#BE FREE MY CHILD... LEAVE MY DRAFTS AND GO OUT INTO THE WORLD
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Why Ibara and Hajime Were Destined to be Partners in a Variety Show
This post will be a bit different from my other ones as I think I've let this one sit for far too long and I just want to release it from the prison that is my drafts!!!! So there won't be a lot of citation, this will be more of a very long ramble/rant! I think I'm finally ready to (try to) articulate my thoughts on how Ibara and Hajime share many parallels, similarities, or just how they compare and contrast as characters!!
As you may know I am a big fan of Ibahaji as a relationship so - I can't guarantee an unbiased view on all this. I'd also say I'm more of an Ibara scholar than a Hajime scholar, but I have a PhD in neither.
I'm just very fascinated by the 'why' behind Bogie Time. I think Akira is talented in drawing connections between all 49 idols. And the way Ibara and Hajime become unlikely friends is a particularly strongly written connection to me.
Let's begin with: Hajime and Ibara's similarities as described in Bogie Time
To understand how profound their friendship is, we must look at their relationship development in Bogie Time.
At the start, Hajime and Ibara could not be more dissimilar.
Ibara is aloof but capable, older, and his usual disingenuous self. Hajime is younger and believes himself to be a bumbling little guy who's in the way. He immediately defers to Ibara on all matters but doesn't know what to make of him. Ibara is laughably confused by Hajime too, because he's literally too genuine of a person - a quality Ibara is not used to, sadly.
However, as Ibara does something called 'relating to others' he realizes Hajime is not so far removed from his own world.
In a nice bonding moment halfway through the story that makes a point of sharing their similarities, Ibara and Hajime relate on looking up too much to others and feeling below them.
This is an incredibly important conversation as Ibara who usually doesn't open up about his feelings, does miraculously share why he's been so upset about the show to Hajime.
Here marks a great turning point... Hajime can deeply relate to Ibara's aversion to humiliation, having experienced something so crushing as having no audience for Ra*bits debut. This was a formative moment for Hajime. I believe here Hajime sees himself in Ibara... and wants to help.
Another major point of similarity that the story pushes is that Hajime has a cunning side, one that is actually supported by how much Hajime pays attentions to people's feelings and personalities to a point where he can be too dependent on their approval - which is the opposite problem of Ibara, interestingly enough, who forgets to consider people as living sources of information rather than just data and tools.
This is the lesson Nagisa wanted him to learn from Bogie Time. Ibara hones Hajime's cunning so they can advance in the show, as his specialty lies in how to use things and people to their fullest. They're very complementary!
To summarize: the two main similarities Bogie Time wants you to focus on is that Ibara and Hajime both struggle with thinking themselves as lesser than others and that they are intelligent and cunning.
But what if there's other similarities to be found between them beyond Bogie Time?
Now I'll talk about: my interpretation of Ibara and Hajime's other similarities.
These are some scattered thoughts and things I noticed.
Ibara and Hajime's experiences with poverty
While they do not discuss this as a similarity, Ibara and Hajime do both come from backgrounds of poverty or being impoverished.
Specifically, Ibara literally had nothing to his name during his childhood and was even more deprived comparably speaking. Ibara often describes himself as someone who crawled from the bottom of society. Hajime's family is poor, so Hajime often takes up part time jobs on campus and makes very simple meals. Or even eats just breadcrusts or grass. The one major point of difference is that Ibara inherited Godfather’s legacy - but despite that he still had to rebuild these assets from the ground up and fend for himself.
I think they could relate on the topic of survival. Even though Ibara's survival is sadly a more severe case, they both have the attitude of making do with what they have. Basically, they both did not have it easy.
As was revealed in Private Room, Ibara learned DIY when he was in the orphanage because he had no other form of entertainment. He's used to fixing and making his own things.
I recently read some old stories where Hajime makes up his own game of sliding on the wet floors of the school when it rains, because his family is too poor to afford many toys he's quite good at making up games to entertain his siblings.
Considering this I was like.... ohhhh... I've connected some dots. You could even say if anyone could understand Hajime's desire to have a partner who would have simple meals with him - it'd be Ibara who has a lot of opinions on eating sparingly. Although his is more motivated on survival and not allowing weak points in a moment of vulnerability, which then morphed into efficiency.
This follows into...
Ibara and Hajime's social status
They both suffered from bullying and discrimination toward them at a young age.
Hajime was bullied and excluded by his classmates for being too slow and useless to them. Hajime would struggle for a long time with the inferiority complex this experience gave him, which was only expounded by the failure of Ra*bits debut.
Ibara is an orphan who was implied to be considered equivalent to garbage by society. He is especially motivated by dominating people who used to laugh at him and thus is so afraid of being the target of mockery in Bogie Time.
I think Ibara is a special case where he weaponizes the way society has told him ‘he’s nothing’ over and over again by purposefully poking others and making them uncomfortable by his self-deprecating statements. While I recognize he’s not totally self loathing I feel like there’s a grain of truth to his self deprecation, and is almost challenging people like Anzu to affirm what he has always known anyway so he can continue to justify his cynical worldview that keeps him safe - but it’s definitely an obstacle to having a more growth oriented mindset.
Meanwhile Hajime does all he can to be likeable and gain approval as a good child, and is extremely apologetic for his shortcomings in early stories. Interestingly, Ibara also has this behaviour but on a surface level as he only does it to manipulate people to being useful for him. Although Hajime does have influence because of all the genuine good favour he’s gained from acting this way. In recent stories however, he’s grown more assertive…
Such as this exchange Hajime and Ibara have during a Dream Live because Hajime scolds him for being openly self deprecating to the audience. Again I think this is another moment where Hajime sees himself in Ibara, especially by how he tells him he’s his fan too. Hajime’s self esteem has gotten better because he’s motivated by his friends and fans too, so it just seems to echo that.
Ibara and Hajime's roles in their units
(Using this cg as this section's image because in Happy Spring Hajime is so excited about visiting a nearby town for the first time for a job, he makes a notebook full of research about that town... which they're only visiting for a day or so. It really represents Hajime's fastidious nature and love of information.)
Personally I think Ibara and Hajime are quite similar in being the sensible and practical members of their units, especially when it comes to finances and their meticulous nature in preparing things. They also tend to lose sight of what’s in front of them when they’re too in their own heads. One of Ibara’s biggest pitfalls is getting hasty when he thinks everything is going according to his schemes and victory is within reach. While Hajime can take his daydreams and ideals too seriously, for example getting upset at Mitsuru for not bringing flowers to Madara’s sister as he got too obsessed with his own idea of them being in love in Ra*bits climax.
I also believe they both possess a role of drawing people into their respective units - where Ibara utilizes fanservice in a more mature way, Hajime’s charisma is through his expertise in being cute. Both of these are to an extent personas they use on stage to attract attention.
Ibara and Hajime's gender presentation
This point is directly addressed in Bogie Time. I find it interesting that Ibara’s own feminine features were emphasized - it subverts expectations a bit as Hajime is usually put into the ‘girl’ role. But at the end, it’s Ibara who’s essentially experiencing what Hajime experiences all the time… being perceived as a girl.
Previously, Ibara portrayed the Red Queen in Wonder Game - a female character and the outfit itself has what I arguably consider feminine elements such as the silhouette and high heels. And last year, Ibara was in the bride-inspired White Swan outfit - and in a pose that I personally think can be read as typically feminine (a pose you’d see a female gacha character have perhaps.) So Ibara is no stranger to feminine roles.
I didn’t expect Akira to make this a point of similarity between them, but it’s interesting that he played with this concept and made Ibara cross dressing a focal point of the story and artwork.
I believe that Ibara and Hajime both embrace it, along with Ibara learning from Hajime to not be embarrassed in general and that feminine Ibara cards exist in the first place - and Hajime’s own personal journey as he goes from disliking being seen as a girl, to being ok with it and finding ways to use it as an idol.
Other personality traits
I believe Ibara and Hajime were similarly both troublemakers when they were very young. They also both grew out of this behaviour in response to their environment.
Ibara had a wish to make his life have been worth something and needed to pull himself together for his newfound inheritance. The strict and unforgiving military lifestyle he once hated and criticized became very useful in his role as a producer and businessman.
While Hajime became more well behaved for the sake of being a good older brother and not causing more trouble for his parents. However this may be one of the reasons he has a bit of a complex over people perceiving him as too perfect - which he mentions to Ibara in Bogie Time, and seems to want to indulge in being a 'bad kid' sometimes (thinking of his halloween voice line).
From all this I'd like to conclude that the great amount of connections one can make between Ibara and Hajime is why Akira and his team of writers probably conceived of Bogie Time which is about their relationship at its core. There's a lot to work with, and because I consider this story as a major turning point in Ibara's character arc - this is probably one of the big reasons why they chose Hajime to be the character to spur the needed profound change in Ibara. … besides that Hajime and Ibara were both moderately popular at the time and cute I guess! If you made it all the way here - wow, congrats and thank you for reading!
#enstars#ibahaji#ibajime#ibara saegusa#Hajime shino#Chyna writes too#BE FREE MY CHILD... LEAVE MY DRAFTS AND GO OUT INTO THE WORLD
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Almost | Simon “Ghost” Riley x Wife!Reader
a/n: you guys literally persuade me so easily it’s hilarious. i’ve had this in my drafts since december LMAOOOOOOOO
warnings: doctor’s appointments, ultrasound of baby three! :) simon is NERVOUS, he is literally imploding
summary: Just a doctor’s appointment to find out baby three’s gender.
PREVIOUS << | >> NEXT | Masterlist
“It’s not that big of a deal, Simon, sit down.”
Your voice registered in his ears but he didn’t listen, he paced in the small examination room after he had helped you onto the table…seat…thing. The medical face mask felt itchy on his face, the lights were too bright, he didn’t like having his hair not covered - he wanted to leave. Hospitals brought up a lot of trauma from previous long hospital stays after Roba, staying a few weeks with Tommy after he had overdosed and almost killed himself - and the three months Winnie was in the NICU.
To say he was uncomfortable would be an understatement.
Because he was more in his head than ever before, worrying about you non-stop since you had told him you thought you were pregnant seven weeks ago. He felt his repressed shame from missing the pregnancies of his first two daughters, now he had a third child to worry about. He felt helpless - like he didn’t know how to do this; which he didn’t really. He never did doctor appointments in the civilian world, he avoided hospitals like the plague, and he definitely did not have experience with having a pregnant wife. He was in emergency mode at all times.
You, on the other hand, were graceful. Having to go through an entire pregnancy by yourself without any support from your spouse was one of the most difficult things you have ever done - but now you had Simon. Even if he was having a mental battle with himself, knowing that he knew and that he was supporting you meant everything.
You stretched out your right hand, putting it right in his line of sight. He slowed to a stop, eyes staring at your hand. You wiggled your fingers, to which he gently took your hand in his own. His eyes met yours.
You gave him a smile. “Simon, I need you to take a breath.”
The rugged man in a black jacket sort of huffed before begrudgingly sitting in the chair beside you. You squeezed his hand and he immediately squeezed back.
“Don’t want to be here.” He immediately regretted his word choice after he spoke, his eyes looking to yours while you gazed at the white ceiling.
“I know.” You answered, hand squeezing his again. “I’ve got a lot of trauma from hospitals too.”
That really surprised him. “Really?”
“You remember Dave.” Simon nodded. “He had brain cancer when he was 12. I was 18, driving him to and from doctor’s appointments and staying with him at the Children’s Hospital because our parents had to work overtime to keep up with the bills.” Your free hand settled on your stomach. “Jake was off in the Navy by that point, Tommy was six and was staying with my grandma. Mom and Dad were always there every second they could since they were working, but it was mostly me. Slept on a pull out bed for months until he got to come home.” You kept staring at the ceiling, the image of your brother on a hospital bed, hooked up to endless wires was an image that was hard to scrub away.
“Your brother’s okay now, right?” He squeezed your hand, you looked to your husband then. He looked a lot more focused than he was earlier, his breathing a lot less rapid. You simply nodded in response. “Good. I like Dave.”
“I know.” You commented as there was a knock on the door, to which you answered, “Come in!”
In stepped your doctor, a woman with tight coils of curls tucked back into a ponytail. She wore pink scrubs with a purple stethoscope. You could tell she was smiling at you from behind the mask, “Hello, Mrs. Riley! It’s good to see you again.” She waved to you, before nodding at Simon. “I assume you’re Mr. Riley?”
“Yes.” He answered, she gave him a smile too before turning and gathering the equipment.
“How is Winnie and Melody?” She asked while you pulled up your shirt.
“Perfect as always.” You squeezed Simon’s hand then. “Mellie’s getting too big for me to carry, and she’s walking now.”
“Walking already? She’ll be outrunning Winnie before you know it. Gel’s cold, sorry.” The doctor commented before putting the gel on, making you take in a soft gasp. Simon squeezed your hand then, you looked to him and gave him a reassuring smile, mouthing, I’m okay.
“Alright, off the bat...” She noted, moving the little wand around after she had placed it on your stomach. “Want to know the sex or wait like last time?”
Your gaze moved from Simon to the screen then back to him, watching at his eyes settled on you, not on the screen. “Up to you.”
Simon’s eyebrows furrowed. “No, you’re the one growing a baby here. You choose.”
You gave him a sharp glare then. “Simon, pick now or I will make you re-gutter my house.”
“Doesn’t scare me. You choose.”
“Simon, I will only say it once more.” Your hand moved to grip his chin, nails digging into his skin a little. “You put the baby in there. Choose. Now.”
He sighed, knowing that you wouldn’t budge. He looked around you to the doctor. “Yes.”
She nodded and looked back to the screen, moving the little wand as you and Simon watched it too. He took your hand again, squeezing it before kissing the side of your cheek through his mask.
“Well, let’s see - ten fingers,” She hummed a little as you held your breath. “Ten toes…” She gasped a little before looking to the both of you, moving the wand back before pointing to its heart. “That is your baby boy’s heart, beating nice and strong, mama.”
“A boy.” You beamed, a smile wide on your face. “Simon, a boy.”
Simon put your hand against his mouth, you could feel him kiss your hand again through the mask. His eyes had softened, watching the screen as the little heart beat - something in his chest squeezed his own heart, and for the first time in his life, he wished to never forget this feeling. The light tingling in his chest, the heat that felt like sunshine, and the way one little picture took his breath away.
“Any names yet?” The doctor broke the small silence, looking to you but you had shook your head.
“He gets to be home the whole pregnancy, so he gets to name him.” You settled your other hand on the top of your stomach, absentmindedly rubbing it. “Felt bad he didn’t get to name Mellie.”
“Mellie? That’s such a cute nickname.” The doctor smiled, you nodded.
You looked at your husband, seeing how tears had collected in his eyes. You squeezed his hand, turning back to your doctor. “Can we two pictures?”
The doctor nodded, “I’ll be right back with them.”
Simon put that picture in the breast pocket of his uniform the next day. He definitely did not show Price as soon as he walked through the door. He definitely did not show Gaz next, who bear hugged his friend, saying, “My godbaby!”
Soap definitely did not start screaming, “You’re gonnae send Mini Ghost aftae me!”
———
part two may or may not make a lot of you cry and hate me lollolololol
———
Copyright © 2023 lethalchiralium. All rights reserved.
#simon ghost riley#simon riley x reader#simon ghost riley call of duty#simon ghost riley cod#simon ghost riley x fem!reader#simon ghost riley x afab!reader#simon ghost riley x reader#simon ghost riley x you#simon ghost riley x f!reader#simon riley x you#simon riley mw2#simon riley x wife!reader#simon riley#simon riley cod#lethalchiralium#lethal chiralium
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heyheyhey idk if u know how cool and important it is to have a badass assassin story with something other than cis gays and have it be Not a Big Deal but,,, it’s literally one of the first legit published books I’ve ever found like it?? And in a genre that I love??? And written well?? And genuinely funny as fuck?? Idk I’ve never seen an enby that gets to exist without it being A Tragic Plot Point or something To Overcome so thank u??? Like so much???? I can’t tell u how much???? I definitely didn’t cry at all about it nope not even once
:DDDDDD omg, my heart started pumping faster when I saw this ask. I am always so giddy when people talk to me about my books, especially the specifics about characters and tone and things they liked!
Yeah, I wanted to include every goddamn color in the pride flag!!
Pansexual/ bisexual assassins, nonbinary demons, a transgender assassin, an unrealistic number of gay and lesbian demon summoners! That's my fantasy world. It's not talked about, because it's simply normal.
Irvine in particular I adore because I am nonbinary myself, but also because they are just so powerful, and they don't even know just how much yet!
I always disliked how many nonbinary characters in fantasy and sci fi are just token "they/them" body guards, robotic or asexual leaning non-humans, or quiet, unassuming love interests who only exist to show a character is pansexual or something.
Irvine was my love letter to my own identity because I thought hey what if there was a nonbinary character who just fucks shit up, every time they appear? What if there was an enby who just kicks ass and is sexily never showing their face, and wears a badass hood all the time?
And then Irvine was born. My little storm demon :)
Also, I don't know if you ever saw the commissioned art, but I will post it in this ask for your viewing pleasure:
so glad you love my child. my baby blorbo.
who i intend to put through the wringer, lemme tell you, because i like to put all my favorite characters through it.
So glad you find it unique too! I honestly was feeling so badly about it, after months of querying and beta swapping, and getting feedback from dozens of people who only found things to criticize as being too strange or too different or stylistically confusing.
I went through a year of being told it wasn't good, and-and I'm a little emotional and overcome with appreciation and gratitude to all the people who not only bought or downloaded the book while it was free, but who also actually read the whole thing, and found it GOOD.
Like people...think i...write well??? oh gosh. oh god.
chills.
The asks I get keep me going through this mundane, dull little world. They give me something to look forward to, in between the doldrums of normalcy...
They also validate me for thinking someone...someone out there must find this good...
Thanks for taking the time to send this ask :))) it means the world to me.
I save them all in my drafts so I can look at them when I'm sad...
Also, THANK YOU FOR NOTICING THAT THE BOOK IS FUNNY.
in between the angst and the action and the blood-filled fist fighting and crazy sniper/melee battles, there is a lot of dark comedy!
I love dark comedy. I love satire.
As much as I love being edgy, I think a story without any humor at all is unbearable.
I want you to hurt with my characters...but you should also laugh with them! Laugh at them! Be amused by their stupidity...or by their cleverness.
Be charmed by their vulnerability, but also their insane, abnormal, bizarre points of view!
AAAAH, I'm so glad you found it funny AND heart-breaking!
That is exactly what I want every story of mine to be.
Thank you thank you thank you for this ask!!
Link to referenced book here, for all the poor spectators who have to see me blubbering like a child.
Please leave a review on Amazon/Goodreads if you haven't already, but if you have, thank you for that too! Every review helps me out so much!
#writing#writers on tumblr#writeblr#reading#book recs#literature#spilled ink#ao3#lgbt#nonbinary#assassins#demons#demon summoners
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Sure
F!y/n x girl(?), GL smut, practice draft so bear with it. Cunnilingus, reader giving, dom!reader, praising, reader is mean otherwise.
18+, GL, GxG
_____
You were famous for two reasons that people were afraid to mention.
You had always been known for being a mafia child. People were afraid to even mention your last name.
You weren’t exactly a 'mafia child' but you came from a family with deep connections and a long history of martial arts— the fact that half the country's business owners knew your father's company— it was security business.
Your family was like a mafia family except the fact that it was legal business.
Nobody knew the whole story but there were too many rumours and whispers when you started college.
You chose a silent life in highschool but were forced to go above and beyond after being a target for the school bullies— it was a minor crack in the wrist and they made it a big deal.
You sighed when a girl that sat beside you gasped after realising who you were.
She immediately changed places and went to sit in the farthest possible place.
You didn't know what was so intimidating about you.
The second reason people talked about you, however—
"Excuse me," A cutesy girl spoke, "May I?" She was talking about the seat next to you.
You two looked like opposite poles of the same world.
You seemed like an alien next to the white shirt, black skirt, and a black long coat with your black pants, a grey checkered shirt, and an odd leather jacket.
"Sure," You spoke nonchalantly.
She put down her expensive-looking coffee order on the desk and took out her iPad to take down some notes.
You noticed her baby pink headset around her neck that somehow went well with her outfit— like a signature piece.
The class went by as usual with you barely paying attention to anything and finally taking pictures of the board and leaving with your bag and taking out your earphones.
"Excuse me!" The girl from earlier rushed behind you, "Are you free right now?"
"Why?" You aked, plugging the cord of the wired earphones in your phone.
"I wanted to have a coffee with you!" She seemed excited.
"I'm sorry, I don't drink coffee," You started walking away, "Or tea." You said from a distance.
_____
The girl was persistent it seemed.
She sat next to you again and this time asked if you liked ice cream.
You weren't sure why you agreed but you were sure it was a reluctant 'yes'.
_____
"You said it was an ice cream date," you stared at her— skirt raised, panties gone, "And we're in your room now."
She tried to muffle a moan when you dived between her folds.
One of her hands in your hair, tugging lightly and the other gripping the bedsheets for her her dear life.
She gasped when you started using your fingers to stimulate her clit instead, "Y-Y/n wait— w-wait!" She supported herself up and tapped at your shoulder.
You moved away worried and sat up straight to see if she was okay only to see her hiding her face behind her hands.
"Was it overwhelming? Are you okay?" You asked.
"It's— It is my first— I've never—" she sighed, her chest heaving from the previous activity.
You felt something shift in you, "Do you know what they talk about me?" You asked while getting on top of her.
She slowly lay herself back, "You're from the mafia and that... you almost killed someone when you were having sex..."
"Both are false," you kissed her earlobe lightly, "Martial arts, not mafia and he wasn't 'almost' killed— he died."
She shuddered.
"It wasn't him I was having sex with— he tried to interrupt us." You smirked against her skin, "You got to be a good girl, now. Okay, darling?" You asked again.
She whined softly at the sudden old-fashioned nickname.
"Please," she whispered.
"Tell me if it's uncomfortable," you mumbled.
You made sure to go slow this time, keeping in mind to be gentle and that to make it a memorable first.
"Say princess," You looked down and unbuttoned your shirt, thowing it away, "Aren't you uncomfortable in all those clothes?"
She unbuttoned her shirt and slipped out of her skirt with a little help from you.
"Smart and beautiful, such a classic." You took the liberty to take off her bra.
You slowly and deeply kissing her while fondling with her breast made her go crazy.
There was not much you were letting her do when you had put most of your weight on her and were devouring her like no tomorrow.
You slowly went down kissing along her jawline and finally to her already hard nipples.
"Do you mind a hickey?" You asked in a whisper.
She shook her head to refuse.
"Words darling, words." You chuckled kissing the valley between her breasts.
"N-no," she breathed out.
You immediately started on a mark above her chest and she moaned.
You started going further down to tend to her needs. She kept squirming so you put a hand across her pelvis to keep her down.
You take a quick lick at her wetness and hum, "So wet darling? Do you want me to take care of it for you?"
"Yes— please—" she pleaded.
"Good girls get rewards."
You started lapping at her wetness, ravaging her. It was as if you were hungry for ages.
She moaned when your nose rubbed againt her clit.
You kept going until she became louder and louder, then finally tugging at your hair particularly harder than before and breaking down into throes of pleasure.
Her face was contoured with pleasure and it swelled your pride.
"I don't think I should be here any longer," You tried to get up but she pulled you back to her core.
"Again," she panted, still not completely back from her high.
"Sure thing, darling," you laughed.
_____
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hey look it's all my Serrennedy fic (note that I did not come up with tags for the AU's until making this post, meaning I have to go back to retroactively tag the posts I've made, which is going to take a while because tumblr's search is hot garbage.)
and also due to tumblr's search being garbage, searching my blog for my tags won't give you shit, but if you click to search all of tumblr instead, every post will show up. idk man, that's just how it is.
RE2 AU
started as a one-shot and then spiraled into a whole RE2 AU. the only thing I've written where things pretty much go right for them 💖 Leon isn't a government agent, Luis is a stay at home dad, and Claire and Luis lovingly bully Leon together.
tag: 𝑛𝑜𝑤 𝑦𝑜𝑢'𝑟𝑒 𝑝𝑎𝑟𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑚𝑦 𝑙𝑖𝑓𝑒. 𝐼 𝑐𝑎𝑛'𝑡 𝑏𝑒𝑙𝑖𝑒𝑣𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑖𝑠 𝒎𝒊𝒏𝒆.
How Do You Talk To Girls? (2/3 chapters posted)
❝Don Juan, eh? Always thought of myself as more of a Don Quixote, but if the shoe fits… How about we try some practice anyway? I can talk to you like I'd talk to a girl, give you a first-hand demonstration.❞
OR
Leon tries to learn how to pick up women from Luis, and instead has a bisexual awakening and picks up Luis.
Task Failed Successfully.
“𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑮𝒂𝒏𝒈 𝑪𝒐𝒎𝒎𝒊𝒕𝒔 𝑰𝒎𝒎𝒊𝒈𝒓𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝑭𝒓𝒂𝒖𝒅” (unpublished WIP)
Claire and Luis are getting married.
Something A Little More Plain
Not in the same continuity as the other two fics, but it is an RE2 AU, so I'm putting it here. Just really soft Luis being a dad to twins content. The only thing I've written about them that is just fluff and no angst.
❘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘🖤⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘❘
Signals // Childhood Friend AU
playlist
tag: 【𝗍𝗂𝗆𝖾 𝗐𝗂𝗅𝗅 𝖽𝗈 𝗂𝗍𝗌 𝗁𝖾𝖺𝗅𝗂𝗇𝗀. 𝙮𝙤𝙪'𝙫𝙚 𝙜𝙤𝙩 𝙩𝙤 𝙡𝙚𝙩 𝙞𝙩 𝙜𝙤.】
𝑇𝘩𝜀 𝛥𝜋𝛼𝑙𝜎𝑔 𝐾𝜄𝜕 (1988)
you move me, you move me. with your buildings and your eyes, autumn woods and winter skies. you call me, you call me.
»»————-💙————-««
somewhere out of a memory, of lighted streets on quiet nights… (1988)
»»————-💙————-««
ΠⴹⰞ Ⱎ⎕ᒥᒪᗪ ᎷᗅΠ (1988-2004)
he's old enough to know what’s right, but young enough not to choose it.
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Digital Man // Open Secrets (2004) (1/? chapters posted)
Well I guess we all have these feelings we can’t leave unreconciled. Some of them burned on our ceilings, some of them learned as a child.
The things that we’re concealing will never let us grow. Time will do its healing, you’ve got to let it go.
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BU2B (aka Leon Fucking Dies)
(2/3 chapters posted)
❝That Agent Kennedy is proving to be quite a thorn in my side, much like you. I need him to live long enough for him to appreciate his gift and go home and begin to spread it to the rest of the world, but he's starting to cause a little too much trouble. But still, it would be a shame to have to kill him. Such a 𝘸𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘦 it would be. If only there was some distraction to keep him occupied and out of trouble… You 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 him, don't you?❞
❝This isn't about him. Say whatever you want about 𝘮𝘦, but keep 𝘩𝘪𝘴 name out of your mouth.❞
❝But you'll want to hear this: He's quite fond of you too. He doesn't want to admit it, but I've been in his head. He likes it when you tease him. He 𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘴 you. You could send him on wild goose chases over and over, and he'd just keep following you, until time ran out.❞
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𝐌𝐲 𝐏𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐨𝐮𝐬 𝐒𝐞𝐧𝐬𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐇𝐨𝐧𝐨𝐫 (𝒋𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒂 𝒔𝒉𝒊𝒆𝒍𝒅 𝒐𝒇 𝒓𝒖𝒔𝒕𝒚 𝒘𝒊𝒓𝒆)
My very first Serrennedy fic,,, someday there will be a second chapter, but I have zero idea of when because I've been fighting demons tbh (by demons I mean various rough drafts because I can't figure out what the fuck to do with it. The ideas are there,,,,, but the execution is not 🫠)
Luis thinks he's a shitty person. Leon disagrees.
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Other random stuff kicking around in my drafts (and feel free to ask about any of these because I love talking about them):
AU where Luis sabotages the Nemesis Project, gets caught, and sent to Rockfort Island.
Alfred Ashford notices that Luis was a child prodigy and thinks that's neat because he's a weirdo and Alexia was a child prodigy. So instead of being executed, Luis is forced to be his friend until Alexia wakes up from her cryo stasis thing. (And being his friend is not a good time, because he's a weirdo and threatens to get his sniper rifle and hunt down Luis for sport a lot.) Luis gets out when Claire does, and goes back to Valdelobos after to hide from Umbrella, meaning RE4 will still happen, although slightly different. Luis is much colder and very hesitant to help Leon, because trying to do the right thing previously got him sent to a concentration camp.
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DON'T WALK AWAY
Songfic. While Leon and Ashley are waiting on a helicopter to come pick them up post-RE4, Luis tries to quietly slip away, because he thinks he's a shitty person who doesn't deserve to have Leon. Leon notices him trying to leave and says fuck that and argues with him, insisting that he will come with Leon.
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Don't have a title yet, but a little thing where Leon gets a call from Chris right after he gets back from Spain. Chris says the BSAA has been conducting their own investigation into what happened, and they found someone ex-Umbrella they had been trying to track down for years severely injured, but alive while searching the place, who claims to know Leon and that Leon would vouch that he's a good person now.
#⛓𝓛𝓮𝓸𝓷𝓼 𝓟𝓻𝓲𝓷𝓬𝓮𝓼𝓼⛓#<- my general Luis Serra brain rot tag used for anything unrelated to a specific fic#【𝗍𝗂𝗆𝖾 𝗐𝗂𝗅𝗅 𝖽𝗈 𝗂𝗍𝗌 𝗁𝖾𝖺𝗅𝗂𝗇𝗀. 𝙮𝙤𝙪'𝙫𝙚 𝙜𝙤𝙩 𝙩𝙤 𝙡𝙚𝙩 𝙞𝙩 𝙜𝙤.】#𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚 𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐭𝐥𝐞 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐢𝐧#<- general Serrennedy as dads tag#𝑛𝑜𝑤 𝑦𝑜𝑢'𝑟𝑒 𝑝𝑎𝑟𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑚𝑦 𝑙𝑖𝑓𝑒. 𝐼 𝑐𝑎𝑛'𝑡 𝑏𝑒𝑙𝑖𝑒𝑣𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑖𝑠 𝒎𝒊𝒏𝒆.#resident evil fanfiction#serrennedy#guess I should tag this as edits too since I did put moodboards in#my edits#serennedy
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A pawn upon a board
A Thrax and Odette fanfic.
Rating: T
Word count: 11.249k
Prison AU
FanFiction.net link
Summary: How does a queen get exiled from her kingdom all the way to a prison not even in the same galaxy? That's exactly what happens to poor Odette! Sadly though, after years of abuse from everyone in her life, her hardships are far from over when one of the extraterrestrial inmates decides she's his to claim. But can an unexpected romance can blossom in an equally unexpected place?
Author's 1st note: Less than a month ago, I shared a quick draft idea for a Thraxette fanfic that I shared on my tumblr and YouTube channel. This fanfic is inspired by that draft. It turned out WAY longer than I originally planned to, but it’s been a long time since I last wrote a piece of fanfiction that wasn’t just 1k words or such, so I took my time with and allowed myself to just keep writing as long as I felt inspired to do so. This is my first actual piece of Thraxette fanfiction and I am very happy with it!
For now, this is just a one-shot, I am not planning on writing more for this… for now 😈 Let me know what you think and where you hope this story will go!
There’s a FAQ at the very end of this fanfic, so please check that for any questions you may have! If you can’t find an answer, feel free to leave a review/comment etc. If you prefer to be anonymous, you can also ask me on my tumblr which allows anonymous asks 😊
Also, this story takes place in the same universe as Treasure Planet does, meaning both humans and aliens exist etc.
Warning: Domestic physical and sexual abuse is mentioned.
Odette was thankful that her father died years ago. Surely seeing his daughter be sent to prison for murdering the man he had arranged her marriage to would have sent him to the grave anyhow. At least he died knowing she would marry his intended for her. At least he died thinking they were going to be happy. At least he died not knowing what his only child would become.
A few years ago, Princess Odette married her betrothed Prince Derek, successfully joining their kingdoms forever. They had been betrothed for as long as Odette could remember, spending every dreaded summer together. The only thing she and Derek agreed on was that they hated each other. Summers were spent bullying each other, being pushed around by the adults around them and were the most dreaded time of the year for them both.
Due to the lack of her deceased mother’s influence, King William over-compensated by ensuring that Odette was brutally encouraged to only spend time on ladylike behavior. Outside of lessons on manners and how to be a good wife – not a good queen – Odette was pushed to learn how to sing, dance and how to be support her future husband. As a child, Odette loved to climb around, practiced with swords, and had a slingshot, but those hobbies were quickly cast aside the moment she used her slingshot to fling a tomato at Derek. Despite him having done the exact same thing to her years prior. She didn’t recall him being scolded in the same way at all.
The only hobby Odette was allowed to choose for herself was reading. William wasn’t happy with it, what did a lady need with books after all, but allowed it to pacify her fiery spirit. Therefore, Odette often found herself reading story after story about imaginary worlds, magic and where good always triumphed evil. It gave her an escape from the tea parties, the lessons and the men in her life.
Despite both Odette and Derek fighting against their betrothal their whole lives, Derek suddenly changed his mind and declared to arrange the marriage. Odette had been so confused, asking everyone around her to wait and causing a scene. When asked why Derek changed his mind, he told her she was everything he ever wanted and called her beautiful. After a confused thank you, Odette asked what else? Surely the man whom she had practically grown up with could think of something else that made him want to marry her. Despite her father giving a grunt as a warning and shaking his head at her, she stood her ground and waited for Derek to answer. Even his mother, Queen Uberta, asked him to answer. Nothing could have prepared poor Odette for his answer. The bullying, the lessons, her bruises with her father’s fingerprints were nothing compared to the humiliation of Derek asking her:
“What else is there?”
Odette held her head high as she refused to marry him and left with her father a few hours later, after giving a curt goodbye to her almost-husband. On their way home, William told Odette he didn’t understand her and what had she wanted Derek to say. Before Odette could answer, her father suddenly grimaced and put a hand to his left arm. Before Odette could even begin to comprehend what was happening, her father fell into her arms and she screamed for the carriage to stop. With the help of one of their traveling companions, Odette got on a horse with her father placed safely on it and she had the horse sprint back to Prince Derek’s castle.
Lord Rogers had met her outside, seeing the urgency in the way her horse was riding towards them, and had immediately called the guards for help. King William was taken to a private chamber and was attended to by multiple doctors while he was struggling to breathe. Derek had joined Odette and insisted to be there for her during what would turn out to be William’s final moments. Before her father passed away, Odette had taken his hands in hers and told him he didn’t have to worry about his little girl and that she would marry Derek.
Derek had, completely inappropriately, excitedly hugged his best friend Bromley to which Lord Rogers immediately hit him at the back of his head to get him to behave. Odette hardly cared in the moment and simply cried in complete silence when her father passed. As he had taught her, she picked herself up, hid her tears and behaved amicably to the public eye. Only when she was truly alone did she allow her frustrations and fears to take hold of her heart, and she let out cries into the darkness of the night.
Odette and Derek’s wedding took place just a few weeks after her father’s funeral, and they had visited his grave to pay their respects before returning to his castle. To Odette’s surprise, Derek did initially not wish to consummate their marriage. He claimed it was due to her still being in mourning, and that he did not want to put any strain on her, but Odette always had a feeling that it was something else entirely. Either way, she was grateful for his decision and avoided going to bed before Derek every single night for as long as she could.
Fortunately, for a very long time, both Derek and Odette were busy with the new development in the world. When they were children, humans discovered that they were not alone in the universe, and that intelligent life was found outside their own hemisphere. Royalty and world leaders alike were asked to gather in an attempt at contacting life outside their own galaxy. While Odette was excited about the idea of intelligent life away from their own planet, Derek was not. The unknown and uncontrollable scared him and so, he continuously insisted that they both kept away from this development. To his dismay though, intelligent life was indeed found and after just a few years, the world leaders were gathered to meet creatures from other planets, previously unknown to people on Earth.
Odette could barely contain her excitement when she saw the first extraterrestrial step off the ship. Whenever a new creature appeared, they looked so different from each other. Since Derek feared them and wanted nothing to do with it, Odette was allowed to be the representative of their kingdom and speak to the foreigners herself. Most of them could not exactly speak any human languages, but some sort of communication was made through body language or by simply guessing. Some of the extraterrestrials communicated in very unique ways and Odette was eager to learn and understand them.
While Odette never spoke too long with just one species, there was one who stuck out of the crowd. A people humans dubbed “Virus” due to their ability to immediately make someone feel very ill, but also heal within minutes. They were the people that looked the most like humans despite having many differences as well. They had two eyes, a mouth, two arms and legs and wore garments just like humans did. They had something akin to hair on their head, but it didn’t look nor felt like human hair. They had hands with claws rather than fingers, and one of their hands always had one appendage that was three times as large as the rest, which harbored all their powers; the healing, ability to make you ill, glow in the dark and much more.
Viruses were also tall beings, the tallest one Odette had seen was twice her height. Their tongues were split into two and were longer than human tongues as well. Their eyes altered depending on their mood, so their eyes never stayed just one color. Odette had tried learning what each color meant, but there were many variations of colors she hadn’t even ever seen before on Earth.
But what really made them stand out was their ability to learn any language instantly simply through a kiss. The first time a Virus kissed a human, humans were shocked until the Virus started speaking English. They could, however, not teach each other their newly-developed language skills as they could only learn from a native speaker. And so, the willing humans kissed the Virus one by one and the Virus kissed the other extraterrestrials and worked as translators between everyone. A Virus had approached Odette as well, trying to kiss her, but Derek had pulled her away immediately.
To Odette, it almost felt like one of her most beloved books had come true. Intelligent life far beyond her reach was suddenly standing right before her. It felt almost magical. What she wouldn’t have sacrificed to see any of the other worlds out there in their infinite galaxy. Derek, on the other hand, remained suspicious of the extraterrestrial and insisted Odette stayed far away from them. When it was time to return home, Odette couldn’t hide her disappointment. The thought of going back to everyday life after everything she had learned was heartbreaking. Derek couldn’t understand Odette’s point of view, not that he tried.
Soon after, Derek expressed a desire to have an heir, which Odette thought would be lovely as she had felt a hole in her heart since her father died, and desperately needed someone to love. While Derek never forced himself on Odette, their attempts at creating an heir was far more unpleasant for her than she had ever expected. She praised her lucky stars that it never lasted too long and the discomfort she felt was usually remedied with a long, warm bath.
The physical discomfort at least.
Despite their many attempts, Odette never got pregnant. Perhaps unsurprisingly, she was blamed for this by the court. Rumors of her infertility spread, jokes were made at her expense and Derek was shown sympathy for marrying a barren wife. Odette knew Derek was not, at heart, a bad man. Not really. He just grew up being told he could do no wrong, and whatever he wanted he could take. His mother was by no means a bad woman either, she had simply doted on her one and only child while mourning the loss of her husband. King William and Queen Uberta didn’t handle the loss of their spouses well, but the way they dealt with it was very different.
As such, Derek slowly started to become resentful towards Odette. First she had humiliated him by refusing to marry him when he first agreed to the engagement and second, now she was apparently trying to punish him by not giving him an heir. The change in his behavior around her was so slow that Odette almost didn’t notice it at first. It started off with not engaging in conversations. Then he stopped reaching for her hand, touch her cheek or dance with her, unless other people were around. Then the snide remarks started, little things that started to annoy him. A dress she had worn too often, a piece of jewelry that distracted him, something she said that he thought sounded stupid. One of his favorite insults was towards her long neck. He would compare her to a swan, making his arm into a gesture that was supposed to symbolize a swan, walking around and “biting” people around them, which everyone laughed at.
Derek would whip his arm away from Odette if she tried to hold it, he’d sneer at her if she was in front of him rather than behind him and he would go out of his way to be with anyone else and leave her on her own. Bit by bit, Odette became friends with other people in the court and would spend her time with them at gatherings instead, since Derek clearly wasn’t interested in being around her anymore.
Derek took issue with Odette’s new friends as well. They were men. All three of them. Prince Jean-Bob, Captain of the Royal Guard Puffin and Mr. Lorenzo Trudgealong often nicknamed Speed. Speed, as far as Odette knew, had no specific royal duty, but instead helped everyone here and there. A sort of everything man, always doing something new every day, without a specific title.
Odette grew up with many people around her; servants, teachers, ladies-in-waiting and so forth. Friends though? Never. Bromley was Derek’s best friend, who also tormented her when they were children. He grew out of it though and was friendly with her, but in the long run he was Derek’s friend, not hers. Jean-Bob, Puffin and Speed were her friends, and her friends alone.
A wife being this friendly with three men without her husband present sparked rumors immediately, and Derek took them very personally. Suddenly, it was not only Odette who had been mocked, now he was the target instead. What kind of King couldn’t keep his Queen’s attention? Where had he failed to make her seek out the attention of other men? Despite Odette never speaking a single ill word about Derek, he blamed her for the humiliation and his treatment of her worsened and became public.
Derek would openly mock Odette for anything he could think of, even things Odette didn’t know could be criticized to begin with. If she had thought her father was strict, Derek was downright cruel. He would push her if she walked too slow, roll his eyes when she talked, openly share intimate details of her to get a cheap laugh and much more. Through all of it, Odette held her head high and didn’t allow anyone to see how much her husband’s treatment of her stung. When they were alone however, Odette would try to talk to him about his behavior. She was shut down each time and, eventually, she tried yelling at him. If he wouldn’t listen to reason, perhaps he would listen to anger. He, of course, didn’t.
Soon, the abuse turned physical. Derek never hit Odette, but he would deliberately be rough with her. The small pushes were nothing compared to the way he would hold her down in their bedchambers. Odette quickly realized that asking him to stop or showing any sort of resistance only angered him further. So she learned how to hold back her voice and forcing her body to stay still. She would try to excuse herself to the bathroom afterwards, but Derek would keep holding onto her until he’d fall asleep and it would be far too late for Odette to draw her evening bath.
When Odette and Derek’s fifth wedding anniversary approached, Odette spent all her free time preparing for it, hoping to rekindle what little love they had for each other before the marriage. Surely they could spend the evening together, having a meal and talking for just a bit. Derek never showed up. He forgot. Her husband forgot their wedding anniversary. Even though he was the one who wanted the marriage in the first place. She knew he was busy, that’s what he claimed at least though she had no idea with what. He stopped having audiences with their people, he was never in his office and, more often than not, she found him in the garden practicing archery with Bromley and Lord Rogers.
Odette didn’t say anything. She didn’t have to; Queen Uberta came to visit and wished her son and daughter-in-law happy anniversary. The look on Derek’s face when he realized was almost amusing. Queen Uberta’s reaction though, when she figured out Derek had forgotten, was definitely funny. She was furious. In front of everyone in the hall, she scolded Derek like a child who stole from the cookie jar. While Odette appreciated the gesture, she knew Derek would blame her for the public humiliation and tried to stop Uberta, but nothing could stop that woman once she was fired up.
Like Odette had foreseen, Derek did take it out on her later that evening. He yelled at her, asking her if she had enjoyed making him look bad in front of his mother. Odette had dared tell him he made himself look bad without her help, which had earned her a slap. It wasn’t a particularly hard slap, Derek had just swung around to face her and accidentally hit her. He didn’t apologize and neither did he seem to even realize what he had done and simply kept yelling.
At one point, Derek grabbed ahold of Odette’s dress and ripped it off her, making her stumble backwards onto the bed. The force of it made the night table shake and she quickly saved the statuette before it could fall on the floor. When Odette looked back at Derek, he was in the middle of taking off his own clothes. For the first time, Odette begged him not to touch her, not when he was so angry with her. Derek rolled his eyes at her and grabbed her by her legs, pulling her closer to him before he spoke his very last words.
“You really do only have beauty and nothing else.”
Odette didn’t mean to hurt him… What he said scared her and proved to her what she had been told almost all her life; she was just a little trinket. Something pretty to look at. Seen, not heard. All her insecurities, her trauma and the ever evolving abuse from her husband all came crashing down on her at once and she swung the statuette at Derek to get him away from her. She immediately expected to get yelled at, but Derek was completely quiet. It wasn’t until Odette dared opening her eyes she realized he was lying on the floor, completely still. She looked at the statuette in her hand, noticing the dark red blood dripping from the head down the body. She kept staring at it, until the blood reached her hand and she threw statuette away, screaming.
It didn’t take long for some guards to enter the chambers, after hearing their Queen scream. Nothing could be misunderstood by the scene in front of them; their King laid lifeless on the ground, blood appearing from a wound on his head and their Queen on the bed, blood on her hand and a bloody statuette accompanying her. One guard went to console Odette and the other left the room to gather more guards and sent for a doctor. Odette’s entire body was shaking, sobbing uncontrollably and was mumbling incomprehensibly. She couldn’t hear what anyone was saying and she kept her eyes shut tight, as if that would make it all go away.
Everything after that was a blur. Odette remembered standing trial, accused of deliberately murdering her husband and King and the discussion of her sentence. She remembered hearing discussions of beheading or hanging, but Queen Uberta had insisted on exile rather than execution. More specifically, galactical exile.
During the development between humans and extraterrestrial beings, a new concept of galactical exile was created. Instead of spending funds and creating space for the criminals of their own planets, many planets had started to send their criminals to an asteroid prison for the purpose of permanent exile. This would be the first human to be sent to The Galactical Exile, at the very edge of the galaxy, 1.000 jumps from the next inhabited planet. It being a Queen who had killed the King seemed oddly fitting. And so, Odette was put on a space ship and sent to The Galactical Exile.
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Odette swallowed a lump in her throat, but it was difficult with the shackle around it. She was chained to her own two hands and the seat she was in. The shackles were merely for show, you couldn’t escape this pod even if you tried to. The space ship was cramped, practically claustrophobic, with only about 15 people in it, including the two guards and captain. Odette looked around, as subtly as she could, to see all the different creatures around her. She recognized most of the species from her time at The Introduction. She wondered why they were there. What could they have done that was so bad they were exiled from their planet?
Odette had a feeling that she would be the only one with an unintentional murder on her sleeve.
When the ship stopped moving, Odette looked out the little round window. All that could be seen was darkness and the edge of the asteroid they had landed on. A voice on a speaker interrupted the silence and the inmates all stood up and lined up in single file. Odette, despite not understanding the speaker, copied her inmates. One of the aliens pulled out what looked like a digital pad and asked the first inmate some questions before the inmate was then grabbed by another guard and pulled outside. This happened one by one until it was Odette’s turn.
He was a slender beige green alien, wearing a blue agent uniform with gold epaulets that carried brownish gold trimmings, three matching vertical buttons, matching wrist linings and a matching brooch with a small red jewel on it. He also wore a black belt with a round gold buckle and a brown pouch with a flap on the left. He had one big eye with what looked like an antenna at the top of his head.
The alien smiled brightly while reading her name. “Queen Odette Nicastro from Earth. Welcome, you’re our very first human. I’m very happy to meet—” the alien spoke happily until he looked up and saw Odette. She was about two heads taller than him, but she had a feeling that’s not why his smile faded. A look of concern crossed his face and he looked at his tablet again. He coughed, seemingly to collect himself and bowed to her. “Well… Your Highness, it’s an honor to meet you.”
“Thank you… but I am hardly Queen anymore.” Odette replied, doing her best to smile back at the alien. “How come you can speak English, Mr.…?”
“Pleakley, at your service! I have always been fascinated by Earthlings! You have so many languages, but English is the most common one. Everyone here can speak English as well, some better than others though. Well, the Galactical Exile’s staff can anyway. You probably won’t be able to understand anyone else though, um…” the inspector started muttering and looked behind him. He spoke in an unfamiliar tongue to the guard behind him who then grabbed Odette, but did not pull her outside like the others. Instead, he kept holding her shackles and simply had her stand next to him while Pleakley spoke to the next inmate in line.
Odette was confused to say the least. Pleakley seemed very friendly, but why did he want to keep her around for a bit longer? Perhaps he simply wanted to sate some curiosities he had about Earth. That suited Odette just fine, she was a big fan of procrastination before entering prison for life. It wasn’t like she didn’t have time. Once the last inmate had left, Pleakley gave what sounded like an order to the guard holding Odette who then let go of her, exited the ship and had the door shut down.
OK, perhaps Odette was a bit worried what Pleakley wanted with her.
“Your highness, we don’t have much time so I’m going to have to be brutally honest with you.” Pleakley spoke in a tone that warned Odette she would not like what he had to say. “You are in terrible danger here. This is where the galaxy’s worst criminals end up and no one here cares for its inmates. If you wish to survive here, you have to find someone willing to protect you. Otherwise, you’re considered fair game. The guards will not protect you from anyone who wants to harm you.”
Odette allowed herself a moment to recover from what she had just been told. Like she had been taught though, she swallowed her fear and put it aside for later. “What would you recommend I do?”
Pleakley nodded, happy to see that Odette understood him. “Find one of the scarier inmates in there who can speak your language. I know there is a Virus in there, he may speak English already, but I know there are other inmates who have spent their time here learning languages. Convince one of them you’re worth having around by any means necessary, so they will protect you from other inmates.”
“And by worth having me around, you mean—”
“By whatever means necessary.” Pleakley repeated sternly before putting on his hat and bowing to her once again. “I wish you good luck, Your Highness. Your cell number is 667. I hope to see you again at my next inspection.”
And with those words, the guard grabbed Odette by her arm, pulled her outside the ship and closed the door behind them. Odette turned around, walking obediently with the guard through a long hallway of other inmates. She was put in line with them once again, when the guard removed her shackles. She massaged her wrists and her neck for a moment, while following the inmates into a new room that looked like a cafeteria.
Odette looked around at all the metal around her. Everything looked about as miserable as you would expect; dark, hard, rusted metal as far as the eyes could see. Unappealing food on the cafeteria tables with inmates scarfing it down like it was the most delicious thing they had ever tasted. And, finally, above the cafeteria on level 2, some inmates were eyeing the new meat from the mezzanine. Odette felt like she was in a parade so every inmate could size her up.
Remembering Pleakley’s advice, Odette looked around and got eye contact with multiple inmates, some scarier than others. Some seemed indifferent to her presence, but most were at the very least curious. She assumed it was due to her being the first human there, she may have even been the first human most of them had ever seen. Odette couldn’t help but try to find the Virus in the crowd, but far too many inmates caught her eyes.
One of the first Odette noticed was a cyborg Ursid, large in size yet more fat than muscular. He was wearing a cream colored shirt, red shorts, a black belt, a heavy black jacket and a tricornered hat. He had cybernetics on his right arm and leg, along with a cybernetic ear and eye with a yellow glow. He smirked at her and tipped his hat, but immediately went back to his card game. He seemed friendly enough, but Odette got the vibe he wouldn’t be interested in protecting anyone.
Then Odette noticed a Canid, but he looked like he was even weaker than she were. She noticed a Felinid not far away from him, but she showed absolutely no interest in Odette whatsoever. A Cragorian was next to her who did look at her briefly, but then immediately looked at the Felinid again.
Odette walked a bit further into the hall, noticing an alien leering at her with a very wide grin. Every fiber of her being was screaming at her to run away, but she forced herself to make eye contact. He was definitely interested in her. His skin was a pale yellow with scales all over his body. Some scales were brown, like the ones on his hands, right under his chest and scattered around on his shoulders. Something akin to snake skin decorated his face, jaw and neck as well. He also had an enormous tail, long enough to make him twice as long. The way he looked at her made Odette’s skin crawl. Whatever he would want in payment for his protection… was not something Odette would survive for very long.
With a shiver, Odette looked in the other direction and immediately got eye contact with someone else. This one was watching her intensely. Their skin was a pale pink, almost human like, but the horns on their head and shoulders were dead giveaways. They had markings on their face and their eyes were twice as big as Odette’s, were triangular and fully red. They kept looking at her, but almost looked uninterested at the same time. Odette couldn’t figure out what they were thinking and wasn’t too keen on that level of constant uncertainty in this place.
One by one, Odette felt like she had run out of options and none were particularly tempting. Perhaps she didn’t have to choose immediately. She wasn’t the only new inmate, surely she could keep herself safe for at least a day or two so she had time to figure out what to do. For now, she had to give the food a chance. She couldn’t remember the last time she ate.
Odette wasn’t even sure what to call this supposed food on her trey, it looked like slob. She was debating where to sit when she felt something soft slither around her hips and pull her backwards. With a shriek, she landed on the lap of whoever had pulled her to them and she looked up at them. It was a Lolligo, a cephalopod mollusk creature with ten tentacles, similar to squids and octopi on Earth. They were holding her on their lap with at least five of their tentacles, one around each arm, her waist and two on her legs.
The Lolligo spoke to Odette, but she didn’t understand. What she did understand was the laughter she heard across the table, that sound was apparently universal. She looked towards the laughter and saw another pair of Lolligos looking at her. One of them let a tentacle take her hand and shook it curiously, almost mimicking a handshake. The other Lolligo started touching her hair, pulling at it curiously. Once the shock ebbed away, Odette pushed at the tentacles to get away. The Lolligos merely laughed at her. Apparently it was really funny to touch her as they pleased, without any care for her at all. When she felt a tentacle touch her leg, she started kicking and yelling, hoping making enough of a fuss for them to give up. It only seemed to make it more interesting though if the way yet another tentacle was caressing her cheek was any indication.
Odette was about to grab her tray and slam it into the Lolligo whose lap she was sitting on, when she suddenly felt something far more solid lift her off the soft alien. She dropped the trey and reached out for whoever had saved her. Well, she hoped they were saving her at least, and not just replacing her aggressor. She heard the person speak in the same language the Lolligos understood and they seemed to growl at them in response.
Odette looked down at the arm around her, noticing it being clad in a black coat. On the floor, she saw big black boots and a shadow mixed with hers, but this person’s shadow was far taller than hers. She looked to the side of her that was pressed against this person’s chest and saw one of their hands which was a deep red color and had long claws. Odette got a feeling and looked up to confirm it; yes, this was the Virus Pleakley had talked about. His skin was deep red, his hair looked like purple dreadlocks and his eyes were, currently, light blue. Odette couldn’t remember what light blue eyes meant, but he was smirking confidently. His teeth were sharp and had a green tint to them. His cheekbones were sharp, chin even sharper and he was at least three heads taller than her.
The Virus looked down at Odette, flashing her a toothy grin. Without a word, he closed his eyes and kissed her. She gasped in shock and almost slapped him before he leaned back and spoke to her in English: “Hi, Princess. Remember me?”
Yes, Odette did very much remember him. He was the Virus who had tried to kiss her doing The Introduction before Derek had pulled her away. The scolding she got from Derek afterwards – despite her having no intention of kissing the Virus - was one of the worst ones. She couldn’t blame the Virus, she knew that, but back then she couldn’t help but to.
One of the Lolligos started talking again and Odette looked at them, wondering what they were saying. The Virus, in an almost playful voice, responded in their language. Despite his casual tone, the body language on the Lolligos changed immediately and they seemed tense. One of them waved a dismissive tentacle at them and went back to talking with each other instead.
Without a word, the Virus lifted his hand towards Odette’s tray, lifted it off the floor and threw it towards the trash can with a simple wave of his hand. “Let’s find you something more humane to eat.” He suggested, kept his arm over her shoulder and pulled her with him. Odette looked around them, noticing how everyone was watching them intensely. Was this Virus someone with power in The Galactical Exile? She looked up at the mezzanine, noticing the large yellow creature whose smile had completely disappeared. Yes, this Virus must have had some control in this place.
The Virus brought her around a corner, entering another section of the cafeteria. About 10 other species were already seated there, eating completely different food that actually looked edible. Delicious even! The Virus brought her up to the table where a Sagitta was standing, ready to give them food.
“Let’s see. What would be worthy of a Royal Earthling…?” The Virus said pensively and looked at the menu. After a few seconds, he spoke to the Sagitta who nodded, turned around for a few seconds and then presented a tray with a stew that smelled heavenly. The Virus threw a small satchel at the Sagitta and lifted the tray with a wave of his hand. What was in that satchel? Money? Was that what made him powerful?
The Virus lifted Odette for a moment before placing her in a soft chair. He put the tray in front of her and sat next to her, turned completely towards her with one leg under the table and the other leg away from it. “Eat, Your Highness. I bet it’s been a while.”
Odette grabbed the spoon, filled it with the stew and apprehensively put it inside her mouth. To her relief, it tasted heavenly. She took a couple more bites before she decided she didn’t care about manners and simply lifted the bowl and drank it all in one go. She was going to have a stomach ache later, but she didn’t care. This was the happiest she had felt since… she wanted to say since Derek died, but the truth was she had been unhappy for much longer than that.
Odette looked to her right at the Virus who was smirking in amusement. She noticed his eye color had changed; this time they were magenta. “You must be so scared.”
Who wouldn’t be? Odette thought, but forced a stern expression onto her face. “Only until I get used to this place.”
“You don’t get used to The Galactical Exile. Especially not a princess.”
“I’m a queen—”
“Was a queen.”
Odette couldn’t help but grunt a bit at that. He wasn’t wrong, her status on Earth meant nothing here, especially when her title was stripped away from her to begin with. “Why did you help me?”
“Oh, I think you know why. Now, you’re indebted to me.” The Virus replied, his grin spreading. “The name is Thrax.”
“I’m Odette, and I was not aware that your kindness came with a price.”
“Everything comes with a price around here.” Thrax chuckled. “Or are you really this naïve?”
Odette grimaced. “Thank you for the lesson. I will no longer fall for any tricks.”
“If you think getting tricked into a meal is bad, you’re in for a really bad time here.” Thrax laughed. “No… you should really stick with me.”
There it is.
“And what will you expect in return for protecting me?” Odette asked, putting on her best business queen mask. She wasn’t sure she could trust Thrax, well, perhaps she couldn’t trust anyone in a place like this. But it was too soon to know whether Thrax was her best option.
“Simple… do as I say, and I will be your slave.”
“… That makes no sense.”
“It will. Just…” Thrax started and moved so close to Odette that she could feel his breath in her ear when he whispered. “… let me claim you.”
Odette felt a shiver travel from her neck down her spine. “That was more of a statement than a question.”
“That’s because I’m not asking a question. I don’t want to give you the option to say no.”
Clever.
“Thank you for your offer, I will think about it.” She responded defiantly, looking straight into his eyes, which had turned purple at some point.
“I recommend thinking fast, Your Highness. You’re a very easy target. A pretty little bird like you couldn’t possibly protect yourself.”
At that, Odette stood up from the table, clenching her elegant hands into fists. “Luckily for you, I’m done thinking. I have no intention of becoming someone’s trinket again.”
“Again?”
Had Odette not been a princess, she might have cursed her own name for her stupidity. “Thank you for your offer, but I want nothing to do with you.”
“Oh? But I want to have everything to do with you.”
At that, Odette felt goosebumps grow on her skin. She looked at Thrax, an unmistakable look in his eyes as a hint of pink traveled across them before they turned magenta again. Odette had to force herself to look away so she could finally walk away from this loathsome creature. For a moment, she thought she had found someone decent in this place. Well, that was definitely a mistake she wouldn’t repeat.
“Hey, Princess!”
Odette sneered as she turned around. “I’m not a—” She was interrupted by something being shoved in her mouth and she instinctively hid her lips behind her hands. She glared at the Virus who was just smirking at her while she chewed whatever was in her mouth. It tasted sweet and familiar, but she couldn’t put her finger on it.
“Couldn’t let you leave without your dessert.” Thrax explained and walked past her. “I’m in cell 666 if you change your mind.”
Odette turned to look at him, still trying to figure out what she was currently eating. Her curiosity got the better of her and she spit out a tiny bit into her hand. Custard bun? She thought in confusion, recognizing the texture and color. How in the world did this place have custard buns? Even though Odette would usually never be caught dead putting spit-out food back into her mouth, her love for this particular pastry won her over and she swallowed the bite.
Odette spent the rest of the day getting to know the place. She found out there even was a library in this place, but the books and tablets were mostly non-human, and she couldn’t understand them. She found one book in a human language, but it was in Chinese. Odette eventually also found the shared showers and a sort of schedule where you could sign up for when you wanted to take a shower. Apparently there was some sort of technology that would scan you as you tried to enter and if you weren’t scheduled for a shower, the door in front of you would close. That made Odette feel safe enough to schedule a shower for herself. She had only ever had baths, but surely it couldn’t be that much different. To her surprise, there was an available time slot in just a few minutes, so she stayed put until then.
Turns out showering was a bit more different than Odette was prepared for. There were far too many nuzzles for her to figure out what to do with and the water didn’t feel like water on earth. Odette realized that despite her independent nature, she truly had relied on servants her entire life and she didn’t know how to do even the simplest of things. The shower was unsuccessful and Odette didn’t feel any cleaner than when she entered the shower. It had helped a bit, but mostly it was more stressful than relaxing. Just another thing to add to the list of things she had to get used to.
A loud bell ran across the entire prison and an announcement was made in a language Odette didn’t understand. She looked around, trying to find someone who might translate for her, but the people she saw either scared her or clearly had no interest in her at all. What she did notice though was that most prisoners were now walking away from the area. Odette watched as a few inmates entered a cell individually and she realized the bell must have announced roll call. The cells all had signs above them with a number – fortunately these signs were translated into all languages, including Earth numbers. Odette ran through the hall, counting down as she reached her cell on the sixth floor.
To Odette’s shock, she noticed Thrax standing near her cell, almost like he was waiting for her. He saw her immediately, a wide grin spreading on his face. “Made it just in time. Get in your cell before the guard comes or you’re in trouble.” Was all he said to her before walking inside his own cell.
We’re neighbors… great.
Odette went inside her cell immediately, closing the door behind her. To her horror, their cells were divided by just a few bars. He could see her completely, there was no area to hide or be alone. Their beds were even placed up against each other’s. Thrax sat down on his bed, gesturing for Odette to sit down on hers. In defiance, she grabbed ahold of the bed and pulled it away from him, planning to put it against the bars on the opposite side. To her surprise, all Thrax reacted with was a smile, almost as if he knew she was going to do that.
Once Odette’s bed hit the bars though, she looked up and saw who her other neighbor cellmate was; one of the Lolligos from earlier. Almost immediately, one of its tentacles reached out for her and she pulled her bed back in panic. The Lolligo made a sound that sounded an awful lot like a laugh and went back to whatever it was doing before it saw her. Odette looked over her shoulder at Thrax, who was smiling knowingly at her. Begrudgingly, she pushed the bed back towards him and sat down.
“You made the right choice.” Thrax praised despite Odette not even looking at him. “Lolligos aren’t known for keeping their limbs to themselves.”
Odette lied down on her bed, her back turned to Thrax. He laughed at her like she was a bratty child, but left her alone otherwise. Once the guard had come by to confirm everyone was in their cells, the lights were shut off. It was completely dark and Odette immediately felt terrified. She always had a candle near her, she had never been fond of the dark. She struggled to calm herself down, but the darkness made room for her memories to haunt her as well. The memories she had tried to keep at bay, memories of Derek and their last moments together. The sound of Uberta wailing when she saw her son, killed by her daughter-in-law, the one she had chosen for him. The guilt, shame and fear all came crashing down on her at once.
Odette felt the sobs approaching just when a flicker of light caught her eyes. She looked to her right, towards Thrax, and realized the light came from him. It was that elongated claw that harbored all the Virus’ powers, such as a source of light as well. Odette couldn’t resist; she turned on her side so she was facing the glow and willed her sobs to go away. To her surprise, the orange glow felt warm, almost as if it were fire. Odette wasn’t sure what had made Thrax’s claw glow, but she was thankful for its soothing effect. Not long after, exhaustion overtook her and she fell asleep.
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Waking up in The Galactical Exile was not an easy thing to do. However, the sound of the bell made sure that it was a rude awakening either way and Odette flinched from the sound. She opened her eyes, looking down at herself. The uniform she saw confirmed that the last few days weren’t just some wicked nightmare and she sighed. She looked ahead of herself, seeing Thrax’s face in front of her. In shock, she pushed herself off the bed and landed on the stone floor. She groaned from the pain and sat up.
“Am I that scary?” Thrax teased and stood up from his bed
Yes, Odette thought, but kept it to herself. As soon as she stood up, her cell was unlocked and Thrax was standing right in front of her. “What are you—”
“Hold still.” Thrax ordered and put his elongated claw on Odette’s back. Despite every instinct inside of her screaming to get away from him, she held still as she felt a soothing warmth spread across her back. When the warmth was gone so was the aching from her fall. Experimentally, Odette stretched her arms and any discomfort she had felt from the bed was also completely gone. Truly, any physical ailments were gone from her body and just with a stroke from Thrax’s claw. She almost wanted to joke that he would become the most prosperous healer on Earth, but then remembered some kingdoms on Earth still burnt witches. Though something told her mere fire wouldn’t harm a creature like Thrax. “So, would you prefer a proper breakfast or whatever slob the kitchen has found inside the vents this morning?”
Odette felt her stomach turn from the memory, but shook her head stubbornly. “Thank you for… whatever to call what you just did. But I have no intention of becoming someone’s property.”
“You wouldn’t be my property any more than I would be yours.”
“I have a hard time believing that.” Odette dismissed and walked out of her cell.
She hard Thrax closing her cell door behind her before following her to the cafeteria. To her surprise, he stuck by her and took a tray right after she did. Why would he stay in the cafeteria with her when he clearly had better options literally around the corner? No matter his intentions, Thrax followed Odette and sat besides her with his own tray. Odette would have been annoyed by his presence, but the food on her tray took all of her attention. It was a big, round and blue ball with what looked like a bamboo stick next to it. She had no idea what it was, but it had a very distinct smell. What that smell was however she had no idea.
Odette looked up at Thrax, silently admitting she had no idea what to do. “Let me help you.” He chuckled, took the bamboo stick and hit the blue ball. It immediately opened, revealing a yellow substance inside of it. The uncomfortable smell turned vile and Odette had to hold her nose to avoid openly gagging. “Are you going to throw up, Your Highness?”
“Unfortunately not.” Odette answered nasally, her hand desperately closing her nose off to the smell. “What is this?”
“I believe Earthlings call them pill bugs, they are not as big on Earth though.”
Odette wanted to scream. She wanted to throw the tray away, run back to her cell and never come out again. That pill bug was the size of her head, its insides were laid open for her to see and, apparently, eat. The smell was more foul than anything she had ever smelled before. She looked towards Thrax who had just opened his own pill bug. He wiggled the bamboo stick at her, put it into the pill bug and sucked. He grimaced once the meat met his taste buds and coughed.
“Ew.” Thrax said simply, sticking out his split tongue. Odette couldn’t help but laugh at his expression. He looked like a child being forced to eat his vegetables. “Your turn.”
Odette’s laugh subsided immediately as she looked at her own untouched pill bug. She grabbed her bamboo straw, braced herself and sucked some of the meat into her mouth. What in the world, she thought when the warm goo hit her tongue. She looked up at Thrax who was looking at her expectantly.
“Why does it smell worse than it tastes?”
The laugh that came out of Thrax echoed in the cafeteria. He was in utter shock, but loved Odette’s reaction. She too was in shock. Why did it not taste bad? Why was it almost, kind of… okay? No good, but edible. She kept looking at Thrax who was struggling to stop laughing, tears even formed in the corner of his magenta-colored eyes. She would never have guessed he could laugh like that; so rambunctiously and without a care that everyone was looking at him. It was infectious. Despite not wanting to, Odette couldn’t help but laugh a bit as well. Their eyes met and for just a moment, she didn’t feel as lost as she had in a long time.
A voice interrupted their laughter and both Odette and Thrax looked towards the person approaching them. Odette couldn’t help but flinch and lean back into Thrax. The alien in front of her was an Arachnid, his face was insect-like with large, bulbous yellow eyes bearing star-like pupils. He had two large fangs in his upper jaw along with slim red fangs in his lower jaw. He had long gray hair hidden under a brown hat and a spider-like lower body complete with six slender legs. They grew from an abdomen with a black shell and a red underbelly. There were fang-like red spikes on the tips of his legs as well, he was hunched over and showing off his red crustacean claws. These claws looked like lobsters on Earth, not like the claws Thrax had.
“Oh, fuck off, Scroop.” Thrax dismissed and turned Odette away so she wasn’t looking at the Arachnid anymore. “Ignore him”. He whispered in her ear, but that was hard to do when she suddenly felt a claw grab a lock of her hair. The Arachnid, apparently named Scroop, was studying Odette’s hair. In fear of him cutting her hair with those sharp claws, she pulled her hair out of his grasp. A few hair strands were cut off in the process, proving just how sharp those claws really were.
“Don’t underestimate me, lass.” Scroop warned, still holding his razor-sharp claw threateningly close to her. “I could snap you like a—"
“Something tells me you’re hard to underestimate.” Odette interrupted before she could stop herself.
Thrax had apparently been in the middle of drinking because Odette heard the unmistakable sound of him spitting out the liquid, followed by a laugh which was only interrupted by a cough here and there. Thrax said something in a language Odette didn’t understand and suddenly, other people in the cafeteria were laughing as well. Scroop looked around in embarrassment and then reached for Odette, yanking her off the bench. She realized that insulting the creature who clearly wanted a reason to hate her wasn’t the smartest choice she had ever made. Perhaps it was only second to marrying Derek.
“Why, you impudent, little Earthling!” Scroop yelled and put his other claw threateningly close to Odette’s chin. “This is why I hate humans. You’re all—”
Scroop’s yelling was interrupted by a scream of pain from himself when Odette kicked him. She had expected her foot to be met with something hard due to his shell, but she must have found a soft spot because he immediately dropped her to the floor to soothe the pain. She got up on her feet and ran behind Thrax who had stood up from the bench. Scroop was about to reach for her until he saw Thrax.
“Get out of my way, Virus, or I will rip your head off your body!”
“Hm, sounds like a gas, baby. Bring it on.” Thrax responded whipping out his hand, the claw already glowing a threatening red color.
Before either of them could do anything though, Odette had thrown the tray of pill bug guts at Scroop, successfully blinding the Arachnid. She grabbed Thrax’s hand and he ran with her in a mix of shock and amusement. They heard Scroop yelling and others starting to give chase after them. Thrax laughed, caught up with Odette and turned the corner of a hallway. Before she could continue running, Thrax pulled her into a narrow passageway meant for the guards to make shortcuts. He pushed her up against the wall, trapping her with one of her legs forced around his waist to make room for them both. Odette wanted to protest against the inappropriate position, but Thrax hushed her as the group of inmates got closer.
Out of pure defiance, Odette pushed Thrax’s hand away from her even though it did little to change their proximity. He looked down at her and that’s when she realized just how tall he really was. Derek was taller than her as well, as most human men were, but Thrax was about two heads taller than Derek. She really had to lean her head backwards to look at him properly, he was truly towering over her despite making himself as small as possible to fit inside the narrow passageway. When his eyes met hers, fixating on her every move, she noticed a flicker of pink around his irises. Small sparks, almost like the crackles of fire in a newly-lit chimney.
Instinctively, though Thrax hadn’t moved at all, Odette knew what he was about to do. “Don’t you dare.” She whispered, hoping it sounded more confident than she felt. He searched her eyes, looking for any sign that she really wanted him to stop, and smirked when he found none. “No—” she hissed, but was very quickly silenced by his lips against hers. Her eyebrows knitted together in frustration, and she grabbed at his shirt as if wanting to push him away, but pulled him closer instead.
Odette couldn’t remember the last time she had been kissed, but she had never been kissed quite like this. The kisses she and Derek had shared were soft, gentle and romantic, mostly chaste pecks. Only their first kiss was particularly memorable. There was a certain hunger to the way Thrax was kissing her that she hadn’t known even existed. Was it possible to crave a person? This felt like she was being craved, there was a hint of desperation in the way his lips were moving against hers and she didn’t quite know how to feel about it. It wasn’t until the kiss ended, she realized she had been holding her breath and gasped for breath. Her eyes were closed, but she knew he was smirking.
“I think we’re in the clear.”
Odette’s eyes opened in shock, having completely forgotten why they were hiding in the first place. With a sneer, she tried to push Thrax away, but he was already against the wall and just laughed at her. She wiggled out of the passageway, tripping over her own feet in doing so, but was saved from falling by Thrax grabbing her by the waist.
“You usually this clumsy?”
“No!” Odette snapped and straightened herself up, hoping to save at least a little bit of her dignity. She pulled away from him, feeling a blush spread across her face as he far too casually smiled at her. “Don’t ever do that again.”
“Which part?” Thrax asked in mock confusion. While Thrax was talking, he was walking closer and closer to Odette, causing her to walk backwards until she hit the wall behind her. “When I saved your pretty ass yet again? When I hid you from them? Or when I… kept you quiet?”
Odette’s cheeks flared up again and she lifted her hand to slap him. To her surprise, her hand actually hit his cheek, and he did not try to stop her or even flinch. All Thrax did was wheeze followed by a moan, and that flicker of pink showed up in his eyes again.
“Stay away from me.” Odette snarled and walked away from Thrax whom she could hear chuckling behind her.
“You know where to find me when you change your mind.”
Right… his cell was right next to hers. Damn.
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Odette spent the rest of the day in the library, hiding from Thrax and everyone else. She found a book with a bare bones introduction to all the known languages in the galaxy and studied it closely until she heard the roll call bell. She had run to her cell, noticing Thrax already being in his cell just like last night and she spent the night in the darkness with the exception of his glowing claw behind her. She slept better than she had the night before, but not by much.
The next morning, Odette got out of the cell, before Thrax had even sat up, and went to the cafeteria. She was determined to stay away from him from now on, and handle herself to the best of her ability. She might have lived liked royalty, but she wasn’t completely naïve. She got her food, this time it was some gray stuff, and sat down at an unoccupied table and started eating. It tasted like absolutely nothing and that was just fine. After the chaotic few days she had, she welcomed something plain and boring.
Odette managed to keep to herself, always watching over her shoulder to ensure she was indeed alone, until a cyborg Ursid approached her before lunch time. It was the one who had tipped his hat to her on the day of her arrival. He held out a piece of paper to her which she took while eyeing him suspiciously. It was a note asking for her to go to corridor A3 at the bottom level for a health check signed by one of the guards. It was written in perfect English with a very neat handwriting and so, Odette believed the note. She thanked the cyborg Ursid, though she wasn’t sure if he understood or not and she started her walk to the health check.
On her way there, it did occur to Odette that this was a little odd. Pleakley had told her this place didn’t care for its inmates, so a health check sounded uncharacteristic. But that note was so perfectly written, the cyborg Ursid had no reason to have issues with her and she hadn’t seen Scroop or the Lolligos all day, so she was hesitantly optimistic that this was just paranoia. As long as she kept her wits about her, she was sure she’d be fine.
However, as Odette almost turned the corner and entered A3, she felt her arm get yanked to the side. She gasped, but her mouth was covered immediately by an extremely warm hand and she tried scratching the person, but noticed the abnormally red skin on them. She looked up and, sure enough, it was Thrax who had pulled her to the side. She tried forcing his hand away from her, but he might as well have been made of stone. He used his free hand to hush her and her eyebrow twitched in confusion. He slowly let go of her mouth and pointed around the corner. Slowly, she leaned to the side just a bit so she could see.
Just around the corner, barely within earshot, was Scroop, the Lolligos and some extraterrestrials standing, clearly waiting for something. For Odette. It was a trap, and she had almost fallen for it. Her jaw dropped in shock. It was currently lunch time, so she would have been completely alone with them for the next hour and no one would have known. Odette couldn’t know for sure exactly what they would have done, but it could not have been good. Death might even have been the kindest outcome. If they could forge a note from a guard, who knew what else they could do to trick her.
Odette looked up at Thrax, still in shock thinking about what could almost have happened to her. He took her hand and gently led her further away from the corner so they were out of earshot. “Are you convinced?” he whispered when they were far enough away. He put his hands on her shoulders, leaning down until he was at her eye level, gazing at her with intense purple eyes. “You’ve only been here for a few days and you’ve already made enemies. They’re not gonna just leave you alone unless they have a really good reason to… let me be that reason.”
As disheartening as it was, Odette had to admit that Thrax was right. She would have liked not to feel like the damsel in distress she had been taught to be, but the truth was that she couldn’t protect herself. Not here. So, begrudgingly, she nodded and accepted Thrax’s proposition. He gave her a smile that almost didn’t look like a self-satisfied grin, and kissed her hand in a far too gentlemanly manner, considering what he had just made her agree to.
“Get back to my side of the cafeteria. I’ll catch up with you after I’ve told these guys to leave you alone.” Thrax instructed and gently patted her back to nudge her towards the cafeteria. Odette nodded and walked away as quietly and quickly as she could. “Good girl.”
Odette felt a weird mix of emotions at the praise, but decided not to dwell on it and get away from this cursed corridor. Thrax stayed until she was out of sight and then turned around to approach the inmates around the corner. They immediately noticed him when he approached.
“Nice work, boys.” Thrax complimented and laughed as he pulled out a satchel from his pocket. “Best damn money I’ve ever spent in this place.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah, I don’t get what you’d want with that scrawny bitch to begin with.” Scroop sneered as he grabbed the satchel from Thrax. “Earthlings are filthy, nosy little—”
“Hey, hey, that’s my property you’re talking about.” Thrax interrupted in clear offense, but still laughing as well. He had just struck gold after all.
Thrax never thought he’d ever find that perfect little princess he saw months ago during the Introduction. There had yet to be a moment he hadn’t longed for her ever since he saw those big, amethyst eyes twinkling in curiosity at everything that was going on around her. There had been hundreds of people around them, but to Thrax she had become his sole purpose from that moment. It was impossible to take his eyes off her. The moment he saw her smile, his chest had begun to ache more fiercely than he thought was possible. He had fixated on her every move, every word she spoke and every smile she had shown. The only thing that had sullied the experience was that pathetic excuse of a man she was married to. This spoiled little brat who had dared interfere when Odette had shown a willingness to kiss Thrax to let him learn their language. Thrax knew this rat didn’t deserve someone like Odette and he knew it. Derek knew it and that was why he didn’t want his wife to even be present at the Introduction because he knew she’d someday realize she deserved better. Odette deserved someone utterly devoted to her in every single way, and Derek was not.
Thrax knew he could be what Odette wanted, what she ultimately needed. She just had to be willing to teach him. He didn’t know how to love, he had never wanted to experience such a thing. But this desire he had for her, the urge to protect her, the obsession he had to be in her presence every moment of every day, surely this was some kind of love? He couldn’t recall any time he had ever cared about someone, but Odette had consumed his every thought since he met her. He was committed to finding her, but as fate would have it, she had been brought to him with no effort on his part. All he had to do was convince her she needed him, which he was sure she would have figured out herself eventually, but he just didn’t have the patience to wait for her anymore. And, of course, he had to change his cell number so he was next to her even while she slept.
The Galactical Exile was a dangerous place, and Thrax was devoted to keeping Odette safe from everything and everyone there.
Except for himself.
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FAQ
What do Thrax’ eye colors mean?
Black = Afraid
Gray = Neutral/Bored
Green = Happy
Yellow = Embarrassed
Light orange = Tense
Dark orange = Uncomfortable
Red = Angry
Light pink = Flirty
Magenta = Playful
Purple = Focused
Light purple = Dazed/Tired
Dark blue = Sad
Light blue = Confident
Turquoise = Inspired
Who are the inmates Odette sees when she arrives at The Galactical Exile?
Inspector Pleakley is from the Lilo and Stitch.
The cyborg Ursid is Silver from Treasure Planet.
The Canid is Delbert Doppler from Treasure Planet.
The Felinid is Amelia Smollett from Treasure Planet.
The Cragorian is Samuel Arrow from Treasure Planet.
The Arachnid is Scroop from Treasure Planet.
The Lolligos, the Sagitta cafeteria workers, the big yellow alien with the tail and the light pink aliens are no specific characters from any specific franchises.
#thraxette#thrax#odette#fanfic#fanfiction#a pawn upon a board#prison au#thraxette prison au#treasure planet
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New Things, Real Things
HI GUYS! have this thing i just found in my drafts. it was supposed to be a new years thing but i forgot it existed. haven't edited it, so it is what it is. sorry/you're welcome. i promise i'll get to my other wips too, eventually.
happy new year almost three weeks late i guess?
Viktor x gender neutral reader, 4,2k words, no warnings.
There's a fancy gala at the Academy...and Viktor has plans.
Midwinter in Piltover is beautiful, sparkling, and lonely.
There are lights everywhere, warm and colorful, and on cold evenings snow falls and gathers on the rooftops. The days are short and busy as always, and a good chunk of the population seems to temporarily lose their minds, shopping like the world was ending and worrying about cleaning their cabinets and planning to start a new life as if their old lives were going to disappear.
You worked with Jayce and Viktor, helping with paperwork and part orders, equipment upkeep and other small jobs. In the lab, very few things change; the heating goes up only as much as the regulations for the sensitive components allow, even as the temperatures outside plummet, and extra lights would just be a distraction anywhere near the workspace, not to mention annoying. Besides, it's not like they don't have better use for the power outlets.
From a scientific perspective, everything went on as it always had, except for the slight changes in temperature and air humidity, and some shipping delays in parts.
And, well, the parties.
One big, blaring disruption to the routine is steadily approaching;
The midwinter gala. It was tradition, something that the Academy always did. Something to celebrate, something to light up the long dark winter around the midpoint mark. Give people something to look forward to, a reason to mingle, and an excuse to celebrate.
You had never been. But ever since Hextech took off, Viktor and Jayce had been invited every year. With colorful opinions of the topic, it seemed; Pretentious. There’s better ways to waste money. Awful speeches, terrible company. Business deals disguised as small talk. Insufferable jokes. Conversations that make you want to tear your hair out. Uncomfortable clothes.
It’s not all bad, Jayce usually says, the music’s okay, really talented performers every year.
And the food’s okay. And the drinks.
And it’s free.
It’s important to keep up the connections.
Viktor usually only agrees with some of these statements.
They both talk about this as if it’s mostly an inconvenience, a disruption in their work, a break in shipping times and opening hours, and not an event to look forward to. Not something that Academy students dream of attending.
As the dark days tick by, it’s by pure luck that you find yourself on the guest list, too. It’s not that they ask you to come as much as the conversation just slips there, and one piece falls to place after another, and when Viktor says that he would much rather have you there to talk to than be subjected to the endless rows of pretentious investors, and Jayce says you should totally come, it'll be much better with you there, at that point it would just be rude to decline.
And – sure. Both of them were very honest about the more unpleasant aspects of the party. Like the elitism, the stuffy atmosphere, the way they were always inevitably pulled into some business talk or investor deals or very thinly veiled attempts at introducing them to someone’s child/cousin/friend/sibling that was either single or looking to get into the academy, or both.
But it was also a shiny glimpse into a life you’d never been a part of, and you were curious.
As the end of the schoolyear approaches, a lot of the people working and studying at the academy leave to visit their families. It makes the hallways quieter at night, and the courtyard mostly empty, the lines at coffee shops shorter than ever. You weren't planning on going anywhere, and, well. The gala was something…new.
Not that you didn’t enjoy the quiet nights at the lab, helping and tinkering and sorting parts and paperwork with Viktor and Jayce. No, that was nice. But the gala was something new and exciting and shiny, and you were looking forward to it.
And, to your slight surprise, so was Viktor.
For all the bad or at least questionable things he had said about the event, he was very precise about planning the lab work so that he would actually be able to attend. Which was…interesting.
He made sure all the shipments were on schedule, everything that was needed was ordered in, and all the progress was going as planned. He wasn’t usually in the habit of double-checking things with you, unless he genuinely wasn’t sure about something. But now he was triple-checking to-do lists, asking if you’d done this or that already, periodically making sure things were moving as they should.
He asked you what you were going to wear.
Which honestly took you by surprise, but you’d answered it anyway.
His answer took you by surprise too;
“That’s very flammable, isn’t it?” He’d said, as if that’s a key feature of formal wear.
“I’m not planning on being near any open fires,” You’d answered, “I don’t think welding is going to be a part of the party.”
He’d just hummed thoughtfully at that.
Jayce had said something about most formal wear being highly flammable, and that had been that.
You’d chalked that up to just Viktor being Viktor, practical and logical, and hadn’t thought too much about it. The conversation had soon delved into circuit boards, and the night slipped into an easy, familiar dynamic of sitting at your respective desks and heating up forgotten cups of coffee and tea, borrowing a hand where some part or another was difficult to fix. Holding out tools and finding the right components.
By the time the day of the gala rolls around, the campus is quiet and the city is mostly covered in snow. The lab windows are frosted over, and work has quieted down a good few days before. Viktor’s planning has paid off; everything seemed to be in order. As far as you could tell, you’d reached the set goal in the set time.
Which leaves Viktor leaning over in his chair, looking everything over for one last time. Jayce had left already, having somewhere to be before the event. This leaves you and Viktor alone in the lab – technically you didn’t need to be there anymore, either, but you lingered anyway.
“It’s fine,” You note when he opens a small case of components, “you’ve checked those at least three times already.”
He pauses, his hand stopping on top of the case. “Yes.” He says, and then lets out a small sigh. “I know.”
“But?” You prod, looking him over. He was nervous, and not very good at hiding it.
He’s quiet for a moment. “But…” He starts, “I just want to be sure that everything’s…” He shrugs slowly, “As good as it can be.”
You nod a bit. “At this point, I’ll be surprised if anything’s out of line.” You point out.
You weren’t sure of the details of what they were working on, but you knew the ins and outs of the parts; new kinds of circuit boards for different types of machinery. They’d had you order the parts, you’d helped with the wiring, checked any menial errors in the soldering, filed the paperwork. They were trying to create something with a better ratio of efficiency; less lost power. If it worked, it could potentially revolutionize the energy industry. It made sense that he was nervous about it – it was a big project. And this was as far as they’d ever gotten in it. Far enough to have actual prototypes.
You get out of your own chair and walk over to him, looking at the parts over his shoulder.
“Do you want me to look them over again?” You offer, placing a hand on the back of his chair and leaning closer to see the tools and discarded parts spread over his desk.
“You’ve done that already.” He notes, without looking up. “There’s no need to repeat that. I trust you.”
“Then what are you nervous about?”
He takes a deep breath, his shoulders rising slowly. He flexes a hand and picks up a small screwdriver, for no reason other than to have something to fidget with.
“A lot of important people coming to the gala,” He answers, “people I…need to impress.” He swallows, “I am not a fan of being at the mercy of someone else’s opinions of me and my work.”
You nod slowly, and he takes another deep breath.
“Jayce thought it would be a good idea to present this idea to some potential investors tonight.” He adds, “We haven’t gotten permission to test it yet, so all we have is talk and some equations no-one there will care about.”
He waves a hand slowly over the table. “I know it checks out, it should work, or at least it could if we’d get a bit more practical research done. But that’s not enough to impress anyone. So –” He shrugs again, slowly, “It needs to be…presented in a way that people will believe, even if we don’t have anything real yet.”
“Sure you do.” You counter, despite understanding where he was coming from – he wasn't actually worried about the parts, he was worried about the people. An independent variable he couldn't predict.
“You have an idea. A plan. You have a concept.” You list, “That’s how everything starts. Hell, you have a prototype and the math to back it up. And, you know, most people never even get this far. Certainly not any of those investors. Do you think any of them could ever have come up with anything half this brilliant?”
He’s silent for a moment.
“That’s…one way of looking at it.” He says, and then sighs a bit. “I’m just…not the biggest fan of performative social events. Especially ones with…high stakes.”
“I get it,” You nod, “but you’ll do great. People respect you.”
He smiles like he doesn’t quite believe it. “People are Jayce’s specialty, not mine.”
You shrug a little with one shoulder. “Sure, but you could do all of that too, if you wanted to.”
“I’d rather not.” He answers, putting down the screwdriver he’d been fidgeting with and straightening out the case storing the latest parts.
“Then leave that to Jayce.” You offer casually, “And you just be impressive with the science.”
He exhales a small laugh. “That simple, huh?”
“You do it often enough.” You note, and then lean back, starting to get ready to leave – you still had to get ready before the party. “Don’t overthink it. Just be yourself. If they don’t like it, they’re not worth your time.”
“You do know they are the people with all the money, right?”
“Yeah, and I also know you wouldn’t feel good funding this with money from corrupted assholes.”
He takes a deep breath and sighs it out. “Yeah. You’re right.” He then agrees, shifting in his place. “So I’ll meet you here at eight?”
You barely pause in your movements, picking up your things. “Yeah.” You exhale, “Eight sounds good.”
You were treading the line of not letting yourself think that this was a date, but…the little things were hard to miss. Like planning to go together, and then spending time together. In an event like this, there were…connotations.
By the time you get home, shower, and get yourself ready, you’re periodically repeating it in your head like a mantra; no-one said it was a date.
And then when you find him outside the lab just before eight, you have to keep reminding yourself.
It’s not often that you see Viktor outside of Academy uniforms; it’s like the lab is his natural habitat. Now, he’s wearing a deep burgundy suit that looks like velvet – soft – his hair is pushed back, without any indents from safety goggles, and he looks good.
He smiles when he sees you, and that looks good too.
“You clean up nicely.” You note as you walk to him.
“Same back at you.” He answers, “You look…” He trails off, his eyes falling over you.
In the small silence that follows, you remind yourself once again that nobody said it was a date.
“Thanks.” You answer, trying to sound as casual as possible, “Shall we?”
He exhales deeply and nods, starting to walk next to you.
The party is…exactly as you'd expected. Sparkling, and shimmering, and loud. Full of people you only sort of recognized, all of them acting like this whole thing was somehow removed from reality. Like this was its own little world, and they alone ran it. All mundane worries were left by the door – inside, all they had to worry about was a place to set down their empty classes when someone with an empty tray walked by.
The ceilings are high in the old academy halls, and the equally tall windows reflect lights from the party, backlit only by the night sky. You could hear the music flow through the air all the way outside, overlayed with a mixture of people chattering and laughing, but only when appropriate – at least with the night this young. You had a suspicion that as time went on and people got progressively more drunk, the atmosphere might change.
When you walk in to the main hall, Jayce is already there; you can instantly spot him talking to some people, waving his hands in emphasis as he speaks. It's easy to slip into his sphere of influence, catching the tail end of some elaborate story that had, no doubt, started out as an answer to a question about hextech.
Most people in the room seem to have gathered into small groups, either mingling or honing in on the food and drinks, and the only thing unifying the whole room are some speeches and announcements. You don't really listen to them – it's nothing imaginative, thank you for a great year, let's work together to make the next one even better, and so on and so on. You tune it out pretty quickly.
Jayce and Viktor gathered quite the crowd whenever they started talking about their new projects, and you tried supporting them the best you could. But you weren't an expert, so you lingered by the sidelines, only offering smiles and quick notes when one of them couldn't remember a specific detail about something you'd helped with.
You can see that Viktor is uncomfortable, with the way he stands, his back all stiff and his hands fidgeting, and his eyes flitting over the room. So you offer him an encouraging smile every time his eyes find you. He seems to slowly get used to answering questions about the project, which is good – it lessens your anxiety about the situation too, somehow.
As soon as the crowd dissipates and the topic gets dropped for some boring speech or a toast or a nomination or whatever, Viktor slips to the edges of the crowd, finding a spot next to you and sighing so deeply he looks like he deflates.
"It looked like it went well." You greet him, and he smiles faintly without meeting your eyes, looking over the room instead.
"People seemed…interested." He answers, nodding a little.
"That's good." You nod back, "Any further deals?"
"Jayce is sorting out the details now." He licks his lips, "I thought it would be best if he took care of that. He's more…likable.'
He says that like it's a fact, and you kind of want to argue, or – or something, but he snaps his head up, looking at you so intensely that it makes your train of thought stagger.
"Do you want to help with something?" He asks, voice quiet, and his eyes locked to yours.
You blink. "That's vague," you point out, "but if it'll get me out of having to listen to another boring speech, I'm in."
He smiles a little. Nods, just slightly.
And drops his hand into yours, just for long enough to pull you towards the closest door.
It's easy to slip out of the crowd and into a hallway. People were too busy worrying about themselves, no-one even looked your way.
He drops your hand just as casually as he had taken it, in one fluid motion, and opens a door, motioning for you to go inside.
You're burning with the desire to ask what he was planning, but he was quiet, and you weren't dumb; this was something silent. Something he wanted to do without other people noticing.
So you stay quiet until he closes the door softly behind you.
"What are we doing?" You whisper as he walks past you and to a desk, without turning on any lights. The whole room – which is more of a closet than a room, really – is only lit by emergency exit lights, and a few computer screens.
He settles behind one of the computer screens, and you can see him lick his lips. "Remember when I said we needed to do a bit more practical research?"
You walk closer slowly. "...Yes?"
He smiles and glances at you, before looking down at the screen again. He leans to the table a little, setting his cane aside, taking a small box from his pocket and digging out a circuit board.
He rearranges some things on the desk, moving wires and turning on some small device that whirrs more loudly than the computer itself. You just watch the process quietly for a moment, puzzling it out in your head.
"You couldn't just come here during working hours?" You ask, even though you're 99% sure that if he could have, he would have, and if he did this, he had a good reason.
"The Academic board doesn't think we're ready yet. They say it would be a waste of time."
You nod slowly, trying your best to ignore the hollow, tired bitterness in his voice. It's the kind of ice that seeps in after being rejected many times; after not being believed in.
"So. No-one knows we're here?"
"Jayce does," he answers, while doing something on the computer, typing in something before setting the circuit board on some sort of a gently-glowing plate, "he's keeping all the important eyes and ears busy."
You nod again. Move a bit closer. Look over the setup, despite not understanding all of it. "Can I help?" You ask, "What are we doing?"
"Keep an ear out in case anyone comes in." He answers, his eyes on the screen and his fingers running over some wires, securing them in place, "And I'm running a test on how the circuit would handle high power levels."
"How high?"
"Nuclear fusion." he answers, like it's a totally normal thing to say.
"Nuclear-" you start, shocked, and he looks up at you, pausing in his movements.
He meets your eyes, steady and intense. "I would not have brought you here if it wasn't safe." He says, his voice unwavering, "We're not going to actually run that sort of power through this, think of it as more like…a simulation with…some real-life components."
You blink at him. "You could have lead with that."
"Sorry." He says quietly, and goes back to setting something up on the screen. After a moment, he shifts a little, and nods towards the screen, "Do you want to check if this looks right to you?" He asks, "be my second set of eyes and all."
You step closer, leaning next to him and looking over the screen. There was a digital model of the circuit board, emphasized by different colors and some running stats at the side of the screen. Your eyes move over the usual potential issues – looking for broken connections, faulty components, badly attached wires. Counting things, making sure there weren't empty slots.
You nod slowly. "Looks right to me."
He nods back, and presses some buttons, and the simulation starts running. The device where the actual circuit board was connected to lights up, and a progress bar appears on screen.
Viktor sighs, deeply.
"Now we wait." He says, "The reason they don't give out permissions to use this easily is that it is slow and takes up a lot of bandwidth from other systems in here. But no-one is using any of that tonight."
You nod a bit. "And you just couldn't pass by an opportunity like this."
He smiles a bit. "Would you rather be out there, listening to someone tell a story about how they just spent more money on a vase than you've ever seen in your life?"
"No." You sigh, and lean to the desk next to him. "Thanks for saving me."
"Anytime."
He reads over some sort of progress report on screen, scrolling through code that you couldn't understand most of.
And then you hear footsteps. Uneven, heavy – unknown. And they were coming closer.
Viktor hears it the same time you do. He looks up at you, eyes wide for a split second, and you can practically see the cogs turning in his head.
You weren't allowed to be there. You weren't sure how bad it would be if you got caught, but it probably wouldn't be good.
Time seems to stretch and compress between each heartbeat that hammers through your chest. Between each unfamiliar footstep.
One, Viktor shakes himself out of the shock and minimizes the simulation window, leaving just the standard desktop that had been open when you'd walked in.
Two, he takes a step away from the computer, and closer to you.
Three, he leans closer, caging you between him and the desk, whispers a quiet please play along, and then he kisses you.
He kisses you.
Your mind catches up to this, and everything else that was happening, piece by piece.
He wasn't really kissing you – but he was, and it was heaven, his taste was intoxicating and his body was pressed against yours and he was filling all your senses and his jacket was soft under your fingers, his lips soft against yours – but it wasn't real, it was a distraction, play along, he'd said, it was a play, for whoever was behind that door, it wasn't for you –
He shifts, pressing closer to you, exhaling a small sigh, and the contradiction of it is torture. Torture you wouldn't give up for anything, because now you had this, you knew what he felt like, what he sounded like, what he smelled like this close, what he tasted like, but it wasn't real, and that hurt like having something in your heart uprooted.
The door opens and closes with a quick flash of light, and a foreign voice blurting out a quick Sorry! before hurrying away.
You have to suppress a whine when Viktor pulls away. You had kissed him back, of course, but – it wasn't supposed to be real. And yet you miss it instantly.
He doesn't move much. Just enough to give you room to breathe. Just enough to look you in the eyes.
"Sorry." He says, "I…thought that would be a…perfectly understandable and entirely legal reason for us being in here." He explains, looking away.
Sorry.
He had kissed you, and he dared to apologize.
He had kissed you, and it hadn't been real.
He had kissed you, and he hadn't known if you wanted it.
You can do nothing but swallow and take a slightly-shaky breath. "It's okay." You answer, voice light, "I was just…surprised."
He takes a deep breath, shifts back to look at the screen. "Not what you were expecting when you followed me in here?"
"No."
He sighs. "I'm…sorry." He says again, slowly. "For crossing any boundaries. I would have asked but–"
"Viktor." You stop him, "I get it. You don't need to apologize. It was fast thinking, I get it."
Then, you let out a quiet laugh. "Like you said. Good excuse for us to be in here." You smile, "Honestly."
You sigh a bit, too. "People will talk though. You think they recognized us?"
"It's pretty dark in here." He answers, "But it wouldn't be the worst rumor to have circulate."
"You wouldn't mind having people say you habitually hook up with people in closets at parties?"
"Who said it's habitual?" He counters, "This is a sample size of one." He notes, glancing up from the screen briefly, "I'm saying that I wouldn't mind having people say I hooked up with you in a closet at a party." He looks back at the screen, "Unless you're opposed to the idea, of course. In which case I apologize."
You just look at him for a few seconds.
"I'm not." You answer, "Opposed to the idea." You swallow, feeling like this conversation was suddenly far more serious. Far more…real.
He hums out thoughtfully, picking out a few wires and unplugging them, having finished at least some part of the simulation.
"So if you're not opposed," He says, words slow, "how do you feel?"
You swallow again. "Well, for one, I think there's better places to hook up in than closets," You answer, "and I'd prefer it not to be an act. But you're right, there could be worse rumors. And…it does make sense. We came in together. People already think it's a date."
He nods, and hums again, thoughtfully.
Looks up to meet your eyes. "So if you're not opposed to the concept," He says, slowly, "and you'd prefer it not to be an act," he shifts in his place a little, "would you like it to be real?"
Time stands still.
Until you whisper yes.
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"You're Magic Now" WIP Preview: Chapters 11 - 15
Since these are still works-in-progress, it is likely that the following excerpts will change between now and the final draft! Please keep that in mind while reading.
Chapter 11: Half-a-Witch
Lynette: We shouldn’t be out here for long. (She picks up one of her textbooks and shows them an image of a flower.) I primarily came out here to look for this. It’s called a Romaritime Flower.
Barbara: That’s really pretty… but I heard that they’re only grown in Fontaine.
Lynette: On Fontaine’s lands. But these flowers can grow in any water source in any world. The swamp’s ecosystem is diverse, so I have a feeling that it would be like Fontaine’s waters. Which means Romaritime Flowers can grow here.
Lumine: You seem really certain about this.
Lynette: I’m from Fontaine, so yes. I am. (Oh.)
Keqing: What exactly do you need this for?
Lynette: Well… (sigh) As I’ve already explained, I am only half-witch. I struggle with channeling the negative energy needed for a witch to cast spells. I was hoping that this flower will help me craft an item that will give me enough strength that I need in order to maintain my transformation long enough to complete my exam.
Barbara: Then what are we waiting for? Let’s go!
Lynette: It’s not as simple as you might think. They grow primarily underwater in other worlds, and are very particular about the conditions that allow it to be picked. (She takes a vial out of her pocket.) That’s what I made this. (She drops a bit of the potion on a leaf nearby. It falls off the leaf and before it hits the ground, is a perfect copy of the plant.)
Barbara: Whoa.
Lynette: I’ve been using it on my favorite tea leaves, but I feel like it’ll come into use here. (They leave their camp and start making their way into the swamp.) And then you guys can head back to Alfea— (Barbara yelps as she stumbles, nearly getting stuck in the mud.) Are you okay?
Barbara: Yeah… I think I didn’t expect this part of the swamp to be so…
Keqing: Swampy?
Barbara: Squishy.
Lynette: Squishy? (With a loud slurp-like noise, Ayaka and Lumine pull Barbara free.)
Barbara: Squishy.
Chapter 12: Child of the Stars
Dain: Do you want to talk about it?
Lumine: No. (She’d rather have Aether visit her in her dreams, to be fair. …She sighs.) Everything was on fire, and there were people screaming… It’s not that different from my other nightmares. It was just more… vivid. (Dain hums.) …I’m not sure if this is just because of everything but… (Dain stops in the middle of the sidewalk, grimacing with his hand pressed to the side of his head.) Dain?
Dain: Something’s wrong. (He picks up and his eyes go wide. It’s not much longer until Lumine figures out why, especially when he goes sprinting in the direction of the museum. It’s dark inside, and Lumine doesn’t understand what’s going on until she sees a brief shimmer of a barrier around the building, crackling like it’s broken somewhere.)
Lumine: Dain—
Dain: Stay here and call the police. The alarms are still off, so we’ll have to do it manually.
Lumine: Wait, Dain.
Dain: I’ll be right back. (He rushes up to the museum’s door and unlocks it before heading inside. Lumine grumbles under her breath before doing what Dain asked of her. The dispatcher assures her that they’ll be there as soon as possible after Lumine explains the situation to them. She knows that they’ll be there soon, but Dain still hasn’t come out yet. It’s been too long for Lumine’s liking.)
(She heads inside the museum after Dain. It’s dark and quiet, completely different from how Lumine knows the museum. She really hopes that nothing’s happened to Dain. The further she walks in there, the more creeped out she gets. When someone grabs her arm, she nearly screams if it weren’t for a familiar hand covering her mouth.)
Dain: I thought I told you to stay outside. (He pulls back away from her, looking pissed off.)
Lumine: I called the police like you told me to, but you’re acting really strange and this whole thing is strange and I want to know why.
Dain: Lumine, Let me handle this—
Lumine: I’m not stupid, I’m a fairy. I know magic when I see it. What’s going on— (Dain covers her mouth again to silence her when they hear noise coming from one of the other rooms.)
Dain: (in a low voice, with a shimmering blade being called to his hand) Stay quiet and stay behind me. (Lumine, though stunned he was able to do something like that, nods. The two head towards the noise.)
Chapter 13: A Dark Truth
(She never gets to finish her sentence. Signora casts a spell, her magic shooting towards Lynette. Lumine surges forward, only to get blown back by the force of the explosion that surrounds Lynette, leaving only a crater behind.)
Ayaka: NO!
Barbara/Keqing: LYNETTE! (Lumine is still for a moment before anger starts to take hold. She screams, shooting towards the Fatui like a comet. Her power explodes, forcing them back. When the light fades, the girls are on the ground and the Fatui are gone. Everyone is back to their normal form as well, Lumine’s explosion knocking the fairy right off of them.)
Barbara: What just happened…?
Keqing: Lumine exploded again. That’s what happened. …wait, where’s Lumine?!
Lumine: Present… (She raises a hand from the bush she landed in. She groans, letting it fall over her face. The girls rush over and pull her out.) I’m really glad to see you guys. Where did the Fatui…?
Keqing: Gone. You scared them off.
Ayaka: But Lynette… (They turn to the crater. Lumine walks over and drops to her knees. She had tried to warn them about the danger and now… There are tears in their eyes.)
Lumine: Lynette… I’m so--
“Mew.” (A beat. Was… Was that a cat?) “Mew!” (The girls rush to the crater as Lumine slides down into it.)
Lumine: Holy cat.
Keqing: Nymphs above… (There’s a juvenile kitten in the bottom of the crater, her fur the same color as Lynette’s hair. It even had the same teal patch that Lynette had in her bangs. And Lynette’s hair ribbon was around the cat’s neck. The kitten opens her eyes.)
Ayaka: Lynette? (The kitten mews again. Lumine carefully scoops her up in her arms and hands her off to Barbara so that she can get out of the crater.)
Keqing: Why is she a cat? (That’s a question they all want to know the answer to. Why didn’t Signora just kill her? Why turn her into a cat?)
Lumine: Is there any way that we can break the spell? Barbara?
Barbara: I’m not sure… This is dark magic. (She carefully strokes Lynette’s head. Lynette trembles, almost scared.) It’s okay. We won’t hurt you. We’re friends, aren’t we? (It’s that which gets Lynette to calm down and nuzzle sadly against Barbara’s hand. This is… not how any of them expected the day to go, but here they were. With a cat.)
Chapter 14: Memories From the Past
Keqing: We’re trying different spells to try to see if any of them will turn Lynette back to normal.
Ayaka: I know that Venti said that it’s a complicated one to break that will require time to make an antidote for, but I thought that maybe if there was something out there that could work… (Lynette mews, laying down on the table.)
Lumine: Mm… (She wonders if she could…? She shakes her head. No, bad idea. She can barely control her powers as is. She doesn’t want to accidentally hurt Lynette. …speaking of which… Lumine walks over and sits down on the sofa.)
Barbara: Is something wrong, Lumine? You’re not in trouble, are you?
Keqing: She did fall asleep in class.
Lumine: It’s not because I fell asleep in class. Ms. Caspar, Clorinde, Venti and Professor Alberich just had something that they wanted to talk to me about. (She sighs and repeats for them what their teachers and the headmistress told her. When she’s done, there’s silence. …if this is how they're going to react every time Lumine tells them something big…) Will one of you please say something?
Keqing: I don’t think there’s really anything to say. Just a lot of things are making sense now. (Lynette meows, hopping onto Lumine’s lap and giving her a look.)
Lumine: You already knew, didn’t you? (Lynette nods. She must’ve found out about the Lunar Drive when she overheard the Fatui mole talking about it. Ayaka chuckles and sits down next to her.)
Ayaka: I think you being the princess of a lost kingdom was more of a surprise than this.
Lumine: You guys really aren’t that shocked?
Barbara: I think all that shock has worn off.
Keqing: As I said, it makes sense when you think about how you’re liable to explode the way you do. (Lumine gives her a look.) It also clears up why the Fatui have been targeting you. I wouldn’t be surprised if they were behind what happened in the simulator, too. (Right… there was still an enemy within Alfea’s walls to worry about.)
Ayaka: We just have to be more careful from now on.
Chapter 15: An Enemy in the Shadows
(One nightmare was a coincidence. Two was something else. The next night finds Barbara and Lumine being abruptly woken by Ayaka’s screams. Keqing is shaking Ayaka awake when they arrive. Lynette quickly rushes over and smacks Ayaka in the face to wake her up. She nearly throws Lynette off in the panic that she’s in.)
Keqing: Ayaka, you’re alright. It’s okay. You’re in the dorms. Nothing is going to hurt you. (Despite her reassuring words, Keqing is slightly trembling. Ayaka sobs softly, bringing her knees to her chest. Lumine strides over.)
Lumine: Take a deep breath. You’re alright. It was just a nightmare.
Keqing: How are you feeling?
Ayaka: E-Empty…? (Lynette pats her arm as Ayaka continues.) I was dreaming about my mother… A-And then everything changed and she was gone but so were Thoma and Ayato, and everything was just a wasteland and I was all alone and-- and--!
Lumine: Hey, hey… You’re alright. Slow and deep breaths. (Ayaka tries to follow through, but its hard to do when she’s crying the way she is. It must’ve been quite the horrible dream.)
Keqing: That’s… strange. (to the others) I was having a nightmare too, before Ayaka woke me up screaming.
Lumine: First Barbara, and now you two? (What was going on? The girls move into the common room. Barbara places the tea tray in front of Keqing and Ayaka as they calm down from their nightmares. Lynette is on the bookshelf, looking through some of the books tucked away there.)
Barbara: Let’s think about this. Last night, Lynette was on edge for some reason we haven’t figured out yet. Then, there’s my nightmare. Tonight, it’s Keqing’s and Ayaka’s nightmares. (It was strange, but…)
Lumine: …are nightmares contagious? (Before anyone can answer her question, there’s a thud from the bookshelf. Lynette’s knocked off one book in particular.)
Ayaka: Lynette! (Keqing walks over to get the book before Lynette picks it up in her mouth, struggling a bit to do so with the weight. Keqing takes the book from her.)
Keqing: What was that for? (Lynette mews, pointing to the book.) I still think we should find a spell to let Lynette speak. Fix this communication issue. (Lynette glares before pointing at the book and mewing again.)
#genshin impact#genshin impact au#genshin au#winx club#winx au#winx club au#sparkle teyvat au#lynette#barbara pegg#lumine#the traveler#keqing#dainsleif#kamisato ayaka#fic: you're magic now
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dug this out from the deep deep depths of my drafts. it made me laugh so have at it: cindphenon LIs as dads + bonus mom lucette
Rod: surprisingly sensible and steady. is nervous and antsy in the beginning but admires both his fathers A Ton so tries his best to bring their best qualities to the forefront: ever present and very loving. quiet but very supportive parent, encourages his child’s pursuits of any interest (be it a hobby or a person). will fucking snide anyone who talks smack about his kid being a fine arts major. may be a little overbearing and critical at times but only because he wants the best for his child.
Karma: pta mum. throws hands every weekend with karen and her disgusting brownies. will let you know how his kid is better than yours in a very smug and ‘oh did you hear’ kind of way. lets his kid know all the time that they deserve the whole fucking world. maybe spoils them a bit too much. meddles in the kid’s love life all the time. the weaker parent to the puppy eyes. doesnt like to play bad cop, tends to give in to the kid a lot lmao.
Rumpel: super straight laced parent in the streets, absolute mess in the sheets. gives kid unsolicited advice 24/7. workaholic dad but always makes it in home for dinner and keeps his weekends free. slides a cake into their room when theyre sad bc he doesnt want to force them to talk but Also doesnt want them to be sad alone. definitely disappointed when kids dont want to follow in his footsteps but very enthusiastic in seeing what they want to forge for themselves.
Fritz: must call if staying past curfew or he’ll call the cops and make them put out an amber alert. overprotective and can be smothering but very, very loving and never gives his children a reason to doubt that love. 100% behind his kid and is proud of them no matter what - from acing a test to egging a house. will say ‘i love you’ and tuck them in every night, even when they’re grown, and will fucking Cry when they move out/leave his side. definitely punched another dad once.
Waltz: actually the best dad. a natural with handling people, a safe figure to confide in, knows when to pry, and when to leave his kid alone. showers kids with lots of love, never lets them go without. the type to read bedtimes stories at night and puts peeled oranges into their lunch boxes. last day of school its an unpeeled orange and a note that says “its time to learn how to peel your own oranges :”(”. can be too nice/soft, but stern when it comes to necessary discipline.
bonus:
Lucette: stern but fair mother, always encouraging and kind but will scold her child if needed. talks to her children like theyre adults, but always expects them to behave like kids. plays bad cop as often as she tells them ‘i love you’. an unsure parents and lots of self-doubt in the beginning, but never fails to put her child first. shows her love through actions more than words. trying her best to be better every day.
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For Aromantic Visibility Day I present to you the different story drafts that mini me came up with back in middle school and early highschool when I didn't know about Aromanticism.
Anyone is free to use them but please @ me I wanna see where these go.
Hanahaki AU where everyone is automatically born with buds but the buds change color depending on the type of love that you're feeling. Flowers consume you if you don't confess your feelings but you won't die if they aren't reciprocated. Our MC's flowers have yet to change from the pure white that everyone is born with. She has never felt romantic love. In an attempt to understand it, she runs a club at her school to help her peers with their love troubles. (Sidenote: I did a lot of research on flower names and meanings and I never saved it to the Google Doc. But each person has a different flower type that grows from their wrists. The flower type represents their personality.)
A mother sabotaged her daughters romantic relationships because all the men that she keeps dating are only after her for the kingdom. She tries to use her powers to teach her daughter the pains of love to try to encourage her to stay by her side. Later the daughter finds out and decides to just give up on love entirely much to her mother's relief. (Mother was hella toxic but yeah 👍🏽)
I actually wrote out this one for a creative writing class. A story set in an apocalyptic world where most of humanity has died from a genotoxin that was created as a biological weapon at the onset of World War 3. (I wrote this in October of 2019 I kid you not.) She has never interacted with anyone for 7 years after her parents left her in an underground bunker to help find a cure for the neurotoxin. (They die.) She only leaves to look for food and supplies. One day she meets a grown woman while out and after growing closer to this woman, much to the woman's chagrin, she finds out that the woman is the one who created the neurotoxin. This woman wanted to cleanse the world of impurities (yadda yadda villain speak). The woman kills herself and the MC finds out that there are more people that are a love and she sets off to find them. The end. (What does this have to do with aromanticism you ask? No romantic lead. There we go.)
I also wrote about a woman who kidnapped a child to raise as her own because she had no intention of ever getting married. She and her daughter are constantly on the run to evade the authorities.
I was really into Hamilton in 8th-9th grade. I wrote a flash fiction about a girl who fell in love with a boy who her sister liked. Heartbroken and all that jazz she becomes really good friends with her crushes friend who likes her sister. They cope with their unrequited love together and stay close friends. (Her sister and her ex crush break up in the end.)
A girl stays in an eternal prison because of love.
A girl who gets out of an abusive relationship decides to date the player in their school. Her friend warns her about how he'll treat her really well but break your heart in the end because he wants to show his love to as many women as possible. He never dated a girl for more than 3 months. They break up in the end but the girl cherishes the time that they have together.
Two immortals have found one another and decide to explore and discover the world. They find that they are actually from the future sent to prevent a calamity from happening in the past. (No romantic relationship in this one either.)
A story about two rogue assassins who aren't in love with one another but they are close partners who can rely and trust in each other like lovers so much so that people always assumed that they were in a relationship.
A group of female warriors set out on a quest. (That is only one of the many found family plotlines that I came up with.)
Lord some of these are horrific. A common theme I'm seeing in these Google Docs is if it's a love story it always ends in tragedy, most of my main characters are definitely neurodivergent, and the real plotline is the family that we found along the way.
Anyways
Happy Aromantic Visibility Day
#my stories have gotten much more positive as the years have gone by but dang#mini me was going through it#aromantism#aromanticism#aromantic#aromance#aro#aromantic visibility day#writing ideas#my writing#jay's attempts at communicating
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(Original fic — cont of 202’s story. Rough draft.)
I shouldn’t had come to this clinic today.
The loud drilling noises in the back unnerves me, along with the terrible coughs and sneezes that the others around me suffer from. All I need is a follow up, and then leave this place without feeling sick myself. Unfortunately, I am forced to sit down and wait on this uncomfortable plastic chair, staring at the ticking clock, as a child stares up at me with their big eyes, as their own parent is waiting for their name to be called as well.
At least everyone in here is wearing masks.
To my relief, I heard my name called, and I soon got up and ran to the nurse that guided me to a small room. They told me to sit down on the cushion with the thin paper sheet on it, and wait for the doctor to come in. The wait time is a little irritating, but at least I’m isolated.
I wonder what I should read today…
“Good afternoon, Ms. Sunnyside!”
I frowned at how the doctor came in with a cheerful attitude, calling me by the name of my apartment instead of my actual one. That is mostly on me, since I had accidentally put my address as my name… And no matter how many times I try to point it out to him, he never bothers to say it. I think he is never going to let it go such a silly and stupid mistake.
“Good morning, Doctor. So, what’s my diagnoses?”
“All clear, as usual,” he replied as he plopped down on a rolling chair nearby. “Your blood samples came out clear, the scans show nothing abnormal, and your psyche seems the same as usual.” He paused. “Oh, wait, my mistake!” He chuckled sheepishly, getting a growl from me. “I mean, you definitely are suffering from depression, but that is a bit out of my area of expertise. Have you not been seeing your psychiatrist?”
“No. I don’t really see the point in it.”
“The what’s the point in being here, 202?”
I frowned. “This is mandatory. I wouldn’t come here if I don’t want to.”
“And yet here you are. People like me are here to help with patients like you. And while you can say what you want to say, you know that you need our help to get better. I know the world is difficult and unfair, but at least you got your health.”
“My health doesn’t matter if my life isn’t worth living, Doctor.”
“It is, to others.”
“Who are these others?” I huffed out from frustration. “No body cares about me, and I don’t want to deal with anyone else! I live alone in my apartment, doing nothing except watch television, eat, and bathe! Everyday is the same! Why would it matter to me if my health is failing?”
“Is that what you really think?”
I paused as we stared silently into each others eyes, his looking more stern than usual.
“Truthfully…” I started, “yes.”
“Then you need to get out of that box and take a look around you. Speak to the other tenants of the apartment, and ask them what they think of you. If not, then you may never really be free from that apartment.”
“Free from my apartment…?” I repeated. “Then do you…?”
Suddenly, the doctors beeper went off, and he got up with a smile. “I got other patients, Ms. Sunnyside! It’s a pleasure to see you again! You know where true exit is, but if you get lost, the nurse will help!” He then walked up to the door and gave me a wave. “Bye bye!”
With that, he shut the door behind him, leaving me to my thoughts.
Does he know? Or maybe he learned about it from previous patients that lived there?
Whatever the case is, I can’t spend much time thinking about it now. I got a bath to prepare once I arrive home.
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I saw that your requests were open and I was wondering if you could help me. Feel free to answer this in any length you like (especially since it's rather open ended), but do you have any ideas concerning "twisted" holiday figures? An example may be similar to the characters in the movie "Guardians" where the Easter Bunny, Tooth Fairy, and Santa aren't how you'd normally see them portrayed.
(I am working through the backlog at the moment, so for anyone curious: REQUESTS ARE STILL CLOSED. But these are my requests from years ago, that I am finally answering now that life is marginally less bad.
So, I’ve been trying to think of unique holiday figures outside of the ones from that movie to twist, but I couldn’t think of many that weren’t touched upon. So I will put this in two parts, the first part is creatures that I think work for the premise (The tooth fairy isn’t a holiday figure, so I gave myself some creativity liberties with what counts), the second part is purely holiday figures - some of which were mentioned in the movie and some which weren’t.
Similar Theme:
The Wild Hunt
The lore of the wild hunt is that whenever they appear in the sky, a catastrophe is sure to follow, or the person who saw them will die. A bit of a morbid general Europe folklore, so I’m not sure if it works on this list. But imagine the hunt is made up of supernatural entities who volunteer rather than something they’re drafted into/trapped in as some tales say. Maybe these supernatural hunters do it for the sake of humanity, to warn them, so rather than them being a cause of calamity, they’re just trying to give the humans a heads up that something bad is going to happen and they need to prepare. So when someone in the volunteer organization gets a foretelling that something bad is going to go down (war, famine, plague, etc. Are the usual things mentioned), they gather up the group and go for a flight across the affected area. They just think they’re doing the humans a service and are unaware or offended the humans act freaked out about it whenever it happens.
The Stork
Like the kind that delivers babies? Imagine if this was a more nefarious and twisted creature, that stalks homes of people praying for babies, watching them go about their lives and how they interact with each other, other people, and the world around them. If the stork deems the good and deserving of children, it will deliver a child to their doorstep. If it believes them undeserving, it will curse whichever of them is the undeserving one with infertility, or both if they both aren’t fit to be parents. Perhaps this stork could also steal infants from homes where they are neglected, leaving white feathers, or perhaps a stork egg in the crib. If they keep the stork egg and let it hatch and raise it to adulthood and set it free, they may regain their lost fertility as a gesture of good will, if the egg is harmed, anything they try to nurture (plant, animal, child, etc.) will wither and die under their care.
Jack Frost
This could be a character who is more associated with frost bite than just the frost on windows. Maybe the frost on windows is a sign that he tried to get in, but his goal is to freeze people to death. Could be he’s a vengeful spirit or he steals their heat for his own gain. Maybe he needs the heat to survive and sucks it out of people, leaving them dead and covered in frost. If he can’t find anyone around he tries to sneak into houses but is thwarted by windows and the marks he leaves are signs of his attempt to break in.
Tooth Fairy
I’ve seen a lot of versions of this, and similar to the comments I made about Death (I wrote these in a very different order than they are posted in, Death comes later down the list). I’ve seen creepy takes on the tooth fairy and soft ones. Not sure what else I can add as a twist that might be an actually unique take. Maybe the tooth fairy is a being from a culture where teeth are currency or maybe the teeth are traded to witches who use them in some ritual to aid the tooth fairies in some way. Maybe tooth fairies are more like retriever dogs who are kept/owned/friends with witches or magic users of any kind, who send them out with coins to leave behind as payment for the teeth these fairies collect from under pillows. This makes the tooth fairies more like pets who do the bidding of the people who actually use the teeth. Maybe tooth fairies are just good at sniffing out loose teeth, kinda like pigs that sniff out truffles.
Father Time
I actually have an original character who is the concept of time, and they exist in several facets, which is the inspiration I’m drawing from here. Father Time could either be someone who has no concept of it, since they have all the time in the world. Completely laid back and frivolous, doesn’t keep a schedule, a very carefree sort of person. Or it could be someone who dreads time, more nihilistic in their outlook, the master procrastinator. Time can be a curse and a blessing after all, depends on how well you use it. But usually, having too much time on your hands is a bad thing.
Mother Nature
A twist on mother nature could be something similar to Poison Ivy (an ecoterrorist with plant powers) or you could focus on nature as a powerful force that will outlast humanity or potentially be the thing that destroys it - like a zombie plague stemming from a mother nature like entity (once again, I check off the bingo card in my head of “I have an original character for that”). Speaking of that specific original character, I could draw inspiration from them for this too. On one hand, nature can be cruel: the food chain, diseases, natural disasters, etc. While also being incredibly beautiful in many ways. In this way, mother nature could appear far less motherly, maternal and nurturing, and far more like a femme fatale, beautiful and deadly. Sex is a part of life in the simplistic reproduction outlook, and so mother nature could also be very sexual in a twist. As for the deadly side of nature - anthrax is a naturally occurring, extremely deadly infectious disease that is incredibly resilient to most methods of sanitation, after all. And that’s been historically used in biowarfare (my old job even had a drill for if anthrax got released by a bioterrorist in our workplace). So a femme fatale mother nature who can release diseases from their pores would be a twist on this, or anything to do with the scary parts of nature with a femme fatale appearance.
The Grim Reaper
I feel I’ve seen every creative rendition of this that is possibly, and my personal favorites are reapers as a species, like vampires, rather than a single entity. But in the case of something like a singular entity, this would be a potential figure to explore. I don’t actually have many unique ‘twists’, but I also have a handful of original characters of my own based on Death and the various aspects of it. So I guess I could explain the concepts of death I used to create them:
Memories/Reincarnation
One is a god of the rebirth cycle and memories, where instead of people being reborn as a single soul switching bodies each life, souls are made of threads of memory that get unwoven and rewoven into different soul ‘tapestries’ every time they die. So a new person may have a few disjointed memories of several past lives, potentially of people who lived at the same time, or interacted even, whose soul threads were recycled into the same new soul. This makes reincarnation a more vague concept considering you will likely never be the same combination of soul threads ever again, and what really makes you the same as your past selves if you only contain a thread of them? This could be relieving for people who feel like they did an evil deed in their past life, but also dispels the idea of karma and souls, as you’re more akin to the recycled paper version of your past selves.
Decomposition
Some people think of death as an exact moment when the brain turns off for good. But if you think of death as the entire process of freshly dead to literal dirt, that could be an interesting take. The stages a corpse goes through are fascinating for those who like morbid stuff, and so a character based on that process could also be a concept of death that isn’t always taken into consideration. My character who is based on this is centered on the idea that corpses/skeletons, which are the most symbolic form of death there is, nourish their surroundings. Much like a whalefall, human bodies are also very nutrient rich when left to decompose naturally. There is actually a group that composts human corpses! Using the same method farmers use to compost the corpses of livestock, like cows and such. If you really care to know the specifics, their website is recompose.life — the whole process takes about 8 to 12 weeks, also on the cheaper end of funeral costs and much better for the environment, and you can use your loved ones soil or they will donate it to their partners who need that good nutrient dense ex-human soil. On their website they explain the ingredients in their ‘human compost bin’ style coffins and how the whole process works. As a concept of death as a returning to nature rather than the end of the line, this works similarly to reincarnation. But perhaps a version of Death like this wouldn’t be at the exact moment of death, but just appears to hang with the soul as their body breaks down, wherever it comes to rest. This concept of death could imply the soul doesn’t move on until the body has fully decomposed, which would make preserving the body with chemicals, cold, and other such outside forces cruel and immoral, similar to a ghost trapped within the house they died in. There’s a lot to explore with death as decomposition rather than death as an exact moment. If this were the case, the bodies on Mount Everest would have their souls permanently trapped within them, unable to ever escape. This would also mean cannibalism of a freshly dead corpse is the best way to save them from being eternally trapped if you live in a cold climate where bodies won’t decompose easily or naturally. As I said, tons to work with here as a concept, the implications, and how such a character could play out. In a case of reapers as a species, perhaps the souls of bodies that can’t decompose become reapers, since their soul won’t move on, they are the perfect ones for the job of ushering the souls of the dead who can actually move on to their afterlife or next life. As a solo version of death, this grim reaper could be covered in mushrooms and other things that feed on decaying material, and gets to know each soul intimately since this grim reaper would be with them for a long time. Perhaps, since people die frequently, this grim reaper collects them all in a nomadic community of sorts and the ghosts hang around until their body fully breaks down and they fully enter the afterlife. Depending on where they died, they could hang around for years, decades, and so on. This form of death might be fairly social, working more like a mayor of this community of ghosts.
Moving on as a mental state
This idea is that ghosts hang around when they have regrets, or things they still need to accomplish, and by helping them meet those goals or right those wrongs, they will move on. Some things can’t be fixed posthumously, but this form of death could be someone who works like amnesia and drains the memories and negative feelings that hold the ghost back from entering the afterlife or moving on to whatever comes next. This version wouldn’t be a problem solver, but rather causes the memories of what’s holding them back to fade from their mind. The more burdens a soul has, the longer the forgetting process would take, but it would eventually happen to every soul.
Holiday Figures
(Due to when I’m answering this, I have already written the Christmas advent calendar prompts this year, so my suggestions for unique takes on Krampus and Santa Clause are touched on in prompts posted for that.)
Krampus
A twist for Krampus could be that they are an entity that enters the body of the person at the very bottom of the naughty list, like a curse. Every year on Christmas or whenever Krampus is active and does his work, the person at the bottom of the naughty list gets possessed and transforms into a Krampus-y version of themselves. During the time they are possessed by Krampus, they get controlled by him and have to watch while their hands do his job. Some people may hate this possession period and strive to become better people to avoid having to repeat it again next year, and some might enjoy it and try to become worse people so they remain on the bottom of the naughty list. But Krampus as more a possessing demon or spirit rather than a physical being.
Santa Clause
Maybe this “twist” Santa has an elf employee for everything, to grant any and all wishes, and some elves are in the adult wish granting division. These elves could specialize in everything from writing resumes/references to help land a job, buying socks, helping fix people’s credit scores, landing them an apartment, filling the fridge with food, driving a new fancy car to appear in their driveway that morning, or assassinating someone causing them problems. The options are limitless. Or Santa could do all those things! Santa who caters to adult needs as well as children needs would have a lot of stuff to explore. Or maybe this Santa works in a lottery system of putting every single person on Earth’s Christmas wish list items into a randomizer and drawing 100 to complete that year, which would explain why not all Christmas wishes get answered. This could also mean Santa doesn’t really know what to expect each year and what things he could be requested to do to grant someone’s wish.
Cupid
Maybe this could be a cupid whose arrow doesn’t make people fall in love, but rather opens their hearts to be willing to accept and seek love. More along the lines of the arrow could make someone realize how lonely they are, how important companionship is, how their feelings for a friend in their life might not just be platonic, etc. So rather than taking away any free will, this cupid could just be putting their targets in the mindset to find love or not push love away when it comes to them. Or go dark cupid, maybe the arrow is poisoned, and if they can’t manage to find love within a time frame, they start to succumb to the poison on the arrow, and the only antidote/cure is falling in love. Perhaps a mix of both, their heart becomes open to love, but if they fail to fall in love during that time, they will die.
Easter Bunny
Genuinely never been a fan of the Easter Bunny as a holiday figure - easter is fun, but the Easter Bunny always felt fake to me as a kid, but I will try my best. Maybe this could be a character who is a bunny who likes to make sweets, but because chocolate is toxic to bunnies, they can never eat their creations and thus they never know if they’re any good. So, to solve this problem, they decide to make baskets and leave them for kids, forcing the random children to be taste testers to their chocolate candy creations. And then they just loved seeing the joy it brought the kids, so they keep doing it. They never intended to become an iconic figure, but that is what happened.
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"You deserved better."
A story draft by:me(UTBE)
TW: Implied Child SA and sad stuff.
Important notes:
Hi there, I'm UTBE or Evans and this is an original short story I made with a not so original idea. This is only a draft and this actually means a lot to me, so I would appreciate it if you didn't repost without permission or say this story is yours. Also feel free to listen to the song bellow while reading, since I think it fits most with this story.
Thank you and enjoy!
So in the story, a character we will call 'Present' finds themselves on a Cliffside near the sea and its almost sun down. There, Present finds a younger version of themselves and they decide to go to them. They sit down and start conversing with 'Little them', talking about their day or fun stories. But the kid keeps mentioning people who hurt Present which obviously triggers them, despite this they keep talking.
Soon into the conversation, the kid mentions they're going to have a friend come over to their place. It's all fine until the kid says the friend's name, and the Present realizes that's the name of a 'childhood' friend that sa'd them. To go further into it, Present asks the kid how old they are, and the kid says they're 5 years old. Which is the exact age Present got sa'd by the friend.
So, Present obviously tries and convinces Kid to no longer be friends with them. They keep trying this, even though if they succeed they will no longer exist. But the kid refuses since that friend is their best friend and the kid just met Present so they don't trust them completely. Soon, the kid's mom calls them for its time to leave. Present and the kid say their final goodbyes as they will never see eachother again.
As the kid dissapears into the distance, Present looks out onto the horizon with the sun setting.
Then they speak to themselves as if they're talking to the kid.
"I would've given you the whole world, even my life for you to exist.
You smile and play with no worry or guilt, you're not ridden by anything.
Your mind was pure and full of good intentions for others, you never wished anything bad to happen to anyone.
You loved to tell stories, make others happy, and make your family proud.
You don't deserve the things that are going to happen to you, I wish...our childhood wasn't killed off so early.
I would've done anything just to see you grow up happily, even if it meant me dying.
You deserved the world, you deserved better."
Tears fall down slowly from their face as the sun sets quickly, signifying how fast their childhood went and how long their trauma will stay with them in their life.
The end.
#short story#story#original story#sad thoughts#sad poem#sad quotes#sad poetry#original character#original art#original poem#original post#Spotify
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hi! do you have any tips for a new/just starting out royal simblr? anything you can tell me is greatly appreciated.
also, one more thing: any tips for how to place/adjust tiaras using the hat slider? i’m seriously losing my actual mind over here trying to position tiaras and i don’t even know if i’m doing it right 🤣 ty!
You know, a while ago I actually started writing a guide for new royal simblr but it ended up in my enormous pile of "projects I'll return to when my free time returns from the war!" Here's some of the highlights.
Know what you want to get out of your story... Are you telling a story because you're excited about the community aspect, meeting new people, participating in community events, and making friends? Are you looking to challenge yourself and grow your skills as a story-teller, pose-maker, or editor? Do you want to dress your sims up in pretty clothes and make them smooch? Figure out what you want to accomplish with your story, and prioritize the parts of it that enable you to do that thing.
...but don't do it for notes. There's a big difference between joining a community to make friends and enjoy your shared hobby and joining a community with the intention of building a following and getting a lot of likes, comments, and asks. We all like it when the numbers go up, but focusing exclusively (or almost exclusively) on the numbers is a great way to kill your passion for your story. Comparison is the thief of joy. Write for yourself, not the audience you think another simmer has.
Start small, start simple. Your story will naturally develop in complexity as you revise your outlines and edit posts. The stories you follow might be packed with intricate drama and lots of moving parts, but they (probably) didn't start out that way. Don't feel like you need to roll out a complicated story with a cast of dozens and extensive family trees...you'll have a hard time keeping track of it, and so will your readers. Some of the best story-telling advice I ever got came from a tabletop roleplaying game manual via an actual play podcast: draw maps, leave blank spaces. Know the shape of your story but leave yourself space to improvise and embroider later on.
Pick a good entry point. Expanding on the point above, (imo) the best way to get started is to have a small core cast with clearly-defined relationships reacting to some kind of status-quo altering event, and then building the plot and world out from there. For example: what happens when the elderly king's only living child dies? Does he divorce his also-elderly wife and marry his 20-year-old sidepiece in the hopes of producing a new heir, or does he reconcile with his estranged brother and declare him heir? That's a cast of four (five if you count the dead son) with a lot of baked-in drama and intrigue. Readers are going to want to know what happens next. I want to know what happens next. Someone write this story and send it to me.
A lot of the rest of the guide I have drafted is just me tiredly making a case for making sims who don't look exactly identical, so I'll save that for another day.
ETA: no tips for the hat slider, sorry. i’m constantly fucking that one up, too.
#armorica asks#Anonymous#i was just spitballing on number 4 but i might just actually incorporate that plot#into my plans for the future#like i got a character coming up who is a little turd who WOULD divorce his grieving wife to go have a Replacement Family#hell yeah i talked myself into that get ready for like eight generations of fucking assholes lmao
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hiya there! one piece fan here. the manga was published VERY shortly after my birth, and im a working adult atm. so there's a lot to catch up on. and i mean this in the most honest way possible, there. is. a. lot.
if you want to experience the whole thing from beginning to end, you may have to spend, idk, years? depending on how much free time you want to spend. ofc if you read the manga it cuts down on time, because the anime has fillers every now and then. but some fillers are pretty outstanding and bring some personality to the table.
im not very good of a fan because i like smoother animation. so, ive skipped majority of the manga/anime in favor of watching recent episodes, then reading wiki pages if i get confused about any lore/backstory. btw the recent films starting from one piece film: strong world have god tier animation and were thought up by oda-sensei himself. the great thing about them is that they introduce you to the characters every single film, so they're newcomer-friendly!
but also, one piece is. unmatched in terms of worldbuilding. with like. 20+ years of content and oda-sensei's dedication to the universe, it's staggering to see islands, communities, and people so fleshed out that by the end you either care for them or at least understand where they're coming from --- including some of the worst villains.
it's pretty good. but to get through it, you have to commit but pace yourself or do what i did: pick a place to start and get additional info as needed. one piece is almost as old as i am. not a lot of new readers are picking it up because of its sheer length. but it is rewarding on its own.
one piece makes me want to go on adventures with my friends, make new friends, eat the most delicious food possible, beat up an oppressive government, and learn more about the world. it's an experience, i tell you. and it's worth the time spent.
we're approaching the end of one piece now, which might seem like my little (talented, showstopping, spectacular, etc) brother is retiring from a career that hes been in since he was born or smth, which is odd because im an only child. i'll be sad to see it end, but at the same time i can finally sleep knowing that i can actually read the beginning of one piece all the way to the end if i have the time
p.s. also one piece makes you cry for a fucking boat. thats how good a storyteller oda is.
okay, first of all. can i tell you how beautifully written your ask was? 😭 i felt like you sat me down to tell me a story and i’m just… OKAY WOW. if you’re not already a writer, you need to get in those drafts asap and write something oh my god 🫣💕 but anyways, you truly sold me on at least giving it a try. i feel a little intimidated because most fans seem to be like you and grew up with the show. i regret not watching more anime with my older brother tbh. BUT I WANT TO GIVE IT A TRY. if i can rewatch almost 20 seasons of grey’s anatomy, i can watch one piece. you better not leave me because i’m going to have to talk to you about it OKAY 😤😤
#꒰ 🍰 ꒱ ﹕ཿ ࿓ sweetbox#when you said it was like a little brother my eyes started stinging#you know those parents that are like ‘why aren’t you on the court with lebron’ when they see a tall kid?#that’s me @ you#why aren’t you in front of a computer writing some FICS
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chucklefvcks
(unfinished but i want it out my drafts)
Nina Vievin
Nina is an Aeos celebrity! An 18 year old unite battler who made a name for herself and her then-Skwovet by being a troll, she’s now playing it (a bit) straight in the big leagues!
Appearance
Nina is a white redhead — proper red. Her hair is longer at the back, being near the bottom of her neck at the back yet a bit below jaw-length around her face. She typically has her face framed by hair and a loose strip down the middle that somehow doesn’t bother her. Her eyes are strikingly purple. Under her left eye is a heart tattoo; this is the only body mod she has.
Nina’s professional battle clothes and casual clothes are indistinguishable because they are the same. What’s the point of them being different? Then her work clothes are comfy and her non-work clothes are athletic. Brilliant! As a result her wardrobe is mostly tracksuit bottoms, leggings, and t-shirts, all in bright colours or black for an accentuating piece. The biggest “barrier items” are her cardigans, all of which have no buttons. She wears running shoes all the time.
Personality
With her bright, peppy appearance Nina definitely has the personality to match. When she enters the room everyone feels her happiness for at least a second. She is as bright-eyed as she looks and as bushy-tailed (in the idiomatic sense) as her dear partner, going from group activity to group activity.
Getting her fame from making others happy did leave her with identity issues for a while: if there was no one around to make happy, what was she meant to do? She is definitely better at being alone than when she started out, having taken up gardening. She’s trying to grow berries so she doesn’t have to pay the insane import tax. And for free food.
History
Nina is an only child of amicably divorced parents who separated when she was 2. They shared custody and both raised her and loved her as their worlds. She has lived in Aeos since she was 4, her parents moving after living in Unova for five years.
Nina’s childhood was a happy one.
Misc. Info
X
Chuckles
Nina’s partner Greedent who she met as a Skwovet.
B-t-S Trivia
I asked @fistful-of-rage for help naming her since their characters were a huge inspiration. They came up with naming her after Ninovium, the fake element claimed to be made by Victor Ninov with the number 118 (actually held by Oganesson!) since she’s a troll.
She and Chuckles have had an interview for the Unite Battle Network’s socials!
She is based on my current playstyle in Pokémon Unite: bulky bulky Greedent that’s off like a shot when it’s time to retreat. Then it’s right back to Bullet Seeding the opponent like a gattling gun. I enjoy it greatly.
She was going to be a part of a group of ocs who do a travel documentary series together, acting as the guest star host of the Aeos region episode, then tagging along for Kalos and Galar where she would gain a Cramorant. How she would’ve got the Cramorant may be used for another oc.
I did another Picrew of Nina to give her one of her more casual t-shirts :))
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