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lovesanmotion · 3 years

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yandere!fanboy!ateez reacts: s/o writing a song about them

This is: requested | I guess....the yandere!ateez as fanboys are a success from what I can see. I only uploaded them without thinking. Also, don’t hesitate to blow up my request box! I’m jobless like Hongjoong, Yeosang and Wooyoung. Also, to the sender who requested this, thank you so much for appreciating my blog and writing!

Lyrics I placed in order: Love Battery - LOONA (Immortal Songs) Shadow - F(x) Going Crazy - Secret Jieun ft. BAP Yongguk Peekaboo - Red Velvet Shampoo - After School Babe - Hyuna Into You - Yuri Love Foolish - TWICE

Hongjoong:

“Even if you are not handsome, I like it. Even if you’re not buff, I like it. You are just for me, to me, you are the best.”

Hongjoong stood among the crowd with a foolish smile painted on his lips. His hands placed on top of his chest as he listens to your new song that you are performing at your comeback concert.

“Hold me one more time. Hold me tightly until I burst. Love’s effect must be fading. I need you.”

A soft sigh escapes his lips dramatically. Lovestuck as he watches the love of his life sing a song about him and how she constantly needed his touch or else she’d die from his lack of attention on her.

“Fill me with love. Love battery has drained. I can’t live without you, I really can’t live without you. You are my battery.”

He clutches his chest tightly, his heart beating loudly inside. He didn’t cared how wild the others were cheering for your comeback stage, all that matters to him is that this song was made for him. Just for him. Normally he would promote your songs by requesting them on radio stations, but he hesitated on the idea of promoting it. This was his song. And only he gets the full rights to enjoy it. The others are just listening to it, he thought that you were kind enough to let everyone hear the song you made especially for him.

“To me, you are everything. I like you so much, I totally like you. My only love, there’s no other, my love. You are the best.”

As the comeback concert ended, everyone inside the concert hall talked about how your comeback song is a hit and promised to get you another music show win. The others gushed how you must be in love that you wrote a song about affection.

Hongjoong could only chuckle to himself as he walks out of the venue, hands filled with your individual merchandise and a wallet almost empty after emptying the shelves of your concert goods.

“Stupid fools think that the song is for them when in fact the song is about me. Me! Only me! Why would Y/N ever notice all of you when a whole me exists?” Hongjoong thought to himself as he walked alone late that night.

Seonghwa:

“Everyday, I secretly chase after your footsteps. I’m always careful so you won’t notice. No one says it but our date has started, our own date.”

Click click! Seonghwa focuses his camera on a different angle before taking another shot of you. Click click!

“Where are you going? Step by step, I follow you. Without a word you lead me. Step by step, did you notice me? I have nowhere to hide anymore.”

Yesterday, Starlight made a comeback and today, they are performing their comeback song at a radio station. For this comeback, Starlight’s Y/N participated in the song writing, having been credited two songs in the mini album. She partook writing the comeback song!

“When the sun rises, I walk in sync and together with you. I am really really into you. When the moon rises, you fall asleep in my arms. I really really like you.”

Seonghwa’s parents had been praising him for landing a wonderful job in the corporate world. When in reality, he was only hired by a fellow sasaeng that gave him much flexible work hours so he could still manage to slip out of his work and follow your every footstep in the country or out. He was being paid fairly well even when all he did was just to follow you around.

“Day by day, we resemble each other more and more. Your laughter and tears, I know it all. Don’t be scared, were a fate tied by the sun, its our destiny to be together.”

As the performance ended, the girls sat back down on their seats and the interview rolled in. Fansites can only hang outside of the studio, and of course, Seonghwa is up close, nearest to Y/N.

“Congratulations to Starlight! This is their third comeback and the song is really catchy!” The MC remarked.

“It’s sounds like a summer song! I heard Y/N took part in the production?” The second MC asked, the cameras then turned to face Y/N. Y/N who was flustered, nodded her head. “Yes”

“Can you tell us the story behind the song? Your fans are dying to know the meaning behind such a good song.” The first MC says.

Y/N held the microphone in her head, smiling, she explained: “This is a true to life song. I made a song about a guy who was really handsome and captured my heart. We were always going in the same direction and one time, his hand brushed into mine. And I felt so happy by the small connection.” Y/N chuckles.

When Seonghwa heard about it, he lowered his camera and stared at Y/N. The song was about him. He remembered how he would spend his vacant period at work to follow Y/N when they were shooting an ad around Namsan because of the newly built skywalk. His hand brushed on hers when they were buying food at the convenient store. Seonghwa was so moved by the explanation that he felt like his feelings grew more for you.

“My sunshine likes getting attention. My attention. That’s right, my sunshine, bathe in my attention only. ”

Yunho:

“It’s not love, this isn’t love. It’s just your obsession. Wherever, Whatever I do. It’s frightening. The you who watches me.”

Yunho watched as Y/N practices for her upcoming comeback stage at The Show next week. He admired how she dare approached a bold and mature comeback. And he was so happy to see this new side of his girl. However, he felt like he needed to be more protective of her since she was going for a more risque concept.

“Have you gone crazy? Why are you like this? Please just leave me alone now. Seeing you is suffocating. Please disappear from my sight.”

Yunho stood behind the cameras as he watches Y/N and the featured artist practice. He heard a few staffs make a comment about how the featured artist looks like him. And maybe how you might’ve fallen in love with him. Yunho’s feeling swelled when he heard of those comments. In fact, he was so happy that he heard it from them. But you on the other hand, why do you still deny your feelings for him? Why was it so hard for you to be up front and honest with what you feel? Is it because he works as your manager? You’re in the same company as he is? And that you kept insisting to be professional? At this point, Yunho would resign if that was the case. If he can’t have you because of his line of work, he would be more than pleased to resign and be in your arms everyday.

“Get lost. Just back off. I really can’t breathe. Wherever I go, wherever I am. It’s frightening. The you who follows me.”

Yunho managed to lift the debts off his family. After paying the debts, he was able to even buy a new home for them around Gangnam area. His parents hesitated on the idea at first since owning a land in Gangnam costs way more than renting, Yunho told them not to worry. Not to worry since he is being paid royalty in his job. After that, he was able to spoil you with luxurious gifts and live with you in your apartment. More like forced himself into your home.

“This ain’t right, this isn’t love. It just hurts me, don’t be like this. I loved you. But I don’t now. Erase me from your memory.”

And when the song was released, Yunho was all up for promoting it. He made everyone he know listen to the song in various streaming platforms and watch the MV as well. Whether you would like it or not, Yunho is here to stay in your life. Permanently.

Yeosang:

“Peekaboo! This is new, is this love? All my friends yell at me, they say I have a problem. I’m fine fine fine fine fine fine.”

A small painted Yeosang lips as his eyes followed you on stage. He watched you as you danced in a tight red dress. That was his gift for you last Christmas to be exact. The designer brand didn’t really put it out for sale. They only made one and had it up for auction. It was a dress that accentuated your curves and complimented your skin. Yeosang won the auction and had it included in your next comeback.

“Tag you’re it! It’ll be fun! I’ll include you here. Til the moon hangs on the jungle gym, let’s play”

Since Yeosang is someone who holds a high position in the company, he made a proposal to be your sponsor. At first, your members didn’t like the idea since sponsors have a bad reputation attached to it. But you were naive and still proceeded with the sponsorship. You thought it would go bad, but Yeosang made you feel comfortable in his home and gave you all the fame that you wanted. Never did he once ask anything that was against your morals.

“Peekaboo! It’s strange, you’re different. I stop this game and I look at you again. I’m not a fraid, because I just felt that a new story will begin”

Your members were still cautious about Yeosang orbitting around you. There was something about him that they could not lay a finger on. Scared that they would find their contracts terminated the following day. But seeing you happy, they felt like they needed to stop. As long as you are happy, they are happy. Yeosang included.

“Don’t worry, my love. You’re safe with me. Anyone who accuses you will come to me first.”

San:

It was 9pm when you made a surprise V live alone in the recording room of your company building. San was actually nearby, he was hid inside the convenient store where he bumped into you before.

“Hello everyone! Have you all eaten? I missed you alot.” He watches his Y/N pout in the screen. His heart raced a bit,

“I ate already, my love. Don’t worry.” San responds, as if it was only him that you were talking to.

“I made a new song and I’m in the recording room. Apparently, I was given permission to spoil the song for you!” Y/N happily takes her phone and draws it closer to the company phone of where she is doing her live.

“I wanna be shampoo Trickling down your hair I wanna embrace you With my strong fragrance I will wrap around your entire body With white foam So even the mirrors can’t see you I will cover you So no one can have you You won’t ever get rid of my scent”

“That’s all the spoil for now.” Y/N stops the recording and turns the camera to her face again. She leaned her face closer and read a few comments about how would the fans think.

“What is your inspiration behind this song?” She read aloud. She leaned back in her seat with her lips pursed. “In all honesty, I met a male fan last week. I actually bumped into him and I was able to smell his perfume and...” Y/N paused. “He smelled so good that...was it possible to fall in love just by smelling their perfume?” Y/N chuckles softly.

San had his eyes wide. The song was about him. He felt like bursting from his seat but he refrained himself from doing so.

“I hope he isn’t a weird fan. I also have a fan who constantly bothers me even at the late hours. It’s bothering me. And I hope the person stops soon.” Y/N said. Double jackpot! He got mentioned twice by you. He couldn’t wait until the song releases, he was already booking train station platforms in honor for the release of your song.

Mingi:

Was it possible to fall in love with just a touch? Ever since the incident at the Incheon Airport, your company has become stricter and hired more bodyguards when it comes to outside activities. From what you heard, VS Media is even rewriting their rules when it comes to fan and idol gift giving.

“Come on, let me play some more. Why treat babies gently, I cannot count on you, my age. You’ve walked in any magic. I am the one for you. Everyday I wake up. This is mine.”

Ever since the incident at the airport, you slightly became uncomfortable with the idea of leaving the dorm. Despite your feelings, rest assured that your members were always there for you.

“I am not sleeping today. I remember my eyes. I’m not sleeping.”

It’s been a month since you stepped foot inside the airport again, things were going okay. You were able to walk inside and through the gates without any problem. The fans still following your footsteps, you tried to loosen up yourself a bit - smiling and waving at them. Nothing could go wrong.

Until, you saw a figure from your peripheral vision. You turned your head to take a look, but no one was there. Strange. As you and your group were able to board the plane, you took a seat near the window and pulled out your lyrics notebook. Flipping through the pages, you stopped at an unfinished work. The unfinished work is your solo song used as an outro for Starlight’s upcoming full album.

“Babe babe babe in your eyes. Babe babe babe in your hand. My appearance is babe babe babe babe. I want to hear it again.”

“Are you writing a song?” You were startled with the question. You turned your head and didn’t noticed how a man with a mask and cap sat besides you already.

“Yes I am” You spoke softly. “Can I read it?” the man besides you asked.

You hesitantly gave him the notebook, the man took it and read through the lyrics.

“I like how you composed the song. It’s still in its raw form too. You’re a genius.” The man complimented. You smiled and thanked him for the compliment. The next thing you knew shocked you.

The man placed a hand on your knee, his other free hand removed his mask and cap. Song Mingi. At that moment, you couldn’t process what was happening. All you knew was that your mind kept telling you to tell at least your members. But your body started heating up at his touch.

“Did you miss me?”

Wooyoung:

Wooyoung had disguised himself as the photographer for your album. The night before it came, he worked on creating his fake ID and borrowed a spare camera to use for the production.

“At that smile that sees my eyes. For me, the whole world is bathed in light. Hold my hands and I close my eyes. I hope this time stops here.”

Wooyoung’s breath almost took away as he saw you in black under shorts and wrinkled and almost unbuttoned white button down. He didn’t know what the concept was but his eyes were already feasting on your body, not ever feeling full.

“Fall in love more deeply, you and I. Let’s fall in deeply, you and I together. The one thing that I want. You seep into me, you spread inside of me.”

“Ms Y/N taking the bold move of doing her first sexy concept.” Y/N’s manager teased her. Wooyoung knew everyone who was on set. Him, Y/N, Y/N’s manager, stylist, make up artist and a few production crew that wasn’t part of VS Media.

“What’s the story behind this concept?” Y/N’s manager asked, Wooyoung could only stare in awe at Y/N. Never did he see this side of her. He always knew of Y/N as the sweet and bubbly girl in soft concepts. But of course, Wooyoung love to break the types.

“I actually like to search my name on the internet. And I came across fanfics of myself.” Y/N chuckles. Oh that sweet sound that made Wooyoung’s heart beat fast. The audio recorders can never outdo it.

“There is a certain blog that possibly does a lot. That blog posts photos of me, writes fanfics and posts my schedules too. He’s doing god works for my other fans.” Y/N chuckles. As the production of the photoshoot started, Wooyoung did his best to capture the real beauty of this side of Y/N.

“What a hardworking fan. What’s the name of the blog?”

“ForY/N”

Wooyoung’s eyes widens as he heard the name of his blog. His blog inspired you to make a song....about him?

“Filling my whole heart. With you, I feel my heart. Fall in love more deeply, you and I. Let’s fall in deeply, you and I together.”

“The way that person writes really amazes me. I’d like to get to know the person.” Y/N explains. His mind fell into a spiral. Part of him wanted the song to be released already but there was also a part of him that wanted the song to be released for him only.

“Wish will soon become tomorrow. Today is more heart fluttering than yesterday. I want to go together with you. Closer to the place where my dream reaches.”

The bonus thing about what Wooyoung did today is that as a photographer, he was able to keep some of the photos. Running away even with some.

Jongho:

Jongho fell in line for the release of your album. He was actually second in line as he was actually camping outside of the building of your company.

“Everyday I called out your name, about a thousand times, about ten million times Before you finally heard it Cut and rewind, why can’t you be mine? Ooh the one who spins my head like this It’s you, just running running running around you My repeatedly-midnight promise I don’t know what to do”

Jongho, who had his arms crossed over his chest, looked up and down to turn around where that song was coming from. He hasn’t heard of this song but he knew that was your voice.

“Crazy love! I love you, love you, hate, foolish Crazy love! I love you Make me feel so high Love! I love you, love you, hate, foolish Crazy love! I hate you Make me so bad It’s weird, the more I fall for you I’m sorry, I’ll hate you I don’t know, I can’t explain this I’m trapped in a labyrinth of strange emotions”

The whole room was adorned with your own merchandise and on the TV display was actually an MV of your b side. Jongho took a basket and grabbed a handful of your limited and regular version of your albums, along with a packet of your photocards and a griptok.

As he was in line to pay for his orders, in which his basket was filled as he actually bought more of your items. You made a sudden appearance into the room. For Jongho, he felt as if the room got brighter when you suddenly stepped inside. When it was his turn to pay for his items, the people behind the counter were amazed at how many he was able to fit into his basket.

Tapping his feet impatiently, he wanted to be able to greet you before you left the room. When his bag was handed to him, he immediately took it and sped walk towards your direction, talking to a few.

He felt as if the gods were with him. As he drew closer to you, the ones you were talking to left and it just you and him now.

“Hello Y/N!” Jongho greeted. You turned to him happily. “Hello!”

“I really really like this song of yours!” He gushed happily. “Can you tell me about it?”

You nodded happily. “The song is actually about someone who makes me feel happy, the idea of love in a dangerous way? The idea send me thrills.” You chuckled. Jongho felt ecstatic. Beyond the moon even. You wrote a song about him!

That afternoon when he got home, he made sure that everyone in Seoul would be able to hear the song that you made. It was for him so he had full brag rights to do so.

#ateez #Ateez hongjoong #ateez mingi #ateez scenarios #ateez x reader #ateez yunho #ateez smut #ateez yeosang #ateez jongho #ateez san #ateez seonghwa #ateez wooyoung #ateez yandere #kpop yandere

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ready-to-obeyme · 4 years

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[OM!] Hanahaki Disease + Flowers for Demon Brothers (Part 1)

Scenario: Which flowers would the demon brothers be inflicted with when they develop Hanahaki Disease falling in love with you? + Headcanons to how they would deal with it.

(includes pictures of flowers 🌻🌺)

PART 1 INCLUDES: Lucifer, Mammon, Leviathan, Satan

[PART 2] INCLUDES: Asmodeus, Beelzebub, Belphegor + Diavolo

Note: BIG PINING ENERGY + Unrequited Love aka ANGST; I love hanahaki so i wrote our local demon boys coughing up an a e s t h e t i c bouquet

Lucifer

(White) Sweet Pea = gratitude; departure; also common to give to brides

You have always been a little special to Lucifer, and he has always had a soft spot for you. It wasn’t something big-- he knew he had favorites. Though you were troublesome, you were just as loving and patient as you helped him and his family again and again. Gratitude on its own cannot inflict the hanahaki disease onto a demon, but it is the overwhelming love that comes with his overflowing thanks that has him coughing into his black gloves white petals that contrasts beautifully. It is alarming, but he tells no one, especially not you. (Looking back at it later, the purity of color that his lungs have produced makes him a little wry, because it does make sense that the purest thing about him is his love for you.)

(Blue) Forget-Me-Nots = true love; memories

He is a man who yearns. He wishes for your affection but can never find it in him to ask for it, so he keeps the memories of his time with you together in his heart-- counting them like fragile, little flowers in his palm. And he continues to fall for you as he gets to know you better. Forget-me-nots begin to litter his desk, reminding him how much you dominate his everyday thoughts, in the little things you do.

(Lilac) Azalea = temperance (self-control), passion, fragility; “take care”

At the peak of his love for you, Lucifer has grown so much from who he was before. He finds it fitting when he coughs out petals of lilac azaleas, a memento of how much he has changed and how much he has fallen so deeply in love. There is no turning back-- he is in love with you, with your passion and your strength, and the way he can feel fragile whenever you hold him. “Take care,” the petals say when he coughs out enough to cover the floor of his room the moment you leave the Devildom at the end of the year. He knows already he will miss your presence by his side. He has said nothing to you about his feelings-- doesn’t dare to: there is no happiness in a union between a mortal and immortal.

As much as he wanted to continue loving you, there’s too much to lose and he has too much that must be accomplished

Doesn’t entertain the idea of confessing and having you return those feelings and has them removed

Mammon

Ivy with a sprig of white tendrils = anxious to please, affection

It is a known fact that Mammon falls for you hard and fast. It’s a little jarring, when he thinks back on it, to pull out a vine of ivy with white tendrils from his mouth only when you have only been in the Devildom for a month. But he doesn’t think much about it. It’s obvious he cares for you, yearns for your affection when you’re the first to show him such unconditional kindness, tries his best to please you so you will always look at him favorably.

Sunflower = adoration

Mammon’s feelings for you only grow, but he doesn’t like the fact that the flowers have gotten bigger. It’s easier to dump ivy because they’re found outside, but where in the hell would you find sunflowers in a place without a sun? When he coughs out an entire flower, he saves them and-- upon observing its quality and cleanliness-- gifts them to you. He adores the smile on your face and doesn’t want to let you know that every time the flowers grow in his lungs, they choke and suffocate him.

(Yellow) Primrose = “I can’t live without you.”

Time is running out. You are only authorized to stay in the Devildom for so long, as much as he wants and begs you to stay. Would you stay if you knew that I loved you, he thinks. Do you even love me back? He looks back upon the days before he knew you and doesn’t need to reflect long to know that his world is better with you in it. He doesn’t tell you though, not when you’re awake at least. He had hoped that telling you when you couldn’t hear him would clear his lungs, but the primroses that he coughs up the morning after tells him otherwise and forebodes his decisions in the coming months.

In the scenario he confesses and MC doesn’t return his feelings, he would rather much die than forget he loved you

He knows his love for you has been ingrained into his heart and soul-- and to remove it means removing a part of himself, and he doesn’t know if he wants to do it; it might be foolish but… well, he’s a fool in love.

Leviathan

Hydrangea = gratitude for being understood

Never once have you looked at Levi with disdain when he talked about his interest. Never once has he felt so listened to, having your complete attention when he talks about something that he loves. The hydrangea petals come out in droves, covering the bottom of the tub with gentle violets and blues. It’s the first he’s felt understood, he thinks, of course his body would react so violently to something as novel as that. And besides, being understood is not the same as being loved. Levi keeps the flowers to himself, brushing off any questions and preferring to talk with you instead, spending any time he can get from you that you have not already given to his brothers.

(Yellow) Acacia = true friendship and indicates secret love

You’re his Player 2, his Henry. He can be content with just the notion that the two of you share an unbreakable bond of friendship where you’re there for him and he’s there for you whenever the two of you need it. The acacias, however, tell him he’s in love-- with your smiles, with your affectionate touches, with your laughter. Levi ignores them; he shouldn’t ask for more than he already has.

Daisy = loyal love; “I’ll never tell”

When daisies show up in his bouquet of hanahaki flowers, Levi thinks it’s a little ironic, but for once, he doesn’t argue. He will take his feelings to his grave, if he can help it-- pushing daisies as the humans would say. He’s convinced himself he wasn’t in love with you before, and he could probably do it again when you’re not in the Devildom anymore-- or so he hopes. His heart feels like it’ll never love anyone else when he watches you fall asleep on his shoulders.

Not unlike Mammon, he doesn’t tell his brothers about his illness and tries to fight it off himself-- but feelings are hard to get rid of

Ultimately chooses to have his feelings removed if he can’t do it himself, putting him right where he feels like he belongs as your best friend

He feels like he’s lost something, but soon enough he forgets the time he loved you (for his sake)

Satan

(Blue) Petunia = can be anger/resentment or “Your presence soothes me”; deep trust, peacefulness, intimacy

When Satan coughs out petals of petunia as dark as night, he stares at the bunch of them on the palm of his hand. He tries coughing them up again, but he doesn’t get to decide when the illness acts up. He searches furiously through his library for what he has, quickly coming to the conclusion that he had feelings for you. Of course he did-- considering what you’ve done for him, giving him a chance to make sense of his identity and looking beyond his anger. He knows without a doubt that these petunias do not represent his anger; in fact, they denote the opposite. “Your presence soothes me,” he reads in the language of flowers, wondering if the flowers will change the more he trusts in you and gets closer to you.

(White) Jasmine = Sweet love, amiability

He picks out the white jasmine off his tongue and quietly dumps them into the trash, the sweet scent stuck in his mouth. When you ask him if he’s alright, he turns around and smiles at you-- a sweet, genuine smile that no one can doubt to be sincere. He returns to where he was by your side as he reads the latest novel at your insistence, glancing at you once every other sentence to gauge your reactions. He feels his cheeks flush underneath your gaze, but he doesn’t persuade you to do otherwise. He loves your attention, and sometimes in these quiet moments he can pretend that you’re just as in love with him as he was with you.

White roses = “I’m worthy of you”; loyalty

As the year passes, Satan grows more and more confident of who he is as a person, and where he stands with you. These feelings may have been new, but when the white rose petals tumbles from his mouth, he knows that there is only one thing he must do before you leave. He yearns-- he isn’t different from those with this illness-- but he knows better than to pine after someone who doesn’t feel the same as him after all this time. And regardless of whether you can stay with him, he wants you to know how you make him feel: worthy-- and worthy to be loved by you.

In the chance you don’t feel the same, he’s disappointed. When yellow carnations come from his lips as if to commemorate his rejection, he destroys his room, not in resentment but in the fact that he will have to forget some of the parts you made him feel.

He wishes he could keep these feelings, but knows that it’s unfair to both of you to keep hoping. When you leave the Devildom, he lets himself mourn for what he will lose and removes the flowers.

#obey me #obey me lucifer #obey me mammon #obey me leviathan #obey me satan #obey me headcanons #shall we date obey me #hanahaki disease #angst #flowers

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unreasonablebehaviour · 3 years

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Pls take this random assortment of dsmp “hcs” (which is actually just me rambling out my ass but we love to see it//)

—————

- Sam just like gets really fuccn energetic in a thunderstorm... like just hyperactive but also like v strong..... also immune to electrocution :)

- He’s also like all creepers are, shit terrified of cats which is v funny considering he’s sorta friends with ant

- Even funnier if u want to take the ‘canon’ fact of ant being a whole ass 20 feet tall

- Speaking of ant and this absolutely isn’t a hc but I just find it very funny that people draw humanoid versions of all of the non human characters EXCEPT for ant who I have only ever seen drawn as a cat ghgh

- Bads skin colour is deadass vantablack like if he holds his hand in front of his face it just seemingly vanishes and you can’t pick out where his hand ends and face begins

- I want him to look terrifying.... like absolutely massive a complete unit of a man, sharp ass teeth, sharp spikes and horns, sharp claws, white glowing eyes........... but he’s just like “owo” at all times ghgh

- Skeppy has chronic pain from the diamonds growing inside his body and out of his skin... sometimes he ramps up how cheerful he is to try and hide how much pain he’s in that day

- Ranboo’s body is longer on his enderman side and so he physically can’t stand up straight unless his shorter leg is on a slope

- He’s half silverfish... mainly cause I think that’s funny like hehe both those and endermen are linked to the end/stronghold and can break blocks

- This does also mean he joins bad and skeppy in the ‘help I am v spiky’ club tho

- Also also like absolutely none of his clothes fit cause his limbs are so disproportionately long so rip his ankles in the tundra I guess

- Shortza supremacy

- Sapnap... blaze boy..... I want him to steam when he angy...... v warm to the touch and all of the dteam lay on top of him when it’s cold lmao

- George is like some weird ass mushroom man.... like he looks completely human for the most part but he’s not he just never tells anyone cause he has the mentality of ‘well no one ever asked?’ Or ‘it didn’t seem important’

- When he’s in danger the surrounding plants try to help him (like lmao there’s a war goin on? Nah just take a nap and miss out so you won’t get hurt :) )

- Imagine how much funnier the lmanberg saga would be if schlatt just looked like his profile icon rather than his mc skin.... just cute tiny sheep man in a sweater... I think it’d be like that one gif of the teddy bear slamming its head onto the table to acquire angy eyebrows

- Dreams has symmetrical white patches down the front of skin... kinda like vitiligo but not? Like deadass pure white

- I also kinda just imagine him having creepy solid black eyes ghgh (haha it’s cause he’s possessed)

- He’s immortal and kinda just snapped tbh like half the reason his actions are so manipulative, selfish and drastic are both because he’s so desperate to have control over things in his life and because low-key he kinda hopes that people will find a way to kill him off or get rid of the thing possessing him (I just want a happy ending :( make him not evil pls my poor heart can’t take a non happy for everyone ending//)

- Puffy is fluffy :) I will not elaborate further

- Revived people have creepy blacked out maybe kinda glowing eyes.... paler skin.... scars and phantom pains from their injuries....

- Phil just deadass found Wilbur hiding inside a fridge and took him home with him... wil just assumed the fridge was his mom and Phil found it too funny to correct him

- Tubbo is a moobloom hybrid and all the bees love him ok 💛

- I think it would be funny if dream just deadass can’t see shit through his mask rap considering all the feats he has done

- Phil is v old and ‘wise’ but is also fairly detached from reality as a result cause he can’t really remember what earlier parts of his life were like to understand how other people act

- I also think it’d be hilarious if he ironically had like 0 life skills... cooking? He’s shit at it. Sleep schedule? Never heard of it. Taxes? Isn’t that a state?

- The floors in the tundra trios homes are constantly being ruined by techno having hooves and Phil and maybe ranboo having claws... like u no how u can like dent and scrape a wooden floor with heels? Kinda like that

- Speaking of those three I also think it’d be very funny if they all collectively became useless or started fighting in the presence of a gold block cause like 👀 ‘oo gold/hehe shiny/hold block’ mentality

- Quackity can shapeshift.... but he’s like a ditto and always has the :] face.... mmm also maybe keeps any scars he has

- His ability to control this decreases the more he dies

- So like u could he talking to him and just suddenly he looks like someone else or like a weird mishmash of people and just hasn’t noticed lmao totally not freaky at all

- Literally non of the tundra trio are equipped for the weather like u have someone from the hot af nether, bird man who’d realistically be prone to hypothermia and someone who’s allergic to water like lmao why do yall live here what is wrong with you

- I want niki to just be very exasperated by this fact

- I want her to bake goods for her friends... tailored to their tastes.... cheer up food :)

- Also i forget when she changed her skin but I think it’d be very funny if she dyed her hair pink as an intimidation factor to tommy cause she knows he dislikes techno

- Puffy ily but I do not trust you with Tommy after the disaster that was bbh and skeppys relationship counselling

- The concept of the totems being foolish’s children is very funny to me like just the implication that he just leaves his kids in random chests for people to steal and that when they witness someone die they just explode with revive energy or something like w h a t

- Ghostbur either isn’t actually Wilbur and is just some entity pretending to be him hence the ‘poor memory’ OR him and limbo Wilbur are two halves of one entity

- I just find it v sus that he’s the only ghost that’s ever shown up... and regularly at that

- mmm tubbo hard of hearing.... relies on reading lips the best he can when to help clarify what people are saying but he can hear people well enough if they raise their voice quite loud

- cursed hc but what if ash and Zachary were somehow michael decendants and they like porkums cause he’s either originally a family friend or he just reminds them of stuff

- Ok half of these aren’t even hcs anymore and is just me rambling but who let Karl be in charge of the time travel he has such strong himbo energy

- That being said villain Karl when 👀//

- Why is tubbo like one of the smartest most accomplished people on the sever... he’s like 17..... like my man has been president, developed a new form of fast travel, has a family, developed a nuclear weapons program by himself, launched a man into space, developed a whole town and more .... like who let him have this much power he can barely read//

- I think it’d be funny if techno was just really bad at strategy games..... like ok technically he’s not bad at them but like he just spends 4 days analysing every last minute detail every round to optimise his chances of winning//

- I feel like people don’t give Jack enough credit for the fact he cheated death using nothing but spite

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popculturebuffet · 3 years

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Ducktales Reviews: The Battle for Castle McDuck!

How to sum up how I feel about this episode....

Yeah that’ll do it. This wasn’t a BAD episode. It flowed nicely, had two great new additions to the cast.. but after weeks of really good episodes, warts and all.. this one was just.. okay. Part of the problem isn’t the episode’s fault as I went in expecting the answers to scrooge’s immortality, the answers to hortense we didn’t get last week, and you know donald and della actually getting to interact with their grandparents. I got.. pretty much none of that, though I did get some answer as to how Hortense lived long enough to have donald. But we’ll get to that. Point is part of the episodes baggage is on setting my expectations too high, the same happened with “Astro B.O.Y.D.” earlier this season and in hindsight, that one is really excellent even if it wasn’t the fenton episode I was hoping for, it’s still really damn good. THis one... even if it’s not what I was hoping ofr, while not bad it’s still pretty medicore. Let’s get into why shall we? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- We open at Castle McDuck, where Webby’s narrating for people who didn’t see the last episode set here and aren’t obsessive about watching the show like you or I. And also because this time she’s not so starstruck that she can’t actually speak or function, so she can actually get all the lore she wants in. The family is here because while the Druid stones seem to be working, the mists protecting the castle, and keeping it out of lockstep with reality every 5 years, have suddenly vanished. Naturally Fergus blames Scrooge for that. I’m mixed on this version of Fergus. While i’m fine with chanigng things up from life and times, having him live and having him resent scrooge on some level, it worked better last time as there was emotional weight and a reason behind it: Scrooge and him didn’t get along becasue Fergus missed his boy and resented that his sucess lost him a son and made him cold and bitter like Fergus himself. It fit both men to just be too damn proud to talk it out. So while Fergus being a bit crotchety still isn’t ENITRELY out of character him still being a dick to his son for no real reason and given no new one for being an asshole to him just annoys me. The character last time was three dimensional, understandable and likeable. This one is just a bitter old man constantly yelling at his son and doting on his daughter. More on that bit in a bit.

Downy meanwhile is just as lovely as last time: Since she lived long enough to see her grand children this time, I love seeing her as a wonderful doting grandmother to her great grandbabies. She’s wonderful and I’m thrilled to see her again. It does however bring up one of this episodes biggest issues: Donald and Della are absent and this time for no good reason. Last time, it was fair enough to exclude Donald as there was no real space for him in the narrative, and he likely , even if he loved grandma and grandpa, didn’t want to have to explain his estrangment with scrooge to them and break his poor gram-gram’s heart. That’s fair. This time though? Their not there because.. frank didn’t want to use them. That’s.. literally it. They could’ve fit fine into the family fued narrative epseically since we’ve seen them sibling squabble, and unlike other adventures they’ve been absent, where they clearly just wanted scrooge to have time with the kids, or in the case of rumble for ragnarok scrooge had valid reason for not using them, this time? There’s no good excuse. Della would want to see her grandparents, Donald would get drug along. They only appear every 5 years. WHy the hell wouldn’t they be here?! I get trying to have character ballance but we’ve had several episodes this season of just scrooge and the kids. We DIDN’T need it this time and the lack of characters dosen’t really change anything. It instead wastes plots like getting to see what Donald and Della’s relationships with their grandparents is like, or their aunt, or finding out how their mother died or at least fucking MENTIONING hortense outside of one word and a photo. YOu think the fact their sister is dead would be important to Scrooge and Matilda but it just.. never comes up. Their niece and nephew never come up and my patince comes up short. I’m fine with character ballance but i’m not fine with wasting a golden opportunity for character interactions we haven’t gotten. I get we just had two weeks of donald and della I do, but it dosen’t make this any less frustrating or nonsensical. Having characters appear two episodes in a row dosen’t magically make them irrelevant or we’d be seeing less of Huey or Louie or Dewey and outside of last week, we REALLY haven’t. If they can show up once an episode why can’t their parents?

Point is a mystery’s afoot, and so is THE PHANTOM BLOT.. to no one’s suprise as he was both in the episode’s description and frankly magic being drained is his mo, this time using a portable generator. Webby dosen’t catch on to this.. but I let it slide as while she’s the only one to have really met and fought the blot.. she’s also busy with mc duck family stuff and frankly while a missing mystery is here, given how deep the mcduck rouge’s gallery goes, it’s not a stretch to say it could be any one of them. Especially Glomgold, who while not magic is willing to pay for rediculous shit why would “dispersing scrooge’s family castle’s mists to bug his parents” be any diffrent. Or possibly replace them as their son because he’s kind of nuts and entirely made of stupid and that’s why we love him. And Magica has the obvious motives of revenge on scrooge, as this isn’t her first set of dead parents, and a castle full of mystic wonders. It’s plausable to wait and see who it is first instead of just assuming it’s one guy.

And yup there’s a mysterin town:A set of mystical bagpipes of the clan mcduck that can bring life to where there is none. We don’t know if they can raise the dead but they can bring inanimate objects to life so there’s that. But seriously Donald should take them to his parents graves just to be safe. But before we can get to duck necormancy we have to find them so we get... (checks notes) a Louie and Huey team up again where Louie is an abrasive jackass to his brother for planning ahead, despite the fact he’s been proven wrong on that front twice now, and is entirely insufferable and has learned nothing about trying to find a quick and easy way of doing things depsit elearning this lesson 80 times already.

As you can tell I hate this subplot and am getting it out of the way NOW because it’s not good and treads ground we’ve tread THREE TIMES ALREADY. and you did it right the first time, you did it okay if sloppiily with let’s get dangerous. Why this ? Louie learns nothing, Huey learns nothing and it’s not funny.The two just search for the mystery, and Louie is impatient. Though talking with a friend in a ducktales server, i’m in one now and it actually really helps with these, did make me realize that Louie’s character development has stalled like I thought... it’s simply a Marco Diaz situation. Like the third season of star vs the forces of evil, it’s basically a coin flip if your getting a well developed verison of the character that’s been built up over multiple seasons.. or a jackass whose learned nothing and treats other people badly. Their different FLAVORS of jackass but jackass still tastes awful no matter who it is. It’s not as BAD as it was there as while it’s not helpign the character, it’s not actively having him do the worst things possible, but it still makes Louie’s plots a chore to sit through at times as when he’s not well written like with split sword, rumble for ragnarok or tickening, he’s just a 2 dimensional greedy jerkhole and I don’t want to spend time with him. And the other brothers have had times of being written one dimensional, not going to lie, but all I get from Louie in these plots is this:

After almost getting his family killed, after getting scrooge’s fortune overnight with minimal effort and having everything he wanted only to learn, suprise, it takes a lot of work to maintain.. and he still just dosent’ get that the easy way isn’t always the way, and after the trickining and let’s get dangerous hasn’t learned his brother is usually right when he’s being anal retentive. This was fine in the last 2 seasons but too much has happened for him to get away with this shit and not come off as obnoxious. It just drags any episode it’s in down with it. I”ll leave the rest of the review under the cut.

One more subplot before we dig into the main one: The Phantom Blot and his new partner, Pepper! If you don’t remember her it’s fine as she wasn’t named but she was the egghead voiced by Amy Sedaris who showed up for one scene back in the Blot’s first apperance and who frank said they had more plans for. Well we see those plans now as Pepper has been paired with the Blot for this mission as Bradford’s policy for missing mystery missions now is the buddy system. No going solo, despite the Blot really not liking any of this. Which honestly both fits Bradford, as he’s endlessly practical, and is just a good idea: most of his agents are kind of wild cards and have their own agends so forcing them to work together not only gives them better odds with scrooge, but prevents them from working their own angles against FOWLS better instrests. IN this case having the peppy, energetic and talkative pepper go with the closed off and dogmatic blot keeps him from going overboard, as Castle McDuck is basically one large magical nightmare for him to destroy and Blot keeps pepper on task and on stealth since, as we learn now we get to know her, she’s a bit overly excitable and not all that subtle, if not to dewey or della levels. She can stealth when necessary. She’s also DETERMINED to get the blot to bond with her and work with her, and is delighted to work with him, getting the job because.. no one else wanted it becasue the blot scares people and puts them off with his intensity, which he’s shocked about but really shoudln’t be.

IT’s just a nice dynamic, he helps her be a better agent and she helps him realize he can’t do EVERYTHING alone and that blindly destroying all magic in his path, as much as he’d like to isn’t the option, using some runes to track them. Sure pepper makes their presence obvious once or twice, btu she’s also essential to the mission more often than not and by the end, even if they loose, we’ll get to that, Blot has fully accepted his partner. It’s.. honestly heartwarming when you think about it: The blot’s probably closed him off from personal relationships of any kind because A) his family got brutally murdered by the person he’s hutning and B), he has a mission he can never rest in. He likely wanted to work alone because it’s how he rolls nad i’t sonly through seeing someone who genuinely WANTS to be around him and wants his missiong ot succeed that he realizes he dosen’t have to push everyone away and allies are more useful than none. It’s a warped way of thinking but for someone with as much baggage as blotty, it’s progresss and it’s a really sweet story. HOpefully this relationship will go farther.. I mean strange relationships have happened than a dogmatic dog who hates magic and a peppy go getter both working for an obliviously evil businessman.

So onto the main plot: Turns out Scrooge wasn’t the first person Fergus called this episode as we meet the DT17 version of Matilda! Horay! She’s voice by Michelle Gomez who like David Tennant and Catherine Tate before her is a doctor who alumnus.. though this time she’s past my time watching the show. I really gotta get on catching up. She played Missy, the female regneration of the master. Gomez is spectacular in the part here, and while I have no past experince with her I certainly want to see more of her work as she’s a delight. Matilda is Scrooge’s sister. In the comics she was the duitful sister who looked up to her big brother as he left Scotland to make his fortune, sending money and mementio’s back she scrapbooked. She eventually went with Scrooge to america with him... but this didn’t end well as Scrooge took advantage of his sisters as help and when he finally did take them along on an adventure, it was his lowest point, going from an honest buisness man to a cruel robber baron for one moment and left him and his company. She and Hortense TRIED building a bridge with a suprise party.. but by that point while Scrooge had backed away from being a monster, he was still such a dick things blew up. As far as we know he never saw hortense alive again, and he only saw matilda in her old age with the two reconcliing. I’ll get more into ALL of this when I get to those pieces of life and times obviously. Point is she’s a good character. And so is her reboot version.. but the reboot version did catch me off guard as, much like her dad she’s not really much like the sensible sweet woman from the comics. But given DT17 tends to really play fast and loose with previous versions of characters, and it often works out i’m not going to gripe about it: what they did here works. As for what EXACTLY they did here, this version of Matilda is more flighty: not incomptient or lacking in charm, but due to sort of bouncing from one improable venture to the next and staying at her parents between ventures. She’s sort of a female version of Jubal Pomp, an itallian duck comics character who modelded himself after Scrooge, but dosen’t have the common sense or work ethic scrooge does. That’s really matilda here minus the looking up to scrooge part: she dosen’t seem untalented, just a bit footloose. She also likes needling her brother and is unsuprisingly her dad’s faviorite since she’s around more. The two naturally get under each others skin, and we get our main conflict... not just because of their fighting.. but because Webby can’t help but mettle. She’s what makes this plot work: Webby can’t help but try to interfere because she dosen’t get siblings sometimes fight and have long standing resentments, something I relate to, and that stepping in or trying to end it sometimes just makes it worse. Granted sometimes’ it’s necessary, but in this casey Dewey, whose trying to inch her away is right on the money and after the awful plot with these two in SPlit Sword, it’s nice to see Dewey be in the right, but for actually good reason instead of just because the episode says so. Here he’s right that her getting involved will only escalate and her attempt to do so only reveals Matilda kidnapped scrooge’s pet hair clump and died it. She also has something resembling an emu. This only makes things worse and starts to escalate tensions leading to some between both sides, as Fergus takes Matilda’s and Downy takes scrooges. Again REALLY could’ve used the twins. We do get a nice bit where Webby coaxe Dewey, who understandably dosen’t want to help her further spiral into her own issues by helping mend family issues she really isn’t qualified to solve.. because she’s you know... 13. I mean granted Steven Universe did this sort of thing at her age.. but given he eventually repressed his issues so much he had a mental breakdown and turned into a giant angst monster, and only got better with therapy.. maybe get some therapy instead Webby. Just saying. Therapy everyone? Therapy? But yeah she coaxes Dewey with a statdew, and yes she says that exactly. This gets the family breifly united, as Dewey fakes an injury.. but finding out it’s fakkkke combined with Huey and Louie coming in just causes the enitre family to spiral into squabbling and webby to shut down a bit, with Scrooge planning to form his own clan after bickering iwth his parents and sister. Oh and it only gets worse when Pepper accidently brings some statues to life, and they get in on it too while Webby’s convinced the families over and she just wanted a place in it. And even if this isnt’ the BEST episdoe the show’s ever done, i’ll get to why in a second, I do like this. Webby’s nearly LOST this family once, way back at the end of season 1 when no one but beakly thought of her feelings about her best friends and surrogate uncle all leaving her after her other surrogate uncle you know.. said some pretty unforgivable things. She’s trying SO hard to force it to fit, so hard to fix things because she can’t stand them being broken, something I PAINFULLY relate to given my own personal issues with not being able to stand people being upset with me. She just wanted a family and i’ts gone. Of course it isn’t and webby’s sad words coupled with some house crashers get the clan mcduck statues included to kick Blot and Pepper out and get the bagpipes back, while Scrooge points out it’s the good families that can withstand a squabble. So the mystery’’s gotten, Scrooge and Matilda are squareish... and this episodes thankfully over. Happy day! Final Thoughts: This episode is okay. I very clearly have my problems with it.. but it’s a fine half hour of television and funny enough to bounce through it with some good character stuff. It’s just after the last few weeks, and really this whole season.. I expect more. There was no real emotional core besides webby this episode and her issues wer eboiled down to “Families fight but it’s fine”.. which itself is a pretty uncomplicated message when family dyanmics can be complciated messy and painful. My family is thankfully fairly stable, if not without issues because hey no one is, but given other people watching might come from far worse homes where the bickering is far worse and far more toxic.. yeah maybe have some nuance here. And this is from a show that usualy does that WELL: We saw it with Fergus last time before he was hollowed out for this episode and reduced to an angry dick. We’ve seen it with Donald and Scrooge’s estrangment or Donald and Della’s relationship: Family is complicated , messy and even good ones have problems. That should’ve been the message: family can squabble or even have serious issues but they come back together. Instead we just got a bunch of bickering for a cheesy message that dosen’t quite fit with what the series done. It fits for thanksgiving: family , the good kind, can last arugments and is there for you regardless.. and I know my family is. I just feel they could’ve done the message better. Basically the episode was fine... it just wasn’t up to the high standard this season has set even in it’s down turn and is easily the weakest epseically since Matilda really dosen’t feel all that fleshed out even though what we got of her was great. Basically not a BAD episode.. but it could’ve been a great one, and i’m disapointed the series didn’t try harder. NEXT TIME: regular coverage for the year concludes as we go back a few months chronlogically to find out why Santa and Scrooge hate each other. IT’s christmas time ya’ll! Until then if there’s an episode of ducktales or another disney series you’d like me to take a look at, suggest it in the comments or comission it outright for give bucks via my direct messages on here or send an ask for my discord. Until we meet agian, there’s always another rainbow.

#the battle for castle mcduck!#ducktales spoilers #ducktales #scrooge mcduck #matilda mcduck #webby vanderquack #huey duck #louie duck #dewey duck #fergus mcduck #downy mcduck #the phantom blot #pepper

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shannonwrote · 3 years

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Summary: Set five years in the future; Sam, Robin and Olivia’s lives are a lot different than they had planned or expected. Follow their stories from their past and their present.

“The Oneiroi Triplets. The Oneiroi were the immortals who traveled through dreams appearing as certain types of images.”

Morpheus (god of dreams) — Robin Icelus (god of nightmares) — Sam Phantasos (god of fantastical dreams) — Olivia

Characters: Robin Flores, Olivia Schuyler (TNA/MC), & Drew (Ms. Match)

Fandom(s): The Nanny Affair, Blood Bound, Ms. Match

Notes: Thanks, as always, to the amazing and magnificent @txemrn (even though she’s probably disappointed at the lack of *smut*). Without her, I never would’ve finished this chapter.

Tagging: (if you no longer wish to be tagged, let me know!) @txemrn @lovelyladyk88 @secretaryunpaid @thefrenchiemama @pixie88

PS: Some of you may have read this already. Sorry! I’m in the process of moving my words from the old to the new.

Companion Pictagrams:

Olivia. Robin. Sam. Emily. Cassian. Jenny. Casey. Bryce.

Catch up: Icelus.

Chapter 2: Morpheus

THEN

Robin paced the length of his living room, nervously biting at his cuticles. His thoughts, a hurricane of hope and fear, thundering in his mind. “I can’t do this.”

“Then don’t.” Olivia said from her spot in his oversized chair, not bothering to look up from the book she was reading.

He paused in his pacing, and turned to face her. “What?”

Olivia looked up from her book, her toffee eyes meeting his steel blue ones. “If you don’t think you can do it, don’t.”

His mouth dropped open, as he pointed an accusatory finger at her. “But you said -“

“I know what I said.” She rolled her eyes. “But if you’re too chicken..” She shrugged.

“Don’t!” Robin stated with a shake of his head.

“Don’t, what?” She asked feigning innocence.

“You know exactly what you’re doing, Olivia.” He shook his head again. “And it’s not going to work.”

Olivia set her book down on the table in front her. Resting her chin on her clasped hands, she stared intently at Robin. “What do you want?”

“It’s not that simple.” He huffed out.

“No,” she agreed. “But it can be. You told me once that Dalton Enterprises was your legacy — yours and Sam’s — but you also told me it never really felt like it belonged to you.”

“It didn’t.” He replied, beginning to pace again. “It doesn’t.”

“Why?”

Robin ran his hands through his hair, causing the ends to stick up every which way. “I’m not a Dalton. Not really. Yes, the Dalton’s took me in, and raised and loved me, in their own way, but the Dalton name never really belonged to me. That’s why I went to Tulane instead of Rutgers, and interned at Ahmanet Financial instead of Dalton Enterprises.”

Olivia nodded in acknowledgement. “Then how’d you end up working for your dad?”

Biting the inside of his cheek, he walked to the floor-to-ceiling windows and gazed out at the sparkling city below. “When I finished my internship at Ahmanet, Kamilah asked me what my plans were, and I was honest, I told her I didn’t know. I knew what I wanted, and I knew what was expected of me. In the end, it came down to what felt like family obligations.” He gestured at his blurred reflection in the window. “And here we are.”

Olivia stood up from her chair and approached Robin, sliding into the space between him and the windows. Folding her arms across her chest, her whiskey gaze rose to meet the stormy sea of his.

Robin’s mouth went dry, as the scent of lavender and cedarwood clouded his senses.

“Robin. What do you want?” She repeated her earlier question.

“Olivia.” He rasped, shaking his head, trying desperately to rid his mind of the woman in front of him.

Sliding her arms from her chest, she placed the palm of her hand against the stubble of his cheek. “Stop choosing for everyone else and choose for yourself.”

His eyes closed at her touch, the simple gesture causing his heart to beat erratically in his chest. Releasing a breath, his eyes met hers. “I hate you.” He commented, fracturing the moment.

Olivia grinned, her hand falling to her side. “No. You don’t.” She winked. “Now begone!” Pressing her hands against his chest, she shoved him toward the door. “And don’t come back here until you’re no longer employed at Dalton Enterprises.”

“Technically,” he said raising an eyebrow, “I don’t work at Dalton Enterprises. I work at Dalton-Russo Enterprises.”

Olivia rolled her eyes, “enough stalling.”

Robin caught her hand in his, a soft smile on this face. “Thanks, Olivia.”

She returned his smile with one of her own. “You’re welcome.”

— - — - —

“Trouble with the missus?”

The bartenders scratchy voice rolled over Robin, pulling his thoughts from the depths of his whiskey. “Hmm?”

“That’s the 5th whiskey you’ve tried to find answers in, and your phone’s been vibrating across my counter for the last 15 minutes.” He nodded at the empty seat beside Robin. “Add in the fact that Olivia isn’t in that seat beside you... let’s just say, it’s doesn’t take a genius to recognize lady troubles, my friend.”

“What? I mean — we’re not. It’s not — we’re just friends, Drew.” Robin tumbled through his words.

Drew’s eyebrows rose and disappeared into his salt and pepper waves. “And the whiskey? And the fact that you keep ignoring her calls?” He shot Robin a knowing glance. “I’ve been around the block a few times, kid. The only one you’re fooling is yourself.”

Before Robin could come up with another excuse, his phone vibrated again, Olivia’s name lighting up the screen.

Robin lifted his whiskey to his lips and downed the remaining liquid. Nodding his thanks to Drew as he refilled his glass, he swiped his finger across his phone.

“Olivia.” Robin answered.

“Oh good. You’re alive.” Olivia replied flatly.

“Because you anticipated I would not be?”

“I did think there was a chance you and your brother might kill each other respectively.” Robin could feel her shrug through the phone. “But when I didn’t see anything on the news, I just assumed Sam killed you and Sofia helped him hide your body.”

“Nope. Not dead.” Robin offered, in a voice that didn’t sound anything like his own.

There was a breath of silence, “you’re being weird.”

Robin swallowed his whiskey, tapping his knuckles on the bar for another refill. “I’m not.”

Olivia sighed, the sound almost sad. “Robin...”

Pinching the bridge of his nose, he exhaled a breath, the sound loud in his own ears. “Olivia, just -“

“Robin, what the fuck is going on? Where are you?”

His shoulders slumped. He had spent that last two hours trying to chase the memory of lavender and cedarwood from his senses, but at the sound of her voice, everything came rushing back — the thrum his body always felt at her nearness, the gentleness of her touch, the feelings he had been trying to ignore since the day they met.

Closing his eyes in defeat — knowing he wanted to see her much more than he didn’t — he replied, “The Stockyard.”

Drew refilled his glass with a wink, as Robin disconnected his call. “Don’t start, old man.”

Chortling, Drew put his hands up in surrender and disappeared to the other end of the bar.

He sensed Olivia’s arrival the moment she stepped into the bar. His nerve endings suddenly felt electrified, pricking against his skin, begging to be free and to be closer to her. His heart, a steady thump in his chest, matched the pattern of her footsteps. Since the first day they had met, before they had even been properly introduced, his existence seemed to be attuned to hers. It was a feeling he had hated when she was off chasing his brother, now it was something else entirely.

He pulled a hand down his face, fingers scrapping through his beard, as Olivia claimed the empty stool beside him. He felt the wave of her emotions flow over him, lining his veins with her unspoken questions, as she remained silent, stealing glances at him from the corner of her cognac gaze.

Drew appeared, unprompted, and set an Old Fashioned in front of Olivia. He raised his eyebrows in Robin’s direction, and Olivia shrugged in response.

“I thought we agreed you weren’t going to start, old man.” Robin reminded him, rolling his half empty glass between his hands.

Drew’s lips twitched as he tried to suppress his grin. “Right, sorry.” He said, winking at Olivia.

Scowling at Drew’s retreating form, Robin continued rolling his glass between his hands, ignoring the weighted silence that hung between them.

Robin felt Olivia’s inhale, his lungs filling with the same air.

“You’re being weird.” She said softly, her voice echoing through his chest. “Why? What’s going, Robin?”

He released the breath he had been holding since the scent of lavender and cedarwood consumed him, the sound loud and staticky to his ears, but he remained silent.

Olivia turned in her stool to face Robin, resting her hand on the crook of his arm. “You know I don’t care if you actually quit, right?”

Robin’s glass paused, his breath hitching at the contact. His stormy gaze traveled to the press of her hand on his arm. “I did quit.” He answered, finally, his voice scratchy.

“Then what’s going on?” She pressed, squeezing his arm gently. “We should be celebrating! Not doing whatever this is.”

He lifted his eyes to hers, her eyes the color of champagne in the lowlight of the bar. “Didn’t you hear me? I said I quit.” He emphasized.

Her gaze sparkled with confusion, like the bubbles in champagne. “I feel like I’m missing something.” The hand that wasn’t resting on his arm, found a home against the back of his neck, fingernails scratching against the bottom of his skull. “I thought this was what you wanted.”

His head clouded with her nearness, his nerve endings sparking in their desperation to be closer. He silently cursed the amber liquid mixing with his blood, bringing all the things he normally kept bogged down straight to the surface. He swallowed, his Adam’s apple bobbing from the effort. “It is.”

Olivia sighed, her breath fanning over his face, a mixture of mint and whiskey and the sweetness of cherries. “Robin.” His name was a question and a demand all mixed into one.

The answer to her question rested on his tongue and poisoned his heart. He wet his lips, the taste of whiskey ever present. “I quit working for Sam, so you’re going to leave.”

Her hand stilled against his skull, her touch against his arm lessened, and a thousand different emotions flittered across her features, settling somewhere between hurt, anger and disbelief. “Robin, I’m -“

“Don’t.” He interrupted. He swallowed down the last dregs of his whiskey. “Everyone always leaves. I knew you wouldn’t be the exception. I just - “ His words caught on the lump forming in his throat. “ - I just wanted you to be.” He pulled himself away from her, the slight distance feeling like lifetimes.

“Robin,” Olivia tried again.

He stood up abruptly, setting a handful of bills on the bar counter. “I’ll just - “ He shook his head. “You were supposed to be the exception.” He ached to touch her, to beg her to stay, but he didn’t — he couldn’t, instead he left her sitting at the bar staring after him.

The walk from The Stockyard to his apartment took no time and all the time in the world. He had always known Olivia had remained in his life as a way to keep the door between her and Sam open. He had been a fool to allow himself to think otherwise, to hope their connection meant more.

The moonlight streaming in from the floor-to-ceiling windows cast shadows throughout his apartment, lighting some corners and darkening others.

Robin tossed his suit jacket onto the couch, rolling his sleeves up to his elbows. Placing his forearm against the cool glass of the window, he rested his head against it, staring down at the twinkling lights of the city below.

A short while later, the hairs on the back of Robin’s neck prickled, causing his heart to go into overdrive, and just like at the bar — and every other time she entered a room — he knew Olivia was in the room.

He squeezed his eyes shut, his fingers flexing at his sides. “What’re you doing here, Olivia?”

“I live here.” She replied, her voice echoing around the silent apartment.

Robin inhaled sharply, the simple reminder causing a rift to open in his heart. Of course she had only came back for her stuff. “I could’ve hired someone to pack your things up and deliver them to you.”

“Why would someone need to pack my things? Are you kicking me out?”

Robin’s eyes flew open at her question, her accusation. “N - no, of course not, I just assumed - “ His words caught in his throat, as for the third time that day, the scent of lavender and cedarwood overtook him.

Olivia again slid into the space between Robin and the windows, causing Robin to adjust his forearm, so it now rested just above her head.

“I’m not leaving.” Her words were a puff of air against Robin’s lips. “I’m here because you’re Robin, and I’m Olivia, and that’s the only reason.”

Robin swallowed. “But what about Sam?”

“Why am I here, Robin?” Her eyes like crystallized toffee. “Is it because I’m something Sam can no longer have?”

“What?! No. Never.” He shook his head. “But - “

“You’re Robin.” She said, placing her hand against his erratically beating heart. “I’m Olivia.” She placed her other hand against her own heart. “And we’re the exception.”

Robin felt like he was on fire as he surged forward and crashed his lips against hers.

#the nanny affair #blood bound #robin flores #ms match #tna #ms. match #drew (ms. match)#pixelberry #fanfiction #fanfic #my writings

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clansayeed · 4 years

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Bound by Destiny II, part 1 ― Chapter 3: The Truth

PAIRING: Kamilah Sayeed x MC (Nadya Al Jamil) RATING: Mature

⥼ MASTERLIST ⥽

⥼ Bound by Destiny II, part 1 ⥽

While struggling with nightmares of lives she’s never lived, a shadow from the past looming over her city, and the proposed idea that her life may just be a little bit too weird to handle alone, Nadya makes sure to tell herself that everything is perfect just the way it is. If only. When the self-proclaimed King of Vampires (and Maker of her sometimes-girlfriend and always-boss, can’t forget that little tidbit) Gaius Augustine returns intent on claiming Manhattan as the throne that was promised, she and her friends find themselves forced into the task of saving the world. But with millennia-old vampires and an Order of hunters on their heels as well as allies hiding catastrophic secrets at their backs… it won’t be an easy task. Too bad destiny didn’t exactly ask for her input.

Bound by Destiny II and the rest of the Oblivion Bound series is an ongoing dramatic retelling project of the Bloodbound series and spin-off, Nightbound. Find out more [HERE].

*Let me know if you would like to be added to the Destiny II tag list!

⥼ Chapter Summary ⥽

As it turns out the Trinity is still in New York. A desperate Nadya agrees to meet Valdas and his promise of answers, but is she ready for the truth behind her visions?

[READ IT ON AO3]

Nadya, Lily, and Jax agree to wait until the seventh and final night of Valdas’ offer.

So, naturally, Nadya goes the night before on her own.

The vampire watches her with an uncomfortable curiosity. It doesn’t carry the usual weight of immortality she associates with him. A year ago he moved like every limb was dragging Atlas’ burden by iron chains but now he’s… well he’s just different.

“You know, I was convinced you would wait until the last day to come.”

Nadya shifts uncomfortably in her chair. “I can go if you want,” though she really can’t and hopes he doesn’t take her up on it, “and come back tomorrow.”

“No no, that isn’t what I meant at all. I’m merely surprised. Help remind me to ask for cash back when we’re finished here, would you? I owe Isseya a few hundred for the bet.”

There’s something just… so wrong about a man over two thousand years old talking about ‘cash back.’ Maybe that’s why Kamilah always insists on paying where Nadya can’t see.

But the mention of his partner makes Nadya uneasy. They’ve always been joined at the hip. “She won’t be joining us?”

Valdas shakes his head. “No, not tonight at least. I thought it best we keep this an intimate affair.”

“Ew.”

He gives her a chastising look but says nothing more on it.

Nadya doesn’t know what she was expecting; what she would have done if she had waited for her friends to come along as backup, or if she’d sucked it up and told Adrian and Kamilah about going behind their backs in the worst way. It’s not hard to imagine their looks of disappointment.

Even not knowing what to expect, though, didn’t mean Nadya had prepared herself for a place that’s actually kind of cute. An inside that smells like fresh coffee grinds and vanilla and a surprisingly decent bit of sidewalk real estate gated off with a wooden fence painted glossy black.

Not that any of that eases her worry. She’s prepared herself for the worst — tenses up at every passerby, catches herself halfway reaching for the stake in her purse when the vampire across so much as shifts in his seat.

Only Valdas is the epitome of a gentleman. He plays the part he’s dressed for almost too well. Still, Nadya reminds herself not to be fooled, not even for a second. She’s seen what he can become; what he can do. Sometimes she still tastes Vega’s ashes tickling at the back of her throat.

He glances up at the strings of yellowed lights crossed aimlessly over their heads. “It’s a rather charming place, wouldn’t you say? And, I hope, agreeable to your anxieties. Though I wish you would have let me take you somewhere —”

“Somewhere what,” interrupts Nadya; words bursting with accusation, “somewhere secluded and private, or with leather and torture devices?”

Valdas raises a single dark eyebrow in an ‘are you quite finished?’ way and no, she’s not — not by a long shot. But she’s willing to admit (silently, to herself, not out loud whatsoever) she might be making it worse for herself at this point.

Especially when he answers.

“Somewhere proper; with enough courses to get us through what I’m sure will be a difficult if enlightening conversation for you and I to have, Nadya.”

Yeah, especially then.

“Oh. No — this is fine.”

Someone clears their throat behind her; makes Nadya almost jump out of her seat in a heart attack. The barista does his level best not to laugh at her while he adjusts his tray bearing a steaming mug on a saucer and a plate of tiny finger sandwiches. “Oh, we didn’t —”

“Here will be fine,” Valdas pushes his folded newspaper aside, “thank you.”

He’s young; one of those obviously-New York types with several studs in his ears and a streak of blue in his blond hair, and likely a long-time server judging by the way his face goes red at Valdas’ simple act of common decency. Run, she wants to shout because she’s seen that darkly alluring smile before and nothing good can come of it, run while you still can.

Instead Nadya mouths a voiceless thanks. They are left alone.

“I didn’t order anything.”

“I took it upon myself.”

“But you didn’t know which night I would show up.”

“Indeed. After the third night they knew my order by heart.” He glances appraisingly towards the inside cafe — Nadya on the other hand can’t focus on anything but their reflections in the glass. “It’s hard to find attention to detail like that these days outside of hired help.”

With pursed lips Nadya pushes the latte away. “You really shouldn’t have. I can’t —”

“It’s soy milk, if that’s what you’re worried about.” Uhm, what? Yeah — only one of them finds her surprise funny and hint; it’s not Nadya.

“At the Awakening Ball, shortly after our first introductions. You were rather loudly threatening Raines and Sayeed with what I believe was a platter of artisan cheeses?”

“That’s… very diligent of you.” Creepy. It’s creepy. It’s so so freakin’ creepy.

Valdas gives a soft snort of amusement. “I’m old, Nadya, but not antiquated. In fact I’ve been looking for someone to discuss the latest season of The Crown & the Flame with, should you have time after our business is concluded.”

“That’s not —” This is so getting out of hand; more than that its wasting time.

She can’t let this chance slip through her fingers. “What are you trying to do? I didn’t come here to have small talk or drink coffee or talk TV, and I’m pretty dang sure that’s not why you invited me but if it is then tell me now because I don’t have time for it.”

“Very well,” he says just a little too flippantly for her growing irritation, “I thought you might be more comfortable this way. I apologize.”

“Apology only accepted if you start talking.”

The vampire leans forward a little too quickly for Nadya’s liking. All that arrogance, immortality; suddenly so plain on his expression he might as well have ‘VAMPIRE’ painted on his forehead.

It takes everything in her not to move away.

So many questions and now she can finally get her answers. But it leaves Nadya a bit stalled on where to start. But Valdas stays eerily patient.

Okay, big questions. “Am I dying?”

“You’re mortal, you are dying from the moment you’re birthed.” Which is not the answer Nadya’s looking for and he knows it. “But no, not more than any other.”

“Do you plan on killing me?”

“No; you are far too valuable for that.”

“What does that mean?”

Valdas carefully chooses every word to answer; “It means… that we are very happy you are alive, Nadya.” And his not-answers feel a little too close on the family tree to Nadya’s mostly-truths.

Though if he thinks she missed that “we” thing he’s very much mistaken.

“So my nightmares, what exactly are they?”

He’s too casual — plucking one of the sandwiches on the tray and nibbling it idly. Nadya entertains the image of her throwing it in his face… it’s a nice one.

“Nightmares, you say? So the visions only come to you when you sleep?”

“Visions?”

“Visions, mental images, nightmares — name them what you will but they are the same thing. Events you never witnessed, lives you never lived…”

“People I’ve never killed?”

The words come out of her so scared, so broken; and Nadya’s almost angry for it. A sound so pitiful that even Valdas — the same man who threatened Jax so easily, hurt Adrian and Kamilah so easily, killed Vega so easily — lets sympathy slip through the seams of him.

“And those, yes. They are all a part of you; they have been all your life even if you were once unaware, and they will remain that way from this day to your last day.”

Nadya shakes her head so hard it hurts. “No. No way I — I can’t feel like this forever. I won’t survive it. I… I won’t. I feel less and less like me every time I wake up. There won’t be enough of me left.” I worry there isn’t enough already.

And he really sits there without an answer for her? Two thousand years and this is all he’s good for; making her feel like her life is already over? What good is it to live for so freakin’ long if it can’t help her; save her?

“What did you do to me,” it feels good to ask; really good — better than she’s felt in a while, “why did you do it? How do I stop it, or make it hurt less, or make it happen less, or —”

“Forgive me —” —she doesn’t— “— but… you believe I am somehow responsible for these visions? When I just told you they were yours from your first breath.”

“Well what else am I supposed to think?” Nadya snaps. “My head almost explodes, you do some weird psychic mojo that makes it better but also makes it worse, and the last thing your bonkers girlfriend—who conveniently isn’t here—says to me is “enjoy my gift?” I gotta say — that all seems pretty freakin’ responsible to me!”

The last time she raised her voice at Valdas, Nadya had Kamilah and Adrian combined to back her up. Yet here she is, no immortality at her back, and honestly she doesn’t even care.

“I am scared, okay? So, so scared — scared enough that I’m doing stupid things that I know I shouldn’t be doing, lying to the people I love, going behind their backs and putting myself in danger and you know why?”

“Because fear is an irrational motivator.”

“Shut up. It’s because I would do all of that again and again and again if it helps me find a way to make this stop. If it takes away all of these horrible feelings that aren’t even my own and… and stops tearing me up inside.”

Who are you, Nadya asks herself, because they may be her words in her voice but they’re so wrong — so not Nadya. And that just adds onto her already existing fear.

It’s not fair.

None of this is fair.

Valdas waits until Nadya catches her breath; until he can hear the slowing down of her heart. “Are you quite done?”

“I dunno,” her face is still flushed, “but… sorry.”

“Whatever for?”

“For telling you to shut up.” Because she’s pretty dang certain if anyone else had tried that they wouldn’t have gotten to finish saying their piece.

But she did. Valdas let her get it out until she was pink in the face and more than a little hot under her coat collar despite the bitter night breeze. Why?

“No one should ever feel the need to apologize for their grief.”

Nadya glances up from her white-knuckled hands; but Valdas isn’t there — not mentally, anyway. His focus is far off and distant… millennia away. “Grief is a complex thing felt in complex ways. It kills us inside… but the pain of it is proof we are alive, too.”

“I’m not grieving though. I can’t grieve. I have to hope there’s a way to fix it.”

“If my efforts to ebb the storm still leave you this way Nadya, I must admit I’m doubtful of it.”

How is it something so bleak leaves her so breathless?

“What do you mean,” she chokes out, “what—what efforts?”

“The ones you would so quickly write off as malice. Though I suppose I’ll give you one thing — my beloved Iss’ has a knack for making most things sound malicious.”

“That’s an understatement…” and apparently the only bad thing he’ll ever say about her, “so—so wait. I don’t… I don’t understand.”

Valdas does the decent thing and turns his face away, but that doesn’t mean Nadya misses the color me surprised raised brow.

“Psychic prominence can be innate, yes, but when you reach a certain age most talents are easily learned. I had hoped the web I was allowed to spin in your mind that night at the Musea Sanguis would hold long enough to bring us to this point naturally. Sadly this was not the case.”

He offers his hand out palm-up between them. He could just as easily take what he wants from her but no, he’s offering.

And the more she thinks about it the more Nadya realizes Valdas had done the same that night. “I thought… when I touched this—this column I could’ve sworn I… that something to do with you had…”

Valdas nods with growing understanding.

“Well that’s to be expected. When psychic abilities grate up against one another it’s a bit like grit-paper on stone; the outer layer of the stone crumbles into a fine powder, yes? The influence that was being pressed unto you turned you into the grit — the rest of the world; your stone.”

“So it’s all in… in touch?” Nadya looks down at her hands as she asks.

“No, but given the borders of your capabilities…” The curl of his fingers draws them both down to watch. “Physical contact is a tether in any instance. But objects have memories just like people do, Nadya. And we vampires are an odd in-between of the two.

“I could show you — if you wish.”

Their fingertips couldn’t be more than four—five inches apart. But to Nadya it looks like miles; like ages stretching out across the tabletop.

Two thousand years of history, of life; of love. And the very idea of inducing this terror upon herself has Nadya actually questioning her sanity — and rightly so. But there’s a power in it, too; in controlling it, not letting it control her.

The last of her reservations are dashed when her mind unhelpfully supplies the memory of Kamilah in the penthouse kitchen — hands hesitant to hold her, to hurt her; fear hidden in the familiar dark of her eyes, fear both of and for Nadya. Because she’s not torturing herself enough already, apparently.

“You don’t have to. The choice is yours.” Really though — is it?

No. “No, it’s not.”

Nadya sucks in a deep breath and dives in headfirst by giving Valdas her hand.

In his dreams they do this bathed in sunlight. But dreams are for the young and the innocent. He is the Made-God Valdemaras and he is neither.

The rapier catches in the grooves of his vest and bends dangerously close to snapping. Behind him, Isseya laughs giddy and without care.

“You know, you really should be cheering on your Maker, darling girl.”

Valdas rounds on her but she meets him petulantly prideful. “Should I? Lucky for me that I am free to champion whomever I wish.”

“Fair enough. I would champion him too, if I could.”

They both look to watch him pull the ribbon from his hair; it falls damp around his shoulders — little golden wisps clinging to the sweat on his forehead. The exhaustion of his efforts flashes bright in the deep red of his eyes but his smile is as unwavering as his beauty.

“I’m flattered, truly,” Cynbel croons to the pair of them, “but that would leave me with no one worthy of a good spar and you know how troublesome my spells of boredom can be.”

Likely that he thinks the wink he gives their girl is a charming one. But taken with him as they are their love does not blind them — not anymore.

“Indeed.” Valdas clicks his tongue and begins to undo the clasps of his suit. “But that is enough sparring for tonight, I think.”

“And what of my prize?”

Before he can say another word strong arms embrace him close; hold him in the rough-hewn fingertips that claim Valdas’ body as easily as they cradle it. When he looks up it’s to the familiar sight of adoring eyes; of endless devotion.

As if the kiss Cynbel steals from him doesn’t say as such enough on its own.

“Satisfactory?” Valdas asks his Golden Son — though he already knows the answer.

“Rather I would call it divine.”

He decides he will commit this, right here, to the parts of his memory that will never wane with the ages.

At the very least he is owed that. They all are.

Nadya and Valdas realize it at the same time. The trembling of their joined hands isn’t Nadya’s fault at all, but rather the rarest and greatest slip of the vampire’s composure.

But he doesn’t let her go. He can’t, she accepts solemnly, because this wasn’t about showing me anything. It was about seeing.

It was about him.

So Nadya spares him the indignity and brings her hand back to rest in her lap. Valdas startles as if from a deep sleep; runs his hands over his face and Nadya can’t help but hurt for him as she watches that careful mask slide back into place.

“Forgive me,” he clears his throat abruptly, “I wasn’t expecting you to be this, ahem, advanced — for you to be able to project the, erm —”

“‘No one should ever feel the need to apologize for their grief.’”

The vampire focuses on her sharply — the look he gives her makes her feel complex and worth studying. Or maybe she’s just feeling him still; feeling the things that break his heart with every passing day. When he realizes then that she’s sincere — that Nadya repeats his earlier sentiments because she believes they will heal him somehow — he visibly eases.

“You are wiser than your years, you know.”

“Lately they aren’t exactly my years though, are they?”

In her lap Nadya digs around in her purse and pulls out a small journal. Even just the sight of it makes her queasy but she has no one to blame but herself. When she tries to toss it down between them Nadya finds her grip only tightening — her fear of its discovery so innate she has a hard time letting it go even willingly.

Valdas sees this and reaches out; strangely careful to avoid touching Nadya directly as he pries it free. “What is this?”

“A journal.”

“Yes, I can see that.” He begins flipping through the book; eyes roaming over Nadya’s neat scrawl. Page after page of it; filled from top to bottom in various colored pens and then some. Tabbed notes and scribbled margins — but the closer he gets to the end the more chaotic the entries become.

Careful recall hours later turned into hasty ramblings in the throes of panic. The ravings of a mad woman.

“I don’t always remember,” explains Nadya, “but I write down what I can.”

“What you can remember?”

“What I can stomach.”

If anyone understands it would be him. He’s practically dripping in blood; it oozes from his pores just like his infallible persona. And Nadya hates that she knows this with certainty.

Valdas stops on a page near the end; leans forward intensely as he tries to decipher her cursive’s best impression of wet noodles. Do you know how hard it is to write with gel pens, hands shaking and slippery from sweaty palms, in a blacked out room when you can’t tell the difference between the pages and the bodies piling up before your eyes?

Pretty freakin’ hard.

The way he reads it though — like some riveting tale to stand the test of time. In a way it does, maybe. “I was here for this,” and he sounds a little too amused for her liking; nothing in that awful book is amusing, “we all were, even dear Kamilah. From the tone with which you write I would say this is the petit Lafayette’s account of the siege of his township.

“You write with great passion; ever considered a career in fiction?” He pushes the journal back her way with a single finger. Nadya practically snatches it up to be buried back in her bag. Underneath the work notepad and pens, her glasses case and the stake she is never without.

Only when her secrets are six feet under does Nadya relax.

“I wouldn’t dream of exposing the world to those terrible things.”

“The world has already been exposed to them.”

“Well I shouldn’t have been, but I didn’t really get the chance to choose did I?” Nadya stares at him hard. Valdas has the good sense not to justify a reply.

Already the city is well into bed with the night around them. The cafe window bathes the pair and the sidewalk in soft yellowing light but directly across the street neon pinks and blues flicker out of the corner of her sight.

How long have they been here, she wonders, but can’t muster up the courage to look at her phone. They have to know by now; they have to. Lily’s probably already GPSed her and they’re all on their way, crammed into Jax’s fake plumbing van, ready to jump out and hog tie Valdas while shoving a dirty rag into his mouth… actually maybe he’s on to something with this ‘fiction writer’ idea.

“Why didn’t I get to choose, Valdas?” Because he’s old — he’s so old which means he has to know. He has to. That’s why she’s here. That’s why she’s risking everything to be here.

“Rarely are we given the opportunity to choose our own destiny.”

“But it’s possible, right?”

He gives a reluctant nod. “Yes… for others. But not for you, Nadya. I would have thought this, here—tonight—had given you clarity of that.”

Clarity? More like the exact opposite. Nadya feels deeper in the fog than ever and that’s just fact. But is it so wrong for her to hold out even a crumb of hope?

Valdas sees this — her resistance — and maybe he even admires her for it. The man lifts his hand and Nadya readies herself to flinch away—don’t touch me pleasedon’ttouchme I don’t want to see any more please—but he hovers it just shy of her skin. So close he can feel the heat of her cheek against his palm.

“It’s unfortunate what little control you did have was taken from you so soon.”

“I don’t understand.”

His brow furrows. “I said as such, remember? You were always meant to walk this path but Jameson’s influence sped the world up beneath your feet; sent you along farther than you were meant to be.”

Shut the front door.

Nadya recoils so hard her chair legs scrape against the concrete loud and jarring. Suddenly all the little beautiful things around them — the lights, the baristas winding down inside, even the people just passing by beyond the gate — seem dull; lifeless.

“Ja—Jameson? What are you talking about?”

He had even agreed with her: it made sense to think Valdas was the one doing all the pulling of the strings. But okay — so it isn’t him. Jameson, though? “Jameson. Jameson, Jameson. Like the weird little librarian guy; the one from Adrian’s trial. That. Jameson.”

“Yes…” answers Valdas, and Nadya really isn’t a fan of how hesitant he says it, “He’s the only prominent psychic in the country. Moreso than myself, even.”

Holy… crap. Totally not a conclusion she would have even put under the ‘Extremely Unlikely Possibilities’ category — like at all. But the wild thing is the more the idea has time to marinate the more Nadya’s starting to get it. The more she’s starting to believe him because somehow it makes… sense?

“No,” no, remember who this is, remember how he lied so easily and condemned Adrian to death, “no no, that’s not… he’s a member of Kamilah’s clan!”

Which apparently is news. “Is he really? That’s surprisingly deceptive of him.”

Surprisingly deceptive. Ha!

This is too much to process. Nadya’s still reeling — she’s still him in a way, still feeling the pressure of his eternal life crushing her own heart in a stone grip. It doesn’t make sense and it also makes total sense; she just isn’t certain which one of them is real.

That doubt screams at her through the pain still growing. How dare you trust him, it growls; a monster hiding under the bed, after what he did to Adrian, after what they did to Adrian, to Kamilah, to you! Are you really so desperate and so far gone?

Of course she remembers his lies. So easy and flawless and done on the thinnest whim because of what — a rumor; a ghost hidden behind another man’s face? The pain he’d caused them all…

“You can’t expect me to trust you.”

“Perhaps not ‘expect’ so much as hope I’ve proven enough to you tonight that such trust comes willingly.”

“Do you really think it’s that easy?” She bites the words off her tongue in chunks of anger; frustration. “Or is it that you think I’m still just some dumb human who will believe the scary old vampire without even a question otherwise.”

“Quite the opposite. I think you resilient, resourceful, and yet reticent to act on impulse — when you’re of sound mind that is.”

“So you’re calling me nuts.”

“I’m saying the fault isn’t yours. And if you’re still hesitant to believe me then there’s a very simple way to prove the truth.”

The second time Nadya holds his hand is much less reluctant. Maybe part of her wants to get it over with. Maybe whatever’s left hopes she’ll find something wrong in him; his intentions. Like a validation.

She squeezes so hard it hurts her palm but what is feeble mortal strength compared to, well, him? And…

“Nothing?”

He keeps them connected — really just completely dedicated to this whole proving himself trustworthy thing, apparently. “Don’t sound so disappointed.”

But really; there’s nothing. Not the low-key anticipatory bombardment of visions and the feelings that come with them. Not voices or sensations that aren’t her own. And not even some weird warm glow of altruism either.

It’s comforting as much as it is worrisome but in the absence Nadya realizes just how tired she is.

“You’ve helped me, tonight.” There are so many things to tell Kamilah, Adrian. Finally a step closer and she gets to rub being right in their faces on top of it. “Really… really helped — maybe more than you know.”

His chin raises slightly. “Is that a ‘thank you?’”

“It’s a question.”

Why did you do it?

Valdas’ thumb tickles the bare skin of her wrist in gentle motions. It’s intimate — weirdly so. Which means Nadya is completely justified when she takes her hand back.

Until he squeezes tighter, that is.

“This was the last act of my own free will. Perhaps not forever—hopefully not forever; I’ve had quite a few forevers already and they are dreadfully long.”

Nadya tugs again in vain. It’s like a completely different man sitting across from her, now. Darker; deeper and digging deeper still. She doesn’t want to dig deeper, though, but the longer Valdas holds on the more the choice is taken from her.

Another thing taken from her.

Her voice cracks slightly. “Valdas… please let me go.” They’re still out in the open air but it breathes heavy and stifling in her lungs. Reeking of dust and mothballs and other old, ancient things.

It’s the Musea Sanguis all over again. The onyx coffin that haunts her nightmares — the ones that belong solely to Nadya Al Jamil.

She meets Valdas’ eyes and the fathoms of them are too many to count.

“I wanted to help you, Nadya. I wanted this, the act before the sin, to be one that mattered — one that meant something.”

“W-What sin?”

“Forgive me.”

“Val—”

He’s holding her too close — Nadya can’t pull back far enough. But someone, probably Kamilah — definitely Kamilah, should be proud of her that she struggles every moment.

“You don’t have to do this.”

“I wish that were the case.”

All the way up until his fingertips brush her temple and the world goes dark.

LINEHERE

In between waking and being awake there is a place where all is calm and well. Where she feels safe and warm and at peace. How often does she get that these days? Is it any wonder she clings to it desperately?

Long fingers brush through her hair. There is a warmth about them, even dark as they are — even though they haven’t seen the sunlight in so many years.

Lost, lonely — yet they comfort her even now.

Nadya opens her eyes and the first thing she sees is the shifting canopy of leaves overhead. No—not leaves. Dark green fabric, sheer and draped around the four posters at each corner of the bed and over her head like an old ritual dance. One that called upon forgotten things and spoke in relic tongues. She can taste the words of them; bright mint and heavy sage. All she need do is open her mouth.

“Ssh… not yet, my darling.”

The hand slips from her hair and Nadya keens at the loss. Turns towards where the touch might have come from like a child comforted in a storm.

The woman beside her has been wandering the dark for so long. Nadya can smell crisp groundwater on Her skin; salt on the back of Her tongue. The rich caramel of Her covered in the brightest white she’s ever seen.

“I’m scared,” Nadya tells Her. Is it possible to know a stranger all her life?

Perhaps it is. Just as it’s possible for the woman to laugh above her, face just out of sight, and for it to sound like every song she’s ever known or loved and also like nothing she’s ever had the luck to hear before.

“I know. But you must be brave.”

“I’m tired of being brave.”

“I was, too,” Nadya sighs as she feels an arm come around her shoulders; strong and more certain than she’ll ever be, “but that does not mean your trials are done. Be brave for yourself; and be brave for the both of us.”

She’s about to protest when the door opens on the other side of the room.

Nadya sits upright at the sound; fights through the waves of nausea and vertigo that wash over her and blind her with colorless spots of light behind her open eyes. She reaches out — waits for the stranger woman’s touch — but it doesn’t come.

When she can see everything right again Nadya doesn’t understand why she was waiting for someone there, anyway. The bed is barely rumpled. She’s alone.

“Ease yourself, Nadya. Your heart sounds like a racehorse.”

Oh, hell no.

She doesn’t have to see him to know the dark figure that watches her with the closed door at his back.

Valdas crosses the room in several long strides and holds something out to her. She knows the glint of her glasses in the otherwise dim light and snatches them from him; but tosses them onto the bedspread to be abandoned.

She doesn’t want to see him; the false sympathy in his eyes. He’s lied to Nadya enough already.

“Where am I?”

“Putting your glasses on might help.”

“I don’t want to look at your face.”

Valdas sighs. “Nadya…”

“Don’t you dare,” the rage that seethes from her clenched teeth surprises them both but gotta say — Nadya’s kind of a fan of it, “don’t. you. dare say my name like that. When you…”

She looks around again. Tries to keep dignified through wide eyes even though everything is a blur. Now it’s the principle of the thing. She can just make out the cut frame of the door beyond him.

Nadya spreads her fingers out on the coverlet like she’s searching. Can’t see Valdas’ face but she knows—she knows him maybe a little better than she knows herself right now. Just like she knows when he thinks he realizes what she’s doing and reaches out to grab them; to help her.

She clutches a blind hand desperately around the tassel of a pillow and whips it at his face as hard as she can.

“Asshole!”

The pillow does about as much damage to the millennia-old vampire as, well, a pillow would. But it gives her an opening and Nadya takes it.

Launches herself from the bed and hits the ground running; stumbling — her depth perception absolutely shot — but clear of him and with the black seam of freedom just barely in her sights.

It takes two steps for her to feel an ironclad weight clasping around her arm to pull her back.

“No—no nono!” Nadya screams; struggles against Valdas’ hold but the vampire is too strong. She might as well be trying to tear down a skyscraper with her bare hands.

He wraps both arms around her middle and knocks the breath from her lungs. But desperation — it’s a funny thing. Gives Nadya just that little kick of adrenaline she needs to keep fighting even if she chokes on every effort.

“Please stop this,” he growls in her ear, “the only one you’re hurting is yourself!”

“You’re insane. You’re a psychopath!” I’m a fool for trusting you.

“Nadya I can explain —”

“Don’t wanna hear it! Guh— lemme go!”

“I was the lesser of two evils I assure you!”

“Bull!” She pops her ankle and feels it collide between his legs with a fleeting satisfaction. Valdas crumples slightly, hisses at the pain that lances through him. Just enough for her to pry free and make another, equally mad dash for freedom.

The moment Nadya clutches at the door handle it jerks open; sends her flying backwards where she collides painfully with the rug.

“Grief, Valdas, she’s a fucking human child. How hard can it be?”

She almost doesn’t recognize Isseya at first — the proud woman of the abyss Nadya had last seen in the Council Chambers barely even a shadow flickered on her face.

In the time it takes the other vampire to assess the situation, though, Nadya is already scrambling ready to crawl her way out if that’s what it will take.

Valdas growls around his injury. “Iss’—”

“Yes yes, I’m not a fool.” Then Nadya screams, loud as she possibly can — tries to tear through the claw raking its way through her hair such a violent touch where was the kindness of the dark from before but it hurts too much too much and no matter how hard she hits Isseya’s grip doesn’t let up in the slightest.

She yanks Nadya up by her hair like a puppet on strings. “And I think you’ll find it a little bit harder to incapacitate me in such a way.”

“Let me go!”

“Need I even humor that with an answer?”

Valdas comes into view through the pain prickling at the edges of her vision. “Let her go, beloved.”

Behind her Isseya’s voice drips with irritation. “But —”

“Isseya. You know our orders.”

“Well I’ve harmed more than a few hairs on her head. Better to ask forgiveness, no?”

“No.”

Finally she’s released and the suddenness of it sends Nadya flying forward. Her hands and knees burning against thick wool fibers everything blurrier than blurry from the tears and she tries not to think too hard about the hairs she had felt torn from her head.

But, really, it’s her fault in the end — for thinking it was gonna be that easy.

When is anything ever that easy?

“Are you mostly unharmed?”

His legs come into her smudged view before Nadya can even blink. Valdas reaches out a hand in offering; she smacks it away instead. “Like I’d fall for that twice,” she mutters ragged; feels the last breaths of her screams for help itching in the back of her throat but knows, ultimately, they’re of no use. Standing alone is an effort but she manages it because she will not look weaker than she already is.

“Am I…” Nadya’s scoff is a bitter surprise in her mouth, “are you really doing this right now? Good vampire, bad vampire?”

“You think this is bad, just wait until the appetizer,” says Isseya — too close says Nadya’s entire nervous system and every hair on the back of her neck; has her jumping back but that puts her closer to Valdas and crap on a cracker they have her pinned.

“The appetizer being me, I’m guessing?”

To her surprise, the vampiress laughs. “No, I’d be looking forward to the evening far more if that were the case.”

The evening. It has Nadya running across the room to the large fuzzy shape of floor-to-ceiling curtains. There’s no way — absolutely no way it isn’t dawn yet.

And she’s kind of right. But this is one of those situations where that means about as much as being wrong.

The sherbet gradients of the setting sun bring a fresh wave of tears to her eyes. “It’s been… a whole day?” And they haven’t come for me? Not Adrian, not Kamilah… nobody?

Valdas, ever vigilant of the sun, is careful as he comes up beside her. Nadya’s glasses catch the light in his hand.

He almost sounds relieved when Nadya finally takes them, practically crushing the lenses against her face. “I confess I had hoped extending our evening would give them time to find you. But the years have made your friends soft and trusting.”

“What does that mean?

Isseya comes around to join them — awkward, all of them, too domestic for the pain she still feels at her failed escape — and keeps to the shadows too as she sits. She nods to the window. “Open your eyes, see for yourself.”

Nadya has to shade her eyes with her hand to see much of anything. Wherever they are there aren’t any buildings to block the path of light.

When the garden finally comes into view down below Nadya chokes on her own breath.

It takes a bit of searching but she finds the bridge and familiar pond just at the edge of her window’s view. It had been over a year now but suddenly it feels like no time has passed at all; like the Ball is still in full swing and she’s still Cinderella before the apocalypse.

At least she knows where she is now. Upstate New York; five hours’ ride by old-fashioned locomotive. She remembers the journey to Marcel’s castle and the Awakening Ball like it was yesterday.

#bloodbound #bloodbound fanfiction #kamilah x mc #playchoices #playchoices fanfiction #bloodbound mc #mc: nadya al jamil #oc: valdas #oc: isseya #rheya apostolous #fic: oblivion bound #oblv: bound by destiny ii #oblv: new chapter #; my fics

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dontenchantme · 4 years

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avarice

Rated T, Mammon x MC.

was he greedy for wanting to own another person?

thank you @dat-bi-bitch for the prompt!

fics masterlist

Love was a funny thing.

He’d think among all his brothers, Asmo would be the one who most understood love. The narcissistic fifth-born didn’t seem to have any problems fawning over himself.

But he knew that Asmo’s self-indulgence was empty; spoken words that did nothing but offer hollow promises. It had been so many, many years since they fell from the Celestial Realm. Maybe his brother missed his seat as the former Jewel of the Heavens.

Didn’t they all, in a way, long for the simpler days of their youth? He couldn’t quite remember what his past was like, though. Had he always been this way? Had he always felt this deep-seated urge to steal, to take, to swindle?

He whispered into the ears of unknowing sinners, pulling them by a cord into the haven of liars and thieves. Throughout the centuries, humans had fallen prey to his sin – greed for wealth, for power, for a better future.

It was human instinct to desire. Without greed, there was no impetus for improvement. But that same thirst for knowledge, for betterment, was also the very reason that mortals were banished from the Garden of Eden.

They were not supposed to dally with these humans any more than they had to. Angels and demons were concepts, ideas twisted into a physical form so that mortals could comprehend their meaning – in a way, they almost weren’t real.

So, this feeling that bloomed in his heart when he looked at her didn’t make sense at all. It was like the murmur that’d grip his chest when he saw an item left unguarded, almost begging him to reach out and claim it as his own.

But he was unused to this being directed at someone rather than something. He wondered if this was his greed instructing him to keep an eye on what belonged to him. After all, he was her first demon. The first among his seven brothers to make a pact with her. In a way, that marked her as his possession, so maybe that was why it felt so uncomfortable watching her interact with the rest of them.

Belongings should just stay in their place and wait quietly for their owner to return. They shouldn’t have any wills or thoughts of their own. They shouldn’t have a mind too inquisitive or a curiosity too insatiable for their own good. And they definitely shouldn’t be keeping him up at three in the morning, making him wonder about the differences between greed and love.

What was love if not a more complex form of greed? If he asked her, would she be able to give him the answer?

He sighed. She was only a human. What would she be able to tell him, a demon who had existed for untold millennia? If he didn’t know the answer, she probably wouldn’t either. And he was uncomfortable with the idea of discussing his sin with anyone besides himself.

It was easier to let everyone think he was nothing more than greed personified. The same way it was easier for his brothers to all keep performing their roles, unquestioning and unquestionable. The moment they started doubting who they were and the meaning behind their existences, things got complicated.

The last thing he wanted to be was complicated.

Complicated was when he started butting in whenever the human spent a little too much alone time with any of his brothers. Complicated was when Asmo pulled him aside and told him to stop trying to mark his territory like a dog in heat. Complicated was when even Beel mentioned, in his offhand, oblivious way, that he was trying way too hard to monopolise her attention.

He knew it himself. He didn’t need his brothers to point that out for him. And he hated it.

Maybe things would have been easier if this exchange programme never took place, and they could continue carrying out their duties as the Seven Princes of Hell. Why did they have to be all buddy-buddy with humans, anyway?

They were demons. They tempted people. They devoured souls and tortured sinners for the rest of eternity. They were not friends.

And yet he found himself doubting his feelings and the way he thought. He didn’t want to hurt her, reckless and naïve as she was. Mostly because Lucifer had threatened him with bodily injury if so much as a single hair on her head was harmed. But with time he had grown to care for her, even without the first-born’s directions.

Why did he care? Because she was his possession? Because he did have feelings for her, feelings that were forbidden and unexplainable? None of them knew love, not really. Not even Asmo, who was the Avatar of Lust and arguably the most likely to understand what such an emotion entailed.

“Mammon?” He looked up at the sound of his name. She was walking into the kitchen, her hand covering her mouth as she yawned, and he closed the door of the fridge. He wasn’t sure why he bothered to look in there anyway. Beel had managed to clean out everything before he went to sleep.

“You’re up late.” So was he, but he was a demon. She wasn’t. Humans needed their sleep, didn’t they? They were mortal. And mortals were so much weaker, so much more fragile than he was.

He wasn’t sure what was worse, the thought that he could snap her like a twig if he wanted to, or knowing that if he did love her he’d have to live with the fact that one day she’d pass on and leave him behind.

At least greed was a familiar face. Love? It was terrifying.

“I was thirsty.�� She walked to the rack of dishes, grabbing her cup. It was pink with cartoon sheep drawn all over it – a gift from Belphie, the first of his many attempts to apologise for killing her.

One wouldn’t look at them now and think there was ever any bad blood between them. His lip curled at the thought. “Maybe you should keep a pitcher in your room or something. Then you won’t have to keep coming down to the kitchen.”

“That’s a good idea,” she hummed, her voice still slightly drowsy from sleep. “Thanks, Mammon. I’ll keep that in mind.”

“Hey.” His mouth moved before he could stop himself. “What do you think love is? Like…well, you’re human, right? And love is one of those big things ya humans are always talking about. What’s so great about it?”

She paused. The only sound in the kitchen was that of water pouring from the kettle. She was the only one in the House of Lamentation who boiled water before she drank it. They’d told her that it was unnecessary, that the water was magicked to ensure that it was safe for human consumption. But still, she continued to do so.

Old habits die hard, she explained. And doing this reminds me of home.

“I guess love isn’t something demons would think about, huh?” she finally said, putting the kettle down. “What with you being immortal beings and everything.”

He shrugged. The less he said, the better. He didn’t want her thinking he had gone soft, or that he was feeling sentimental, or that he was in love with her. He wasn’t. Or at least, he didn’t think he was.

“Love is one of those things movies have conditioned us to view as the ultimate goal, I think. But they’re not exactly wrong.” She took a sip from her sheep-covered cup. He always wondered why Belphie chose that particular design. “I think love really can motivate people to do great things. Look at all those stories of human mothers who have fought bears or moved cars to save their children.”

“Hmm.” He considered. “Have you fallen in love before?”

“I love my family and friends. And all of you. You’re my friends,” she answered, peeking at him over the edge of her cup. She was avoiding his question.

He let it go. It was late. He was tired, and for once, he wasn’t in the mood to be his usual persistent self. “You should go back to bed. If you get up late Lucifer will kill me.”

She nodded. “You too, Mammon.” She finished her water and rinsed her cup in the sink, placing it back on the rack.

He sighed and closed his eyes. It had been a long night. He simply couldn’t get to sleep – it would have been tempting to ask Belphie for help, but for some reason, after seeing her drink from the cup the seventh-born gave her, he just wasn’t in the mood to talk to his younger brother.

Anyway, Belphie wouldn’t appreciate being woken up in the middle of the night. He had done so enough times to know that was a mistake.

“Let’s go back to our rooms.” She reached for him, taking his hand. Her fingers were warm, and he wondered why he didn’t immediately pull away. “I don’t know what you’re thinking about, but you have to get some rest too.”

He allowed her, the weak, fragile human that made her home in a den of wolves, to pull him up the stairs and back to his door. She stayed and waited until he let himself back into his room, smiling at him as she waved goodbye.

He closed the door behind her, not wanting to remember the look on her face.

Things were so much easier when he was just Mammon, the Avatar of Greed. Being a demon meant not having to think about anything beyond his scope of work. Mortals were greedy – they didn’t mind upsetting the balance of the world if it meant that they would benefit, and he was tired of listening to their wishes.

But maybe, just maybe, she was the one mortal he didn’t mind putting up with.

#mammon obey me #mammon x mc #obey me #obey me shall we date

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luvreyn · 4 years

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My Manhua List (2019) pt. 1

I just recently discovered the existence of manhua and manhwas, and i really enjoyed reading them. So as a picky reader, here is a list of my recommendation if you want to start reading them p.s is it just me or there’s only a few of manhuas that are well written

Once More

Summary:

Missing each other due to misunderstanding in high school, the two of them returned to teach at their alma mater after graduating from college. After seven years, Muli Yang didn't recognize that she was the young girl An Xun. Now one of them is a gentle yet scheming male math teacher, and the other is an unromantic and poker-faced female physical education teacher. When they again meet each other, the things are still there, but men are no more the same ones, can they restart their relationship? And the secret of high school is gradually being disclosed...

WHY YOU SHOULD READ:

- this is about two highschool schoolmates who were (still are) in love with each other but misunderstood each other’s feelings they went their separate ways but fate brought them back together when the ml started teaching at their alma mater

- read because it’s gonna reminds of hs and all the dramas that came along w/ it

- plot = 5/5 very simple but well executed so hands down

- art style = 6/5 very pretty

- the ml is sly and cute and handsome

- the mc is very cute and a cat person so there’s that

- mc is also a pe teacher so she’s athletic

- the characters are cute and has their own thing

- transition of the past/flashbacks are great

- the ‘villain’ is effective so you’re gonna hate her too

- great read personally it reminds me of my craziness in hs wherein i was trying and failing to impress my crush

Love is Like The Cherry Blossoms

Summary:

He knows her secret. She knows his secret too. He is the coolest guy in school. She is the curve wrecker of class. They make a deal in exchange to keep each other's secret. They should be strangers after that promise. But he offers to help her confess to her crush at the same time. Is that true? Is he just teasing her? Or...?

WHY YOU SHOULD READ:

- same author as Once More

- light read if you want to feel in love and return to when you had a crush or first love or whatever

- plot = 5/5 simple but well executed honestly the author is so good it makes me want to beg her to create more gems such as this one

- art style = 6/5 ngl i really love the artstyle it’s so pretty

- the main couple are well suited for each other so chemistry is there

- you’re gonna relate to the mc in terms of what she feels when she’s with her crush

- ml is cute badboy that is soft with the mc

- side couple is cute too

- there’s no villain and you’re gonna understand all the motivations of the characters

- the characters doesn’t just revolve around the mc/ml they have their own thing same goes for the ml and mc who has their own thing but still support each other

- to conclude this is a great read with lots of soft and fluffy moments uwu

Long Live My Queen

Summary:

As a hapless modern girl, Xi Yuan travels in time to another world at the end of her life. Unexpectedly, she is stabbed to death on the moment she wakes up. However, owing to this accident, she acquires immortality and captivates the eyes of various exceedingly handsome boys, and that domineering and arrogant princess with golden hair seems also...

WHY YOU SHOULD READ:

- this is like my first discovered manhua ever so it’s pretty special for me

- dont be fooled by the title this is not an spg story apparently i read somewhere that there’s a few?? who thought this one was mature

- so this story is about the mc who was isekai-d or brought (by a god) into this game she was playing and so she met this crown prince (ml) named lie i forgot the whole name and it starts from there so apparently the 4 kingdoms are all looking for this jade jewel that appears every 1000 or so yrs and are gonna fight to death for it to be the one true king or king of kings

- plot = 4/5 it’s very interesting and leaves a lot of room for plot twist and development

- art style = 5/5

- the male characters are hot and cute

- the mc is funny and a tsundere lmao

- NGL I LOVE THE FACT THAT THEY PUT THE CONCEPT OF GOD AND RELIGION IN HERE AND THE MC IS QUESTIONING IT SO PLS READ

- the characters have their own goals and motivations and i love that i dont want a story that just revolves around the mc tbh

- the story progress is smooth for me and decent and the questions are gonna leave you wanting for more

- to conclude: read this bcuz this story has an interesting concept with a nice and cute art style and equally cute characters the end

Closer Heartbeat

Summary:

Owing to an accidental touch, the dissocial and introverted girl Ye Su begins to feel differently about her perfect childhood friend Shu Zheng with whom she's closely associated, as a result, the familiar words and movements between the two of them make her heart beat fast...

WHY YOU SHOULD READ:

- this story is about two childhood friends. mc is not so popular but very cool person while ml is popular with lots of girls liking him

- plot = 4/5 simple but well executed

- art style = 5/5 i love it so pretty

- the characters are all funny and relatable or is bcuz i experience this that it’s relatable to me lol

- 2nd ml is hot and i just love him even though he doesnt have many scenes yet

- mc is very cool character she is no damsel in distress

- ml is very funny n tall and a scaredy cat lmao

- the story is just so fluffy and make my heart go doki doki

- to conclude: read this if you just want to remember the awkwardness and bliss of having a first love/crush or if u like a friend before AND read this bcuz it’s such a nice read, simple but nicely done and the art is cute too lots of cute and fluffy moments if you’re tired of the shitty world outside

The Story of Hua Yan

Summary:

The almighty crowned prince insists on marrying this young “Overgrown Apricot” lady from the tainted Hua family. When the news broke out in the capital, many hearts were broken but what?! This wicked woman doesn’t even want to be the crowned princess because she wants to drink and run away with another man?! Lady Hua: I am a tough woman. I’m definitely not suited for you! Crowned Prince: Then I’ll make sure that in this world, you can only pick me.

WHY YOU SHOULD READ:

- plot = 4/5 bcuz i love palace politics hihih

- art style = 4/5

- it still has a few chaps but it’s very interesting bcuz the crown prince (ml) is so hellbent on making the mc his crown princess/wife and idk why and the mc doesnt want to so expect lots of drama/ploys from them both

- mc is very funny n cool i mean on that era girls are not expected to even go against males let alone a royalty so yes i love her go queen

- 2nd lead is very shady in a good kind of way??

- ml is kinda dominant and manipulative and that makes him attractive i love mls like that idk whats wrong with me why do i find them attractive

- their expressions are meme-able lmao

- to conclude: read this because it’s very entertaining and the mc is a refreshing character

#manhua #manhua recommendation #the story of hua yan #love is like a cherry blossom #once more #Long Live My Queen #Closer Heartbeat #reyn.manhuarecs #Love is Like The Cherry Blossoms

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unequippedwit · 5 years

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An Informal and Incomplete Essay on One Fangirl’s Feelings and Descent into Mo Dao Zu Shi

So, if you’ve even glanced at my blog of late you’ve noticed a lot of dolphin screeching in regards to a series called The Untamed/Chén Qíng Lìng/陈情令. Or, something else called Mó Dào Zǔ Shī/魔道祖师. (Hint, they’re mostly sort of the same thing as The Untamed is MDZS’s live action drama with a whole ass stable of attractive).

Someone on my dash had done a recommendation list of things that they had watched and enjoyed and I made the glorious mistake of looking at the summary given, shrugged my shoulders, and said “Why not?”. I proceeded to change my entire life simply by turning on my PS4, tap-tapping my way to YouTube, and settling my behind in my easy chair where the cat and my knitting proceeded to fight for space.

I’m not going to say how many hours total that I’ve spent to watching/listening to the various adaptations (the 50 episode drama, the 23 episodes released of the donghua, and the first season of the audio drama), or reading the manhua, or reading the OG novel, but, I am going to say it’s a lot. Yes, I’ve calculated it and no I’m not telling. Oh, hecking heck it is a lot. And, considering that I’ve only really been into it since the beginning of August, well, even I’m impressed and I know how I can get in regards to hyper-fixation. I’m so glad that I have also dragged my BFF along for the ride.

I can say with some confidence that a part of the reason why I have done a full sprint down into this magnificent madness, as I cackled with glee and mass binge postings of gorgeous fanart, memes, and Wang Yibo and Xiao Zhan’s faces, is that I was semi-floundering in the MCU fandom and post-release of Endgame, even more so. There had been a lingering sense of fatigue and this was needed. The fandom, for all that it is a fandom with its own faults and no fandom ever escapes them, is refreshing and new and a joy in a way that the MCU has been missing for me for quite some time.

Now, as to what actually kept me engaged I’m going to cut, because there’s A LOT and it’s going to get long folks. And a smidgen spoilery.

On the surface, the plot itself is simple. A supernatural who-dunit and where-is-it, a large and eclectic cast of characters, with two main leads who fit the one goes by-the-book and other is a renegade trope to perfection.

Then the series actually starts with the MC’s horrorific violence filled death, a bunch of vicious gossip, and someone waking up in a body that sure the heck ain’t theirs. Simple? Not so much and that’s just the first chapter.

And, oh, god, the characters in this series are just everything little ol’ me could want. Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian have catapulted themselves to I STAN levels in my hierarchy of Favorite Fictional Characters and even secondary characters make me cry/scream/laugh/*insert every other emotion* on a level I haven’t experienced in a very long time. I would die for Wen Ning, any version.

In this cast we get several sets of foils and a whole host of morally grey characters. No one, with the possible exception of the Juniors in the present timeline, are not guilty of at least something. Our protaganist, Sunshine Idiot Genius Hero Wei Wuxian has caused the death of 3000-5000 fellow cultivators, dug up countless graves, and risen the dead at a level that’s, well, not been seen by me in any sort of fictional setting that has necromancers. Look, I like stories with necromancers. He is also someone who doesn’t hesitate to do what is right, loves his family and his friends, and a lot of the above actions were in direct relation to him wanting to protect those that are precious to him.

With such a set of complicated characters I get a whole murderboard worthy set of complicated relationships and often complicated motiviations that make me want to cry tears of emotion. Wait, no, backtrack that as there is no want, I have cried tears of various emotions as something else is discovered or thought about or I see someone giving me some good, good meta to chew on. Yunmeng Twin Heroes being one potent source of me wailing, “MAH BABIES” while clutching at my face is a good example. Jiang Cheng is such a misunderstood character.

Know what relationship is both complicated and not at the same time? WangXian. As in the relationship between Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian. As in the romantic relationship between Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian. As in these two Idiots wandered off and got married at the end of the novel and fucked by the side of the road for their first time and we learn that our strong and stoic Hanguang-Jun is one kinky motherfucker and Wei Wuxian is really that guy and doesn’t shut up during sexy times. Considering that he doesn’t shut up during the rest of the time, it shouldn’t be that surprising, but, really, the man is missing a filter. Look at the exasperated Xiao Zhan videos of The Untamed BTS where he’s complaining about the number of pages he has per scene.

But, it took time for them to get there. It took years of hardship and anger and miscommunication and death, including Wei Wuxian’s in the beginning, to get them to the point that they are. I won’t wax poetic about Lan Wangji, other’s who word better than I have already said so many good things about how he is fundamentally a Good Person and I won’t hear a bad word said about him and the fact that there a number of people who thought he was the villain in The Untamed for a good part of it make me cry for humanity. Okay, I’ll wax a little poetically about him. But, the man has his faults. He’s not very verbal and that can and does cause problems, like leading to Wei Wuxian to believing that he hates him through most of their past, especially as they start hurtling towards the end of his first life.

I know I’m missing a lot, like how there is no true villain of the story other than people being at their worst and allowing that to lead so many of their actions. But, really, I’m just going to go back to screaming about WangXian and sharing memes. Oh, and a few recs because the writers in this fandom? Fucking Aces all around.

Five Times Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng Had a Civil Conversation, and One Time They Didn't by tabulaxrasa Summary: *Does what it says on the tin*Wei Wuxian's life is almost perfect now. There's just that one, angry, purple hole in it. If only there was some way to fix it.(There is. It's using their words.) Reason I love it: The relationship between Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian is almost as important to me as the the one between Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji and this gives me hope that there is a future for the two of them at the end of the novel. That things can get better, never back to the way that it was because too much has happened, but they can reach a Good Place and that’s everything really.

Monotone by Seredemia

Summary: Wei Wuxian died. Wei Wuxian died and he never came back, not after thirteen years, or a hundred, or a thousand. The year is 2019 and Lan Wangji is still here, having reached the highest point of cultivation that has gifted him with immortality. It's supposed to be a gift, an honour, yet to him it's nothing but a curse.

Wei Wuxian is dead, and life is colourless. Lan Wangji ghosts through time, simply living each day in monotone.

That is, until he meets a man who has the same face, same name, same smile as Wei Wuxian. Suddenly, there's colour and hope back in his life—but it's not long until he realises Wei Wuxian in this timeline has not escaped the sorrow that plagued his past self.

Maybe history really does repeat itself after all.

Reason I love it: It’s epic. Not only in length, but in how everything is put together. The past parallels the future in all the right ways with certain things coming together to make me cry happy tears as I clutch my cat in my arms. And, let’s not forget Lan Wangji and his haircut.

Perfectly Arranged by Mondengel

Summary: Three nights before his wedding to an omega from Yunmeng, Lan Wangji meets Wei Yuandao.

Reason I love it: I have a fondness for ABO. I’ve long stopped being ashamed of my enjoyment of it and I love even more when I find an ABO that gives me arranged marriages that stay so true to the characters. Even just this little slice of life, gives us something close to the actual meeting of Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian and it makes me so happy that their happiness is well and truly implied at the end of this.

Now, there about a thousand other things to be read that one should when it comes to this fandom, I’ve only thrown a few grains of rice to show what has been feeding my appetite, but, no seriously. The fic is so good guys. I think I’m actually going to start throwing up recs on the regular because gaaaaahhhhh and I’m going to go read some now that I’m done word vomiting.

#the untamed #mo dao zu shi #mdzs #fic recs #jess watches things #fandom #this is the longest thing I have written in a long time #of course it's going to be on this fandom #because it hits all my english major buttons so dang hard #my professors would weep at my lack of proper essay format #suck it professors

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