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theamberwriter · 11 months

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The Perfect Blend

Modern!Alpha!Levi Ackerman x Omega!GN!Reader || Tea Shop AU

Word count: 6.3k

So this is the first fic I’ve written in a while, and I cannot remember the last time I actually watched AoT. But my thirst for Levi can never be tamed. I hope this does him some justice. Also, I’m on my iPad. So the formatting may be a little weird.

Companion Art: [1] [2]

☕️📚

The Stem and Spine was the shiney new bookstore/tea shop opening on the corner on Prescott and Main. It seemed like ages since anyone had tried opening a store there. It was such a quaint spot. The historical building had detailed moldings, uneven red bricks, and chipped, dark blue paint. Six large, angled windows gave a panoramic view out to the bustling streets in your little college town.

It was the perfect spot to stop, drink tea, and people watch.

You were looking forward to opening day. You’d spent months crawling through every bookshop, online and in person, as well as every thrift shop trying to find one specific book. No one seemed to know of it’s existence. So you were silently begging the universe to cut you a break and let this new bookshop carry what you were looking for.

You’d only recently discovered their grand opening. An awkward omega gave you a flier. They were handing them out as people were leaving the grocery store. You were really excited, but maybe that was your inner bookworm talking.

Since the shop was right down the road, you decided to walk there on opening morning. You weren’t really expecting any sort of crowd. All of the college kids had gone home for the summer, so the streets had emptied out some. You enjoyed how quiet the summers were. So the long, winding line leading from the door of Stem and Spine was definitely a surprise.

You didn’t need to look for the book that badly. You could come in a month or so when things had died down some. You were going to head back home when you heard the people by you talking:

“I heard the guy running this place is hot as fuck,” said one.

“Did you hear what that girl in our study group said?” asked the other. The first shook their head. “Apparently his scent is like, super strong.”

The friend grinned, running their tongue over their teeth. “I can‘t wait to find out.”

Oh no, you mentally groaned then took a nice deep breath. The scents came one right after the other. A mangled mash up of pheromones. This line was almost entirely betas and omegas. And they were here for that alpha. You were never going to be able to shop there at this rate! As an omega yourself, you just knew they all would come from miles around until this guy was claimed.

You decided it was better to queue up, then maybe you’d actually get a chance to set foot inside. You waited for hours. You were sure those ahead of you would linger as long as possible and try to make an impression. That meant everyone had to stand in line longer.

By the time employees came down the line and told people they were closing for the night, your feet were killing you and your phone battery was nearly dead. All day and you’d only gotten a quarter of the way to the door! You could still see the spot you’d started from. A few people tried to get rowdy, complaining it was unfair that they’d been waiting all day. But their steam fizzled when employees threatened to call the police.

For two weeks, you checked the line for Stem and Spine. Day after day the line seemed to get longer. You saw a lot of returning faces, they must’ve been desperate. You even saw a handful of people getting escorted out by police! You also heard more and more rumors about what everyone was lining up for.

I heard he’s one of those hot, stoic types. I’d love to break him.

I heard that if you’re a beta or omega, just the guy’s scent is enough to make you jizz in your pants.

I heard he doesn’t like needy omegas, good thing I’m not like the others.

I heard he’s starting an entire harem - I’d love to be a part of that!

This is my eighth time going. I swear, I’m on the verge of making him my mate!

The rumors went on and on, getting more and more absurd. You wondered what this guy was really like, if he was really worth all of this. You weren’t interested, you just wanted a book! If anything, this was annoying. You figured it was probably annoying for him too, especially if he just wanted to do his job and not have to worry about anyone throwing themselves at him.

Finally, on a Sunday afternoon, you were able to set foot in Stem and Spine. It was quiet. No three block long line in sight. Sure, it was still busy but these people actually wanted books. They were all glued to the shelves, actually talking about books, and showing each other covers.

Inside was better than you’d imagined it. Everything was cream, gold, crimson, and navy blue. In one half was the tea shop. There were shelves of tea and accessories that lined the walls; loose leaf, prepackaged, diffusers, tea pots, honey sticks, spoon rests. As well as a long barista counter that had a large chalkboard and sizable drink list that was nothing but tea. There were a small handful of metal tables and chairs, and you remembered seeing some outside with umbrellas as well.

The other half of the store was the bookshop. There was row after row of books. Mostly fiction from your first glance. There were also displays for local authors and a shelf of new arrivals. You couldn’t wait to spend the day combing through. The entire vibe was cozy and the scent of jasmine wafting around was relaxing. You did wonder, however, how you were able to get in. Had the alpha been claimed? You didn’t smell anything overwhelming.

“Aaawwww, what do you mean he’s not here?!” You heard a girl whine. You were just starting on the second row of books.

“Mr. Ackerman isn’t here,” said the employee, irritation clear in their voice. “And no, I don’t know if he’ll be back today.”

The girl groaned loudly, but you didn’t hear her complain anymore. You figured she must’ve left. You wondered if she was the one who’d managed multiple visits.

“This has really gotten out of hand,” you heard the employee down the aisle say. They’d been stocking more books. “Great for sales, though.”

“That bad?” you asked. The employee looked at you, she looked tired. Her name tag read Mikasa.

“You have no idea,” she sighed. “I like working here. Levi is my cousin and a great boss, but these fangirls have just been too much. You’d think the fact that he ignores them would be a turn off. But they just keep coming.”

You didn’t realize you’d spent your whole afternoon in Stem and Spine until Mikasa came around to give you a five minute heads up. You were disappointed you didn’t find what you were looking for. But you still managed to find a couple hidden gems you were excited about. Maybe what you wanted was just too obscure.

You brought your books to the counter. As they rang you up, you noticed a clip board with a paper that read What Books Would You Like to See at Stem and Spine? Under that was a long list of handwritten titles and author names. You quickly scribbled down the book you were looking for. At least now there was a chance for it to appear.

Over the next month, you managed two visits to Stem and Spine every week. You and the employees actually started to recognize each other. You also started to see titles you recognized from the list. The mysterious Mr. Ackerman, however, still managed to escape your sight. Every time you went, there was a small posse outside just trying to grab a whiff.

It wasn’t until your first visit of the following month that you finally laid eyes on him. You’d just finished a series and were looking to start a new one. So you wandered over to the new arrivals section. You’d been there about half an hour when a heavy wave of lavender hit you. It filled your head, murking up your thoughts. You figured this had to be him, and the rumors were true - his scent was another beast entirely.

You shook your head to focus your thoughts. You liked this store, so this was something you were going to have to get used to if you wanted to keep shopping there. But you were also extremely concerned - if he was here, then that long line and hoard of omegas and betas would be too. You wanted to leave, but you were stuck between two books with money only for one.

You probably should’ve noticed the scent getting stronger. But you were so focused on reviewing the synopsis on both and thumbing through that you were oblivious. You didn’t wake from your stupor until there was a flutter of movement beside you. You glanced to your left to see a dark haired man in a white collared shirt with the sleeves rolled up. He set down the few boxes he was carrying.

This man, you realized, was where the lavender wall had come from. This was the infamous Levi Ackerman, owner of Stem and Spine. Mikasa had told you a bit about him in previous weeks. You liked talking to her whenever you came in.

“It’s rude to stare,” he said in a surprising tenor. His back was still to you. You cursed under your breath and turned back to the shelf. That was one way to embarrass yourself. You began musing between the books in your hands again.

After a long moment of silence, a voice said, “I’d pick the one in your right hand.”

You looked over to meet a bored pair of silver eyes. “What?”

“I’ve read them both. The book in your right hand was far more interesting.”

“Oh cool,” you said slowly. “Thanks. I would’ve been here for ages.”

You quickly placed the other one back in its place and scuttled away. You were just going to have to take his word for it. You didn’t want to hover anymore than you had. At the front, they packaged up your book and you were swiftly out the door.

Levi had been right, the book was very good and you were excited that there were four more books to follow with a movie planned. The next time you tried to go to Stem and Spine it was packed again. There was a line down the block and you just didn’t have the time to wait. Your shift at work started soon, and all you’d wanted to do was thank him for the recommendation.

You decided to head straight to work instead. Luckily, you didn’t have to wait long to see the bookstore owner again. The wall of lavender hit you before you saw him. You watched everyone around you turn to stare. It didn’t seem to phase him in the least.

Levi came to the counter and briefly talked with your coworker, who couldn’t seem to keep a straight face. When they disappeared to look for someone, Levi waited at the counter. This was probably going to be weird, but you really did want to thank him for helping you find a new series you absolutely loved.

“Hey,” you started, the book in your hand. He glanced at you briefly. “I, uh. You probably don’t remember me, but you recommended this book to me last week. And I, uh, I just wanted to say thank you. It was really good.”

“I told you it was better,” he stated. “I remember the other one you had - the author writes shit. It doesn’t have any good character development and there were a few glaring plot holes.”

“Oh, that’s good to know - I’ll definitely take that off my reading list.” You laughed awkwardly, carefully tucking the book away in your bag. “I was, uh, I was going to stop by the shop earlier. See if you were there - so I could thank you. But that line was just - woo!”

“I’m going to have to do something about that.” You weren’t sure if that was directed at you, but Levi seemed lost in thought.

Your coworker soon came back with someone in tow. They talked for a minute and then Levi and his intoxicating scent were gone. Afterwards, your coworker could not shut up about him. There was no way you were going to tell them about the bookshop.

In the days that followed, the line to get into the shop shrunk. But there was a continuous crowd that flurried around. A few employees you recognized seemed to be doing crowd control.

“I don’t care that you want to see him,” said one. “You don’t actually want a book or tea! It’s clogging up the shop.”

So Levi was doing something about the outrageous line. You were looking forward to being able to shop there again. The employees inside seemed less stressed when you went in and, at least, you weren’t brushing shoulders with anyone.

“Hey, [Name]!” Mikasa called as she spied you. She waved from her spot at the book counter where she was talking with Levi. You waved back at her, accidentally met Levi’s eyes, and then shuffled off into the book aisle to grab the next installment of the series.

You paid for your book, then went over to the tea shop. You didn’t know much about tea, but you figured you might as well start trying the different blends. There was a small display set up that recommended different teas for certain books. Like a nice citrusy Lady Grey to go with Pride and Prejudice.

“I don’t think that tea pairs with your book.”

You knew that voice. You turned to find Levi there with you, hovering, observing as you skimmed through the tea bags. You looked down at the pouch of English Breakfast Tea in your hand.

“You don’t think so?”

“You’ll want a black currant tea.” Levi reached just above your head and pulled down a paper bag with a raven on it. “I’m partial to this one.”

You took the bag, turning it over in your hand. You put the original pouch you grabbed back. Awkwardly, you smiled at him. “Uh, thanks. Guess I’ll go pay for this then.”

You weren’t sure what to make of it, it was probably nothing. But this encounter left you with a strange feeling. There were a few more like that to follow too.

“You’ll want a different tea for that,” he said as you picked up the third book.

“I can’t just make the black currant one?” you asked, baffled.

“Each book has a flavor that it pairs with. This one is more of a mint. If you pick wrong, you'll ruin the whole damn experience.” Levi turned the full power of his eyes on you. You were frozen under them. “Just like each person has their scent. Each scent has something that pairs nicely with it. For example, mine is lavender, yours is more of a sage. The two go well together.”

“Oh,” was all you could manage. That was the first time you felt the little flutter in your chest.

Every time you went to Stem and Spine to purchase a book Levi was there over your shoulder. He’d direct you to whichever tea he felt best went with it. He even started talking about the nuances in the flavors. How the aromatics helped, which shape of tea bag was optimal, ideally how long to steep it for. You became very knowledgeable about tea in the following visits. You were sure you'd be an expert by the time you went to pick up the last book in the series he showed you. But nowhere near as knowledgeable as Levi.

The next time you went, you saw Mikasa at the counter speaking with Levi.

"You can have the days off. Just fill out the request form," Levi said as you walked up to them.

"You're going on vacation soon, Mikasa?" you asked.

She turned her eyes to you. "My mate is going into his rut soon. I always make sure to take those days off to help him with his nest or anything else he needs."

You smiled at her. "That's really thoughtful, Mikasa. I hope, if I find someone, that they're like you."

She raised an eyebrow. "You don't have a mate?"

"No." You shook your head and shrugged.

You could've sworn you caught Mikasa giving Levi a nudge and a sharp look. Levi gave her a brief glare back. Then his eyes turned to you, his gaze relaxed.

"Why?" he asked.

You laughed humorlessly. "No one's ever really stuck around or I broke up with them. One guy tried to get me to sell my book collection. He said that they were just a waste of time and money. So I decided that he was a waste of my time. There's nothing worse than someone who doesn't understand your hobbies."

Levi said nothing but hummed in response.

"Do you have a mate out there in this big wide world, Levi?" you asked.

"No," he spat curtly.

You didn't mean to gape, but you couldn't deny you were shocked. "Really?"

"What?"

"I'm just surprised, ya know? With your strong scent and how handsome you are... I just figured by now someone would have come along. That's all."

Levi looked away from you. "My scent is more trouble than it's worth. All it does is draw shitty little brats."

You chuckled. "I can see that, considering the long line the first month you guys were open. I also noticed the growing wall of banned people. – Well I just came in to grab something really fast before work. My shift starts soon."

The college students were starting back up for the autumn semester. The streets began to fill up with cars of fresh faces, new dreams, and overstuffed suitcases. You had a feeling there'd be a new influx of people at Stem and Spine.

The hunch was correct.

Before you knew it, the store was once again filled wall to wall with people seeking Levi's attention. He seemed increasingly agitated every time you saw him. Then he once again disappeared for a few weeks, causing the crowds to thin.

“I heard the author is writing the final installment,” Mikasa said as she rang you up. “It’s supposed to be out in a few months.”

“Really? I thought this was the last book?” You raised an eyebrow. You weren’t upset, just surprised. The story felt like it could easily be wrapped up in one book. You hoped it wasn’t going to be one of those strangling the plot lines scenarios, where the whole series goes down in flames right at the end.

“Nope, one more.” Mikasa shook her head. “I’m sure Levi will be upset.”

“Does he really like this series?”

“No.”

You met her with a curious gaze. Her eyes gave you nothing in return. You’d never really noticed how similar she and Levi looked until then. Both with silky black hair and unwavering grey eyes.

"I don't smell him around today. I take it he's still in hiding? I guess I'm on my own to find a tea, then," you laughed.

Mikasa handed you your bag, it was brown paper with a dark red book and tea leaf stamped onto it. You had a small collection you kept folded under your sink and used for various things.

"Hey, before you go," Mikasa started. "I'd like to consider us friends."

You nodded and smiled at her. "I'd like to think so."

"So then would you like to hang out when I'm not working? I was thinking about going to see the movie for this, it comes out soon. Would you like to go? I'll buy the tickets."

"That'd be awesome! I can pay you back."

Mikasa laughed, then waved her hand dismissively. "It's no issue, don't worry about it. Give me your number, and we can pick a date."

You exchanged numbers then wandered over to the teashop. You were only a little upset to be tea shopping alone. You were so used to having company. You wondered what type of tea Levi would recommend. You had to admit, you were starting to look forward to your shopping visits more knowing he was there. You were happier to see him than Mikasa most days. You were grateful for your newly formed friendship, so it made you feel a bit guilty. But you couldn’t deny that there was something soothing about listening to Levi’s passion for tea.

You thumbed through the pages of the book. Skimming without trying to spoil anything for yourself. You were just trying to get the feel. What flavor would this book be? Something dark and fruity, like a black currant? Or something a little lighter, more classic like the mint? You settled on an orange bergamot, this would have to work. You paid and then walked over to your job.

About half way through your shift, a familiar tsunami of lavender smacked you in the face. Levi strode casually through the lobby looking bored as ever. He had a bag in his hand. You wondered if he’d been out shopping. You met his gaze, immediately diverting your own back to your paperwork.

“Mikasa said you were in the shop today,” he said, the scent rolling off of him was strange and heavy.

You looked up, getting sucked into those silver pools. “Yeah, I came to get the next book in the series. I figured you were still keeping your distance. - Did you need my help with something? Did you need John again?”

“I wanted to make sure you didn’t pick a shitty tea.”

You scrutinized his face. It held absolutely nothing. He really came all this way to ask what tea you picked? Well, it was just the next street over. But he still had to go out of his way to see you. He didn’t have to do that. Your heart fluttered.

“I skimmed through, but I’m not sure I picked the right one.” You handed over the bag of tea you bought.

Levi rolled his eyes. “Tech, don’t spoil it for yourself, idiot.”

He took the bag, examining it thoroughly. He considered the ingredients for a long moment. You could practically see the cogs turning in his mind. Finally Levi handed it back over to you.

“Interesting choice,” he started. “But it works. I’m impressed.”

“Thanks, I really tried to put your lessons into practice,” you laughed. There was a long stretch of silence. “I suppose you’re probably going back to Stem and Spine, I won’t keep you any longer. But I appreciate you stopping by, I didn’t think you remembered that I worked here.”

Levi stood a moment longer, then placed the bag he’d been carrying on the counter. It was from his store. “I brought this in case you picked wrong. - I’d still like you to have it.”

You stood. “No, I couldn’t -”

“I insist.”

“At least let me lay you for it. Or exchange it for the one I bought!”

Levi was already walking away. “Just take the fucking thing. I picked it out for you.”

Then Levi was gone, but his lavender scent still swam in your head. You took the bag from the counter, peering in to inspect its contents. You were so curious what he picked. You pulled out a white bag of loose leaf tea with a rose stamped on it in pink. The name read The Start of Something Sweet, it was made with strawberries and rose. You couldn’t help but smile a bit to yourself.

Later that night you made yourself a cup using what you remembered of Levi’s impromptu tea lessons. You couldn’t keep the little smile off your face. Not even as you talked with Mikasa about your movie plans. You picked a date two Saturdays away. You were really excited, you could only hope that the movie did any sort of justice.

A few days later, you made another trip to Levi’s store. It was restock day. As usual, you beelined for the new arrivals section. You were disheartened to find your requested book had still not made an appearance. You groaned. Maybe they couldn’t find a distributor either. That’d be just your luck.

“Looking for anything in particular?” Mikasa asked, stopping beside you. “You look disappointed.”

“Yeah,” you sighed. “I’ve been on the hunt for this one book and no one has it. I’ve checked everywhere! I even put it on your recommendations list when you first opened. It’s just getting annoying at this point.”

“Maybe I can track it down for you and get you a rush order?”

You smiled at her gratefully. “You’d do that for me?”

Mikasa shrugged. “It’s no problem. I don’t see why not. What’s Levi going to do? Fire me?”

“Sweet, thank you so much! I’ll text you what I’m looking for.”

“Hey, I’m actually about to go on break. Do you want to go get something to eat with me? You have off today, right?”

You agreed and hovered by the counter while Mikasa grabbed her things from the back. You chatted idly with a few of the other employees. They were complaining about how busy it’s been since school was back in session. You hadn’t been surprised, of course. They did build the town around the university after all.

Once the scent of lavender began wafting in, everyone became tense. You noticed something was off. It was sharper and so sweet it was almost bitter and very dense and heavy. Levi stalked in, looking irritated. He gave a sharp glare to his employees, but didn’t say anything. Instead marching through the door that said employees only on it.

“Something must’ve happened,” said one of the employees you were talking to. “He was in a good mood this morning.”

You wanted to go after him. In fact, your feet even began to pull in his direction on their own. But you stopped yourself, embarrassed. Tea aside - you didn’t know him all that well, after all. The last thing he’d probably wanted was a random omega tailing after him.

You had a thought, a reflection of something he told you - a book and a good cup of tea always made his mood better. He told you in passing, he probably didn’t even remember saying it. You knew you’d seen your favorite book somewhere in the store. With any luck, it was one he hadn’t read. You swept through the shelves, quickly finding it, then went to find a matching tea. You’d already had one in mind. Mikasa emerged just as the cashier was packing it all up for you. You had them wrap it in brown paper.

“Did you find something after all?” she asked.

You felt warm. Did it get hot all the sudden? You looked guiltily at the items in your hands.

“Actually,” you started awkwardly. “These are for Levi.”

“Levi?”

“Yeah, he seemed pretty mad when he came through a few minutes ago. Could you - I don’t know - could you give these to him for me?”

“I think it would be better if you gave them to him yourself, he’s still here.”

Mikasa didn’t give you much of a choice as she steered you towards the door he’d gone through. She forcefully shoved you down a small hallway and into Levi’s office. He was furious when he heard the door open. The sharp scent was even thicker in here, nearly suffocating. But you couldn’t help your overwhelming urge to calm him.

“[Name],” Levi grumbled, pinching the bridge of his nose. His eyes were shut tight. “I know you can fucking read, the sign says employees only.”

“They have something for you, don’t be an asshole,” snapped Mikasa.

You thought you heard Levi mutter brat under his breath. He looked up at you, eyeing the items in your hands curiously. You smiled a bit. Avoiding his gaze, you admired how neat his desk was. You were sure, if you had a ruler, that everything would be evenly spaced apart.

“You seemed upset when you came in,” you said, swallowing thickly. “I remembered what you said and thought maybe a book and some tea would help? This one’s my favorite and I picked something that I thought went with it. - I promise I paid for it.”

You placed the items on his desk and slowly backed away. You tried to slip away now that your peace offering had been given. Mikasa, however, wouldn’t let you leave. Levi picked up the book, turning it over his hands. He studied the cover and read the synopsis. Finally, after a long minute, he hummed and turned back to you.

“I haven’t read this one,” Levi said. You stifled a sigh of relief. “You make interesting choices in tea, thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” you said quickly and Mikasa finally let you out the door.

Mikasa didn’t bring up the incident over lunch. You, on the other hand, couldn’t stop thinking about it. Why did you do that? It was incredibly impulsive, but also inappropriate. That was basically the equivalent of screaming out how much he made your heart race and your palms sweat.

You tried not to dwell on it. But over the course of the week, you found yourself reflecting. You had hoped, more than you realized, that he would like what you brought him. You wanted his approval, not just his thanks. But you hadn’t been able to find the time to stop by the store and see if he’d read it. You’d been too busy with work, along with some plans with friends.

The next time you saw Levi was at your work again. He came bearing another bag. You were worried your coworkers would start getting the wrong idea. An alpha giving an omega gifts - how must that have looked to them? Then again, it was awfully presumptuous to think that the bag was for you.

But you were certain that Levi would never court you. Did you want him to, even? You hadn’t put much thought into the idea. But you didn’t hate the thought of getting to know him better. All you knew was what little he’d revealed in your chats while you picked out books and tea. Along with a little of what Mikasa had told you.

“We have to stop meeting like this,” you joked as Levi stepped up to the counter.

There was a certain air about him today. Maybe it was the way he’d slicked his hair back neatly. Or how starched the collar on his shirt was where it came out of his camel colored vest. He even seemed a touch more rested than usual.

Levi placed a bag on the counter. “This is for you.”

You couldn’t stop the sound of delight that came out of your mouth as you took the book out of the bag. It was finally, finally in your hands. After countless hours of fruitless searching, the damn book was finally in your hand.

“Holy shit,” you cried. “You found it! How much do I owe you?”

“It’s on the house this time.” Levi reached in and pulled a small brown pouch out of the bag. He smirked, which sent a chill down your spine. “Cinnamon, something spicy to go with that dirty fucking shit you’re reading.”

You froze mid celebration, oh shit. It was indeed a book with a good chunk of smut in it. Your friend had let you borrow her copy, that’s the only reason you knew about the book in the first place.

“You read it?” your voice came out hoarse.

Levi clicked his tongue. “The important parts, to figure out which blend would go along with it. It’s no wonder you couldn’t find it, no self respecting bookshop carries porn.”

“It’s not porn!”

You were not expecting him to read it. But of course he would only read the spicy scenes. No context to the story or anything else. You were devastated.

“Mhm.” It did not sound like he believed you. With that, Levi turned and began to walk away. He called over his shoulder to have a good day, followed by the pet name they used in the book.

You felt warm all over, tingles chasing from head to toe. You stared after him until he was gone. Then you sat flustered in your seat with your cheek against the cool desk. You could feel a scream burning in the back of your throat. You were so glad there was a half wall so no one could see you.

When you finally got up the nerve to crack open the book you found an envelope. Your name was written in beautiful cursive on the back. Cautiously, you cut it open. Inside was money and a little note in the same scrawl.

I won’t hold this against you. I know your entire taste in literature isn’t trash. Here’s money back for the stuff you gave me. I can see why it’s your favorite.

L. Ackerman

PS. Don’t even fucking think about trying to give the money back.

It was a short note, but it was enough to bring that flutter back. You couldn’t help reading it over and over again.

Before you knew it, movie day was finally upon you. You dressed casually and were so excited that you got to the theater an hour before it started. There was no Mikasa in sight, so you sat on a bench and read. You didn’t start to worry until there was only fifteen minutes before the movie began and she was still nowhere to be seen. Not even a text.

You: Hey, just checking if you’re close by.

Mikasa: Sorry, I’m not going to be able to make it. Enjoy the movie, you’ll have to tell me what I missed.

You groaned. You did not want to see this movie on your own. Though, you supposed it wasn’t so bad. Lots of people went by themselves. You’d just been looking forward to some bonding time with your new friend.

“So this is what that little brat was up to,” said a voice behind you. You turned to find no other than Levi. His scent was just beginning to wrap you up in a field of flowers. He had two travel cups with him, and looked as attractive as ever. No white collared shirt today. That was replaced by casual clothes and tight fitting jeans.

“Mikasa?” you asked, forcing yourself to look away.

He rolled his eyes. “I should’ve known, she didn’t even read the damn thing.”

You stood in silence for a moment. You had to wonder if this was as weird for him as it was for you. You had to admit, you did not see this coming. You could only wonder if he was disappointed to see you there.

You cleared your throat. “Look, you don’t have to watch it with me. We can sit in separate rows -“

“Don’t be stupid. Here.” Levi held out a cup to you. “You didn’t get to read the first book with anything. - Let’s go see if they fucked our shit up.”

Levi grabbed your wrist, tugging towards the direction of your theater. Your skin tingled where he touched you. You weren’t surprised by the amount of stares, but each set of eyes you passed was still unnerving. You were glad to be in your seats where it’d be harder for them.

“I heard they’re already filming the next one,” Levi stated after a few moments. He wasn’t looking at you. He concentrated almost too hard on the screen, you thought he was going to bore holes into it. “We should go see it together when it comes out. Maybe grab dinner beforehand.”

“Like…a date?” you asked. It slipped out before you could stop yourself.

“What the hell else?”

You paused for a moment, twisting to look at him. You couldn’t figure out if he was serious or not. His cheeks gained a flush of pink. You smiled at him, then settled back into your seat.

“Yeah, I think I’d like that.”

Levi nodded, but didn’t say anything else as the lights went down. Somewhere through the night, in the tension of the dark theater, your hand ended up enveloped in his.

In the morning Stem and Spine was your first stop. You were there as soon as they opened. Mikasa was doing the opening drawer. You watched as Levi went up and slammed his hand down on the counter. She didn’t so much as flinch.

“Oi,” he said. Mikasa looked up at him. “What the hell was that stunt you pulled yesterday?”

You walked up behind him. “Yeah, you did miss one hell of a movie.”

“I don’t know why you’re both so annoyed, it seems my plan worked,” she said bored, not even bothering to look up from the cash she was counting.

“How did you know we wouldn’t just walk out of the theater and not watch the movie together?” you asked.

“You both like that series too much. Besides, Levi may know a lot about tea, but he’s also stupid. He never does anything for himself. So while he may not have realized what he was feeling, we all could see it. He just needed a little push. And so did you, [Name]. I knew you liked Levi.”

“I never actually told you that, though. I never told anyone.”

“You didn’t have to. You could smell it in the air when you were around each other. Like a call and response. You two were perfect and you couldn’t even see it. I knew from the first day you walked into the shop.”

Levi took your hand. “Don’t look so fucking smug.”

Mikasa laughed as Levi took you to his office. As soon as you stepped in Levi shut the door behind you. He gave you a swift kiss on the cheek as he went to his desk.

“She’s right you know,” he started, intentionally avoiding looking at you. “We are the perfect blend.”

You couldn’t help but wholeheartedly agree.

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ms-demeanor · 5 months

Note

Hey! I appreciate your perspective on computer-based things. I think I need to get a laptop and would love your opinion on decent brands. If you don't have an opinion or want to answer please disregard the q.

Context: I'm often on the move and really want something small, light, and that will last a long time. I'm bad about buying new things or taking things to be fixed so ideally it's not something that dies quickly or needs frequent repairs. For a while I used an iPad for this but I need more of a keyboard than tablets have and the shelf life of an iPad is shorter than it should be for the cost. Mine is 7 years old and only works while plugged in... I liked my Macbook Pro I got for college but it's almost 15 years old and given I haven't needed a new one since I don't think spending all that on a Mac makes sense either. I use a gaming PC mostly but I'm going to need to travel a lot more in the upcoming year. I'm ok to spend up a bit since I want it to last.

I think you're going to have to adjust your expectations about the average functional lifespan of electronics. Seven years is a lot to get out of any tablet and fifteen years is way way way above average for a computer.

At work we estimate that the functional lifespan of a laptop will be around five years and the functional life of a desktop will be around seven years; we include upgrades in that lifespan, like adding RAM and storage.

It is not *unusual* to get more than five years out of a laptop or seven years out of a desktop, but if you are a heavy user of anything other than a browser and a word processor, that's about the time when you'll find that the computer feels slow enough to be frustrating. This isn't a hard limit, and it's not something that everyone experiences because people use computers differently, but if you're an artist and you use a drawing program that program will start to feel slow after a while because as updates and patches and drivers have been tweaked for newer devices they've slowly left your device in the dust.

This isn't planned obsolescence, by the way. Computer manufacturers try to "future proof" their devices to a certain extent, but you just can't anticipate certain kinds of changes. Maybe your laptop was manufactured before there were consumer SSDs available so its operating system doesn't take the advantages and limitations of SSDs into account. Maybe your desktop was built for DDR3 RAM and we're now on DDR5 and people aren't writing programs to the standard of the old technology, they're taking advantage of the standards of the new technology.

Since you were able to use your devices comfortably for such a long time, it sounds like you're not a very heavy user and don't need to worry too much about beefing up your specs. However it does sound like you want to keep your computer and use it as long as possible while paying a reasonable price for it (which is good! I think we should all try to extend the lives of our electronic devices as much as possible!).

I actually think you sound like a good match for a Framework laptop.

Framework is a company that makes laptops that are a lot more modular than what's on the market these days. They're mean to be easy to open up for upgrades and sturdy for heavy use. Most of the parts of the laptop are easily replaceable - including the screen - so you can use them for a long time and easily make upgrades that will help the computer feel fresher.

They're a bit more expensive than comparable PCs but much easier to repair if you aren't comfortable opening up your own computer (framework is intentionally built to be easy for people who are non-technical to work on their computers), and they are a LOT less expensive than comparable macs.

I still think you're probably looking at around 7 years of regular use out of a Framework and it won't *break* at that point, it will just. Probably be a bit slow and frustrating. You might not be able to get parts for it after a certain point. You eventually won't be able to upgrade the OS. But that's true of all computers.

I've still got my 2005 macbook. It still turns on, I can still use garage band on it. But it doesn't connect to the internet and uses such an old USB standard that it is extremely slow to transfer data on or off of and it cries and freezes if i try to use photoshop. It's not broken, it's just no longer useful as a daily computer.

What I'm defining as functional here is "Is able to run multiple programs (including at least one browser with 50+ tabs open and two office suites) at the same time for 8-10 hours a day without crashing, freezing, or losing data and restarting is not a major inconvenience."

In those terms, it does sound like you're probably in need of an upgrade (I can't imagine that your current machine is particularly quick) and I think that a framework laptop would suit your needs well.

If you're looking for something somewhat less expensive, you can generally find a decent thinkbook with a 12th or 13th gen i5 processor, 16GB RAM, and a 500GB SSD for around $700-ish, which is the low end of what I think you're going to pay for a decent laptop. I'm reccing lenovo here because I personally like them and have found them to be very easy to crack open for repairs and upgrades. Stick to the thinkbook over the thinkpad because that's the business line and is a bit sturdier and they are designed to be easier to upgrade over time.

Actually, here's a thinkbook with a 12th gen i5, 40GB RAM, and a 1tb SSD for under $700. That's a shockingly good price for that laptop; the reseller OEMGenuine is one I've purchased from many times before for work and I've found them to be reliable, though the reason those specs are so good is because they've added aftermarket parts, so your RAM and SSD won't be under warranty from Lenovo.

For Framework you're looking at at least $1000, but it's easy to plug and play with upgrades so you can start out with lower specs (except processor, don't cheap out on the processor) and upgrade later. The framework is a bit smaller and easier to travel with, but I have a laptop quite similar to the lenovo and it's not a huge pain to move around - it's very light but the 15" screen might be bigger than you're looking for.

If you're willing to spend a little bit more and you're very uninterested in doing your own upgrades and would prefer the most computer you can get for your money right out of the gate, this is a 12th gen i7 thinkpad with 40GB RAM and a 2TB SSD for $1150. (I've not ordered from this reseller before, so maybe check over their terms if you're considering purchasing from them.)

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sehtoast · 1 month

Note

Hii! Id like a request!

Could you perhaps do a scenario where the reader gets stranded at an airport (Perhaps with panic attack)?

I'm experiencing this currently and thinking about Homelander is helping, Somehow

i'm so sorry you had to go through that anon ❤️ homie has an odd way of making life's woes suck a little less. apologies that this took as long as it did (and also i've never been in an airport before so idk if this is even the right vibe adfkljdfk), but i hope it's still enjoyable and i hope your airport adventure ended happily.

Oh, if you thought it couldn’t get worse, you were so wrong.

Cancellations across the board, a raging snow storm outside, disgruntled people everywhere, and far too much noise for your overloaded senses. This is what you get for flying out to go see a friend in the dead of winter.

It wasn’t like you could call an uber to the nearest hotel, either. Pretty much nobody was going anywhere in this storm, and you’ve been here for hours now. God, you should’ve picked a morning flight, but you just haaaad to sleep in.

Eventually it started getting to you.

You’re alone, surrounded by angry people, in the middle of fuck knows where, with no guarantee of getting home or if your ticket is still going to be honored and–

You don’t even notice your breathing growing frantic until it’s overpowering and all you can do is hug your knees and try to stay calm–

You reach for your phone and send off a text to the one person who would maybe be awake at this hour.

God I’m fucking stuck here and I miss you and I don’t know what to do.

Your chest feels tight and your mouth is dry. You hold your phone tight, cringing at the battery level.

7%.

You’d love to charge it, but the iPad parents are currently occupying every outlet in the area and if you hear one more child scream because they couldn’t watch their damn skibidi toilet videos–

It buzzes and you unlock it like a madman.

Told ya you should’ve flown air-Homelander.

You smile, warmth trickling in to fill your otherwise endless pit of anxiety.

It would’ve been too cold on my face :( and you’d be carrying all my luggage. Besides, I couldn't ask you to fly all this way.

The next response comes almost instantly. Well, as instantly as it can with how slow he types.

Picky picky. Where are you?

In the lounge-ish area. On the floor, because I guess I picked the busiest airport in the world…

2%. You’re almost ready to snag one of those outlets and suffer the blubbering.

Shucks, that’s a bummer.

It’s not so–

You wince as your screen flickers, waves of sadness overtaking you in conjunction with that dreaded anxiety. Gone is your only lifeline, and it hits you that you’ll have technically left him on read too. You should’ve told him about your battery– fuck, fuck, fuck.

You hug your knees again and shove your useless earbuds in, hoping to dampen some of the noise. It doesn’t work, and you can distinctly make out the sound of a man loudly demanding a full refund.

You try to imagine Homelander. What tales would he have for you once you returned home? How much trouble did he stir up while you were away? Probably the usual, but… you were supposed to see him tomorrow morning when you got home.

God, that thought makes you ache for home even more.

You shut your eyes and attempt a nap.

You try and try to sleep to no avail. Just when you think you might get a wink of rest, you hear audible gasps and shouting. Your eyes shoot open, expecting the absolute worst, but all you see are two imposing sets of red boots.

“You forgot to text me back,” he says nonchalantly.

Tears of joy bite at your eyes as you look up, and you all but launch yourself off the ground and into his arms.

“M’sorry,” you mumble against him. “Battery died.”

“Mm, if you say so. I feel like this was all part of your elaborate plan to get me here.” Homelander pulls away just slightly to look down at you, a twinkle of sympathy in his eyes- a very rare sight. “Well, I know I can’t fly you home, because you’ll turn into a big popsicle, but… there is a hotel nearby and you do deserve a nice place to lay your head.”

Your heart feels so warm it could melt the blizzard outside.

“You just gotta tolerate a little cold.” He grins, winking at you. “And air-Homelander doesn’t have delays. No luggage fees either.”

You throw yourself back into the hug, squeezing him with all you’ve got.

“You’re the best,” you whisper in his ear.

“Yeah, I know.” He replies, uncaring of the spectacle you two must be. “Now let’s get you cozy.”

#homelander #homelander x reader #homelander fanfiction #antony starr #the boys #request

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eclecticqueennerd · 10 months

Text

Confessions

Part 5

*language, violence, mention of p*rn, mentions of dr*gs, angst, smexual situations 18+ please*

Soldier Boys POV

He couldn’t give two shits about Butcher’s vendetta against Homelander. He didn’t need his help in settling the score against Payback, I’m the first goddamn supe. The only reason why he stuck around with the boys is because of y/n. He thought he was in love before with the Countess but boy was he wrong. Sure, the Countess was gorgeous and had talent, especially when her lips were wrapped around his cock, but deep-down Ben felt like she was only doing things for him out of fear, a fear he didn’t see in y/n. Y/n had every right to be afraid, he blew up her friend and almost killed her for god’s sake, that’s not my fault, it's whatever those fucking Russkies did to me. He also killed one of her friends, MM was it, family members, okay that was my fault I was so high I couldn’t see straight. To impress y/n that he’s a better man than Butcher, Ben apologized, even though deep down he didn’t really mean it.

Ben and y/n talk about some of the most random shit. She’d tell him jokes he didn’t quite understand but would chuckle at anyway. He’d talk about meeting celebrities that have long since died and which ones were dickheads. On the rare times they had an hour free, she’d explain what was happening in Game of Thrones, ‘Why didn’t the dumbass just zigzag?” “I KNOW RIGHT? Goddamn it Rickon!” She’d have him listen to different bands from various eras; Ben decided that he liked listening to Wanted Dead or Alive. They’d bond over their love for discovering new foods, however, nothing they find will ever replace his love for a double bacon cheeseburger with extra bacon.

The rest of the gang slowly warmed up to Ben once they realized how fast y/n trusted him. They understood that he was a man out of time, and he needed to be taught a few things about this day and age. What he can and can’t do, how to address men and especially women, how to work a smartphone, and how to access the internet. There was one time, okay several times, Ben stumbled across a porn website by ‘accident’ on y/n’s ipad. The loud moans on the video echoed in the living room and Ben had to remember how to turn the sound down. Is it this button? *screenshot*. Ben would continue to fumble around with the device until he decided to give up. He’ll figure it out one day, but right now he needed to crank it out.

Frenchie and Ben would talk about their favorite illicit substances, Hughie would ask some dumb fucking questions which would almost always end up with him being tongue lashed by Ben. Even MM found it acceptable to sit on the same side of the room as him, they still never interacted. The only one that appeared to have a problem with how close Ben was getting with everyone was Butcher. Ben didn’t care about that though, he can go fuck himself. Every time Butcher would try to tell Ben something shitty about y/n and how he should focus on the mission and Homelander, Ben would just go about his day and reply, “Takes a real broken man to try and bring down a woman at the top of her game.”

But after all that, Ben’s favorite thing was going on missions with y/n and watching her work, it was his new religion. The way y/n’s hips sway back and forth in her skintight tactical suit showing the world she’s comfortable in her own skin, the brutality she showed towards their victims and the confidence she now exudes, Ben likes to think he had a hand in that.

Y/n grabs the knife from Ben’s belt. She proceeds forward to their tied-up victim, one that’s going in and out of consciousness. This is one tough bastard. His face all puffed up, lip busted and the hinting of dark bruises forming on his face. Then, a blood curdling scream,

“Tell us what we want to know! Where are the TNT Twins?” Ben saw his knife lodged just above the kneecap while y/n shook the man by the shoulders.

“I’d tell her where they’re at. She’s supposed to play nice cop.” Y/n twists the knife and screaming rang out again.

“Y/n the bastard is gonna bleed out before we get our info.”

“He won’t bleed out, at least not as fast as you’d think. Where I stabbed him just barely misses the major blood vessels that is embedded in the synovial joint. It’s riddled with nerves so if I do this,” she moves the knife slightly, the victim screams out, “He’ll feel it. If we don’t kill him by the end of this then any infection that penetrates the joint fluid, will.” Marry me.

“I don’t know where they're at now, but I know Herogasm is in 3 days at their place outside of New York!” The man confesses and gave the address to the house, Ben left the man tied up on the chair and walked towards the entrance of the dilapidated warehouse. While the two of you were walking back to Butcher's car, Ben asked,

“Normies don’t have that much force behind them to jab a knife into some assholes knee. What kinda powers you got?”

“I was a field surgeon in the United States Army before I joined the boys, so I know my way around the human body. When I stayed with Grace, they ran me through a series of tests and realized I’ve got strength and stamina, accelerated healing, heightened reflexes and a potential for hand-to-hand combat. I’m still working on that though. When training with Grace’s men, I was be too strong for them and break a bone or something so no one wanted to train with me. That was the end of that.”

“You know, I could train you if you wanted. Will be a little harder to break my bones doll. Plus you get to be up close and personal with the nation's hero Soldier Boy.” Ben throws in a wink for good measure. Y/n giggles,

“Thanks, but no. I’d rather stick with the knives.” Y/n waved Bens knife around in the air. Ben reached out and grabbed it and placed it back in its sheath.

“Which by the way you need your own. You can’t keep taking mine whenever you feel like it.” You could take anything from me whenever you want. Shit, take me right now.

“Are you twats ready to go yet or should I circle around the block?”

Y/n’s scent was intoxicating, her musk mixed with the vanilla scent of her perfume, not too light, not too heavy, just right. Ben, being the upstanding gentleman he is, let y/n sit in the front seat but learned the back of Butchers cadillac was torture. The limited leg room, lack of airflow to the back of the car and the shitty rear suspension almost made Ben regret giving up the front seat. Almost. If he positioned himself just right, Ben could see y/n tits bounce up and down in her top every time the car hit a pothole. Ben had to adjust himself on occasion to accommodate the semi chub growing in his pants.

The car was placed in park, and everyone exited. Finally. Once you reached the hideouts front door, Ben commented,

“You know, you have quite a knack for that.” y/n looked up at him questioningly. “Torture. Where’d you learn it? I’m assuming they didn’t teach you that in basic training.” y/n huffed,

“No. I picked up a few things from that one there,” she points to Butcher now slamming his bedroom door shut. “I just never had the stomach to follow through. I shall never intentionally do or administer anything to the overall harm of my patients and all that jazz.” Ben poured himself a glass of whiskey.

“What’s changed?”

“I don’t’ know, but I think I like it.” y/n flicked her hair back using her hands. She was being sassy, is that what they call it nowadays? Ben poured out a glass of whiskey for y/n and they both downed the amber liquid, simultaneously let out an exhale to help rid the burning sensation.

“We’ll I’m a bloody mess, I need a shower.” Y/n went to her room and grabbed a fresh set of clothes. Ben poured himself another glass of whiskey as he watched y/n come out of her room again. She was looking right at him and had this look on her face, eyes darker. Y/n slowly walked into the bathroom, keeping eye contact and gently shutting the door. Ben downed the glass of whiskey and walked over to the bathroom. She wants to get up close and personal with Solider Boy in a different way, got it.

@butchers-girl @xmariakx

@deans-spinster-witch

#billy butcher x reader #billy butcher #the boys #kimiko the boys #soldier boy #soldier boy x reader #the boys amazon #mothers milk #karl urban #frenchie #jensen ackles #angst #hughie campbell #Spotify

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liekasrt · 5 months

Text

My take on @piper-mcqueen-ask-blog’s hunger games AU for the lost trio! No idea why it made piper and Leo’s skin so light 😭😭 the colors were way different on my iPad

Go see the tagged profile for more info on this au, and keep reading if you want to hear my thoughts/ my input on them!

For Piper, her arena was a mix of terrain, so i gave her a wetsuit underneath with normal clothes ovetop (now torn)

I really really wanted to characterize in her pose how she played her games, and make her look innocent yet cunning and malicious! what a sneaky backstabby girl i love her

For Jason, I really wanted to lean into his desert arena! I gave him more coverage to protect from the heat, and i made him barefoot aswell just to lean into his wolfboy-ness a little more!

I tried to make him look obviously scared, whilst still putting on a strong front!

For Leo. oh boy did i suffer. I finished his drawing, then completely erased it, got a new pose, everything. I could not get him to look right. i almost died several times while drawing him. Im finally happy with him, i took his bandana and covered his burn with it (mostly because i couldn’t get the bandana to look normal) and gave him more tears in his clothes. overall i didnt change his outfit much.

once again i have NO IDEA why hes so light. pinky promise he was darker when i drew him.

I wanted to make him look intimidating! the way he played his games was very lurking in the shadows, sneaking around, etc. and i wanted to go for a like casual maliciousness. his pose is relaxed but his face is serious.

Overall, i really tried to get their personalities through with their poses plus faces. thank you so much to @piper-mcqueen-ask-blog, i really loved your ideas + drawings and you characterized them so well in their games, especially with a drastically different world than theyre usually in. you changed them to fit the hunger games au sooo well.

#leo valdez #pjo #heroes of olympus #pjo hoo toa #hoo #pjo series #percy jackson #jason grace #piper mclean #hunger games au #the lost trio #op pls feel free to dm me if u wanna talk abt this au or smth i got accidentally hypertixatex #also i love you thank you theyre so cool

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bluebsies · 2 months

Text

written by @baby-blue-bubbles and illustrated by me!

percy is playing minecraft when piper and annabeth enter the room, debating about something. Percy, focused on the grind, barely pays attention until Piper asks him something.

“can you repeat that? i wasn’t paying attention,” says percy.

“I said I think you would look so great with an earring. And Annabeth thinks so too but is too embarrassed to say it.” Piper motions to Annabeth who sighs before pinching the bridge of her nose.

“whatever, i just think—“ Annabeth cuts herself off before she blushes,

”Nevermind.” She’s about to leave when percy mutters something that surprises both her and piper.

“I had a piercing. in like…7th? Grade? Yeah, around that time.” Then goes back to playing his game.

Piper, shellshocked by this groundbreaking news turns slowly to annabeth, her hands slowly making their way to her surprised face before she whirls around and shrieks at percy, “Proof or it didn’t happen!”

He huffs a laugh before smirking and fetching a picture from his bag nearby.

“Yeah I had a piercing at my boarding school, and I was digging through old pictures and found one of younger me with, guess what, an eyebrow piercing.”

percy hands annabeth a blurry, ripped, old school picture print. annabeth recognized the boy in the picture. it was percy. maybe about 13 or 14. he was standing infront of what looked like some kind of boarding school, and he looked to be standing in a group of classmates. he looked pretty goofy in the school uniform, annabeth thought. but that wasn’t what caught her attention. it was the tiny, glaring piece of metal hooked around his eyebrow. annabeth almost gasped out of shock. how had she never known that percy had a piercing? why didn’t he have it now? why did she love it so much on him? Piper stood up and raced to annabeths side, trying to snatch the picture out of her hands.

Annabeth is silent while piper stares in awe at the picture.

“How did you pierce your eyebrow in boarding school???”

Percy: “Well, uh. Funny story. There was some kid doing piercings in the bathroom of this school, and during some passing period I just went in there and got it. Didn’t even hurt. But when I went home to see my mom a couple weeks later. Well, I forgot that I had it. So when I walked into the apartment and she ran up to me, her hair got caught on my eyebrow. I didn’t say anything, and when her back was turned, I kinda just ripped it out and forgot about it,” percy shrugged.

annabeth studies the picture closely. piper wasn’t lying, she really did like the way it looked on percy. the small metal ring contrasted nicely with Percy’s dark eyebrows, and it really did compliment his freckles. but really, the best thing about it was how much more attractive it made him look. annabeth looked back up to Percy, imagining how it would look on him now. a dark blush spread across her face.

annabeth cursed under her breathe, “di immortales.”

Percy was staring at annabeth as she seemed to take in the old picture of him. He remembered how cool he thought he must have been when he had the eyebrow piercing. he truly had forgotten about it though. should he go get it done again? it certainly didn’t hurt and by the look on annabeths face, well, she certainly loved the idea of it. Percy smirked as a dark blush ran across his girlfriend’s face, while an idea popped into his head.

*About two weeks later. By this time, the conversation was well forgotten by everyone. Everyone except for Percy, that is.*

Annabeth is sitting on percys bed, watching her iPad intensely. Percy knew she was probably looking through some kind of building plans, or even some of Daedalus’s old blueprints. Percy walks in, sporting his new piercings. he walked up to annabeth, smiling at the reaction that he knew was coming.

Percy: “hey ‘beth((in my head this sounds more natural almost like he’s saying ‘nabeth, as a nickname for her)). watcha doing?”

Annabeth: “‘m just looking through some blueprints, why…what do you wan-“

As annabeth was talking, she looked up at percy and jumped up suddenly, her jaw dropped in shock. her eyes raced across his face, looking at two very new and very good-looking piercings. on his eyebrow was a dark blue metal vertical bar, and in his ear was a black standard tragus piercing with a blue opal gem in the center. Percy smirked, the look on annabeths face priceless.

Percy: “I got these today. We were talking about it the other day and I could tell how much you liked them. Also, I think they look cool. What do you think?” Percy asked, knowing very well what she thought of them.

Annabeth blushed darkly. She loved them. Probably more than he did. Definitely more than he did. She reached up to inspect his face closer, seeing how the blue opal shined iridescent in the light. she saw the redness surrounding the piercings, knowing they were still sore and healing. She adored the way the dark cool blue metal stood out against his tan skin. She studied his face and the confident but still slightly nervous look, probably wondering why she hadn’t said anything yet.

Annabeth: “what do I think?

Percy hummed a yes, patiently waiting for her answer.

Annabeth: “I think that you definitely should have gotten these sooner,” she laughed.

**THE END**

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lobotomytypebeat · 3 months

Text

! Making a fan homestuck msfpa called KEYBOUND !

Keybound is a indie project by solely one person (me lmao...) This post is to share what i have already done so far, and what you all shall expect from this project!

CHARACTERS OTTO EVERRET

⇢ Otto everett is a kid passionate about adventures and mythological creatures, with a dream to be a fantasy hero and explore fantasy lands he has always dreamt about deep on his mind. Always looking for adventure he tends to put himself more onto trouble than…actually helping, but he tries.

Otto everett is a stubborn and determined kid, which could also be a HUGE pain in the ass sometimes. He has good intentions but sometimes doesnt have the easiest of times of voicing his good intentions.

Despite being very outgoing and a social butterfly…Otto is lonely, very lonely, as he lives isolated on the mansion and as he has been homeschooled by his father his entire life, the only connection to the outside he knows, its the woods and the rivers. Never really having contact with other kids and mostly running through the mansions halls and secret entrances, pretending to have great adventures slaying a dangerous beast.

Otto lives in a rustic mansion in the middle of the woods, with a huge observatory, huge walls, hell the mansion even having its own dinosaur fossil room. Otto is the son of Edric everett and Margaret Fields Edric everett is a renowed scientist in the science field and Margaret Fields is, one of the most renowed paleontologists that has stepped onto the scene and that has made great advancements. Unfortunately Margaret Fields had died in a nuclear breach right after Otto was born, killing her due to the explosion and overtime nuclear exposure. …though this is not exactly the case. Margaret did indeed die due to the nuclear breach…but while she was pregnant with Otto. The loss had brought immense grief to Edric, losing both his newborn son, and beloved wife. But due to the means of ectobiology, Edric recreated Otto with a exact copy of Margaret's DNA, making Otto essentialy…a clone of his mother. Otto has been raised as a fetus inside a incubator projected by his father.

DANN HARVEY

┇DANN HARVEY

⇢ Dann harvey is a absolute mess who is loud and in general very sociable and friendly…despite his social battery running out way too fast which is kind of ironic since he will shrink up like a dried raisin.

Dann is actually allergic to most things…for example lettuce for a reason, but he will eat it ANYWAY and almost FUCKING DIE.

Dann oftenly gets himself into dangerous situations and falls way too much for his own good…and will still joke through all of it at the end of the day like its funny haha when he is at a ER with two broken legs and a spine snapped in half. Peak commedy.

Dann wears the most atrocious shirts known to man with the most horrible cheesiest catch phrases. For example " show me your bobbers and i will show you my pole " or simply " professional racist " with race cars on it. Or straight up cunty queen with unicorns and rainbows plastered all across it.

In general dann is a mess of a teenager who is way too obsessed with tetris and minecraft and mountain dew and doritos…and most definetly has been a ipad kid.

Dann is also asmathic…its shitty as fuck paired up with a shit ton more of allergies he has.

Dann now currently lives with his loving grandma as he had switched from various and various foster homes. His grandma is the sweetest person alive and he loves her very very much.

Despite being energetic and a very outgoing person, Dann is someone who gets really stuck on his own thoughts and tends to think very negatively about himself when he is left alone. And in general dann is a highly anxious person and someone who CANNOT SIT STILL FOR THE LIFE OF HIM. He feels the primal urge that he has to unleash the beast at any second possible or else he will combust into sparkles and rainbows.

Dann is also prone to producing BIOHAZARDS ON THE KITCHEN HE CANT COOK FOR SHIT.

Dann's hobbies dont extend only to being way too enthusiastic about minecraft or tetris, but yet about collecting LPS and pokemon cards. Despite not being able to SIT THE FUCK DOWN FOR ONE SECOND, he really does care about his friends. He'd jump in the fucking cadiilac and hug a cactus in the name of friendship.

He genuinely does his best to lift up the spirits of his friends and make them happy, including being loud as fuck with them, and screaming at the whole entire world with them.

HARRIET BELLATRIX | her name in actuality is just Bell lmao, her momma wants her to sound fancy schmancy all of the time |

┇ HARRIET BELLATRIX

⇢ Harriet is a more closed off individual who finds enjoyment in small things and in general activities such as gardening and manual work. Her biggest passion being robotics.

Harriet is often underestimated by the way she dresses as well…its definetly not how kids in 2012 dress nowadays and she looks like she is going to a rainfaire. But harriet just dresses like that due to genuinely just enjoying herself and having a place on her heart for fashion, as she thinks she has to please anyone but herself.

Despite looking more closed off and serious, harriet is actually quite the enthusiastic individual who finds herself hyped up and energetic over interacting with friends and doing the things she enjoys.

Harriet may be a understanding person, but she has a huge sense of justice and a incredibly rebellious attitude, which causes her to have disagreements quite often, especially in situations of people not being treated equally or fairly as she will take issues onto her own hands and usually give people a piece of their mind without thinking twice. And one of her other main issues is her complex that she has to fix anything and everything, even if it seems absolutely impossible, her perfectionism also gets in the way most of the times as she thinks that if one specific thing goes wrong, it'll be an avalanche and everything will go downhill…while at the same time she cannot follow a schedule.

Harriet actually has bonds to royal family and lives in a huge castle on top of a mountain…that barely has any internet acess at all and its incredibly far away from town.

Harriet's mom lets say she is…..a conservative of royal values. Everything has to be on time, stat, ponctual and flawless etiquette…if the requirements arent met, lets say she wont hesitate to throw one of her own kids to the dungeons.

This may come as surprising to some, but harriet is absolutely obsessed with FURBIES, furbies being her absolute favorite thing in the planet. Harriet isnt exactly…a fan of etiquette or overcomplicated words and fancy schmancy terms. And in fact harriet does kind of have a southern accent and prefers to be more simple and open minded about things. She is quite the goof actually.

ELIN CARVALHO

┇ELIN CARVALHO

⇢ Elin carvalho is a brazilian transgirl that lives on a rented apartment in São Paulo.

Elin is a chill person, who pretty much is joking most of the time, finding humor even in bad situations that might occur to her, and she just so happend to look like she is stoned all of the time, well, she isnt in fact stoned, but it looks like she is due to how chill she actually is to a concerning level actually.

Her humor happens to be incredibly broken, laughing even at a single loaf of bread falling to the floor, as well, she finds any situation pretty entertaining and humorous.

She spends inumerous hours spamming her friends with memes and copypastas on the internet, and trolling random kids in the most depraved and degenerate internet forums, with saterical copypastas or just annoying the hell out of them.

Piracy is her roman empire and she literally strives to take down the capitalistic government, every single game and computer program she has? pirated, everything is pirated, and she may had installed a virus or two by accident and still insists her PC is fine despite it visibly not doing so great and it may be on the edge of exploding.

Elin is constantly humorous due to only wanting to bring more of a positive vibe to negative situations…even though she may come off as insensitive or rude, its not her intentions, she only wishes to make her friends and loved ones feel happy and not loathe on their misery.

Elin is someone who is very aware and sensitive about her surroundings, she knows when someone is feeling bad or not, and will help them however she can, and will do everything to make their day at least a little bit better and a little bit more acceptable.

Despite her humorous and constantly joking nature, elin lives with a abusive, strict, transphobic religious fanatic mother, that has a big skepticism towards technology and the internet.

Elin has a passion for making her own pirated programs…and saterical trojans for the funny haha.

THE CLASSPECTS

》▪︎ Gravity The gravity aspect is for the rule breakers, not because of rebellion or the need to change things, but just for the complete fun of it, afterall, rules are meant to be broken. Though they may be rebellious by nature, nothing too extreme as they never go after to change the rules, they just want to have fun. The ones that are gravity bound are random and playful by nature. Not the " rawr means i love you in dinosaur " kind of quirky and random but rather " i brought a raccoon to school because i wanted it as a pet and gave everyone rabies " kind of random. Gravity bound people are completely reckless, impulsive, random and absolutely unhinged, but are incredibly fun people to be around and amazing friends.

Gravity is...self explanatory, gravity manipulation. Altering gravity on any planet at will, even travelling throuought different spaces and even dimensions relying heavily only in gravity. The abilities of gravity bond players is also, floating and flying, teleportation, walk on walls, water, and etc, any type of surface.

》 ▪︎ Rift

The rift aspect in nature is more bold and cold, more observing of peoples surroundings and their own surroundings. Though one of their characteristics is that sometimes they may be too blinded by their own values and opinions. Rift bound people are creative and think outside the box a lot, oftenly finding ways out of situations no one really ever thought before. Other than the creativity one of their other main characteristics is the issue on expressing themselves through facial expressions, mostly relying on body gestures. In general people who are rift bound are very quiet and reserved and in general desire to be alone most of the time. Despite the lack of emotion those who are rift bound tend to be very emotional and sensitive, their facial expressions and tone never seem to match up with what they are feeling. Rift bound people tend to find themselves frustrated quite easily when they fail to do tasks, and mostly have trouble asking for help. They oftenly get easily irritated when things dont go their way, and they can be oftenly hypocritical. The abilities to those that are rift bond is opening portals, and tearing space and time to create wormholes for easy travel. those who are rift bond can use their portals to shoot laser beams out of them, and reflect attacks against opponents. Their other abilities may include, reality warping, flight, teleportation.

》 ▪︎ Plague

Plague is the aspect of the damned and the sufferers. The aspect of plague comes with acceptance and learning that the world isnt a completely positive place, though they are accepting they wont entirely do good to you, but be rather pessimistic due to the things they have already seen in their lives, thinking its all going to go the same way, they arent healers, they arent perfect beings, they cant fix or help you, but will be there for you. Plague bound players have one of many characteristics in common: Being self destructive to themselves and potentially destructive to others. Though they truly have wisdom of their actions, some may be way too blinded by their own actions and the world around them might twist to a different narrative pretty easily as they are easily influenciable surprisingly. Plague bound players can be quite explosive and unpredictable, which makes them even the more destructive to themselves and potentially others. They arent the root of all evil of course, they arent notorious or bad, but can definetly be dangerous, we do not reinforce stereotypes here buddy.

The plague aspect is mainly damage focused. They are associated with destruction and decay. The plague aspect can infest a wide ratio area with destruction, causing the area to slowly become inhabitable by any living creature or foe. In healing classes such as saint or enchantress, they will not heal, but rather drain health from foes and enemies to heal themselves. They are uncapable of healing teammates, if trying to do so, they will further drain their health and also make them sick.

》▪︎ Creation The creation aspect is to those who want to make a difference in the world they are in, even if their help is small or big. Creation bound players make differences in the world not by changing things or help fix whats already broken, but yet, create something new, build something that could improve peoples lives from the ground up. Creation bound players highly enjoy being near those they love, friends, family, and partners. They sure can be overprotective of their loved ones, but its only because around them, they grow very weary. Creation bound aspects have a tendency to not let go of the past despite starting a fresh start, as they may still hold a grudge or the past had scarred them badly, they will be hurt and still be hurt for a long time even after creating a new path for themselves, but in general, creatiom bound individuals are very strong people who had it really rough, and will continue to create a new fresh start to themselves and their loved ones from the ground up. They arent perfect and they accept that, and are willing on improving on their flaws, get better as a human being. In general creation bound people are very responsible of their own actions and will hold themselves accountable if they've done something wrong or damaging to others, and are willing to make it up for them in any way possible. Creation bound people are very closed off due to the hurt they've experienced before in life, and they may be skeptical of many things that may come their way.

The abilities of a creation bond player is obviously well...creation. They can create and perfectly replicate already living beings, and they can interact with the enviroment around them heavily, even creating new life on these enviroments. Though they are not only limited to creating life, but also giving life to inanimate objects and beings.

》▪︎ Wrath The aspect of pure skepticism, negativity and unsureness, but yet the one of leardership and understanding. The aspect of wrath is to the ones who are frustrated and fed up with life, tired of everything, feeding off of their own anger, fear, skepiticism. The feeling they have to lash out at any circumstance for pure self defense and for their own sakez the feeling that not everything is perfect or ok and that something terrible will happen in any god damned moment and its just lurking around the corner, waiting to jump out of the shadows. Feelings of doubt and uncertainty surround these who are wrath bound, constantly. But its not as bad as it seems. Wrath bound people are compassionate of other peoples pains and feelings, and will be a great guide through the dark tunnel. Despite all their doubt and uncertainty, they make deep connections with others, they are kind all around these tough spiky edges. They are highly explosive and have a very short temper, they are impatient and can be pretty over posessive of their things, and overobsessive of things they like and are mostly negative abound their surroundings due to feeling the need to fight constantly and defend themselves at all costs, which makes them find themselves explaining every single action of theirs out of pure fear. But despite all of this, they are great leaders, though they may be rough most of the time.

The ones who are wrath bond can convert their own pure hatred and anger into strength, this also goes to other negative feelings, such as fear. Their attack rate, and strength gets stronger the angrier and frustrated they are. The ones who are wrath bond can cause multiple attacks and wounds in a short amount of time, like everything is in slow motion. Their screaming can deafen and temporarily paralyze enemies, though it also can affect their allies. The aspect of wrath can temporarily stunt the attack, defense, and buff of enemies, making them incredibly vulnerable. They can heal themselves by entering contact with blood, any kind of blood and posess superhuman strengh, with enhanced durability.

》▪︎ Faith Faith is the aspect of the ones who are incredibly positive, to the ones who see the good in everything, though sometimes to a negative degree, to the point of toxic positivity and false hope. People who are faith bound have one characteristic in common, a immense savior complex, though it manifests in many different ways, in any way shape or form, they believe they are responsible for assisting other people, or in general that they are responsible for other peoples lives and their choices, especially if they are in a bad situation. Despite having good intentions, they can come off as controlling or bossy, when they believe something is a wrong or bad choice, and their savior complex oftenly gets on the way, even blinding themselves from the truth or even others.

The aspect of faith has the ability of telekinesis, illusion manipulation, telepathy, healing, and even in some cases, possession, flight, and calming enemies down, making them more vulnerable.

》 ▪︎ Sight Sight and Waves walk side by side as a balance dynamic. Right off the bat...Sight is different from Waves, literally and metaphorically. Sight bond players are incredibly aware of their surroundings, which cause them to be heavily paranoid almost all of the time. They always have gut feelings and can be quite judgemental of others at first. They are way too aware, way too aware of other peoples feelings and their surroundings, its like a sensory overload as they are always aware of everything and they can feel that something will happen at any second and at any waking hour. Hell they are even self aware of their own behavior all of the time and wont sleep for days and countless hours thinking about their life choices and what they did. Their abilities may include, future foresight, retrocognition, psychometry, dermo-optical perception, precognition, enhanced superhuman hearing and sight, hypersensitivity to surroundings enhanced, enhanced agility and speed. They are able to see through illusions and hallucinations...as they are too self aware, they will not be fooled by them, but yet be further paranoid. Their powers give them so much sensory overload that they may simply just break down at random.

》 ▪︎ Waves Chill laidback people who are mostly in their own world. They can blend in perfectly with the energy of others and be calm in severe situations, doing things with a calm mind and examining things carefully. Though due to how calm they are, they can be quite carefree and not be so aware of their surroundings or the feelings of others, afterall calm and chill doesnt exactly mean beinv aware of everything and anything and being thi divine god that always knows what to do. Once they learn the patterns they can flow and blend in, but at first they can be quite lost in a tricky situation, as wave bond people also tend to be quite clumsy and careless.

Their abilities include, hydrokinesis, water breathing, flight, walking on water, generating water, control the weather, boiling water or turning it into ice, enhanced agility while swimming.

》 ▪︎ Determination (if i see undertale jokes im disowning yall)

The determination aspect walks side by side with rebellion. As afterall, to change a unfair situation and bring equality and peace, you need…a lot of determinatoon and strong willed individuals. They are charming individuals who are able to gain peoples trust easily.

Determination bond are strong willed individuals, with their main common traits are, very passionate about their interests, and having a strong bond to friends, family and romantic partners, and creating connections with people rather easily.

Though…determination bond people tend to be very naive and easily manipulated, and usually needs the help of an outside force to open up their eyes, since due to their naive nature, they are blind to peoples manipulation.

Determination bond players are in general, very good willed people…but they are just way too blind as most of the time, they believe everyone is good, but when their eyes are open and their mind is clear, they will do anything to fight off evil and protect their loved ones.

Determination bond players are basically stackers, stacking attack statuses and buff statuses when they are inflicted any damage, though oppositely from wrath, they use positivity and ambition to deal more damage. They are more of a defensive class, their main weapons being shields and creating large bubbles around them to defend themselves and other teammates. They can change the size of their own weapon to make them bigger or smaller. They have enhanced strength and in general senses.

》 ▪︎Rebellion bond The rebellion bond aspect is…self explanatory.

People who dont abide by the rules, with the main goal to change what is unfair and give everyone equal chances, though sometimes being way too passionate about what they do and their motivations, they are good willed people.

Rebellion bond people tend to have trouble with communication, as their pursue for change isnt exactly the most stable. They may end up getting in disagreements or arguments with fellow teammates when they have opposing opinions. They have good intentions, of course, but their pursue for change and approach can be quite tricky…as they are more of the " i need to solve this now, this will be future me problem, im dealing with the consequences later. "

They are more of a strength and attack focused class, those who are rebellion bond have a enhanced awareness of where a enemies weak point is and will target that weak point, their attack is not enhanced, however now their attacks are sharper and have a better piercing proficiency. They posess limited telekinesis, being able to push enemies away or bring them closer at high speeds. They dont fly but yet they can float up in the air and not take fall damage. They can temporarily freeze enemies in place or simply paralyze them.

》 ▪︎ Soul Those who are soul bound feel a inner connection with themselves and their true selves. The soul is irrational, impulsive, the definition of having hearts for brains. They are highly emotive and sensitive, though of course, its not a bad thing. Despite their emotions getting in the way of thinking rationally, they are truly good people. They dont have issues on expressing who they are, they stand out from the crowd, and are proud of it, they arent ashamed to be who they are inside. They have a deep connection with friends, family, and partners.

The powers of those who are soul bound are heavily focused on emotion. They can absorb the feelings of others to themselves, such as bad feelings, and etc. Their shadow acts as its own being if they even so desire, and they are also able of controlling the shadow of others. If overwhelmed, a protection barrier will be formed around them, that blocks all sound and any contact from the external world. Their tears have healing properties and relaxing properties, being able to heal the deepest of wounds and relaxing someone when they are the most overwhelmed. They also posess Pathokinesis, the power of projecting one's own emotions onto other people. They can create objects and other moveable beings out of their own shadow. and one of their other abilities is psychometry.

》 ▪︎ Instinct

The instinct bound feel the need to put on a role or a different perspective of what they actually are. Not because they feel the need to hide, but because they feel that they can express themselves more by putting up a different mask and a different role. Instinct bound players are rational and think mostly with their brain, which drives them to not be the most sensitive of the bunch...not because of malice or bad will, but mostly because they are cold individuals that have trouble with expressions, expressing their feelings through voice tone or body language, and in general lack more empathy than usual and its not something that they can control. Though instinct bound tend to be a bit self absorvant, they arent a creature of seven heads, but they make mistakes, they are human afterall.

Their main abilities are strong telekinesis, xenoglossy, bilocation, astral projection at will and even summon an ally from astral projections, controlling their own reflections on mirrors and even the reflection of others, also being able to pull the reflections out of the mirrors.

┆NULL BLOODS ╶ Null bloods are a odd type of trolls. Null bloods are a type of troll that can shift their own blood onto the blood of other trolls and adapt to their specific characteristics so they can blend themselves in society. Its like shapeshifting, but with blood if you will. Null bloods are a bloodcaste that have been exterminated by unknown causes, but most likely exterminated due to the potential of dethroning the rulers of alternia. Null bloods are artificially made trolls, by a olden forgotten technique, the troll alchemy. Made with the sole purpose as a bag of donating their own organs and blood transfusions, a walking sack of organ donations. Null bloods mostly have had no autonomy in the past as they were seen as nothing but helpers and offerings. The blood color of a null blood is completely grey, and it goes through a transumation alchemical process inside their bodies to match the exact blood of the nearest troll nearby. They cannot shift their blood onto a specific color in free will, they have to have another troll right next to them for that to occur. The components of a null blood in the alchemical process are different parts of multiple different animals, and other natural components, as also fresh blood from other trolls. Its almost the same process as creating a chimera.

┆How to spot a NULLBLOOD on its RAW FORM? ↪ Nullbloods on their true characteristics may include the following features. ↱ ADULT NULL BLOODS ᎒ Long limbs. Especifically and especially the arms and legs. Long and rooted unicorn like hurn purtruting on the middle of their forehead. Long ears, slim tail, spikes growing on their backs. Sharper features, long fangs and a strong carapace across their body. A lot of body hair and fur. Tall, incredibly tall, getting to an avarage of 9 feet tall.

____________________________ ↱ YOUNG NULL BLOODS ┋Lanky and tall, shorter horns. Carapace and fangs are as not as developed. They walk awkwardly due to their height. White spots all across their body, these grow out overtime as they grow up.

------------------------------------------------ Rift ferrets

Rift ferrets are a subspecies in the grand variety of rift creatures. Rift ferrets being the most friendly and mischevious between the rift beasts, they mostly cause no harm unless you startle them. Rift ferrets generally are in groups and in colonies of more than 1000 ferrets. The colonies being multiple wormholes in the universe and space, and in general they inhabit milkyway and other galaxies. The rift ferret, is 65 cm in length, with a long tail that posesses a wisp-like effect. Their bodies emit a soft glow. This variant, the original variant, lives in society with other rift ferrets, and build their burrows in moons. Rift ferrets have the ability to float as a way to travel throuought space. This variant is known as " the original variant " as it is what rift ferrets looked like before adapting to the habitats of prospit or derse. This variant is not as common anymore, and is the verge of extinction as rift ferrets move their burrows to prospit or derse. The population of the original variant is scarse, now you may find only groups of about 5 or 10 of these willow-wy wisp fellas. Rift ferrets have mutated and changed as they started to inhabit the planets of prospit and derse. The habitat around them changing their physiology, behavior, and how they live.

PROSPIT VARIANT

The prospit variant is more friendly and outgoing by nature. Highly curious about its surroundings and they tend to play with eachother a lot. Hunt in packs and share their prey. The hunting stragedy of a prospitian rift ferret is to use the stars that float on top of its ears to spread a colorful glitter-like substance that will attract fellow gravity mice and void beetles due to its bright light and mesmorizing movement on the air. Their appearance may decieve many…but they are highly mischevious and will play pranks on foreigners. Prospitian rift ferrets seem to have a undeniable love for tuna. If felt in danger, Prospitian rift ferrets will stack on top of eachother and make a tower to scare off any harm.

Prospitian rift ferrets seem to be larger than Dersite rift ferrets. Being 70 cm in length and the size of a lap dog, while Dersite rift ferrets are smaller, being 50 cm in length.

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DERSE VARIANT

The dersite variant of the rift ferret is a more closed off and reserved specimen, not really socializing even with the ones of its own kind, as they frequently also tend to fight eachother and get into conflicts quite easily. They arent quite fond of foreigners and will mostly hide away in their burrows, though they will certainly wait for a moment to strike down anyone who they view and percieve as a threat.

Dersite rift ferrets have developed extremely good night vision and nocturnal habits due to derse being a dark habitat, so they could better navigate around, but one of their major weaknesses being light, and is one of the reasons as they have never set foot in prospit as the light is too bright, even the light emanating from the bodies of prospitian rift ferrets are too much for them.

Dersite rift ferrets are lone hunters, and will actively fight others of their kind for prey and food. They arent exactly the most friendliest of creatures, but are certainly very loyal, depicting affection with truly trusted ones like purrbeasts do. Dersite rift ferrets have a mechanism on their backs that rises up spikes from the back of their spike out of their own skin, launching the spikes onto targets, the spikes contain poison and can cause fatigue, migraines, throwing up, bleeding from the eyes and ears as the venom is too strong. Their backs is also a very sensitive area to them, so watch out.

What happend to prospit and derse?

The war between the two planets eventually lead to the destruction of both kingdoms and both civilizations. Prospitians and Dersites are now long gone as war had extended til' the modern days on the planet, and eventually led the monarchs and their society to their own demise. The obsession with the war and past happenings led these societies to their end.

the planets are now composed of multiple abandonned buildings and ruins. The golden city of prospit has multiple buildings knocked down or mostly only their structure intact, while its overrun by black plants with sharp spikes and white glittery moss, while the planet of derse is surrounded by white vines latching onto their buildings, and huge black flowers spread all across the city, white fungi with yellow sparkling substances on their stems would grow to large sizes and would make a entire root system across the planets. Both planets have the aesthetic of a post apocalyptic setting in a modern world. Strange plants have shown up on the planet, mostly invasive species, and life has taken its course as new life started to inhabit the planet. Rift ferrets have seen to be taken a liking of the inhabited planets…making it their new homes and slowly constructing a new society.

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》New machines of this new version of SBURB

▪︎ Sacradia box ; The sacradia box is a huge machine which works like a vending machine. Deposit a certain amount of grist and a randomized item or prepunched card will pop right out! But watch out as the items get launched from the machine and not gently deposited onto your tiny grubby hands. Hell it may even take out some of your HP.

Keyquinox ; source to the creation of planets and worlds in this version of SBURB The keyquinox machine has the capability of generating a world key from a totem lathe or merge two keys to form a completely new generated land, the key of the formation of planets of this new universe as possibilities are endless.

Transporter ; The transporter is essentialy a portal where you put your key or a generated key from the " keyquinox " to generate and enter new worlds and planets. Inside the portal once you step in, is an empty void with a hub full of doors that stand on the void which you can unlock with the keys, opening doors to new realms or realms that you already once knew.

The clockwork: The clockwork is a cilindrical machine with a huge arc over it that is used to obtain a TOTEM. But go fast, as the first time you open the cilindrical machine, a timer will go by and the clock that stays right on top of the machine will start ticking loudly.

The workshop: Used to produce totem lathes with punched cards.

Alchemy table: Used for alchemization and creation of objects….but it looks…oddly different from what its supposed to be.

Pryntix 9000 : generic ass name for a machine that punches cards for you…its actually not something you place but yet its something small which you can carry around. It resembles a paper clipper which is sorta funny.

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but what are the keys for anyway? how do they work? where do they come from? This will all be explained in this box of text! follow my lead as i will be your guide to the ultimate KEY WIKIPEDIA. The universal keys are a peculiar object, as there is no point of origin to these phenomenoms. But they came along with this new curious version of sburb. The keys seem to have bars and lines of universal undecipherable code that isnt from this world we currently know. The key seems to be highly aware of its user and holder…as its bars of code start changing and morphing based off of who the holder is as a person. Knowing their passions, aspirations, true desires and purpose. the keys are a granted PATHWAY to the creation of new planets and worlds on this new SBURB, based off of the code that resides inside the keys. A whole new world, new fauna, new locations, new flora, new biology and completely new lifeforms and enemies.

The KEYQUINOX is the machine responsible for the creation of these keys. But in order for the machine to work, a external influence has to activate the MAIN GATEWAY.

Main gateways are huge machines spread throughout the planet of skaia…the planet we are familiarized with and truly know. It is a external force that has existed before the SBURB beta has even launched. All key variants were created after the MAIN GATEWAYS were activated…except for one variant of key, the chaos star key, which is currently now in the posession of a holder. The current active gateway resides deep inside a subterranian temple, that can be acessed through a cave. The reason they are there? who the fuck knows, but they look old as fuck, almost ancient.

[ Trolls over the years have developed and evolved, adapting new characteristics. ] Rustbloods and Bronzebloods Have Evolved in Many Different Ways, These Two Bloodcastes Have Developed Their Pupils To Be Shaped More Like The Pupils That Are Present On: Goats, Deer, Sheep, And Many More. Rustbloods and Bronzebloods Have Started To Develop More Fur On Their Backs, Arms, And Legs, Along With Hooves, Tuft Tails, Or Short Nubby Tails, Spot Markings, Rooted Horns, More Antlerlike Horns, And More Goatlike Ears. There Tends To Have A Variation Of The Furs That Form On The Trolls Body, For Example, Texture And Form. These Bloodcastes Now Experience Hoof, And Horn Overgrowth, And in Some Trolls, Even The Change of Horns Overtime, Just Like Deer do. If Horn Overgrowth Isnt Taken Care of, It Could Harm The Troll as in Some Cases, The Horn May Be Too Close To The Eyes, And Could Permanentely Damage The Trolls Vision as The Horn Would Pierce Through The Eyes. Unfortunetly, Over The Years, Both Rustbloods and Bronzebloods Could Experience A Disease Called " Internal Rotting Disease. " A Disease That Overtime Rots Their Brain, Killing Every Single Neuron And Braincell They Have Alive, Including Parasites Infesting Their Stomachs, Eating Everything The Troll Consumes And Eating Them From The Inside Out. The symptoms of " Internal rotting disease " May include: The death of the braincells, thirst, stomach burning, itching feeling from the inside, progressively losing the ability of speech, tiredness, fatigue, exhaustion, diarhea, vomiting, vomiting blood symptoms start only being present after a sweep has passed, and the host of the disease is mostly unaware of it and may spread it to other trolls in the area, though it only affects rustbloods and bronzebloods especifically. currently no cure is known for this deadly disease, and up to 100+ trolls suffer from it every sweep, causing the mortality rate for lower bloodcastes to go further up.

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Goldbloods have envolved to have a extra set of arms, a moth-like or bee-like fuzz around their necks, bigger eyes and eyelashes, and their body patterns have developed to be more half and half, and a new mutation has emerged...conjoined troll twins. Two cocoons that have fused during formation, the phenomenom has emerging slowly through the years in alternia, the signs being more predominant. Most conjoined twins do not come out alive, as they are immediatly eleminated. Olive bloods have evolved to have more slit pupils, a set of more feline and canine teeth structure, their ears are now further above the head, coming in variations of: Perked ears, Bunny ears, Rat-like ears, Floppy ears, Long perked ears, Long flop ears, Canine flopped ears. They have started to develop longer tails and more fur across their bodies. More digitegrade legs, and body patterns that may include: Spots, Leopard patterns, stripes, sploches, gradients. another odd phenomenom that has been happening is olive bloods suddenly losing all control of their own actions...acting more like a beast than troll, losing all of the aspects that make them troll...the phenomenom is very similar to human lycanthropy.

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Jade bloods have started to develop body patterns that imitate very specific shapes...like swirls and waves and jade green gradients on their forearm, hands, legs and feet. Jade bloods have started to develop more butterfly and fairylike wings, grow more in size, reaching up to 6 feet. Teal bloods have started to develop body patterns that resemble more scales, and they have a tedency to be darker than the rest of the body or have pigment. Their characteristics overall being more similar to lizards, especially visible on their tails, and how they now posess brilles instead of eyelids.

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Cerulean bloods have started to develop body patterns that look like waves and resemble multiple eyes. Their grey skin tends to be in a darker tone and their body patterns always will have pigment no matter the circumstances. Cerulean bloods can now have eyes on their jugular, arms, hands, shoulders, and etc. Just like gold bloods, they can now posess more than one set of arms, and their tails now mostly resemble what a spider has on its back rear end. Cerulean bloods can now stick to walls easily and even walk on them. Indigo bloods, just like rustlboods, have developed more digitegrade legs and hooves for their feet. Their tail now resembles more like a horse, and their body patterns now resemble mostly how horse coat pattern looks like. Their body patterns also has way less pigment than other trolls, and they are more prone to having absolutely no pigment or melanin on their patterns especifically.

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The body patterns of purple bloods seem to be randomized, and have a white and purple gradient on them instead of having a solid color. Now purple bloods also have a tendency of painting over their natural body patterns rainbow. Their ears have enlongated in size, along with their legs getting lankier and taller, and their tail getting bigger. Their tail mostly resembles a tuft tail. Their teeth are now chunkier, wider and longer in size.

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Violet bloods and Fuchsia bloods almost have no differences. They have both developed more fishlike characteristics and are even more prone to have half of their body more fishlike. Their body patterns resemble more the patterns of orcas, sharks, clownfish, and many more fish species. Though now, fuchsia bloods seem to have been getting bigger, and developing more muscle mass than violet bloods.

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Mutants still are weaker than the avarage troll, though they are highly resistant and immune to poison and other toxic materials. Mutants dont have a defined body pattern, but seems to posess more gradiants than usual. Short nubby tails along with the short nubby horns. Mutant bloods have a 100% rate of having leucism on their body patterns, though leucism can occur on trolls, mutants have a 100% percent rate of leucism. Their sclera remains yellow, but their eyes are now more of a slit, and are in more of a white pale purple or red color.

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This is all i have for now folks! i will release extra content soon. reblogs appreciated! <3

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jessicaloons · 6 months

Text

Chapter 20.1:

Ask me what I learned from all those years…

Masterlist - Previous - Next (Part 2)

Charles POV:

"I’m scared for her, JK. I mean I could see over the past weeks that this whole shit started taking its toll on her… but today? I’ve never seen her like this… I never saw her being this lost, this devastated… this broken." I said quietly and handed him a bottle of water.

"Right now the only thing you can do is to be there for her. Support her. Show her that she’s not alone. And please stop her from reading all of this bullshit!" he sighed.

"Is she sleeping now?" Andrea asked and I nodded.

"Yeah, I just made sure that she’s all dry and put her in some warm clothes and she was gone already…" I mumbled and he patted my shoulder.

"What do we know about this guy who wrote that article? I’ve seen his blog plop up all over the internet in the last months? It’s almost like he’s on a personal vendetta against Lizzie?" JK asked, checking the blog who published the article on my iPad.

"It’s this Spanish dude, he asked some really disgusting questions in the beginning of the season… he said he met Lizzie once during her season in the WSeries and she was apparently rude to him…" I said, taking the iPad JK handed me and read through the article.

"Lizzie? Our Lizzie rude? He must’ve deserved it, otherwise it can’t be true, Lizzie is never rude!" Andrea said and I nodded.

"I know, right?" I replied as my phone rang and I picked it up "Oh wait, that’s Juergen… hi Juergen, how are you?"

"Charles, where’s Lizzie? She doesn’t answer her phone? I need to talk to her." something in his voice made me cautious.

"Umm… she’s asleep, she had a pretty bad day. What happened? Is everyone okay?" I asked, preparing for the worst as JK and Andrea both looked up.

"Umm… Charles she needs to come home… it’s Hans… he died last night." Juergen said quietly and I gasped.

"Oh god, no…" I whispered.

"If you don’t want to tell her, then I can call later when she’s awake and tell her…" he said but I shook my head.

"No, it’s okay. I’ll tell her. We will fly home tomorrow." I replied.

"Okay… thank you, Charles. Take care of her. We love you guys!" Juergen said.

"We love you too, see you tomorrow." I hung up and leaned back into the sofa, closing my eyes.

"What happened?" Andrea asked and I groaned a little, sitting back up.

"It’s Hans, Lizzie’s mentor, he died last night…" I answered and JK sighed.

"Poor girl…" Andrea whispered and JK nodded agreeing.

"I have to tell her…" I groaned.

"I’m sorry." JK said and I played with a loose thread on the sleeve of my sweater.

"This could be her final straw… after everything that’s been going on these past days? Now this?" I burried my face in my hands and leaned back.

"You’ll be by her side. You’ll be there for her! That’s all you can do now. And it will be enough." JK assured me.

"You two were always there for each other! Always by your sides. You’ll get her through this!" Andrea added.

"I have to." I sighed.

When Andrea and JK left I wanted to prepare a soup for Lizzie, she hadn’t eaten anything since breakfast and when she’ll wake up I wanted her to have something to eat, without having to cook. I wasn’t the best when it came to cooking, which was the reason why Lizzie always cooked for us, but now it was my turn to take care of her, so I did what I had to do, in order to prepare a warm meal for Lizzie.

"Charles, how are my two little love birds doing?" Maman asked and I had to smile a little.

"We’re… okay. Lizzie had a rough day, with everything that was being said and written about her these past few weeks, but especially last weekend… yeah she’s a bit down…" I sighed a little and sat down at the kitchen counter.

"Oh no, my poor girl. How is she holding up?" she sounded worried.

"We were outside and then were surprised by the rain, when we got home I just dried her up and put her in some warm clothes and now she’s sleeping for the last 2 hours. I want to cook her something…" I began but got interrupted.

"Charles, that’s a sweet thought, but you don’t want to put her through even more today, right?" Maman chuckled a little.

"That’s why I’m calling you! I want to make her a soup. Just something warm that gives her a little energy… I have to break some sad news to her…" I mumbled.

"What happened?" Maman whispered.

"Her mentor, Hans, he died last night." I said and I heard her gasp.

"Oh god! That poor little thing! She has to go through so much! You’re a good boyfriend… a soup… umm- if Lizzie did the groceries I know you must have a lot of veggies in the fridge?" Maman asked and I got up and opened the fridge.

"Carrots, broccoli, bell paper? Oh and there must be a pumpkin and some sweet potatoes somewhere. Okay. What do I do?" I asked and waited for instructions.

"Carrots, pumpkin and sweet potatoes. Do you have onions?" she asked and I looked around.

"Yeah. There are onions as well." I said and grabbed some from a net "Is it difficult? Do you think I can do that? Cook a soup?"

"It’s easy, Charles, you can’t do anything wrong here!" Maman sounded confident and began to give me instructions on how to prepare the soup. We went through everything step by step and by the time the veggies roasted in the oven and the veggie stock was simmering on the stove I was convinced that I did something wrong.

"Are you sure that’s it? Just throw it all in the blender until it has the right consistency? That sounds awfully easy… I don’t think that it works like this!" I laughed.

"Believe me Charles, it is not that difficult, you just make it difficult! You can do this! Just don’t let it all burn and you’ll be good!" Maman laughed now as well "It’s going to be fine. Just don’t put too much seasoning in, just a little bit, then wait for a while before you taste it and then you can still decide if it needs more flavour!"

"Okay… thank you, Maman! I’ll tell you how it tastes later on!" I thanked her.

"Take care of Lizzie, Charles. I love you." and with that she hung up and I stood in front of the stove, watching the veggie stock simmer away. I set a timer and sat at the counter, scrolling through Instagram and Twitter. I knew that Lizzie was getting a lot of hate online, but I didn’t know how bad it really was. People were downright tearing her apart. There were whole accounts that were against her, posting straight up lies. Disgusting things were said. Not just about Lizzie, also about her alleged relationship with every other driver on the grid, but worst of all they were saying horrible things about our family. With every new Tweet, post or comment I read I felt my blood boiling up to the point where I had to put my phone down. My hands shaking with pure rage. I cracked my knuckles. Trying to calm down. I had to stop Lizzie from reading this bullshit. I flinched when the timer went off and stood up, opening the oven. The veggies looked nicely roasted, I turned off the oven and checked the veggie stock. Then I did exactly what Mum told me, scraped the veggies off the baking tray into the blender, poured in some of the veggie stock and put the lid on. Before I started the blender I closed the door, not wanting to wake up Lizzie. I started the blender and watched how it all turned into a thick mash, then poured more of the stock in until the soup had the perfect consistency. I poured the soup back in the pot, letting it simmer and took out a spoon to taste it and for some reason it tasted good. Maybe a little more seasoning and it would be perfect. I almost couldn’t believe it. I turned off the stove and cleaned the kitchen. A loud thunder made me flinch and I was almost sure that Lizzie would be awake now. Slowly I opened the bedroom door and looked inside. It looked like she was still sleeping so I turned around.

"I’m awake…" she whispered and I walked back in "I was listening to the thunder." Lizzie loved thunderstorms, so I walked to the window and opened the curtains, to reveal the dark and cloudy sky. Lightnings chasing each other.

"How do you feel?" I asked her and sat down on the edge of the bed.

"I would feel better if you’d cuddle with me…" she smiled a little and I happily obliged, climbing right behind her, her warm back pressed against me "Mhhh much better!"

"I made you a soup… you haven’t eaten anything since breakfast!" I kissed her shoulder.

"You made a soup?" she sounded a little cautious.

"Yes, with a little help. I tasted it. It’s good." I laughed and Lizzie snuggled deeper into me.

"Thank you." she turned her head a little and kissed my nose "I would love to try your soup!"

"Alright, then come on, pretty girl." I sat up, climbed over her and pulled her out of the bed "You have to taste it first and maybe it needs more seasoning? But I thought I’m not doing too much, before I ruin it."

"I’m sure it’ll be fine!" she smiled at me as we walked into the kitchen and I was a little nervous when she stirred the soup and then tasted it "That’s really good! Maybe a little more pepper? Some chili flakes? But I’m doing that in my bowl, I like it more spicy than you."

"Alright, grab something to drink and pick a movie or something, I’ll heat up the soup and bring it to you!" I said and Lizzie gave me a little kiss before she left with our drinks. I followed her shortly after with two bowls of soup.

"Here you go." I handed her the bowl and she smiled at me.

"Thank you, mon cœur!" she ate her first spoon full and her smile got even wider "I have to say, that’s a really good soup! Maybe from now on you can cook every now and then?"

"Well, if my mum is okay with me calling her and giving me step by step instructions, then sure!" I laughed.

"I could do that! I could teach you how to cook! Like seriously! I mean not that I didn’t try it over the years…" she tilted her head a little and I thought about it.

"Yeah, maybe during summer break? When we have all the time in the world!" I agreed and Lizzie nodded. We fell into a comfortable silence, eating our soup and watching tv. As I sat down our empty bowls, I took a deep breath. I had to tell her about Hans now. I dreaded it, my palms were getting sweaty.

"Mon amour? Can we… umm- can we talk?" I looked at her and she sighed a little.

"I was wondering when you would wanted to talk about it. But Charles, I’m okay… or… I will be…" she smiled but I shook my head, gently taking her hands in mine.

"That’s not it, I mean yeah, I do want to talk about what happened earlier but… umm something happened… your Dad called earlier…" I began and swallowed hard, looking at her, her face now laced with worry "Mon amour, I’m so sorry, but Hans died last night…" Lizzie flinched and squeezed my hands, almost crushing them.

"He’s gone?" her voice barely a whisper.

"Yes…" I cupped her cheek, tears streaming down her face "I’m so, so sorry, Lizzie…" I pulled her into me, hugging her tight as she let out a heartbreaking sob, body shaking violently "I booked us a flight tomorrow morning. We’re going home." I whispered and kissed her head "I’m so sorry, mon amour."

"I couldn’t say goodbye! I thought I would be able to see him one last time…" her voice was hoarse from crying.

"I know, but he knew that you were thinking of him! Always!" I tried to soothe her pain, calm her down. I had lost every sense of time when her crying stopped and her breathing evened out, she fell asleep. I lifted her up carefully and carried her into our bedroom, where I gently laid her down, pulled the blanket over her and kissed her forehead. I began to pack our suitcases, not knowing if I would come back before Silverstone, I packed for the race weekend as well. Then I stored away the rest of the soup, texting mum to come and pick it up the next day. When I came back to the bedroom Lizzie was awake, looking at me.

"Do you really think he knew that I thought a lot about him? Whenever I was gone?" she whispered and I nodded.

"Of course! He knew how much he meant to you!" I answered and Lizzie smiled a little.

"That’s good. Can you come to bed? I don’t want to be alone…" she looked at me with pleading eyes and I nodded, pulling off my hoodie, before snuggling in next to her. She immediately scooted closer "Thank you." she whispered as she settled her head on my chest.

"Everything for you, mon amour."

I stood in front of my bed, the black dress and blazer making it all to real. I sighed and took off the bathrobe. The dress felt cold, stiff, scratchy against my skin. I walked over to the mirror, grabbed my brush and quickly brushed my hair back, tied it together to a loose bun at the back of my neck. Then I slipped into the black heels and stared at my reflection. I didn’t know how long I stood there or when the tears started falling, but when the door slowly opened and Charles walked in I flinched.

"Mon armour? We’re ready…" he said quietly and I looked at his reflection. His black suit and tie made him look older, serious. He walked up to me, hugged me from behind and rested his head on my shoulder, he gently kissed my cheek and I closed my eyes "I’m here for you… we all are." he whispered in my ear and I could feel his warm breath fanning over my skin, tickling me. I swallowed hard and nodded.

"I can’t believe that he’s gone…" I began but my voice broke.

"I know. But you know that he will always be with you. No matter what. He was so proud of you!" he said and turned me around, engulfing me into a tight hug "Now let’s go… they’re waiting for us." I nodded and Charles let go of me, grabbing my blazer and helping me into it. I grabbed a pair of sunglasses and Charles held out his hand for me to take. I smiled at him, thankful to having him by my side.

Charles held my hand throughout the whole funeral service, the burial and later on as we sat together in the little separate room of Hans’ favourite restaurant.

"Lizzie? Hi, umm can we talk for a moment?" Jens, Hans son, asked me and I nodded, getting up.

"I’ll be back in a moment." I said to Charles and he nodded, kissing my cheek. I followed Jens and he stopped outside the restaurant.

"Thank you, for your speech at the service… I know that Hans would’ve loved it!" he began and I smiled a little "Ha- dad and I, we never got along that well… when he and my mother divorced, I was 12, she moved away with me, so dad and I didn’t see each other often after that… I came back for two weeks each summer, sometimes over Christmas, but that was it… we never had anything in common. I was never interested in karting, motorsports in general. Neither are my kids…"

"He still loved you, he talked about you and your kids quiet often." I said and he smiled.

"Yeah? That’s nice to hear. We had a big fight a couple of years ago when my mum passed away. I said some ugly things. We never spoke much afterwards…" he sighed a little and I squeezed his shoulder "But when we talked, he always talked about you. He was so proud of you! You meant so much to him!"

"He was an amazing mentor, everything I achieved was because of him…" I had to swallow hard, to not cry again.

"It’s not official yet, because the testament is obviously still sealed. But he told me a couple of weeks ago, the karting track and the academy, it’s yours. He wanted you to become the new owner. Well you and your dad, as far as I know…" he explained and I was taken aback "You don’t have to keep it. You can sell it, it should be worth something, together with the business accounts, that’ll be a good amount of money." I shook my head.

"No, if he really wanted me to have it, I won’t sell it!" I said immediately.

"I’m happy that you think so, I mean I never really cared for the track, but it was his life, his legacy… it should stay like this!" he smiled and I nodded.

"It will stay like this!" I promised him, although still shocked.

"Lizzie? Where here." Charles said and I blinked "Come on sleepy head. Let’s go." he offered me his hand and helped me out of the van, a bunch of photographers and fans screaming for us, mostly Charles, but here and there my name was yelled "We can just go in. No one would say something…"

"No, it’s fine." I slipped down my sunglasses and put on a fake smile, walking past the security guys to the barriers they put around the entrance of the hotel "Hi guys!" I signed caps, shirts, flags, miniatures of my car, just about everything and posed for an undefined amount of selfies.

"You’ll win this weekend! I just know it!" a young girl said while two guys next to her snorted "I don’t care what everyone else is saying! You’ll be the winner!" I smiled at her and signed her cap "And these are for you! I made them myself!" she handed me 2 bracelets and I put them on immediately.

"Thank you so much! I will try my best to win!" I said and she beamed at me.

"Miss Doetterer, it’s getting too much. Too many people. We have to leave." one of the security guards said and I nodded, I turned to the crowd and waved one last time before I followed him inside, Charles behind me.

"Thank you." Charles said to the security guard and put his arm around me, his hand resting on my waist, as he lead us to the next elevator where dad was waiting for us, entering it with us.

"Here’s your room key. 7th floor. I’m on the 5th. I see you guys later for dinner, alright?" he said and left when the doors opened at the 5th floor.

"Yeah, we’ll see you later!" Charles nodded and we rode up to the 7th floor "Come on, cara mia. That’s our floor." he squeezed my waist a little and I looked up, then I grabbed by backpack from the suitcase and put it on "Here, take the room key, I’ll take the suitcases. Let’s go." I walked up to our room and opened it for us, holding the door for Charles. Inside I opened up my suitcase and grabbed a leggings, a hoodie and my toiletry bag.

"Okay we seriously need to talk about how many of my hoodies you’ve stolen!" Charles chuckled and looked on the bed, where indeed another one of his hoodies laid.

"I can’t even tell? A lot? They’re just so comfy! And they smell like you!" I pouted a little and he pinched my side.

"When you wash them, they don’t smell like me anymore!" he said and I laughed sheepishly "Or at least I would think so? Oh my god, am I that smelly that the scent stays on even after washing?"

"What? No! Of course not!" I said and Charles looked relieved.

"Good! But still… stop stealing my hoodies!" he grabbed me around my waist and lifted me up.

"No! Why do I have a boyfriend if not for stealing his hoodies and t-shirts?" I laughed and Charles let us fall onto the bed.

"That’s the only reason?" he asked while tucking a loose strand of hair behind my ear.

"Hmm… let me think…" I pretended to think and he started tickling me.

"Oh come on!" he laughed and I tried to wriggle away from him "Nope pretty girl, your not getting away…" he pulled me closer into him, keeping his tickle attack going on.

"Okay, okay! Stop! I surrender!" I said out of breath and Charles stopped "There are plenty of other reasons! Not just wearing your clothes!"

"Name just one…" Charles looked at me and I thought for a second.

"Knowing that there is someone I can always come home to, who is there for me no matter what, someone who would do everything for me, without expecting anything in return… someone who just loves me the way I am… that’s a damn good reason…" I said and the words haven’t even left my mouth as Charle gently grabbed my chin and pulled me close, crushing his lips onto mine, kissing me with abandon. A searing fire rushed through my veins and I puffed out a breath when Charles pulled back and looked at me.

"Damn good reason indeed…" he whispered and kissed the tip of my nose before he sat up "Now come on. Let’s have dinner with the others and then call it a day. Tomorrow will be a long day!" he got up and pulled me up as well.

"I’m dreading tomorrow… they will ask me about Hans…" I sighed a little, eyes teary.

"I know… but when it’s getting too much, leave. You don’t owe them anything! And if you need me, call me, I try to be there for you as much as possible…" he gently wiped away the single stray tear that slipped down my cheek.

"Another damn good reason: having someone to wipe away my tears and always comforts me…" I smiled.

"Always…"

"Hi Lizzie, first of all, sincere condolences from our whole team, it must be hard coming here after such a tough week. How are you?" Natalie Pinkham asked and smiled sympathetically at me.

"Thank you guys, I really appreciate it! I mean it’s not easy… obviously. Hans is- was the one who discovered… well, me, he was the one who brought me into karting. Thanks to him I’m here today, so yeah, I’m okay… it’s all a bit overwhelming, but if Hans taught me one thing, then it is resilience and strength…" I answered and she nodded.

"We heard that you have a special helmet for this weekend? Can you tell us a little bit about it?" she asked next and I smiled.

"Yeah, I was a little scared that it might not be realisable, it was on such short notice because, I mean death is unfortunately unforeseeable, but the guys delivered and I’m more than happy with how the helmet turned out. It’s basically a replica of my very first helmet Hans gifted me when I was starting in his academy. The same colours, the same design. I added some of my favourite pictures of him along, to have him here by my side in Silverstone, which was after the Nurburgring his favourite racetrack. He drove in the 80s as a development driver for an F1 team here and loved the track." I explained, thinking about how Hans always raved about how much he loved Silverstone.

"Speaking of the track, what is possible for Audi this weekend? You brought an upgrade as we heard?"

"If the upgrade works out the way we hope it will? A lot is possible, we have to see in practice how the car will adjust to the track and how far the upgrade will be able to bring us, but I’m optimistic."

"I’m sure you’ll be doing amazing and make Hans proud this weekend!" Natalie said and I nodded.

"I will do my very best!" I said my goodbyes and Julie patted my arm.

"Come on, where done for today. That’s enough." she smiled at me and I was more than thankful to be done with the interviews.

"Tough day?" Charles asked as he walked into our hotel room and saw me splayed out on the bed.

"Hmm." I mumbled, not moving. Being asked at least a dozen times about Hans today really drained me.

"I’m sorry that I couldn’t be there for you more. We had at least 5 sponsoring events alongside the media day. I couldn’t quiet catch a break…" Charles sighed when he sat down next to me "Do you wanna talk about it?"

"No… it was okay… I mean it was exhausting being asked over and over again how I’m feeling and about Hans in general. But it’s part of the game, no?" I said, still not moving. The tension in my neck and shoulders getting worse.

"I saw it. They asked me as well, but more about you…" Charles leaned down to look at my face "You look drained. Have you eaten something?"

"Yeah, I had a little something with Dad and JK earlier. I just came back after and fell straight to bed." I groaned and slowly turned on my back, rolling my shoulder blades, face scrunching up a little.

"Are you okay?" Charles gently grabbed my chin and made me look at him "You seem a little tense?"

"I am tense, but that’s okay, nothing bad!" I answered and Charles nodded a little.

"Okay? Did you shower yet?" he asked and I shrugged my shoulders a little "And that means?"

"I hopped under the shower at the track, just a quick one." I said and Charles pecked my lips and got up.

"We should take a long, hot shower now… what do you say?" he smiled and I nodded slowly.

"Yeah, sounds good, I just need 5 minutes…" I had to suppress a yawn and Charles chuckled a little.

"Take your time, I’ll heat up the bathroom a little, make sure your towel is warm and toasty… I’ll get you when I’m done!" one last kiss on my forehead and he disappeared into the bathroom and I yawned.

"Come on, pretty girl. The bathroom is ready!" Charles gentle voice coaxed me out of my slumber and I slowly sat up.

"I dozed off a little…" I mumbled, checking the time.

"Yeah but just for 15 minutes or so… up with you." he pulled me up but my knees buckled a little, still groggy from dozing off "Ok, come here." Charles lifted me up and on instinct I wrapped my legs around his waist and my arms around his neck "Let’s go." he carried me inside the bathroom, setting me down on the vanity. I leaned against his warm body, sighing a little "Arms up." he whispered and I obliged, then he pulled my shirt over my head, next followed my sweat pants, socks and underwear. Goosebumps spread over my skin and I began to shiver a little "Almost done!" Charles shrugged out of his clothes and then lifted me up again, carrying me to the bathtub, filled with steaming water.

"You don’t like to bathe?" I asked but Charles just chuckled a little, carefully stepping into the tub, letting me down.

"I’m not the biggest fan, no, but I figured a hot bath and a nice shoulder massage would be good for you… so come on." he sat down, motioning for me to sit in between his legs and I followed suit. I snuggled into his chest, the hot water engulfing me and I felt my body relaxing.

"Mhhh that feels good." I whispered and Charles began to massage my shoulders and neck and I let out a little moan, the tension already loosening.

"Just relax, cara mia. I got you…" Charles kissed the side of my head and continued his ministrations, making me relax further into him.

"Careful, or I get used to this and expect it every night from you!" I giggled a little and as Charles chuckled I felt the vibrations of his body in my back.

"I wouldn’t mind." he simply said, kissing my shoulder "I absolutely wouldn’t mind."

After an extraordinary good FP1 I hid away with Charles for a little, trying to calm down.

"Oh my god! Look at that! Cara mia, you were flying!" Charles said as he watched the replay of my last lap in FP1 on his phone.

"The car feels amazing. The new rear wing? It stabilises the car so freaking much! It’s like I’m driving a new car!" I was more than happy. The car felt amazing. So far it looked like the upgrade worked.

"Valtteri gets it now as well?" Charles asked and I nodded.

"I have a good feeling for this weekend. I don’t like to say that, you know me, but I really have a good feeling…" I almost whispered it and he smiled putting his arm around my shoulders.

"It’s good to feel confident! You can do this! That was an amazing FP1 and if you continue like this? Cara mia, you’ll be on pole and win this weekend! I can feel it…" Charles kissed my temple.

"Oh yeah? You can feel it?" I chuckled and he nodded.

"Yup. I can feel it. Believe me!" he said and pushed himself off of the box we were sitting on behind the hospitalities "You’ll do amazing! I know it!" he leaned in and captured my lips with his and a tingling sensation ran through my body. I felt his hands gently cupping my face as he deepened the kiss, his lips moving against mine with determination, as if he wanted to put some emphasis behind his words. I got lost in his touch as someone cleared his throat and we flinched, pulling apart.

"I’m sorry. Umm- Charles, we need you in the garage…" Laurent Mekies looked at us with big eyes and I blushed.

"Yeah. I’m coming in a couple of minutes!" Charles said and Mekies nodded, then turned around and walked away "Can you please breathe?" he looked at me and I let out the breath I didn’t knew I was holding in "Hey! Lizzie! Look at me! It’s okay. I’ll talk to him!" he cupped my cheeks again and made me look at him "It’s okay! Please, cara mia, don’t worry!"

"Okay… it’s okay…" I whispered and Charles kissed my forehead "Go. Before he comes back!" I laughed a little and he hugged me tight.

"I don’t care. I’ll say goodbye to my gorgeous girl as long as I want to!" he chuckled and I pushed him off of me "Hey! Not nice!" he pinched my side a little.

"Go! Now!" I laughed and he sighed dramatically.

"Okay, okay! I leave!" he gave me one last little peck on the lips and sprinted away. I sighed and jumped off of the box, but as I wanted to walk back into my team‘s hospitality I saw him. Salva Diaz. Making his way to me. Murderous look on his face. I turned around abruptly and walked as fast as I could towards the paddock, where I bumped into Seb, who was on his way back to Aston Martin.

"Hey Lizzie! Amazing FP1!" he said and I turned around searching frantically for Diaz "Are you okay?" he followed my look and held my arm.

"I thought I saw someone…" I swallowed and looked back at Seb.

"Someone? Who? You looked panicked?" he asked and I shook my head.

"No! No, it’s all good!" I tried to appease him but he only cocked his eyebrows.

"Okay… but it’s good that I see you. I wanted to let you know, that the FIA and Co. are banning that Spanish reporter for the next 10 races. That article he wrote? He had no proof, couldn’t name his source, it was all a lie anyways, but yeah. He won’t be in the paddock for a while. I mean I haven’t seen him around a lot lately, but still." Seb smiled at me and I felt relieved, although I knew that his posts would be horrible in the next weeks "Don’t worry, he’s blacklisted now. One more step over the line and he’s out forever. They will monitor his blog now. I don’t think that he would risk that just to keep going his vendetta against you… he wouldn’t be this stupid."

"Yeah, surely not… when did they tell him about his ban? Like is he here? Did he receive an email?" I asked but Seb shrugged his shoulders.

"Honestly, I don’t know. They just told me that… probably an email? A call from a press officer? Doesn’t matter, he’s gone for the next months!" he nudged my shoulder and I forced a smile.

"Yeah! Amazing…" I said and Seb said his goodbyes and left. I turned back to the little alley between the hospitalities but no sign of Diaz. Maybe I was going crazy? He wasn’t here. He was banned. I wouldn’t have to face him for at least 10 races.

"Lizzie? We’re looking everywhere for you! Come on! FP2 starts in 45min!" Matt put his arm around my shoulder and guided me back to our garage, I turned around one last time, no Diaz, all in my head.

"Sorry, I was completely lost in my thoughts!" I muttered and Matt laughed.

"It’s okay, little one!" he said and I groaned "Stop being all grumpy! Let’s go!"

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever…" I laughed as we entered our garage, where I prepared for FP2.

"Ready? Then let’s go!" Pete gave me the thumbs up and I drove out of the garage.

"Lizzie, give us some feedback about the set-up changes." Pete radioed.

"Copy. Who’s in front?" I replied.

"Russell. Albon. Hamilton."

"Out lap?”

"Yes. Yes. No."

"Alright."

I started my flying lap, literally flying, I breezed past Russell first, 2 turns later past Albon. The new set up felt good. It gave me more straight line speed and as I crossed the finish line and looked up at the results I cheered a little, seeing myself in P1.

"Fantastic lap, Lizzie! We box now."

"Copy."

I drove into the pits, where my crew was awaiting me, rolling me back into our garage. They sat up my screens and Matt handed me my bottle, right as I watched Charles claiming P1, pushing me back on P2.

"Damn, he’s flying!" I said and Matt looked at the screen chuckling, then bending down.

"You could threat him with no sex if he’s too fast…" he laughed and I hit his arm.

"Shut it, you idiot!" I had to laugh as well.

"I’m just saying!" he shrugged his shoulders and I rolled my eyes.

"Let’s wait for the results after FP3, if I’m worried he’s snatching that pole away, I’ll reconsider it!" I said and Matt gave me the thumbs up, laughing.

"Ready?" he asked and I took one last look on my laps, where I had to improve.

"Ready!" I nodded and drove back on track.

"Come on cara mia! Your dad is waiting!" Charles said and I groaned a little.

"I need 2 minutes! That’s all!" I said and straightened my hair as good as possible "Why do we even have to go out for dinner? We could’ve just went to the bistro here in the hotel."

"Your dad wanted to have a nice dinner!" he answered and I walked out of the bathroom "You look gorgeous!"

"Oh shush!" I rolled my eyes "It’s nothing special… I didn’t really pack any fancy clothes!" I looked down at the casual and comfy black dress that I was wearing, paired with my Converse "I didn’t even bring nice shoes with me…" I grabbed my bag and Charles smiled at me.

"I don’t know how often I have to tell you, you look always perfect to me. And I really like your outfit. So come on. We don’t want to let Pops wait for too long, he stretched out his hand and I grabbed it. We left our room and met up with dad in the lobby. In the car to the restaurant dad looked at me every now and then and I cocked an eyebrow.

"What?" I asked him and he looked up.

"What?" he replied and I sighed.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" I asked and he shrugged his shoulders.

"I don’t know? I don’t look at you?" be looked out of the window and I rolled my eyes.

"Whatever…" I mumbled and Charles chuckled a little.

"Why are you this grumpy?" Dad asked and I looked at him.

"I’m not grumpy! I’m hungry and tired and you drag me now to a fancy restaurant instead of just eating at the hotel. In my bed. With sweatpants on." I groaned and he laughed.

"Are you maybe grumpy because a certain someone was faster than you with his last lap." he wiggled his eyebrows and I kicked his shin "Ouch! I’m just joking! Gosh, you’re horrible when you’re hungry!"

"I second that!" Charles said and I shot him a glare "But it’s adorable! You’re horribly adorable when hungry!"

"Save it…" I said and looked out of the window again.

"Now she’s mad at me because of you!" Charles chuckled and Dad laughed.

"Your girlfriend. Your problem." he said simply as the car stopped "And now let’s go!" he got out, followed by Charles and then me "Oh and just so you know, that’s not a fancy restaurant, it’s actually a burger place." he winked at Charles who smiled, guiding me towards the doors, his hand on the small of my back. Dad opened up the door and held it for us, we walked through and before I could even take the place in two little humans already hugged me tight around my waist.

"SURPRISE!" a whole bunch of people shouted and I looked down, Liam and Benji smiling up at me.

"What the…" I said and looked up again. Family and friends gathered together. Mum, Sissy, Marcus, Pascale, Lorenzo, Arthur, Daniel, Shima, Joris, JK and Andrea smiling at me. Plus the little ones, still hugging me.

"What are you guys doing here?" I asked leaning down, kissing first Benji, then Liam on the cheek. Liam letting go of me to jump at Charles who immediately picked him up.

"Hey Bubba." he said and tickled Liams sides.

"Hey Charlie." he said and smiled happily.

"Hi Benji." Charles scooped him up as well and walked with them to the table, greeting everyone.

"We thought you could use some extra support this weekend…" Dad whispered to me and threw his arm around my shoulders, guiding me to my support group.

"I don’t even know what to say." I said as Mum already pulled me into her arms "Thank you guys so much for coming." I hugged everyone and we sat down. "You guys have no idea how happy I am that you’re here!"

"Happy, that you came here now?" Charles chuckled and I nodded.

"Yep. Very." I said and we sat down.

"Can we see your car tomorrow, Charlie?" Benji asked and Liam made big eyes.

"Yeah sure! You can all come to my garage!" Charles said.

"Hold your horses! I thought you’re here for me!" I said, fake pouting.

"We are! But we like Ferrari…" Liam said a little apprehensive but I just laughed.

"It’s okay, Bubba! Really!" I pinched his site a little and he leaned into Charles.

"Can you both win together?" he asked then and Charles chuckled a little.

"Unfortunately not, Bubba. Would be cool tho." he answered and Liam sighed.

"What a shame…" he said and we all laughed "But you could do a 1-2 right? One of you wins and the other one come second?"

"That we can do!" I said and Liam and Benji cheered.

"So can you do that please?" Benji asked.

"Yes please!" Liam added and Charlee looked at me.

"You heard them, cara mia! We have to do it!" he said and I smiled.

"Yeah, I guess we have to now."

I watched how Charles sat first Benji and then Liam into his car, showing them something on his steering wheel.

"He’s damn good with kids." Julie said as she stood next to me and I smiled.

"He was always amazing with kids, but especially with Liam." I said as we watched how Charles lifted Liam out of the car, hugging him and laughing together, while Benji sat on the halo and laughed with them.

"He’s a little whirlwind, I mean they both are, but Liam a little more." Julie said and I nodded.

"Yeah Liam is a little… a little special." I replied as Benji ran out of Charles garage, straight to us, Charles and Liam behind.

"Did you see that, Lizzie? We sat in the Ferrari! In Charles’ Ferrari!" Benji almost screamed excitedly.

"Yeah! How cool was that!" I said as Charles stood next to me, with Liam still in his arms "Did you have fun Bubba?"

"It was so cool! It’s Ferrari! Your car is cool too, Lizzie! But it’s Ferrari! Ferrari!" he said and I laughed.

"It’s okay Bubba!" I chuckled and kissed his cheek "But now you gotta go back to your parents. We have to prepare for quali."

"Alright kiddos, I see you later!" Charles set Liam down and leaned in but I looked at him in shock "Oh- fuck… umm- sorry, Lizzie. I don’t know why I- sorry!"

"It’s okay, nothing happened!" I chuckled and kissed his cheek, then he ruffled Benjis hair and left us.

"Come on kiddos!" I said and took their hands, leading them back into our garage, where my brother waited already.

"So, how was Charles car?" he asked and both kids started to talk enthusiastically.

"Okay, you got them, I get ready!" I said and waved them goodbye for now.

"Ready, Lizzie?" Matt asked as I climbed in the car.

"Yep! I have a very good feeling about quali! I only have to watch out for Charles, he’s flying!" I said and sat down.

"You can do it!" Pete chimed in and I nodded.

"I try my best." I closed my visor and drove out of the pits.

I warmed my tires and accelerated as I crossed the finish line and my first flying lap was solid.

"That’s P3 for now. Charles, Sainz, Hamilton, Russell behind on their fast laps."

"Alright."

I made it into Q2 on P4. I checked the data and looked to the right, where Liam and Benji cheered for me. I gave them the thumbs up before I drove out of the garage again.

"Alright Lizzie, for now you’re safe! Do another outlaw and then push, push, push!"

"Let’s go."

P2.

"Charles is flying! He sets fastest lap after lap!" I said and checked my own lap times.

"You can do it!" Pete said and I nodded.

"Try my best!"

I prepared my tires and pushed hard.

"And that’s P1 for now. Fastest sectors 2 and 3. Charles just set the fastest time in sector 1."

"Do I have time for another lap?"

"If you’re fast."

"Alright."

"Charles also fastest in sector 2."

"Copy."

"Yellow flag. Yellow flag."

"Nooo!" why now? But then I saw the red flag "FUCK!"

"That’s it Lizzie. They won’t resume the session. You’re on pole! THAT’S P1!"

"What? WHAT? But Charles?"

"The yellow flag came when he was in the last turn! He’s in P2! You’ve done it! Woooohoooo!" Pete screamed and I had to laugh.

"FUCKING HELL! Pole? Oh my god!" I couldn’t believe it. My first ever pole position in F1.

I jumped out of the car, straight into Charles arms.

"Congrats! Amazing lap!" he said and I shook my head.

"I’m so sorry! That would’ve been your pole if it wasn’t for that yellow flag or rather red flag…" I said but Charles shook his head.

"Stop it! You did amazing! You deserve it." he said and hugged me tight before he released me and gently tapped his helmet against mine, as if he wanted to lean his forehead against mine "Like I said! I have a feeling that you’ll win this weekend!"

"Oh stop it! The race is a different story!" I chuckled and he just laughed.

"You’ll see!" he said and I walked up to my team, who gave me a loud and warm welcome. Everyone cheering and congratulating me.

"Fantastic job! Your first pole!" Pete hugged me and Felix pushed him off to hug me himself.

"Amazing, Lizzie! Tomorrow you’ll show the world how much you deserve this seat!" he said and I rolled my eyes.

"Jeez! No pressure, right?" I laughed a little.

"Little pressure never killed nobody. Just saying." he chuckled and patted my shoulder.

"I guess so." I replied.

"But why did you get a penalty for that?" Benji asked as Charles poured in some water into his cup.

"Because I didn’t slow down fast enough when the yellow flag was waved. That’s a sign to slow down because there is some danger on the track. It’s a warning sign. And I didn’t do it fast enough." Charles sighed a little.

"Oh, that’s not good." Benji said quietly and Charles chuckled a little.

"Nope, it’s not. But it’s like this." he said and leaned back, watching how Liam fought with his spaghetti "I’ll do now something, you have to promise me you’ll never tell any Italian person, okay?" he said and took Liams plate, cutting the spaghetti "That’s a sin for them. So this will be our secret, okay?" Liam nodded smiling as Charles shoved his plate back into place and Liam began to eat.

"I’m really sorry, Charles." I said, poking my salad, not really hungry.

"What for? It was my fault, I was like in a tunnel and just saw it too late. My mistake." he shrugged his shoulders "Don’t worry about it."

"But you look sad…" Liam said and Charles smiled at him.

"Just a little, but now that I’m spending some time with my two favourite little lads? I feel already way better!" Charles said and Liam smiled.

"Okay, then we cheer you up now!" he said and Benji nodded.

"Yup yup!" Benji chirped and Charles ruffled both boys’ hair.

"Thank you! You’re the best!" he smiled at them and then he looked at me "I’m fine!" he mouthed to me and I nodded.

"Okay. Let’s finish and then we’ll go to the Minigolf course!" I said and held up my hand, the waiter walked up to us and smiled nervously "Hi, can we get the bill please?"

"Yeah! Sure!" he said and walked away, to return a moment later with our bill. I handed him my credit card "Can I… umm can I maybe take a selfie with you guys? I’m a huge fan! Of both of you! Amazing lap today Lizzie! And I’m really sorry for the penalty! That sucks!" he looked at us and I nodded.

"Sure!" Charles and I got up from our seats and stood on each site of our waiter.

"Thank you so much! Good luck tomorrow! I really hope that one of you wins! But both of you on the podium would be amazing!" he smiled and I laughed.

"We’ll do our best!" I said and Charles nodded along.

Liam and Benji looked at us with big eyes.

"Isn’t it weird that people always want to take pictures with you?" Benji asked and Charles chuckled a little.

"You get used to it! And now let’s go!" he said and we left the little bistro, to play a round of Minigolf with the kiddos.

Part 2 ➡️

(This chapter turned out to be too long for Tumblr so I had to split it 🤷🏻‍♀️🙈)

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Little Note:

Chapter 20.2 - one of my absolute favourite chapters! A lot is happening! A lot sad and bad things! Lizzie on pole!

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