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wesimpforxiao · 3 years

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Say My Name and I’ll Be There: 7.4

Author’s Note: I believe I’ll be doing a LIVE pulling for Xiao tonight around 7:45 PST. Join me if you want to see me cry from happiness or from not pulling him LOL. The link is in one of my previous posts. Before, during, or after this chapter, listen to this song to get a feel of what’s happening! https://youtu.be/ifQ3JRS4gqc

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The voices never truly left you alone after that. You were practically becoming unhinged by the endless whispers that plagued your ears, and the quiet of night only seemed to egg them on further. When you were blessed with their silence, you were plagued the physical pains of the karmic debt and your depression from joining the harbingers. Childe was obviously growing more and more concerned with each passing day; you were beginning to freak him out. The Tsaritsa and the other harbingers, however, found great amusement in your...condition. It was a blessing in disguise; they were manipulating you much easier now that you were exhausted from the sleepless nights.

And it wasn't like you were constantly needing medical care, though you wished they would give you some heavy pain killers. No; whatever damage your body was burdened with would be repaired by morning thanks to Xiao's blood. The pain wasn't nearly as dramatic as the first wave, but it was a constant dull aching that ate away at your bones. Slowly but surely, the pains grew over time.

Xiao made his presence known to you only twice more; he showed himself in the late evenings for brief periods of time to quell your aching heart and mind. At least when he was able to be with you, the dreadful screams would disperse if only temporarily. At least when he was with you, you were granted sleep. Small waves of peace would reclaim you as Xiao watched over your sleeping figure.

But once Liyue's festivities were underway, Xiao's visits became nonexistent and your mind was once again thrown into deeper chaos while he fought off more demons. It was the busiest time of the year for both the inhabitants and the demonic presences of Liyue; it was Xiao's task to fend the latter off since the festivities attracted their attention and strengthened their presence. He felt you slowly shattering, and it hurt him to know he couldn't be with you as often as he wanted to.

One day out of the blue, over a month after you joined the Fatui, Childe approached you with a grand smile across his face. "Ojou-chan! Why don't I show you around Snezhnaya? It's much better than sitting in your room all day."

"...Aren't you always saying we could freeze to death?" Your unamused expression failed to hinder Childe's enthusiasm. "Why would I want to go outside?" The bags under your eyes spoke volumes about your continuous sleepless nights.

"Come on, Mezzetin, it'll be good for you. You could use the exercise."

"Are you implying something?" You're eyes narrowed dangerously, but Childe's grin only widened when your normal quips shone through your broken character.

"Well, if you ever feel the need to put me in my place, I'm more than willing to oblige to a fight," he watched your expression lighten for a moment before urging you. "Come on, I'll show you around."

Sheer cold wasn't an issue for this winter wasteland like it was on Dragonspine, but it had to be at least five times colder here. Childe made sure you were bundled up in a large furry coat before guiding you out of the castle and leading you to a town square that was surprisingly bustling with people despite the frigid temperatures. Stalls lined the streets. People gathered around to buy the freshest local food that included some incredibly large seafood varieties. Others were in line to buy trinkets, house decor, and a variety of other items.

"...A farmer's market?" Your cold breath of a remark caught Childe's attention, and he turned to you.

"Of course! Go ahead and look around. If there's anything you want, I'll buy it for you."

He's trying to cheer me up? You examined Childe's earnest demeanor as he eyed the fish stall with stars in his eyes. Can he just pick a side already?! You rolled your eyes. Still, might as well bankrupt him if he insists. You broke away from him and continued down the rows of stalls for awhile, unaware that the harbinger had rejoined you.

You were busy examining a few intriguing necklaces made of materials you haven't heard of when the whispers of the damned regained their voices. You staggered a bit only to be steadied by Childe's hand on your shoulder.

Childe noted your glowing eyes. "Happening again?" His genuine concern made you relieved that he wasn't a complete monster like the other harbingers. "If you need a break, there's a café over there that we can sit in." Your strained nod prompted him to guide you with a hand at the back of your shoulders.

"Hm?" A strange sound reached your ears, and this time it wasn't from inside your head. Your feet came to a halt before the two of you reached the building, and you tilted your head towards the sound.

It was a light and effortless tune that floated through the open air from yet another building. The melody was slow to build, yet you hung onto its every note. It took you a moment to realize that it calmed the demonic voices from screams to hushed murmurs. You followed the path of the sounds until you found yourself in an extremely outdated music shop.

"Mezzetin?" Childe attempted to regain your attention as he followed after you. He caught onto the childlike wonder glistening in your teary eyes. "Care to explain?"

"The pain..." a tear fell. "It's subsiding." You continued to stare at the harpist that played her tune at the back of the shop, eyes never leaving the fingers that plucked the strings. The voices were gone, and now you were only overwhelmed with a sense of peace.

Childe watched you silently listen to the music for a long while. An idea struck him. "Have you ever played?"

"Huh?" You snapped out of your daze and wiped the tears away. "Um...Granny used to play a lot when I was little. I know a couple tunes, but--" Childe walked to the shop owner without letting you finish, pulling out a large sack of mora while he was at it. "H-hey! What're you doing?"

"If it brings you happiness, then I don't see the problem in buying it," Childe argued back after he had purchased the most expensive harp in the shop and left a considerate tip. The two of you were walking back to the palace now. He had ordered for his subordinates to take the instrument back with them.

"But I haven't played in years! And I said I only knew a few simple tunes--"

"--Then I will ensure you receive lessons." He was not going to budge on this, and he made it obvious with his firm gaze. "The rest of the harbingers made it clear that they do not care for your wellbeing, but I do. Think of this as a gift and a type of therapy. You've been down ever since Xiao left you--"

"I left him," you corrected. And I so regret my decision.

"I'm just trying to prove that you aren't in a prison anymore. If you want to see it as that, then by all means, continue to be depressed. But something tells me you want to see Xiao again and find a way with him, no?"

"...Right."

"Then at the very least accept my apology gift to you."

"Huh? Apology?" You gave him a questioning look, but he either didn't hear you or elected to ignore you.

......................................

Xiao was being as antisocial as ever, but it's not like he would ever turn down an invitation for tea from Rex Lapis himself. Here he was, sitting just outside of Wangshu Inn with his master in the bright of day. Aether probably put the archon up to the task considering how Xiao pushed him away what felt like ages ago, but the yaksha decided to give Zhongli the time of day only because of his deep respect for his savior.

"I've also brought more pain killers," Zhongli handed the yaksha a small jar of other-worldly medicines as he continued to fill him in on the upcoming Lantern Rite. He had yet to bring you into the conversation, most likely to avoid irritating the throbbing wound in Xiao's chest.

"Mm." Xiao gladly accepted the medication and set it aside. This ensured yet another lull in their conversations.

"Will you go this year?" Zhongli sipped at his tea. "To the Lantern Rite?"

"My presence would only hinder the festival. Besides, I'm not great with crowds." The yaksha had yet to meet the archon's eyes, and kept his gaze firm on the teacup in front of him. Truth be told, he would have gone this year...with you, since it was you who had asked him. But now that these circumstances have come to pass, why should he go? "It's just another excuse for humans to discard their trash into the ocean." Why should he go when it would only remind him of his failure to keep you at his side?

Zhongli narrowed his eyes as he pondered whether words of comfort would aid his yaksha. "It would be good for you to experience something new after all your years of living."

"I already have," Xiao clenched his jaw, signaling that the topic was beginning to walk on thin ice. "She--"

"--Is not dead," Zhongli reminded. "Do not mourn for a loss that has not occurred."

"But she's dying," he argued back, finally releasing the emotions he's pent up ever since they left you. Zhongli's look of confusion prompted him to continue. "She can feel the karmic debt bestowed upon me."

"When did this begin?" The archon's usual reserved composure faltered slightly while his eyes widened.

"A month ago. I visited her; she can hear the voices of the damned. She's been in physical and mental pain ever since."

"The bond..." Zhongli set his teacup down a bit abruptly as he thought to himself. "It appears these side effects grow stronger in the other's absence. How intriguing..."

"How do we discard them? Is there a way?"

"Have you not interpreted my words in Qingce Village all along? Or my words at the Dawn Winery? I've already given you the means to act, Xiao."

--Can feel your emotions...emotions cannot be permanently ignored...fall on deaf ears...early grave... Xiao scoffed and downed the rest of his tea before forcefully setting the cup back down onto the table. "You think admitting my alleged feelings for a mortal human would solve the problem?"

"She's done her part, now it is your turn," he straightened. "If you fail to do so, I fear she will perish from your karmic debt in no time at all. If what you say is true, it's a miracle she's still alive. Your admittance would seal the bond, as it would eliminate the side effects altogether."

Xiao's head whipped in the direction of the playing of an instrument note, but was only greeted with the joyful screams of children running around nearby. "Tch. How annoying," he played his mishearing off and returned to his normal sitting position. Another sound reached his ears, but he neglected to react to it. The notes are off.

Zhongli didn't question Xiao's sudden alertness, but that didn't take away from the fact that yet another side effect has revealed itself to the archon. It appeared as though the yaksha was already aware of this side effect.

And man, did this one annoy Xiao the most. He heard the most random of tunes and chords at the most random of times. It would even jolt him awake when he managed to fall asleep on rare nights. It wasn't all unpleasant though; there were times in which the melody struck all the right notes and the result was a beautiful thirty second song before it was gloriously ruined by the musician's hesitance or embarrassment.

He knew it was you. Your constant need to practice was as pestering as your old daily prayers before he revealed to you that he could hear them. At least he only sometimes heard the plucking of strings. As pesky and invasive as it was, your insistence upon playing what Xiao only assumed was a lyre somehow brought a bit of joy to his heart. It meant that you were doing better than the last time he saw you.

He just wished he could hear the end result and not your sloppy practice sessions.

........................

Only on the eve of the Lantern Rite, several days before the celebration, did he come to appreciate the hours of hard work you were putting into practicing the music.

You had locked yourself in your room again after watching the failed experiments Dottore had forced you to witness. How many did you see die today? Fifty? He clearly needed to adjust the ratio of your blood to whatever else he had in that serum he developed. What was worse was that you were beginning to become desensitized to the loss of human life; amused by it, even. Just as the Tsaritsa wanted. Sometime into the fortieth treatment, your pains grew stronger as did the voices of the slain daemons.

You retreated to your room, relieved that Childe had for once allowed you to be without his presence. You sat yourself next to the window and allowed for the evening light to illuminate the music sheets the harbinger had bought for you. Your fingers grazed lightly over the strings as the voices continued to grow louder, absently plucking one of them to ensure that you still had full control over your slightly twitching limbs. You had nearly snapped the strings last time the voices overwhelmed you--

There's no time nor need to reminisce those incidents. You pulled yourself out of your thoughts and began to play, the smooth vibrations of the harp humming against your chest and shoulder as the strings were struck. Unlike your practice sessions, your hands glided over the strings from one position to the next like you had played for a thousand years. No hesitation could be felt from the chords. Finally, it seemed as though you mastered this song.

Xiao. I miss you...your warmth...your embrace... Your infested thoughts soon cleared as your mind drifted to an image of him. I wonder if he too finds comfort in music when the voices overwhelm him? For you knew that when the voices grew louder, he too, was subject to them. The music overcame the screaming daemons, and you were relieved with a sense of peace. Your fingers continued to play through the music and repeated the song for as many times as you felt fit. Your aching limbs continued to throb, but you didn't let that stop you from playing. Your mind now clear as water, you poured your longing for Xiao into your music. You hummed the melody as you played.

One day you'll find your way back to him, or him to you. Was it okay to allow yourself to believe in the possibility that he held the same feelings for you? Did he love you? No--Could he? It was already naïve enough to think he was capable of harboring such intimate feelings after living through hell for over two thousand years. And even if he did, it's not like you'd live as long as he has. Would he push me away again? You shoved that thought out of your mind with another series of chords.

You wouldn't be able to put an end to your feelings no matter what he did. He was too admirable, too strong, too strict, too beautiful. He was too kind, even if he put up a front. You loved him too much; perhaps that would end in your own downfall just as Childe predicted and beat into your head every day, but that was alright with you. If the voices were to eat away at you until all that remained were ashes, you were okay with being true to yourself until the very end. Even if he never thought of you as something more than a companion. And as you thought of him, the longing to be reunited swelled within your chest and overflowed into your fingers.

Your song was your unspoken prayer, your love and dedication were your offerings.

#genshin impact #genshin x reader #xiao x reader #xiao #xiao fanfiction #xiao genshin impact #genshin impact xiao

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conaionaru · 4 years

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Honor and Blood (Ivar the Boneless)

Queen Vanya

Synopsis: Stithulf and Vanya talk about Silas.

Warnings: Ivar, Silas, Toxic family, manipulation, talk of treason

Tags:

@shannygoatgruff @didiintheblog @lol-haha-joke @xbellaxcarolinax @youbloodymadgenius @queenbeeta @heavenly1927

P.S. Anything in cursive is Old Norse. Anything in bold and cursive is a memory.

I don’t own the gifs. Also, thank you for your support. I really appreciate it. If you want to be tagged please write me<3

Ivar and Vanya laid in each other's arms, gazing at the ceiling in thoughts. Neither said anything as they basked in the bliss of their earlier activities. The more Vanya's stomach grew, the harder it was for them to sleep with each other, but that didn't mean that they didn't try. It took some thinking and changing positions, but it always worked.

Ivar ghosted his fingertips over Vanya's left shoulder as she laid on his arm. His right arm laid on his stomach, where it held her petite hand. He was enjoying the calm while it lasted, who knew what catastrophe Silas would bring on. Up until now, he just seemed bitter and bratty, which worried Ivar. The Ragnarsson was paranoid with worry, not sure if Silas was planning something or not. Yet Vanya reassured him to be cautious; there was a Ragnarsson with her at all times just to be sure.

"Sometimes, I wish we could stay here forever, never grow hungry, or thirsty and never die. Just you and me and our child. Would you like that?" Vanya questioned, looking into Ivar's eyes at the end. The Viking smiled down at his lovely wife and nodded.

"With no worries or responsibilities to annoy us. Just laying here and passing the time." He kissed her forehead as Vanya smiled at him with a teasing gleam in her blue eyes.

She raised one eyebrow at his and leaned closer to his face. "And how would you pass the time, Min elskede (My beloved)?" The Princesses smirk made her the more appealing to Ivar. No matter if her hair was a mess or if she was sick, Vanya always looked like Freyja to him.

"I can think of a way or two." He said back, his eyes darkening as they locked their lips together.

Vanya then pulled away from him and got up from the bed with some difficulty as Ivar pouted at her. "Why must you torment me like this, Min skatt (My treasure)?" The Princess looked at the pouting prince on the bed and winked at him.

"It is fun to see you pout, Ivar."

"I do not pout."

"Sure, Min elskede (My beloved), whatever you say." Ivar rolled his eyes at her sarcastic tone and moved to get ready. His eyes slid to Vanya's pale body that put on a yellow dress. The roundness of her stomach, her plumb chest, and smooth skin made him yearn to pull her back into the bed and keep her there like they discussed moments ago.

Vanya waddled over to her husband and kissed him on the head, smiling down at him as an apology, even though she wasn't sorry. She grew to love teasing Ivar; he always humored her with his reactions.

The young couple entered the Great Hall, where the Ragnarssons and Aslaug were already seated, as Silas and his knights entered later on. The only one of the knights that the King allowed to sit at the table was Stithulf. The blond Christian followed Vanya's brother like a shadow, always smiling charmingly while he whispered into the King's ear. He made the ginger's skin crawl.

"Good Morning, Brother." Vanya smiled as Silas, her hands clenched in her lap to hide her hate for him. The more loved Silas felt, the better. Whoever strokes his ego the most, lived the longest. Maybe that's why Stithulf is so good at it. What worried Vanya about the knight, was that he wasn't such a trusted friend to her brother when she left. Back then, he held the knights at arm's length and listened to the council. Now he seemed to be led by knights.

Silas returned her greeting halfheartedly and ate his food while the conversation by the table evolved. They ate their morning meal and talked in Norse about Floki's progress in building the ships and who agreed to travel with him. Right after, Vanya walked outside with Ubbe to meet up with Brynja and visit the market. The eldest son of Aslaug walked behind them, joking with the pregnant Princess and cheerful servant.

"And did you dream any more dreams of the stranger, Vanya?" Brynja questioned, showing the ginger a pretty necklace with red jewels in the middle.

The Saxon Princess looked down at the accessories and nodded shyly. She didn't tell it to Ivar, but she kept dreaming of the cloaked man at least twice a week. The man always stood a distance away from her in a field by the sea and watched her. When he got too close to her, Vanya woke up. But she wasn't afraid anymore, every time the stranger showed up in her dreams, she felt safer. Like he was protecting her instead of following her around like a creep.

Ubbe noted the answer to that question and looked down at the butterfly necklace the ginger kept eyeing. "Did you think of anything you want for your name day, Lillemor (Little mother)?"

The ginger gazed up at the tall Viking and blushed at being caught red-handed, ogling the jewelry in desire. "When I was younger, I had a necklace just like this one." She whispered, caressing the metal with a soft look in her eyes. "Father gave it to me on my seventh name day. Silas threw it into the flames on my fourteenth. He said I was contemplating treason because I missed Father and wouldn't accept him as the rightful King. He threw it into the fire and gave me a cross instead, so I would remember that I would answer to God if I didn't acknowledge him."

"He is a bastard, that's what he is. Jealous and petty like a child. Thank the Gods you are now a Viking and not anywhere near him." Brynja fussed, glaring at the hut Silas, and his six knights slept in.

Ubbe chuckled at that and patted Vanya's head like a child's or dogs. "But he is here, not that it changes anything. He is what you said and much worse. But Silas is not one of your problems anymore." The two redheads peered at the Ragnarsson in doubt. "Married to a son of Ragnar Lothbrok, you are a Lothbrok now yourself, which makes you untouchable. Silas can only dream of hurting you, and he will be cut down either by the folk or us. You are very well-liked, that makes you well protected in turn."

"Thank you, Ubbe. What would I do without you?" Vanya smiled at the Viking and hugged him tightly in thanks. She felt his chest shake as he laughed at her praise and patted her back.

"Deal with Ivar on your own, probably." He joked as they separated, in return, Vanya hit his shoulder, pouting. Just because Ubbe was right, doesn't mean he can be an ass.

Out of Ivar's brothers, she liked Ubbe the most, even if Vanya wasn't supposed to have any favorites. He was kind, cheerful, and a great brother. They agreed on so many things and shared a common worry for Ivar. They both loved him in their own ways, which made them appreciate each other as well. Ubbe kept Ivar in check, worried for his health, and reminded him that he is no less of a Ragnarsson, because of his legs. Vanya calmed the youngest brother and loved him unconditionally. In the end, Ubbe and Vanya were both good for the angry Viking.

"Princess!" The little voices cried out in glee before two children run to the ginger's side. "Good Morning, Princess. Is the baby kicking right now? Can we feel?" The asked excitedly as Vanya smiled at them.

"It is pretty calm today, but maybe the babe will respond." She nodded as the two blond girls put their hands on her belly and waited for a kick. They both squealed in joy when the child softly hit their hands through the skin. "Now, where did you two leave Esther? The woman must be worried sick."

The two girls looked at her sheepishly and confessed that they did run off when they saw red hair in the crowd. Vanya, Brynja, and Ubbe chuckled at the two children and promised to bring them back to their caretaker. "Do you know our names, Princess?"

Vanya pouted in thought and looked at the two blond orphans that held her hands as she walked them towards the other side of the market. "Well, you are Selby." The Saxon remembered the little girl who gave her the flowers. Then she looked at the other girl and tilted her head to the side. "And you must be Hildr."

The two cheered that the pretty princess remembered their names and told her everything she missed while she didn't visit them. They even mentioned that they thought of names for her babe. They all agreed at the orphanage, that if she and Ivar have a son, they should name him Baldur. "Well, I don't know. We will see when it's born. But I wouldn't namesake a child after a god. What if the gods don't like it?"

The five of them chatted about the possibility of a Baldur Ivarsson and the gods' anger about names until they reached an angry Esther that questioned the other children. "I believe these are yours," Ubbe called out to the frantic woman. She turned on her heel to look at the Prince and exhaled loudly when she saw the two blonde orphans holding hands with the former Christian Princess.

"You will send me to an early grave, running off like that. Little monsters the whole lot of you!" She scolded the girls who apologized to her. Esther left the market with all the children in tow as Vanya held back chuckles as they all waved goodbye to her. She loved these children as if they were her own. So nice and happy, despite the harsh life they have been given. Vanya hoped that they wouldn't change.

Ubbe and Vanya sat in the grass at the lake, talking to each other. Brynja left some time ago to help her father at the farm. The old man was in better health now and didn't require constant care anymore. The fever left him two days after the sacrifice to Freyja in Vanya's name happened. He thanked the gods for the second chance and nagged Brynja to get married and give him some grandchildren to worry about. Poor Brynja couldn't tell him she was seeing the blacksmiths son in secret for a while now. The rugged Viking wasn't good enough in her father's eyes.

"I am surprised Aslaug isn't pressing you to get married and give her grandchildren too. Afterall, Ivar is the youngest, and he will be a father before you." She teased the undressing Viking, covering her eyes as he got into the lake to bath while the water was warm.

"Oh, she will complain soon enough. So try to keep the babes coming, Lillemor (Little mother). If she can cuddle your children, she will leave me alone." He called back from the lake, smirking at her frown.

Vanya shook her head at his antics and continued weaving a flower crown out of daisies. "That's what you think. The more grandchildren she gets from Ivar, the more she will from the rest of you. Now she doesn't have to worry about Ivar's future, she will question yours."

Ubbe froze in his swimming and stared at the smirking ginger. "She can mother Bjorn's children. I am content for now."

"Bjorn's children don't count. They aren't of her blood. She wants some from you, Hvitserk and Sigurd. Especially you since you are the oldest. She told me so before." Ubbe splashed her with water as she shrieked as the liquid soaked her dress. "Stop! Please have mercy!"

The two laughed together till a branch snapped behind them. Ubbe swam towards the edge, ready to attack whoever came till the person emerged from the trees with his hands over his head. "Sorry for startling you. I mean no harm." Stithulf explained, walking towards Vanya unarmed.

Ubbe relaxed in the water when Vanya dismissed him and smiled at the blond knight. "How can I help you, Stithulf?"

"You know my name, Princess. I am honored." He said, sitting down next to her, but keeping his distance so Ubbe wouldn't have to worry anymore.

Vanya watched the knight remembering the last time she saw him. The fourteen-year-old son of a lord sat around her father's council table that wanted to wage war against the Northmen. "I remember you from the council. You wanted to fight the Vikings."

Stithulf chuckled at the memory and twisted grass between his fingers. "That is true. But I was young and foolish; I promise I changed. As did you, My Princess. You are nothing like I remembered you."

"We have to change to survive, don't we? I am surprised that you are a knight and not a councilman like your father. Why is that?" She watched him like a hawk, trying to decipher why he is here and his deal with Silas.

"I obviously wasn't meant for strategy; I would much rather fight for my kingdom then sit at the table talking about coin and wheat." He joked, ripping the grass-blade in half and tossing the two halves away. "King Silas can talk with his old wrinkled lords; I prefer the dusty training grounds over them every day. And I do see more then they do anyway. After all, I am here, and they are rotting away in their homes."

Vanya frowned at the disrespectful words and tightened the flowers in her crown in anger. "Wouldn't you much rather be at home too? Instead of surrounded by strangers who don't speak your language or believe in God?"

"I wouldn't think of myself as surrounded. That makes me seem as if I was in danger. I am here on accounts of my King, making sure the Princess is safe and sound. I will go through worse things for him, then a few pagans." Stithulf said simply, watching the scenery and trying to avoid looking at the bathing Ragnarsson that was getting dressed.

"I suppose you are right." Vanya agreed, putting the flower crown on her head in triumph.

"A crown fit you," Stithulf noted, watching the smile on the ginger's face fade. Ubbe sat down on her right, pulling her further away from the Christian. "The people here love you, more than the folk in Slegia does. You speak their language; you worship their gods, you care for them. You would make a good queen one day."

Vanya frowned at him and shook her head. "I don't wish to be a queen. And I never will be. Ivar's the youngest son; he won't be a king, and I won't be Queen. I am happy with the way it is."

The knight shook his head at her statement and shrugged. "Things chance, Princess. And being the Heathen Queen isn't the only possibility. Slegia and Wrosan are an option as well."

Vanya scoffed at that and glared at him, Stithulf froze at the cold stare. The Princess he remembered was timid and meek, nothing like the fierce thing before him. "Silas is King of Slegia. And my uncle rules Wrosan under him. Their heirs will rule after them; there is no place for me on that throne."

"Noble words for someone who hated Silas. I am not blind nor stupid. Silas is not a good king, flattery and bribes can get anyone high in his court. He is surrounded by liars and sweet-talkers, too content to see the dangers they might pose for him. I am sure many will turn to your cause when you prove to have more potential than him. After all, you were King Osmond's favorite."

"What you are saying is treason. Silas wouldn't hesitate to kill you if he found out."

"It's not treason if I want the best for him. Silas is blind but not hopeless. If somebody made him see the truth, he might become a better king. I try my best, but I can only say so much when the council contradicts me. No offense, Princess, but the King isn't well-liked by the people like you. When he parades his army around and talks of war, people see starvation and death, not glory. As long as they are fed and alive, they don't care what their ruler does. If they have a better option, they will dispose of the other one themselves. That's treason. I want the people to see Silas as the only option, the best choice there is. But I can't do that if he does what he pleases."

Vanya mulled the knight's words over. He was right. Silas was too rash and self-centered to care for the people. He didn't care for them, and they didn't care for him. If anyone staked a claim at the throne, they would betray him without a doubt. Silas's fate would be sealed, and the House of the Raising Sun would no longer rule Slegia. All the hard work, the Kings before him, made, would go to waste. No matter how shady Stithulf might seem at first glance, he was more than a killing machine. He was cunning and cared for Silas in his own way.

"Why are you telling all this. I am not an option, Stithulf." Vanya reminded him to which he nodded.

"And that is why I am here. To remind Silas of that, to show him what a ruler should look like. After all, the best way to make him see the truth is by comparing him to the Northmen. Nothing makes him rethink his worth than a bunch of heathens being better at ruling then him. This way, he will know what he should look like and raise above his childish ways."

Vanya nodded at the rant, yet couldn't imagine Silas changing at all. He was too set in his old ways that even a clever plan like that won't work on him.

#vikings #vikings imagine #history vikings #ivar the boneless #ivar lothbrok #ivar x oc #ivar ragnarsson #original character #original female character #ivar imagine

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bobasheebaby · 4 years

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Monachopsis- Monsters chapter 5

Pairing: Olivia x Liam, Olivia x Emma (MC), minor Liam x Emma (MC)

Word count: 2,418

Warnings: Evil Liam, Evil Olivia, manipulation, mild nsfw

Summary: Emma and Olivia get cleaned up. The group prepares to leave New York.

A/N: More evil Liam. This one is severely twisted. This is a collaboration with @sirbeepsalot, so hang onto your seats.

Series warnings: Evil Liam, Evil Olivia, child abuse, character death, abuse, knife violence, blood, unhealthy sexual situations, NSFW content to come. By asking to be tagged you acknowledge you are at least 18 years of age.

Let one of us know if you want on or off the taglist.

Disclaimer: We only own our OC’s, the rest we are just borrowing from PB.

Monachopsis: The small but somehow persistent weird feeling that you're out of place.

Emma rested in the bath for several minutes, her hand haphazardly popping bubbles from the vanilla bath soap Olivia gave her. She felt guilty for pushing her away. Obviously she isn't trying to use you. If she was, she wouldn’t have helped you get away from Trey. She thought of the wound on her chest, how swollen and angry it was compared to the bruised flesh of her other breast. She let him do that to her to save you.

She slipped out of the bath and patted herself dry before wrapping her body in a luxurious towel, all the time chastising herself for her actions. She left when you told her you didn’t want to make the same mistake twice. She looked hurt but respected your wishes.

She opened the door and left the bedroom suite. Maybe she will want to join you after Liam cleans her wound. She looked around the suite, unsure of where Liam and Olivia were. She noticed a room service cart to the side of the living area. She walked over and plucked a strawberry off a tray before biting into its juicy flesh. She loved strawberries but Trey didn’t like them.

She quickly ate a second one before returning to the task of finding Olivia and Liam. She noticed a door to what she assumed to be another bedroom suite ajar and smiled as she padded across the room. The door was ajar and she heard soft voices whispering. She paused as she tried to figure out what they were saying but she couldn’t make out the words.

Her hand shook as it fell from the door. They are using you--they won’t even speak freely when they believe you are in the bath! She shook her head to clear her negative thoughts. Why do you always suspect the worst? They aren’t Trey. Maybe they are planning a nice surprise. Maybe they don’t want to disturb you while you relax.

Her hand reached up and cracked the door open when she paused. The unmistakable sound of a moan filtered through the gap. Her heart plummeted as tears sprang to her eyes. I knew it! I always pick the wrong people! Damnit, Emma, pull it together--you knew they were together!

She carefully pushed the door wide enough to look through the gap and bit back a gasp at what she saw. The pair sat on the bed, Olivia dressed in a white robe, Liam beside her, his pajama pants pushed down exposing his hardened length.

They aren’t doing anything wrong, you turned her down, now stop staring before you get caught! Her eyes remained glued on the pair; she was unable to tear them away no matter how hard she tried.

She watched Olivia’s lips move as her hand stroked Liam’s cock. Emma leaned in and focused on picking up anything they were saying. She stepped backwards as she made out a few words. Are they talking about how we killed Trey? She shook her head and tried desperately to understand what she witnessed. She slowly backed away when she heard Liam’s breath come faster and quickly walked away before they found her spying on them.

Olivia smiled as she saw Emma still in the bath. Being pushed away had stung at first but she understood; had she not had Liam for support she would’ve been wary to trust new people too. She still was, but something about Emma was different. She could spend hours trying to pinpoint the reason and still be confused by why she felt so drawn to her.

"Enjoying the bath?" Olivia asked as she shrugged off her robe and hung it on the door.

"It's getting a bit cold … I was going to get out." She looked and saw the disappointment on Olivia's face. She lifted her hands from the water. "I'm getting prunny."

Olivia laughed, her emerald eyes glittering with joy. "Well we can't have that now." She picked up the body wash and walked to the shower. “I'm going to take a quick shower. Room service is here--why don't you eat while it’s hot."

She turned back to preparing her shower, very aware that Emma was still the the tub. She turned the shower on and waited for the room to fill with steam before stepping in. The water felt like a thousand bees stinging her over and over. She picked up a cloth and washed her body, the remnants of their actions that night swirling down the drain. Olivia turned off the water and watched Emma through the glass. She wondered why she was sitting in cold water when five minutes ago she wanted to towel off.

"Emma, is something wrong?" Olivia sat on the edge of the bath to find tears in Emma's eyes.

Emma looked up at Olivia with watery eyes, guilt from spying on them twisting her stomach in knots. She chewed the inside of her lip, debating if she should mention what she had seen. If you tell her and it changes their minds about you where does it leave you? You have nothing, no one. "Could it stay between us?" She was so used to anger being the response she couldn’t risk upsetting Liam.

Olivia nodded, her brows knitting together in confusion and worry.

“Umm … I saw you and Liam ... together.”

Olivia closed her eyes and let out a breath. This wasn't how she wanted her to find out. "Liam and I have a complicated friendship at times. We were planning to tell you more about us tomorrow after the excitement of today died down."

“Okay,” she replied, her words barely a whisper.

Their heads raised and turned as they heard a gentle rap on the door.

"Yes? Liam?"

"The delivery from Bergdorf arrived. I'll set it outside the door for when you're ready."

"Thanks Liam. We're just finishing up."

“What delivery? What would Bergdorf be sending at this time of night?” Emma questioned.

Olivia smiled. “A nightdress.” She stood, offering Emma her hand.

Emma looked up at Olivia with surprise. She took her hand, carefully pulling herself up from the bath. She hesitated, her shame at being seen completely bare with all her scars visible to the marked goddess before her.

Olivia sensed her hesitation as Emma’s eyes fell to her arms. “See?” Olivia said as she stroked her hand up Emma’s arm. “You’re perfect just like me. Now, come on, let’s dress so you can eat.”

Emma paused as she lifted her body from the bath. “Aren’t you going to eat too?”

Olivia started to say no but the hopefulness in Emma’s pale green eyes gave her pause. “We’ll see.”

Emma stretched between the luxurious sheets, a small smile on her lips as she remembered the last 12 hours. She felt surprisingly calm and happy after the nights events. She couldn’t remember the last time she slept so well.

She rolled to her side and opened her eyes to find she was alone in the bed. Surprise filled her at the revelation. I really am free. Even nights she went to bed alone, she’d wake up bare and with Trey. Was she really safe or were they just filling her with a false sense of security, spilling empty promises just to pull them out from under her? She heard sounds coming from the main room of the suite and went to investigate.

She found Liam sitting on the sofa sipping coffee and reading the paper. Nearby, a food service cart held a variety of continental breakfast foods.

“Emma,” Liam said as he laid his paper down, “How did you sleep?”

“That was the most comfortable bed I’ve ever slept in,” she said. “How was your night?”

Liam smiled as he sipped his coffee. “Wonderful, as always. Breakfast is by the table. If you would like something else, we can call room service.”

Emma walked to the cart and picked up a small plate. She looked over the spread and didn’t know where to start. She started with strawberries and yogurt before pickup up a piece of fruit that was new to her. Here’s to trying more new things.

She sat across from Liam and started on her breakfast. “Where is Olivia?”

“She went to Bergdorf’s to pick up some items for you. We realized you don’t have anything to wear and we wanted you to be comfortable.”

“That’s nice,” Emma said before eating a strawberry. The idea of someone shopping for her--assuming to know her tastes, dressing her--made her feel a bit uncomfortable, but she knew she couldn’t leave the hotel dressed in her pajamas despite how expensive they were.

She turned her head when she heard the door to the suite open. Olivia stepped inside carrying two large bags. “Emma, Liam, good morning!” She set the bags down before coming to sit next to Emma on the sofa. “I’m sure he told you about my secret mission this morning, didn’t you Li?”

Liam chuckled. “She asked, and you know I can’t keep secrets from you.”

“I hope it isn’t creepy for you, Emma, but I did a little shopping this morning to pick you up something to wear home. If you don’t like it, we can go to the store and you pick out something you like better. Once we are back in Cordonia, I’ll have my personal shopper meet with you and help you build your own wardrobe.”

Emma’s stomach fluttered. She couldn’t remember the last time she bought new clothes, much less pieces that weren’t off discount store clearance racks. “I’m sure whatever you picked out will be lovely. You have good style.”

“Thanks babe,” Olivia said. Emma admired her leather pencil skirt and pussy bow silk blouse as she walked to the bags. “Come along, let’s get you dressed. We have a plane to catch.”

Olivia led Emma to the bedroom and shut the door. “Now, I want you to know you are worthy of our love. I saw you with Trey and I’ve seen what cruel people did to your body. Liam and I experienced awful things growing up, so we really do understand. But now, we have reclaimed our power,” Olivia said as she took Emma’s hand, giving it a soft squeeze, “and we will never live in fear again because we have the right to protect ourselves.” Olivia watched Emma’s eyes as her words swirled through the young woman's mind. We will never live in fear again… we have the right to protect ourselves. The concept of protecting herself felt weird and foreign.

Olivia gave her hand a final squeeze before setting the bags on the bed. “I wasn’t sure, so I picked up a few options. We’ll send back whatever you don’t want to keep.”

Emma watched as Olivia laid out a small selection of tops, sweaters, and pants that could be mixed and matched to make several causal but designer outfits.

“What do you think, Emma? I was looking for something comfortable for the flight home.”

Emma walked to the bed and ran her finger over the panties Olive purchased. The tag flipped over showing they cost $49. The price of one jacket made her do a double-take. That was my share of the rent.

Emma leaned into Olivia and rested her head on her shoulder. “What do you think I should wear?” When she didn’t hear a response, she glanced up to see Olivia watching her.

“This isn’t about what I want you to wear. It’s your body so you should wear what makes you feel good about yourself. I just picked up some basic pieces to get you dressed for the trip home.”

Emma nodded her head before selecting a pair of dark trousers, a polka dot blouse, and a chunky knit cardigan. She pulled on a pair of leather booties and admired herself in the mirror. “It’s been a long time since I’ve worn something with polka dots. I loved them as a kid.” Emma smoothed down the front of the cardigan. “What do you think?”

“I think you look gorgeous. You just need a couple things.” Olivia pulled out a large gift bag from a bag she left by the door. “You are a noble woman now. I put this little gift together for you.”

Noble woman?! Emma’s mind swam as she realized how little she truly knew of her new life. She raised her head, the thoughts escaping her mind as Liam softly knocked on the door and poked his head in. “You ladies nearly ready?” His eyes traced the curves of Emma’s petite frame as he stepped into the room.

Emma shrank under his gaze; she was all too familiar with the way his brows furrowed and the way he tucked his lip between his teeth. She’d seen that face on Trey more times than she wanted to count.

“Is that what you intend to wear?”

Olivia noticed Emma’s unease; this was not how they would win her to their side. She refused to lose Emma like she had Juliet. “She on looks nice Liam. Besides, she should be comfortable. It is a long flight home.”

“Of course. Comfort is important..” Liam replied, his body tense, though his voice was light.

“We will be out shortly.”

Emma took the bag and set it on the bed, her small frame resembling one of a scolded child. “Should I change? Did I upset him?” Her previous enthusiasm over her new look was gone.

“There is nothing wrong with your outfit. Liam is just not … used to being able to dress down. Don’t mind him.” Olivia sat next to her on the bed. “Now go on, open your gift.”

Emma pulled the tissue back and gasped. “Is this a Daemarrel bag? For me?”

“Every woman needs a go-to bag and I noticed you admiring mine. Inside are other small necessities and gifts that I hope you like.”

She watched as Emma carefully explored the contents of the bag like a child who wasn’t sure it was time to open presents. She couldn’t believe Olivia’s generosity. Emma found simple diamond stud and gold hoop earrings and a matching makeup bag filled with essentials. This must have cost a fortune. What do they expect in return?

It suddenly dawned on her that they hadn’t actually spoke of what would become of her once they got to Cordonia.

Did I make a mistake?

Feedback fuels us, please like, comment or reblog to let us know how much you like it. We can handle the screams, so scream away.

Masterlist can be found in my bio.

Taglist will be reblogged.

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monsterheartshq · 4 years

Photo

THE WITCH.

“ manipulative, secretive, judgemental, brooding. the witch is all about casting silent judgement, and powerful hexes, from the safety of her own bedroom. ”

biography.

name. hajoon blackmoore age. 26 years old occupation. college junior. works at dark wood mortuary sexuality. pansexual gender. cismale faceclaim. seo kang joon monster. witch

origin.

Joon was adopted when he was three months old. The Blackmoore’s had been unable to conceive their own child. Even after almost 15 years of trying. So they turned to a family friend that helped them with the adoption. Joon isn’t exactly sure how legit his adoption was but, there isn’t much he can do about it now.

He grew up relatively spoiled. He was his parent’s pride and joy. They finally had someone to pass on the family name. Someone to mold into the perfect heir of the Blackmoore estate.

To say that Joon has a lot of expectations placed on him from an early age would be an understatement. His parents planned almost every aspect of his life. What he wore, what games he was allowed to play. Who he was going to be as an adult, what colleges he was going to attend. Who he was allowed to hang out with. His childhood was a very suffocating one.

As he got older, Joon rebelled, he pushed every boundary. Tested every limit, which only seemed to make his parents tighten the reins even more.

The only thing he didn’t fight them on was learning the family “business.” The Blackamoore’s were a family with deep traditions. Witchcraft was at the core of them. When Joon was about six his mother started teaching him her craft. He ate it up, excelling at almost everything she put in front of him. He had a particular affinity for the darker art. But in his defense they were always the most interesting.

Currently he’s been “cut off” from any of the benefits that his family name could possibly offer him. Which is completely his fault. After he applied to some random ass college in main, in some small ass town. Behind his parents backs of course. Harvard or Yale has been their choice. Joon would drop dead before he went to some elit bullshit school. So that is how he found himself on the outs with his family and living in Cinderbrush.

Now one may wonder what Joon is still doing in college at the tender age of 26. Most of his peers have already graduated. Moved on to life out their annoyingly cliche dreams. But that’s the problem. Joon doesn’t really have dreams. He’s changed his major three times. Has no real idea of what the fuck he’s going to do with his life. So, he figures being a chronic student is the better option. Who needs to have their future planned.

When he first started school he had just gone for a Liberal Arts degree. But he wasn’t a huge fan of being a ‘jack of all trades’. So his second semester he changed to History, which only lasted about a year before he decided he really didn’t give a shit about History. His current major is chemical engineering, with a minor in botany, which he actually enjoys a great deal. It also helps with his business.

He’s made quite a business out of supplying the student body with all kinds of party favors. If there is something you need, he’s the man to go to. He’s even made a few connections outside of the town. Being the resident drug dealer has its perks. He’s pretty content in his choices.

His social life isn’t really lacking. He has plenty of people he chills with. Mostly friendly acquaintances. Nothing too deep. Which if you asked him is how he likes it. He tried the close friend shit a while back and it ended up being nothing but a world of hurt.

Romance on the other hand really isn’t his thing. He doesn’t like strings or being tied to one person. So he keeps most of his conquests casual. Which he is very up front about. If you wanna fuck you gotta be okay with not having much after that.

look.

a haze of smoke. the smell of a burning fire. dirt under the finger nails. dusty books and candle wax. the smell of copper in a cup. misty mornings. full moons. a broken clock on the wall. empty chairs swinging in the breeze. cracked book spines. secrets in plain sight. tinkling bells softly dancing on the air. daggers gleaming in the light. comfort in hidden spaces. a soft scent of sandalwood in the air. acid sitting on the tip of the tongue. dismantling expectations one brick at a time.

hexes.

wither. a person loses all of their hair, or their teeth start rotting and falling out, or their period comes and it comes by the bucketful, or their skin gets all sickly yellow and spotty. whatever the specifics, it’s bad.

binding. a person cannot physically harm others.

ring of lies. whenever a person attempts to lie, they hear a piercing ringing noise. big lies will often make their knees buckle and disorient them. severe lies can cause harm or even brain damage.

watching. you enter a deep sleep, and begin to see the world through the eyes of the hexed. you can feel their reactions to and impressions of what they are seeing.

illusions. {Pick two: snakes and bugs, demonic visages, false prophecies, non-existent subtext.} the hexed sees that thing everywhere. you have no control over the exact images or manifestations.

social circle.

the gorgon: once upon a time the gorgon and the witch were the best of friends. in fact, they both are matriculating at cinderbrush because of a pact they had made as kids. attending the same university was apart of their life long plan. but a year prior the gorgon made a mistake, they allowed the witch in. deeper then anyone before, and it resulted in the witch getting hurt. years of friendship down the drain. now when they pass each other in the quad, the gorgon refuses to look the witch in the eyes.

the infernal: the witch feels something when they look at the infernal, and they’ve yet to figure out if what they’re feeling is sympathy or pity. they’ve been around magick long enough to recognize a dark presence. and there is darkness coming off the infernal in waves. the witch is convinced they can safe the infernal. they know they can grow stronger and break the bond between the infernal and their patron... but is that what the infernal wants? And is the witch truly as strong as the believe, or could this destroy them?

the queen: the witch would often tell you they could become invisible if they so chose. creep back into the shadows and remain unseen by most passing by. but this was not true when it came to the queen. in fact, the witch had been attempting a nasty spell on one of the queen’s hive members and while rummaging through their personal belongings, they were discovered. the queen has kept this little bit of information to themselves, and the witch is dreading to find out why.

this character skin is TAKEN

#the witch #taken

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lesbian-choso · 4 years

Note

the way you talked abt the deltora quest series by emily rodda got me interested in it. i'd love if you tell me more abt it 👀

💕💕💕💕has anyone told u ur the best!!! Okay so this is gonna be a long post because some of this is gonna be difficult to explain, and it’s gonna sound super childish lmao. I’m not even joking when I say there’s so much world building so Uh yea this is gonna take a while lmao

Okay, so Emily Rodda is an Aussie author, and in 2000 she created the Deltora Quest series. Technically the whole franchise is 3 series, but altogether it’s just referred to as DQ even though each series has a different name. And, she has other series that connect to this one and provide it with extra backstory and explanations to things left unanswered in DQ.

Some cover designs:

The first series is at its centre, 3 characters, Lief, Barda, and Jasmine, who are journeying through the country to the most dangerous locations to regain the Seven Gems, to put back together the Belt of Deltora. They’re doing this because the Belt, once assembled and placed on the heir to the throne, is supposed to help them defeat the main villain, called (yes this is gonna sound dumb) the Shadow Lord.

They’re doing this because prior to the events of the book (although we read about it in a flashback at the start), their land was overrun by the Shadow Lord. And he was able to do this because he had spies working for him in the palace that were slowly manipulating the royal family over the centuries so they forget the power of the Belt, and he had his servants put a glamour on the palace so whenever they looked out of the palace, Del (the city that the castle was in) looked perfect. Rather, the people were all living in poverty, and whenever they send letters to the palace for help, everything was destroyed before it would reach the king/Queen. The king growing up, Endon, was friends with one of the servants children, Jarred, and they both were cared for by one of the servants there called Min. Endon grew up believing all of the advisors in the palace that would manipulate him; however, Jared was curious and found out about the truth of the belt. But when he went to present him finding he found in an old book, the chief advisor Prandine showed up and pushed Endon out of the way saying Jarred had a knife and was actually coming to assassinate him, which then alerted the guards and blah blah blah.

Jarred escaped, and ended up seeing what the outside city looked like. People were in so much poverty that the rotten/uneaten food from the palace was what they ate when it was disposed. he eventually seeked shelter at a blacksmith's place, and stayed there with the dude and his granddaughter. when the dude died and Jarred and Anna grew up, they married.

Then, on a particular day, the Shadow Lord sent these giant monster-bird-things that the Deltoran people call ak-Baba’s to break the Belt, and steal the gems now that the palace has forgotten about it. Then he had them send the gems and drop them in the most dangerous places in the country and let them to the guarded by a guardian who may or may not be a servant to the Shadow Lord. The guardians alone would require a whole ass post because omg there’s just too much to write about.

Basically, Endon sent a secret message to Jarred to get him to come back because he needed help, and knew something was off especially since the night before the attack, his former caretaker Min came to him and talked about hearing whispers of evil plans. But in the morning when he went looking for her, chief advisor Prandine said he ‘found her’ dead where she had ‘fallen down the stairs’. After this, Jarred helped King Endon and his wife Queen Sharn from the palace and sent them into hiding even though Sharn was pregnant at the time. It was at this time that one of the last remaining palace guards stumbled upon them before falling unconscious from his wounds, this turns out to be Barda. Barda was also the son of Min.

Anna is also preggers, and she gives birth to a son that they name Lief. And with this, Jarred starts to speculate where the gems were actually taken and creates a map of where he thinks they are. He’s the one that actually plans to go on the quest but he is crippled from an accident, so Lief when he turns 16 must go himself, also with Barda who has been living with them secretly. Also, since Jarred learned how to be a blacksmith, he was able to mend the Belt and gives it to Lief on his journey with Barda to basically supervise him. Jasmine doesn’t exist in the story yet because they meet her where the first gem is located, in the Forest of Silence.

Okay so that was a LOT of typing, and let me just tell you that that all happened in a flashback.

Bonus: why I think these books aren’t really just for kids lol:

There’s on page descriptive murder

Cannibalism

Slavery

Human experimentation

Addiction

Cults

Mental illness

Okay so that was a lot for just a flashback, and uh if you want to read a fun adventure series with a shit tonne of world building I’d definitely recommend it so uh yeah. There also was an anime made from the first series but it’s not that great and deviates from the source material a lot. But if u want to put yourself through that, it’s all on YouTube.

Anyways, please ask me more questions if you’re interested, this was actually fun to reminisce on :D thanks for asking 💕💕

#deltora quest #omg those books tho

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sushigirlali · 5 years

Text

The Politics of Dancing - Part III (Reylo Fanfic)

Part I - Part II - Part III - Part IV

Summary: Ben has known Rey most of her life, but when things change between them one tumultuous night, can he convince her that they have a future? Or will secret legacies, scheming parents, and fetching suitors get in the way?

Parings: Rey + Ben Solo|Kylo Ren, Finn + Rose Tico

Continuity: Regency AU

Rating: E

A/N: Sorry for the long wait! I've been crazy busy over the last few months between my trip to Japan and work and cosplay prep for MegaCon, but hopefully this chapter will make up for it! Please let me know what you think!

Master list –> AO3 | ff.net | Tumblr

——————

The Politics of Dancing - Part III

By: sushigirlali

——————

London, December 1818

——————

Playing with the last of her roast beef and mash, Rey wondered how much longer her lover would be able to restrain himself from taking Poe's empty seat. More than fifteen minutes had passed since her friend had left the room, so she could only assume he wasn't coming back.

“Poe the matchmaker,” she thought affectionately, knowing he'd purposefully left the door open for Ben to make a move. “I do hope he's able to find love for himself one day, though; Poe deserves all the happiness in the world.”

"Ladies, gentlemen," See-Threepio called to the room, "we'll be serving dessert in a few minutes for those who'd like to indulge." He cleared his throat, looking uncomfortable. "Tea and cakes will be available in the drawing room as well."

More than half the table pushed their chairs back at his words, preferring to finish their meals in comfort rather than style. Rey hid a smile behind her hand at Threepio's horror struck expression. He was a real stickler for the rules, so allowing guests to eat in the formal sitting room must be tantamount to treason to him.

"Are you coming, Rey?" Han said from her right.

"Oh, uh,"—Rey could see Ben rising from his seat in her periphery—"I think I'll stay for a while, thanks."

"Suit yourself," he winked, taking Maz's arm and joining his wife at the door.

"Believe me, I will," she said under her breath, acutely aware of Ben's progress around the room. She could practically feel the heat radiating off him as he came up behind her.

"Is this seat taken, my lady?" he said politely.

There were still a few people in the room with them, so she appreciated his discretion.

"As you see," Rey replied, motioning toward Poe's chair. "Did you enjoy your meal, my lord?" she asked once he was seated.

"Hard to say since I barely ate anything," Ben chuckled. "I was too busy looking at you, pretty girl."

"Don't let See-Threepio catch you saying that," she teased, blushing at the compliment. "He's very proud of the spread tonight."

"Tell that to my mother, she's the one letting people skip pudding."

"She's not." Rey nodded toward the black-haired woman who'd been fondling him earlier. She looked about Ben's age, pretty, and far too interested in their conversation for comfort. "Skipping pudding, I mean."

"So?"

"Don't you want to know why?"

"Not really," he said carelessly. "What do you think dessert will be? I hope it's something chocolate."

"Dessert? Really?" Rey narrowed her eyes. "What is this to you? Some kind of game?"

"What?" Ben regarded her warily.

"Don't play coy with me, Ben Solo! I'm trying to discuss this thing between us, whatever it is, and you're stuck on sweets! Earlier you said I was 'your woman,' but what does that even mean? Are you after an affair? Something more?" Rey meant to ask one question at a time, but now that she'd started, she couldn't seem to stop. "And what happens when you tire of me and move onto someone else—someone like that tart over there?! You obviously have a plethora of suitors. Am I supposed to just step aside and—"

"Rey," he said in sudden understanding, capturing her flailing hands in his own. "I don't want anyone else."

"You're saying that now, but what if—"

"I don't want anyone else," he reiterated. "Just you." Ben released her and reached up to caress her flushed cheek. "Come up to my room and I'll prove it to you."

"Seriously?" Rey rolled her eyes, trying not to react to his provocative dare. "You're incorrigible."

"Maybe I am hopeless," he acknowledged, "but you're definitely jealous."

"Me?! I'm no more jealous of your friends than you are of mine!" she huffed.

"On the contrary," he said mildly, tugging her forward to whisper in her ear, "I wanted to jump the table and rip Lord Dameron apart just for breathing the same air as you."

"Ben, you're making a scene," Rey said breathlessly, both loving and hating how his possessiveness made her feel. “First Finn, now Poe! Is he going to be jealous of Uncle Lando next?!”

"We should go upstairs, then, to speak in private," he said with a secret smile.

"Like we did outside?" she said skeptically.

"Exactly like that," Ben leered. "Your room or mine?"

"Ben!" Rey tried to put some distance between them as several interested parties swiveled in their direction, but he wouldn't budge.

"You've got about ten seconds to decide before I lay you down on this table."

Instantly aroused by his heated tone, Rey stammered, "You—you're not going to buffalo me into—"

"Ten. Nine. Eight. Seven…there's only one word I want to hear."

"We can't! Not in the middle of—"

"Four. Three. Two…"

"Mine!"

"Good choice," he smirked, bringing her knuckles to his lips. "Ah, here's Artoo with dessert. And it looks like the selection includes chocolate! Excellent!"

"Do you always get what you want?" she said, exasperated as Artoo immediately produced a platter for them to share. Ben's servant coughed back a laugh before moving on to serve the remainder of the table, clearly amused by her accusation.

"Not always, but as long as I get you, I'm happy." He offered her the tray with a roguish wink. "Eat up, sweetheart, you're going to need your strength."

Rey suppressed a smile at his strangely sweet statement, examining a few brightly colored cakes before deciding on a decadent dark chocolate square. Absently nibbling on her chosen treat while he inhaled the rest, Rey wondered whether the taste would still be on their tongues when they reached her bedroom later.

——————

Ben avoided his father's piercing gaze as he guided Rey up the grand staircase, attempting to keep the hand at the small of her back gentle when all he really wanted to do was rush her upstairs. The older man appeared surprised at their unexpected closeness at first, but his demeanor quickly lapsed into genuine delight.

"No need to ask if he approves," Ben mused, knowing that despite their best efforts, his father had finally put two and two together. Determined not to be waylaid by the old scoundrel, or worse, his meddling mother, Ben crossed the short distance from the top of the stairs to Rey's door, swiftly shoving it open and ushering her inside. It was a tossup as to whether Han would blow their cover or keep his trap shut long enough for them to—

"Ben, wait," Rey forestalled once they were safely cloistered inside her bedroom.

"What is it?" he queried, already backing her toward the bed.

"Maybe we shouldn't," she objected even as her arms looped around the strong column of his neck. "Our parents are right downstairs, not to mention a houseful of guests. What if we get caught?"

"I don't care," Ben said, smoothing his large hands over her hips. "But if you really don't want this, we can stop."

Rey chewed her lip. "You'd really stop if I asked you to?"

"Of course," he promised, standing absolutely still. "I'm not a monster, Rey."

"No, you're not," she said softly, trailing her hands down his firm chest before bunching them in her full skirt.

Ben choked as she seductively dragged her dress up, revealing smooth legs and satin panties. "Does this mean…?"

"Yes," she whispered, falling onto the bed.

He was on her like a shot, pulling aside her underwear and slipping a hand between her thighs. "Blazes, you're tight!" he groaned, filling her with one thick finger. "Are you sore from last night? Are you sure we can…?"

"No!" she gasped, nails biting into his forearms as he invaded her silken sheath.

"Dammit, okay," he blew out a harsh breath, "give me a second to calm down. We can just—"

Rey kissed him soundly, effectively stymieing his downward spiral as her bold tongue dualed with his. "Mmm, chocolate," she said distractedly after they parted. Then, very clearly, "No, I'm not sore and yes, we can make love."

"Thank god," he growled, kissing her fiercely. "I want you damn so much!"

"I want you too! Hurry!"

Tearing her frilly underwear the rest of the way down her slim legs, Ben left them dangling around one thin ankle before going to work on his trousers. Struggling with the small buttons, he lowered them just enough to free his raging erection. "Is this okay?" he said urgently as he settled between her splayed thighs.

"Yes! Yes! Oh, god!" she keened as he sank into her with one solid stroke. "Ben!"

"Rey!" he rumbled in answer, tunneling into her with muted fury.

Melting into his passionate embrace, Rey met him thrust for thrust. "Ah! It—it wasn't like this last time!"

"You were a virgin last time," he panted, lifting up on his knees and bringing her hips with him.

Rey tossed her head from side to side as the new position gave him greater access to her hidden depths. "And now?"

"Now you're mine," Ben vowed, massaging her tender sex in time with his wild thrusts.

"Ben, I'm—I feel like I'm—oh my—Ben!" Rey screamed as he deftly manipulated her woman's bud, quickly sending her over the edge with a few flicks of his wrist.

"Yes, that's it, my darling," he praised, "take what you need."

And then she was blacking out, feeling so fulfilled that she never wanted to leave her bed—or him—ever again…

"My dress," she murmured a few minutes later, half-heartedly reaching for the pearl buttons running up her back.

"Here, let me." Ben carefully rolled Rey onto her stomach, gratified when she allowed him to undress her without protest. "Now we're getting somewhere."

Rey sighed in relief when he undid the ties on her chemise and garters as well. "Thank the maker."

"Better?" he said knowingly, tossing the whole rig onto the floor before shucking off his clothing as well.

"Much," she smiled, admiring him as she stretched out on the damp sheets. "That was even better than last...um…" Rey hesitated as she noticed his engorged manhood. "Oh, um, didn't you…?"

Ben turned her on her side and hugged her close. "Not yet," he replied, tracing her spine.

"I'm sorry, I—"

"Shh," he hummed, kissing her worried lips. "I chose not to; you didn't do anything wrong."

"You can control…that?" Her curiosity was endearing, reminding him that there was still so much she didn't know about sex.

"Usually," he said with a worldly air, "but I couldn't hold back with you the first time."

"You couldn't?" Rey queried, idly shifting her fingers through his longish hair.

"No." Ben leaned into her touch. "I guess I wanted to prove that I could make it last this time, that I could protect you. I'm sorry I didn't take any precautions last night, and for any consequences that may arise from our coupling. It's just...I've dreamed about you for so long and I—Rey? Are you listening to me?"

"Hmm?" she purred, sidetracked by the feel of his calloused hands on her skin.

"Never mind," he chuckled, palming her small breasts. "I know how to get your attention."

——————

Moaning as Ben drew her long leg over his hip, Rey marveled at her body's capacity for pleasure; she was so eager for him that he glided into her without a hitch.

"Okay?" he checked, setting a tempo so slow that she had to bite her lip to keep from begging.

"Yes!" she gulped, clutching at him like a lifeline. "Make it last," she challenged herself. "Don't rush, don't be impatient. Make him lose control this time!"

But it was difficult given the gulf in their experience. Ben was tracking her every movement, testing her response by hurrying up, then slowing down, shifting the angle of his penetration until her eyes were watering in pure unadulterated bliss...

Then suddenly he stopped moving, jerking her back to earth. "What's wrong?"

"Huh?" Rey croaked.

"You're crying," he frowned, dark gaze set with concern. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," she denied, blinking rapidly. "Don't stop. Please."

"Am I hurting you?" he insisted.

Rey shook her head. "No, you just make me feel...um, that is to say, I...uh..."

"Say it," he commanded softly when she trailed away.

"You—you make me crazy to be sure, but you also make me feel...wanted, treasured...loved," she admitted.

Ben touched her wet cheek. "Good."

"Good? What—oh!" Before she could ponder his meaning, Ben resumed rocking against her, shaping her bottom under his massive hands as he filled her to the hilt. "So much for making him beg…" she lamented, overcome as he played her body like a fiddle.

Sliding a warm palm over her taut stomach, Ben rubbed her rosy nipples until they were straining to be devoured. "Do you want my mouth on you?" he said deeply, full lips hovering just out of reach.

"Please," she returned eagerly, arching her back.

"I love your breasts, they're perfect," he said gruffly, swallowing first one mound and then the other. "You're perfect."

"Perfect? Her?" He was everywhere, all over her body, in her body, in her head. He owned her, and she wanted to owe him too. She wanted everything with him. "You're perfect too! Perfect for me! Ben, I—ah!" Her inner muscles clamped down as he tugged on her tips with his teeth, the intense combination of sensations bringing her to the edge once again.

"Bloody hell!" Ben yelped, and it took her a moment to realize that he was reacting to her involuntary reflex.

"Well, well," she thought, clawing her way back from the brink. "Not so in control now, are you, big man?" Excited by the prospect, Rey deliberately tightened her muscles until he was gasping at her ear.

"Rey, don't—I'll—good god!" he pleaded. "If I don't pull out in time I could make you pregnant!"

"A little bit late for that, don't you think?" she laughed, drunk on him, on sex, on love. She would be rational again in the morning.

"Rey, for the love of—ah!" Ben threw his head back as she squeezed him again. "You better be sure this is what you want, sweetheart, because if I put my baby in your belly you're never getting away from me."

"Are you asking me to stop, Lord Ren?" she teased, locking her foot around his calf to keep him in place. "Because you seem to be enjoying yourself immensely."

"Says the woman who was a virgin until yesterday," he growled, kissing her hard on the mouth. "You think you're experienced enough to take me on already, do you? Well, two can play that game, you little minx!"

Rey shrieked as he spread her buttocks and strummed the sensitive flesh between her legs. "No fair, Ben! I—ah! I want—oh, nevermind!" she said, giving into the delicious friction.

They strained together in perfect unison, giving as good as they got, driving each other insane with pleasure and completely forgetting about their little game.

"Rey? Can I—I want to—please?" Ben begged, nipping her neck like an animal in heat.

"Yes, yes, yes!" she cried, hurtling toward nirvana herself. "Ben!"

"Rey!" he shouted hoarsely, flooding her with warmth. "I love you!"

She bit down on his shoulder as his release triggered her own, muffling her screams against his pale skin and sinking into oblivion once more...

When next she lifted her head, Rey realized that Ben had left the bed. "What are you doing?" she mumbled sleepily.

"Preparing you a bath—well, more of a bed bath, given the present circumstances," he winked.

"Ben, that's not necess—"

"Yes, it is," he asserted. "I don't want you to be uncomfortable, love."

Stretching experimentally, Rey grimaced at the sticky residue plastered between her thighs. "Oh. Right. Well, okay then," she said a little sheepishly, "if you insist."

"At your service, ma'am," Ben bowed, grabbing the silken cloth sitting next to the basin on her dresser and pouring some water on it.

"Thank you," she said gently, touched by his consideration as he returned to her side and slid the washcloth between her legs.

"You're welcome."

——————

Pressing a chaste kiss to his lover's forehead, Ben mulled over how irrevocably their relationship had changed in the last twenty-four hours. He loved her. He'd confessed it. But how did she feel? Rey wanted him, he knew, and didn't seem adverse to the idea of having his heirs, but the fact that she'd yet to reciprocate his sentimental declaration was making him anxious.

Never one to pussyfoot around, Ben decided to go for the direct approach. "Rey, did you...hear what I said earlier?" he started slowly. "While we were making love?"

"You mean about me getting too big for my virgin britches?" she said archly, raising her sable head from his shoulder. "Yeah, I heard that, you louse, but don't think that just because you're an amazing lover that I-I...Ben? What is it?"

"That's not what I...uh…" he stumbled. "What I'm trying to say is..."

Rey propped herself up on her elbows, still half on top of him. "That you love me?"

"You did hear," Ben exhaled.

"I thought it was a dream," she smiled.

"It wasn't," he said reassuringly. "This is real."

"For me too."

"Really?"

"I-I've been in love with you since I learned what love was," Rey said shyly.

The revelation gave him courage. "Marry me then," he said seriously, knowing that the intensity of his feelings should scare him, that he should be wary of such a large commitment to someone so young. But regardless of the outcome, Rey was worth the risk.

"Really?" she said brightly.

"Yes. I love you, you love me, and you may well be carrying my child already. Marry me. Please." He wasn't beyond begging, if it came to that.

"But what about your lifestyle?" she breathed. "You've always been the consummate bachelor and—"

"I wanted to marry you three summers ago," he interrupted, "but you were young and I felt guilty."

"No younger than any other lady of my acquaintance who's marriage minded," Rey pointed out.

"And are you? You didn't really answer me before."

"Am I what?"

"Marriage minded," he said with much more patience than he'd displayed while they were dancing.

"Yes," she replied.

"So, you'll marry me?" he said hopefully.

"Yes," she repeated with more conviction. "But Luke won't approve, you know, he's very old-fashioned."

"Unlike the rest of the family," Ben grinned, feeling lighter.

"Well, somebody's got to keep up appearances," Rey snickered, absently tracing his infamous scar.

"Do they?" He trapped her searching hand against his heart. "Is propriety important to you, then?"

"Not really," she conceded, intertwining their fingers. "But before we go any further, I have to know: is your proposal at all due to the inheritance?"

"The what?" Ben tilted his head in confusion.

"You don't know? Well, ah, it could be just a rumor, I haven't even spoken to Luke yet," Rey babbled, "but, um, Finn told me that father has changed his will and...and named me as his heir. I understand if this upsets you, but please believe that I would never have asked him to do such a thing if he had consulted me first."

Ben stared into her terrified eyes, completely baffled. "Well, of course you're Luke's heir. You're his daughter."

"But you're a true Skywalker and—"

"And so are you," he said firmly.

Rey looked puzzled. "You mean I'll be a Skywalker if we marry?"

"No, I mean family is what you make it. You're Luke's daughter, Leia and Han's niece, the love of my life, and the future of this house all rolled into one. You're birth certificate may read Rey Niima, but you're really Rey Skywalker." Ben paused. "Well, Rey Solo, if I have anything to do with—"

Rey cut him off with a passionate kiss, pinning their linked hands above his head. "Do you really mean that?" she whispered.

"Of course I do," he said sincerely. "Although, it wouldn't hurt to have a rich wife if my parents ever follow through with their threats to disinherit me."

"Oh, really?" she said slyly, nibbling on the spot where she'd bitten his shoulder earlier. "I should get something out of the bargain then."

"Hmm?" he murmured, turning his head to give her better access. Ben's toes curled as her tongue bathed a path across his heated skin. "You can have anything you want, I promise."

Rey lifted her head. "How about being nice to my friends?"

"Anything except that," he groaned, trying to pull her back.

"Do you want me to marry you or not?" Rey resisted, still pinning his arms.

"Alright," Ben said in disgust. "I'll be nice."

"I love you," she giggled, kissing him sweetly before going back to work on his neck.

Chocolate eyes nearly black with hunger, Ben basked in her warmth, in her possessive determination to leave her mark on him. He knew the feeling all too well. But before they could indulge again, there were some logistics they needed to work out. "Rey, I think we should—oh, hell!"

Following his gaze to the door, Rey let out a scream of pure horror as Luke, Leia, and Han burst into the room.

"Well, well, well," Han smirked. "What have we here?"

——————

A/N: So...this fic is gonna be four chapters now because I have a few awkward family meeting scenes I want to write XD I'm hoping to get the next chapter out much quicker than this one, but I'm super busy at the moment, so please bear with me. Getting comments asking for more chapters seriously fueled me, so thank you all!

#reylo #reylo fanfic #reylo fic #rey #kylo ren #ben solo #regency au #rated e #the politics of dancing #my fanfiction #sushigirlali

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fantasyandromancelover · 5 years

Text

The Tale of Tales Chapter 43

Now Minerva's mirror had the power speak the truth but it also could project illusions. To feed Minerva's vanity it always projected an illusion of herself looking young and beautiful instead of her true reflection whenever she looked into it. So when Minerva return to her private room and looked into the mirror she did not see her true reflection as a hideous old hag but instead an image of herself looking more young and beautiful than ever.

"Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the fairest of them all." She asked.

"Juvia is the loveliest beauty to see.

There is none more fair than she."

"You lie! She is dead!" Minerva snapped. "Juvia lies dead in the forest! The huntsman killed her! I ate her heart myself!"

"My queen you have been tricked and betrayed again.

Twas the heart of a pig you received from the huntsman."

"The heart of a pig?!" She screeched.

"You took the beauty of a pig which died on the forest floor.

Fair and beauteous you are no more."

"What?! Show me what I look like!"

With that command given the illusion disappeared and was replaced by the image of an ugly old crone. Minerva let out a scream unlike any that had ever been heard before. It was so loud and frightening that it alerted some of the servants who rushed to her aid. Hearing their footsteps, Minerva slammed the doors and locked them. She couldn't let anyone see her like this.

"Your majesty we heard you scream, are you alright?" Sting asked from behind the door.

"No! I've been robbed!"

"By who?"

"The huntsman Gray! He's robbed me of what I value most! Find him and throw him in the dudgeon immediately!"

"Yes your majesty."

Once she was sure they were gone she went back to her mirror.

"Tell me how can I become beautiful again?" She commanded.

"Once Juvia is truly dead and gone your beauty will be restored."

"Very well but this time I shall kill her myself! And I'll see to it that double-crossing huntsman pays dearly for what he's done!"

...

It started to rain hard that evening. Thankfully there was no thunder or lighting or strong wind currents. Only rain, rain that just kept pouring down and down and down. Poor Juvia had been heartbroken by what had happened to Gray that she ended up crying herself to sleep under a tree. The leaves and branches kept the heavy rain from falling on her so she only felt little droplets that weren't enough to wake her. Once it had begun to rain her friends became very worried so Gajeel and Erza went to look for her with Jellal following her scent.

"She's somewhere around here." Jellal said. "I can smell her scent."

The three of them searched around the area calling her name. At last Gajeel found her sleeping under the tree.

"Hey Juvia wake up." He said while gently shaking her. "Come on Juvia wake up. You can't sleep here it's raining, you'll get sick."

She woke and Gajeel could tell by the look in her eyes that she had been crying.

"Juvia are you alright? What happened?"

Juvia only burst into tears and threw her arms around Gajeel's neck while sobbing into his shoulder.

"Oh Gray!" She wept.

"What is it? What did he do to you?"

"My stepmother hired him to kill me and...And...And...And-"

She found it hard to breathe and even harder to speak. She was overwhelmed with tears and sobs. Gajeel just hugged the sad young woman and comforted her.

"Why?! Why can't she just stop!"

"There, there you don't have to cry." He said. "I won't let the queen ever hurt you Juvia I promise."

But his kind words didn't stop her weeping so he just scooped her up, took her back home, and tucked her into bed. They later had Reverend Makarov examine her to make sure that she hadn't of gotten sick from being in the rain for so long.

"How is she?" Erza asked when he finished his examination.

"Physically she's alright, she may catch a cold but nothing serious."

"Thank God." Gajeel said.

"But as for her emotional state she's a complete wreck. Poor thing keeps crying in her sleep."

"I'll make her some tea." Levy said.

"I'm gonna kill Gray!" Gajeel declared angrily. "I knew there was something about him I didn't like! The punk came here to kill her!"

"I don't believe that." Erza said.

"That's what Juvia told me."

"There must be some misunderstanding, I know Gray. He would never kill an innocent person."

"Apparently you don't know him as well as you think."

"Actually while I was in there Juvia told me the whole story once she calmed down a bit." Makarov said. "Gray was indeed hired by Minerva to kill her and but he didn't do it. Juvia said that he would rather suffer Minerva's punishment than cause any harm to Juvia."

"And what was his punishment?" Gajeel said.

"She said that his penalty for failure would be that he would suffer the same horrible torture he endured as a child ten years ago and that it would be given to him daily."

"Oh no." Erza cried softly.

"Yes and apparently he would rather go through that than harm Juvia."

"That woman is the devil." Gajeel said. "Why is she so hell-bent on terrorizing Juvia?"

"It's not just Juvia she's victimizing." Levy said. "She's after Lucy too."

"But why?"

"It's all out of jealousy. Envy has always been her biggest flaw and that mirror has a horrible power in making a person's flaws grow stronger. Vanity, greed, and jealousy, all of them grow stronger in Minerva whenever she's around that mirror."

Jellal came in awhile later. He had been asked to try tracking down Natsu but for some reason he couldn't pick up his scent.

"I'm sorry." He told them. "I've searched every area and sniffed as hard as I could but I couldn't pick up his scent anywhere. Wherever that thing dragged him off to it's definitely not anywhere in the forest."

"Where else could it have taken him?" Lucy asked.

"I don't know."

"Well we have to find him!"

"Calm down Lucy." Erza said.

"I can't! Natsu's been abducted by some monster who's taken him to God knows where and is doing God knows what to him! I can't just stand here and do nothing!"

"Nobody is saying that you should but we can't afford to be hasty right now. You don't even know where this creature is and even if you do manage to find it what exactly do you plan to do? This creature is incredibly strong and fast."

"But what am I supposed to do?"

"Well first you need to calm down and get a hold of yourself while we think of a plan."

"How long will that take?"

"I can't say."

"That doesn't help!"

"And panicking does? Lucy I know you're afraid and worried for Natsu but I promise you we will find him and save him."

"My aunt did this! I know she did! I don't know how but I know that she's responsible for this! She always destroys anything that makes me happy! I hate her and I can't imagine how such a cruel and vile woman could possibly be related to my mother!"

Poor Lucy, little did she know that her aunt had done far worse things to her than making her a slave and subjecting her to abuse. Ten years ago, just a few months after she had married King Hector, Queen Minerva found herself once again fearful that someone else was more beautiful than her and she feared that person would be her sister.

When she had heard that Layla had a daughter she had hoped that bearing a child had made her tired, ragged, and older looking. So she asked her mirror to show her Layla but much to her disappointment and envy, motherhood had made Layla more beautiful than ever before. She had never been more hateful and jealous in her entire life and the spirit in the looking glass manipulated her into thinking that Layla never truly loved Minerva. That her kindness and love had all been fake and that she secretly took pleasure in her sister's misery. Minerva gave in to the manipulation with ease and using her spell book, she cast a spell that trapped Layla and her husband in their house and set it on fire resulting in it burning to the ground taking Jude and Layla's lives with it. Lucy however had been spared from that fate because she had been outside playing that day.

Because of the mirror's influence and her own foolish jealousy, Minerva had murdered her own sister and brother-in-law and now because of that same mirror and that same jealousy, she was trying to kill her own niece and stepdaughter. If she succeed in killing at least one of them then the mirror would finally have complete and total control over her.

#fairy tail #fairy tail au #fairy tales #brothers grimm #lucy heartfilia #juvia loxar #cinderella #snow white #erza scarlet #fanfiction #fanfic

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pinkevilbobdoesthings · 5 years

Text

So, yeah, this is where it gets pretty dark. There's references to abuse and some messed up stuff cause Trent Ikithon is an a-hole. I've been waiting for this chapter for a while and I hope you all liked it.

There should be one or two more chapters to this fic and then the epilogue.

So here it is the 5th chapter of ‘I Ship It’.

Jester planted herself face down of the couch and cried as soon as she got home. Everything was ruined and Jester didn’t know why. She was pretty sure that she didn’t do anything to trigger what happened, but maybe she did something to make it worse and she didn’t realize it.

Her roommate, Beau, came in for a second, looked at Jester, and immediately left. Twenty minutes later Beau returned with a pint of rocky road. “Here,” she said handing the ice cream and a spoon over to Jester. “If it’s about a boy, I don’t want to hear about it.”

“It’s Caleb. I think he hates me now,” Jester said wiping her eyes, but not moving up from where she lay.

Beau groaned. “I just said if it’s a boy, I didn’t -ugh, I’m not prepared for your heteronormative drama. Come on, move your feet.” She swatted at Jester’s legs until Jester lift them so Beau could sit down. “Now, not that I care, but what happened?”

Jester told Beau about the poster and Caleb’s reaction and how he yelled at her. “Yeah, he’s crazy and you gotta dump him.”

“We’re not dating, we’re just friends,” Jester said. Part of her wanted to date him, but he probably didn’t want to. Also, their school had a rule against undergrads dating professors.

“Yeah, still crazy and you still need to avoid him like the plague.”

Jester frowned and played with her ice cream. “I don’t know. I think he might be sick.”

“That doesn’t mean you have to put up with his garbage.” Beau patted Jester’s leg. “There’s better guys out there, I guess if you like guys . I mean they’ll still be dudes, but that’s probably better than nothing.”

“I guess,” Jester said, but she was still worried about Caleb.

Beau got up. “And, hey, if you suddenly have a bi awakening, I know some girls that will treat you right. Well, I know a girl that will treat you right, not Keg. Unless you want the night of life.”

“Beau!” Jester giggled.

Beau noogied Jester lightly. “Don’t worry so much. It will work out or some garbage like that.”

****

Nott was cooking. She liked to cook. Nobody liked to eat what she made, but that just meant that there was more for her to eat then. Caleb came in, grabbed Frumpking and went straight to his room without a word. A bad sign, but that didn’t necessarily mean anything. He might have just been tired.

She poked her head into Caleb’s room to find all of his blankets dumped on the floor and only his top sheet covered him. Her heart sank; it must have been a real bad day. Nott folded up the blankets and set up his laptop where Caleb could see it easily and turned on the third season of the Voyage of the MISTake since it was his favorite. A few minutes later, Nott presented a hot pocket and a fork to Caleb and waited to see what he would do with it.

Caleb grabbed and ate it failing the hot pocket test. If he was even slightly okay, he would have turned it upside down, tear off the bottom and only eat the filling. And if Caleb was actually doing good, he’d refuse to eat it all together. It was going to be pointless to talk to him for a while. Nott pressed a kiss on his forehead before leaving him alone in his room.

Nott finished making her dinner but her heart was no longer in it. Caleb hadn’t had a day that bad since leaving Soltryce. She had hoped that truly bad days were completely behind them, but it seemed they weren’t that lucky.

After a few episodes, Caleb left his room. “Hi Caleb,” Nott said softly and got up. Caleb clutched his cat closely and looked like the slightest puff of wind would crack him.

“I lost Jester,” Caleb whispered. “The head of the science department is onto me.”

“Oh, Caleb. What do you mean?”

“Jester hates me now. I’m terrible. And the head of the science department knows it.” Caleb sat down on the floor.

Nott brushed his hair out of his face. “I don’t think Jester knows how to hate. We’ll make it through this.”

“It’s worse than that,” Caleb said. “Ikithon is coming.”

“What do you mean Ikithon’s coming?” Nott’s pulse began to race. “When?”

Caleb stared down at the ground. “Next week to the university. Tuesday.”

Nott swore. They needed her at the antique store on Tuesday. There was no way she could skip. “Can you just stay home?”

“No, there’s meetings that require me and finals are coming soon,” Caleb said.

“Then get a restraining order.”

Caleb shook his head. “There’s not enough time to. I’m sorry I ruined everything.”

“No, you didn’t. You are the victim here.” But he didn’t believe her. He never did. “I’ll see what I can do.” She’d do anything for Caleb. If he’d just let her.

******

The subway was awkward. Jester didn’t know where to sit. For the past weeks, she always sat next to Caleb every Thursday. But after Tuesday, she wasn’t so certain. Caleb never went online after that and he didn’t text her either. She didn’t dare text him herself.

When Jester got on the train, Caleb briefly made eye contact with her with his bright blue eyes, but he looked away quickly. Jester sat in the back of the train for the first time.

Her phone buzzed in her pocket. She opened it to see a text from Caleb. -I’m sorry.- Jester stared at it not sure how to reply. It wasn’t okay, but she was glad that he was talking to her again.

-You deserve an explanation.- Caleb texted again. -And, if I don’t do it now, I won’t. Can you skip class today?-

-yes- Jester texted back. She’d just get notes from one of her classmates, maybe Calianna.

-Thank you. There’s a coffee shop on campus we can go to. I’ll treat.-

Under any other circumstance, Jester would have been beyond excited. This was the chance to skip class and spend time with a guy she was crazy about. Instead a heavy weight sat in her stomach. Beau told her to not give Caleb any of her time, but Jester couldn’t just ignore him. He needed her help, she knew he did. Or at least he needed somebody’s help and she was who he had.

They walked in silence to the coffee shop and placed their orders with barely a word spoken between them. On any other day, they would’ve been talking about what coffees Kristoff and Melody would’ve ordered and maybe played with a coffee shop AU, but there was just a quiet awkwardness instead. When they sat down, Caleb opened his laptop and showed it to Jester. It was a psychology article by Professor Ikithon. “Dancing with the Devil: A Study on the Impact of Abusive and Supportive Mentors,” she read out loud. The rest was just academic mumbo jumbo to her.

“Ja,” Caleb said. “That article might be Ikithon’s biggest claim to fame. But, I had looked up to him and his work before that. I was his,” he paused for a moment, “assistant at the time. I helped write that article and do the research.

“It was an in depth case study focusing on a young man known as Subject K. Subject K had a good upbringing and was healthy and mentally sound. At the beginning of the case study, he had recently lost both of his parents and an older gentleman with a good standing in the community agreed to be his mentor. But, the man, K’s mentor, was a sadist who delighted in breaking people mentally. The next year and a half for K would be best described as torture. All of his outside support networks were removed, he was gaslighted and manipulated, made to do terrible things, and eventually convinced that the only use he was to the world was to obey his mentor. At the height of this, K’s mentor rejected him, which left K in a deep depression and we have no recorded of what happened to K for three months. He disappeared.” Caleb spoke so clinically, but his hands were shaking. Jester wanted to comfort him, but she knew he’d just pull away.

“When he was found next, he had committed arson and burned down a barn. It had been abandoned so no living beings had been harmed. After that, Subject K was committed to a psychiatric ward. Three days later, he was released into the custody of a new mentor, according to the article. This new mentor treated K with kindness and worked to build him back up, and by all appearances, he was successful.”

Caleb lifted his coffee like he was going to take a drink of it, but he stopped himself. “It was controversial to say the least. Some claimed that Ikithon made it up. Others said that Ikithon should have intervened early on in the study. That if Ikithon knew this young man was being mistreated, he should have stopped it. It was a cruel study.”

“And you helped with it,” Jester said hoping he didn’t think she was judging him. It seemed like he already felt guilty for it, and he couldn’t have stood up to Ikithon about it. He was terrified of his old supervisor.

“I did.” Caleb stared at his coffee. “There were somethings that the article left out. The first and second mentors were actually the same person. It should be noted that the article painted his second behavior as kinder than it was. There was still a cruelty to it all. And it wasn’t the mentor’s treatment that made K better. The credit belongs to a dear friend who would fight monsters for him and K writing fanfics for his favorite show, The Voyage of the MISTake.”

Jester gasped. “You were Subject K?”

Caleb nodded sadly. “I had trusted Ikithon so much at first, but I guess I’m terrible judge of people.” He turned the coffee cup slowly in his hands. “It was Nott who helped me get out of Ikithon’s grasp. She made me realized that I was trapped. We met during the missing three months. I don’t remember much about those days except that she was there protecting me. Ikithon was so mad that I couldn’t remember, but he made it work in the narrative of the article.”

Jester wanted to say something or ask a question or comfort him or something. But nothing felt right or real enough to say.

“I know I’ve done terrible things and that Nott is more than I deserve and so are you,” Caleb said. “So I needed you to know that without a doubt that I’m weak and worthless, but that I liked the short time we were friends.” He got up and started to turn away.

Jester caught his hand. “How can you say that? You’re not weak. You survived. That has mean you’re strong.”

“Because if I was strong, I wouldn’t have let any of that happen. I would’ve seen through him and gotten away from him, but I didn’t. I let myself get trapped and now I’m trapped again.” Caleb looked at her his eyes shining with unshed tears. “He’s going to try something, I know it. And there’s nothing I can do to stop it.”

“What about Nott? Can she help?” Jester asked.

Caleb shook his head. “She works that day and she doesn’t know what he’s like. Nott just thinks he’s going to screw with me and that I’m going to avoid him, but it’s not that simple. He’s going to take me and there’s no avoiding it.” He gently took Jester’s hand and removed it from his hand. “Thank you for your friendship.” Softly, he kissed her on the cheek, leaving her too shocked to move, and left.

#widojest #critical role fan fiction #pinkevilbob writes #i hope the backstory reveal was worth the wait #and i hope you enjoy this chapter #i ship it

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thexgrayxlady · 6 years

Note

50!

Notes: TBCH ittook me an embarrassingly long time to remember what this word meant outside ofphysics.

Resonance

It’d been one week since the crucible fired and the Reapersfell. Hours later, search and rescue found Shepard buried under rubble on theCitadel. Four days since the remains of their fleets started to back home.Three days since doctors said that while Shepard was still in criticalcondition, she was stable. Only this morning, they said she was well enough forvisitors. Admiral Hackett wished he was here under better circumstances.

She always looked smaller and less intimidating than she wasuntil someone was right next to her. Even as he settled into the armchair at herbedside, she still looked tiny and impossibly weak. She used to be one of theirbest operatives. He’d always wanted her for fifth fleet. After only a few weeksworking with her, Anderson told him that in ten years, they’d all be workingfor this woman and he fully expected it to happen. Now, she was covered inmonitors and cultured skin and bandages and IVs. The parts of her face thatweren’t cut to hell and back were filled in black and blue. There was anunmissable void in the coarse beige blanket where her right leg should havebeen.

“Hello Steven,” she croaked. As she rolled her bandaged headtowards him, he decided to write that off as painkillers. “You here to break meout?”

“Bored already Captain?” The corner of her mouth twitched. Forall she’d done, she’d more than earned a promotion. There wasn’t anybody leftwho could tell him she didn’t deserve it.

“Just tired of the feeding tube,” she said, cracking hereyes open. Her voice was cracked and dry and gratingly slow. “I’d bring backthe Reapers if it meant I could drink coffee again.”

“You’re awfully glib for almost dying,” he said. He chose totake that as a good sign.

“Almost dying is Tuesday,” she wheezed. She turned back tolook at the ceiling and tried to lift her arm. Even that set her O2 intakeskyrocketing “Also on enough painkillers to kill a horse. Can’t be this chattyfor long. If you’re here for business, get to it.”

“You’re the only person who knows what happened on the Crucible,”he said. “I need your statement.”

She went quiet for a while and her breathing grew labored.The rush of air through her tubes was almost oppressive. Slowly, he saw her arminch towards a remote. He reached out to nudge it closer.

“Don’t!” she rasped. In all his years working with her, he’dnever before heard her raise her voice. “It’s all I can do myself!” One shortsentence seemed to take more out of her than the Crucible. It took animpossibly long time for her to reach it and her hand shook as she pushed downon the button and the bed raised her up so she could sit.

“Whenever you’re ready,” he said, setting his datapad torecord.

“I barely made it to the Citadel,” she said. Thesewords sounded easier than anything else she’d said today. “By the time I madeit to the Crucible, Anderson was standing over Jack Harper’s body. He told meto go, that he had it under control. So I ran. I wasn’t there when the Cruciblefired and I was knocked unconscious by the blast. The next thing I knew, I wokeup here.” He suspected they’d find discrepancies in her story when they had thetime and resources to thoroughly investigate the Citadel’s wreckage. Whateverit was, it would be easy to cover up.

He turned off his datapad and set it on the nightstand. “Offthe record, how much of this is true?” he said.

“Does it matter Sir?” she said, leaning back onto herpillows and staring at him out of the corner of her eye. “It’s a better story. Gives the galaxy a martyrto rally around while it rebuilds. Admiral David Anderson, Soldier, Councilor, Defenderof Earth, gives his life to save the galaxy while a disgraced Spectre fliesaround playing politics.”

“You never played when it comes to politics,” he said. Maybeif she recovered enough to be up to it, he’d bring her a bottle of scotch andhe’d get the real story. For now, he’d take this one. It was more useful to himthan the truth.

After all they’d been through, and to inspire for all thatwas to come, the people of the galaxy deserved heroes. Shepard was a divisivefigure. A manipulative, backstabbing bitch to some, all but a saint to others. Amartyr was more useful to them now than the broken woman in front of him.

Shepard, who made her life telling people who shewas, who she wasn’t, why they should follow her, tell her what she wanted to know, do what she wanted them to do, knew thepower of a good story. Stories gave people hope, made them believe that all themonsters they were facing could be overcome. They needed someone more thanhuman to inspire the galaxy to get back on its feet again and in a hospital bed,with not just a skeleton but a whole morgue in her closet, she wasn’t going topass. It didn’t hurt that she’d never wanted the world’s attention in the first palce and deservedto rest.

“Oh I played Sir, but I played to win,” she said. Evenmostly immobilized, she managed to convey a look of the cat that ate the canary.“My personal effects are in the dresser. In the top drawer, there’s an omnitoolthat used to belong to Harper. Your crews found it in the wreckage.”

“I’ll be sure to send commendations where they’re due forretrieving such important intel,” he said. After he found suitable persons toattribute credit, he’d be sure to send her something in thanks. “Anything else?”

She nodded painfully. “Later. Tired,” she said. “Stay if youwant.”

“If only I could,” he said, slowly standing up. He couldonly stay away from the galaxy’s remain leadership for as long as necessary. “It’sgoing to take a lot to repair the damage the Reapers caused and there’s notenough hours in the day.”

“Sir, before you go…” She struggled to sit up on her own,but only managed to raise her head a few inches off the pillow. “…any word fromthe Normandy?”

He could tell her that it sustained heavy damage picking upthe MedEvac shuttle and when the rest of the fleets dropped out of FTL at therendezvous point, the Normandy hadn’t been among them. There were new shipsstill coming home, but with each passing day, it grew less and less likely thatthe Normandy would be among them.

Shepard knew the power of a good story and right now, itwasn’t just the rest of the galaxy who needed one.

“We have more ships coming back every day,” he said,gingerly putting a hand on her shoulder. “When they come in, you’ll be thefirst to know.” Her cracked and bruised face broke into a rare smile. She knewthe odds, but it was a good enough story to give her a little more reason tofight.

#Mass Effect #Gray Writes Stuff #n0rmandysr1

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singingunderthecurtain · 7 years

Text

DIAMOND (CEO AU Baekhyun Series) Part 5

Also on AFF

Previous Chapters (1) (2) (3) (4)

Photo not mine, found it on Google.

Author: @julietsoddeye AU: CEO!Baekhyun Genre: Angst | Smut | Romance Pairing: Baekhyun x Lee Soojin (You/OC) Trigger Warning: Smut on future chapters. Mentions of car accident. Mentions of being blind. Baekhyun being an a-hole. Word Count: 2,203

Plot: After 10 years of exile to another country, you are finally back home and you were surprised to find out that you are engaged to the son of your father's long-time friend and business partner.

Diamond Mini Masterlist

“I can’t believe you’re actually moving in with Jongdae?!?!?!” Hisako’s jaw drops while Yanmei starts messily packing her stuff inside her suitcase and duffle bag.

You and Mia, cradling Yanmei’s millions of skincare and makeup stuff in your arms, are helping your friend move just 2 doors down from her original shared bedroom. It hasn’t been 2 hours after their, uh, getting-to-know stage and Jongdae already asked her to move in his room for the rest of the vacation. You guess she really did something good to Jongdae or he’s just a really easy guy to manipulate. You believe it’s the latter, but who cares. Now you have a spy so you can find out stuff about Baekhyun without him noticing anything.

“Oh my gosh Hisa, why are you so dramatic? I’m only moving into his room, not his house! We’re probably going to forget about each other after we get back to America…” Yanmei rolls her eyes and smiles at you with malice. You smiled back with the same expression she gave you.

“Sooj, are you really allowing this? What if that guy ruins Mei-mei for good? Like emotionally I mean because we all know she’s already ruined physically.” Hisako clears her throat as she masks a laughter with her own remark, but after recovering her face turned sour again as if she drank spoiled milk.

“Bitch.” Yanmei hissed silently at Hisako’s remark.

“Hisa, if anything it will be the other way around and you know that.” You said in a matter-of-fact tone, stuffing all the products you have in your arms inside your friend’s bag. It’s true Jongdae will probably be emotionally attached to Yanmei, asking her to move into his bedroom is a clear sign that she’s got him under her spell already.

“Ms. Hisa, I’m sure Ms. Mei can handle herself well.” Mia tried coaxing Hisa as she rubs her arms soothingly, the same she always does to you when you panic about something. Hisa smiled sadly at Mia, her face not relaxing one bit.

“See, even Mia knows me and it’s been, what, only 4 days since we met her.” Yanmei gave Mia a ‘thank you’ grin and Mia replied with a thumb’s up.

“Look Hisa think of it this way, you have more room to stretch your long-ass limbs on the bed now.” You held both of Hisako’s arms as you shake her a little bit.

“Just trust me; I know what I’m doing. I mean how many frat boys have cried on my feet while we just casually stroll along the university as we travel to and fro between classes?” Yanmei purses her lips as she reminds her friend of those funny moments.

“A lot,” Hisa said while silently counting the men Yanmei disregard like trash. A lot of those guys are trash anyways; Yanmei is just giving those guys a taste of their own medicine.

“And how many times have I cried because of a guy?” Yanmei asked again.

“Not counting that one time you cried when Jack froze to death on that ocean, that bitch Rose didn’t share that plank with him. Nope, you never cry because of any guy.” The defeat in Hisako’s voice made Yanmei dance slightly in celebration.

__________

You were planning on locking yourself in your room again and just continue reading your book, but Jongdae, Yanmei, and Jongin convinced you to join them outside. The boys were barbecuing assortments of meats and sausages and Hisako whipped up her delicious avocado and kimchi salad. You can’t say no to that and it’s been a long time since you last ate it.

“Get a fucking room!” Chanyeol hisses and shoots daggers at Yanmei and Jongdae’s direction. Yanmei is comfortably sitting on Jongdae’s lap as she feeds him the meat, kimchi, and rice she wrapped with perilla leaf and lettuce.

“Oh, we will do that later, don’t worry Chanyeol.” The ever quick-witted Yanmei hoots with a teasing grin. Jongin, Sehun, and Baekhyun roar with laughter while Jongdae almost choked on the wrap, with what Yanmei said.

“They already got a room this morning.” Hisako loudly whispers with a scoff, sporting the same frown as Chanyeol, causing more laughter from the three guys and Yanmei.

“Ew,” Chanyeol replies with a sour face.

“I know right?” Hisako reiterates.

“How about you two get a room instead?” Yanmei teases, making Jongdae cough and spill the beer from his mouth to his chin and down his shirt. Yanmei quickly grabs a paper towel and dab the absorbent material to clean her new boy toy up. Chanyeol and Hisako’s cheeks blushed simultaneously, shutting them completely up.

“Ohohooo look at Yeollie and Hisako blushing!” Baekhyun teased along while flipping burgers and samgyeopsal with Sehun, giggling like an idiot beside him in front of the grill.

“They totally like each other!!!” Jongin jived along, making lewd kissing sounds. Chanyeol threw a piece of baby potato at Jongin but he dodged it quickly.

“Hisa and Chanyeol? I totally ship that!” Yanmei picks on some more, sticking out her tongue at the fuming Hisako.

“Shut up, shut up!” Hisako folds her arms against her chest and frowned like a child.

“Where can I get friends like yours, Soojin?” Jongin asks you with an obnoxious howling laughter.

“America apparently.” You shrug and answer his question with a silent laugh.

“Soojin-ssi, can I talk to you privately for a few minutes?” Mia slightly taps your shoulder as she whispers in your ear.

“Sure Mia.” You said as you stand from your seat. The bantering of your friends slowly dissipates in the background as you both trudge along away from them.

“I just talked to the private investigator we hired. They already found information of your brother’s whereabouts, including contact information. I’ll give you his number so you can talk to him.” Mia excitedly announces but with a hushed tone, as if someone will hear her.

“Oh my gosh that’s great news, Mia! Thank you so much.” You spread your arms and wrap them up on her smaller frame. Mia hugs you back as she pats your back soothingly.

“We better get back to them and discuss the details later,” Mia said as both of you pull away from the hug.

“Yeah. I just hope he’ll talk to me. The last time we had a conversation was two years ago. He told me about the girl he met and fell in love with. I miss my oppa.” You smiled thinking about that memory. You and your brother were close and he was the only one in the family you kept in contact with besides your mother.

“I’m sure he misses you too.” Mia sympathetically smiled at you. The same smile she always gives you whenever you talk about your fucked up life with her.

__________

You know that feeling of being followed? Yeah, that’s exactly what you’re experiencing right now. You don’t even dare look behind you, afraid of seeing a sea monster of some sort. As ridiculous as it sounds and being a fucking grown up who does Hapkido really well, there is something about mythical creatures that scare you a little bit. Well more like, amazes you in a way. You’ve always wanted to be a mermaid when you were young. In college and up until recently, you’ve colored your hair crazy colors. (You and Yanmei always love bleaching your hair until you’re both bald) But since you’re now in the corporate world; your mother made you color your hair back to black.

“Soojinnie…” Much to your disappointment, it was only Baekhyun following you, not a sea monster. And what the hell, did he just call you “Soojinnie”? You pretended not to hear anything and ignored him, and continue your night stroll.

“Are you really still ignoring me?” Baekhyun said again, now walking beside you. The desperation in his voice made you twirl your head towards him and regretted it immediately because he’s smiling, really adorably, down at you. It almost made you wanna smile back, but you remembered that you hated his guts and he hates you back and he’s obviously faking it, which is really weird because you’re alone right now. Unless your parents secretly wired both of you so they can spy your every conversation.

“Are we being followed? Do they have some sort of invisible camera floating in the air and following us around on this island?” You scowl at Baekhyun and he tilts his head to the side, his face getting eaten by confusion.

“What?” He asks with a laugh. A laugh that is genuinely happy? Definitely a first from Baekhyun.

“Don’t talk to me as if we’re friends, Baekhyun. We only pretend when we’re in front of our parents and other people.” You look ahead of you now and pick up your pace, Baekhyun following close behind you.

“Look Soojin, I’m trying to be nice here. Don’t test my patience.” Baekhyun suddenly grabs your arm, twirling you around so you can face him.

“Don’t touch me Baekhyun!” You tried pulling your arm away from him but his grip tightened and you wince slightly.

“I told you to cooperate with me, didn’t I?” Baekhyun says through gritted teeth, you can almost see smoke coming out of his nose and ears with anger.

“I am fucking cooperating!” You screech and a tear rolled down your face, still shaking and pulling your arm off his grip.

“Then why are you being such a bitch?” He shrieked back at you and your free hand involuntarily reach out to slap his cheek really hard, making him twist his head to the side.

Baekhyun’s face flushed, the part you hit redder than the rest and he returns his gaze to you, his eyes fuming with rage. That’s it, his thin ice of a tolerance is now broken. You can feel his anger radiate through the cold and humid night air, his sharp eyes not blinking one bit.

When Baekhyun’s other hand suddenly grabbed the back of your head, you instantly closed your eyes, awaiting your incoming demise. But your legs turned into jello when you felt his lips crashed onto yours. You tried wiggling off, but his grip tightened even more and his tongue pried your mouth open.

You let out a tiny whimper, you’re not sure if it’s out of fear or lust when his tongue swipes with yours. His hand that was previously gripping your arm is now snaked around your waist as he pulls you closer to him. The heat of his body made your hands to grudgingly grip his hair. He moaned into your mouth as you did so and a quick burst of fervor made your stomach whir.

One thing led to another, you are now sitting, legs intertwined under Baekhyun’s on the cold sand still kissing. Slowly Baekhyun started palming your breasts over the thin cloth of your bikini top. That feat made you jolt back to life and you abruptly pull away from his lips. Baekhyun groaned at the loss of your touch and he opened his eyes to question you.

I— what are you doing? What are we doing Baekhyun…” You gulp down and you shift your head, pretending to be enamored by the ocean.

“Kissing… We’re kissing, Soojinnie.” Baekhyun answers and gingerly grab your chin to make you focus on him again.

“Why did you kiss me?” You ask again, removing your stare from his sharp look. Your eyes fell on his lips that were red and swell from the kiss.

“Why did you kiss me back?” He requites the dreaded question to you as he tucks a few locks of hair behind your ear.

“Don’t call me that!” You scowl at him all of a sudden.

“Call you what?” He questions, his eyebrows threading together in befuddlement.

“Soojinnie, don’t call me that.” You frown, remembering that it was what your father used to call you.

“Why do you hate me so much?” Baekhyun now frowns.

“I hate you? No Baekhyun, you hated me first!” You push away from Baekhyun’s hug and stood up. Baekhyun also stood as you brush off the sand that sticks to your butt.

“I hated you, really? I saved you from fainting on stage when they announced our engagement to the public.” Angry Baekhyun is back, flaming at you.

“Well isn’t my cooperation with you enough payment for that? God, Baekhyun! You are so aggravating; I swear to my mother and father, you are the bane of my existence!” You spit out the words as if it’s venom in your mouth.

“You’re a handful too, you know!” Baekhyun grimaced and kicks your crocheted shawl that was on the sand.

“You’re a fucking asshole Baekhyun!!!” You grabbed your shawl and the both of you stomp your way back to the house.

#Baekhyun #Byun Baekhyun #CEO Baekhyun #kpopwritingnet #CEO Byun Baekhyun #Smut #Angst #Romance #EXO #EXO-M #EXO-K #EXO Scenario #EXO Fanfiction #Kpop Scenario #Kpop Fanfiction

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amorremanet · 7 years

Note

OC asks/questions: 8, 15, 21, 25, 32? Also if that's not already too much: finish the sentence meme for Lucy?

Okay, I did intend to do the finish the sentence meme, but as it stands, it’s almost 4AM and I’ve been binge-watching old Outside X-Box list videos to stay awake, so…… I’ll get back to that one

8: What’s the most common physical characteristic of your OCs? What about personality trait?

Physically, a lot of my OCs are ridiculously tall. I blame having my concept of average human heights skewed when I was a child, due to having several ridiculously tall relatives, and then having my ideas further skewed in my adolescence by a mix of shoujo and magical girl anime/manga (where the hottest characters, like Tenou Haruka, or designated love interest characters, like Chiba Mamoru and Kashino Rei, the “troubled but cute” pretty boy from MARS, are tall), and the Vampire Chronicles (where most of the vampires are tall, beautiful, and incredibly gay or bisexual)

Personality-wise, “troubled but cute” is probably my most overused character type. Even more specifically, “troubled, but cute, and they have a good heart, they’re trying their best, but they’re still troubled and sometimes (often) make incredibly bad decisions because I felt like it would be a fun time to make them do so”

15: Do you have any AUs? — Short answer: yes. Longer answer: yes, and some of them are going to be canon, because I have the self-restraint of a magpie, and figured that…… eh, whatever, screw it, I’m nixing several of the other more credulity-straining and ridiculous elements of the by-its-very-nature ridiculous and credulity-straining superhero genre, so I can have a canon multiverse if I please. Which I do, because it’s fun. For me. Anyway, some of the canon AUs are:

The AU where most of the major points are still the same, but also, Silent Hill. Not that it will actually be called, “Silent Hill” because of blah blah copyright, but I primarily got the idea of, “horrible demonic monsters conjured out of people’s guilt and psychological issues” from the Silent Hill series, and I’m not going to pretend I didn’t.

Also, unlike Silent Hill proper, the nasty pieces of work in this universe do not have the decency to just stay confined to one small town in Middle of Nowhere, Maine. They’re everywhere.

Anyway, some of the characters from this AU get dragged into the prime timeline (tentatively) in book three, as part of a Totally Brilliant (not really) scheme by a handful of the fascist supervillain douchebags to distract that annoying ragtag band of misfit anti-fascist heroes from the actual evil plan going on. Nobody is happy about this.

Especially not when some of the monsters decide to join in on the universe-hopping fun-times. Whoops.

The AU where a lot of the major points are more or less the same, but human technology is more advanced and, in keeping with some of the more idealistic mid-20th century sci-fi concepts, while our cast in the prime timeline are dealing with neo-fascism and shit, humans in this AU are getting welcomed into It’s Not The Federation From Star Trek Because I Don’t Want to Get Sued, But It Is Basically The Same Idea, and dating aliens.

Pete’s AU counterpart got into what is basically an alien university’s MFA program in theatre. He’s the first Terran to do so, period. He has an alien boyfriend, he has never been to rehab (though, uh. He’s still an addict. And still using. So, there’s that), and his prime-timeline counterpart is going to initially think he’s pretty awesome, and progressively get super sick of basically everything about him.

The AU where Seb, Pete, Stephen, Josie, and Todd are essentially a boy band. Because of reasons. Anyone who gets dragged into the prime timeline from this AU is going to be really confused by literally everything else, because this AU is probably the closest one to how our own universe works, so like…… Imagine that you abruptly get yanked into [pick a superhero comic book universe], after a lifetime of believing that it’s all, “just stories.” It would be confusing and more than a bit alienating.

Which is not to say that this AU is all rainbows and kittens or whatever, but the problems facing the main cast are things like, “Everyone in the band has to be closeted because there’s still homophobia and transphobia,”

“Pete and Josie have probably never gotten treatment for their respective eating disorders, and Stephen may well have developed one from the fact that, boy bands are generally not allowed to have fat members, which would also mean that he’s ridiculously unhealthy since his body’s happy, healthy place? Just so happens to be fat,”

“On one hand, Todd and maybe Pete have probably never had substance abuse problems. But on the other hand, Seb still has and it’s probably very seriously exacerbated by several factors,” and so on.

Which isn’t to say that those things aren’t important and complicated problems, or that the prime timeline characters DON’T have to deal with similar things just because they’re in a superhero world (since…… they DO have to deal with those things or at least very similar ones)

But there’s a pretty significant difference between things like, “trying to stay clean” and, “trying to prevent a bunch of neo-fascist supervillain douchebags from staging a bullshit fake attack at a debate between potential Republican nominees for the US presidency, which will probably end up killing a bunch of people if it’s allowed to go on, and is part of a longer-running, slow-burn scheme to essentially make this dickbag senator from Virginia the President-in-All-But-Name”

And the boy band AU characters are super-unprepared to deal with the latter sort of problem

The AU where it’s a vaguely cyberpunk dystopia because I felt like it, that’s why.

The AU where instead of superpowers, everyone has magic

Which is going to frustrate Lucy to no end, when she has to meet her AU self from this universe, because sure, this AU has different systems and rules for how the magic works, but no one can tell her what the Hell makes it go aside from, “idk, it’s magic” and that’s not an acceptable explanation to her

—But, as she’s going to hear from someone, this isn’t actually any different from how superpowers work in the main timeline, like? They know that the superpowers are caused by genetic mutations. They can figure out different ways of handling said superpowers and systems of how to approach and understand them……

But if we look at Josie’s telepathy/empathy, Lucy’s hemokinesis, Sara Grace’s super-speed and neato super-voice tricks, Seb’s “they don’t call it lycanthropy but only because that’s already a thing; it’s essentially lycanthropy with a shot of therianthropy, animal empathy, and a healing factor that would make Deadpool jealous,” Yael’s ferrokinesis and magnetism powers, All-Star Doctor Delphi’s status as the resident flying brick with heat vision, Elizabeth’s telepathy/telekinesis, Conrad’s telepathy/mental manipulation, Julian’s empathic abilities and emotional manipulation that can be a super-effective Jedi Mind Trick and then some when used effectively, Sylvia and Vince’s essentially omni-shapeshifting, the fact that Annie can turn her own tears, saliva, and blood into all kinds of fun chemicals (from toxins and acids, to myriad medicines), ET CETERA?

……Yeah, uh. In the end, the best explanation that anyone has for why any of that works, in-universe, is essentially, “Because it just does.”

So… essentially the same explanation as, “A wizard did it,” but it’s pretending to be scientific.

Lucy does not like being confronted with this hypocrisy, but she’s just gonna need to put on her big girl shoes and deal with it.

The AU where I don’t actually have most of the details about it worked out, but in the prime timeline’s December 2007, it abruptly became the new home of All-Stars member Penumbra (nee Victoria Brandt) and supervillains Dr. Neutron and Necrotara. They all got dumped in it when Penumbra stopped them from unleashing a super-plague on New York City… by opening up a rift in space-time, throwing them into it, and plunging after them because that was the only way she knew to seal it before it ate New York.

This AU will also get dragged into the prime timeline, though: 1. that’s more of an accident because Titus, Dezi, Eddie, and Tamsin have no goddamn idea what they’re doing and are meddling with forces they can’t control (especially not Dezi and Eddie, who have no powers to speak of and are miserably inept at pretty much everything);

and 2. It’s a bigger deal to the All-Stars than to the main cast, especially to Ruby Marvel (Penumbra’s on-off girlfriend), Zephyr Haze (who really looked up to Penumbra, and she was one of the few team members who believed that he was ready to be anything more than Doctor Delphi’s sidekick), and Slingshot (her on-off boyfriend, who has totally failed to move on from what happened, and if not for Captain Firebrand and Platinum Man revoking his ability to get into R&D without a babysitter, he likely would’ve broken space-time to get Penumbra back years ago)

Like, I’m not saying, “He has handled this like Silver Age Spiderman trying to kill the Green Goblin as vengeance for Norman Osborne murdering Gwen Stacy.”

I’m saying, “Slingshot has handled Penumbra’s effective death like that thing I just said magnified by a power of ten because, as far as he knows, getting her back into the prime timeline could potentially be cataclysmic, and he does not care. He has also spectacularly failed to listen to any and all attempts at getting him to respect her choice here, and the only reason he hasn’t gone full grimdark like a mid-90’s to mid-2000’s Dark Age drama-bomb of toxic masculinity and manpain? Is that he isn’t allowed into R&D at All-Stars Tower without a babysitter.”

However this AU works, Adelaide’s AU counterpart is going to be kind of a mess at getting dragged into the prime timeline, on one hand because her prime timeline self doesn’t have powers but decided to affiliate herself with a bunch of heroes anyway (while dumpster fire AU!Adelaide has superpowers and has been a hero and it’s gone Other Than Well for her), and on the other because her prime timeline brothers are alive and haven’t gotten killed by her supervillain nemeses

Dumpster fire AU!Adelaide is going to be more of a mess over a lot of things like, “On one hand, her little brother lived past 20 and swears he’s got a good life and his boyfriend is nice (yay!), but on the other, he’s a mentally ill recovering addict and also a superhero and for some reason, her prime timeline self is, as far as dumpster fire AU!Adelaide can tell, just okay with this”

And, “Her prime timeline self has a niece who actually knows what it’s like to have a father in her life, because dumpster fire AU!Adelaide’s Max got killed off while Linda was pregnant and Linda is probably a great single mom, but dumpster fire AU!Adelaide wouldn’t know because after Seb and Ambrose had both gotten killed (albeit by different villains), the common theme that emerged was the boys getting killed by supervillains and having a superhero sister, and okay, Linda did not explicitly blame Adelaide (Linda’s feelings about all of this are conflicted and messy)

“—but dumpster fire!Adelaide decided that the best thing to do was to basically cut herself off from friends, family, and loved ones, barring her AU’s Pete, who has become her co-hero, and a dog, because like her baby brother, Adelaide loves dogs and sometimes uses them as a substitute for interpersonal contact and connections”

Prime timeline Addie is seriously weirded out by her AU self’s complete lack of chill. Which says a lot, because Addie-prime actively repels anything that even vaguely resembles chill.

The AU where Margot and Seb didn’t get to be friends in undergrad, and her parents never disowned her, and she wound up filthy rich in her own right and having far fewer near brushes with death…… but also wound up: closeted and basically leading a double-life to keep from getting outed; very lonely; more miserable than she would like to think; and taking more than a few cues from Adrian “Ozymandias” Veidt of Watchmen

—Which is to say that, while she still doesn’t have any literal superpowers, she is deeply closeted and convinced that the only way to save humanity from itself might just need to involve doing something extreme that successfully makes humanity put aside their differences and unite against a perceived larger threat (and also distracts them so that Margot and her loosely affiliated AU associates can, “solve the underlying problems” unimpeded)

As prime timeline Margot will definitely point out: ideas like that literally only work on paper or in theory. In practice, humans are chaotic and messy and impossible to predict with any real accuracy, so there is no possible way to guarantee that killing a bunch of people and blaming it on aliens or whatever will make everyone decide to get along and sing songs underneath of a rainbow like some vintage Coca-Cola commercial.

Oh, and if Ozymandias AU!Margot actually thinks that nobody will notice if she and her cohorts, what, like…… use the world banks to redistribute the world’s wealth and make sure that the 1% can’t get it back (which would include AU!Margot herself and her cohorts, even though most of them don’t know she’s planning to do that), change a bunch of laws and policies they don’t agree with, and institute some kind of secret shadow government over the entire world?

Here’s a hint, Ozymandias AU!Margot: people will definitely notice that, and a lot of them won’t be too keen on letting you get away with it.

Furthermore, not only will people definitely notice that, but it won’t actually fix things as much as you want it to do. It would have some benefits, sure, and some of the ideas you’re trying to put into practice here are not inherently bad — like redistributing the wealth and putting hella restrictions on the same patterns of capitalist exploitation that made you rich in the first place — but one of the underlying flaws in AU!Margot’s approach is that, again, she’s ignoring the human element of everything

In other words: sure, redistributing the wealth is a nice idea and it would definitely have some positive benefits, but you cannot magic away the scars of aforementioned capitalist exploitation by throwing money at them, nor should you expect people who have been exploited, dehumanized, murdered, etc. under said patterns to not be upset about their suffering just because they now have money.

More generally, expecting people to always react in predictable ways is a bad idea. Expecting people to be okay with things that you erroneously think you would totally be okay with, if you were in their position is a bad idea. Behaving like a supervillain, even if you think you’re doing it for the right reasons and even if there might be some temporary short-term benefits? Is a BAD IDEA (especially when your plans have some major, egregious oversights).

Also, ew, Ozymandias AU!self, but out of all the ladies with whom you could be having a secret affair, why the fuck are you having it with your AU’s Melanie Drake (the firstborn daughter of the guy who the prime timeline Biggest Bad wants to put in power as his puppet, who is, herself, an active and enthusiastic participant in fascist supervillain hijinks).

In Ozymandias AU!Margot’s defense, her universe’s Melanie still has the conviction that everything she’s doing is for the Greater Good, but although she hasn’t gotten away from her nuclear reactor meltdown of an abusive shit-show family, she did come to believe in a different vision of, “the Greater Good.”

I mean. The nicest thing that can be said about it is that her vision of, “the Greater Good” isn’t a fascistic one and is, much like Ozymandias AU!Margot’s entire scheme, largely born out of good or at least okay-ish intentions, but really fucked up wrt the execution. But it’s not like Ozymandias AU!Margot is having a secret sexy affair with a neo-fascist supervillain.

She’s…… uh. Having a secret sexy affair with someone else who, in their AU, considers herself to be, “one of the heroes that this world needs but won’t accept,” and both of them are pretty fucked up, morally and ethically speaking, though not so much so that they wouldn’t be horrified by the Melanie of the prime timeline (who is, in fairness, pretty horrific. She’s also engaged to Titus, who is equally horrible but for some different reasons)

Anyway, the point is that Margot-prime super doesn’t expect any Melanie to be the secret girlfriend for any of her AU selves, and she’s really not happy about it, but also biased due to shit like, “Melanie-prime is an actual facts fascist supervillain”

And shit like, “Melanie-prime has hurt Margot-prime’s friends, and no, she doesn’t care that it was always in a superhero vs. supervillain fight, or that Seb has a healing factor, or that Pete accidentally made shit get violent on at least one occasion by running his mouth when he knew that he should have shut up, or that Lucy has run headlong into situations where a little bit of chill could’ve gone a long way and then people started throwing punches, la la la, go away context, Margot can’t hear you, Melanie has hurt her friends And That’s Terrible”

The mundane AU where, in addition to not being superheroes, Seb and Stephen met each other about ten years earlier and were a lot less gun-shy about being super into each other, not least because neither of them had been burned too badly in romance before (even given that they’d both had some negative experiences with it), and while both of them still had some big deal underlying issues with self-esteem, neither of them played any weird little head-games with himself to the tune of, “Oh, I shouldn’t voice my interest because he’s probably not interested in me because reasons, he’s probably just being nice”

On one hand, this AU wound up sparing both of them certain shitty experiences that their prime-timeline counterparts dealt with in their 20’s (not all of them, granted, and like — this AU’s Seb is still a recovering addict, and this AU’s Stephen has still dealt with a ton of bullshit about body image and fatphobia).

But on the other, they broke up and it’s…… amicable? Mostly? But still kind of emotionally tense for several reasons, not least of which is how instead of playing any, “he’s probably not really interested” head-games with themselves at the outset of their relationship and working through it, they were together for a long time, and danced around the idea of getting married…

…but neither of them told the other about wanting to get married because each of them thought that the other would never be into that idea because Reasons. Presumptions were made, miscommunication ensued, they eventually split up, each of them took it as a definite sign of, “I was right, he never would’ve been into getting married,” and they’ve mostly moved on and repaired the non-romantic friendship parts here.

Until they get dragged into the prime timeline and find that their counterparts are significantly more messed up as individuals but actually making a relationship work, but also at a point of, “They’ve been having some issues that have nothing to do with the superhero thing, and each of them is kind of seriously thinking about proposing but keeps getting cold feet about it”

Watching your alternate universe selves get engaged in the middle of a drag show on one of their birthdays is…… special.

Doing so after telling one or the other of them why you ever broke up is…… uh. Let’s just call it, “double special” and move on.

Also, powerless AU!Seb…… will be really conflicted about his prime timeline self being a superhero, partly out of concern (since this hero business seems to be working out okay, but it all sounds stressful and dangerous, and yes, Seb-prime literally can’t get intoxicated anymore — at least, not on any of the, “normal stuff,” i.e., “psychoactive substances that were not created by other mutants” — but…… how is being a superhero NOT a relapse trigger waiting to happen. To paraphrase Joan Watson, how is being a superhero NOT a giant gun filled with drugs and alcohol, pointed right at Seb-prime)

…partly out admiration (because the superhero stuff actually is working out decently, and powerless AU!Seb has to respect his prime timeline counterpart’s hijinks and dedication to helping people)

……and partly out of jealousy and getting kicked in the, “you’re kind of a worthless fuck-up, aren’t you?” feelings

because yes, powerless!Seb has found his own bliss in academia, and he is more or less at peace with it, most of the time……

but he’s torn because he wants to be helping people, and he largely went down the academic track to help himself

—which, in this case, means, “to something to work on and do with himself that wouldn’t feel like a complete waste of time, even if it didn’t exactly make him feel fulfilled, because he needed something to do other than, ‘try to find peace and sobriety by isolating himself from as much of life as possible,’” so it’s not like he is being selfish in a way that actively screws over anyone else; he is being selfish in a way that displays self-preservation—

—and okay, powerless!Seb has a list of things that he tries to tell himself about how this life-choice isn’t antithetical to the idea of helping people because he mentors students, and his research helps in X or Y or Z convoluted fashion, and he uses his access to academic databases to get around paywalls for other people who don’t have that access and to then hook them up with what they need……

But that’s still not the kind of helping people that he wanted to get into and it doesn’t really feel like he’s helping anyone, and it’s a pretty big kick in the stomach for him to get yanked into the prime timeline and see Seb-prime… actively helping other people as a superhero and ostensibly doing better at staying sober because of the superhero thing, rather than in spite of it, and what the fuck, how is this FAIR, how come he can do that and powerless!Seb CAN’T)

Even without the part where Seb-prime literally can’t get intoxicated on, “the normal stuff” anymore, the situation is a lot more complicated than powerless!Seb thinks it is, but in fairness to him, he’s probably only been stuck in this unfamiliar timeline for two weeks, max, when he has this little jealousy-induced meltdown

He probably ends up getting helped to chill out by Stephen-prime, which is its own messy and confusing kettle of monkeys for both parties because of intricate, complicated ontological questions like, “Is it cheating if I don’t actually do anything with my (ex-)boyfriend’s alternate universe counterpart, but feel attracted to him and definitely THINK about doing things with him?”

……The sad part is that all four of these losers WOULD actually make that complicated question, but it would be less because of the actual thorny issues about being and the nature of existence, and more because all of them would have a mental double-standard like, “Well, if I did it, then it would definitely be wrong, but it wouldn’t be wrong if my boyfriend did it because of reasons”

Seb and Stephen-prime may not need to deal with that specific question but the whole underlying, “Things that other people are allowed to do are wrong when I do them because of reasons” business is something they have to suck it up and work on, as individuals and in the context of their relationship

The AU where Josie actually got to go into fashion design, because they didn’t have their entire career ruined before it began by a mix of a douchebag ex-boyfriend whose parents were in good with Anna Wintour, and an abrupt, stress-triggered anorexic relapse that led to an even more stressful superpower awakening

Keeping with the, “mirror mirror on the wall, it’s fuck with my characters o’clock, let’s go…… all” theme among a lot of these AUs and the different respective versions of the characters, fashionista AU!Josie has a lot of things that Josie-prime wants and a lot of aspects of their life make Josie-prime jealous, but they are actually a huge mess in their own right

I’m still working out how, exactly, they are a huge mess, and so far, all I’ve really thought of is that it would amuse me if they were dating their AU’s Todd, but I’m not sure where I want to go with that and it’s also not actually going to be an issue for a while yet, so the idea has time to percolate

and the canonical coffee-shop AU.

The canonical coffee-shop AU is a horrifying dystopia where the bad guys won before most of the main cast were even ten years old — like, that AU’s Lucy and Sara Grace literally have no conscious memories of life ever being any different, they were that young when everything went to Hell — and that AU’s version of Senator Huntington (R-Virginia), the aforementioned Biggest Bad, took a lot of cues from Brave New World about how to run his dystopia

Like, there are several things that he would nix

e.g., the ostensible sex-positivity and alleged sexual equality of Aldous Huxley’s dystopia that is, in its own way, just another way of creating sex/gender-based INequality and blah blah blah

That would go right out the window because as far as dystopias go, wrt sex and the (im)morality thereof? Huntington thinks that Margaret Atwood’s Republic of Gideon from The Handmaid’s Tale had more or less the right idea, though he would also acquiesce that, if you want it to work, you’d need to build up to that, rather than dumping it on everyone all at once

He would also nix some of the more scientific aspects of the BNW dystopia, because he realizes that they’re not actually as likely to work out decently as Huxley seems to have thought in the novel

Like, Huntington would definitely still want there to be several strata of social inequalities that all serve to support a big pyramid that he can be on top of

……but he wouldn’t want to have those things artificially created in a lab because he thinks that sex is the best way to control a lot of the people under his power because even the ones who aren’t “perverts” — which, to him, means basically everyone who isn’t a heterosexual who only ever wants to have sex in the missionary position for the express purpose of procreation — are still “weakened” by their dependence on human connections (read: any desire to have meaningful human connections), and all of them inevitably want those connections to be expressed through sex because they’re all idiots in the end

For the record: Huntington’s attitude about sex is derived from the attitudes of real-world right-wing Christians in the States who love to play the game of shaming anyone who has any sexual desires, ever, because even though they also say that said desires come from God because they’re expressions of love and whatnot, they could just as easily come from Satan if the preacher in question doesn’t approve of them, personally.

The religious aspect only seems pasted-on whenever Huntington talks about any of this because…… Well, for him? It is. He doesn’t actually believe in God, or Jesus, or much of anything beyond his own power and his own right to have whatever he wants because he showed up and decided he deserves it.

Any time he talks about God or religion, he’s merely catering to his constituents by playing a version of himself who DOES believe in God because he’s reasonably certain he would never hold any elected office if he didn’t project the image of being a righteous, God-fearing man who is filled with the love of Jesus. But I digress.

So, yeah. Brave New!Huntington wouldn’t want to have all of his social inequalities baked into the population due to how people are grown in laboratories, but the general idea of, “keep the populace medicated into submission, throw them some bread and circuses and maybe a bit of pasted-on happiness, don’t let them think for themselves but give them the illusion of thinking for themselves, etc.”? Huntington is all about that.

Another reason why he vetoes the, “let’s grow all humans in laboratory test tubes lmao” idea is that he figures he can better play into the idea of all people being essentially equal, which helps keep the populace docile as long as they believe in it, if he lets them handle their own relationships and procreation. Like, regulate it in certain ways, and only give The Gay Agenda (i.e., everyone who isn’t straight) as much wiggle room as will keep them from noticing that equality is a lie, but don’t interfere too much because getting hung up on all that interpersonal drama keeps them from noticing the actual problems

Either way, the canonical coffee-shop AU is a horrid, dystopian hellscape and the main cast’s counterparts in that AU are okay with their lots in life — where, for example, Conrad actually is just a wacky eccentric uncle and not using that façade to try and teach Marie a kiddie version of Why Fascism Is Totally Cool, just in case she ends up being a mutant too, and Julian is a provocateur in that he argues with anyone who tries to sit in His Spot at the coffee-shop, rather than because he uses his platform and charisma to pick at prejudices and stir the pot in ways that incite violence — because they’re all drugged, they’re all being lied to, some of them don’t remember life ever being anything else, and when some of them get yanked into the prime timeline, uh.

Well.

That will be interesting to me, personally, because there’s going to be a lot of disagreement among all involved parties about all of this and what it all means

But ngl, this canonical AU literally started because I was reading coffee-shop AU superhero fics, looking at my own ragtag bunch of superheroic misfits, and going, “God, what WOULD it take for them to actually exist in a coffee-shop AU? Because the conventional coffee-shop AU set-up wouldn’t even allow for any of them to be recovering addicts or abuse survivors, much less actively upset about any injustices in the world (beyond maybe being a Soapbox Sadie type for a scene or two before getting swept up in the inevitable romance that will dominate literally everything about the fic) or affected by shit like homophobia, racism, ableism, sexism, etc. (because if we dealt with those issues, it might not be sexy or romantic, or at the very least, it would seriously distract from the OTP and their amazing love story). The most anyone is ever allowed to be in a coffee-shop AU is pleasantly eccentric or Troubled But Cute With The Emphasis On Cute”

Which is all a long-form way of saying that I came up with an entire canonical dystopian coffee-shop AU in a thought exercise that came out of being tolerant of coffee-shop AUs but also really bored with them and low-key frustrated about their dominance of fanfiction things for the past few years because while I understand the appeal of the escapism that’s inherent in most of them (and there are some that I even enjoy), I find it kind of depressing that so many of them end up being such that you could probably find and replace the names of one fandom’s characters with another fandom’s characters and it would essentially be the same story, and all of the things that drew people to the original stories will be gone while almost none of the problems of the original stories will actually be fixed (—and at that, the most likely, “fixing” is probably going to be, “a white cis M/M otp is injected into things where, in their respective canon, they are Just Dudes Bein’ Bros”)

……Which is a long-form way of saying that I did the thing out of frustration with coffee-shop AUs (and probably a bit because rereading all the classic dystopian lit pieces at once isn’t really the best idea ever, whoops)

21: Describe each of your OCs as shittily as possible.

okay, I did these all out of order, and after going in so hard on the AUs and polyships questions, it’s 3:15 in the morning and I’m just going to phone this in

Sebastian: yes, he’s a human disaster and a serious mess, but at least he’s trying, okay

Pete: local man delivers scathing verbal smackdown and makes you say, “thanks” for the honor

Margot: the mean chain-smoking lesbian with a heart of gold that your parents didn’t warn you about but should have, probably

Josie: local goth makes everyone else look under-dressed, feels bad about things

Todd: hipster garbage who isn’t nearly as underground as he thinks

Lucy: okay but have you guys considered how superpowers could be used to address public health crises

Stephen: the human embodiment of that moment when you get so excited about the punchline of the joke you’re telling that you laugh at it preemptively and can’t finish the joke but hey, at least everyone is smiling now, right

Sara Grace: local ballerina princess will probably never get over her physical inability to cuddle every cat on the planet

Conrad: “hey why are you getting upset i’m just trying to deny your right to be considered fully human unless you fit my specific ideas about what that is lmao”

Julian: sinnamon roll that you bought at a backwoods gas station at three in the morning, then lost on the floor of your car for two years, and now it’s all grody and probably a biohazard

Annie: perpetually screaming, just at life in general

Adelaide: she’s not telling you what to do, she’s just saying that her way is probably better even when it likely isn’t

Yael: is probably your favorite Jewish lesbian grandma, unless you think that she should chill, in which case not so much

Max: had his younger sister be his best man when he got married, out of his depth with most things, *glinting glasses of intimidation*

25: What sorts of symbols/items/~aesthetics~/colours represent each OC?

and it is now 3:30 and I’ve got absolutely nothing for this one beyond the fact that Margot, Josie, and Pete all wear a lot of black

Josie because they’re still something of a teenage goth queen at heart despite being a responsible adult

Margot because it’s both professional and somewhat intimidating, which she likes because she’s compensating for only being 4’11”

and Pete says it’s because he works in the theatre, which isn’t wrong, but even if he didn’t, he’d still wear a lot of black because he thinks it looks good on him (which is fair enough because it does)

Conrad and Max are associated with gray (though Conrad is also associated with white and “that annoying shade of blonde that is very nearly white but not exactly; the Draco Malfoy or Any Given Member Of House Targaryen shade of blonde”)

Sebastian gets a lot of dog associations (partly because he has six of them and partly because he is, as mentioned, essentially a werewolf though that does slightly depend on your definition of, “werewolf”)

and Stephen loves hot pink and eye-searing acid green, sometimes simultaneously

32: Do you have any polyam ships with your OCs?

Well, I already sort of went there in the AUs question, but personally, I would love Seb-prime/powerless!Seb/powerless!Stephen/Stephen-prime — but in general, I always love any and all ships that involve selfcest, whether they’re polyships or not, so I don’t really think this one counts

The polyship that I’ve probably given the most thought to so far is Seb/Stephen/Todd, and ngl, I’ve given it said thought largely due to the fact that……… well.

I wouldn’t call them a love triangle, exactly, but let’s be real: SMeyer and SCollins didn’t want to call Bella/Edward/Jacob and Gale/Katniss/Peeta, “love triangles” either, and while I’d agree that the latter case is a bit more complicated due to how Katniss spends the majority of the series having no interest in either one of the boys involved, the Twilight example is definitely a love triangle, and anyway, my point is that I’m no better than SMeyer and SCollins about going, “Oh, it’s not a love triangle!” because I fear the messy associations that come with accusations of writing love triangles even when I am blatantly doing so

And in general, I do believe in the sentiment of, “Less love triangles, more functional polyamory” — but the, “functional” part of that is a big reason why Seb/Stephen/Todd is not going to canonically go in the polyamory direction. It could, and given the canonical multiverse, there are definitely a few universes where it does

But in the prime timeline, a polyamorous relationship with those three would probably be a disaster — and frankly, a lot of it would be on Todd because Seb and Stephen both also have issues with communicating, self-esteem, honesty (with Stephen’s issue being more that he encourages everyone else to be honest while also trying to at least partially censor his own feelings in the interests of keeping the peace, while Seb’s issue is that he constantly lies to himself to try and convince himself that everything is fine because he feels like he’d just muck up everything for everyone by ever being Not Fine), and a laundry list of other things

But they’re also trying to work on those things.

Stephen is at a better place, wrt self-awareness and working on things, than Seb is, but he’s also been working on it longer and, for all the missteps he’s admittedly had in it because that’s just a part of this process for everyone, he didn’t have to deal with things like, “the aftermath of being kidnapped and shot by ecoterrorist ex-boyfriend who was not happy about getting dumped by a junky”

Or things like, “help, my brother’s unctuous brother-in-law keeps trying to befriend me after I drunkenly sucked his dick at my brother’s wedding reception and unwittingly broke up the marriage that I didn’t know the brother-in-law had, he keeps trying to befriend me despite my vocal lack of interest in being friends with him, also he’s been telepathically fucking with me for about eleven years”

Todd, on the other hand, has the self-awareness of a toothbrush, and that is a massive insult to toothbrushes.

He has worked on SOME things about himself, but usually only to the extent that he needs to work on them in order to feel like he’s doing an okay job on his own sobriety (which, in fairness, he is, but acting like sobriety is his only problem ever is disingenuous as Hell), and he isn’t working on most of his non-sobriety-related problems because, bless his heart, he doesn’t realize that they are problems.

I mean, this is a guy who is going to crash Seb and Stephen’s first morning after by showing up on Seb’s doorstep on a Sunday morning with a bunch of junk from his apartment, going, “Hey, so, I don’t mean to be a buzzkill when you look weirdly happy for once because it’s good that you look happy, I support you being happy, but also I might be getting kicked out of my place tomorrow and may also have been lying to you for several months about whether or not I needed money because I was totally sure that I could get everything figured out and then I didn’t but I didn’t want you to worry or try to pay for everything like a sugar daddy just because you CAN pay for it, and anyway, is one of your spare rooms open and…… oh. Hi, Stephen. ……He’s pretty shirtless for coming over for breakfast, isn’t he. Why are you wearing a shirt and he’s not.”

“Because he wasn’t cooking bacon and I was?”

“…………*slowly puts two and two together and realizes what he’s crashing* Ohhhh. Um. ……I can go bug Pete or Margot—”

“They don’t have room for you at their places—”

“So, can I stay?”

“Yes, obviously, but can we also talk about this? Like, maybe not right now, but in general, there are a lot of things that I’d like to talk about here???”

“………Why? Do you want to, like, charge rent or something?”

“No, god, why would I want to do that to you, but????”

So, yeah.

In fairness, Todd has a lot of good points. But he is also really bad at a lot of the things that you NEED if you don’t want a polyamorous relationship to completely implode — like communication, honesty, self-awareness, etc. — and he’s only going to start working on any of this when he finally realizes that…… oh. He’s jealous of Stephen and has been jealous of all of Seb’s previous boyfriends too, but in most of those cases, he also had some other reason to dislike them

For example: Harry was cheating on Seb with a Julliard violinist (who knew that Harry was also sleeping with Seb, but Seb had no idea that Harry’s violinist friend was his “real boyfriend”);

Francis was an ecoterrorist and admitted as much on their first date (though, as Seb has pointed out to several people, what kind of ecoterrorist actually admits to being one on a first date, so he feels he was justified in not believing Francis here), then shot Seb in the back, after kidnapping him and holding him for ransom in a basement in Ossining, all because Francis didn’t appreciate being dumped, especially not by a junky;

Josh didn’t really see the difference between rough sex and domestic violence, and was inadvertently responsible for Seb being the first family member to show up for the birth of his niece…… because he took Seb to the ER after giving him a concussion that made him seem to lose consciousness during sex (not that Josh stopped fucking him during), and then left him there “because he had something big to handle for work” (i.e., because he didn’t want to be there in case anyone called the cops), and while Seb was going to leave, he happened to see Max and Linda checking in and decided to just stay;

Rémy liked erotic asphyxiation but did not like asking for consent, and also had a thing for giving his partners rohypnol (again, without their consent), and he got away with it with Seb because, by the time they dated, Seb was no stranger to having intoxication-induced blackouts, and it was easy to tell him that he must’ve had too much to drink (and because of the way his half-latent healing factor and toxin filtering handled rohypnol, it was basically impossible for him to tell the difference between that and any of his more usual mixes of intoxicants);

Byron was a supervillain henchman-for-hire and also had a stunning lack of boundaries;

and Julian was mostly just annoying when he and Seb dated, and the worst part, at the time, was that they both tried to be helpful and supportive for each other but actually wound up exacerbating a lot of their respective issues, and now, he’s one of the less-bad exes but only because, “sends drunk texts to a recovering addict and unsolicited dick pics” is clearly on a very different level from, “gave Seb a concussion and ditched him at the ER” and, “literally shot him in the back”

(and then, when his involvement with the baddies comes out, he sort of skyrockets up the list of bad idea exes, but in fairness to Seb here, Julian didn’t get recruited by said baddies until after the second time that they broke up).

So, yeah, Todd has not been short on legitimate reasons to hate a lot of Seb’s boyfriends, and said legitimate reasons have allowed him to avoid dealing with his own jealousy for a while.

The fact that he and Seb have full-on dated before also helped for a while, as did the standing friends with benefits/“it’s complicated” that they’re in at the start of the story…… but see, Todd has always kind of been hoping that this would turn back into romance at some point

See, for all he isn’t self-aware about most things, he’s done enough work on himself to know that he is still in love with Seb (who does reciprocate but has an easier time reading Latin, or Proust in the original French, than he does of knowing what his feelings are doing and being able to verbalize it effectively)

So, Todd’s been leaving their relationship open-ended so he won’t have to feel like he’s tying Seb down to something Seb might not want. The idea that Seb might actually want it does occur to Todd, but he also dismisses the idea as completely ridiculous and silly, all out of some ridiculous idea that of course Seb wouldn’t want to be with him again for real, not until he perfectly self-actualizes in some completely unattainable way (which he doesn’t realize is completely unattainable because, bless his heart, Todd doesn’t get that he will never be satisfied with his ridiculous and ill-defined goalposts on the path to becoming his idea of what Seb’s perfect version of him is)

This is made all the worse by the fact that all Seb wants Todd to be, and all that he has ever wanted Todd to be, is himself.

He has said so practically since their first ever conversation, and the romantic subtext was there for him from the start of it all because when he went up to the cute bespectacled chubby guy in the Pink Flamingos t-shirt after the freshman orientation week meeting of the campus LGBTQ student union, Seb totally meant to ask Todd out.

Unfortunately, he got nervous, excited, an odd and potent mix of tongue-tied and rambling, and overwhelmed by how starved he was to make more friends (seeing as his only friend, at that time, was Pete, who was about an hour or so north, once you factor in getting to Grand Central, taking the Metro North to the right stop, and then either meeting him at the station or getting to his campus)

So, the romantic intentions got rather garbled and turned into a platonic-sounding coffee invitation, and as much as Seb had wanted to ask Todd out, he was okay with this at the time because he was en eighteen-year-old extrovert who’d spent his last two years of high school with only one real friend, who wasn’t even at his school because Pete was already in college, and in a school environment that was so emotionally shitty that his parents saw facilitating his trips down to see Pete and all their weird misadventures in the City not as a special treat but as what they needed to do for the sake of their son’s wellbeing

Either way, Todd misses the, “be yourself, that’s it, that’s all he has ever wanted, you colossal tool” point by a long-shot

So, by the time the story starts, Todd is working (he thinks) on his amazing and totally foolproof plan to become exactly what Seb deserves even if (he maintains) Seb doesn’t realize that he deserves it, Seb feels like there’s no way that Todd is still into him and feels like Todd is probably only hooking up with him until someone better comes along and is a hopeless romantic who’s pessimistic about love but also about most things in general, and their lack of talking about things is a Problem

It’s a Problem that Pete calls Seb out on, though in fairness, he brings that up less as a dig at the relationship and more because it’s part of Seb’s larger problems

But then, as part of his, “I am totally going to get my shit together, yeah!” “““plan””” (read: half-baked notion that he is at least really committed to), Seb decides to ask Stephen out (because Pete was just going down a list of things Seb could work on and one of them was, “Figure out your shit with Todd and either work things out with him or move the fuck on instead of mooning over him like you’re fucking twelve,” and Seb did the impulsive thing to go, “Oooh, look, not mooning over Todd now, am I”)

Seb doesn’t expect it to go anywhere because he doesn’t think Stephen could actually be interested in him literally ever, so he’s trying not to get his hopes up or end up feeling anything — except he does both of those things AND, due to how the events play out leading up to things, Seb’s just realized that he does still have feelings for Todd, and now, he’s not sure what to do and has to figure out his shit

The final nail in the coffin is that Todd, after several weeks of blowing off Seb’s attempts to talk about things (because you don’t need to talk about things if you just pretend they’re fine and stay the course, right?), gives him what is essentially an, “It’s not you, it’s me” line, and because, “It’s not you, it’s me” is so often used to break up with someone gently (including by Seb in different previous relationships), Seb takes it as them being done romantically and decides that they should stop having sex, too, so he can get serious with Stephen.

So, Todd has to live with the fact that he’s the one who opened the door to let Seb get serious with Stephen, and deal with his jealousy, which he can’t get out of at least recognizing because he can’t find a single thing about Stephen that indicates that he isn’t as kind and good as he seems. It’ll be good for him. He gets to grow as a person thanks to fucking this up for himself and unwittingly getting one of his best friends to commit to an actual decent relationship.

Then there’s the issue of Todd and Stephen’s leg of the relationship, but once Todd sorts his shit out about being a jealous little turd, they will actually get along just fine

They will probably end up having a bonding moment where they get laughing about weird or mildly irksome but not troublesome things that Sebastian does, because I love scenes like that

But, still. As a poly ship, I don’t actually see them working out in the prime timeline.

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