was really only coming from your end—only makes it more intense. Johnny laughs dryly in response. You can’t tell if he actually finds it amusing or is just trying to humor you, which makes you feel incredibly silly.
“All of it’s government-issued if you promise never to bite any humans.” Johnny gives a wry smile. “But it’s a mistake to think vampires live glamorous lives, filling up on blood and having no cares in the world.”
“N-no, I get it,” you stutter. “Bad joke.”
“I’m not trying to embarrass you or be mean. It’s just the way things are.” Your roles are suddenly reversed, and now he seems to feel some sort of sympathy for you, like you’re just an ignorant little human who doesn’t know any better. The last part of that is more your insecurities speaking out than anything else, but you try to ignore that and take him for his word.
Johnny gets up from the couch to go over to the bookcase as you sip your water. After looking through the photo albums intently, he takes one off the shelf and hands it to you. You set your water down and hold the album carefully as you open the front cover. The cover itself has a neat little label that reads Telluride 1976 - 1980, so you can already expect what you’ll find in it. There are numerous photos of trees, bushes, snowy mountain ranges, lakes, brilliantly vibrant flowers, and woodland creatures. You stop at a picture of a deer looking straight ahead, its black eyes wide and curious as it examines the lens.
“I lived in the mountains back then, a little after my mentor had left. I spent some time trying to reconnect with nature...and all that other hippie shit people used to do back in that era.”
You chuckle. “Did you wear the same kinds of clothes, too? Bell bottoms and tie-dye T-shirts and all?”
Johnny laughs and shrugs. “Maybe…but that’s only for me to know.”
You grin and look at the photos again. “Well…did your plan work, at least?”
Johnny gives a wistful smile. “In some ways, I think it did.”
You continue looking through the rest of the album, which you could probably do for hours if you had the time—just sit and trace every possible line, curve, and ray of light. Johnny sits beside you as you do, occasionally explaining some pictures and their backstories.
“Lately, I’ve been wanting something else to take pictures of...someone else, maybe.”
“What, like a subject?�� you ask.
“Yeah, it’d be nice...I haven’t taken pictures of another person in a while.”
You nod quietly as you flip through the pages—another possible hint flying right over your head. Then a thought comes to you—one that makes your skin warm. “Have you ever taken pictures of anyone you were...involved with?” You don’t say it directly, but you hope he can get the gist of what you’re asking.
Johnny nods as if he doesn’t want to admit to it, a nervous smile gracing his lips. “A few different people…but I always gave them the pictures after we, you know, stopped seeing each other...so there’s none left here.”
“I see…” For a few moments, your thoughts circle around that concept. What was it like to bare yourself in front of someone else like that, immortalized on film? What might it be like to allow Johnny to see you like that, to take pictures of you in your most vulnerable form? The idea doesn’t make you as downright anxious as you expected it to, though you can’t completely shake the lingering embarrassment about it.
After you finish looking through the entirety of his Telluride adventures, Johnny shows you some recent pictures he’s developed, and you’re giddy to see your own blurry creations among them. Now that you’re holding them physically in your hands, you can agree that they look nice, each with its own little personality.
“I thought about putting them in a new photo album,” he says, “but you can keep them, if you prefer.”
You hold them to your chest. “Yes, I’d like to keep them. Thank you.” You smile. “I’m sure I’ll leave you with plenty other photos to put in your album, anyway.”
—
The sun is close to setting again. You aren’t ready to leave yet, though, and Johnny is content to let you stay longer. He pulls out another album for you to look at, this one dated with 1960 - 1964. Unlike the others, there’s no title to describe what’s in it except for that year range.
“This is a picture of me someone took before I was turned,” Johnny murmurs, sitting back down beside you. He turns the album to you, and in the middle of the first page is a sepia-toned photo of him sitting on a bed—or maybe a couch?—wearing a suit. White, handwritten lettering on the bottom right of the photograph reads August 4, 1960.
“Oh wow...” You touch the photo gently over its protective lining. “You look exactly the same. Of course.”
“It’s the only photo I have left of myself,” he sighs, leaning back on the sofa. “If it weren’t for that...I’d feel almost like I didn’t exist at all.”
“Do you remember this day?” you ask.
“…Vaguely.” His answer doesn’t feel like the whole truth, and the way his eyes dart anxiously as he says it confirms your suspicions. Then he sighs again, heavier this time, and he seems to be exhaling all 60 years of his burden along with it. “I was...going to be married. It was for our wedding shoot.”
You’re surprised for a reason you’re unsure of, never even imagining that Johnny could’ve been married at one point in time. Could’ve had an entire life and a family, if it hadn’t been for...
“I’m sorry, Johnny.” You know you never would’ve met him if things hadn’t happened this way, and that knowledge tugs at your heart in a way that makes you feel intensely selfish.
Johnny shakes his head and avoids your eyes. “It was long ago.” He wets his lips and his jaw clenches like maybe he wants to say something else, but he remains silent for a while.
You continue exploring the photo album in silence. With its thin size, there aren’t as many pictures in it as the others—much less, in fact, but each one is still enough to keep your interest. Your mind keeps drifting back to the one of Johnny.
You hand the album back to him when you’re done. He takes it from you, but in a gesture you don’t foresee, he allows your hands to touch for the first time. You make a tiny flinch at the unexpected coolness—not ice-cold, but enough to be noticeable—but you don’t draw away from him. You let his fingers slide across yours as the photo album leaves your hands, and it sends electricity racing up and down your spine.
“S-sorry.” You’re not sure if you’re apologizing for flinching or for making contact at all, though there is no reason to because he initiated it.
“Doesn’t it ever disturb you at all that I’m not human?” Johnny asks softly, still holding the album.
“What?”
“You’ve taken all this so easily...much more easily than many others. You aren’t even disgusted at my cold hands.” A ghost of a grin comes over his face.
“If I were disgusted, I wouldn’t even be here,” you say, trying to lighten the tension. It’s not the kind of tension that arises from anger, offense, or upset, but something else that you are lost on comprehending in this moment. “Some of it’s unfamiliar, obviously, but I’m not disgusted.”
He glances down at the album in his hands, as if contemplating something. Maybe thinking about the only living photo of himself beneath the cover. Or maybe he’s thinking back to how he was turned in the first place and subsequently lost the life he was about to have. He still hasn’t told you anything about how he became a vampire, and though you’d like to know, it’s obviously a sore spot for him.
Eventually, he nods, willing himself to smile at you. “I’m glad.”
—
Night has fallen by the time you’re done exploring the decades of his life, though there is still much you haven’t seen and don’t yet know. You let him drive you back to the school as you stare out at the passing cars, wondering how many more of these people sitting in their vehicles are nonhuman and you’d never know it.
You hesitate after he pulls up across from the main gate.
“What’s wrong?” he asks.
“Uh, nothing really, it’s just—I still don’t have your number or anything.” And I want to talk to you more often. I want to hear your voice more often. You don’t want to say anything overly dramatic or cheesy, so you just keep those last thoughts to yourself.
Thinking it had been something serious, he smirks at your concern. “Oh, I see. I’ll give it to you now, then.”
Once your numbers are safely in each other’s phones, you finally bid each other goodnight.
Though you try to steer your thoughts towards other things, you keep veering back to Johnny. His apartment. His fridge full of blood bags. His photo albums full of years of history. Even when you get into bed that night, you can’t keep him off your mind.
You wake up gasping and sweating when you dream of him with his fangs in your neck, your own blood running down your neck and chest. You glance over at your roommate to make sure you haven’t woken her and rest your head on your knees, trying to catch your breath and settle your racing heart. Your skin still prickles with how you could practically feel his heated breaths on your neck, ice-cold hands gripping your shoulders.
The worst part of it is that you can’t quite say you completely disliked it.
“It doesn’t make much sense to have a Halloween party and dress up as the very beings that you hate, but whatever…” you mumble, looking through a rack of costumes with a certain impassivity. You’re not very enthusiastic about going to this Halloween party, but your friend refuses to go alone. You haven’t been spending as much time with her anymore—partly because of Johnny and partly because you feel even more out of place around her than normal—and with all her begging and pleading, she refuses to let you opt out of this one.
“It’s about having fun, no one really cares Y/N. They’re freaks, aren’t they? That’s why people dress up as them, they’re practically meant for this.”
You become even more apprehensive about the party after hearing that, if that’s even possible. You smooth your hand over the fabric of a witch’s robe and sigh again, shaking your head. It doesn’t feel quite right to keep spending time in her presence—or anyone else who goes to your school—but you feel trapped on all sides, left without much of a choice. You would never hear the end of it if you tried to switch universities…or even drop out.
Your mind strays back to Johnny as always, with his melancholy aura and weird jokes and pretty pictures and monochrome clothes. The smell of his cologne, the lingering scent of roasted coffee beans, and his toothy smile, when he does show it to you. Something in you makes you want to drop everything you’re doing right now and go to him. It might even be nice to settle in his arms, feel them strong and solid around you—though he’d probably need just as much comforting as you.
“Dress up as this!” Your friend breaks the reverie as she prances over to you with a pair of fake fangs, the tips of them painted in acrylic blood. She holds them up to your mouth, and you struggle to manage a smile, if only to sate her enthusiasm. “It actually reminds me of…that vampire at the café. Say, have you seen him since then?”
You shake your head, moving away to sift through another rack of outfits as you try to maintain a detached expression. “Nope, not a glimpse. Haven’t even thought about him.”
When your friend doesn’t suspect anything, you let your expression drop just a tad, breathing out quietly.
The night of the party, the full moon is heavy and bold against the black blanket of the sky, which feels horribly cliché. You wonder if there are any werewolves out tonight, and what they might be doing right now.
“We’re going to have a good time tonight,” your friend insists as you both walk up the front steps of the host’s house. It’s someone you only vaguely know, a friend of a friend of a friend, but clearly a person who has an abundance of money judging by this expansive home. You don’t know why she feels the need to convince you, but maybe it’s because you haven’t seemed very enthusiastic so far. You only give a thumbs up to her words, which feels like an unconvincing gesture. Luckily for you, it works.
After a few hours, the party is still going strong but your head is starting to hurt from the music, and you’re growing weary of all the men crowding in too close, looking at you in your angel costume like you’re something to be devoured. You’ve rolled your eyes at way too many of them and their haphazardly put-together costumes, dressed up as vampires with terrible fake fangs or werewolves with manes of matted up fur.
Your friend keeps flitting around the party, talking to whoever she recognizes from classes or campus organizations, and you’ve given up on trying to follow her around any longer. Every time you turn around, she’s somewhere else. Noticing that you’re currently solo, a guy from one of your history classes comes up to you and begins what he thinks is an interesting conversation on how angels actually look more like Eldritch abominations than the cherubic humans depicted in paintings—so your costume is “technically inaccurate” —and your eyes glaze over as you pretend to listen to him.
You eventually manage to get away from him and get to an undisturbed corner, wedged next to two girls drinking cider and critically rating all the guys’ costumes. You pull your phone out and think about calling for a ride back to campus, but your thumb hovers over the message icon. You press it without thinking too much about it, and Johnny’s name appears as one of your most recent conversations. Though you feel somewhat nervous, you will yourself to open the box and begin typing.
To:
Hi Johnny. I hope I’m not bothering you, but can I come over? 🙏🏿🙏🏿🙏🏿 I’m over this party
You put your phone back in your purse, trying not to get your hopes up for a quick response. You know there’s a good chance he’d still be awake at this time of night since he doesn’t need to sleep, but he has his own life and is probably off doing...vampire-y things. Whatever those things could be.
However, your hopes are met when your phone pings only a couple minutes later.
From:
Of course. You’re not scared about spending your Halloween with a vampire? 😏
You smile at that.
To:
I think I’ll be fine…as long as you don’t bite me.
From:
🦷🩸
—
You get to Johnny’s studio apartment not too long after, and you hang around outside his door for a few moments before knocking, suddenly feeling bashful about your costume. Maybe you should’ve changed before coming over here; what if he thinks it’s childish? Or maybe too revealing? Does he even care about that kind of stuff? Doesn’t matter now, though. You’re here, and there’s no way you’re turning back around.
He answers a few seconds after you knock, wearing a sweater and black pants. You notice his sweater is a cream color and not the usual black. He looks a little surprised to see your costume, and his Adam’s apple bobs as he swallows.
“Wow, you look pretty. Nice of you to visit me after falling straight from Heaven.” You cringe at his cheesy line, though you also cannot deny that you secretly enjoy every bit of it.
“Thanks, Johnny...” you say timidly, stepping into his home as he lets you in. “Nice work with changing up the color scheme.”
He’s confused for a moment before realizing you’re talking about his clothes. “Oh yeah, that...um, haha. Thanks.”
Unbeknownst to you, the back of his mind is buzzing with a form of excitement he hasn’t felt in a while. Not the clawing, frantic spikes of bloodlust, but a more physical kind of desire. It’s pleasurable, but he also feels guilty about pining over how sweet and innocent you look in your all-white outfit, stockings hugging your legs perfectly and your dress just short enough to tempt the imagination. Really, you’ve painted a picture of perfect purity, and the only thing he can think about is ruining you. Putting his hands on you and peeling your dress off to reveal the soft skin underneath.
He casts those thoughts aside as you sit prettily on his couch, legs crossed at the ankles—though it’s hard to do so. “Do you want something to drink? Or eat? There isn’t a whole lot of food here, but I can order something…”
“Do you ever make your own coffee?” The question seems a bit random at first, and you try to explain. “You know, since you always get it from the café.”
Johnny smiles. “Do you want coffee? I can make it.”
You nod. “That would be nice…whatever you have.”
“I pretty much have your usual order memorized by now, so I should be good on making it.” Johnny walks to the kitchen. “You can look through the albums while you’re in there. The ones you haven’t seen yet.”
“Oh, thanks.” You feel a little nervous to be looking through the shelf of his treasured photo albums by yourself, but you’re also glad he trusts you enough to let you do it. It makes you feel important. Maybe even important to him, as silly as that might sound.
It isn’t long before the scent of coffee wafts out into the living room. Johnny returns soon with two cups of it, and just as he promised, yours is made just the way you like it.
“Thank you.” You set the album back on the shelf and take the cup from Johnny. For a while, both of you talk of nothing important—just filling the space with the details of your days.
“So how was the party?” Johnny finally asks, and he raises his eyebrows as he scans your outfit again. You grin halfheartedly.
“It was…alright. Kinda weird. I think it’d be more fun if I went to a regular university, but you know…”
Johnny shakes his head. “I can’t blame you for bailing out.”
“Yeah…I’ve been to college parties before, but the Halloween theme was a bit…”
“Strange for an institution that bans all supernatural beings?” Johnny finishes your sentence. He doesn’t look offended or irritated by it—only slightly amused.
You shrug, biting your lip. “Yeah, that.”
“Well, look on the bright side. I wouldn’t have gotten to see you in your natural form otherwise.”
This one almost goes over your head, too, but you catch it just in time. Johnny’s compliments make you feel warm all over, like you’re sitting under the sun. You grin and look down into your cup of coffee, unused to receiving such bold praise and unsure how to respond to it. Something pops into your mind, though, and you think it might be a good idea to run with it.
“You could...take a picture of me, you know. If you want to...since I’m all dressed up now anyway.” You meet his eyes only for a second and then look away, twisting the mug in your hands.
Johnny sits up a little straighter at your words, trying to catch your eyes, though you don’t hold his gaze for long. “You’re sure?” he asks.
“I’m sure. Go ahead! Before I change my mind.” You laugh nervously and carefully set your half-empty mug on the table.
Johnny’s camera is never too far away from him, so he grabs it and plays with the settings for a bit before looking back to you, a small smile on his face. “I’m gonna start, okay?” His voice is surprisingly soft. This, yet again, reminds you of him and the aster bush. He acts as if you might run away at the first shutter click, which makes you feel babied, but you don’t totally hate it.
The first few photos are a little awkward—at least to you. You aren’t sure how to pose, or if you should try to look more casual, though Johnny assures you you’re doing well. He gives you directives throughout, telling you to look in his direction or angle your face a certain way, and you follow his instructions to the best of your ability.
At one point, one of your dress straps slips down. When you go to fix it, Johnny says, “Wait. Could you keep it like that?”
You look at him, your body heating from the suggestion.
“Is that okay with you?”
“…Yes.” Your throat is dry, and your body reacts in a way you don’t expect—little nervous thrills in your hands and feet, though you try to internally explain it away as the coffee’s effects. Johnny takes a few more photos like this, and then he steps closer to gently touch your chin, guiding your face to the angle he’s looking for.
“So good for me.” It slips past his lips in a reverential murmur before he can really consider what he’s saying, and you both freeze. Your heart rate increases, and you wonder if he can hear how hard the red organ is beating in your chest. Probably.
You want to hear him say it again.
Johnny laughs awkwardly, his hand coming back to his side almost a little too quickly to be natural. “Um, I’m really sorry. That was a bit...”
“It…it’s fine.” You avoid his eyes. Johnny takes a few more photos, but the set of his mouth is a little tight, as if he’s stressed about something. Or regretting what he let slip, maybe. You want to tell him you really don’t feel bad about it, but you aren’t sure how to do that without making things more awkward…or revealing your true desires.
When Johnny has taken enough pictures of you to be satisfied with, he sits next to you on the couch, setting his camera on the coffee table and looking suddenly timid.
“I can’t wait to see them,” you say, attempting to break the tension that never really cleared the room after his earlier comment. He blinks for a moment like he doesn’t know what you mean, and then realizes—obviously, he’ll be developing the photos.
“They’ll come out nice, I’m sure. I think you’ll photograph well.”
“Thank you,” you murmur, and now it’s your turn to be unsure of how to resurrect the conversation.
“You’re beautiful.” It’s an abrupt comment. It makes your stomach twist in a pleasant, fluttery way, and you become hyperaware of his form sitting next to yours.
“Haven’t heard that one much, but thanks.”
Johnny turns to you. “Anyone who’d think otherwise is a fool.”
There’s a pause after this where you both simply study each other, watching for hidden reactions that can’t be read on the surface. The way he says it is…decisive, assured. But it also manages to be tender, as if he needs you to know what he thinks of you. Needs you to see yourself the way he does—the same way you do for him. You don’t know where the confidence comes from, but maybe his tone and his words and his endlessly dark eyes have pulled it out of you. “I want to kiss you.”
Johnny’s lips part. “Are you certain?”
“I’m certain.”
He doesn’t hesitate anymore. Johnny moves closer to you and cups the back of your neck. Something awakens in his eyes in the seconds before he presses his mouth to yours. Though he wants to drink eagerly from your lips, his kiss is languid to avoid overwhelming you, and there is an audible smack of your lips whenever he pulls away and presses back in.
His mouth tastes like the coffee you just drank, but underneath that you swear you can taste a hint of the deep iron of blood, and you don’t know how to feel about that. You think about what his fangs would feel like scraping against your bottom lip, if he’d ever show them to you, and you moan quietly.
“Do you want this? With me?” Johnny confirms once more, pulling his gaze away from your lips and up to your eyes. His own eyes are yearning, but there is also an element of something like fear roiling in them. As if you’d turn him away, even though you’ve already shown your desire for him.
“Yes. Just you. No one else.”
Johnny’s body gravitates towards yours, and you think he’s going to push you down onto the sofa, but he scoops your legs up and carries you to his bedroom instead. Even his hands on your waist and legs makes you burn inside.
This is the first time you've seen his bedroom. The sheets are cloud-soft when he sets you down on them, and his window lets moonlight shine through the open blinds and scatter in thick beams across the floor. The only other light source is the bedside lamp, which emits a comfortable yellowish glow.
Johnny joins you on the bed and lets you climb into his lap—encourages you to do so. His cool hands pulling at your thighs as you settle them on either side of his waist makes tingles go through your body. You don’t hesitate to bring your lips back together, kissing each other deeply as one of his hands cradles the back of your head and the other settles on the small of your back.
You are certain vampires don’t have any powers of enchantment—that’s for magic wielders. And yet, you feel like you’ve been put in a trance by his kisses alone, and you wonder how you could’ve lived this long without knowing how his lips feel—how they fit perfectly against your own. As if everything up to now has purposely led you together.
You shift in Johnny’s embrace, and the movement causes his thigh to slide between your legs. Your heat is pressed against his thigh directly now, your silken panties catching against the denim of his pants. You murmur against his lips, not really saying anything of substance but wanting to vocalize your desire to him. Johnny’s hand tightens slightly on your back, and he experimentally lifts his leg higher and slides his thigh across you. That draws a gasp from you.
Noticing your positive response, Johnny continues rocking his thigh up against your pussy and kissing you until you’re breathless and your nipples are straining against the fabric of your dress. You pull away from him for a moment to try to ground yourself, feeling like your nerves are already being singed with fiery pleasure. Johnny’s face is noticeably more flushed than before, but he also looks much more composed than you feel at the moment.
“It takes longer to get hard,” he explains, as if reading the lingering question in your own expression. “Since...you know. Slow blood.” You rock your hips over his thigh more enthusiastically, motivated to get him hard underneath you, and you listen to his choppy breaths as you move. Your movements aren’t the smoothest, but he helps you guide your hips in a way that feels good for you both. You’ve never been with anyone before, so it doesn’t much matter to you how long or quick it takes for him to get there as long as he does.
Feeling the bulge grow underneath you excites you. Johnny groans against your lips as you kiss him and rub yourself over his member. The sound comes from somewhere deep inside him, as if it’s something he’s been containing for a long time. Your hand goes to his waist and tugs at his belt loops, then drifts closer to his belt buckle, pulling the leather and metal apart. Johnny pauses when you get off his lap and slide further down, grips your arms like he doesn’t want you to go. “Are…you sure? You don’t have to…if it’s too much—”
“I want to, Johnny.”
With your affirmative, he lets you kneel between his legs, pull his zipper apart, and trace your curious fingers over the bulge beneath the fabric of his underwear. Johnny loses his breath when you drag his underwear down, sliding it over the heated skin of his dick. His length is thick and long—even with him not being fully hard yet—and the tip glistens wet with precum. You weren’t sure what to expect, but this is much bigger than you think you might be able to handle. It makes your face warm and your stomach do another series of flips. Still, you want it and you want him, so you aren’t going to stop now.
You lean closer to press your lips against his shaft, leaving a few soft kisses behind. Johnny’s mouth parts when your mouth touches him.
Johnny gently holds the back of your head as you leave small licks over his shaft, tasting the salty skin on your tongue. He lets out a shaky breath as he watches you, his other hand brushing the side of your face.
“Just like that…” he murmurs, his voice heavy with lust as you circle your tongue around the thick, darkened tip, catching drops of his precum. He never takes his eyes off you, and this makes you feel a little exposed, but you continue with your actions. When you suck Johnny’s tip past your lips, his thighs tense under you, the thick muscle reacting beautifully to your actions on his body.
More precum drips from him, and you find the taste strangely pleasing. It makes you want more of him, of whatever he has to offer you. You wrap your hand around his shaft, though it doesn’t fit entirely around, and begin stroking him in a way you hope feels good.
Johnny’s hand slips over yours to guide your movements and show you how much pressure to apply, what pace to stroke him at. “Like this, baby…yes, that’s so good…” He showers you with praise as you get the hang of it, and he eventually lets your hand go so you can do it on your own, his own hand drifting back to the bed to grip the comforter.
It’s hard to quantify just how much seeing you like this turns him on, you kneeling between his legs with his cock between your lips while wearing your pretty, angelic outfit. His previous guilt about “corrupting” you descends to the very back of his mind as he savors every moment of your hands on his cock and your tongue circling his slit.
“I’m close,” he whispers. You quicken your movements on him, hollowing your cheeks tighter around his dick, and the moan he gives shoots straight between your legs.
Johnny carefully pulls your head back so you won’t choke before he comes, streams of his seed shooting into your mouth and running down his cock. Your hand still squeezes around him as he comes, and he slowly thrusts into the tight circle of your fist as you milk every drop from him. By the time he’s spent, your mouth and hand and part of the sheets are completely sticky with his release. You imagine it must have been a long time since he’s last had an orgasm.
The vampire watches intently as you swallow his cum, which causes his softening dick to throb in your hand. He takes your face in his hands and kisses you deeply, uncaring of the taste of himself in your mouth. His hair tickles your face as he kisses you feverishly, his nose bumping yours and his tongue prodding past your lips.
“Come here, angel.” Johnny pulls your body up onto the bed before you can get yourself up there first. The pet name makes warmth flood through your body, like drinking a hot chocolate at the café, except a thousand times more satisfying. Johnny’s hands are once again caressing your thighs, though this time they slide up underneath your dress and squeeze your hips. “Can I take these pretty panties off you?”
“Please.”
He hooks his fingers into the sides of them and pulls them down your legs and past your ankles. One of his hands goes underneath your dress to feel you soft and wet against his fingers, and you both moan at the same time. He slides his digits through your lips and over your clit, and him leaning forward to bring his mouth to your throat is enough to have you nearly overwhelmed. His fingers tease your entrance but don’t push inside until you nearly have to beg him.
“Please, Johnny…” You push your hips up to get his attention.
“Do you want my fingers?” he asks softly.
“Y-yes…” At your words, he eases the middle one into you, slowly enough to avoid discomfort. It feels strange to have someone else’s fingers inside you. His finger reaches further than yours can, touching you more deeply than you’ve felt before; it makes you gasp a bit too sharply.
“Are you hurt?” he asks, freezing and thinking he might’ve done something wrong.
“N-no, I’m fine. Keep going.”
Johnny’s mouth edges closer to the cleavage of your dress as he starts thrusting his finger into you, warming you up enough to take a second digit. Shakily, you bring your hands up to slide the straps down and make it easier for him, and his breath hitches when you pull the top of your dress down.
His mouth envelopes one of your nipples as he slides the second finger into you. His fingers encounter a part of you that makes you moan unexpectedly and grab onto him, a little surprised at the sudden spike of pleasure.
“You’re so pretty,” he purrs, his lips moving against the curve of your breast as he speaks. “And so responsive.”
As Johnny’s mouth and fingers work you closer to an orgasm, you marvel at how handsome he looks and how good he feels. He opens his eyes to see you staring at him, your pupils wide and mouth desperate, and he separates himself from your chest to kiss you deeply once again.
When you come around his fingers, Johnny whispers more compliments to you about how good you are and how he wants to watch you come undone because of him all the time. When he thinks you might be on the brink of overstimulation, he takes his fingers out of you, slipping them into his mouth to taste you.
“I’ll take this off now. Is that okay?” He whispers this into your ear with his hands on either side of your hips, caressing the fabric of your dress.
“I-it’s okay.”
Johnny slips your dress off, leaving you in nothing but your white sheer stockings. The sight of you sitting there on his bed, breathing heavily from your climax in your pretty thigh-highs, has his cock throbbing and rising to life once again.
“Lay back on the bed.” You do, and he settles himself between your legs like you did for him earlier. When you glance at him, his eyes are heavy and piercing. In this moment, you are acutely reminded of the fact that he is not a human, with how he looks like a beast of prey about to devour a meal. You are too nervous to look back at him for long, so you stare at the ceiling with your legs shaking from anticipation.
Johnny’s mouth on you is almost jarring in how wet it is, and you arch up into him in surprise and a rush of pleasure. He gently presses your legs back onto the bed and continues licking into you, parting your lower lips with his tongue and making your thighs tremble under his grasp.
If you had to describe it in words, you probably wouldn’t be able to. He kisses your pussy the same way he kisses you on the mouth, passionately and with more than enough tongue to satisfy. Johnny slips his fingers into you again as he curls his lips around your clit, and you moan unabashedly.
You’re quickly spiraling towards another orgasm, maybe quicker than you expected; but it makes sense with you still being so raw from the climax you just had. You gain enough courage to give another glance down at Johnny, and you see the way his other arm moves back and forth from beneath the bed, stroking himself while he eats you out. Something about that pushes you over the edge, and you cry out as you come on his tongue.
As Johnny gives you time to calm down again, he stands and finally pulls his clothes off, baring his body to you. You’re not sure if you’ve ever seen a man so beautiful.
He goes to get a condom, and your words stumble from your lips before you can psych yourself out of saying them. “I-I’m on birth control.” Johnny looks back at you, his gaze filled with something you can’t quite read. He comes closer to you, holding himself above you on the bed so his face is hovering just above yours.
“You want to feel me raw?” he whispers.
You nod under his burning stare, feeling like you’re on a high you won’t be able to get off of. “I need you, Johnny.”
Johnny climbs fully onto the bed then and positions himself between your legs. His cock is thick and heavy between his thighs as it bumps against your inner thigh and leaves a smear of precum behind. After putting some lube in his hand, he slicks himself with the sticky substance, preparing himself to fuck you open. Something deep in your abdomen shudders, and your walls clench around nothing as you watch him stroke his shaft, the squelching, wet sound of his hand on his dick loud in the quiet room.
When he’s done, he grabs your thighs and pulls you a little closer to him. “If it hurts, tell me, okay?”
“O-okay.”
The slick tip prodding at your hole makes you want more, though you are a bit afraid of how this is going to feel. When it finally pushes inside of you, you gasp. Johnny watches your face for signs of pain as he slides forward further.
With two previous orgasms and the lube to help, his cock stretches you open with some discomfort, but not the kind of sharp pain you expected. Your nails leave little half-moon shapes on Johnny’s biceps as you squeeze his arms and try to keep your lower half relaxed, wanting to take all of him in—or as much as you can manage, anyway. You try to keep your breathing even as he pushes into you slowly.
Your eyebrows crease and your mouth tightens when he slides deeper still, and he pauses. “Johnny…” You worry your lip with your teeth, feeling like you’ve been stuffed to the brim—and he’s not even all the way in yet.
“Do you want me to stop?”
“No,” you beg, maintaining your grip on his arms. “Just…try moving.”
Johnny pulls out and slowly thrusts back in again, angling his dick to find that sensitive spot within you. Your mouth falls open silently when he does; this feels much, much different from his fingers. This is better.
Johnny repeats the movement, being mindful not to push himself too deep—only enough for you to handle. Beneath him, your body begins unwinding at the pleasure he’s delivering to you, and your eyes flutter closed as the ecstasy takes over your mind. One of his hands goes to tease your clit as he settles into a good rhythm, and you cry out at the extra dose of pleasure.
“You’re taking me so well,” Johnny mumbles as he sits back and watches himself slide into you, both of your lower halves slick from lube and your own wetness. “So warm and wet, angel…” You can tell he’s using a lot of his energy to keep his pace controlled and gentle enough for you to actually enjoy. The idea of being fucked harder makes you ache deep inside, but you figure it’s best to save that for when you’re more used to this. You already know it’ll be difficult to walk in the morning after this.
Johnny leans forward to kiss your lips, changing the angle again and circling his pelvis into you, and a choked gasp escapes your mouth at the slow wind of his hips.
Johnny lavishes your neck and throat with kisses, and though he is a vampire, you aren’t worried about him biting you. His fangs have not made an appearance since all this started, and you doubt if he would ever bring them out in front of you. You don’t know if you should ask about it, either, wondering if it’s too soon after only a month and a half of knowing each other—but maybe you could say the same about him being inside of you right now.
“Johnny…” you whisper into the air, your fingers scrabbling against his sweaty skin. The mounting tension in your abdomen is close to snapping, and you are almost frightened by how intense it already feels. He moves his face from your neck to be face-to-face with you again and plants a heavy, dizzying kiss on your lips.
“It’s okay,” he murmurs against your kiss-swollen lips. “I’ve got you, Y/N.”
Falling apart in Johnny’s arms feels like a form of Heaven that’s meant to be kept hidden, because you might become addicted to it otherwise. Your inner muscles squeeze around his dick as you come. His name flows from your lips in a high song. You can’t imagine any physical sensation that could be better than this, his hips rocking into you as you tighten and cream around him, and you know innately that Johnny has ruined all chances of you ever feeling this fulfilled with anyone but him.
The constant pulse of your walls against his dick is too much to withstand for long, and Johnny’s muscles pull taut with pleasure when he comes, groaning into your neck and spilling overflowing streams of thick cum into you. His hips falter in their former rhythm, and he resists the urge to push himself as deep as he can into you.
When he pulls out, you whine from the discomfort of it, but also because you wish he could stay in you forever. You know you’ll be sore when you wake up—and you can already feel the very beginnings of exhaustion and ache settling in your body—but you’d do it a hundred times over without changing a thing.
—
Johnny curls himself around you after he’s cleaned the both of you up, as if he means to shield you from the world. You’re quiet for a while as you listen to his slow-beating heart and feel his cool skin against yours.
You look up at his face, which is hard to see distinctly in the dark of the room. With the lamp turned out, the only source of light comes from the moon now, but you can decipher enough to make out the shape of his lips and his glittering eyes. You know he can see much better than you in this light, and he takes his time tracing his fingers across your face and cheek, studying your features.
“Would you ever…make me a vampire?”
His body tenses at your question. “Don’t say anything ridiculous. You still have a whole life ahead of you to live. What I have here...this is no existence.” He’s not mad, at least not at you, but his voice hardens at the very idea of it.
“But what if I wanted to live it with you?”
Johnny takes a breath, but he doesn’t say anything to that. He just continues stroking your face and looks at you for a long time, like he’s searching for something. You don’t know if you truly expected an answer from him, or how you would feel if he did give one.
Eventually, your eyes begin to fall low, and sleep overcomes you. The last thing you register is Johnny’s chilly hand touching your cheek. When he notices you’ve drifted off, he pulls the covers tighter around you both. Then he presses you to his chest as he tunes out the sound of cars rumbling on the streets below in exchange for the beating of your heart—still alive, so red with blood.
#all these brown colors...how taurean of me#johnny smut#johnny angst#johnny fic#johnny scenario#johnny imagines#johnny imagine#johnny scenarios#nct fic#nct imagine#nct imagines#nct scenario#nct scenarios#nct smut#nct angst#ambw scenarios#ambw scenario#kpop ambw#ambw imagines#ambw imagine#ambw fic#ambw#nct vampire au#nct vampire
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Not sure when you're done, but for when you'rein your asks: talk about your stockpile-adaptation tradeoff theory
Ok So, this turned out very long and very rambly but i finished my homework after midnight and i won’t be stopped from posting this. Let’s call it a mix of “Stockpiled- adaptation tradeoff theory”, “Pocket’s thoughts on how the quirk singularity isn’t a thing”, “overhaul doesn’t understand evolution”, and a bit of “rubbing into AfO’s face about him not being as grand as he thinks he is”
First, let’s talk about Copy vs AfO
So, the thing about Copy is that it lets Neito reproduce the plus alpha factor in it’s entirety- all the mutations needed to activate it, and at least some what a way to instinctively turn it on and off. He copies Eri’s quirk, he gets her horn. He copies Eri’s quirk, and he’s able to know for sure that he’s activated it, but nothing still happens. That’s because for all he is now perfectly adapted to using her quirk, he doesn’t have her stockpile, or even a copy of her stockpile.
Now, AfO. He takes a quirk, but unlike Neito, his comes with whatever was stockpiled. We know this, because he was able to retain the tags that Ragdoll had on students inside of Search while he stole it, and when it was passed to Tomura. He also appears to be able to use mutation quirks, but we haven’t actually seen him take one for himself- he switches a mutation for a quirkless man, and it’s very possible that every ‘body altering quirk’ he uses at Kamino is in fact a transformation quirk, not a mutation. Let’s call this Subset A of the theory, that AfO might be able to give others mutations, but not use them himself. Whether or not that’s true, or if he just activated then deactivated the mutation, there’s the fact that after using air blast against All Might at Kamino, he shook out his hand to jog back feeling and get over the pain of the quirk’s recoil. A pain that, with one’s natural resistance to their own quirk, he shouldn’t have to really worry about- not to mention all the other ones he has to deal with.
But, for some reason, while AfO can yank everything in a stockpile quirk, he can’t yank the adaptability with it. If someone has a body suited to a fire quirk, and a fire quirk, then AfO can take the quirk, but will not have the resistance for it. This means he’ll have to seek out another quirk- he’ll have to seek out fire resistance specifically tied to a person’s plus alpha factor, rather than anything in any other part of the body.
There’s a couple of reason why, but first, lets acknowledge the slightly horrifying fact that following the rules we see with Search and from Monoma’s example, this means that if AfO stole Fatgum’s quirk, he would also be stealing every fat cell in his body linked to it- which might be all of them. which would be very very bad for one’s health. Anyway, nightmare aside, it also means stockpiled things are stored in the quirk factor. This is likely why Eraserhead is able to erase a stockpiled quirk like any other kind, but probably couldn’t temporarily stop someone from having heat resistance as a byproduct.
So, the why. Let’s talk about evolution. and lets ignore everything Chisaki said about apes because he’s a stupid man who knows nothing.
As a species, you might be inclined to say that humans are more evolved than apes. or more evolved than moss. You would be not really correct. Humans are evolved differently, but we’ve all been growing from the first living cells the same amount of time, just to suit different roles and niches. a moss is just as good at being moss as a human is at being a human. But, you could make the argument that your generation of human is more evolved than your ancestors’ generations of humans- you have, after all, been going longer. But really, in a few generations? That’s not a lot of time, really.
Even with the quirk singularity theory, there’s a lot of holes in the Doctor’s argument. Sure, Eri and a lot of the other kids are ridiculously powerful. But Kouta really isn’t. And AfO has an insane power despite being likely a first generation quirk holder. So really, its probably a lot less ‘people are being born with stronger powers’ and more ‘people with stronger powers are being allowed to live longer.’ Are the kids stronger? Or are they just in a society where they can get better training at a younger age? Survivorship bias, i tell ya, it makes for strange things. Remember, Inko’s weak telekinetic quirk is fourth gen, supposedly only one generation off from where it would be too strong to handle. That... doesn’t seem to add up. even if she had a child who had telekinetic twice as powerful as her, in omnidirection, there’s nothing really in that that sounds like it would be injurious to the holder. Thirteen can create black holes that probably killed people when first manifesting, and is old enough to be a generation above Eri. Speaking of human stations being mistaken for inherit genetics, quirk marriages where people are worse off because they meddled in a science they knew nothing about to try and do new eugenics- the todoroki children are basically unnatural and poor examples of ‘quirk singularity’
Quirks generally get more evolved in each generation, yes, unless you get no quirk or an identical set to a parent. But ‘more evolved’ doesn’t mean stronger, it can mean more complex. Case in point, back to AfO and Copy.
Why doesn’t AfO’s quirk allow him to steal resistance? Likely because the resistance for a quirk is stored in a different gene than in the plus alpha factor itself- hence Touya can get an ice resistance gene, and a fire producing quirk gene- and his quirk isn’t built to interact with that. Past that, it’s because AfO doesn’t need to interact with that- he can just go steal another quirk that covers the problem. Storing all that extra non-quirk gene would probably wreak havoc on his body- warp it like a nomu, so his quirk is evolved efficiently.
Copy, on the other hand, is certainly more complicated than “Move Quirk Factor Around”. It means mimicking a quirk, growing all necessary parts to it, and instinctively activate and deactivate. He doesn’t have immediate skill, but he does have immediate use. It also comes with whatever mutations and resistances a person has- a horn, an engine, a protection for headache relief or electrical resistance.
So, what? Why is it important
Well, let’s compare
Situation A: Monoma copies Dabi’s quirk. Monoma gains both Dabi’s flames and his ice resistance for a temporary amount of time.
Sitation B: AfO steals Dabi’s quirk. He gains the blue fire, but his natural, normal reation to both ice and heat are unchanged. Dabi is quirkless, but still has the same amount of cold resistance as before
Situation C: Monoma copies Suneater’s quirk. Monoma is able to manifest anything in his stomach, but nothing from Suneaters.
Situation D: AfO steals Suneater’s quirk. He also gets everything in Suneater’s stockpile, so whatever was in his stomach that the quirk had ‘active’- which might be everything inside, or only what he was currently using. Suneater is now quirkless, again, but also hungrier and stop being mean to my son.
So, again, why? Basically, humanity hasn’t had enough time for quirks to really streamline yet, and every quirk has its limits for a reason. AfO likely cant touch other resistances or vestigial mutations, and might not be able to even wield fully mutation quirks. Monoma, from a more evolved but not necessarily stronger generation can, because he has no other way to get the copied quirks active, and his evolutionary line solved that sometime before him.
Also, the idea of a quirk singularity is not widely accepted in universe for a good reason. There are other factors, and frankly a lot of what the doctor was talking about was how AfO finds it harder or riskier to use quirks after the fourth generation. This isn’t necessarily because they’re stronger or deadlier, it’s just because they are more complicated and rely more on other parts of one’s dna that he can’t steal.
Because he’s got the ability to take stockpile, but not adaptability, and for some reason that seems rather fitting for him- not able to adapt quite enough to ever really kill All Might, even when duplicating quirks to boost the number in his stockpile, is he?
#recent manga spoilers beware#anon#pocket talks to people#also this kinda opens up whether or not an eraser bullet should erase a stockpile#as it must be stored in the plus alpha factor#but#tamaki didn't mention getting hungried and we don't really see anyone else getting shot#and also i don't trust overhaul on knowing exactly how the bullets work anyway#but the other hospital people said it destroyed the quirk factor. so#if shot with an eraser bullet dabi may or may not lose his ice resistance#it depends on what else is rewond#but he probably wouldn't. probably. at least a temporary bullet#bc those dont do any other damage to other parts of your cells#that said#a permanent one could be different#anyway. they're all horrifying possibilities#but also im just gonna drag AfO here#and ujiko#and overhaul#and endeavor#we taking shots at all of them#where's the thor gif about meddling where you don't understand#thats me
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Chapter 3: Spells, potions and books
Summary.
Finally Franco and rRegina embark on an adventure. Their first stop is The Silver, a city known for its enchanted books.
While exploring the city they find a girl who has had her things stolen and Regina decides to help her
Notes:
Before we start:
An Ignatio is humanoid species made out of fire.
And an amphibian is species that has the hability to breath under water and walk on earth (Brianna in an amphibian)
The song Franco sings is Triumph for my magic steel by Rhapsody. And the fragment he sings is minute 3:38
And the song Vandal sings its "El libro de las sombras by Mago de Oz"
Tag-list: @freesiafields @bambirexwrites @whitequeen-ofwillowgreen @vaeya @sirenlovesqueen @moreofthatqueen @eileen-crys
If someone wants to be added or removed from the tag-list just tell me :}
I couldn't even sleep well that night because of the excitement and anxiety I felt. I packed the most important stuff and went over and over again that I had everything I needed. A few changes of clothes, all the money I had saved and a small notebook to write down everything important.
During the night I spent tossing and turning in bed, thinking about what I could do in different places; I could explore the most remote areas of the Empire, fight with the wildest beasts or even tame a dragon, perhaps not the latter but still I could try it another time.
As soon as the first rays of the sun came out, I put on my armor and went downstairs to have breakfast.
Sarinha was in the kitchen, going back and forth to finish preparing food.
— Good morning Regina! — Sarinha greeted with great emotion — Franco told me you were going to travel — She said while she finished serving the breakfasts.
— Yes! — I exclaimed — We will travel through the middle of Farfania before reaching the Tree City. And I'll see if I can convince him to go to The Shelter later. My uncle has wanted to meet him for a long time —
— I see both of you are quite excited. Even Franco stopped being so grumpy. Although ... I wonder how you did it — Sarinha commented with a small laugh.
I looked at her confused.
— Excuse me? Do what? — I asked .
— I mean… for thirty years I insisted Franco to go out of Step of the king and you; you did it in one night. —
— Why did you want Franco to leave Paso del Rey? I mean… it's nice to be here —
—I always figured it would do him good to get some fresh air. Before your arrival, he kept locked up in his room. You managed to get him to go to the forest and now he will travel again —
—The truth, I do not know how I did it, I suppose I am very insistent or he accepted to stop bothering him — I said with a small laugh.
— I'm almost sure he did it because he also wanted to explore a little, to remember those days when he was a knight. I'm glad for you. I would love to go with you you but I have to attend the tavern —
— When we return, we could attend the tavern — I said amused — So you can travel! —
Sarinha laughed at my proposal.
— I'll keep it in mind —
I went out to the dining room, and surprisingly, Franco was already there, quietly drinking a coffee.
I put the plates on the table and we began to eat in silence.
Something in me told me that Franco was going to regret it at the last minute, maybe he was going to use some of his usual excuses. Although I was doubting that that was going to happen. I had to say that Franco also looked excited about our trip, although it seemed that he wanted to repress it.
— Are you ready to go? — Franco said once we finished eating.
I nodded with great emotion.
Franco took his backpack and we headed to the exit.
— Have a good trip and do not forget to write to me whenever you can — Sarinha said goodbye.
We said goodbye to her and promised to return in a couple of weeks.
We went through the town in complete silence. It was strange to see the town so empty, in a way I had gotten used to seeing people at all hours.
I hoped that at any moment Franco would say that he already wanted to return, it was something he had to keep in mind. But that moment never came, maybe it would come later.
We walked for an hour along the path that took you to Paladium city.
We found a traveler who was driving a cart, apparently he was a recurring customer at Sarinha's tavern and knew Franco, although I could not recognize him.
And so we started our journey, on the back of a full wagon. It was different from what he expected but that did not take away the charm of it.
After an hour of travel the familiar forest began to change. It was quite beautiful. It was the same as four years ago, when I arrived at Step of the king by this same road.
In this area, the trees were more widely spaced, revealing part of the sky, which did not have a single cloud. Even in some areas you could see the high mountains with snow in the distance.
For someone who passed here every day it could be a common landscape but for me it was impressive, or at least different. I had grown up in the darkness of The Shelter and later in the colorful trees of Step of the king. It was just beautiful to see how everything changed as we progressed.
When he turned to see Franco, he seemed to be just as fascinated with the road, he smiled and looked around him like a young traveler on his first adventure. To tell the truth, it was the first time I had seen him this happy.
— Why do you smile? — I asked.
— I remembered the old days — Franco said calmly.
— The old days? — I asked amused.
— Yes — He answered now with a bigger smile — I remember how I traveled throughout the Empire with my friends. On the way we would always sing the classic chivalric songs and tell bad jokes. The trips of hours seemed only minutes —
— Chivalric songs? Like which? —
— I'm not going to be singing - Franco said —I've never been good at singing and even less after so many years —
— Please — I begged —I have never heard of those songs -
Franco sighed heavily.
— Ok — He accepted — But only a part and also I don't want you to complain about my voice and don't say I didn't warn you —
“Steel all around for the king and his crown
Winds of the dawn are caressing us all ...
Ancelot smiles at the knights' epic cry
Thanks to the old and their emerald sword ”
His voice was husky when singing, even more than he already had it, but he had a certain magic.
— It's a very nice song — I commented once he finished singing.
— Well ... it wasn't the best song of all. There was a Pagan Party, they loved that one. Whenever we set up camp we would dance and sing that song around the campfire until our feet hurt. It was fantastic —
Pagan party? I had heard that it was quite a popular dance but had never had a chance to dance it.
— And were any of your friends a Netherite knight? — I dared to ask
— Not all my friends were knights. In fact, I was the only one — Franco said with a certain air of pride.
— Seriously? I thought you were in the royal guard — I said somewhat puzzled.
— Yes, I was in the royal guard. I met many knights throughout my life but I never… felt very comfortable with them. They are a bit smug —
I laughed a little at the latter.
— And what were your friends like? And if they weren't knights what were they? —
— They were very extravagant. In our little group there was an Ignatio, a shapeshifter, a few animals, and the most powerful wizard I have ever met. They were great and brave. Many times I felt that they were too much for me but we still worked very well together. More than my friends, I came to consider them my family — Franco's smile disappeared from his face — Those were good morning —
— And what happened? — I asked.
— What happened was the fall of Farfania. — He said darkly — That bastard Netherite knight ruined my life. He left this mark on me — He said as he pointed to his face — And he took away all the good in my life. That is why I could never go back to the royal guard ... and I could never see family again —
— That's why you don't talk about it — I said in a whisper.
— Yes ... it was ... the worst thing that ever happened to me and since then I have not been able to recover from that. —
I wanted to ask him why he could no longer see his family but I preferred to abstain. It was clear that it was a bitter memory that he still couldn't get over, even after 30 years.
We didn't talk about it again for the rest of the trip, although he did tell me about his adventures, again. I always believed he was a lone wolf in his youth but this time he did mention his family which made the story more interesting. Now that I thought about it, it was strange that he hadn't mentioned them until now but I didn't give it much thought. Maybe they only brought back bad memories after Farfania's fall, even though so many good times they passed together.
___________________
The cart stopped in what appeared to be a city after a couple of hours of travel.
I jumped out and helped Franco down.
— Well guys — Said the boy in the cart — I'm going to make a stop here to rest. Are you going to stay here or are you going to go to Paladium? —
— We will stay a few days — Franco replied — Thank you very much for the trip —
— No problem and good luck with your trip —
We say goodbye to the traveler and continue we our journey.
— And here is ...? — I asked.
— The Silver, known as the best place to get enchanted books —
— Like the ice walker? — I asked excitedly.
— Better than that. Fire protection, bane of arthropods, even channeling if you have a trident—
— Have you already come? - I asked.
— Countless times. Here I got the books for my armor —
I felt a bit out of place in the city. I just wanted to stop and appreciate things but people seemed to not have time for those things; They were rushing everywhere and if you stopped for a second they would start to push you.
Franco had to guide me through the streets so that I would not be left behind.
It was quite different from The Shelter and Step of the king. Here the buildings were even more impressive in the city center. They were about three stories tall and maintained a certain symmetry in their windows and crooked columns. Something that caught my attention was the integration of painting inthe architecture, in addition to the towers and domes that were used.
Franco checked us into a hostel to stay for the next two days. He said he wanted to teach me a little bit about enchantments, how to choose the best ones and all that stuff. It would be good for me in the future, although at the moment we couldn't buy any books as we didn't have enough money. (The best books could cost up to 64 gold coins)
After that, Franco insisted that we go out a bit, that he wanted to see how the city had changed and mainly to find where the enchanted books were sold.
We walked all over the city and I was lost. Although the buildings did change a little on each street, there were not enough differences to be located; or at least I had not yet recorded them in my memory. I was confident that Franco knew where we had to go even though it seemed that he was lost too or simply his memory of the city was a bit rusty.
After half an hour of walking around, we found the street where the books were sold. The street was wider than the others and was made of stone. The shops were small with large decorative elements like plants to give life to the monotonous city. This street was much quieter than the rest of the city, with only a few people browsing the shops.
This time I was able to appreciate the stores better. Each of them specialize in different things; some sold books for armor, some for swords, some even for pickaxes and axes. It was fascinating in a way, and I had never really seen so many enchanted books.
As I continued to look at the books and leaf through a few of them. I heard a scream from across the street.
“Stop!”
It was a girl asking for help and surprisingly no one came up with her when she screamed.
I ran to get to her side.
The window of her store was smashed, and the interior of the store was a mess; bookcases on the floor, book pages everywhere and pieces of glass all over the floor. It seems that a whirlpool had passed through here.
— Finally! — The girl exclaimed when she saw me — Someone from the royal guard —
She was about to tell him that she was not from the royal guard, but I held back.
— What happened? — I asked politely.
— A boy came in and stole everything! — Exclaimed the frustrated girl — I need you to help me get things back. They are various magical artifacts that are very rare —
The truth was I was not a good detective but the girl looked frustrated and sad about what happened. The least she could do was try to find the culprit. Although I doubt it's going to be easy.
— Of course, miss ... —
—Joanna — she said with a small smile.
Suddenly, Franco grabbed my arm and dragged me roughly.
— I'm sorry miss but she can't help you — Franco said seriously as we walked away a bit.
We walked a couple of meters away and the girl looked at us confused.
— What's wrong with you? — I said annoyed once I managed to get out of Franco's grip.
— We came to train and study. Not to ... do social work — Franco said annoyed. — I know you want to help but this is not the right time. You'll do it later — he said calmer this time.
Yes, but then I won't be able to get the girl's things back.
— Come on Franco, she is a poor girl who had her things stolen from her. Isn't it the work of a knight? Help people when they need it most — I looked at him with pleading eyes.
Franco just stared at me with his rough expression.
— It could be used for training. He's just a boy, how hard can it be? —
Franco sighed heavily.
— Okay — He gave up—- But if things go wrong, I want you to come back immediately —
I rolled my eyes before approaching Joanna again.
— I'm sorry about what happened — I said with a nervous smile — I'm Regina and I've come to help her — I made a small bow.
— Thank you —
— So what happened? To ... give me an idea —
— That ... vandal, he came and crashed with his giant spider, then stole everything he could before leaving —
— Alright. Is not too much. Didn't you see where she went? —
—He had to continue down this street and it's the only thing I have — Joanna lamented.
This… will be very difficult, impossible I would dare to say, but I was not going to turn down this opportunity. Besides, no one had come to help her, it was the least she could do.
We scoured the city from one side to the other looking for a clue, rather Joanna guided me through the city. We tried to ask several people about the boy, unfortunately most did not want to answer us or simply did not know.
We found a tavern. We weren't entirely sure we were going to find too much help but there weren't too many options.
The place was half empty and had a strong smell of cheap alcohol. It didn't seem to be a seedy tavern though. We approached the bar, where an Ignatio was attending, I could notice even more the heat that his body emitted.
— Good afternoon — I greeted Ignatio — We are looking for someone—
Ignatio adjusted his glasses carefully.
— Aha. And what does that "someone" look like? — The ignatio leaned over the bar.
I opened my mouth to say it when I realized I had no idea. The boy was already gone when I arrived.
— He was around 25 years old — Joanna came to the rescue — with dark short hair. He was wearing leather armor and his height was more or less like this — She pointed with her hand a little below my head — Ah! And he had a pet spider —
The man put his hand on his chin while he thought for a bit.
— Mmm. I think I've seen him. Someone passed through this street like a madman riding a spider. He did a little bit of damage — Ignatio said calmly.
— Is him! — I exclaimed — By chance did you not see where he went —
— He probably went north if he continued down this street. If he was going at that speed it was most likely that he wanted to get out of the city —
— Perfect. Thank you very much for your help! —
We continued on our way, asking different people to make sure we were on the right track.
— Why would a boy like him want so many books? — I said while he kicked some stones.
— I don't know. Most likely he intended to resell them — Joanna recriminated — He has been doing this for months. —
— Months? —
— Yes ... And not just me. Also to others who sell similar objects. I’m sure he makes a lot of money selling these things —Joanna complained.
— What other things has he stolen? — I asked.
— In addition to books; potions, food, elytras, armor, swords, even tridents —
— Where does he get the tridents? —
— There is an amphibian that sells them. He says they hurt a lot because he has a hard time getting them and this vandal comes to steal them —
Something in me told me that he not only sold the things, those were too many objects and I doubted that he would sell them quickly to steal again in a few days. There must be something else behind it.
— And how far does this street go? —
— If you follow it straight it simply takes you to the forest —
After a few minutes we reached the path that took you out of the city, just as deserted as the one I arrived on.
The forest was quiet but it was clear that the boy had passed through here, leaving mangled branches and bushes in the way. At least we already had a more consistent track.
The boy was careless enough to leave a trail of him in the woods. Or just the spider was too big. I shuddered at that idea. I didn't want to fight with that huge thing.
We walked through the forest following the few tracks we have (it would surely lead us to nowhere) I was surprised that Joanna wanted to continue after hours of walking; either she was too persistent or the books were too good to let go.
In the distance, something was out of place. It was someone whistling, no, it was someone singing
— Did you hear that? — I asked in a low voice.
— To hear that? —
I placed a finger on my lips to indicate silence. In the complete silence you could hear the light sound of the wind against the leaves of the trees, a few birds flapping and ... Someone singing! I was right!
We carefully approached the source of the sound, hiding among bushes and bouquets. It didn't take long to find the vandal.
The boy was on his spider singing calmly. On his back he had another sack with things, although they didn't sound like books, it sounded like metal, they must be swords or armor. How was he so fast to rob different stores in one day? Or worst case, because no one had stopped him already?
The boy walked through a part of the forest with his big spider.
We continued to follow him until he came to a cave, well, more than a cave it looked like a hole in a small hill.
The boy got off his spider and entered the cave.
When I lost sight of him, I got up from our hiding place but Joanna took my arm.
She pulled me a little to get back to hide.
— What do you think you're doing? — Joanna asked quietly.
I crouched down again to be level with her.
— What do you think I'm doing? I'm going to face him — I snapped annoyed. I didn't want to waste any more time.
—We can't go for things now, much less hit him — Joanna replied.
— Why not? He stole your things and many other people’s things —
Joanna rolled her eyes.
— Because I said so. We're going to stay here and wait for him to come out — Joanna said with annoyance.
Reluctantly I agreed. Why did she want to do it the hard way? We go in there, we face him and voila! We have the things. The boy was quite scrawny, it would be an easy battle if he tries to defend himself. We just need to give him a scare.
The only problem could be the spider, but that was the least of it. So we could just distract it but no, the lady wanted to sit down and waste her time.
After a couple of minutes (which seemed like hours) Joanna got up from the floor. She took a couple of steps in front of her and raised her hands in the air. She started making strange movements.
— What are you doing? — I asked for.
— A spell — she answered without turning to see me.
A kind of bubble enveloped us and then disappeared in small blue lights.
— For what? —
— It's an invisibility spell. That way the boy won't know we're here and we can continue with the plan. Besides that we can make a bonfire if it starts to get very cold —
—So… we'll just stay here all night — I said bored.
—That's the plan — Joanna said with a slightly malicious smile.
Out of respect for Joanna, I didn’t complain. I didn't even have time to tell Franco that I was going to spend the whole night camping with a stranger. He will surely yell at me when he sees me again.
Every minute I peeked over the bushes waiting to get back to the boy.
Joanna started telling me about the books that had been stolen from her, mostly books for swords. She even had Sweeping Edge and Efficiency V for pickaxes and axes.
Enchanting books and selling them was a family business decades ago. She was learning to use the enchantment table, which was much more complicated than it appeared.
I had never used an enchantment table, maybe one time I had seen them out of the corner of my eye. It was an obsidian table with gold and diamond accents on the edges, and in the center was the book that enchanted things. The only thing Joanna knew was that one had to learn an ancient language in order to know what you were enchanted with.
We lasted there until the sun went down. How much could the boy do in there? He sure got tired of stealing so many things like the little bastard he is.
The truth is, I was also falling asleep a bit, not so much from fatigue but from boredom.
In the dark, the forest was ten times more gloomy. The only source of natural light was the moon. In addition to the campfire that we had lit, and that casted long, terrifying shadows.
Truth be told, my uncle's castle scared me more, at least when I was little. There was no sunlight coming in there, and there were large paintings of ancient kings in all the corridors.
My uncle said that the paintings moved and I naturally spent hours observing them. They never moved an inch, so I guess he just said it to get me to stop bothering him or to do something other than try to get out of the castle.
Now that I remember, there was a painting of my uncle with the other kings. There was the Netherite knight, in his black armor and imposing white eyes. It was the only image I knew of the knight.
—I know you're not from the royal guard — Joanna said out of nowhere.
That took me completely out of my memories and I was completely off guard.
— W ... what? That’s not true — I said defensively.
—You are not — Joanna said again with a malicious smile.
I felt my face start to boil. How much could I deny it? Also, how did she find out? Because of my armor or inexperience. I was taking too long to answer, it was so obvious.
— How do you know? — I asked after a minute.
— I knew it from the beginning, well ... since you told me your name —
I had no words. My name had no relation to the other, did it?
Joanna must have read the expression on my face.
—Never say your name to a fairy — She said with a smug smile.
Oh gods. Now she's going to curse me!
— Don't worry, I won't do anything to you. I'm not that kind of fairy — She said in a whisper.
I let out a breath that I didn't know I was holding.
—Why did you lie in the first place? -—She did not sound angry, although I could not decipher her intentions.
I shrugged.
— I don't know — I said turning to see the fire — I thought you didn't want my help if I told you the truth —
— Well ... you were the only one who came to my call — Joanna pointed out — From there I assumed you were from the guard. And when you told me your name, I was surprised. You are a good girl Regina ... but you must think things better before jumping into action —
I laughed at the latter, I was told that a few times before, mainly my uncle and Franco.
We didn't do much the rest of the night. More than anything we struggled not to fall asleep. I even suggested that we go now that the boy was asleep but Joanna refused, she said it was a bad idea. Which was true but I didn't want to stay the rest of the night in the middle of the forest, besides Franco didn't know where I was.
— And how old are you? — I said to break the ice and to stay awake longer.
— Sixteen…. years old — Joanna said in the middle of a yawn.
— You’re 16?! — I exclaimed louder than I had planned.
— Yes? What's wrong with it? —Joanna asked, raising an eyebrow.
— Nothing ... it's just that I thought you were older — She said lowering her voice.
— Why? —
— Because ... well ... you already have your own book store and because ... you were able to cross half the city by yourself —
— The store belongs to my parents — Joanna corrected — And crossing half the city is because I can't lose those books. My mother had a hard time finding the enchantments -
— I understand — I said while I yawned — I would do that if I were in your place —
— You did it and that you had nothing to do with this —
—I suppose it is my duty as future knight — I said mockingly.
We tried to continue the conversation but Joanna couldn't hold out long.
I continued to struggle with the inevitable. Each time my eyes grew heavier until eventually I fell asleep as well.
_____________________
— Regina — Joanna shook my arm slightly — Regina, wake up —
I slowly opened my eyes to meet Joanna's freckled face. At what time had it dawned?
— What's going on? — It was the only thing I managed to articulate while I stretched a little.
— The boy is gone — Joanna said in a low voice — I saw how he left the cavern —
— So let's go — I said jumping up, completely forgetting about the fatigue.
We left the bushes making as little noise as possible.
Outside the cavern was the huge spider sleeping, it was the size of a horse. It was even more disgusting up close, you could see all its hairs and its twisted legs. In addition to giving off a smell like rotten fruit, I had to put up with the urge to vomit.
We walked carefully around it so as not to wake it up.
We entered the cavern, it was smaller than I had expected. It was barely tall enough to walk upright, although Joanna did have to bend down a bit.
The cavern was full of various stolen items that barely left room to walk, just as Joanna had said; there were books, swords, tridents, even various pieces of gold. How was it that someone like him had stolen so much? Truth be told, he did not seem very skilled in the arts of combat and it did not appear that he was a wizard either. He must have been very lucky I guess.
— Look — Joanna called my attention in a low voice — Here are all the books — She said as she pointed to a disorganized pile.
— Fast. Before he returns —
We both walked over and started putting the books away in a bag. While doing that, I saw something that caught my attention, it was a dark green glass sphere with small shades.
— What is this? — I asked as she showed it to Joanna.
— It is an Ender pearl — Joanna answered without stopping what she was doing.
— Ender what? —
— Pearl. It is used to teleport. You throw it and where it falls it will take you — Explained Joanna
The boy was a thief, if I took something from him, it wasn't something bad, was it? Without thinking much about it, I put it in the bag, you never know when you need it to get out of a hurry.
— Are these all the books? — I asked.
— Yes, but then we should go back for the other things. We should have brought help — Joanna regretted.
We close the bags.
— WHAT ARE YoOU DOING!? - A shout from the other side of the cavern alerted us. The vandal had arrived.
We looked at each other before running to the exit.
— Stop! — I heard the vandal yelling as we ran.
We ran as fast as we could back to town.
Looking back I saw how the boy was riding on his spider at full speed.
I tried to run even faster but the weight of the books prevented it.
The boy passed us and stood in front of us with his spider to block our way.
— Give me my things back! — the boy yelled
— These are not your things. You stole them —
— I just borrowed them. Then I was going to return them — Said the boy with a smile.
— Well fight with me if you want the books back — I said feigning security as I pulled my sword out of its sheath.
— Oh! A challenge — Said the boy with emotion as he got down from his spider — You will see that he will defeat you easily — The boy took out his iron axe, it did not have any enchantment. We were on an equal ground. — A god long ago emptied his soul into him. With letters of pain and oceans of love. Wrapped in it, they sleep rich in power. Recipes to live and spells to die —
Was the boy ... singing?
I turned to see Joanna and she was just as confused as I was. I waited for the boy to make his first move but he continued with his song.
I snorted loudly. I didn't have time for this.
I approached him and punched him in the face. The boy took a couple of steps back from the impact and placed a hand where I had hit him.
— What's wrong with you? — The boy whimpered — I haven’t finished yet —
— Well, you were taking too long — I argued.
— Whatever. I'm ready to fight — Said the boy with a smile. — Close combat. Whoever falls first loses ... — He said as he put away his axe and I did the same with my sword.
I placed my arms in front of me in defense. The boy was still doing nothing, he didn't know how to fight hand to hand either.
I threw a punch to his face that he barely dodged.
I tried to hit him a couple more times but he managed to dodge them all. He was more agile than I expected.
Until I finally managed to hit one in the middle of his face. The boy took a couple of steps back before touching his face where I had hit him.
The boy recoiled in fear and climbed onto his spider.
— This will not be the last time we see each other! — Whimpered the boy as he moved away in his spider in the opposite direction to his lair.
What a… anticlimactic fight, I would say. I couldn't expect too much from the boy, though. Well, maybe some other time I will have a chance for a more exciting fight.
Joanna picked something up from the floor and studied it for a moment.
—Vandal — Joanna said with surprise — What an interesting name.— She said while she handed me what she had collected.
It was a small metal plate, it had the boy's face and his name engraved on it. All in all, it was an interesting and somewhat odd name.
— The important thing is that we get things back — I exclaimed raising my arms in the air.
— We will have to return for the rest of the stuff. Before he comes back with his friends. If he has — Joanna said with a small laugh.
We returned carefully the same way, in case Vandal wanted to ambush us again.
We found the small entrance but surprisingly, the cave was empty, as if no one had been there in the first place.
— That’s strange — I said while looking for any clue or trace of someone.
There was nothing, not even ashes from some campfire or shoe marks before us.
— It seems that at the end of the day if he was a magician — Joanna commented
— Or someone helped him — I suggested.
— Whatever. We better get back —
Joanna guided me back to the city, since I had no idea where we were. The road was long as expected; and my feet ached as did my back from carrying the books.
We arrived at Joanna's store, where the window had already been repaired and the bookshelves were in their place, as if nothing had happened.
Joanna asked me to help rearrange the books in their respective places. I accepted.
After a few minutes, the store was perfect, at least in my opinion. And Joanna looked quite happy with the work that we had done so it was a success for me.
— Here — Joanna said handing me a book and a small bag of coins — It's a ... reward for helping me get things back — She said with a smile.
Pick up the book with shaking hands. It was made of purple leather and had some strange symbols on the covers; plus it looked like it glowed slightly.
— What is it? — I asked.
— It is a book enchanted with Sharpness II. For your sword — Joanna replied.
-—And where do I put it on my sword? —
— There is a blacksmith in town who will be happy to do it. He does not charge anything —
My first spell for the sword. I never believed it was such a good one, or that he would get it this way.
— Thank you very much—- I said even without being able to believe it.
— Oh! I also have this for you — She said as she rummaged in one of her pockets. She handed me a small notebook and a white feather tied in a small bottle of ink — You write anything down there and I can read it and answer it. It's in case you need something or… you just want to talk to a friend — Joanna said with a big smile.
A friend. I smiled at that thought.
We said goodbye and I left the store. Franco must have been worried about me, or angry.
After walking around the city, and asking several people, I finally managed to get to the hostel where we had stayed.
Franco was in the restaurant of the hostel, eating quietly. That reminded me that he had practically not eaten in an entire day.
— Where did you been all day? You said you would arrive yesterday — Franco asked as soon as he saw me enter. Surprisingly, it didn't sound angry.
—I was getting this — I said proudly as I tossed the little sack of coins on the table. — And this — I put the enchanted book on the table and sat in front of him.
Franco took the book to see it better.
— Sharpness II — Franco was surprised — Not bad —
— Can you read those symbols? — I asked as he took the book and put it back in my backpack.
— Of course I know — Franco said as if it were very obvious — I had to enchant my armor and sword on my own —
— Seriously?! — I exclaimed.
— Yes, it's a kind of tradition when you get a new rank in the guard. I still remember that sword. I had called it "The Soul Extractor" a name that inspired terror among my enemies. It had Sharpness V and Fire Aspect. — Franco said wistfully. — In addition to other spells that I do not remember —
— What happened to it? — I asked leaning over the table.
— Nothing. I still have it — Franco said shrugging — Right here —
From inside his coat, he took out a small sphere with a golden chain. The sphere was black with a few green swirls dancing inside it.
It was an Ender chest, one could store anything there without having to worry about space, probably he also had this armor stored there.
I was realizing how little I knew about Franco.
— Can I see it? — I asked excitedly.
— No! — Franco exclaimed and put it back in his coat — I don't want you to put your hands on an object as valuable as that —
I returned to my seat somewhat disappointed.
— I'm not five, you know? — I said sadly.
— I will show you when you are older — Franco said.
I rolled my eyes but couldn't help but smile a little.
__________________
Vandal hated that… that flying machine. He didn't know why his boss had chosen it, it was horrible, and noisy.
Vandal walked down the corridors until he found the large metal doors that led to the main room. After some effort, he managed to open them.
Inside the room it was even hotter. Vandal didn't know if it was because of his nerves or because of all the humidity in the air.
His boss was bent over his desk, analyzing a map. He didn't even bother to look up at Vandal's arrival.
— S... sir — Vandal spoke with a small voice.
— I hope it is something important, Vandal. You know that there are still preparations for the new attack — Said his boss severely without looking up.
— I know sir. Unfortunately, I didn't get the books or anything like that — his boss looked up — Some girls recovered the things, but they didn't get everything, I still have the armor and the swords —
His boss looked at him sternly with his white eyes.
— We need the books! — His boss yelled frustrated as he hit the table — What's the use of having so many things if we can't enchant them? —
— For nothing, sir. B... but I found something better. — His boss turned to look at him curiously — I know where the niece of King Silithur is — Vandal stammered, trembling more and more.
His boss rubbed her temples in frustration.
— That's not important. She is not even the heir to the throne — Said his boss frustrated as he returned his sight to the map.
— The girl she was accompanied by... Franco — Vandal said the name in a low voice as if it were a curse.
His boss glanced at him and approached him. Vandal cringed even more in anticipation of some scolding.
— Wow, that is good, very good indeed. Good job Vandal — The man patted the boy on the back. — Until you finally do something right —
His boss headed for the door.
— Where are you going sir? — Vandal asked.
— We will have to make a little visit to an old friend —
#queen#queen fanfiction#fanfic#fem queen#freddie mercury#roger taylor#brian may#john deacon#my fic#my writing#between faith and the sword
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On the The Host romance:
A lil note: @into-september as you’re reading Twilight, and your last post made me realise this, I thought it better to write my own post and tag you! Hope you don’t mind.
The Host is the first novel of an “adult” science fiction trilogy by Stephanie Meyer which never was finished. Published in 2008, the same year as Breaking Dawn, I guess she preferred gaining the benefits of her vampire saga to keep on writing.
For shame, because for me, The Host is much better at establishing worldbuilding, a concept and its protagonists + a romance (not that there isn’t anything cuestionable in it, but to my taste it’s better done than in Twilight). Here is the first paragraph of The Host wikipedia’s section on plot:
A species of parasitic aliens called "Souls" have invaded Earth, deeming the humans too violent to deserve the planet. When a Soul is implanted into a host body, the consciousness of the original owner is erased, leaving their memories and knowledge.
Wanderer, a Soul, is placed into the body of Melanie Stryder. However, Melanie's consciousness is still alive and begins to communicate with Wanderer mentally. Wanderer's assigned "Seeker" suggests that she could be placed into Melanie to retrieve the memories before disposing of the defective body, but Wanderer makes several attempts to deny her Seeker's wishes. As Wanderer starts to uncover some of Melanie's memories of her younger brother Jamie Stryder and her boyfriend Jared Howe, Melanie gets her to follow a series of landmarks throughout the Arizona desert to find her Uncle Jeb, hoping that Jared and Jamie are with him. By doing so, she would be denying the Seeker Melanie's memories and the humans they would lead her to.
Just. Read that and have the face to tell me it doesn’t sound more interesting than Twilight I dare you. Of course the books are different genres, although the focus is in the... more sentimental part in both. It’s just that The Host story is more unusual and the worldbuilding dreamy and subtly horrific.
Well I said I was gonna talk about the romance right? Spoilers incoming!
A bit of more context is necessary; in The Host, Melanie, the human Wanda (nickname of Wanderer) is possessing, is in love with the boyfriend mentioned in the sinopsis, Jared. Wanda being in the body of Melanie, feels things for him. We can divine for context this is sexual attraction plus having access to some of Melanie’s memories and noticing Jared is pretty ok as humans not possessed are left on Earth.
Melanie reaction to this oscillates between “don’t you dare touch my boyfriend alien” and “well of course you fell for him, he’s pretty awesome” to “if I can’t it’s ok if you want to” when she’s feeling herself disappear at one point. Which is bullshit bc her conscience comes back when Wanda goes to tell Jared to kiss her bc she’s feeling Melanie disappear and when he gets near Wanda, Melanie usually mounts a whole circus in her head. It works.
Well that’s one part of the romance. The other is Ian, a human in the settlement who is pretty level-headed and who starts talking to Wanda, as her guard first and then as her friend. No previous contact with Melanie, so he mets Wanda in Melanie’s body and isn’t excessively hostile or sad. Bc you know, an alien is in the body of you “niece, girlfriend, sister, etc” isn’t really conductive to good first impressions although that alien has come bearing the news that said person is still alive somewhere in their brain.
(Also the whole human group is so hilariously based on those paranoid about the government/end-of-days usa people... And it works! LMAO) (The social dynamics are interesting in this book ok? basic but ingenious)
So Wanda falls slowly without noticing for Ian; Ian falls first and confesses and everything. I think their first kiss was a bit sketchy? But generally they good.
The interesting thing is this: Melanie and so her body, is in love and attracted to Jared. Wanda, inhabiting Melanie’s body, starts realising that although Jared is pretty ok and all that, he’s really Melanie’s love; she doesn’t exactly like his more violent tendencies.
(Really he’s more apocalypse survivor hardcore, but he really was a dick to her at the start, bc alien possessing girlfriend and all. Also gave her mixed signals, etc. Very american male which, eh. Melanie is also very apocalypse survivor hardcore; the two mesh well bc of that lmao)
Well, as Stephanie Meyer is SM, and she has some weird ideas about romance the thing is, Wanda doesn’t feel sexually attracted to Ian. Bc all the hormones in her body are signaling only Jared. But she really is romantically attracted to Ian, and loves him. When they kiss, she likes it, but it’s not super passionate nor does it brings the same high that the few occasions Jared kissed her. To Ian’s credit he doesn’t really get it at the start, but then is immediately acepting of Wanda’s boundaries. I think he pushes a bit? But this SM so. Sigh. (I like to think in the hands of another author he wouldn’t do the sterotypical male thing but yah)
What I mean is that Stephanie Meyer, without intention, created an ace romance. Sure, it bc really weird biological alien science, but if you take it to mean Melanie is demi and only feels attracted to Jared, that makes her body reactions logical when Wanda also falls in love. She isn’t occupying the body wholly; there’s the host original presence; so she falls romantically but not physically. If I’m saying great idiotices please correct me under; I don’t have any background on sexology or biology.
Sadly, Wanda is also super worried of not being able of correctly loving Ian, so. Negation of ace identity in one, two..., warning to folks sensible to it.
And well, she ruins it when at the end when Wanda is put outside Melanie´s body into one who doesn’t have a human conscience. She explained the others how to take “souls” out of humans without killing any part, and how to take the “souls” to the space ships where they’ll be transported to other worlds. But sometimes the humans have passed so much time suppressed, or have been taken so young, that there isn’t a conscience-anyone to recover.
The Host is very weird, bc this is a race of genocidal colonist aliens who are weird beautiful little ribbons of silver in their original form, who after abandoning their original world by possessing another race who invaded them realised they could live whatever lives they wanted possessing people without dying and just. Went for it. They are a supposedly all peace loving gents, who cured all poverty and illness by their superior technology and like, very comunist-anarchist society. Who abhor violence, but don’t see eliminating other people identity as violence.
They are weird and amazing; when they realise having and raising children as humans costs so much, they start acting as parents to those humans without going to have a soul implanted on their kid, bc they love them as they are. A mess of contradictions, and Wanda is so interesting bc of this.
Sadly, SM acted again, and made Wanda one of the rare females able of auto-destroying to create more fragments of herself (aka other souls). The rest of souls don’t have any gender and chose bodies as whatever sex they like most. Guess Wanda being an alien was fine, but not having an explicit gender was too much, lol. To be fair, she says she prefers female bodies, but doesn’t really mind. Good on Wanda.
There’s a secondary romance too; the search of Ian’s brother, Kyle (who almost kills Wanda once) for his abducted girlfriend, Jodie. Results the soul inside her body, Sunny has all of Jodie’s memories of Kyle and is like, already in love with him. She lets herself be abducted, and when they explain they’re gonna get her out and why, is like, cries and begs, but accepts it bc is Jodie who Kyle loves. She hasn’t ever heard her like Wanda did Melanie, though, so when like a week or two pass and Jodie’s conscience remains dead Kyle consents (bc the other relatives of Jodie are soulified) to bring back Sunny. Wow. What a clusterfuck. They don’t date but there’s this weird vibe where Kyle has stopped hating all souls after Wanda’s mess and his encounter with Sunny, and Sunny herself is like; yay! I can live with humans and Kyle and I’ll keep trying to awake Jodie. And the two of them are described as inseparable?
It’s more intriguing than Twilight; I wished there were more fics interested in exploring cool canon divergences and all. I didn’t dive in the problematiqueTM aspects of the book but come on, this is SM and you have reading comprehension. I just wanted to talk about how interesting is the intersection of sexuality in romance in Wanda’s case >-< Still better than Twilight but I guess the aesthetic of vamps surpases The Host. Which. Valid ok? Each to their own.
#the host#stephanie meyer#wanderer#melanie strider#ian o'shea#jared howe#kyle o'shea#sunlight passing through the ice#or sunny for friends#meta#the host meta
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Snakes and Scandals (Pt.1)
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Virgil Blanche hated a lot of things, that was a given. He was, after all, an extremely poor twenty-two year old man living in the slums of a high-end empire city. Every day he would sit through nearly ten hours of abuse from costumers who were raised to think they were better than everyone else, and even the ones who weren't born rich were corrupted very quickly.
"Excuse me? Is this still eligible for a return? I tried at another store and they rejected me but I only bought it a few days ago," Virgil merely sighed at the hat and scarf clad man in front of him.
"If you bought it less than two months ago its eligible for return, if someone told you it wasn't you can file a complaint," Virgil never spoke very clearly, but he appreciated the man at least pretending to understand what he was saying.
"Thank you," it was at this point Virgil seemed to register that the man was speaking with a slight russian accent.
"Have a nice day," Virgil said in a monotone voice.
The day continued as all days working in customer service usually did, of course, had Virgil checked his calendar, maybe he would've realized that it was National Frame a Retailer For Flirting With You day. He didn't have much time to react, whoever the girl who'd used him as a cheating scapegoat was, she was very quiet, and her boyfriend was very fast.
"You tryna make her look dumb? Huh? Is that what you want?" Virgil tried to protest but ended up with a faceful of knuckles instead.
He should've known it wouldn't end well for him, at least he wasnt dead, but now he had a bloody face and was sitting in the managers office, waiting to hear his fate.
"So you punched him?" Virgil's boss was very stereotypical, blonde, bob-cut, light brown eyes, and Virgil knew she hated him. She always acted excited about his new piercings or tattoos, and of course she congratulated him when she found out he'd finally managed to afford top surgery after saving up since age fourteen. But he could tell it was all fake. He wasn't social enough for customer service, after all.
"In self defense, only after he broke my nose," Virgil responded. His manager pursed her lips together, glaring slightly from behind her glasses.
"And you are aware they intended to sue, yes?" Virgil gritted his teeth,of course they were, after all, why attack a store employee if you didn't want to sue them, or, at least, if you didn't want free starbucks every time you showed up.
"No, I wasn't, because they attacked me first," Virgil said calmly.
"I'm sorry Virgil but I'm going to have to fire you," there was no hiding the look of pure glee on the managers face as she delivered the news.
Virgil merely set his name tag on the table and left, all the while clutching his face. It burned, badly, some people needed to go to the gym less.
"You alright dude?" Virgil moved his hand to look at the man in front of him. Tall, skinny, with a mustache on his face and a white streak in his hair. The man had a worried look on his face, though his eyes conveyed a vague crazed look.
"Yeah, sure," Virgil said. He was about to walk away when the taller man grabbed his arm.
"Come with me, I'll help clean you up," Virgil was honestly to tired to argue, so instead he merely followed.
"Roman! I think I found you a new model! A little bruised up but I think he'll be ok soon enough!" Virgil had stopped listening after 'model'.
"Wait wait wait wait wait- I am definitely not a model-" Virgil tried to shrink in on himself.
"Well of course you arent yet! Oh Remus you life saver look at him! He's brilliant!" A boy who looked similar to the one with the mustache rushed out from behind a pillar, planting a kiss on the receptionists cheek as he ran.
Remus smiled, "I'll go get some ice packs and bandages, you two can talk," he said, running off.
"Roman Prince-Duke, head of Rome Fashion Company," Roman said, holding a hand out.
"Virgil Blanche, head of confused and worried emotions company," Virgil said, Roman let out a laugh.
"So what happened? If you're comfortable sharing that is," Roman said, gesturing to Virgil's face.
"Girl got her boyfriend to attack me at work for the sake of coupons," Virgil said, shrugging.
"Oh dear. . ." Roman said, his face falling slightly.
A few minutes later Virgil was sitting on a bench with ice pressed against his face and Roman listening intently as the receptionist told him what he should do.
"Gods Lolo you're so cute when you're being smart," Roman said, smiling and leaning his elbow on his knee, head pressed against his hand. The receptionist's face flushed with color.
Virgil honestly wasn't sure how calling him a model wasn't a joke, yet here he was sitting in the lobby waiting for Roman.
"Alright Virgil! Let's get you ready for your first shoot shall we?" Roman brought Virgil up by the hand, spinning him slightly before guiding him to another room.
"Lucky for you we have plenty of outfits in your size," Roman said.
"Mention my height and the fabric scissors might find their way up your nose," Virgil growled. Being 4'8 never exactly helped his case, he didn't normally get aggressive easily but it was a bit touchy for him.
"Oh dont worry, I learned my lesson with Lo on our first date," Roman said.
An hour or so later Virgil was dressed in a purple sleeveless top with black lace along the neckline, a black corset, ruffled black skirts, and black boots with heels. It felt, nice, and Virgil wasnt sure why. Normally he hated the way he looked in everything, but for once in his life he felt like royalty.
"Remy! I've got a new model for you!" Roman said as they entered another room with all manner of different sets and cameras set up.
A man with a leather jacket and sunglasses popped out from behind one, jaw dropping slightly "Roman you SAINT! Where'd you find him?!" Remy said, circling Virgil and looking him up and down.
"That credit goes to Remus, speaking of which, I've got business to attend to, you boys have fun," Roman said, turning on his heel to leave, the nearly floor length skirt of his outfit sweeping behind him.
"Alright babes you look like you're about to pass out right now so let's take a little break m'kay?" Remy walked with Virgil to a room that seemed primarily composed of bean bags.
They sat there for a while, Remy asking him questions and telling him his own stories. Before suddenly he got up and held a hand out for him. Virgil took it and allowed himself to be lead to a set covered in giant mushrooms and flowers. Remy spent a few minutes posting him, bringing out a few props for him to prop his arms on.
"Now just relax and give me a smile, you look like you're good at subtle, let's try some of those first," said Remy from behind the camera.
Virgil started out the shoot wishing it would be over already, but by the end he couldnt seem to stop looking at his own reflection in the camera lens.
"Oh Jan's going to lose it when he sees these!" Roman said, looking through the pictures from his phone.
"Who's Jan?-" Virgil said, tilting his head slightly.
"Oh you probably know him as Dimitri, he's a rival of mine," Roman handed Virgil a magazine, one scan of the front cover and Virgil recognized the man from a week ago, he was wearing the same hat and scarf as before. He read the caption above it. "Dimitri Gabriel to release new line inspired by endangered reptile species, all proceeds to go to preservation funding, no real scales used," he handed the article back to Roman.
"I've seen that guy, he was returning something the day I got fired," Virgil said.
"Oh even better! He'll recognize you!" Said Roman.
"Wait where are these even going?" Virgil said.
"My stylegram, you dont seem like the type who likes runways, so Remus and I have decided you'll be a social media model," Roman said.
"Well- guess I better make my own account then," Virgil said, pulling out his own phone.
It was only a few minutes before the comments flooded in, he recognized Janus' face, though his handle still conveyed his name as Dimitri. His face flushed red at the compliments. He wasn't quite sure what it was, but the feeling that Janus was impressed by his looks gave him an intense sensation of joy.
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Tag List:
@nerosdayinhell
@official-lucifers-child
@meowthefluffy
@spooky-scary-virgil
@misunderstoodshadowling
@youtuberswithalex
#snakes and scandals au#romantic anxceit#anxceit#mosleep#romantic mosleep#intrumile#romantic intrumile#imagimile#romantic imagimile#romantic logince#logince#violence tw#tw violence#violence mention#violence#tw blood#blood tw#blood
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I adore your swap AU & had some questions if that is OK. 1: Did Luz have any trouble with Eda's parents in letting her move in? 2: Is she still friends & got a similar relationship to canon with Gus & Willow? 3: What's her Palisman, Owlbert or does she have an original? 4: does she have a portal to the human world or are both she & Belos looking for that? 5: Does she have any Glyph jewelry, or still utilize mostly paper & her staff? 6: Would she defeat then befriend those trying to arrest her XD
Hey there!! I'm glad you liked it so much you got curious and I'm more than happy to answer!💕💕
I'll put everything under the cut cause it's long as fuck sorry
1- that's something I'm actually working through! Since we still don't know basically anything about Eda's family and how they reacted after the curse (except for Lilith obviously), Eda kind of runs away from home after getting cursed, looking for this mysterious lonely witch who knows a different way to use magic, but I'm still not sure if she actually comes back home to tell her parents she has a mentor that could help her or if she leaves that duty to Lilith after assuring her she's gonna be okay with Luz (because Lilith will absolutely be the first to look for and also find Eda).
I'm mostly imagining her parents as lively- cause both Eda and Lily have quite the temper even if Lily tries to hide it- but still somewhat attached to the rules and traditions given by the Emperor, and having your most talented child cursed in a way that hinders her magic in a world where magic is literally everything... yikes. But the idea of her finding someone who could actually help her even if not through a cure for the curse could be something easy to accept all things considered, despite living far from them.
This part is still a work in progress, but maybe we'll get more info on the Clawthorne parents next season!
2- Willow and Gus are definitely still Luz best friends and they got to know each other in a very similar manner as in canon! Luz still found her way into Hexside when she got on the Boiling Isles and they all went to school together. Same goes for Amity, Bosha, Skaara, Viney etc..., but in particular the relationship with Amity takes longer to develop also cause I’m a sucker for slowburn
3- Owlbert is still Eda's palisman and she'll get him while under Luz's tutelage! Luz instead has her own staff, but I'm deciding on the palisman itself cause there's several options:
no Palisman, only magical staff that's a bit weaker than others due to that, because Luz still doesn't feel like she deserves it as a "real" witch/doesn't have such a connection with the Isles like others born there/didn't felt particularly drawn to any creature and decided to wait. But she gets her Palisman as well later, influenced by Eda: a snowy owl, an ashy-faced owl, or a burrowing owl.
Snowy Owl -> mostly bc fitting Azura's white aesthetic
Ashy Faced Owl -> I think the most well known owl species of the Dominican Republic, with its peculiar gray colored face
Burrowing Owl -> have you seen these guys they're damn adorable and tinyyyyyy- (also another species found in the Dominican Republic actually)
A black cat Palisman, since they're the most common and stereotypical symbol for witches and it would totally be in character for Luz to go "uehuehe kitty". Also because of her hoodie if yall want to count that.
A black dog/hound, one of the goddess Hecate sacred animals, the one representing loyalty obviously and the emotive part of magic and energy. In general I think dogs fit Luz well tho.
Some... mystical or mythological creature of some kind? Cause Luz realizes she can go hogwild with her palisman and thus frees her imagination.
Otter. With a dark side ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
4- the portal to the human world got lost in some way after Luz arrived in the Boiling Isles! That's why she's stranded there and hasn't seen her mom in more than 25 years :)
I don't have the details yet since, again, we have so little information on the portal itself! Why in canon Eda's the one who has it? Was it in her parents possession or she found it in the Night Market or something? Where does it come from originally?? Hell if we know. This obviously becomes a bit of a problem for my au cause it influences how Luz arrived in the Isles in the first place. Could it be a random human treasures smuggler who accidentally brought her there? Did the Emperor/Emperor's Coven had it and things got out of hand? Or maybe the Clawthorne, or even the Blight family, got it?
The only thing I'm sure of is that yes, both Luz and Belos are actively looking for it, for different reasons of course, and that hypothetically in the au story it will jump up again, and there will be drama and angst.
5- Luz definitely upgraded her glyph craft!! She experimented and honed both glyphs and skills through the years, finding new glyphs, different combinations, variations and applications, and is now super prepared, enough to keep up with the Emperor's coven squads that try to capture her- and Amity. She kind of adapts to the situation so her equipment isn't every day 100% the same, but the casting methods are similar: carved jewelry and accessories, embroidered fabrics, runestones, she even made her own (mono use) stickers! Naturally, these objects aren't infinitely durable and using them consumes them physically and energetically, but depending on the material and size they vary in durability and power. Though, the trusted notepad and pencil are always there in some pocket, along with some already-drawn papers for emergencies. She also got a couple of tattoos that include glyphs, one of which is a light spell, obviously, but it's a more risky way of casting since it uses her own physical energy, so the glyphs themselves are small. Both Gus and Willow got one as well! and Amity too but it's technically a secret
6- oh you know she will lmao
I mean, she's not Steven Universe, but she is observant and a good person, and understands that sometimes certain situations, events, upbringing and generally education cough Emperor propaganda cough bring people to do bad stuff. This won't stop her from smacking to the ground and eventually punch if she runs out of glyphs whoever tries to hurt her or her loved ones. If they show regret and/or understand what they're doing is wrong, changing their ways, she might concede her forgiveness, but otherwise they're gonna eat the dust.
I think she knows every member of Amity's squad by name tho?? And she kinda has fun escaping law, so the fights can go like "Hey Steve, I heard you're a dad now! Congrats dude!! If you want I can make you explode a little so you can stay home and play with the baby beast!" or "Wait, you guys don't even have dental?? You should have told me, I would have aimed lower!"
With Amity is a whole other thing, the romantic tension between them is so thick the rest of the team feels like they're intruding something every time for f sake
Whew, I think I answered everything? Thank you for taking interest in this little thing of mine!
I also have answered another couple of asks about the au before, you can to check out the toh swap au tag on my blog if you want!
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To the Abandoned Sacred Beasts - Review!
First review here we go!!
So, after being completely and utterly obsessed with Jujutsu Kaisen and AOT season 4, I decided to check out MAPPA studios and watch a bunch of stuff from their roster. My so-called "MAPPA binge" included this strange and unknown piece: Katsute Kami Datta Kemono-tachi e, or in English, To the Abandoned Sacred Beasts. An adaption of a manga originally released in Bessatsu Shounen (you might recognize this as the magazine that released Attack on Titan!), it looked pretty promising. I do have to admit that I didn't read a page of this anime's manga, though the art style on it looks gorgeous!!
The concept behind the show: A war has torn two halves of a nation apart, split into the North and the South. The Northerners, who were previously greatly outnumbered in battle, created a half-human, half-beast species known as "Incarnates" because of their God-like abilities. But the Incarnates begin having some issues when their beast forms take over their bodies, turning them into monsters. When the war ends, our protagonist, Hugh Hank, an Incarnate and previous captain of the Incarnate squad, swears to kill all of his mutating Incarnate buddies before they can destroy the world.
This review will not contain spoilers until the labeled "Spoiler" section at the bottom.
In general, what do I think?: 4/10, this show kinda sucked. Ouch! I hate being that blunt! Especially on my first review here! But To the Abandoned Sacred Beasts (let's call it TTASB from here on out!) had glaring flaws that, while it did hold up as a show, made it uninteresting and hard to love. Not only were the characters mediocre and boring, but the show seemed to contradict itself and its own opinion of the Incarnates all the time! Are they bloodthirsty monsters that need to be killed? Are they misunderstood humans who should be given peace? I don't know! Our main characters don't seem to either! Other than the "war bad" motif that gets shoved down your throat from episode one, the show felt stagnant in what it was trying to make the audience feel.
I hate being so cynical about it, though, because it does still earn those 4 points! Even though a lot of it falls flat, as a whole, it's still an ok show! Hank and Schaal have good concepts and their dilemmas are interesting in certain parts when the writers manage to nail pits and pieces of their development! The fight scenes were cool and I think that the concept for the world was neat! And the show does have a pretty cool title. Let's be honest, To the Abandoned Sacred Beasts sounds super metal.
So what about those characters?: 5/10! Hugh Hank and Schaal are our two main protags for the show, and they both have pretty interesting concepts! Hank is an Incarnate, he used to be the leader of the other Incarnates, and he made a vow with them that when they lost their minds, he would kill them himself. Schaal is the daughter of one of these Incarnates that fought under Hank. Interesting, right?! How could these two opposing characters get along with one another?
TTASB tries to give the two of them a sort of grumpy-old-mentor-teaches-a-cheery-youngster relationship (which, admittedly, is one of my favorite tropes) and manages to forget everything good about having this kind of relationship. To start, it feels like Schaal has next to no reason to be tolerating Hank, and vice versa. She follows him around because *insert some excuse about understanding the Incarnates?* and Hank lets her because *insert I really don't know*. It really feels like Schaal doesn't need to be there, and she's just a plot device to move along Hank's character development.
Then, the two of them never really interact in ways that really moved me. It never felt like they made a deeper connection that meant something to the plot. They interacted, sure. They spoke about their issues, yeah. But it never felt like Hank needed Schaal, or that Schaal was emotionally tied to Hank, until the show spoonfed it to you that they were.
In the end, neither of their developments felt compelling or interesting. There were a few scenes that maybe, if you squinted, hinted towards them growing as people, but for a 12 episode anime, it was very menial. It also felt like said scenes were fairly forced, with their development not really leading them to the point that they ended up at. Again, TTASB has a bit of an issue with contradicting itself.
The villain was so meh. He has a motive, yeah. It's pretty lame. He's not compelling at all. Nothing about him is interesting or kept me hooked on him. The show probably could've existed without him, to be entirely honest. I don't really have much else to say about him! I just did not really care about him at all.
The best characters in the show are hands-down the supporting cast of Incarnates. Each one has fairly interesting motivations, and even though they're only given an episode or so to tell their stories, they feel the most genuine. My biggest qualm with them is that the show doesn't build their connection to Hugh Hank at all, so when he gets emotional over them, you're kind of like "uhhh u know this guy??". More about this down in our spoilers section, as I'll go over a scene where this is prominent.
So characters were meh, but what about the story itself?: 4/10, just as meh. Again, very interesting! Lots of potential! But it fell flat where it mattered. To be clear, just before we dig deeper: the 12 episodes of TTASB isn't the entire story. It's clearly intended to be continued, though, as of writing this, I haven't been able to dig up any news about a potential season 2.
I don't really mind if animes aren't completely original, as long as they're fun, but TTASB didn't really do that. A lot of the episodes felt boring and reused like it was a watered-down copy-paste of other material. Some episodes were repetitive and seemed to be trying to hammer in the same themes, only to be later contradicted by other episodes. TTASB will spend a few episodes showing you how misunderstood and sweet the Incarnates are and then have an episode where an Incarnate murders a bunch of people. I would love it if it was, in any way, shape, or form, sarcastic, but it is not. TTASB just thinks it can get away with the blatant disregarding of its own morals. It only ends up feeling disconnecting and frustrating.
It follows an almost monster-of-the-week style format for introducing the Incarnates, which does them a bit of a disservice, in my opinion. I really would have liked it if there was a bit more overlap between the Incarnates and their stories! We know that they're all very close (or, at least, the show tells us that they are without really showing us) so seeing them interact with one another outside of their respective episode would've been fun!
The story tries to be darker and grimier than it actually is. I didn't end up caring much for the nation itself and much of the politics that the show tried to utilize felt boring and, again, watered-down. It felt like the show wanted to make it a political drama about war and human rights and only ended up shying away from what makes those genres impactful. Again, this isn't to say that TTASB's story is bad, it's just not as good as it could've been.
But it's MAPPA, so the art has to be good, right?: Yeah! Art was cool! Nothing golden, like MAPPA's newer stuff, but a solid 7/10! The fight scenes were nice, and even though a lot of them felt redundant to watch, they were still smooth! I have some qualms about a few of the Incarnates' beast forms (especially Hank's) looking like they belong back in 2001, but they still looked cool nonetheless.
I don't really have much to say on this front! Nothing really blew me away, but I never looked at the screen and winced away.
Ok and finally, pacing!: 4/10. 12 episode animes always have tricky pacing to them. I like to think about the show being pretty much only 5 hours long, which isn't that much time to cram in as much story and plot as they might want to. Overall, TTASB actually had pretty decent pacing, with a long enough build-up that led to a final showdown. If you ask me, I do think there was a pacing problem in the second half, as it felt far too stretched out, but that could've just been my perception of it.
My biggest issue with pacing loops back to the characters again. They're never really given time to explore or build up relationships. Especially not Hank and his prior team of Incarnates. I think that there should've been more screen time dedicated to their time in the army, to better explain the emotional distress that he's going through as he's forced to hunt them down. Instead, TTASB relies on a throwaway line or scene to deliver this emotional blow, and it nearly always falls flat.
Music!!!!: 6/10, The soundtrack in this anime really wasn't memorable and I don't remember much from it. Whoops!
I did like the opening a bit! It was done by Mafumafu, who I think has done a Pokemon intro song? Either way, it was energetic and fit the theme of the show well! The ending is also a bop, now that I'm thinking about it! It manages to be nostalgic and sad without being too slow! So good music on both fronts!!
OK, now we're in spoiler territory! Be warned!
I don't have too much to say regarding spoilers. Nothing in the show really feels important enough that I have to mention it under a spoiler tag. A few small notes, I suppose.
The show treats Hank like the more important character but then throws him away in his "death" to focus on Schaal, which was a very frustrating episode. Schaal felt so bland and useless in it, even when she faced her father again. Bringing him back to life felt like a sad excuse to force her into character development. I did like it when she found the courage to shoot him, but I also thought that it wasn't really as emotional as the show wanted it to be.
Hank's connection with Schaal, particularly in the second half, feels completely unnatural and forced. When she gets kidnapped, he has some sort of mental breakdown over her and it, if anything, felt creepy. It was undeserved and was forced down your throat rather than built.
Beatrice was the best character in the show and I think that if they stuck to ideas like hers (misunderstood creatures who just want to go back to their old lives), the story would have been much better. Instead, you switch to characters like the Gargoyle Incarnate, who just goes on a murder spree, and it ruins a lot of the development that Beatrice brought to the table.
& our deep deep look at one part: Forgive me if I get this screwed up a bit, it's been a weekish since I finished the show and my brain dumped out all details of it already.
Hugh Hank goes to the mountains and fights the Garmr Incarnate, Rex (Roy? I'm a bit confused on his name), in an epic show-down. Obviously, at the end of it, Hank wins, killing Rex. Now, if you're like me, you sat there for most of the fight going "who tf is Rex and why is this battle important?" and only at the very END, when he's dying, do you see a clip that you might remember from the very beginning of the anime, with Rex talking about Schaal. You go "oohhh I know who he is!" but you wished that you remembered this ten minutes ago when the fight started because it would've been so much more impactful. The show didn't remind you of this scene. It didn't tell you that Rex was this same person that you already met. It expected you to remember, and I didn't. This scene sums up a lot of the character problems with the show, where even if something does have emotional weight, the show doesn't act on it.
Now we're done!: Sorry if this was harsh, but that's my full review on To the Abandoned Sacred Beasts! I'd love to hear if you agree with me or think that I'm totally wrong! If you've read the manga, tell me if it's better or worth a read! And thanks for reading!
(The crossed-out "Hugh"s are all of the times that I got Hank's name wrong! I'm not super great with character names, but I always take it as a bad sign when I screw up the name. )
#anime#mappa#studio mappa#to the abandoned sacred beasts#to the abandoned sacred beasts anime#review#anime review
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*barges into ahit tag with freshly-made headcanons and immediately goes to bed*
so, hat kid's ponytail bones, huh?
in "murder on the owl express" we see an x-ray the crows ostensibly took of hat kid, and her body structure seems to be remarkably similar to humans irl (candy in her hat notwithstanding)…
but with one major difference:
her ponytail has bones. it might be a joke of the "haha cartoony skeleton" variety, it might be a joke of the "haha her hair has animation bones" variety…but im gonna roll with it as if it's played completely straight because i can
for the sake of simplicity, until i come up with a better name i'm gonna call the bone ponytail protrusion an antenna
hat kid's alien species will be called "hatters" for the same reason
situated at the base of hatters' skulls
expressive! like a combination of antennae in cartoons and a dog or cat's tail!
sensitive, which is why hatters generally keep their hair back to obscure it while on interstellar travels
when in private, or with people the hatters trust, they leave their hair down and let it show
hat kid's is skinny and has a texture almost like a hairless cat, and is very flexible
bow kid's is more curly by default, though it can straighten out to react to things just as easily as anybody else's
not all antennae are the same! hat kid's is cylindrical and has a cute little bulb on the end, but bow kid's is more like a 3-sided pyramid that curls up along its upper face
some hatters have multiple antennae, but not many. those that do wear pigtails on space adventures, or even braids if necessary. they don't like braids, though. too constricting.
ok but why would they have antennae in the first place, i ask myself?
to find time pieces! they have a good sixth sense for finding them, which is why they use them for fuel and seek them out whenever they can, but it's like playing "hot or cold." that's why they wear their eponymous hats- to focus their time-piece-sense and point them to the nearest ones!
to a lesser extent, they're incredibly empathic, to the point where (for example) others' bad moods make them grumpy too. hat kid uses this to know exactly when to stop pushing snatcher's buttons, as well as when he needs somebody to get him out of a funk.
body language! a hatter could have the best poker face in the galaxy, but if they can't rein in their antenna, they're effectively broadcasting their emotions to everybody (for example, if hat kid's trying to insist she's not scared when she Most Certainly Is, her antenna and ponytail Can And Will curl into a spring-like shape in an effort to lay flat against her head)
equal but adjacent to the time-piece-sense, their antennae help them vent excess brain thoughts and draw brain thoughts in when they're unnaturally going blank. this helps them keep their thoughts straight when in a destabilized part of time, like, say, a time rift. if their body only party goes through a flux in time, so their head might be going "normal" speed but their legs want to go "double" speed, they can regain control and adjust their motions to not go running over a cliff or something
unrelated to these in-universe things it just makes me giggle to think of hat kid getting startled and having her ponytail stick out straight behind her
i might draw some stuff later but i just kinda zeroed in on this one-off joke and promptly went ham wixhskcjskxjskc
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seven comfort movies
I was tagged by @alliecatcorner to share my 7 comfort movies!
1. Catnapped! (1995)
I first saw the trailer for this movie in the VHS for Sailor Moon R: Promise of the Rose when I was maybe 6? The main theme’s song was repetitive and bright colors of cats turning into balloons and a strange Godzilla-sized dog intrigued the hell out of me, but alas the movie evaded me for years. Until while browsing an FYE as a sixth grader (?) and I found the movie on DVD!
The movie meant a lot to me as a child as I found it sweet and exciting, but it meant even more to me during the time when my dog had passed away.
The movie tells the story of knuckle-headed, but good hearted Toriyasu, his excitable sister Meeko and their lost dog Papadoll. After Papadoll goes missing, the two are summoned to the world of Banipal Witt, a land of anthropomorphic cats and their ruler Buburina who is using Papadoll to terrorize its inhabitants. Toriyasu with the help of some rebels, must save Papadoll and return home all within a day lest he and sister also become Buburina’s monsters!
It’s movie that few know, but I try my best to get people to watch a hidden gem like Catnapped!.
2. The Whisper of the Heart (1995)
TWotH is by far my favorite Ghibli movie. It’s the only feature by Yoshifumi Kondo who unfortunately passed away after completing this movie. I find his direction while still slow paced, meaningfully so and effective. I would have loved to see other Ghibli features with his touch, but alas it will never be.
TWotH stars Shizuku, a bookworm and fledgling writer who slowly falls for her classmate and aspiring violinist Seiji. Their relationship is rocky at first, both finding the other annoying, but both bond over their shared passion toward their chosen art. Both promise the other to throw themselves into their work and meet again when they’ve finished a goal. And it’s just an overall heartwarming tale of two young people impassioned by a love much greater than them.
I watched this while I was writing Crimson and Clover and living at home going to uni and my boyfriend dormed away from me working toward his degree, so I relate a lot to Shizuku’s circumstances too. ☺️
3. Kiki’s Delivery Service (1989)
This is a movie that gets better once you revisit it. At first glance Kiki is a young witch looking for her place in the world and that’s all the movie is about. But her figuring out what kind of witch she wants to be and staying in love with flying and delivering is something all young artists, passionates and anyone who has a hobby can relate too. This thing that I love - is it worth my time? Am I making a fool out of myself? Should I give up? Are all questions I ask myself all the time.
Miyazaki has a way of telling fantastical tales like Kiki’s Delivery Service about a witch and her love for flying that perfectly symbolize the relationship between an artist and their art. It’s comforting because we’ve all been there and ultimately, your art is not a waste of time.
4. Animal Crossing: The Movie (2006)
So, it’s no secret that Animal Crossing has been a huge part of my life ever since I played Population Growing (2001). This movie has many magical parts and relatable parts. It’s about a girl named Ai who moves to an animal village and learns to live on her own among her new mysterious and friendly villagers. She grows close particularly to her neighbor Sally (Margie, in the games) and learns about her desire to become a famous fashion designer.
Playing the games is not necessary for enjoyment. You will mostly feel happy, if not a little bittersweet after. Also listening to the live version of K.K. Bossa is enough to give it a watch!
5. Ratatouille (2007)
This is the best Pixar movie. Period.
Ratatouille is sort of a meme because of the premise of a rat controlling a lanky man in the kitchen is really funny, but this movie is so much more than it’s funky little premise. With the through line, “Anyone can cook,” the movie tells the audience that you can do anything you are passionate about, not necessarily just cooking, by telling the tale of the most unlikely chef that could ever be. A rat who wants to be a chef, aka food service’s number one enemy? But still Remy is determined by his love for food to bring that same fervor to others and refuses to give up or be bound to the odds given to him by his species.
Another thing I love is how he says, “I hate taking. I want to make things.” He recognizes the negative stereotype his people have and wants to prove to the humans he has something to offer, all rats are capable are more than just stealing. It’s a gorgeous message for everyone that you are more than your circumstances or what people tell you are. You can be anything. Anyone can cook.
6. Hercules (1997)
There’s a lot to love about Hercules between the absolutely creative new art style used for the characters, the clever pop culture references like the air-hercs, or even just the humor. What I love the most is the characterization of Hercules.
It’s best encapsulated in the scene when Hercules sings “I Can Go the Distance,” which explains his feeling of ostracization from those around him and the lines of “I dream of a far off place where people cheer when they see my face and voice keeps saying, ‘This is where I’m meant to be,’” always gets me. I really admired how Hercules just goes off to learn who he is and then throws himself so strongly into becoming a hero all so that he can finally feel like he belongs... He didn’t wallow - he changed his circumstances. It’s empowering to see. I won’t drone on too much longer lol stan Meg
7. The Little Mermaid (1989)
I often get really irritated when people zone in on Ariel’s infatuation with Eric and decide that is the ONLY reason she wanted life on land. It’s like they ignore her cove of thingamabobs or her overbearing father who never taught her or sisters anything about the surface. Eric was just another reason for her to break away and be free. Ariel’s bravery, wit and passion is admirable and it’s so wrong to diminish any of those traits just because she was in love.
One of my favorite scenes is when her father, who finally realizes Ariel is serious about life on land and her love for Eric, not only gives her legs, but the most beautiful, sparkling purple gown. It couldn’t be anymore different than how Ursula discarded by leaving her naked while her father wrapped her nicely and lovingly and finally ready for life above. I just find that very touching.
Ok that went on for far too long lol time for some tags
@duechainz @rengokukyoujurou @yoshis @king-gappy @phantom-riter @nezukoh @jojo-sama
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give us the good werewolf!! i Must Know More
HEEHEE...............
ok BASICALLY, this will obviously be focused on Qinghe/the nie bros, so just for ref
Nie - Werewolf
Lan - Satyr
Jin - Elven
Jiang - Mermaid/Waterfolk
Wen - Draconic
WWX is vampire bc hes stupid and gay
Mingjue is half Elven, but you wouldn’t think he was asides from the big ears, Huaisang is full ‘wolf; jgy is elven/dryad; Wen Qing & Wen Ning are draconic/waterfolk
(For those who see this in the tags, this isn’t Om*g*v*rse or A/*/O do NOT touch this if u like that shit)
NOW, for actual werewolf content
The way the pack works in Qinghe is still pretty similar to clans in canon, just slightly different
Mingjue and his direct family are the head family Of Course, and they secure this position via duels/fighting should another family want to take over; these duels are common under stressful times, but Mingjue has been able to keep it held down.
The duels are like.....scheduled ahead of time, and are held in a secure area; the rules are that you can’t kill your opponent, that if you win you must treat the wolf who lost, + only the wolf who challenged the leader can fight, no one else (and vice versa, only the leader can fight) can join in, And More
like you cant aim for vitals, use teeth beyond taunting, fights cant be scheduled during/near full moons, and the fighters must choose whether they will both fight in humanoid form or wolf form
Clan elders supervise the fight, and have selected specific soldiers that will help break up the fight if anything goes wrong; doctors are also on stand by bc these fights get BLOODY (esp w mingjue)
Huaisang nearly loses his position after pretty much being back-to-back challenged for his position, which instilled the rule that duels can only happen three times a year. He’s managed to win his duels with his own tricks, but they can still end pretty bloody
Ranking is not much different due to the clans wanting consistency (also im stupid and gay)
The nies end up becoming the most medically advanced due to how dangerous shifting is; they develop medications to ease pain, different magic stuff to control body temperature, etc. etc.
and actually the Nies are known for being pretty wolves
TYPICALLY a fully shifted wolf during a full moon aren’t the prettiest things to look at; most commonly their fur is patchy, their limbs are obviously distorted, faces look mutilated in a sense, all that
BUT, due to advances in cultivation & medicine they’re able to be calm after a shift, so they’re able to keep up w personal hygiene LMAO
Mingjue personally is almost obsessive with keeping his fur a certain way to be both 1. Handsome :) 2. intimidating as hell; he has the advantage of getting rlly thick hair from his Elven side, so his pelt is flush. but he also leaves some of it “messy” and puffed out for the intimidation bit
huaisang keeps his completely brushed n smooth and he’s usually nested in his bed when he shifts. he was also blessed with the fullness in his pelt, but his chest/belly and thighs are more ‘bare’ compared to mingjue.
they also braid what parts of the fur they can; mingjue and huaisang have LOTS of braids as usual
ALSO the most common pelt color is black with white/lighter pelts being on the uncommon side, second most common are dark creams/browns/reds with black snouts/heads/legs/etc.
Mingjue has ruddy brown + black snout/legs/all that; Huaisang has brown w black ticked (i have NO idea what the dog term is for that, its like the tips of the fur is black??)
both have bright amber/yellow eyes
ALSO THEIR TAILS...........
ok. PRIMARILY. they dont have tails in human form, BUT, it’s possible, and it’s something that puppies/young disciples will usually let show??
Mingjue ONLY shows his tail when hes in private with someone close, like Huaisang or Xichen, and he Knows they won’t be walked in on. He just has this Thing where he’ll be fucking humiliated if someone else saw it. he also has rlly long fur on his tail so its PRETTY, he just thinks its childish
Huaisang on the other hand kept his tail out until he became the sole leader of the pack, save for like, banquets he attended with Mingjue bc mingjue would tell him to Quit It.
getting rid of a tail is an hour long process so mingjue has to watch the time to get huaisang before they go anywhere
if theres no time to hide a tail, tuck it in ur pants so it doesn’t move and hide it under layers
just. a tail in humanoid form is a different context than just seeing it when they’re shifted, and again a sign of childishness.
puppy ears in human form can also happen but it’s discouraged heavily because of the possibility of damaging ear canals.
OH ALSO, another reason why like, the nie clan has that GIANT ass wall surrounding its city, is because they go on total lockdown during full moons.
puppies are a fucking MESS to deal with, and they run like. constantly. If they’re still it’s because they’re either eating something or they’ve passed out from exhaustion. Huaisang was a TERROR when he was a puppy and mingjue still has a scar on his arm from when he went ballistic from pent-up energy
SO! There’s different parts of the city where puppies and young wolves can run around, destroy shit, eat whatever, wrestle each other, all that, and they’re HEAVILY supervised by elders/adult wolves who have better control of themselves during fullmoons
the only wolves who can leave the area during a fullmoon are Mingjue and Huaisang, and maybe like, a really well-respected elder or two, but that’s it
and despite popular belief this is actually the WORST time to attack Qinghe. Every wall is guarded, everyone is in a state where they can mutilate someone thats usually considerably stronger than them in human form, and Everyone is on high-alert whether they’re destroying a tree or nearly unconscious
theres also areas in the city sealed off for weaker/sickly wolves who are taken care of by capable adults, citizens of other species, all that
full moons aren’t hated in qinghe! they’re quite fun if you’re a werewolf; the areas for Going Ham are usually packed with different stuff u can mess with, you just have to watch ur back
they also aren’t that violent bc again, intense supervision by elders and the like; and they’re becoming more and more festival like with cultivation and medical advancement
then of course, the sword situation is still very much the same; my version of werewolves are like, slightly allergic to silver, but piercing one or having silver near won’t kill a wolf. the most it will do is give them a rash :/
all of their jewelry/accessories are made out of different metals because of this, esp since Qinghe is rich with that (+jewels/gems bc i love that hc so much)
THENNN i think last thing for now, they DO wear some form of clothing in wolf form, MOST of the time
typically there’s enough fur to cover privates, but its not unusual for there Not to be enough fur, so there’s specially made hanfu for full moons that are custom made for each wolf
basically being a seamstress in Qinghe will Get You Places, bc tears will happen, people will want them adjusted if they’re passing them to another family member, fashion choices, etc. etc.
Mingjue normally wears really simple hanfu and dachangs (the like, over-robe thing), but xichen bought him a specially made hanfu that he likes to wear during really important events, should he be in wolf form :)
huaisang buys new full moon hanfu every few months He Likes To Sit And Feel Pretty By Himself............(Or Maybe For Jiang Cheng If He Visits..........)
#Asks#Nie Mingjue#Nie Huaisang#The Untamed#OUHH#this was a lot so if u have questions about certain bits send an ask.....#i wanna talk about this more but again theres a lot......fuck#Myth Creatures AU#genderqueerxion
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West Wing Quote Challenge
I think I have watched The West Wing about 4 times. It has become one of my favorite shows. It has some of the best quotes. And I really wanted to do a challenge while I was watching. But I had the Disney Quote Challenge and didn’t feel that was right. So here is my West Wing Quote Challenge.
Here are the Rules:
1. You can only use the characters I have listed. No Peter Parker (except in the case of Superfamily). No Bucky Barnes or Sebastian Stan. I am not in any way, shape or form attracted to Sebastian Stan. So I won’t read it.
2. Send in an ASK with your character choice and quote. You can double up but no more than two people per prompt and they have to be different characters. Once a prompt is full I will cross it out.
3. If your story is more than 500 words please use a read more. I will not reblog any story that does not have a read more.
4. The preference is reader insert. You can do OFC just let me know.
5. No angst unless it has a happy ending. No cheating fics either.
6. When you post please tag me and use the tag #west wing quote challenge.
7. THE MOST IMPORTANT RULE!!! HAVE FUN!!!! Cause that is what writing is all about.
8. Due Date. I dont have one yet.
Characters
Steve Rogers
Tony Stark
Stony x Reader
Stony
Stucky x Reader
Rafael Barba
Jim Kirk
Leonard McCoy
McKirk x Reader
McKirk
Robb Stark
Aaron Hotchner
Eomer
Chris Evans
Quotes
1. I want this back in the cardboard box it came in. I don't want to see you or talk to you 'til that's done. 'No way' is not an acceptable answer. 'I tried' is no longer an option. You started this thing, and you're gonna damn well going to finish it with either a blue ribbon or a great big deafening silence.
2. "Never Doubt That A Small Group Of Thoughtful Committed Citizens Can Change The World."
3. "I Have Wit, I Have Charm, I Have Brains, I Have Legs That Go All The Way Down To The Floor, My Friend."
4. About a week ago I accidentally slept with a prostitute.
5. "Decisions are made by those who show up."
6. One last thing: While you may be mistaking this for your monthly meeting of the Ignorant Tight-Ass Club, in this building, when the President stands, nobody sits.
7. My father gave this to me, and his father gave it to him, now I’m giving it to you.
8. Watch this.
9. Person A: If you were in an accident, I wouldn’t stop for beer.
Person B: If you were in an accident, I wouldn’t stop for red lights
10. Person A: What are you holding?
Person B: [Name] said you liked goldfish.
Person A: The crackers. The cheese things you eat at parties.
11. Just stand there in your wrongness and be wrong and get used to it.
12. How tall are you? I can’t believe we are the same species.
13. I drink from the keg of glory, Donna. Bring me the finest muffins and bagels in all the land.
14. Person A: When you flirt with me, are you doing it to get something ? Person B: No.
Person A: Why are you doing it?
Person B: I'm doing it to flirt with you.
15. Why is there hugging?
16. "So, if I'm gonna jump off the cliff, and you're gonna get pushed off the cliff, why don't we hold hands on the way down?"
17. There is no such thing as too smart. There is nothing you can do that is not going to make me proud of you"
18. "You don't have the power to fix everything... But I do like watching you try."
19. "Your wife's beautiful, too. How'd you get her to marry you? Did you trick her or something?"
20. "Happiness is my default position."
21. The only thing you ever had to do to make me happy was come home at the end of the day."
22. "Can I assume from your total silence and blank faces that you're all with me?"
23. "No, I did not. Let me be perfectly clear I did not do that. Except...yes, I did that."
24. "I don't know what kind of salad it is, I'm eating a salad, okay? I'm doing it, do I have to know the names? There's no difference between them, it's a bowl of weeds! Some of them have cheese, this isn't the kind with cheese, does that answer your question? "
25. "Nature, like a woman, will seduce you with its sights and its scents and its touch, and then it breaks your ankle, also like a woman.
26. Can I have a couple of aspirin or a weapon of some kind to kill people with?"
27. Person A: "I'm just going to change my shirt."
Person B: "You look bad. You're tired. You slept in the office. It's Friday. Go home."
Person A: "Why?"
Person B: "Because I think you're putting too much faith in the magical powers of a new shirt."
28. There’s literally no one in the world I don’t hate right now.
29. You're a smart savvy woman who could easily consider world domination for a next career move.
30. There’s no one in this room who wouldn’t rather die than let you down.
31. We should organize a staff field trip to Shenandoah what do you think.
32. I didn’t realize babies came with hats.
33. I’m sorry to be rude but are you a moron.
34. So it’s ok to have sex in a hotel but not my apartment.
35. I want us to talk because I like the sound of your voice.
36. With that, I’m going to get a cupcake.
37. I embrace the cold. I luxuriate in the cold. I fight the cold with more cold.
38. You really think we have a secret handshake, dont you?
39. I’m telling your mother, you forgot where she lives.
40. Everytime you talk, I hear that sound that plays when pac man dies.
41. Person A: If they find out you’ve been there I’m going to shove a motherboard so far up your ass.
Person B: Technically, I outrank you.
Person A: So far up your ass.
42. I need some pie.
43. You know I could beat you up anytime I want to sir.
44. Well, you go girl.
45. My problem is I want to jump him when he says things like that.
46. Ignore him. The rest of us do.
47. Just once in this job I would like to end the day feeling as good as the day started.
48. Pumpkin patch, is there anything I can do to get you to go to the movies for eight hours?
49. “My getting killed would be bad enough, but that is not the nightmare scenario. The nightmare scenario, sweetheart, is you getting kidnapped.
50. You are a very powerful and handsome man.
tags; @auduna-druitt @captain-rogers-beard @pinkamour1588 @captainsbabysitter-blog @tilltheendwilliwrite @pegasusdragontiger @prettyyoungtragedy @4theluvofall @promarvelfangirl @outside-the-government @nomadicpixel @star-spangled-man-with-a-plan @after-avenging-hours @starshiphufflebadger @medicatemedrmccoy @imoutofmyvulcanmind @onedarksea @whiskey-cokenfanfic @all1e23 @girl-next-door-writes @barnesrogersvstheworld @beccaanne814 @haveyouseenmymind @imamotherfuckingstar-lord @invisibleanonymousmonsters @janeykath318 @kaunis-sielu @wickedsingularity @meganlpie @redlipstickandplaid @madpanda75 @theycallmebecca
#the west wing quote challenge#steve rogers#jim kirk#leonard mccoy#tony stark#eomer#west wing#rafael barba
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I’ll Fight For You
I’ll Fight For You
Peter Parker x Reader
Warnings: Fight scene, explosions, hurt descriptions, starving self, swearing I think, nursing organ facts (tell me if you think of any more), fluff, and a hint of angst
A/N: This is the work I have for @keepingupwiththeparkers for her 4,000 follower writing challenge.
#kuwtp4kwc
Thinking about making an origin story for Gargoyle. The good title I thought of I want to save for my series. Comments and feedback are always appreciated. Requests are open and Messages are open if you want to chat. The gifs came from google, so credit goes to the person who made them. I don’t own Gargoyles the show either.
Background: Only slight endgame spoilers for this description. In my world, Carol snapped the gauntlet to kill Thanos and made it through the time machine, but left the mind and time stone so they could bring Vision back and returned the soul stone to save Natasha, and Steve didn't go back in time. Avengers Tower was bought back until the compound could be rebuilt and remained as a kind of a base since Queens is closer to the tower than the compound.
Tag list: Send me an ask if you want to be added.
@trashinaglass and @peter-pan-hoe ♡
Dialogue prompt:
8. “I thought I’d lost you”
Word count: 1,860
The intel was terrible at best. When have you ever heard of a hydra agent defecting. That didn't matter anymore. What mattered is that your team, the Avengers, got the intel about chemical weapons Hydra was developing and get out of the base as quickly as possible.
Taking revenge on the people who tortured you is one of the sweetest things ever. You were Y/n. Last name you never knew. Part of a species of bat-human hybrids that you were the sole survivor of, thanks to hydra of course. Mainly a human body with slightly pointed ears, retractable claws, an echolocation trackability, better hearing, sharp teeth, bat-shaped wings protruding from your back, skin that can turn to stone, and slight healing powers, which were amplified if you turned completely to stone for some time. You took the name Gargoyle after Peter showed you The Hunchback of Notre Dame. It was his job to catch you, Steve, and Bucky up on all of the pop culture stuff you missed.
You and Peter had the bottom floor almost cleared with the task of searching for hostages. You liked the curly-haired nerd. You two were around the same age when the Avengers raided the Hydra base you were kept captive in. He was the one to hoist your bloody body over his shoulders and carry you out of there. You both valued stealth and sticking to ceilings. You both often trained together and we're interested in both of your talents, yours of which was blacksmithing and Anatomy. You both tested your powers to see how far you could push each other and discover what your limits were. Peter could spend an hour upside-down before he started to feel fatigued and your healing ability worked better if you have a lot of what was hurt. For example, a kidney would heal a lot faster than a heart because there are two kidneys and one heart.
Okay, back to the mission. No hostages or test subjects have been found as you and Peter kept making your way around your floor. It was mainly storage rooms with few people in the hallways. Not as exciting for you, but you didn't want to go into a room where you two couldn't handle what was inside.
You and Peter got on the ceiling in front of the last room you had to check off your floor. When all of a sudden the door burst open on its own and the air was filled with bullets. Two big guys with miniguns. TWO?!?! Normally it would be one and a lot of smaller henchmen covering him. You looked at Peter for some silent sign of a game plan. He drew a 'Z' with his fingers and pointed to his web shooter. Then made the cracking fist motion with his hands. You nodded and made a silent prayer that this worked because you hated having to play fair when taking out minigunners. Peter shot the two guys with taser webs, which brought them both to the floor. You two then dropped down and started going ham on betting these two up. You just hit the back of their head until their occipital lobe knocked out their vision. Fury would be by later to arrest everyone, but you wanted to make sure they stayed down. You cut up their arms and legs a bit just so it would make it difficult for any of the men to escape. You disarmed the miniguns and Peter webbed down the guys as best as he could.
"Wonder what they were guarding?"
"I don't know Gargoyle, but we better be careful."
You gently pushed the door open revealing a planning room covered in blueprints. Some were for cannons and others were for what looked like experiments. Turning humans into other creatures, which in turn would be used for Hydra.
"Make sure to have Karen scan all these."
Before you could analyze the plans in front of you, you were knocked to the ground. Your body went into full fight mode preparing to stab whoever tackled you. Good thing your mind caught up to your instincts and realized it was Peter who was on top of you. Your senses were thrown off as all you could hear was bullet shells hitting the ground and an AK-47 going on full blast. You extended your arm and hit a button to make a small sharp disc fly out from above your wrist. The disk shot under the table and took the last man standing down. You kicked the gun away and gave the guy a few scars with your Assassin's Creed wrist knives.
It was only then when you realized that Peter didn't get up. He was groaning in the middle of the floor where you left him. He was on his side, but you could see the number of bullets in his left side. You turned Peter over and realized he's bleeding a lot faster than he should be.
"Hit near the pancreas and spleen. Shit." If there was one thing you remembered from all your time studying Anatomy, it was those two organs have a lot of blood going through them. "Nonononono. Kid, you gotta stay with me. You gotta stay awake." You hit his face a bit to keep him conscious.
You didn't want to move him because that could make it worse and you were definitely not qualified to remove bullets on a battlefield from an advanced human. So you did the next best thing. You held the button on your earpiece. "Code Blue. Underoos's been hit. I repeat. Code Blue. Underoos's been hit."
"What? Where are you guys?" Tony's panicked voice wasn't helping your demeanor.
"Basement; in a room full of blue-." Your eyes grew wide for a split second as you saw the guy who shot Peter with a grenade in his hand and his thumb in the ring.
"Hail Hydra."
You didn't have time to think. You scooped up Peter and ran as fast as you could before the pin could be pulled. You both barely made it to the doorway before the whole room exploded. You wings protected the two of you from most of the flames, didn't mean it didn't hurt.
"Kids, you ok?" There came the Dad voice from Clint again. Clint, you liked to call the perfect mix of sass and fatherly advise.
You slowly lifted your wings but kept them up to keep the rubble dust out of your eyes. You looked over at Peter who you could tell was still losing consciousness. "We're fine. The basement's clear. I can run him back to the quinjet and rush him to the medbay of you guys can meet me there."
"We're done here. Everyone meet at the jet and we're rushing the kid back. Do you need cover?" Natasha was one of the few people to keep Tony's mind straight besides Pepper.
"No. I can run him back up. The basement's clear." Just as I scooped Peter back up and started to run to the stairs, remote turrets came online. "Of people."
Your bare feet skidded across the dirty floor as you made a break for the Northwest stairs while trying to avoid the bodies that littered the floor. Your wings covered you both, but the bullets that hit your legs still hurt. Your heart pounded in your ears as the only person you were worried for was Peter. Did he lose too much blood? Was his body healing around the bullets? Would he ever wake up from this? You pushed your thoughts to the back of your head and focused on running.
The snow of Ireland made your bare feet bleed, but you were numb to pain at this point as you layed Peter down in the jet. You tried to focus all of your healing energy to your hands, but it wasn't helping. You just decided to step back and let Bruce and Tony try their hardest to help as F.R.I.D.A.Y flew you back to the tower.
They took Peter to the Intensive Care Unit and only when they gave him a transfusion of blood and took all 12 bullets out of his side were you allowed to see him. He had a slight concussion and his face was bruised from the fall. You couldn't do anything to help him but hold his hand with the IV still in.
"Do you remember when we met? It was my first day. Still getting used to the compound. You were hanging from the ceiling as I was quenching a blade in the garage and scared the shit out of me I almost left the blade too long in the oil. I was a mess then. Still thinking that I was undeserving of love. That hydra had used me too much that I wasn't worth anything anymore. Even before Hydra my parents never made me feel good about myself." A shaky breath left your cut lip as you let tears silently slip out. "You're too good for this world Peter. You go out of your way for the little guy. You made me realize no matter how many people kick you in the jaw, even if it's one person or just yourself that wants you to keep going, you get the hell back up. I am that now for you. Please wake up. Please. Just don't be dead. Please." You were crying waterfalls at that point that any words you tried to make came out shaky.
"You are my sunshine
My only sunshine
You make me ha... ha-ppy
When skies are gray
You'll never know dear
How much I love you
Please don't take
God please don't take
My sunshine away."
A week he was asleep. A week too long. His body was healing fine and fast. His brain just needs to realize he's ok and wake up. May visited a lot and talked to you. She felt like another mother to you. In fact, all the women you met through the Avengers were your mother. Well, Shuri was a little older than you, so she's your older sister. You refused to eat and got ticked off at anyone who tried to get you to. Of course you couldn't die, but starving was slow and it hurt. Eventually, Wanda had to put you in a dreamlike trans in order for them to put an IV in you. You couldn't leave Peter, you couldn't.
One morning you woke up from the side of Peter's bed and saw his eyes open and him sitting up.
"You okay?"
"Yeah. I woke up in the night and the nurse brought me water and said you haven't left me since I got here." His hand went up and whipped away a tear that you didn't realize was falling.
"You got me there Parker. Don't ever scare me like that again. I thought I'd lost you."
"I won't and you can't get rid of me that easily." He kissed your forehead as you kept smiling through the tears. "Now we better eat before we get suffocated in Aunt May and Mr. Star's hugs."
"Agreed."
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