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captainsophiestark · 2 months

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Klaus Mikaelson x Reader

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Written for my personal fic writing challenge for 2024, Sophie's Year of Fic! Featuring a new fic being posted every Friday, all year long :)

Fandom: The Vampire Diaries/The Originals

Summary: When a serious magical threat comes to Mystic Falls and puts Josie and Lizzie at risk, Caroline and Ric send Klaus' ex down to New Orleans to seek safe harbor for the girls with him. Or, what if Y/N went to New Orleans instead of Caroline, and Klaus was free to see them.

Word Count: 2,966

Category: Angst, Fluff

Putting work into an AI program without permission is illegal. You do not have my permission. Do not do it.

I chewed my lip as I stared up at the building before me. If this were any other situation, I would've turned on my heel and run by now. But there were two little girls, one on either side of me, who needed me to be strong. This was their best hope of being safe, which meant all of my stuff needed to take a back seat.

I took a deep breath, trying not to let the girls sense just how nervous I was, then started heading for the door to the bar. It was the middle of the day, so hopefully no one would mind me bringing two kids in with me.

Caroline and Ric had trusted me with Josie and Lizzie, and I refused to let them down. Some new supernatural none of us knew existed had come to town and, worse, had started going after the girls. So, I'd sat down with their parents, and we'd figured out a plan to keep them safe: take them to the bigger, badder supernatural who I used to know.

My eyes scanned the bar for the familiar face of Klaus Mikaelson, and after a moment, I found him. He was leaning against the counter talking to the bartender, and I was surprised he couldn't hear my heart beating out of my chest from here. I hadn't seen him in years, and I'd also rejected him the last time I saw him. But he was the best chance the girls had, so I was just going to have to hope he didn't hate me now.

I cleared my throat, shook my nerves off as well as I could, herded the girls into a booth where I could keep an eye on them, then turned to face the bar. I found Klaus already looking at me, his arms crossed and a curious look on his face as he leaned against the counter. A wave of emotions hit me at once, but I shoved back against the feeling, squaring my shoulders and putting one foot in front of the other until I stood in front of Klaus.

"Hello, love," he said, and my heart damn near stopped in my chest. I took a deep breath. "It's good to see you again."

"It's... it's good to see you again, too."

And it was. Most of my friends had been relieved when Klaus finally left town, and they'd freaked out the minute they found out he'd come back to see me. And at the time, I'd convinced myself they were right, and that it was better he was gone. But standing before him now, that slight smirk on his face, I realized I had really, really missed him.

"So what brings you to New Orleans?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. He looked past me to where the girls were playing a clapping game in the booth. "I take it it has something to do with them."

I sighed. "Yeah. Yeah, it does."

"And who's the father?"

Now it was my turn to cross my arms and raise an eyebrow.

"They're actually not mine. But I'd say you don't have a lot of room to judge, considering the reason you moved to New Orleans in the first place."

"Who said I was judging? I was just trying to gauge how jealous I might need to be."

I huffed a laugh, trying and failing to hide my smile by glancing at the ground. Nik grinned at me, and for just a flash of a moment, it was like nothing had changed between us since the last time I'd seen him.

But then I heard Josie and Lizzie behind me, and I remember why I'd come here in the first place. I sighed and met Nik's eyes again.

"I need your help."

His eyebrows immediately drew together, and he straightened up from the bar, taking a half step towards me. The intensity of his worried stare made my heart melt.

"What's wrong, love?"

"There's a new supernatural in town. Or a few new ones, I guess. We're struggling a little bit to deal with them, and they've made Josie and Lizzie their targets. Caroline and Ric are their parents for all intents and purposes, and we sat down and decided our best chance at keeping the girls safe is if I left with them, alone, and came to you."

"And whose idea was that?"

"...Mine. It... actually took a lot of convincing for Ric and Caroline to let me bring them to you."

A hint of a smile flickered across Nic's face as he huffed a barely audible laugh. His beautiful blue eyes met mine with the intensity I'd seen a thousand times for both good and bad moments, and it made my heart race.

"You will always be welcome here, with me. I'll keep the three of you safe."

Relief washed over me. I closed my eyes, taking a minute, and when I opened them again I found Nik still watching me intently. I thought he might lean in for a hug or a kiss or something else, but instead, he just gave me a small smile and nodded in the direction of the girls.

"Mind introducing me?"

The girls absolutely loved Nik from the first moment they met him, and he was nothing but sweet and patient and kind. He made a few absolutely ridiculous jokes that had them falling out of their chairs laughing, and had my heart melting all over again. We left the bar together, the four of us strolling through the streets of New Orleans as Nik led us to his home. He glanced over at me a few times with the roguish smile I'd come to love, and despite the fact that I'd come here on the run to protect the girls, I couldn't help enjoying this moment with him. In different circumstances, it might've just felt right.

"We're almost home, but I just had a thought," said Nik, his arm swinging back and forth with Lizzie's as they marched down the street together. Lizzie and Josie held hands, and I did the same with Josie, making us a little chain. I turned to smile at Nik over the girls' heads.

"And what's that?" I asked. Nik smiled at me, then turned his attention to the girls.

"My favorite ice cream place in the whole of the city is very close to here. Does anyone else feel like we ought to make a pitstop?"

"YES!" the girls screamed in unison. I laughed as Nik stopped abruptly, turning on his heel and then pulling us in the other direction.

"Alright, come on then!"

The girls cheered as they marched after him, and my heart soared as I followed along behind the three of them. I'd gotten to see Nik like this every so often in Mystic Falls, but a lot of our interactions were colored by whatever drama he and his family had going on with my friends and I. Being with him, like this, and seeing him being so amazing with the girls was seriously doing something to me.

"This place really does have the best ice cream," Nik assured me as we stepped inside and joined the line, the girls bouncing excitedly in front of us as we stood shoulder to shoulder. "Hope loves it."

"Hope... how is she? How's... how's Hayley?"

Nik smirked. "They're both good. We've had our rough patches, but Hayley and I have found our rhythm as coparents despite not being together."

I released a breath I hadn't realized I'd been holding, and Nik laughed.

"Now look who's trying to gauge their jealousy."

I rolled my eyes, but couldn't hold back a grin all the same.

"Whatever. But... you're happy? Being a dad, and being here, and... and everything?"

The corner of Nik's mouth quirked up, but the smile didn't reach his eyes.

"Like anything, it's had its ups and downs. But I wouldn't trade Hope for anything in the world."

I nodded, and the two of us fell into comfortable silence as we worked our way through the line. The girls were ecstatic to try their cones, and Nik recommended his favorite flavor to me, which lived up to the hype he'd promised. The four of us wandered slowly the rest of the way to our destination, which turned out to be an absolutely massive compound in the middle of the French Quarter.

Nik pushed open the door and led us inside just as the sun began to set outside. I came to a stop in the beautiful open space just inside the front doors, staring around at it in awe.

"C'mon, love," Nik said gently, resting a hand on my back and guiding me in the direction of the stairs. "Let's get the girls settled in for the night."

I just nodded, putting my focus back on the girls as we followed Nik through the massive compound. He pushed open one of the many doors along the second floor, letting us into a bedroom with two beds. I even spotted a few kids books on the shelves to one side of the room.

I slid my eyes to Nik with a raised eyebrow, but he just shrugged.

"For Hope, and any friends she might decide to bring over when the time comes. No reason to not be prepared, especially since we have the space for it." The corner of my mouth tugged up into a smile, that warm feeling spreading in my chest again. "I'll bring a few of her pajamas in, they should fit these two alright."

"Thanks."

"Of course, love."

Between the two of us, Nik and I managed to get the girls settled down and in bed in under an hour. They'd had a long, tiring day, after all, and if I weren't practically jittering with nerves after the afternoon I'd spent with Nik I'm sure I would've been right behind them.

Instead, I found myself following him after we closed the door to the girls' room, going who knows where in this massive house in his new life since he'd left Mystic Falls. After a few moments, I couldn't really take the silence anymore, so I spoke up.

"Where are the rest of the Mikaelsons?" I asked, my voice thankfully even. "I'd expected to see at least one of the siblings by now."

Nik turned to give me a little smirk over his shoulder, and I hated that he could probably hear my heart race.

"They're busy with other things for the night. And Hope is with Hayley having a mother-daughter weekend away from everything. It's just us, tonight."

My heart sped up even more, although that shouldn't have been possible. After a moment, Nik led me into the kitchen and headed straight for the refrigerator. I took a seat at one of the high stools at the counter, watching him as he moved.

"I assume you still like hot chocolate more than most other drinks?" asked Nik without turning around. I smiled.

"Absolutely. I know it's been a little while, but come on Nik, I'm not a completely different person."

He paused to give me a smile over his shoulder, then continued in his hot chocolate preparations. I scratched at something on the counter while he worked, trying to get up the courage to talk about all the million things hanging in the air before us. Finally, I cleared my throat and forced myself to look up, watching Nik's back as I spoke.

"Thank you for this, by the way. For taking us in, even after... Well, even after I told to leave me and Mystic Falls."

Nik sighed, bringing our two mugs of hot chocolate over and setting them down on the counter before walking around to stand in front of me. We were barely an inch apart, but he didn't make a move to close the distance anymore. I'd set a boundary the last time I'd seen him, and he clearly had no intention of crossing it.

"I will always be here for you if you need me, love. If you seek me out for refuge, or to change your mind and take me up on my offer to show you the world, or even because I make the best hot chocolate in the entire world and you just can't live without it... I'll be waiting."

I stared up at Nik, a slight twinkle in his eye, as I fought to keep tears out of my own. He'd truly caused so many problems in Mystic Falls. My friends' dislike-to-hate of him made sense. But he'd always been sweet and funny, patient and kind and understanding, with me. If I was totally honest with myself, I'd been starting to fall in love with him before I'd decided to side with my friends and push him away.

"Don't cry, love. It's alright," he said, his eyes scanning my face. I hiccupped, the tears finally starting to fall, a combination of all the different emotions and stressors of my past few days coming together and overwhelming me at once. I'd held it together for the girls, but now they were in bed and taken care of, so I could safely fall apart.

I leaned forward, falling into Nik's chest, and he wrapped his arms tightly around me the moment I did.

"It's alright. You're safe with me."

That brought on a whole new wave of tears, not just for the stress of the day, but for everything I'd lost with Nik, too. He just held me tighter, rubbing soothing circles on my back as I let it all out, then slowly started to calm down.

I pulled back slightly once I managed to get ahold of myself. One of Nik's hands stayed on my arm, and he brought his other hand up to gently cup my face, wiping away a few of the tears with his thumb.

"What can I do, love? Tell me how I can help you and I'll do it."

I choked back another sob, this one turning into a half-laugh.

"You've already done enough, Nik. More than enough. It's just... it's been such a long day. I feel like I've been barely holding back a complete stress breakdown for like a week, and I always had the girls with me so I had to keep it together..."

"Well then, why don't we get you settled into a room so you can get some sleep, hm? We can always talk more in the morning."

Nik started to move to help me off the stool and up to bed, but I stopped him, hands resting on his biceps. He raised an eyebrow at me but didn't move away.

"No, Nik. I don't want to talk tomorrow, I need to say this. I... I love you."

Any hint of humor or lightness dropped off Nik's face, replaced by completely serious shock. My heart was racing out of my chest, and I knew he could hear it, but I pushed on anyway.

"I think I was falling in love with you before, and I didn't want to admit it to myself. But being with you here, now... it feels right. There are a bunch of powerful murderers chasing me, trying to hurt two kids whose parents have trusted me, exclusively, with their safety, and I'm in a strange city far from anywhere I've ever called home. But for some reason I just feel... happy. Happy to see you again, happy to spend time with you, about a thousand times calmer than I was without you. You feel like home, Nik, and I love you. I just... that just feels like something you should know."

Nik's eyes had been scanning and searching my face intently the entire time I'd been talking, the slightest hint of wetness gathering in his own eyes. A smile tugged at the corner of his mouth once I'd finished speaking, and he brought his hand back up to cup my face, his thumb brushing lightly over my cheek.

"I don't think I've made it any secret how I feel about you, love," he said, voice soft and tender. "But in case you need to hear it again, I love you. Always and forever."

A few tears managed to sneak out and down my cheeks again, but this time I had a smile on my face. Nik's expression mirrored my own.

"Once... once all of this is over, do you think... well, maybe I could come back here. To New Orleans, once the girls are safe back home. That is, if... if your offer to follow you to New Orleans still stands from the first time you extended it?"

Nik beamed back at me. "I can honestly tell you that absolutely nothing would make me happier."

My smile grew to the point of pain as I stared up at Nik, a light in his eyes that I'd missed much more than I'd realized. I leaned forward just slightly, Nik mirroring my move as I glanced at his lips. One corner of his mouth rose higher in the troublemaking smirk that always made my heart race before he closed the rest of the distance between us, his lips meeting mine, soft at first and then with the same urgency pulsing in my heart.

I'd kissed him before, but it had always been tempered by concern for my friends, and about what they'd think. But this time, as fireworks exploded in my chest and thousands of butterflies took off in my stomach, I couldn't bring myself to care.

I was safe and happy in the arms of the man I loved, kissing him senseless. I'd missed out on a lot of times like this, but from now on, I didn't intend to let anything keep me from spending every second I could just like this, friends and insane supernatural threats be damned. Always and forever.

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yoonia · 3 months

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the bedroom hymns ● chapter xiv

⟶ Chapter summary | To answer your curiosity, Yoongi presents you with a challenging offer. Is your desire to learn about this new realm and his secrets strong enough for you to risk revealing your own secrets? Or will you remain loyal to the promise you made to your father to protect the family’s secret?

⟶ Title | The Bedroom Hymns: a Bluebeard’s twist ⟶ Pairings | Min Yoongi x female reader ⟶ Genre | Fairy Prince!Yoongi, Crown Princess!reader, Fantasy AU, Fairy Tale retelling ⟶ Word count | 6,785 words ⟶ Ratings | PG-13, +18 / M for Mature for future chapters; include classism, black magic, alcohol consumption ⟶ Story Masterlist: The Bedroom Hymns | ⤎ previous chapter | next chapter ⇢ ⟶ Main Masterlist | Mailbox | Taglist | Feedback | Music Playlist | Ko-fi ⟶ Author’s note | Here’s the second part of what was meant to be a part of the previous chapter. I hope this answers a lot of questions. Have fun reading!

chapter xiv. red strings-2

You fall silent as you feel a slight drop in your stomach.

You should have expected that he would demand a fair trade right away. If only you have had enough time to figure out what to say, to plan just how much you are able to share about yourself without having to lie to his face should he chooses to answer your questions with honest truth.

Taking a slow drink from your glass, you take your time to contemplate your options. “Maybe—” you slowly begin, “I can tell you a little bit about myself for a fair exchange.”

Yoongi squints his eyes. There seems to be a hint of suspicions in the way he is looking at you. At first, he says nothing. Not a single response to your offer. Perhaps he can already tell that you wouldn’t be able to give him everything that he might be demanding from you.

It makes you feel discouraged when you think that he may change his mind and you won’t be getting some answers. But Yoongi surprises you when he suddenly shrugs and smiles.

“Very well, then. I guess that’s fair,” he says, though you cannot really make out the tone of his voice, or if he’s still going to be truthful when he hums, “Where do I start?”

Yoongi says this while slowly rubbing his chin. “Well, I suppose that you know who I am by now,” he finally begins, his eyes showing a playful glint which only helps lessen your worries and doubts.

“Do I?” you question him in return, mirroring the playful tone of his voice. “We’ve only met once before this, putting aside the other times when you shadowed my movements. I know your name, and I know that you are a part of one of the most notorious brotherhood of mercenaries known within the continent. But I had assumed that your men have only been roaming the human realm. But here you are now.”

Yoongi’s lips rise slowly to a crooked grin. “That is quite an interesting part to note, isn’t it?,“ leaning forward once again, he places his crossed arms on the table to get closer to you. “And I’m not talking about us meeting in different realms, but the fact that I never specifically told you to which brotherhood I am belonged to, when I could’ve been a part of any mercenary group that is currently active among the people,” he calmly drawls, while your eyes grow wide, realising your blunder. “And yet, you were able to recognise the insignia that belongs to our brotherhood and figured out that I am a part of it.”

Silently laughing at yourself, you realise that he is right.

Yoongi had never once mentioned the name of the mercenary army group that he is a part of, and yet, he has never once tried to deny it whenever you brought it up. Both in the market town and here, you have yet to see Yoongi wearing the insignia that belongs to the brotherhood.

But there is no denying that everything about him had made it easy for you to link him to the mercenary group which is known to be moving among the commoners, both within the territories of your father’s empire, and also in various neighbouring territories.

Not to mention, each time you lay your eyes on Yoongi, you would be reminded of the nameless mercenary who had caught your presence that night in The Rare Roots; his demeanour, the way he carries himself, his speech, and the most defining characteristic that you have felt from him so far, his aura.

“I’ve told you that I’m no damsel,” is what you tell him in return, hinting at his connection to the aforementioned mercenary group. “In almost every place that I’ve traveled to, I’ve either met some of your men, your brothers in arms, or seen traces and trails left behind by your brotherhood.”

In this case, you are not entirely lying to him. This is something that you have caught on during your excursions as of late. Aside from learning more about your father’s activities in the various places that you have visited so far, you have also been following the trails left behind by the mercenary army by using everything that you have learned from Advisor Kim and the Royal guards’ reports.

You recall seeing the insignia in various places in the midst of your excursions, either worn by a passing member of the mercenary army or plastered on the walls, pillars, and any other places visible for the commoners to see; a public declaration to show that the brotherhood are on the people’s side and not the royals’.

“You have made quite a name among the people, no matter which kingdom or empire you have come across,” you add while tipping your chin at the engraved insignia, “I never expected that I’d be seeing that crest here too, in a completely different realm.”

You lean forward on the table, mirroring his gesture as you murmur softly to him, “It wasn’t hard to put two and two together after what we talked about the last time we met, but you were the one who gave it away when you denied none of the things I said about you being a part of that movement.”

A surprised look flickers through his gaze. “You are a smart one, little dove,” he says, completely amused. “As I’ve said before. I shouldn’t have underestimated you.”

You lean back in your seat, feeling victorious. “No, you shouldn’t have.”

He mirrors your movement as he settles back in his chair, except that he follows it by lifting his shimmering tankard, taking a swift drink before he speaks again. Once the drink is lowered, a determined look fills his eyes, as if talking about this would require him to take off the mask that he normally wears when he is with you.

You can tell the difference when he looks at you straight in the eyes, his chin lifted, and there is a different flair coming from him. A new sense of authority that would have been intimidating should a commoner stand right before him.

Not you, however, when you have grown used to facing something similar, a presence that feels more intense, whenever you have to come face to face with your father.

“You’re right. I am a part of the brotherhood. I can’t tell you more other than the fact that I work alongside my brothers to serve the people who are willing to hire our service and pay for our hard work with gold. Be it a local merchant, a commoner, or a nobble, we serve them with everything that we have for an exchange of a good pay,” he says, sounding proud, subtly hinting that he may have quite an important role in his brotherhood of mercenaries that he is keeping from you, “as for crossing the borders between the realms—”

He tugs at the bamboo hat that he has been wearing and starts taking it off. “Not every men who had joined the brotherhood would be capable of moving from one realm to another so easily,” he explains as he tosses his hat away. For some reason, the gesture draws your attention, and you find yourself getting completely fixated on it that you can’t take your eyes away from him.

“Only a handful of us had come from the magic realms, most of us coming from various territories within the Land of Far Far Away, while the other members who had later joined us once we started the movement are regular humans, mostly commoners from the human realm who we encountered in our journey and volunteered to join our purpose.”

You can almost picture the mercenary army growing steadily in size with the passing time, reaching all the common people directly than the royal aids of your father’s empire ever could. “And that purpose would be gaining gold coins from whoever is willing to pay for your service?”

But is that all there is to it?

You cannot help but wonder, unable to truly believe that it could all be that simple, when almost every men working under your father’s ruling has believed otherwise. The memory of your past conversation with one of your father’s Royal Advisors return to you. About the mercenary army that was suspected to be a part of the rebellion movement which has been silently rising among the people of Nythelean Empire.

“That is correct,” he says, “well, that’s mostly the reason why we do this for a living. But there are also others who have their own purposes in joining our movement.”

You tilt your head, finding this suspicious. Your shoulders grow tense, your spine feels cold. “What kind of—purposes?” you ask him, while your mind begins running wildly.

Does he really have nothing to do with the rebellion? Or is his brotherhood truly the rebel army as suspected by the Royal Guards?

While you are looking at him with suspicions, Yoongi carries with him an easy air, as if he has nothing dark or sinister to hide. He keeps the same light attitude when he answers, “Protection. The ability to protect their family, their hometown, their livelihood, to be able to defend against any crime and any physical threats—the kinds of harm that would always get overlooked because they were hurting the commoners and not the nobles with storages of gold coins—or any possible threats that may harm them and their family directly.”

A smile lifts on your lips as relief slowly washes over you. “So you’re vigilantes, doing all the work that the royal army working under the ruling of the kings and emperors couldn’t, is that what you’re saying?”

Yoongi barks out a laugh. “You can put it that way,” he says. “It’s more like a security work for the people. But we also provide a chance for the common people to rise and lend their strength.”

He takes another drink and continues, “Out there, in the small towns and settlements that are far out of reach from the empires and their law, there are commoners who had trained for their lives to serve as knights, only to fail from claiming their places in the knighthood because they had no noble blood or any high standing in the society. That’s where we come in, as we welcome them under our wings and give them a place to serve, to use their skills and put their training to good use.”

Good use. Those words sound like music to your ears. The kind of music that eases your worries. There is a hint of suspicions still lingering in your mind, yet you find yourself believing his words.

It’s almost as if you can feel it; the truth that his words carry with them, the genuine pride coming out through his voice when he speaks about the brotherhood that has been seen as the villains by the royals.

“And not all of them are capable of using magic or casting spells?” you choose to ask rather than sharing your doubts about the brotherhood. “Or whatever it is that you use to move between realms?”

Yoongi shakes his head. “Regular humans don’t know anything about magic. Even the ones who are able to cast powerful spells will not be able to travel across the realms so easily. Only the gifted ones can do it.”

“Like you do.”

He gives you a smile. “Like me.”

Once again, you tilt your head while you try to process all of this. “And all of the traveling has to do with your work in the mercenary? But why do you must venture through the human realm, when you could’ve had more chances here?” You take a quick glance around, once again being drawn to the vast farmland which spreads right before your eyes. “What kind of work are you doing here now?”

Yoongi licks his lips. The gesture steals your attention from his words, drawing a hint of warmth out of your skin. It is another new sensation that you have never felt before. But then again, never once had you ever felt so drawn to someone like this, not as much as how he has you drawn to him like a moth drawn to a flame.

“Why the human realm?” he repeats your question with a hum as he looks out towards the view. The faraway look in his eyes tells you that there is a story in there, before he simply answers, “It’s hard to explain, really.”

The corners of his eyes crease a little when he smiles. “I can’t say that it had all been a deliberate choice to raise an army of mercenaries out there in the human realm. I think you would be able to understand this, but it all started a long time ago, when I first came into the human realm in search of an adventure. We call it as ’soul-searching’, a personal mission that I had taken to venture far, far away from home to find my purpose in life.”

You return his smile just then, because you can understand him well enough, as you have been doing just the same thing. Going out to new places, stepping into foreign lands, all because your soul craved for a new adventure, to write a new story, and to be able to see the world.

“I never planned to stay long in the human realm, but then as more and more friends, other men and old colleagues left the magic realm to join me, we formed ourselves a small alliance to be able to have more means and reasons to remain in the human realm for a bit longer, while also find ways to give back to the people and the community that had welcomed us with open arms, despite never knowing who we were or where we came from. And then, one thing lead to another—”

“And your small group or adventurers become a rogue army working alongside the humans.”

“Once again, you are correct,” he answers with a proud smile. “As to why I am here, it’s the same reason why I’ve been to the places where you encountered me before. I’m doing the same kind of work that I did in Narlès, and similar to most of the work I’ve done back in Smotia”—one corner of his lips lifts to a grin—”like that day when I followed your trails at the royal winery.”

His gaze softens as you roll your eyes.

“We usually do the same details of work whenever we are hired by people in the human realm. But when it requires me to travel across the borders and return to this realm, the work varies,” he adds, this time with a hint of fierceness in his voice. Proud and bitterness mixing together. “And these jobs come with bigger risks. Hence the disguises and the hidden armoires. But I do earn bigger pay when I succeed.”

This has you raising your eyebrows. Curiosity comes through you as you take a closer look at his attire.

Dressed as a local commoner, he looks quite unassuming that he would be able to roam around without raising suspicions. Unlike back in Narlès when he had at least shown his weapons under and over his unmarked cloak and dark-coloured outfit, this time, you are sure that he has numerous weapons hidden under his simple clothes.

The same way you are hiding your golden dagger under your skirt, hidden from view but easy for you to reach whenever necessary.

“You’ve been to Smotia. This place might look similar, but it is still entirely different. Not only with the magic that exists here, but also with the people that resides in this place and their way of living,” he explains, his words mirroring every single thought you had about this place since you had first gotten here.

“There is a secret about this place that requires us to keep a close eye on the territory. A dark secret,” he says with a secretive smile. “But I’m sure that you’re used to something like this.”

You realise what he is hinting at. Once again, the past conversation you had with the farmers follows you. You bristle as you recall the warning that was given to you and how it had reminded you of home. Your old home, and the dark rumours that everyone whispered all the way into the palace’s walls.

“These stories have been passed around from one generation to another, and I’m sure most people who live in this place and have learned about the tales for a long time won’t even know whether or not these stories are real, or if they are nothing more but an urban legend told by the elders to keep everyone here safe and keep things in order.”

“Like the rumours that the people have been spreading in Smotia.”

Yoongi gives you a solemn nod. “Smotia isn’t the only place that holds a dark secret. This place, and many other places—kingdoms, empires, even the small, lawless towns and rogue settlements—all have their secrets. It doesn’t matter whether we are in the human realm, or right here, within the magic realm of Far Far Away. People loves to tell stories, dramatising any event that happened sometime in the past to make use of them to keep the younger ones in line.”

You are not entirely surprised to hear this. Old tales live among the people who still speak of them. They are the reason why local traditions and customs exist in the first place. But it is interesting to know that even in different realms, such thing still exists.

Yoongi continues to speak. “For those of us with magic skills or have enough mana to endure the magic present in places such as Grimm, we would travel to and fro and pay regular visits to such places. Not only for the purpose of running our mission or for hired jobs, but also in between our duties, just so we can be here to observe, to protect, and even to hunt—”

“Hunt…what?”

A pinch folds itself inside your chest. A myriad of scenarios start their callous plays inside your head; your father’s assassination attempt, the unmarked mercenary soldiers that followed you through the depths of the Elcester Forest, the attempts to infiltrate The Citadel.

“Anything that may cause any disturbances happening within the Land of Far Far Away. The small and invisible threats that always start from the most inconspicuous places. Being vigilant and moving under our own rule allow us to get closer to the sources before they rise rapidly to become a bigger threat to the entire realm,” Yoongi answers after a beat of silence and a whole round of wild imagination running through your head.

He gives an easy rise of his shoulders as it’s not a big deal. “Of course, we are only a small army roaming through a vast magical realm, where each territory, every strong empire within the realm have their own rules. Some kingdoms even cast their strong spells around their territories that won’t allow us to walk past their borders as easily as we would’ve liked. But we do what we can, keeping watch for the people that may be overlooked should any harm ever comes.”

Spells to keep people out of a territory?

Of course, you wonder to yourself as you start recalling everything that you have learned so far about the safety measures that an empire must abide to in order to keep its palaces, territories, and the people within safe.

You are also reminded of the action that your father had taken after the latest breach which happened at the main palace, and how the royal guards at the Stargrave Castle have been keeping the same tight security to make sure that the empire’s territory is secured from any possible threat while in the King’s absence.

It shouldn’t be much of a surprise to think that there would be kingdoms that would use magic and spells for protection. Knowing what you know now, you begin to wonder if your father had also done the same to increase the security at the empire’s territories. Surely, there had to be a reason why he had forbidden you from stepping out of the palace through the front gate.

Leaving you only relying on the magic portals to be able to step foot out of the palace whenever you need a chance to escape.

It should be a powerful spell then, you wonder to yourself as you imagine having a force of magic protecting the empire, making you wonder just how powerful the King’s magic truly is, or if he ever had help from the strongest mages in the empire.

Silently, you remind yourself to question about this to Lord Gordan the next time you sit with him to learn about royal defence or when you are sitting with Lady Laurel for your next magic lessons.

When he notices that you have no more questions to ask of him, Yoongi crosses his arms over his chest and turns the focus of the conversation on you. “Now, it’s your turn to tell me more about you, little dove,” he calmly says, keeping his eyes on you when he points out, “You’re no mere traveller.”

His words sound more like a statement instead of a question, and it shouldn’t surprise you that Yoongi would begin his digging into your secret by pointing out something that may have been quite obvious.

Keeping your voice steady, as your father’s voice once again echoes through your head to remind you about keeping your family’s secret, you give him a smile and stiffly nod. “No, I’m not.”

“And you can travel across the realms.”

Your heartbeat picks up. “Not that I’ve done this for a long time, nor am I an expert like yourself. And I’m not doing this for a noble purpose like you do,” you find yourself admitting to him, before deciding that perhaps you can share with him at least a part of your truth without revealing who you truly are.

“You have probably figured out by now where I initially came from,” you begin, and when Yoongi says nothing to respond to this, you simply continue, “The human realm has been the only home that I’ve known for as long as I can remember, even if I never got to truly see any other places in the human realm itself aside from the place where I lived.”

Yoongi immediately frowns at this. You can tell that he is surprised to hear this, and you can already guess that he probably wouldn’t like to hear what you are about to share with him next.

“I…was sheltered almost my entire life, kept from the world, hidden in the shadows”—being kept as a secret while you were caged within the palace’s walls—”so I would take every chance I could get, sometimes steal it, just to be able to see the world outside that I was never allowed to see. Before, all I could do was to slip out of my window to travel across the town, then the city, and then I’d venture into the secluded places where people wouldn’t be able to recognise me. A chance to escape and experience freedom.”

The more you reveal this part of yourself, Yoongi’s gaze seems to grow darker. It feels unsettling, yet comforting at the same time. Because it almost seems like he is enraged at your situation. That he is becoming angry—for you.

When had anyone ever felt this kind of concern for you?

You try to remember, before realising soon enough that not even your governess, Nanny Abigail, the closest person to you since your days back at The Citadel, had ever voiced her concern about you being sheltered and hidden from public view. If any, she seems to have always encouraged and supported the King with his decisions, while often convincing you that it would have been better to remain within the palace’s walls for your own safety.

Thinking about this makes you feel upset and bitter, so you quickly push these thoughts away, rather than allowing it to pester your thoughts when you should be enjoying this wonderful moment that you have with Yoongi.

“I might not like you in the sense of crossing the realms, because I have no control of it,” you allow a little more truth to come out. “As a matter of fact, I surprised myself when I arrived here. Never had I expected that I would find my way to a town where magic exists, when I had only been seeing these places through the books that I’ve been reading.”

As you laugh softly to your confession, Yoongi’s frown slowly fades as he curiously says. “You are not familiar with the magic realm.”

You shake your head. “No, I am not. Not yet, at least. Everything is new to me. I’m still learning,” you admit to him with a bashful smile. “I spend my time learning about magic and this realm through the books, never knowing that I might be able to get the chance to visit these places and learn about them directly.”

Yoongi’s expression seems to grow softer after hearing your words. “Is that the reason behind all these questions? All the curiosity that you always have with you?” he asks you, “All because you’ve never had the chance to see the world with your own two eyes, much less this realm we are in?”

Slowly, you nod your head. “I have so many questions but not many that could answer them,” you answer him with a deep exhale of breath, recalling the hours you spent digging into the books in the library only to never feel satisfied enough with what you have found.

Yoongi’s lips twitch to a grin. “And you expected me to answer them for you.”

“Maybe not all of them, but you are the one available right now for me to speak to,” you admit to him with a soft giggle, making him smile, as if the sound of your laughter pleases him. “And, now that I’ve shared all of this with you, as of now, you have become one of the limited people who knows about my secret.”

“I’m going to guess that there’s not a lot of people,” he says with a gentle voice, to which you answer with a nod while you solemnly keep the real answers in your head—

The truth is, you are the only one who actually knows about my secrets. The only one who knows that I’ve been traveling to different places. The only one who knows that I exist while the world revolves in blissful ignorance.

In your silence, Yoongi takes this moment to take a good look at your face while you are lost in deep thoughts. He seems to have found something in you when he murmurs to you softly, “You can sense my magic.”

His words catch you off-guard, but you try your best to control your emotions. “It’s not like I’ve learned how to use magic, or to even have it inside me at all,” you slowly admit to him while recalling your father’s words about magic, how it resides within you, passed down from his bloodline.

But you have never truly felt it, and your father never had the chance to show it to you or to teach you more about it before he had to leave the palace for his royal duty.

“But, I’ve learned how to sense them ever since I first arrived in this realm,” you continue, while Yoongi seems intrigued to hear this.

For some reason, you feel no guilt about sharing this with him. You just don’t feel like it would be particularly necessary to hide this, as this is a new ability that you have been honing through your afternoon lessons with Lady laurel and Lord Gordan, after all.

In fact, seeing his reaction, you suddenly start feeling hopeful that perhaps he can help you understand about this new ability that you have been gifted with yet still cannot understand, much less to wield it at your own will.

The ability to detect other mana or aura from your surroundings—be it on the places where you are at or within the people you are with.

This was said to be the first step of practising your own magic and sharpening your mana while you wait for your father to guide you through the rest. Of course, you haven’t started learning more than the basics, nothing but the theories and the principles behind it, yet you have secretly learned enough on your own to identify the magic that is present around you. And you have learned enough to recognise the energy that you can feel coming out of Yoongi.

And what you can sense from him has only been making you feel more curious about him. The strong pull that keeps drawing you to him. The essence of his magic—

Right at the same time, the same curiosity flickers through Yoongi’s gaze. “What do you sense from me when that happens?”

His question—and the way he says it—sounds surprisingly reassuring, and it prompts you into answering him truthfully.

“Serene. Otherworldly,” you start describing what you feel, recalling the tingling sensations that you felt upon sensing his magic, when you first realised that they were coming from him. “It feels comforting and intimidating at the same time. And quite—captivating, as if there is a strong pull coming from your magic that keeps drawing me in.”

Familiar.

Because it feels eerily similar to the magic that you have grown used to. Similar to the magic that you have been feeling coming from your father’s portals. The strong pull that you feel from Yoongi reminds you too much of the strong charm that sends you across various realms that you find in the magic doors, which often feels like invisible dust brushing at your skin that would sometimes linger with you long after you have stepped across the portal.

The first time you felt it while you were with him back at Narlès, you had chalked it up as having the portal’s magic lingering in your skin because of how different the weather was compared to home. Now, however, the moment you are back in Yoongi’s presence and feeling the same sensation all over again, you finally realise that it hadn’t been the case at all.

With tilted head, you take a good look at Yoongi, wondering why it is possible for him to have the kind of magic that seems to resemble your father’s. Through your lectures, you have learned that the type of magic that a person obtains may differ depending on the source of its powers, and would often differ according to where the person resides in or which empire they are from.

Just like the people within the sun empire that were said to be blessed by the sun itself, and the empires that were said to have claimed the blessings of the Moon and the Gods that are believed to reside in the sea.

Would it be possible that your father’s magic may have come from the same source as Yoongi’s?

Before you can figure out how to bring this up, Yoongi continues to speak, focusing on your magic as if he knows that you haven’t learned much about how special your ability truly is.

“For anyone who acquires the gift of magic or born with mana within them, they will be able to feel or sense it when magic exists around us. At least, most of us do,” he explains, smiling, while your mind flies back to the old farmer who may have felt your mana when you first met him. Then Yoongi surprises you when he adds, “But it takes a different kind of gift and talent to be able to recognise or identify someone else’s magic by sense alone.”

“And that’s something that you are incapable of.”

But I might.

Yoongi nods his head. “That must’ve been the reason why you were able to notice my presence while I was following you. It was my magic that you sensed when you couldn’t see me.”

You tilt your head, realising that he might have been right. And he may not have noticed that he had just solved one of the biggest mysteries that have been plaguing your thoughts as of late, when you could never explain to yourself the reason why you had always been able to sense Yoongi’s presence even before you could see him there.

“But I can tell you this—” he continues, “I can feel the mana within you. For me, it feels like an unrefined diamond, glowing inside you. Except that there is something that is shielding it, protecting it like a veil.”

A shield? It isn’t much of a surprise to hear that you have an unrefined mana, as you are still lacking in training. But to know that there is something protecting it is another matter. “But—how?”

Yoongi presses his lips together as if he is feeling unsure with his answer. “I wish I know,” he says with a regretful smile. “If I have to make a comparison, try to picture a door. A door that has been kept closed and locked so tightly that it would take an effort to open it. Right behind that closed door is your mana. That is how shielded your energy is.”

“So—you’re saying that if I want to be able to find my magic and use it, I have to open that door?” you question him, suddenly feeling light-headed and confused. Yet every word he is giving you makes sense.

Is that the reason why your tutors have refrained from teaching you magic, and had always insisted that you should wait for the return of the King?

“I supposed you can say that,” Yoongi says with a nod. “But that’s not all. I can tell that you also have magic all over you. Although it feels more like a protection spell that is meant for you, not for the mana you have inside you.”

Hearing this only leaves you feeling more confused. Until you finally remember the reactions you saw earlier from the farmers working on the field when they saw you walking away, as if they had just realised that you were there.

Thinking about this, you raise your eyebrows. “The kind of protection spell that may hide me even in plain sight?”

He stifles a smile as he says, “Something like that.” He also seems—proud, to see that you are able to figure it out before he can explain further.

“Yet you can’t recognise its form or where it came from,” you guess again, while Yoongi’s expression shifts when he stiffly nods.

“No, I’m afraid I can’t. The only thing that I can tell you is that it seems to have been placed on you instead of it developing naturally, because it feels entirely different compared to the mana flow I’m feeling from you. I can feel these two separate energies flowing both from within and around you as I’m sitting here with you.”

Sinking back in your seat, you say nothing to this, and choose to hide your expression as you take a hefty drink from your glass. For a while now, you have suspected that something like this may exist. That you may have some kind of magic surrounding you at times. It would only make a whole lot of sense of everything that you have been questioning and wondering about.

The fact that you have been able to escape the palace during the night without people noticing you, but only while you were right outside of the palace’s walls. Common people who would walk by without seeing you when you passed them in the streets, or the royal guards who would fail to notice you slipping through their tight patrol.

As if you were never there.

Instinctively, your hand finds your necklace that is hidden under your cloak, and you anxiously begin toying the gem with your fingers the way you always do when you are lost in deep thoughts and in need to focus.

You start thinking about all those nights you spent roaming the dark streets in Smotia and the afternoons you spent wandering away from the palace, recalling all the significant moments and events, to try and put all the pieces together. You have never have believed that you were a master of disguise, so skilful in hiding your identity that you managed to remain unnoticed during your trips to the outside world.

Unlike Yoongi, perhaps, who seems to be quite an expert if putting up disguises. He would no doubt be able to blend in with the locals with his disguises, avoiding unwanted attention that may put a risk to his duties.

Thinking about this now, the odd expression worn by the mercenary soldier that you met at The Rare Roots begins to make more sense. When he looked at you as if you had magically appeared right in front of him and he was completely caught off-guard that he had let his mask slip. And for some reason, you can almost see that same expression coming out of Yoongi as he is silently watching you—the cold, amused look coming out of his eyes, as if he is trying to solve a puzzle, or a mystery, and he would be able to find the answer by simply looking at your face.

More questions come to mind, and they slip out of you in soft whispers while you are trying to solve this mystery. “How is that possible?” you first ask yourself, before your gaze lands back on Yoongi who hasn’t said a word, giving you the chance to ruminate on this new revelation about yourself.

“If I am protected with a spell, like you said, how did you manage to notice me?” You just cannot help but wonder out loud.

Both in Narlès and here in Grimm, Yoongi has always been the one to find you first. Compared to how you would have had to approach someone and talk to them first to get them to notice you—just like the farmers you met earlier and the people you talked to on your previous excursions.

Just as you are waiting for him to respond, you catch Yoongi’s eyes as they move. A barely visible flicker that is so subtle that you would miss it if only you blink. And you are partially sure that his gaze has landed right at your necklace, at the fingers that are brushing against the golden embellishments securing the ruby pendant that seems to be reflecting the sunlight as you twirl it in your touch.

All of a sudden, a blurry image from your almost-forgotten dream comes back to you.

Yoongi’s eyes remind you of the pair of dark eyes drifting down to your collarbone, eyeing on the necklace that you were wearing even in your dreams. The deep voice that almost felt like a whisper, a murmur, when the man in your dream spoke of as if he had just gotten an answer to the riddle that he was so desperate to solve, “The necklace. Of course. I should’ve known.”

Carefully, you lower your hand, opting to take Yoongi’s attention away from the necklace. His curious gaze is starting to make you feel uncomfortable, too vulnerable, that even the necklace is starting to feel hot under his dark, perusing eyes.

“I might have a theory,” Yoongi begins as his eyes find yours again. This time, the look that he is giving you seems a bit more cautious. As if he is treading carefully through this, and you understand why when he says, “But I might have to show it to you to prove it, since it would mean using my magic to understand, and I can do that if you would allow me to.”

As he stops talking, you can almost hear the unspoken words that he is keeping to himself as he regards you with a smile. A silent promise that also becomes a challenge that he offers you in exchange of any secret that you may choose to share with him—

This secret I can reveal to you, as long as you are willing to reveal yours.

#yoongi scenario #k-vanity #btscreaturescoven #bangtanwhq #yoongi fanfic #yoongi angst #yoongi fluff #suga scenario #suga angst #suga fluff #yoongi x reader #suga x reader #bts fanfic #bts scenario #bts angst #bts fluff #bts x reader

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sparrowrye · 4 months

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Demi Demon || Alastor x Reader, part 14

Synopsis: soulmate AU where you have the same mark on your body as your soulmate, and if your soulmate dies, you die too. Alastor needs to make sure that his soulmate is safe so he can continue his reign - whatever that takes. Though it looks like we have a couple secrets of our own.

Previous part

Part 14: snake demon

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I slithered through the heavy crowd. Everyone had either a drink or money in their hand. The matches were about to start and everyone was putting their bets in. I held my human appearance but I kept scratching my neck where my short hair touched my skin. I wasn't used to this new hairstyle.

It had been a few weeks since I left Alastor's manor. During that time, I had found my new purpose. My first morning of freedom was spent dealing with ring guards and getting children out of cages. Those under 18 I brought to the orphanage while those above that went with me to the next town to find a job and make a living. I felt guilty leaving them to figure it out on their own, but it was a much better fate than dying worthlessly in a fighting ring.

Evading Alastor and Husker had been a challenge. At first I hid in old attics during the night and only ventured out at midday. I cut my hair short and stayed far away from any shadows.

It didn't take me long to discover what Husker looked like with his human appearance. He looked like an angry wolverine and his body emitted an orange glow from using his magic. I could sense and smell his presence as soon as he stepped foot in town.

I moved from town to town without pattern. I was surviving off the generosity of others or my own sneaky tactics. I had found a map in one of the general stores and decided to live in a town close to Ultopa. The two surroundings towns had recently legalized fighting rings, which meant there was a huge amount of trapped fighters. I would live nearby and make it a routine to free these enslaved fighters.

Ultopa was also far from Alastor's manor. I had a feeling he wouldn't think to look for me so close to a legalized ring fighting town. He knew my history and how much I hated these things. Why would he look for me at the one place I despise?

It wasn't until I was on the last leg of my journey near Ultopa that I realized I was making a name for myself. Word had gotten around that a Snake Demon of sorts was attacking ring fights. I guessed they used the term snake because there were rumors of the fighter Python being the savior. And I knew they used the word demon because I looked like one. The world still has yet to know what Full mages really are.

The name felt nice, to be honest. I was making a new name for myself in the way I wanted. I was saving people and causing problems for criminals. Fighters were no longer fearing my name, but wishing for it.

However, that meant that security around the rings went up. I discovered this at the town I would call home. I had secured a job that day as an Under Cook for a noble house. I was in charge of making sure the servants who fed the nobles were fed themselves. It kept me busy during the day and off the streets, away from prying eyes. At night, I disappeared into the forest to attend a ring fight.

At first I walked around the bleachers to get a feel for how upstairs worked. Who made the bets, where were they kept, who were the masters, and so on. Once I overheard a master praising their fighter, I would step in and ask to see. I had seen other people do this before and masters were always willing to show off their caged fighter.

This allowed me to see what underneath looked like. It felt strange and uncomfortable to be walking around with masters while fighters coward in cages I knew all too well. Their eyes looked at me with desperation, anger, or nothing at all. Pretending to be impressed was even more challenging at first. Eventually, though, I grew more accustomed knowing I was going to save them that morning.

"You're not leaving, are you?"

I was about to before a man stopped me. He was tall, ridiculously so, and he had a long stick that served as a smoke. He was bald but wore a fuzzy pink hat and long coat. I had just left the underground cages and was about to walk back through the forest.

"Something came up and I have to run back," I answered, "But I'm hoping to be back before they're finished."

"What could have possibly come up at this time of night?" he questioned.

"Personal matters." I turned to leave but he sped through the air to stand in my way. I could see his pink outline fade away. Based on how strong the color had been, I immediately knew he was a Demon.

"Come now, you wouldn't want to miss the first fight. They're always the best one. Unless, of course, that's not your fancy." He tapped his smoke so the ash fell. "Though I'm not sure why you'd be here, then."

"I'm sorry but I really must be going. It's very time sensitive." I walked around him. Fear tickled the back of my throat as I stepped into the shadows.

"You know, we have a policy in place for undercover cops."

I stopped. “You think I'm one of them?" I turned to face him, firmly planting my hands on my hips.

"Our rules here is anyone who comes to watch must stay the whole time. It's for security reasons, I'm sure you can understand."

I realized then that I was talking to the owner of this ring. "Well, I'm new in town and wasn't made aware of this rule. Perhaps you can grant me an accommodation this time?"

He laughed so his sharp teeth glinted in the light from nearby lanterns. One of them was gold. His outline grew bright pink again. "I'm not a very forgiving man," he said, "and I have been running this operation for far too long to allow someone to ruin it. So, if you're not a cop, then stay. Enjoy the show. It's why you came in the first place, is it not?"

I was silent for a moment. He knew what my human appearance looked like, which meant he could find me in town. Yet if I followed through with this, he would notice that I didn't belong to the police. I could keep my act up without moving. This was the only town close enough to Ultopa and the others.

"I suppose my matter could wait," I said with a smile. I stepped out of the shadows and walked back up the path.

He chuckled. "I thought so."

The bleachers had grown more crowded as everyone quickly found their favorite seat. I went to hide among them when the owner grabbed my arm.

"Come, sit with me," he insisted, "I want you to have the best seat in the house." He didn't wait for an answer and pulled me up the steps. At the very top of the bleachers was a pink couch and a television camera.

"You broadcast these?" I asked.

He laughed in response. "It's an exclusive offer to certain patrons. Perhaps you'd like the opportunity?"

"I prefer them in person," I said.

"Of course. Come, sit." He sat on the couch and drew in a huge breath of his smoke. I forced myself to sit down and keep myself proper.

This was going to be a challenge. I had never watched these fights before. I had always left before they started in order to dye my hair black before arriving a few hours later. I was going to have to pretend to be invested. I could feel the owner watching me as the first fight began.

The first fight was between two adults who seemed equally good at fighting. Everyone was shouting their bet and cheering when one of them landed a good hit. The guards around the ring kept their Slight magic from reaching the audiences. I leaned forward on my knees and started whispering. I kept my gaze focused on the girl, never once letting my eyes leave her. My facade was going to be focus. Extreme focus.

Eventually, after a long, five minute fight, the man slammed her head into the wall and her body fell limp. I slammed my fist into my knee and sat up straight. Had he killed her or just made her unconscious?

"I told you the first ones were the best," the owner said, tapping the ash off his smoke again.

"Do they always last that long?" I asked.

"The first ones do. Gets everyone all rile up and ready for the next one."

We went through several more rounds until the crowd visibly grew bored with the quick fights. Each time a fight ended I was either happy or angry, always hiding my disgust and sadness behind my hands until it ended.

"Now comes the fun part," the owner laughed.

"Huh?"

"I haven't seen enough blood today. Soo..." he gestured to the ring as the new fighters stepped in. It was two teenagers. One of them looked normal but the other was on all fours, drooling all over the place and making weird noises.

"What happened to them?"

"Oh we just gave them a little something to help boost their chances." He pulled out a bag of pink powder.

"What is that? A type of drug?"

His chuckle was deep in his throat. "Indeed. It makes the recipient...revisit some memories. They become incredibly susceptible to anything they're told."

I fell silent. That must be the same drug that was used on me, both in Rosie's store and at Alastor's manor. That must mean the teenager was currently visiting a horrible memory and reliving it as if it was real. And they were taking it out on their opponent.

"You don't seem too happy about this."

I cleared my throat. "Doesn't it dampen their fighting? It doesn’t seem very...authentic."

"Oh it's authentic alright. Most fighters use magic to kill their opponent but where's the fun in that? Everyone comes here to see blood and desperation, not a magic show."

"That's true." I turned my attention back to the fight, internally letting out a sigh of relief. He almost caught me.

The crazed teenager was chasing their opponent in circles. Even when their arm broke they kept moving as if it hadn't happened. It was only a matter of time before their opponent grew tired and they tore them apart, literally.

My face paled. Everything in me tensed. Don't look away. Don't look away. Don't look away.

"You know," the owner's voice was in my ear, "you seem awfully familiar. Have we met before?"

"I don't think so," I answered without looking.

"Perhaps not in person. But tell me, where did you get this scar on your cheek?" He brushed the back of his finger along the fine line on my cheek.

"Alastor." I closed my mouth too late. Why did I say that? I reached out with my magic to feel for his presence. But there wasn’t anything there. He wasn't in my mind? He took another smoke but this time it came out pink.

"That's interesting. How did you survive a fight with the Radio Demon?" he asked next.

"He saved me from bounty hunters."

Shut up! I couldn't stop myself from answering. Everything felt warm, then it grew way too hot. I was sweating and the image of Striker started to come to mind. It felt like he was sitting right next to me.

"How generous of him. Say," he leaned in close so our faces were almost touching, "does he have a matching cut on his face?"

"Yes."

Then I felt his presence. I immediately pushed back and kept him out of my head. My shields held as he fought against me.

"Did he take you anywhere?"

I was sweating so much. My eyes stared down at the bloody scene. My body wasn't moving, wasn't listening. I needed to run. He kept pushing me, trying to force his way into my head. My shields were starting to bend.

"To a house."

"What house, sweetheart?"

I pushed harder against him. If I couldn't move my body, I was going to keep him out of my head. I felt him give a little.

"Is it on a cliff?" he asked next.

"Yes."

"Tell me sweetheart," he put his sharp claws on my shoulder, slammed into my shields, and practically yelled in my ear, “is he your soulmate?"

"y-y...ye..." I pushed back hard. I squeezed my eyes shut and mentally screamed as I pushed him completely out of my head. He dug his claws into my shoulder and the pain brought me back. I grabbed hold of my body and abruptly stood up. "Thank you for your kindness, but I must be leaving now. Until next time." I turned on my heels and marched down the stairs.

I left the ring and bolted into the shadows. I carried myself all the way back to my apartment with the wind. I had lost. He knew Alastor was my soulmate. How long before he started sending people after me? Kill me and you've killed the Radio Demon.

Why am I so bad at this?

****

The next day I had disappeared from the town. I hitched a ride earlier that morning to the town neighboring Ultopa and stared out the window. Surely living in this town would be normal. I didn't want to live in a town that legalized ring fights but now I was out of options.

The town next to Ultopa was a trading port, called Kelendale. It was relatively small and known only for its ship repairs. The next big city wasn't too far but ships that suffered from a bad storm needed somewhere closer to repair and restock.

I scavenged the town for a job but came back with nothing. Roles had already been filled in such a small town, leaving me with nothing to do and nowhere to go. I would have to try somewhere else. But for tonight, I hid in the ship yard and died my hair black already. I had overheard one of the sailors talking about the ring fight between here and Ultopa. Apparently they shared a ring on this side with Kelendale and another with their other neighboring town.

I didn't bother with surveying the ring. I waited well into the night before making my way through the wilderness. The familiar crawl of nerves went up my spine. I followed the road until I came to the clearing that held the ring. It looked like someone had picked up a building from town and plopped it right in the middle of the field. It was a three story building and people were still crowding outside, desperately trying to see in.

It wasn't long before the fighting for the night had come to an end. People got in their cars or carriages and drove back home. I stayed hidden in the bushes until everyone had left, which took a surprisingly short amount of time. Everyone had gone for the night and the lights on all levels turned off.

I waited another ten minutes before I dared to venture out. I kept myself hidden in the dark shadows of the tree then melted into the building's. I went to the backdoor were a woman stood guard. She let out a sigh, looked around, then pulled out a phone. I took a slow, calculated step forward, raising the rock in my hand. I put my hand up to her head, careful not to touch her, then brought the rock down.

Her body went limb and folded on the ground. I pulled her to a sitting position against the wall. She wasn't dead but I had only a short time before she would wake up.

Inside was pitch black. I used the moon's light to lighten it just enough for me too see. My mouth gapped open as I looked around. The floors had been cleared out save for the edges where people probably watched from. Everywhere above me were hanging cages that held the fighters. In the center of the whole thing was a massive chained net. This was no traditional fighting ring.

The fighters didn't notice me. They were all fast asleep. It wasn't uncommon for them to drug fighters at night. They could be a hazard when left unsupervised and able to converse with each other. That would make things hard for me, though.

I opened my wings and flew up to the top floor. The net reached all the way to the third floor and came to a point. This point was attached to the ceiling to allow those on the third floor to look down into the fighting net. There was a small opening on the one side that told me how they put the fighters in. A net like this was hard to fight in since it moved around with the slightest of movement, making the fights even more interesting. The platforms surrounding the net were furnished with all kinds of cushy seating. Bottles and paper lay scattered all over the place.

Countless pairs of eyes all stared silently down at me. The fighters up here were awake. Some of them waved desperately to me for help. I was surprised to hear nothing from them. It was quiet, too quiet. Had their tongues been cut? If that was the case they would still be able to make some sort of noises. They always did when the opportunity of freedom was presented to them.

The silence was making me uncomfortable. I looked around for a trap but there was none. The only noise came from the occasional clang of the chains from the wind or the soft screeching of metal from the cages. Something felt wrong but I couldn't figure out what. It wasn't as if I could stop.

The problem was moving the sleeping fighters. I would probably have to move them last. There were too many of them that were asleep. This ring had a normal amount of fighters, which seemed strange for a legal ring, but waking them up would drain me. I had done it before but the process took a lot of energy. I would have to save only a few then come back another time.

At the very least I could free those who were awake. I went to each cage and helped lower them to the ground. They didn't wait for each other, instead running off down the stairs to freedom. The locks all had a magic touch to them but it wasn't hard for me to break through it and melt it off.

I went to one of the cages near the net and opened it. The man was larger than me and his cage was dangerously close to the opening of the net. One wrong move and he would plunge down into the net. I could only imagine the injury that could cause. I used the wind to start swinging his cage from side to side. I hung on the side of the cage and waited for him.

He jumped and I flew after him. I grabbed his arm and furiously flapped to slow his fall. Pain shot through my wing. A gunshot echoed through the building and I screamed as I fell hard into the floor. A huge gust of wind slammed into me and pushed me towards the edge. I hid my wings but it only made the pain go through my spine. I flailed helpless as I was pulled through the opening and into the net.

I grabbed onto a chain and screamed when my shoulder popped. The bar slipped from my hand as I plummeted down. I casted wind beneath me but it only cushioned my fall so much. The chains dug into my shoulders as I landed.

The lights all turned on, momentarily blinding me. People starting filing in from the entrances, coming dangerously close to my injured figure. I used my good arm and struggled to pull myself up to my feet. The bottom of the net was a square but it still swayed as I moved. My back was searing in pain.

"Well well, look who we have here folks." A man with slick brown hair and a dark blue suite stood at the very top of the net. "If it isn't the infamous Snake Demon. The wonderful savior has graced us with her presence. You're all in for a real treat, tonight."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Author’s note:

Ta daa 😘

#alastor the radio demon #alastor x reader #hazbin alastor #hazbin hotel #hazbin husk #soulmate au #soulmates #reqs open #hazbin hotel husk

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ticklemerainbows · 11 months

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Aestheticore Legacy Challenge

Hullo friends! I have been searching for a little while for a legacy challenge that I could also use as some sort of perfect genetics challenge and I figured, why not make my own. So the aestheticore legacy challenge was born! As you can tell from the title, this challenge is centered around differed aesthetics. There are a ton of aesthetics out there so it was hard to pick just 10, and some of these I’ve never heard of before so I’m excited to try this out!

If you decide to do this, tag me ticklemerainbows or aestheticore challenge so I can see! And feel free to let me know what you think. This is my first challenge so if there’s things I could do different/better let me know!

And without further ado, the challenge.

~x~x~x~

Generation One - Cottagecore

Your favorite thing about living on family land is the garden. It’s been around for at least the last 10 generations, and you want nothing more than to keep it going, but living in a city isn’t for you. So you pack up, take a keepsake plant from the garden and move to a quiet town in order to grow your own garden that will hopefully last for generations to come!

Requirements: The Perfect Garden

Live on a small (no bigger than 30x30) lot

Maintain a garden for the entire generation

Reach level 10 Gardening

Make a living off your plants

Suggested Traits: Green Thumb, Loves the Outdoors

Color: Green

Generation Two - Auroracore

You try your hardest to help your parents on the farm but you can’t help but have your head in the clouds. Fairy tales are your favorite genre of anything, and while living on a farm is all fine and dandy - you absolutely love your horse, you did raise it from a baby after all! - you always wonder if there’s something more. Like, a unicorn, perhaps?

Requirements: The Fairy Tale Finder

Raise a horse from foal to adult

Reach level 10 in the Riding Skill

Have your horse get the Friend of the Herd Lifetime Reward

Search for a unicorn anytime there’s an aurora

Suggested Traits: Equestrian, Animal Lover

Color: Lilac

Generation Three - Light Academia

Being raised by someone who’s lifelong mission was to find a supernatural creature was surprisingly not as chaotic as it would sound, though you still prefer to stay more…grounded. While your parents were out hunting, you preferred to keep your head in the books, earning a scholarship to get into University.

Requirements: The Perfect Student

Get on honor roll as a child/teen

Earn a scholarship in any subject

Buy the bookstore

Suggested Traits: Socially Awkward, Workaholic, Perfectionist, Bookworm

Color: Beige

Generation Four - Fairycore

Your grandmother always told you about her times with her unicorn friend, and while you never quite believed her, you fell in love with the idea of supernatural creatures altogether. Magic, fairies, it all sounds so fantastical that you even begin trying to figure out if you can turn yourself into a magical creature!

Requirements: Alchemy Artisan

Reach level 10 Alchemy

Visit the arboretum once a week to search for fairies

Befriend a fairy

Use an elixir to become a fairy

Suggested Traits: Supernatural Fan, Gatherer

Color: Pink

Generation Five - Comfy/Cozy

Life around magic has been a whirlwind, and you are anything but all that excitement. Having a grandparent who owns a bookstore has its perks, and you spend most of your time curled up with a good book and a warm cup of tea. Leaving your house to work doesn’t sound too appealing but you don’t have to go outside to write, do you?

Requirements: Professional Author

Join the bookclub

Visit the library at least 3 times a season

Reach level 10 Writing

Write a best selling novel

Suggested Traits: Bookworm, Couch Potato, Artistic

Color: Orange

Generation Six - Decora

You always get asked how you turned out so outgoing when you were raised by homebodies, and you never have an answer for that. You just love being around people, and more importantly dressing those people up. You want to fill as many peoples lives with as much color as possible.

Requirements: Fashion Phenomenon

Change your outfit every season

Reach level 10 Painting

Makeover at least 10 sims

Become best friends with one of your clients

Suggested Traits: Charismatic, Artistic, Excitable

Color: Magenta

Generation Seven - Jamcore

You love color just as much as your parents, but not so much the fashion part. Your clothes get way too messy as you experiment in the kitchen, after all. Creating yummy, colorful dishes are where your passions lie and you are determined to learn as much about the culinary arts as you possibly can.

Requirements: The Culinary Librarian

Cook meals for your family every day

Grow a fruit orchard on the family farm

Have a personal recipe library

(Optional) Use the Grandma’s Canning Station once a week

Suggested Traits: Natural Cook, Bookworm

Color: Yellow

Generation Eight - Nautical

See the line where the sky meets the sea? It calls ye. You’ve always been drawn to the water, so much so that your family jokes that you might be a mermaid. Swimming, fishing, boating, it all appeals to you. You’d live on a houseboat, if given the chance.

Requirements: Presenting the Perfect Aquarium

Own a boat

Install a pond on your family land

Move into a houseboat

Reach level 10 Fishing

Suggested Traits: Loves to Swim, Angler

Color: Blue

Generation Nine - Wanderlust

Your parents loved the open sea but you want to see what’s beyond that! Visiting other cities, and even other countries. Learning and immersing yourself in the culture. You’ve read books about it, watched shows, and now that you’re old enough it’s time to dust off your visa and visit those places for yourself.

Requirements: Seasoned Traveler

Reach level 10 in Photography

Collect a relic from each location

Go on at least 1 adventure in each country

Marry someone from a foreign country

Suggested Traits: Adventurer, Perfectionist

Color: Red

Generation Ten - Synthwave

You spent your life in other countries, other cultures, and you have to wonder, what more is there? You’ve inherited a love of traveling but is it possible to go to other timelines, or even the future? There’s not much research on it now but there’s only one way to find out. To the future!

Requirements: Made the Most of My Time

Become best friends with Emit

Reach Level 10 in Advanced Technology

Complete the Time Keeper Legacy Statue Challenge

Create a time machine

Suggested Traits: Friendly, Adventurer

Color: Black

#legacy challenge #sims 3 legacy challenge #aestheticore challenge

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taleweaver-ramblings · 8 months

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Inklings Challenge 2023: The Last Immortal of Evitra

'Tis the deadline day for the Inklings Challenge (@inklings-challenge), and I have not finished my story, but today is also Ren Faire day, and I will therefore not be able to finish today . . . but it's a long story that I'll have to post in multiple parts anyway, so have part one now, and I'll post the rest over the next week.

Also, in classic Taleweaver fashion, this is a fairy tale retelling. Which fairy tale should be fairly obvious. It is not, however, a romance.

Unedited; please be nice about typos.

~~~~~

The Last Immortal of Evitra, Part 1

Anatole Bérenger Judicaël Télesphore Corentin, lord of Blackrose Manor, last immortal of Evitra, woke to the sound of a child crying.

He let out a quiet growl as he reoriented himself to his surroundings. He’d dozed off in his study, it seemed. The last he remembered, the sun had been just at the top edge of the tall windows. Now it was gone, and the whole room was drenched in black shadows — though, of course, shadows had hidden nothing from him for the last four hundred years.

Anatole stirred and stretched, tracing the sound down the threads of magic that carried it. The child wasn’t within the manor house itself, thankfully, but it was concerningly close. Behind the stables, if Anatole read the magic aright. What it was doing there, he could guess, and the thought made him growl again. It had been a long, long time since small boys dared their friends to creep up to his home and spend ten minutes within his gates. If the practice was starting up again . . . well. It might require him to go down to the town again for the first time in decades.

Unless, of course, he could put a stop to it now. Anatole took his cloak from its hook by the door and swept it around his shoulders. Then he stalked from his study, through the halls to a side door, and out into the night.

By the time he found the child, it had stopped crying and moved inside the stables. There were no horses there anymore, nor even any hay — Anatole had no need for such things these days. But in the back, in a corner of the very last stall, there was a small boy, curled up and shivering with his eyes shut and hands balled into the ragged sleeves of his much-mended shirt.

Anatole stepped into the stall, making sure to leave space in the doorway, and growled again, low and menacing. “Boy. Leave my home or face the consequences.”

The boy startled, and his eyes flew open. Anatole knew well what the boy saw. His cursed form was a work of art, he had to admit — curving horns and red eyes and sharp fangs and claws all sharp and distinct and gleaming even without light, and the rest of him a hulking beast of shadows with just enough substance to resolve into one’s worst nightmares. It was a form to make the bravest of men turn and run.

But rather than fleeing, the boy pressed himself more firmly into his corner. “No. I’m not scared of you, demon.” His voice strongly suggested otherwise. “Oúte o thánatos, oúte i zoí, oúte ángeloi, oúte igemoníes, oúte oi dynámas —”

“Oúte oi dynámeis,” Anatole snapped. “If you’re going to threaten demons with the Holy Writ, boy, you’d better say it correctly. Fortunately for you, I am not a demon. But I am a monster.” He bared his teeth further and growled again. “Now, begone. Go home.”

“Don’t have a home.” The boy’s hands scrabbled on the floor as if searching for a crack or crevice to hold onto. “You’ve got the whole house and all the land. You can spare a corner for the night.”

“If you have no home, then get yourself to the orphanage. I understand that’s what it’s there for.” Anatole pointed out the door. “Go.”

“Won’t.” The boy, finding no handholds, crossed his arms and shut his eyes. “Go away, monster. You’re probably a bad dream anyway.”

How dare the boy defy him! How dare he!

Anatole felt the enchantments woven into every inch of the estate swell in response to his wrath. They didn’t anticipate his need the way they once would have — the curse ensured that — but they would answer swift enough if he called upon them. He could have this boy ejected and back on the road in moments, and in the morning he could add another layer of spellwork to more effectively discourage trespassers.

But it was full night, the town was well over a mile away, and there were wolves in these woods. Sending the boy out on his own would be a shade too close to outright murder for Anatole’s taste. So, with a sigh, he reached down, grabbed the boy, and slung him over his shoulder. Then he turned and trudged back towards the main house.

The boy thrashed and struggled to get free. “Let me go! Put me down, monster!”

“No.” Anatole shoved open the side door, stepped through, and then paused to lock it behind them. “If you’re spending the night on my estate, you’ll do it where I can keep an eye on you.”

The boy continued to wriggle and protest as Anatole made his way swiftly to one of the smaller guest chambers. There, with much relief, he dropped the boy onto the couch. No dust rose — cleaning spells were child’s play, and Anatole had spent his first week of isolation laying multiple in every room. But somehow, the cushions still managed to let off an air of long disuse.

Anatole took a step back. “You’ll sleep here and then leave in the morning.” Now that he’d brought the boy inside, the long-practiced rules of hospitality gripped him like an instinct. “Are you hungry?”

The boy eyed him with suspicion, but gave a tight little nod. Anatole shut his eyes, probing his awareness of the house to check what he had to offer. Apples, cold turkey left from his dinner, cheese — that would do. A few commands and a plate appeared on the low table beside the couch, along with a sturdy mug of water. Anatole opened his eyes again. “Eat.”

The boy poked at the apple suspiciously — rude of him, as Anatole had even gone to the trouble of having it sliced. “Is this fairy food?”

“I have no interest in trapping you in my home.” Anatole resisted the urge to roll his eyes. “I summoned it by magic, but the food is real.”

The boy picked up an apple slice, tasted it, and seemed to approve. “Are you planning to eat me?”

“There’s not enough meat on your bones to be worth the effort.” Anatole turned. “Eat, sleep, and be gone in the morning. I will come to this room at ten o’clock, and if you are not gone, I will remove you myself — and should you return, I may rethink eating you.” He waited to hear no further protests, but rather stalked out of the room, shutting the door behind him. As an afterthought, he locked it, laying a small spell so it would unlock again only after the boy had slept, and sent a command through the estate to close and lock all other doors and to only let them open at his own touch, or if they were necessary to let the boy out in the morning. With that, he made his way to his own bed and fell into a light slumber.

At half-past seven the next morning, he roused as he sensed the boy scurrying out the same side door they’d entered through the night before. Anatole remained awake until he felt the boy vanish off the edge of the estate. Then, satisfied, he drifted back into deeper sleep. He had done his duty; no one could argue that. And now the boy was gone and, with any luck, the threat of being eaten would be enough to keep others away for another hundred years or so.

~~~

Three days passed peacefully, and the fourth dawned cold, grey, and threatening either rain or snow. Anatole had decided some centuries ago that, on such days, resisting the urge to hibernate like the bear he somewhat resembled was far more trouble than it was worth. So, he spent most of the day in the library, alternately napping and listening as a speaker-spell read a book to him, stirring only when hunger made it necessary to summon a meal.

He was just waking from one of these naps when he felt a clumsy tug on the estate’s magic. Immediately, he shook himself, reaching out to see who or what dared try to use his power.

Once again, there was a child at the other end of the disturbance. The same one as before, if Anatole wasn’t mistaken. And there was another with him, smaller than he. Anatole growled, extracting himself from his blankets. Apparently, he’d been too kind to the boy last time. He would not make the same mistake again.

Outside, the sky had resolved into a storm of wind and driving rain and occasional flashes of lightning. Anatole trudged onward all the same, following the periodic tugs in his web of enchantment. A curse and a pox on the boy for choosing this day of all days to come back! And he was further from the main house this time, all the way out in the gamekeeper’s cottage — even longer disused than the rest of the estate’s outbuildings.

The door was locked, but it opened at his touch. The floorboards creaked beneath his feet as he swept inside, drawing himself up to his full height so he nearly touched the ceiling. “I told you not to return.”

The boy — indeed the same one as last time — looked up with wide eyes. He scrambled to his feet, darting in front of the other child. “What d’you care? You’ve got all this space and no one to live in it. We’re not hurting anything. I didn’t come anywhere near your house this time.”

“I care very much when someone trespasses on my property and tries to use my power for his own.” Anatole peered past the boy at the second child: a little girl, perhaps half the boy’s age, yellow-haired and thin-cheeked. “And you should know better than to wander into a monster’s den.”

“There’s monsters everywhere. You aren’t special.” The boy glanced behind him, and his shoulders sagged a little. “One night, Seigneur, please. Then we’ll leave. I promise. We’ll leave and we won’t come back.”

Anatole considered — but the rain and wind outside left him no choice. “I will hold you to that promise.” He turned. “Come.”

The two followed, straggling along behind him, the boy carrying a small bundle on his shoulder and helping the girl along with his free hand. However, after ten minutes, in which Anatole had to stop and wait five separate times for the children to catch up, he turned and simply scooped up both, ignoring their panicked protests. They were light as feathers, both of them — lighter than they ought to be, but perhaps that was merely the greater strength of his current form. Or perhaps he was misremembering. It had been many, many centuries since he’d had reason to carry a child.

He didn’t set the two back down until he’d reached the small guest room where he’d let the boy stay last time. There, he deposited both children onto the couch and once again summoned a platter of food: two bowls of the thick rabbit stew he’d started earlier that day for his dinner, cold flatbread rounds left from lunch, soft cheese, and juicy pears. This time, he very deliberately chose to materialize it on the table by the fireplace. “The food will stay warm until you eat it, at which point you will take care not to make a mess. You will remain in this room, the adjoining one, or the connected bathing chamber until after dawn tomorrow, and you will leave no later than ten o’clock. At no point will you disturb me. Is this understood?”

The girl just stared, but the boy nodded. “I understand. We’ll do as you say.”

“Good.” Anatole stalked from the room — but, to his surprise, the boy followed him out. “What did I say to you a moment ago?”

“I need to ask you something, sir.” The boy held his head up, dropping his tone. “If you eat one of us, make it me. Not Aimée. I’m the one who brought her here. And can you make sure she goes somewhere aside from the orphanage when you send her away?”

Anatole cast a cold glance at the boy. “The two of you together wouldn’t make as much meat as the rabbit I put in tonight’s stew. You may attend to the girl’s fate yourself when you both leave in the morning.”

“Thank you, Seigneur.” There was a bitter note in the boy’s voice, no doubt at the fact that he had to express gratitude for not being eaten. “We’ll not disturb you.”

He disappeared back into the room, and Anatole strode hastily away, working a belated drying-spell to pull the water from his cloak, clothes, and form. One night more. Then these two would be out of his hair and, with any luck, far, far away.

#story: unfinished #inklingschallenge #inklings challenge #team tolkien #genre: secondary world #(couldn't figure out how to work in both this time)#theme: food #theme: shelter #I actually have more written #but this is the cleanest break #and I want to leave myself a buffer

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lightwithinthedarknessu · 1 year

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Kingdom Hearts Missing Link Beta News Roundup

Kingdom Hearts Missing Link’s beta test has begun in Japan! Square Enix has announced that no videos or images of gameplay should be released by testers. However they are free to share their thoughts! This article will be updated as new impressions and thoughts roll in.

The official KHDR_PR Twitter account has begun to release images of the game and missions for players. First up is a graphic detailing how players can use the touchscreen for movement and how the GPS system works.

There are two gameplay modes: Pad mode and GPS mode

Your character can move alongside you as you walk.

You can also move characters with the virtual track-pad.

*edit* Movement AP can be obtained in walk mode.

In Pad Mode you gain AP in battles

Battles can be automated in "hands-free mode"

AP is required for battles, obtaining treasure boxes, etc.

The team has also shared initial missions for beta testers to complete during the testing period. Much like KHUX, currency in the games is stated to be jewels. New mission content for testers will be released daily until the beta closes. For today, players are challenged to make to lvl 20 for free jewels.

Mission Translations

1/13 7:00~ Grab your smartphone and get started traveling!

1/14 7:00 ~ Area Boss Quest Released

1/17 7:00 ~ Raid Boss Quest Release

Impressions

Lucky beta testers who were selected via lottery are beginning to share their initial thoughts on the gameplay as well. Many of these impressions are posted on Twitter. Please do check out the #KHML tag and thank them for sharing! You can follow updates as they come live here.

Graphics and gameplay are smooth and crisp, comparable to graphics on the Nintendo Switch.

For beta, there is currently no controller support. Character customization is extremely detailed. Facial features, clothing, and accessories are available to choose from, including make-up. Your character does different poses as you’re customizing them.

Story quests are seen to exist but are locked within the beta.

You can collect materials to upgrade your keyblade.

Changing your keyblade also changes your fighting style. Two keyblades are available, one ranged (shooting magic-like abilities) and one more up close for attacking.

Heartless spawns are impacted by the weather.

If you walk up to building you can jump/get onto it.

UI can be moved and changed to be more transparent and moves based on how you’re playing (horizontal or vertical)

On the pause menu you can leave the battle and return to the main map.

There are places to heal your character as you move around.

You can still move around normally in the game without GPS

Tutorial was in vertical mode but gameplay switched to horizontal.

Many of the GPS features are similar to Dragon Quest Walk.

If you walk up to a building you can jump/get onto it. UI can be moved and changed to be more transparent and moves based on how you’re playing (horizontal or vertical)

On the pause menu you can leave the battle and return to the main map.

There are two keyblades to use and you can switch between them. First is Fortune Gear and second is Light Order. The names will probably change with official translations.

New Avatar pieces can be bought with jewels much like KHUX.

New Dearly beloved is beautiful

MP can be used up quickly in auto battle if you aren’t careful.

Raid battles are back! There seems to be an option for a friend feature in the future. No news yet on if you can take on a boss with friends like in KHUX.

It’s very important to finish the tutorial

There is a cooldown time for skills and abilities unlock as you level your keyblade. The appearance also changes as you level it up.

There two types of areas mentioned that you can explore. The town and the field. In town apparently, you can talk to one person for missions.

Gatcha system is back and 3* seems to be the highest rarity to get right now for the chess-like pieces, as seen in the trailer.

Treasure chests in the shop are a great use for jewels and net you various rewards. Helpful in leveling up. The shop seems very similar to KHUX.

There is an opening movie, but it is a short story scene instead of CG. This was confirmed by Aitaikimochi. There is a beautiful new stained glass in the opening. Implied there is a Dive to the heart like in KHUX. Skuld may be in the stained glass, but this is unconfirmed.

GPS is needed for certain features such as gaining activity tokens. In GPS mode you gain access to an Activity gauge. By filling it up through motion and fitness steps you can earn Activity coins for prizes.

Dodge roll and a charge attack can be completed with the touchscreen/a flick of of your finger.

AP is a bit difficult to obtain in the beta. Hopefully this will change in the final version.

Battery consumption is lower depending on the model, the mode you’re playing (GPS or trackpad mode) and how you use your phone while in GPS mode, (setting to power save mode, locking the screen etc.)

Certain chests require tickets to open them. If you run out you can purchase them in the shop. Normal chests include materials to upgrade your pieces. Some treasure chests are easier to open than others. “Gorgeous” treasure chests include 3* pieces.

The field and town BGM are new and sounds calm/gentle with a lighthearted tone.

#kingdomhearts #kingdom hearts #kingdom hearts missing link #KHML #KH #kingdomheartsnews #khnews #kingdom hearts news #KHUX #KHX #longpost #missing link

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anglingforlevels · 9 months

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Through the Mountains (Paranormal Investigator Reader x Yan!Creatures)

A small concept blurb about a paranormal investigator that attracts the supernatural. Reader is honestly having such a good time doing it that they’ve thrown the horror genre out of the story.

CW: Death, Light Body Horror, Not Proof-Read, Not really a story just a concept, Yandere (more suggested than shown in this), monsterfuckery, Reader's morality is dubious at best.

Minors DNI

Humans have always been both fearful and drawn by the unknown, looking to the vastness of space or the depths of the oceans. But we know very little about the earth we stand on – hidden in creaks and shadows, or sometimes even plainly in sight, lies the unknown, beckoning us forth.

And you have never been one to ignore a call.

Already from an early age, you had noticed things, oddities that set themselves apart from what others believed to be possible or real. You didn’t particularly believe in magic, anything could be magic as long as it was unknown, but you didn’t care much to unveil the science of these oddities either, you were simply enthralled by what you didn’t know.

And the unknown seemed enthralled by you as well.

From the curious pebble-figures there’d wander through the gardens to move rocks – and who had left many small presents for you to slithering and clicking creatures there’d cling to your shadow, melting it to the ground so that you were forced to stay.

All manners of creatures, from harmless to terrifying to downright confusing, flocked to you, which was perfect for someone with your enthusiasm. It was obvious you’d make use of this to study them in full, traveling around with your notebooks and gear, hoping to study a new oddity every day.

Some days were more difficult than others, some creatures more persistent than others. You were much flimsier than they were, happy to fly from one thing to the other, it was the way you preferred. One oddity was far from enough, you needed to see everything the world had to offer. They were much more content with just you, and rarely willing to let you go on your merry way.

Alas, as someone setting out to be an expert in this field, you welcomed the challenge. It only meant that you had to be thorough in learning about the creatures, as to foil their attempts at keeping you, so it wasn’t much more than further encouragement to you.

Besides, it was a fair trade-off for getting the chance to meet them to begin with.

You were tracking through the mountain forests presently, returning from the peak of the mountain, which you had visited to get some good readings and pictures of the place to better understand the habitat of the oddities who made this place their home. Though the equipment was heavier than you cared for, thus you had hired a helping hand from the local town at the foot of the mountain.

Tally, a fit twenty-something that had wanted the extra cash and had the needed youthful hubris to disregard the warnings of their elders, who had grown up with the tales of dangerous monsters and disappearing trekkers in the mountains. They had shrugged it off as old wives tales, and you were grateful for that, because every other young adult you had asked, had assumed it was wild animals.

They wouldn’t go far in life with that attitude, but you appreciated it greatly.

“How are you so familiar with the mountains?” Tally asked, as you decisively led the two of you through the terrain. It was a fair question, there was no man-made paths here, after all, people did tend to go missing in the mountains.

“Oh, I’ve been here before, but I usually never bothered with the village beyond restocking. But I needed extra muscle this time around.” You explained while fiddling with some of the pictures from the instant camera you also had brought along.

“See,” Tally said with a satisfied smile, “I knew all those stories were bu-“

You shushed them. “No swearing, remember?”

“Oh, right. Sorry. Force of habit.” Tally apologized. When you had hired them, one of your set rules was no swearing in the mountains. “So, what exactly have you been studying since you visited here? Is there some kind of animal native to this mountain or something?”

“I don’t know about native, but most of them have probably been here longer than your village at least. At least, that’s what suggested by the stories your town tell.” You weren’t really paying much attention till you realized Tally had stopped up.

They groaned. “Stories? Don’t tell me you’re here to look for monsters.”

“Of course not.” You waved your hand dismissively, earning a sigh of relief from Tally. “I’ve already found them, well, most of them I’m guessing. I just wanted to know a bit more about their living habitat, I may not look it, but I’m a professional.”

“Are you kidding me?”

“I’ve been told that jokes aren’t my strong suit, so no.” You simply said, growing a little impatient at the fact Tally still wasn’t walking.

“Right… If these things were real, don’t you think you’d be dead by now.” It was a fair point, albeit Tally’s dry delivery hurt a little.

“Most of the things in this mountain only act if provoked, besides, they like me. Death is usually the only thing I don’t have to worry about, they usually try to take me rather than my life. But I’m very good at what I do, I don’t mess up, so I always manage.” At this, Tally lifted an eyebrow, looking perplexed and completely unconvinced.

” So, if you slip up, even once, you might be taken by any given one of these so-called "monsters"?"

“The quotation marks hurt a bit but yes. But what other choice do I have but to continue? Either risk being whisked away eternally to the obsessive whims of creatures who work on moral and biological systems beyond humanity’s ken or not go looking for weird creatures?”

“…See, that sounds like a very easy dilemma.”

“Exactly, I’m glad we’re on the same page.”

“This is so fucking dumb.” They sighed.

“Ah,” you sighed with a troubled smile, “Swearing is off limit in this forest, remember?”

“Huh? Uh, sorry it was a- grh!” They let out a pained grunt, their eyes traveling down to their legs, where something beneath their skins were rapidly crawling up their legs. They fell to the ground, howling in pain.

“Yeah, the thing in this forest really took that youth pamphlet about not doing drugs or swearing to heart, it considers swearing a sign of hostility.” You explained though they did not seem very interested in what you had to say.

“Do something!”

You scratched your neck awkwardly. You did feel bad, it looked very painful to watch small bulges and bony finger push against their skin, traveling upward their bodies. But… “It’s contagious at this point, I don’t want that thing in my body. Trust me, even when it’s not trying to kill, it’s a hassle.”

If they had a response to that, they never got a chance to say it, as their eyeballs were pushed out of their head and bony, tree-like fingers poked through their cheeks and mouth. They collapsed on the ground, the gear they had been carrying clattering to the ground.

“Guess this means I’m carrying all of this back myself.”

#yandere #yandere monster #tw body horror #bad writing #tw monsterfucking #tw death #not proofread #concept #yandere x reader

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bejeweledsims · 2 years

Text

the aesthetics challenge: a ten generations legacy challenge

i've always loved to play challenges in the sims 4, i find that they push to gameplays that i otherwise would probably never try, so i decided to try to create my own challenge.

while creating the requirements for each generation i was looking at the aesthetics wiki, so feel free to check it out if you have any doubt as to what an aesthetic means or what it should look like. also, i'm aware that some of this may not fit what some people think about certain aesthetics, but this was my own interpretation of them with the resources provided by the sims 4 gameplay to the date i'm posting this, so be nice pls <3

while making this i realized that someone else had already made a challenge with the same idea, though there are only two aesthetics that appear in both challenges and the requirements are different.

general rules:

though some generations do require you to live in a specific place, i only added the world part as to give you an idea, but you're welcome to have your sim live wherever you wish if not necessary.

given that it's a challenge based around the idea of aesthetics, you should probably create your sim based around the designated aesthetic

unless stated otherwise, you can marry/get together with any sim with whatever traits

use the #aestheticsims4challenge tag if you decide to play this challenge, i'd love to see what other people do with it :)

generation #1: witchcore

growing up you always loved to read about magical worlds and fantastic realms, so you used to stay away from other people and with the company of your beloved books and a cat. but when visiting a mysterious town you meet an strange man who claims to be a spellcaster, you witness all of your dreams come true and beg him to teach how to become one.

traits: cat lover, loner, bookworm

aspiration: spellcraft & sorcery

job: freelancer, writer branch

world: glimmerbrook

requirements:

start as a regular sim, become a spellcaster

move into glimmerbrook as soon as you become a spellcaster

complete the spellcraft & sorcery aspiration

marry a human

learn all the spells of at least one type of magic

complete at least one of the perk trees

maximize the medium, herbalism and fishing skills

generation #2: plant mom

your parent may have been able to cast actual magic and all that, but ever since you were little you knew that the only magic you could do was with plants, and so you commit your life to learning everything you can about them and how to take care of them, but when you're not doing this, and unlike your parent, you love to hangout with other people and your dogs on the outdoors, though you mostly like to talk about plants.

traits: loves the outdoor, dog lover, outgoing

aspiration: freelance botanist

job: gardener, botanist branch

world: any world

requirements:

this heir must be human

reach the top of the gardening career

always have at least one dog

complete the freelance botanist aspiration

spend at least 2 hours every sunday in a park

have a gardening club and have at least one gathering each week

maximize the gardening, herbalism and logic skill

generation #3: clowncore

while your parent was all about plants, hardwork and research, you're more of a joker and would much rather spend your time with other people making them laugh, so you decide to devote your life to it. you try to always see the bright side of things and will always make a joke even in the saddest of times, but that has caused to lose some loved ones along the way.

traits: goofball, outgoing, cheerful

aspiration: joke star

job: entertainer, comedian branch

world: any world

requirements:

complete the joke star aspiration

reach the top of the entertaniner career on the comedian branch

marry and divorce a proper sim

have a neutral relationship with your parents and child

maximize the comedy, mischief and carisma skills

generation #4: cottagecore

it's not that you didn't like your parent, it's just that they could sometimes be... a little too much when it came to their jokes. you always felt as though you got along better with animals than with other people, so you prefered to spend your time in the outdoors surrounded by them, so when you are old enough you move to the countryside and buy a farm where you take of many animals and attend the farm festival, where you fall in love with a local sim.

traits: loves outdoors, good, animal enthusiast

aspiration: country caretaker

job: no job

world: henford-on-bangley

requirements:

never have a job

complete the country caretaker aspiration

live on henford-on-bangley

be close with your grandparent and garden with them

be closer to your proper parent, but live with your goofball parent

marry a sim from henford-on-bangley

maximize the cross-stitch, herbalism, cooking, baking and gardening skills

generation #5: downtown girl

your parents always loved the countryside and it's animals and plants, but that lifestyle was just never for you, and when on a family trip you visit the big city you make a decision: you'll move there as soon as you become a young adult. once there, and with no more company other than a cat you adopt on your first day on the city, you decide to follow your dream of becoming a musician and start from the bottom.

traits: music lover, cat lover, loner

aspiration: city native

job: entertainer, musician branch

world: san myshuno

requirements:

complete the city native aspiration

have a part-time job as a teenager

reach the top of the entertainer career on the musician branch

adopt a cat on your first day on the city

have no more than 3 friends, excluding family members

maximize the singing, charisma, guitar and piano skills

generation #6: dark/light academia

you’ve always have a passion for knowledge and learning, so much so that you prioritize it above anything else, you dream of becoming the first person in your family to attend university. you are always surrounded by books, and you prefer their company to that of other people, which is why many consider you a snob.

traits: bookworm, loner, snob

aspiration: academic

job: writer, on the autor branch

world: any

requirements:

go to university, it must be britechester

join a secret society

maximize writing, research & debate and logic skill

marry a fellow academic with the snob trait

read at least 3 books to each of your kids

reach the top on the writer career on the author branch

generation #7: old money

"some people are simply better than others" it's a phrase that you wholeheartedly believe and live by. you love art, music, books and everything sofisticated, so you choose a career that will allow to enjoy of such things, but when your parents decide to make a call to boost your admission chances to your dream university due to the being alumnus, it makes you forever question whether you truly deserved it or not, so you work harder than everyone else to prove you're worth it.

traits: snob, proper, over-achiever

aspiration: successful lineage

job: business, management branch/acting

world: san myshuno/del sol valley

requirements:

go to university, and major in either economics or communications

reach the top of the business/acting career

complete the successful lineage aspiration

graduate high school as an b student, graduate university with honors

if you choose the acting career, you must win at least 1 starlight accolade and become a 5 star celebrity

marry a famous and snob sims

maximize the gourmet cooking, charisma, parenting and painting skills

generation #8: that girl

they say like parent like children, and they're right. growing up you always saw just how hard your parents worked and how much they managed to achieve due to that hardwork, so you decide to be just like them, except for one little thing: you want to be an internet personality. so you go to college and at the same time become a simfluencer, at least until you graduate, but you still keep updating your social media everytime possible. you are always concerned with becoming your best self in terms of mind and body.

traits: perfectionist, over-achiever, neat

aspiration: renaissance sim

job: simfluencer part-time job as a teenager, style influencer on the trendsetter branch

world: any

requirements:

complete the self-care self-care specialist aspiration

reach the top of the both of your careers

become at least a 3 star celebrity

go to the gym at least three times each week, go to a spa at least once a week

graduate as a a student and valedictorian, graduate university with honors

maximize logic, fitness, wellness, cooking, parenting and baking skills

be close with each of your children

get at least 6 other skills to level 8

generation #9: coastal grandma

you grew up watching your parents constantly working, and while that never stopped them from being as loving and doting as possible, seeing their frantic lifestyle made you realize that you want nothing to do with that lifestyle, in fact, you want to just relax and enjoy life in a beach while drinking your favorite drink. so you work all of your youth and once you become an adult you move to a beach, quit your job and enjoy the rest of your life with your loved ones.

traits: child of the ocean, foodie, insider

aspiration: beach life

job: culinary, chef brand

world: brindleton bay, tartosa, sulani

requirements:

complete the beach life aspiration

move to a beach once you become an adult

marry a good sim

practice wellness

have a good relationship with your child

maximize the cooking, baking, mixology, parenting and knitting skills

generation #10: cryptidcore

a family rumour claims that one of your ancestors wasn’t… precisely human, but everytime you’ve tried asking anyone they just laugh and deny it, saying that no such things exist. well, you’ve decided to prove them wrong, and you will dedicate your life to prove it

traits: loves the outdoors, socially awkward, genius

aspiration: strangerville mistery

job: scientist

world: strangerville

requirements:

befriend a witch, werewolf, vampire, alien, ghost and a mermaid

marry a sim that is one of the previous life states

reach the top of the scientist career

complete the strangerville mistery aspiration

move to strangerville

maximize the vampire lore, photography and logic skills

#sims 4 #ts4 #ts4 legacy #sims 4 legacy challenge #aesthetics4 challenge #aesthetics #the sims 4 aesthetics #the sims 4 challenge

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yanderecandystore · 11 months

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Hi I'm brazilian, sorry if my english is wrong. But I can order a yan with a sweet wizard boy where he lives in a house made of candy and attracts people for him to devour, I don't know if you've read the story of the brother grimms, of Hansel and Gretel (or Br: João e Maria). How about this concept?

I'm so sorry but I struggled with this one so bad, I made so many versions of this but always fucked up at the candy house part 💀 (I couldn't imagine how to write the reader getting inside, or even finding it even though it was supposed to be the most obvious part lmao) It's very short 👉👈

Also lmao your English is great boo, welcome to the candy store, thank you for sharing with me this idea! It was actually pretty funny how challenging I thought it was X'D

TW/Tags: a little sadistic/more dehumanizing yandere // mentions of: weird/abusive family dynamics; cannibalism; drugging; kidnapping; gore; severed body parts; the usual yandereness although without the soft/lovey fluff I usually write // delusional (he is as sweet as someone who who eats humans could be- I want to write more but I kept messing up so much I died ⚰️)

🍭꒰⑅ᵕ༚ᵕ꒱˖♡🍮꒰⑅ᵕ༚ᵕ꒱˖♡🍰꒰⑅ᵕ༚ᵕ꒱˖♡🍮꒰⑅ᵕ༚ᵕ꒱˖🍭

Pumpkin Pie [Yandere!M!Cannibal!Wizard/Witch x GN!Reader - Scenario (?)]:

You were having tea inside a colorful house, your vision was very blurry and your ears felt clogged, and to make things harder to understand there was a heavy and pretty mixed up smell of sweets and candies, overwhelming your nostrils… You don't remember when or how you got in, or why, but the tea was nice so you kept drinking.

You were having a nice time with a stranger who you don't really remember the name of… He wore a weird suit for your town's weather, actually it was just off in general… But you thought it looked nice…

He smiled at you blissfully, clearly having a good time… You felt like you were having a good time as well… You like to think so.

Okay, to be honest you couldn't feel a single thing, your legs were numb and you felt like your head was way too heavy to move it around. You barely felt awake at all. So you just assumed it was probably a strange dream, after all you didn't know this man, right?!

He was talking to you… You didn't understand what he was saying, the smell of something tasty was being baked… Pumpkin pie maybe…? How long have you gone without one of those? Your father didn't like how much sugar you ate, so you were restricted to only a few sweets… But he probably wouldn't be mad about one slice of pumpkin pie, right?

The man patted your head endearingly as he smiled at you, he seemed to not care much about how you weren't paying attention at all… You thought that was sweet of him considering you were always considered an airhead by your family.

… Speaking of them- Shouldn't you go home soon? I mean, this is very pleasant and all but you don't remember how long you've been here and the things that happened beforehand feel like a blur… Your family had a curfew and you didn't want to get in trouble again for breaking it.

Ah, but what could you do? You were just so curious about the forest beside the mansion. You secretly hoped to see fairies or anything magical whenever you went there, ah, how wonderful it was to escape your responsibilities as middle child for at least a few moments.

Sure, your family was wealthy, a lot better than most people in town, but you wished you didn't have to stay inside all day… Your older siblings would get to work with the family mine business while your younger siblings got to play and study all day long, and you? You were sort of the second servant of the house, there were many expectations placed on you and not enough attention to your interests and dreams…

You already miss Ms. Bell, she is such a nice lady and sadly your only friend in a big almost always empty mansion. Actually, you're not even all that bothered about being a "second servant" because you actually like helping her out.

Ah, sweet Bell… She always told you to be careful out in the woods, people would often go missing, especially people who have zero expertise about finding their way in and out… Ms. Bell, always so caring and wise… If only your family listened to you more like she does…!

While you kept drifting into different topics inside your own head, your vision was starting to come back to you and your ears seemed to get better after a while… Your head was still very heavy and it aches as you look around and notice- This guy has a weird taste for decor! Seriously, there's candy everywhere!! Actually… Was everything MADE out of candy?! What the hell?

Wait, you can hear humming, you can hear him better now, he is singing a nice tune as he gets up and takes care of the pie in his oven.

"You're finally awake, or at least more awake now! I'm sorry for what happened before, the dose I gave you was probably too strong, I guess it is just a habit of mine. Please forgive me." The man said in a joyful way, smiling at you like he did before… His voice was familiar but nothing to really help you remember.

"I guess I haven't introduced myself properly, then again I didn't think you would make it this far- I don't know why but I couldn't bring myself to let you go to waste. You have a very sweet smell and I couldn't help but wonder what it would taste like." He acts as if what he said was a compliment, and you strangely enough nod your head, feeling a little dazed still.

Yeah… but, what was he talking about? This conversation was weird and it was starting to worry you a little bit.

He brought to the table you were sitting on his pie so it could cool down while you two chatted, and filled the table with a plate of muffins and another of small bread. They looked incredible!

"You can eat how many you like! Consider yourself my guest, it's actually very nice to have someone over after such a long time…" He sat down in front of you and started to pour you more tea.

"I think it's clear to see I don't really do this, well, my name is Zirick, and this is my house! Don't worry, I'm not mad about what you did earlier, it happens all the time! And of course, my house was pretty much made for it, ya know?"

You didn't understand what he meant, so you told him your name and apologized for not only not remembering what you did but also for doing something that would offend him.

"Oh Pumpkin, it's okay! It's my fault your head is as empty as my cup of tea- My spell was supposed to just knock you out but I guess it was a little too strong and in return made you lose a few memories! But don't worry it'll come back eventually…"

"What I'm talking about is that you stumbled around my land and… Well, after seeing my house you couldn't help but want to take a bite off my walls! But I fixed them already so that's fine."

What? He knocked you out with a spell?? For eating his walls?! That entire sentence didn't make sense to you, you would never randomly eat someone's walls!! Even if they were delicious and even if you… do remember snacking on them… a little bit…

Ugh your mind was a flurry of thoughts, it was like different ingredients being violently mixed together and not mixing well! (Heh, cake comparison! You sure he would have loved to hear that one).

Well, invading someone's property like that was not a good thing but you weren't sure if knocking them with a spell or two was a good way to deal with an intruder… Still, you apologized and said you were going to find a way to pay him for his sweet wall. He waved you off laughing to himself.

"Oh but human money is worthless to me, and besides you have already paid me- Oh! Speaking of which, I just have to make sure this pie tastes good- I would offer you but I don't think it would taste, little Pumpkin."

He started to cut himself a slice… It was very red and meaty for a "pumpkin" pie, yet it smelled like one to you… And to him too.

Your senses were starting to get to you, you started to feel worried as the man was staring at you expectantly, you looked around and saw a peppermint clock on the wall, it marked 10 and you were sure by the darkness outside the window it meant 10p.m. You tried to get up and excuse yourself, after all you needed to get home soon or your family would end up getting mad at you.

But before you could actually walk away, you fell hard into the ground. You noticed you weren't feeling your legs properly, that's because one of them was missing.

"Don't roll away now, you're my guest today, remember? And besides, how far can you go without help, silly?" Zirick came to your aid very quickly and helped you get back to the chair immediately.

You tried to push him away, you bit him, you slapped him and even tried to kick him with one leg- It didn't work, he still knew how to tranquilize you into going back to your dreamland…

"Shh… Ah, how sad. All my guests get like this… You're a little fiesty for such a sweet Pumpkin, but I somehow can't get enough of your company, perhaps when you wake we can start again…"

He licked his dirty, bloodied fork eagerly. Normally he would have turned you into a massive pie but he wasn't THAT hungry and surely just a leg would be enough, and you were adorable walking around in the woods like a little adventure! He couldn't help but trick you into coming closer and eating a piece of his house- He needed a reason to get you inside of course, an eye for an eye, as they would say.

He isn't sure how he'll go about this but he likes your company, especially when you're too dazed to have any inhibitions or sense of privacy when talking to him! He could hear you sleepily mumble for hours, you were just so sweet to talk to, and to taste!

🍭꒰⑅ᵕ༚ᵕ꒱˖♡🍮꒰⑅ᵕ༚ᵕ꒱˖♡🍰꒰⑅ᵕ༚ᵕ꒱˖♡🍮꒰⑅ᵕ༚ᵕ꒱˖🍭

#yandere #yandere oc #choco stuff #a sweetheart asked:#yandere x reader #yandere cannibal #yandere wizard #yandere witch #yandere male #yandere male x reader #gn!reader #yandere!cannibal x reader #yandere!wizard x reader #special delivery request #special delivery scenarios #special delivery headcanons

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mixelation · 1 year

Text

more rotating on this post: kakashi dating a civilian OC who has no idea he's a ninja

original proposed concept is they "meet" via icha icha fanzine. i bothered @tozettastone and they suggested that OC be a cosplayer. what does icha icha cosplay even look like? you ever seen IRL naruto coplay that's like "naruko but she wears a miniskirt and fishnets and a lot of makeup." or like fanart of kakashi where he's wearing a bellyshirt for no reason other than to show off his abs. like that, plus some very over-the-top traditional clothing for undercover work and civilian characters. everyone has off the shoulder kimono that show off cleavage and magically stay up, etc

anyway, i can't really see young!kakashi (like 18-19-20?) actively participating in fandom. but maybe he finds a zine somewhere and starts collecting them, like a pre-internet lurker. it's his coping mechanism, okay. he likes fanart. he likes bad fics. and then our lovely OC who's also 19 and fresh to being allowed in the porn section is like: I MADE THE BEETLE WING HAORI HERE'S A PHOTO. there's a note about her sorting through thousands of beetle wings to get the right colors, and also what a nightmare they are to sew, and also what should she try next, mail me here??? and Kakashi is like: oh wow, this person is insane. i have just the challenge. <3

(OC's additional notes on the haori: no one should ever do this again. just don't. you'll regret it)

kakashi is not the only person to write her suggestions, but he IS the only one to suggest something that's actually technically difficult to make, which is what she wanted. so they start swapping letters where she sends him progress updates on this insane thing she is making. he finds this mildly amusing until about a month out from the next con when her letters abruptly turn insane. she WILL premier this cosplay there even if it kills her-- listen if her wig guy isn't up to snuff she'll just LEARN HERSELF--

and listen kakashi isn't going to FALL IN LOVE but this level of commitment is something he can appreciate.

OC sends him a letter about the con (her very first one!!) and going to a con is not something he has any interest in, but like. he is curious to know what they're like, and it's nice to like? have? a friend??

they trade letters for years without actually talking about their personal life much. kakashi is not creative (no writing fic, no fanart, no cosplay, etc) but he IS really good at analysis. you need every detail on naoki's civilian outfit in paradise? he's got you. you don't understand wtf the text is talking about when it describes a weapon? he'll draw you a diagram (and not mention he knows what jiraiya is talking about because it's based on a real thing that was popular for like a month during the third war).

this goes on for years. oc lives in a small town in a little border country with no ninja, and her family runs a clothes shop, and she's deeply bored of making and altering shirts. she has a frustrating life in a very mundane way-- she dates a few guys and doesn't marry any of them and her family gives her grief. she moves to a slightly bigger city and can't get a job doing what she wants (making high-end luxury clothes and/or just insane fashion) and ends up working at a general store and doing minor alterations as a side gig to fund her hobby. she doesn't get to travel around and do cool things as much as she dreamed as a kid. she skips some cons because she doesn't always have the money and also there's a weird guy who'd been low-key stalking her. she tries selling little pre-made costume pieces at a con and doesn't even break even. only a handful of these details make it into her very serious discussion with kakashi about how the many details the icha icha miniseries got wrong

kakashi is.... being kakashi. obviously he doesn't write to her about all the assassinations he's been doing or whatever. but he doesn't mind when OC hints at her own boring problems. it's kind of nice, actually, to know there's people out there having boring problems? anyway one day she complains her landlord won't let her get a dog and he mails her a polaroid of a random dog he met in a park.

i'm thinking around the time of just before canon starts is about when kakashi is at a place where he's like..... okay with sharing some personal details? like he doesn't say a LOT but he realizes it actually feels really nice to write to someone that he's annoyed the store stopped selling his favorite pre-rolled sushi. the letters get sent more frequently and the conversation escalates at a slow, tedious pace. kakashi sends more dog pics. he tells her that he was so exhausted after work that he considered eating dog treats instead of cooking, and this feels like a very big deal to him

her: PLEASE tell me it was at least the fancy kind that look like cookies

him: obviously i would only buy the highest quality treats for my dogs

her: dogS?

kakashi: (ignores this question in the next letter)

kakashi checks his mail everyday now and he's like. oh no my feelings. but also she's in a whole other country and only exists to him in letters and that feels.... safe, somehow.

they met via a club for porn books so they don't "get together" so much as one of their very academic discussions of kink in icha icha violence suddenly turns into deeply sexual letters that have nothing to do with icha icha. there's still their normal conversation but then it's also like "if you were here now, this is what i would do to you--"

OC has been pretty good at not prying into Kakashi's life and she's very understanding of team seven making kakashi's life insane (she's under the impression her got an apprentice for whatever his job is) but she starts bugging him for a photo. kakashi is very against this at first, but then sasuke leaves and naruto leaves and sakura runs off with tsunade and suddenly he has a lot of free time and a big gaping hole in his social life. and like. he DOES really like her. they MIGHT be dating? definitely they have a thing going. so instead he asks if she wants to meet in person

OC agrees but she goes into it VERY nervous. she figures he didn't want to give a photo because he's embarrassed about his appearance, and she doesn't care what he looks like, but what if he lied about other things? what if she walks a whole day to this resort town and he's a weirdo or gross or stood her up?? but she puts on her big girl pants and also her push-up bra and goes

she wasn't actually going to sleep with him for their first meeting but it turns out he is like. hot. and talks just like his letters. and also it's way cheaper to just share one hotel room-- kakashi are you SURE you won't couple cosplay--

#i guess i need a tag for this au #kakashi/cosplay!oc au

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theresattrpgforthat · 1 year

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THEME: Ironsworn/Starforged Hacks

This week’s recommendations are all inspired by Ironsworn, by Shawn Tomkin, or Starforged, its science-fantasy successor.

Inspired by PbtA games, Ironsworn stands out because it can be played solo, GM-less, or as a traditional roleplaying game - and the PDF of the rulebook, a work of stellar quality, is free. It uses unique mechanics such as Vows, Momentum, and Supply to support play - Vows being personal goals that drive the character’s story and generate progression, Momentum being an asset that can be used to track your character’s general level level of success, and Supply being a representation of how prepared or energetic your characters are.

While Ironsworn is a game of fantasy adventuring, Starforged takes cues from space fiction and science fantasy, and comes with unique character pieces and a planet generator.

Let’s take a look at some of the hacks created out of these games!

Iron Valley, by M. Kirin.

Iron Valley is a cozy solo ttrpg hack for Ironsworn and Starforged.

In this game you take the role of someone moving into a small community and starting their life anew. Maybe you’ll restore your family’s farm. Maybe you’ll explore the mysterious forest just beyond town. Maybe you’ll fall in love and get married! This is a game about living a cozy life with good company, one day at a time.

As a farming simulation, this is a great example of a cozy game. Follow the course of a year, making a new home for yourself using a simplified version of Ironsworn. Fundamentally, the game revolves around the promises you make to your friends, losing track of time instead of hit points.

This is a chunky game that takes some set-up, that a single can play over many days or weeks. It’s something that requires a bit of work to put together, but you can pick it up a little bit at a time if you’re looking for sustained play, and you don’t have to work with a group to try and schedule game time.

Stonebound, by S0ra.

The Dawnlands are filled with various groups of palaeolithic humans, all trying their best to survive in this prehistoric world, where they are far from the top of the food chain.

You are not like them.

You will venture forth from your home, rise up and challenge the monstrous creatures who roam this land, discover secrets better left forgotten, protect your people from the feral horrors that rise in the night, bind your will and your word to the sacred stone of this land and become Stonebound.

This isn’t much of a departure from the original Ironsworn: the author describes it as a re-skin, with new assets and foes to make the system fit in a stone-and-sorcery kind of setting. The game is still in development, so changes might continue being added, but the game is Pay What You Want for now! In Stonebound, stone replaces iron as the way by which you make vows, and as a result stone becomes a vital part of the landscape. If you really like the way Ironsworn plays but are interested to see how it looks in a new setting, you might want to check this game out.

Cybersworn, by Homebrewster, and Hyper City, by Thomas Manuel.

You’ll need to know how Ironsworn or Starforged works in order to play these hacks. Cybersworn is meant to fit a number of different flavours of cyberpunk; from high-magic settings, to low-magic settings, to settings with cyborgs or a virtual other space. It provides new pieces to slot into the basic ruleset to make the game neon and gritty. And just like Ironsworn, this game is free!

Hyper City is a specific corporate dystopia that you build based on a real city that you’re interested in. It uses Burning Questions rather than Iron Vows, it provides a mode of play that focuses on investigation and exploration, rather than action and adventure. Hyper City is also designed to be played “solo together,” as described by the designer. Each player is playing their own solo journey, but their characters can interact with each-other via messaging apps or something similar to trade information and give each-other updates.

These games aren’t designed to necessarily be played together, but since they’re built for the same system, it’s likely easy to steal a little from one to place into the other. If you’re into cyberpunk and building your own city, these might be worth checking out!

Silversworn, by fyret.

This is a hack about being a werewolf (possibly in space). It is a hack about rage and trying your best to hide it. It is a hack about finding what lengths you'll go to keep the beast inside, and what carnage you'll bring when it is unleashed.

This game specifically alters the rules of Ironsworn to allow you to play as a werewolf character. One of the basic moves, Face Desolation, is replaced by Face Rampage, which is meant to replicate your struggle to keep your human form. Apart from mechanical changes, this hack comes with some tips about playing as a werewolf, especially when you’ve transformed. The game also comes with a new series of Truths and Assets, to help you build the world you want, whether you want to tell a story within the fantasy world of Ironsworn, or the galaxy of Starforged.

If you want to see more genre hacks of these games, I’d recommend checking out the Starforged 2023 Jam on Itch.io.

#ironsworn #starforged #indie ttrpgs #game recommendations #dnd #tabletop games

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easternmind · 8 months

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A compendium of references to Portugal in Japanese video games

The beginning of the historical relations between Portugal and Japan dates to the year 1541, when a Portuguese ship washed ashore at Jingujiura. Nearly sixty Japanese words are of Portuguese origin. A variety of Japanese traditions and culinary delights were introduced by Portuguese traders, sailors and missionaries. But in what way has this cultural exchange extended to the more recent phenomenon of Japanese digital games? As a portuguese devotee of Japanese culture, the topic seemed relevant enough to merit some additional exploration.

To my knowledge, the first significant reference to Portugal in Japanese video game is found in Koei's The Age of Discovery from 1990, a game published in the west under the title Uncharted Waters. The main character is a disgraced Portuguese nobleman named Leon Ferrero who resorts to maritime exploration, trade and naval warfare to restore his family's good name and prestige.

Its 1993 sequel, known in the west as New Horizons, diversifies the base game structure of the original by including multiple characters to select from, each with their own story and mission. Among them is the tale of João Franco, the son of the original episode's protagonist Leon, who sets out to discover the mysterious location of the fabled Atlantis, no less.

Another meaningful reference can be found a year later in ArtDink's 1991 strategy game The Atlas, in which the player takes on the role of a 15th century explorer with a five year contract with the King of Portugal to discover and chart lands around the Iberian Peninsula.

In 1998, ArtDink recreated the game for contemporary systems and published as Neo Atlas. The protagonist is a Portuguese trading company owner seeking business expansion opportunities in remote territories, as well as discover and chart hitherto unknown parts of the globe. A similar premise is found in a later sequel, Neo Atlas III.

Apart from nautical strategy games, a few other titles exist where mentions to the Portuguese territory, language and culture can be traced.

Atlus' futuristic vision of Earth in Maken X includes a most unexpected tour of Europe, with a mandatory stop in Lisbon. Inexplicably, the developers got its geographic location wrong and moved to all the way to the northern Spanish region of Léon. The level, itself, boasts a reasonably accurate depiction of one of the city's oldest quarters, Alfama, and the architectural styles found therein.

Although I could not discern any actual references in the game itself, the Grandia II soundtrack by the veteran composer Noriyuki Iwadare contains two themes whose lyrics are written in Portuguese: A Deus, a double-entendre that can be translated to both farewell and to God; and Canção do Povo, meaning People's Song. Also, the name of the official soundtrack is named Melodia, which translates to Melody as you'd expect. Both themes were performed by guest singer Kaori Kawasumi, who took on the composer's challenge to sing them despite her not knowing the language.

She was coached and assisted by José Álvarez and Motoi Sato from the Portuguese Arts and Culture Center in Japan, whom she thanks in the acknowledgement section. The Grandia II Special Package edition booklet contains a page with two photos of Portugal, one for the Jéronimos Monastery in Lisbon and the other, seemingly, for the Moorish Castle in the nearby town of Sintra.

The last Pomping World (a.ka. Buster Bros/Pang) that Mitchell Corporation ever produced before shutting down was the 2010 DS European exclusive Magical Michael. It includes two levels set in Portugal, one in Lisbon by the Belém tower, a nautical landmark, and the other in the Sintra National Palace. Their representation is at once pleasingly stylized and true to life.

This final reference is found in Spike Chunsoft's third installment of their successful visual novel series, Nyūdanganronpa V3 Minna No Koroshiai Shin Gakki. Among the dozens of MonoMono machine items that can be acquired, one is a weathercock styled after a traditional Portuguese folktale hero, the Galo de Barcelos, meaning the rooster of Barcelos, a town in Northern Portugal.

As per the description, this animal became famous through an age-old tale involving a man wrongly sentenced to death who seconds before his execution remarked he was as certain to be innocent as it was certain that a nearby rooster would sing. Because the bird did crow, much to everyone's amazement, he was exonerated. Thus, the black rooster became a symbol for truth.

I would like to thank @diogojira and @DanielOlimac for their assistance in making this article possible.

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buckets-and-trees · 1 year

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Witchview

Fandom: MCU

Characters/Pairings: Steve Rogers x witch!reader, Agatha Harkness

Word Count: trimmed right down to 1,300 exactly to fit the challenge (see below)

Summary: You wanted out before, but now you were compromised as the bait in your own trap and were becoming desperate for freedom. As he had said famously, the price of freedom was high. Desperation was dangerous. Desperation was fed by hope. Desperation erased the limits of reasonability. You had crossed lines, and you wouldn’t stop now.

Content Warnings: sexual situations (p in v), magic, sorcery, trickery…

Additional Notes: Written for the Friday the 13th challenge hosted by @boxofbonesfic. This one lives in the shadows rather than straight up dark… Another one or two hundred words I may have gotten it darker, but here we are.

A/N 2: Steve returned the stones and came back, because...that's what he did. Literally why would he have done anything else?

Foreheads pressed together, he thrust into you again and again, the yearning engulfing both of you. He held himself over you, leaning on his forearms as if to cage you in, not knowing he was the one moving further into your elaborate trap.

“How can you feel so perfect beneath me?” he asked, reverent as a prayer.

Your heart burned, but you didn’t know what to say – you didn’t want to lie, but you were also unable to form coherent thoughts as you barreled towards your release – and you could not spare any focus elsewhere or risk breaking the spell. So instead, you tilted your head up and sought his lips again for a kiss.

He shifted his hips, hitting your sweet spot, and with a few more strokes, you shuddered and gasped, your orgasm rolling over you. With the clenching of your walls, he reached the peak of his own pleasure right after, and he came with a groan, spilling inside you.

He rolled off and to his side, pulling you into his chest, and you let yourself become wrapped up in him as your breaths mingled together and you came down from your highs.

He smiled then kissed you softly.

When he pulled back again to look at you, you concentrated everything on being in this moment. Nothing could be amiss as his blue eyes discerned almost everything.

“I’m so glad I found you,” he said.

It was you who found him, but he still needed to believe for this scene.

“I love you, Steve Rogers.”

“I love you, too.”

You brought your hand up to thread your fingers through his hair and then cup his cheek tenderly. “Sleep. I’ll see you in the morning.”

He hummed and dropped off, drifting out of consciousness. You spent a few more moments whispering into his ear, planting more sentiments of devotion you needed him to absorb.

You lurched awake, pulling yourself from the dreamscape. It was taxing to project, and your lungs gulped in fresh air.

With your return, the thirteen candles around you had extinguished immediately. You sat up and pressed the heels of your hands to your eyes, furiously wiping away traitorous tears that had appeared, glad for the dimness in the chamber so your companion could not see.

This would soon come to an end. You needed it to be over. You never wanted to be this invested. He was supposed to be a mark, you drawing him in, not the other way around.

And you needed him to come to you.

To Westview.

The town had been your temporary home before the other two witches appeared and shattered it.

The chaos magic that drew Agatha to Westview was something you’d also felt immediately and wanted to flee, but the boundaries set up by Wanda – one of the first elements of the enchantment – meant you were trapped in the anomaly before you could realize you needed to escape.

Unlike the rest of the citizens, you knew.

You didn’t know everything, but your own magic kept you immune from the hypnotic spell. You knew enough to play along, bide your time, figure out what you needed to when you needed to. Agnes-then-Agatha inserted herself, and you observed, gleaned what you could, kept your head down. You let them play things out.

Once Wanda was gone, you wished to be, too.

As Agatha was trapped, you were, too.

The other citizens had been freed from the anomaly and their lives had returned to normal, but Wanda had bound magic folk to this town, inadvertently caging you in as well, unaware of the unrevealed witch in hiding.

As much as you avoided awakening Agatha from her Nosy Neighbor punishment, you came to terms quickly that you would need another witch to unravel the magical cage and escape.

It had been a feat to get her out, but together you had been able to break the restrictions of the runes and use your magic freely again. The runes had been cast hastily and while Wanda was engaged in battle with Agatha, her focus split.

However, she’d been able to create the magical cage to bind witches to the town without any distraction, and it seemed short of the Sorcerer Supreme or the Scarlett Witch herself, you may never be able to break the enchantment and get out.

You and Agatha had determined you would need someone who – despite and in many ways because of his goodness – would make the world burn for those who mattered most to them.

He may have passed on his shield to someone else, but Steve Rogers would never be able to ignore his heart, and the aim was that he would become an unstoppable force on his quest to set you free. The chances of convincing the powers you needed on the outside to come to your aid were nonexistent otherwise.

With care you had crafted the thirteen candles to commune with the soul of another.

Used individually or only in small groups, they were relatively safe. Burning all at once, thirteen communion candles were incredibly powerful and increasingly dangerous the longer they burned, and you were burning them together and nearly to the end of their wicks to achieve an illusion strong enough to enchant the super soldier. Thirteen candles could simulate reality. But they also could attract demons, ghouls, and spirits, requiring you and Agatha to continue working together – her standing watch while you went under.

You knew she was studying you now.

“Remember, he’s a means to an end.”

You turned your head to meet her gaze, unflinching. “It takes a lot to invest in making the illusion real with someone like him.”

She arched her brows. “I’m not judging you if you’re falling for him.”

You sighed. “He’s intoxicating.”

“Don’t get distracted and mess up. I know you don’t care about trapping me here, but if I’m stuck, so are you, which means no reality with Prince Charming.”

“I know.”

“The candles only burn for thirteen hours, and-“

“I know, Agatha!”

You closed your eyes for a moment and took a deep breath.

“I know.”

Agatha sighed, then stepped closer and briefly touched your shoulder. “I know you do.”

This trust between you was only temporary, but it was something for now, and the small gesture helped to rebuild your focus.

You laid back down. “I’m ready.”

“You’re sure?”

“We’re limited on time with him, too.”

One night. You’d projected yourself into his dreams twelve times in one night, creating scenes, memories, a relationship that needed to be undeniable because now you weren’t going to visit him in a dream. For your thirteenth and final visit, you were going to project to him in his waking state, and either succeed or fail.

“Light the candles.”

You closed your eyes and began your own incantation while she repeated hers to ignite the flames and fortify the protection spells.

You stood at the counter, watching the soft morning light begin to illuminate the branches outside the window, waiting for him.

Soon enough, you heard his footsteps coming down the hallway, and then he entered the kitchen behind you. You turned toward him and smiled – it wasn’t forced or fake because that’s just what he elicited from you now. He returned it, but maybe not for much longer.

“Good morning, sweetheart,” he greeted, reaching for you, but his face faltered as his fingers failed to find purchase.

“Sweetheart?”

“It’s not real,” you started. He would believe you either way – you knew that from everything you had studied about him beforehand, and all your manipulations tonight only confirmed that – but what you didn’t know was if that belief would feel betrayed or be driven to devotion.

“What?”

“This isn’t real,” you reiterated, “but it can be.”

↠ Masterlist | Aspen's Ask Box | Field Guide to the Forest

#mcu #mcu fanfiction #steve rogers #steve rogers fic #steve rogers x reader #steve rogers x you #steve rogers fanfiction #spooky #steve rogers x yn #agatha harkness #wandavision #wandavision spoilers #witchy reader #steve rogers x witch!reader #dark reader #aspen wrote something #female reader

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