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hldailyupdate · 2 years

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Yes, you read that correctly. The former One Direction star has put on his very own festival – and it's a guitar bonanza in Málaga with Hinds and The Vaccines on the bill. Rhian Daly finds out why

“I was 16 when I went to my first festival,” Louis Tomlinson recalls towards the end of his headlining set in Málaga on Saturday night (August 28). Beneath his usual stage swagger, there’s a healthy dose of awe coursing through his voice as he looks out over the 15,500 people gathered at Marenostrum Music Castle Park, the beach-side venue that is playing host to this year’s edition of Away From Home Festival. “Never did I think I’d be involved in something like this.”

Tonight, Tomlinson isn’t just headlining a festival on the Costa del Sol – he’s put the whole party together. It’s the second run of the event, which he founded in 2021, and this year has moved to a location far more exotic than its original base of Crystal Palace Bowl in south London.

“It’s always been a dream of mine to create something like this,” the star explains to NME backstage hours earlier. “But it’s always been exactly that – a dream.” As was the case for many people over the last couple of years, the forced halt of normal life in lockdown gave him an opportunity to start thinking about how to turn his festival organiser fantasies into reality. “Around that time, it came back to my mind and I thought it might be a nice thing to do.” The first Away From Home took the form of a free one-dayer intended to “celebrate live music being back” after the pandemic ripped away opportunities for bands to perform.

Think of Tomlinson and your brain probably doesn’t immediately jump to indie music. The 30-year-old solo artist famously got his start after auditioning for The X Factor in 2010 and being put into world-conquering boyband One Direction. Tell anyone outside of his fandom you’re going to a Louis-cruated festival that features the likes of The Vaccines, Hinds and – until a scheduling conflict scuppers his appearance – a DJ set by The Libertines’ Carl Barat, and you’ll be met with reactions of complete bewilderment.

For The Vaccines’ Justin Young, that element of the unexpected was part of the appeal of accepting the invitation to perform. “I was so up for it [when I first heard Louis wanted us to play,” he says. “Probably 90 per cent of festivals are all the exact same line-up these days and I think one of the reasons we really wanted to do this was because it’s really fun playing to audiences that you would never normally play to and, they in turn, will never hear you. You’re sort of this blank canvas and you’re reminded of just how many people are out there that love music, but aren’t necessarily exposed to different corners of the scene.”

23-year-old punter Adriana, who bought her ticket to Away From Home just to see Tomlinson, backs this up: “I hadn’t heard any of the other bands before today.” Like most of the crowd today, she came to the festival early and watched every act. “It’s like getting recommendations from Louis, so I wanted to see what he likes. I really liked all of the artists – I’d probably go see them again at their own shows.”

Speak to Tomlinson and you can easily see his passion for the bands on the bill and beyond. As a kid growing up in Doncaster, the first band he fell in love with was Oasis (you can feel the Gallagher influence in his show, sound and style), while’s quietly been building a reputation as someone willing to give new bands a leg-up.

He describes himself as someone who is, when he has the time, “actively trying to look for new things” to excite him and gushes about Liverpool’s Stone, whom he’s particularly excited to see play at Away From Home today. “My best mate showed me them about four or five months ago and from the first time listening to them, it’s just really, really interesting,” he says. “Watching the live show – which I’ve only seen on YouTube – it looks like fucking chaos. Their lead singer’s an amazing performer. I’m honoured that they agreed to do it.”

Last year, it was reported that Tomlinson made another show of support to Manchester band Muraja, donating £4000 to the group after they had their gear stolen. For Away From Home 2022, he started a competition to find a new act to open the festival. “I’ve always been really interested in the development stage of band’s careers – I think they’re some of the most exciting times,” he explains. “So, you know, any way where I can help benefit [new bands] like that has always been really important to me.”

The festival is, he says, a chance for him to not only showcase rising acts, but also – as Adriana noted – to show his fans the bands that he loves and spends his time listening to. The latest band to be added to that list are Glaswegian four-piece Voodoos, who entered the contest to perform but had no expectations that they would be chosen. After whittling down all the entries, Tomlinson decided they would be the best fit. “We got some great entries, to be fair, but Voodoos just felt the most appropriate with the line-up and again, going off what I love listening to,” he explains.

After the band have performed, singer Piero Marcuccilli tells NME: “It was only one or two days ago that we got an email saying, ‘Do you still want to do this?’” He’s clearly still somewhat surprised to be there. The crowd – as is the case for every band on the day – greeted them warmly and wildly, despite their late addition to the line-up. “I wasn’t sure it was going to be Louis’ fans’ style of music, but they were screaming when we came on stage.”

Voodoos are no strangers to big support slots – they joined DMA’S on their Scottish dates last night and opened for Stereophonics in Dundee this summer – but a slot at Away From Home has given them a valuable opportunity that is getting harder to come by for new bands. “This is the first time we’ve played outside of the UK,” notes drummer Marco Conte. “Louis’s giving bands a leg up and that’s amazing that he can do that.”

The Scots aren’t the only less familiar band on the line-up today. San Diego surf-rockers Sunroom – who previously joined Tomlinson for the North and South American legs of his world tour earlier this year – have made the trip over from the US. “This is definitely the biggest crowd we’ve played to in our whole lives,” frontman Luke Asgian marvels during their set. Moments later, a group of girls at the back of the crowd scream along to every word of the band’s final song.

“It’s been monumentally valuable,” Asgian later tells NME backstage. “It’s definitely put us in front of a ton of people that we never would have been put in front of. It’s super-cool that he’s taken us under his wing.”

Guitarist Ashton Minnich adds: “I think it’s really cool how Louis uses his influence in music to help support smaller bands that he’s interested in.”

Tomlinson is far from the only artist to hold their own festival. There’s been a big rise in events curated by musicians themselves in recent years in all genres, be that Tyler, The Creator’s Camp Flog Gnaw, Justin Vernon and Aaron Dessner’s Eaux Claires or Courtney Barnett’s touring festival Here Or There. The fact that more and more artists are taking control over their own events, says Young, could be down to them “having more control than they’ve ever had before”.

The Vaccines frontman continues: “I think social media has created this kind of democratised way that we consume. All of sudden, you’ve cut out press or labels or management – whatever it may be – and people can speak directly to the artists they love and the fans that follow them. So I think there’s this empowerment of fandom and artists that comes with that.”

For much of the day at Away From Home 2022, the focus might be on other artists, but when it comes to the headline set, all eyes are on Tomlinson. He delivers a performance that wouldn’t feel out of place on the main stages of Reading & Leeds Festival, the guitar-driven sounds of his debut album ‘Walls’ mixing with amped-up versions of One Direction tracks ‘Drag Me Down’ and ‘Little Black Dress’. He throws in a handful of covers into the setlist that share another glimpse into his playlists too – first, a rendition of Catfish And The Bottlemen’s ‘7’, followed later by his take on Kings Of Leon’s ‘Beautiful War’.

In between it all, he airs two new songs – ‘Changes’, which sets lyrical reflection to a sweeping, slow indie sound in the same vein as one of Oasis’ softer moments, and ‘Copy Of A Copy Of A Copy’, on which he ramps up from plaintive verses to a stomping chorus. They’re two hints at where his imminent second album will take him. Although Tomlinson is far from a new artist, he sees his solo journey so far as not too dissimilar to the early days of some of the smaller acts on the festival’s line-up, saying the period around his first album had “an element of me going through my own development stage, but doing it in the public eye”. What’s about to come next will, he adds, “define me better as an artist”.

He grins: “I’m really excited about this next chapter. My first record, I’m immensely proud of it, but it was hard to work out where I stood in the industry coming out of a band the size of One Direction and exactly what One Direction were. Where I’ve got to on this record, I feel really, really proud of.”

“Any way I can help benefit new bands has always been really important to me” – Louis Tomlinson

For this next album, Tomlinson has looked to DMA’S’ last album ‘The Glow’, emboldened by the Australian trio’s open-minded approach to their songwriting. “With my first record, I think I’d been a bit close-minded in the sounds that I wanted to produce,” he says. “There’s a lot of interesting, dance-y elements that they brought into that record with [famed producer] Stuart Price and it just showed me that you can bring in these trendier sounds, but do them in a really authentic way.”

As Tomlinson promises to “follow my heart musically” in the future, he also has grand designs for the future of Away From Home. The plan is for the festival to move to a different location each year, while he says his “biggest dream” for 2023 is to expand the event to two days. Suggest stretching it to something even bigger – three days, multiple stages – and he can’t keep a broad grin from spreading across his face.

“Three days, camping… Yeah, that’d be good,” he beams. “I see it as a long-term thing. We’ve already doubled in size from the first year, so I’m just gonna keep chipping away at it. As long as I can do it, I’ll do it.”

#louis tomlinson #louis update #article #nme #august 2022

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dark-elf-writes · 1 year

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You don’t have to if you don’t want to, but I would like to hear about your break up stories, mainly out of morbid curiosity but also cause I have a weird sense of humor and I probably would find it funny (like in a that’s messed up way not a that’s a normal thing)

Have one of my tamer ones as a teaser:

This isn’t technically a breakup because we werent officially together but we were pretty close friends and super physically affectionate and we’re dating in all but words tbh.

My house was the hang out house because my dad was never home and even when he was he was probably drunk and it was very easy to sneak guys in (read: walk through the front door and gaslight this frown man that it was just me what are you talking about) also on some level I don’t think people liked leaving me there alone for obvious reasons.

BUT.

This day it was me and for of my guy friends including that best friend I mentioned in the ambulance story pre the fight (now that I’m thinking about it this could have been the reason for the fight).

So we’re all in my room which is the entire attic. Two of the guys are on the couch, best friend is down stairs making snacks, and I am on my bed with the guy I wasn’t dating but kinda was.

Only I’m someone who can be super fine with physical affection one moment and super not fine with it the next. (My current friends treat me like a cat that has chosen them whenever I decide to give affection. I once asked for a hug and they stared at me for ten seconds before asking what was wrong.) Not BF put his hand on my leg and this was not a touch friendly time so I told him to stop.

He didn’t.

I moved his hand.

He moved it back.

I start getting annoyed. I tell him to stop being a dick and keep his hands to himself.

He says “You know you want it.”

Now at like fifteenish when this story takes place I was deep in the depths of so many untreated mental illnesses including a healthy dose of BPD that meant my reactions to anger aren’t always the best. And i recognize that violence isn’t always the answer now but at the time… look man I didn’t get to see a psychiatrist until after the ambulance episode where they all but forced me too.

I got up. Went to the lamp at the foot of the bed.

One of these mother fuckers but shittier and all black (I was a little emo what can I say) that was missing a few shades because my friends were shitty and broke my shit constantly.

And I picked up that lamp and threw it with all the force in my body directly at that kid and started shrieking at the top of my lungs.

BFF comes up from downstairs. Sees me losing my mind sees the boy who mind you was like six feet tall and built like a brick shithouse. Sees the other two on the couch gaping at me with something between shock and awe because while they all knew I was feral no one had ever seen me actually lose my temper before/be hurled so deep into the middle of a BPD episode so quickly.

BFF says I’m overreacting (I mean yes but also kinda no. Inset a boundary. It was crossed. It was laughed at to my face. I set a different boundary with a lamp) I punched BFF. Finally the other two get with the program and start restraining people. (Mostly me and bff because he was trans and the favorite and I was at the time the only “girl” I’m screaming the whole time telling them to get the fuck out of my house and that no one was allowed to fucking touch me and all sorts of things I don’t remember. Pretty sure I called BFF something for taking the other guy’s side I was pretty hurt about that. Punched the brick chimney at some point in all of this and probably broke my hand idk.

And the rest of the memory is gone because my teen years are not something I remember very clearly tbh.

As a fun small town USA anecdote:

That kid I threw a lamp at? His dad is a lawyer. THE SAME LAWYER THAT WORKED WITH MY PARENTS AND SISTER TO GET SOLE CUSTODY OF MY NEICE LIKE SEVEN YEARS AFTER ALL OF THIS WENT DOWN

Needless to say they never invited me to talk to the lawyer even though I had been one of the people threatened my by sisters baby daddy

#the elf talks #I was unhinged at the time #rightfully so I had so much trauma and no help tbh #and this was before the rest of the bad things happened #don’t throw lamps kids it’s bad #but also set clear boundaries and don’t let people break them #also if your friend is being pressured to do somethign they don’t want and are pissed about it maybe don’t say they’re overreacting #13-19 really was my villain era #incidentally I was diagnosed with bpd at 20 so maybe there’s a correlation there

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louisupdates · 2 years

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Welcome to Away From Home, the indie festival hosted by Louis Tomlinson

Yes, you read that correctly. The former One Direction star has put on his very own festival – and it's a guitar bonanza in Málaga with Hinds and The Vaccines on the bill. Rhian Daly finds out why

Think of Tomlinson and your brain probably doesn’t immediately jump to indie music. The 30-year-old solo artist famously got his start after auditioning for The X Factor in 2010 and being put into world-conquering boyband One Direction. Tell anyone outside of his fandom you’re going to a Louis-curated festival that features the likes of The Vaccines, Hinds and – until a scheduling conflict scuppers his appearance – a DJ set by The Libertines’ Carl Barat, and you’ll be met with reactions of complete bewilderment.

For The Vaccines’ Justin Young, that element of the unexpected was part of the appeal of accepting the invitation to perform. “I was so up for it when I first heard Louis wanted us to play,” he says. “Probably 90 per cent of festivals are all the exact same line-up these days and I think one of the reasons we really wanted to do this was because it’s really fun playing to audiences that you would never normally play to and, they in turn, will never hear you. You’re sort of this blank canvas and you’re reminded of just how many people are out there that love music, but aren’t necessarily exposed to different corners of the scene.”

After the band have performed, singer Piero Marcuccilli tells NME: “It was only one or two days ago that we got an email saying, ‘Do you still want to do this?’” He’s clearly still somewhat surprised to be there. The crowd – as is the case for every band on the day – greet them warmly and wildly, despite their late addition to the line-up. “I wasn’t sure it was going to be Louis’ fans’ style of music, but they were screaming when we came on stage.”

Guitarist Ashton Minnich adds: “I think it’s really cool how Louis uses his influence in music to help support smaller bands that he’s interested in.”

21-year-old festival-goer Jess agrees, telling us: “It’s really cool that Louis chooses to support new artists – he doesn’t have to. It’s really inspiring to see how much he loves music and I think it makes the fans more passionate as well.”

“Any way I can help benefit new bands has always been really important to me” – Louis Tomlinson

#louis tomlinson #30 august 2022 #louis press #nme

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screenshots123 · 7 months

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📆 29 Oct 2023 📰 'mRNA is going to be turning point in medicine': Drew Weissman, Nobel laureate 🗞 The Week

In an interaction with THE WEEK, done in the midst of the pandemic, Weissman shared the science behind mRNA and his journey to creating the mRNA vaccine technology that is a critical component of Pfizer-BioNTech’s and Moderna’s mRNA-based Covid-19 vaccines and others being developed globally. Excerpts:

... Is there a difference in the antibody repertoire between mRNA-based vaccines and attenuated virus vaccines?

There are a couple of differences and this has not been investigated well yet. We have investigated in animal models and what we see is that mRNA vaccines give much higher levels. Even in the phase 3 trials, the level of antibodies in vaccinated people were about five times higher than convalescent patients. With other vaccines, the antidotes typically give a level similar to the convalescent patients...

... Why do we need multiple shots to make mRNA vaccines create more antibodies? Why is there a more pronounced reaction after multiple shots? And what is shown about delaying the booster dose?

Those are great questions, but we don't have answers to all of them. We have developed probably over 30 different vaccines using mRNA for everything, from Zika to Ebola to genital herpes, HIV, influenza, hepatitis C. Some of those vaccines work well with a single injection, others require multiple. If you look at the phase 3 trials, both the Moderna and the Pfizer vaccines are 80% effective after a single [dose]. What we don't know and what the concern was was that how durable that response is and that gets into basic immunology. And in basic immunology, the first time you see a pathogen or an antigen, the response is limited and it is usually not very potent and the immune system requires a boost, a second vision of that pathogen to make a better response. And that is why most vaccines are given two, three, four times to boost and to improve the response. We see the same thing with mRNA, the level of antibodies goes up about 10 to 20-fold when somebody gets a booster...

... What about booster dose side-effects? I felt a little lousy, a couple friends of mine felt terrible. Some others were very sick. Is there any data on these second dose side-effects? Or, is this just a case of immune systems being funny and individualised?

If you look at the side effects, 80% to 90% of people get sore arms, swelling at the site and a smaller percentage gets systemic effects. This is telling us that the vaccines are working. This is the immune system responding to the vaccine. It has nothing to do with manufacturing. It has nothing to do with contaminants or any other problems with the vaccine. They appear to be purely our immune system responding. In my mind, it is a good thing if you have an adverse event because it means the vaccine is doing its job. Having said that, we are working on newer vaccines that have fewer of these adverse events, so that the vaccine is better tolerated.

My friend has some familiar arthritis in his carpometacarpal joints, at the base of his thumb. And he seemed to have gotten some severe arthritic flare-ups within 12 hours of his second shot. Is this the sort of thing that you might expect when the immune system gets amped up from that second/booster shot?

Yeah, we just don’t know. I mean look at the vaccines in the phase 3 clinical trials. People with arthritis and autoimmune diseases weren't included in those trials. There is no scientific evidence from any animal studies or earlier human trials that the vaccines will cause a flare up in an autoimmune disease. But that's not to say it may not happen when your immune system is amped up… there is a potential that it will recognise other antigens, autoantigens that it regularly recognises. So this is something that needs to be studied...

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ear-worthy · 8 months

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Mina AF Podcast: A Celebrity You Can Connect With

Let's begin with a healthy dose of skepticism. Mina AF podcast is simply another celebrity podcast. It's like a hundred other celebrity podcasts. The format and tone are the same, just the name has changed.

That skeptical reaction is true for most celebrity podcasts. Happily for me and listeners, it's not at all accurate for the Mina AF podcast.

Mina is Mina Starsiak Hawk from her HGTV show Good Bones. If you don't follow HGTV, the show follows revitalization specialists who turn rundown homes into stunning remodels. In this case, it's mother/daughter duo Karen E. Laine and Mina Starsiak transforming properties in and around their hometown of Indianapolis. Laine's legal background and Starsiak Hawk's real estate knowledge helped them to secure diamonds in the rough, and then they hire out demo and construction duties -- or get help from family -- to get the houses done on time and on budget.

The show recently ended after eight years on the air. Starsiak Hawk began her podcast, Mina AF, in December 2022. Since the trailer debuted, Starsiak Hawk has been consistent and reliable, releasing an episode every week throughout 2023.

Here's what Starsiak Hawk wants listeners to know about her podcast.

"What’s one thing you've always wanted to ask but didn’t know how? What’s something you’ve always wanted to say out loud, but were scared to? We're gonna talk about it! Mina is ready to share her story and delve into others. Mina is asking the uncomfortable questions, talking about the things we're embarrassed to feel or think, challenging societal norms and doing it all without judgment."

Mina Starsiak Hawk is the co-founder and owner of Two Chicks and a Hammer and retail store Two Chicks District Co. She stars in HGTV's shows Good Bones and Good Bones: Risky Business, and has appeared on Rock the Block, A Very Brady Renovation, and Battle on the Beach.

So what's different or special about Mina AF? First, Starsiak Hawk delivers on the same warm and inviting persona that she revealed for years on HGTV's Good Bones. She's not a Gwyneth Paltrow, who whines without a sense of irony that her celebrity life is so difficult. Starsiak Hawk is down-to-earth, earnest, and sincere.

Second, Starsiak Hawk is an excellent interviewer. She listens well, asks solid initial questions and can follow up effectively. One of her best episodes and interviews was July 3rd with Money Pit podcast co-host and interior designer Leslie Segrete. They relived interior design challenges on TV and swapped lively, gossipy stories.

Mina Starsiak Hawk has opened up about her mental health battle and how her recent experience changing her medication affected her sex life and caused her to have “little brain seizures.”

In numerous episodes, she has discussed her early and adult family life. A mother divorced three times, a child custody battle, family rivalries, and makeups and breakups. Like so many, Starsiak Hawk's life has been like the teacup ride with its constant swirls, turns, and spins.

One of Starsiak Hawk's best qualities that makes her relatable to listeners is that she does not castigate everyone else and absolve herself. She heaps blame on herself for life issues and talks lovingly of family members. So, her tale is not a celebrity sob story. It's real life, where everyone is both a villain and a hero at times.

One of her best episodes about her life is called "My Mental Health Journey," released on September 25th. In the episode, she speaks frankly about her antidepressant medication, her therapy, and therapists.

“I was on Wellbutrin and Lexapro for the longest time. I was like, 'This is great; this is the perfect combination for me. It keeps me myself, but just not as high-level anxiety,'” she said. “I physically manifest my anxiety. My jaw locks up, I clench my fists, I get nauseous because my stomach is clenched. So, the addition of the Lexapro was really helpful for me to just make all the feelings still there, but the unproductive anxiety part of the feeling kind of much more manageable.”

However, she admitted that it began to affect her sex life with her husband, Steve Hawk, as some of the medication’s less common side effects include decreased sexual desire, ability, drive, and performance.

She slowly started to wean herself off of Lexapro earlier in 2023. When she came to her therapist with the decision, the therapist suggested taking an anti-anxiety drug, Latuda, before gradually reducing her 10-milligram dosage of Lexapro every 10 days. Her anxiety felt manageable when she stopped taking it for two weeks. However, she then began to have physical symptoms.

“At the time, I said it felt like I was putting my tongue on a D battery inside my brain. It was like these zaps, but they were like misfires. It felt like my brain was having these little zappy seizures all the time, all day, and this had been going on for a month, along with lethargy and nausea.”

In the August 28th episode, Starsiak Hawk said she’s “not on good terms” with her mom, Karen Laine, and her brother Tad Starsiak.

While she didn’t elaborate on a possible cause for the friction, she noted, “No one’s punching the other person in the face by any means.” Instead, Starsiak Hawk shared, “We all just exist because it’s what makes my dad happy. And that’s that’s fine. That’s been fine for a long time. It’s fine for a lot of families. I just don’t think it’s fine anymore.”

She also mentioned how it affected their time on their show, Good Bones.

One example Starsiak Hawk gave is a “knockdown drag-out fight during demo” with her mom in the season premiere. “I was like, ‘I wonder if anyone’s going to be able to tell,’” she mused. “And of course, you can’t because that’s the idea. People…that’s not why they’re tuning in to watch Good Bones. That’s not what they want.”

Other episodes that excel are the recent October 2nd one on breast implant health issues and the April 10th episode called "Being A Woman in Construction."

Check out the Mina AF podcast with Mina Starsiak Hawk. For listeners searching for someone to connect with and discuss their common issues in everyday life, Mina Starsiak Hawk is the ideal sounding board. She's been through what you've been through…and she can help.

#podcast #podcasting #women #relationship #mental health

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cactbi · 3 years

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fully vaccinated as of Monday!

#asthma #talking about covid stuff #rambling #covid #im very happy to be fully vaxed but dont keep reading if you have that thing where you emulate symptoms #my reaction to the second dose has been very different #the first one my arm went dead the next day but otherwise no noticeable difference #this one stung after getting it and then was fine the rest of monday #today was ok i could feel a stinging but generally wasnt fazed #anyway i was like this stinging is not like the aching i had and checked and i have a rash :( it's raised a little too #and i was like well that sucks but its not debilitating so everything should be fine and i havent got any other side effects #so i had a cold 2 weeks prior and the cough stuck around because it always does due to 🤔🤔 that im not convinced i have #it always sounds worse than it is too so ill be barking along but generally fine #so that was easing up and now its gotten worse again :))))))#the good news is i have my taste and smell still so im fairly certain its not covid but ive also now got a headache #and whilst im sorta prone to them i havent had one in a while and its keeping me awake along with the coughing fits :))))))#so now im kinda crying at 3am and extra anxieties as i need to wake up a bit earlier to walk my dog as im looking after the house #i might just have to make her wait a little longer until after my team meeting because she won't mind but i do feel bad doing that #but the good news is im fully vaxxed so hopefully soon i wont have any side effects!#oh also i keep retching from my cough and the thai i had earlier doesn't taste quite as good threatening me with a second go #apologies if you clicked read more and got a wall of tags i just like to get thoughts out

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imagining-in-the-margins · 3 years

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The Birds & The Bees (S.R. | Pt. 3)

Summary: Reader earns her nickname, and Spencer sinks to a new level of sin. A/N: Here, take your first dose of smut 💊 ✨ Couple: Spencer Reid/Fem!Reader Category: Slow Burn (NSFW, 18+) Content Warning: Drinking, alcohol, masturbation (male) Word Count: 5.3k

MASTERLIST | Series Masterlist

——————————————————

If I had to pick my favorite thing about working for Spencer Reid, it would probably be something that most people wouldn’t expect. Sure, it was nice to be able to work with a human encyclopedia, and he was definitely very nice to look at, but neither of those things contributed to my love for my job.

It was the sense of belonging. An overwhelming feeling of serenity that existed, flowing freely beneath the surface like a network of roots twined together. I never felt out of place when I was with Spencer — which couldn’t be said for basically any other time. Especially not now.

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays because it’s just absurd. You harass your neighbors while dressed in a costume and they reward you with something sweet (or, in some cases, change). As I’ve grown older, not much has changed aside from the creativity and length of the costumes.

... and the sweet treats being replaced by the bitter sting of alcohol.

“You do realize that guy was hitting on you in there, right?” my friend shouted from less than a foot to my right.

“He was just being nice.”

“Yeah... in a bar,” another girl chimed in, “On Halloween.”

I tried to remember the face of the man they were talking about, but my memory of his eyes blended into the flashing lights of the club. Even if I wasn’t drunk, I knew it would have been hard to remember him. Because the truth was that he wasn’t the person I wanted to see when I closed my eyes.

“Leave her alone. She’s trying to stay pure for her professor,” my friend snickered.

Despite the treachery, I still caught her before she almost pushed us both straight off the curb in her drunken state. But it wasn’t her opinion I was worried about, because at that point, I was certain she would remember none of it by the time class rolled around come Monday. It was our other acquaintance that I responded to, with a very squeaky and unreliable, “I am not doing that!”

“Yeah, what she wants isn’t pure at all,” the mess on my shoulder droned. That was enough of a reason for me to drop her, although it really resulted in both of us barely staying on our feet on the somewhat crowded sidewalk.

“Stop! It’s not like that!”

“Sure it’s not.”

Then, something else caught her attention. Knowing her, I figured that it was either a man in a scandalous costume, or it was a two for one drink deal plastered in front of a bar. I assumed it was the latter, because as soon as she finished talking, she grabbed hold of our hands and yanked us against the brick wall of the next bar.

“So you wouldn’t mind if, theoretically, Professor Reid saw you in your costume?” she asked.

I like to think that I am a relatively smart girl. After all, I had made my way to graduate school, and Spencer seemed to think that I wasn’t a complete hopeless idiot. But in that moment, I couldn’t understand why on earth she would ever think to ask me that.

Running my hands over the fuzzy pink bodysuit I was wearing, I tried to picture his reaction. As soon as I tried to look down, however, the two floppy bunny ears affixed to the hood dropped over my eyes.

“I-I mean, I guess not…?” I mumbled, my face growing hot from something other than the alcohol, “I’m wearing it in public, so...”

But then she said it — the most terrifying two words I’d ever heard in my life.

“Okay – good.”

My eyes shot up immediately, trying to follow her eyes through the crowd of drunk, costumed people. By the time that I spotted him, somewhat thankfully dressed in normal clothes, I was powerless to stop it.

“Dr. Reid!” My friend’s voice rang out into the night, “Dr. Reid, come over here!”

The moment our eyes met, I knew I was fucked. Totally, completely, and utterly fucked. A clever little grin filled his cheeks as he quickly spotted me trying to hide under my hood.

“What the fuck are you doing?!” I shrieked, but he was already on his way over.

“You said you didn’t mind!”

In a panicked whisper, I bit back, “I didn’t say call him over here!”

When he grew closer, though, I corrected myself. Because it was not just Spencer who was walking over. There was someone else with him. Another man, just as tall and just as beautiful as Spencer, but with a dark complexion and an even more wicked smile.

As for my company, they had already scattered into the bar behind me, leaving me with a wordless, dumbstruck look on my face that was very poorly hidden behind bunny ears.

“H-hey Prof— Dr. Reid,” I managed to get out.

“Hey,” he answered in a tone I’d never heard before. A slightly guarded, very entertained but mostly awkward stretch of the vowel.

The man beside him, however, was quick to question.

“Who’s this?”

As I said before, I like to consider myself a relatively bright person. But the alcohol that night had been both free and strong. So, when I was asked by a handsome man who I was on the Devil’s night, I answered honestly.

“I’m a bunny!” I cried, bringing my hands together over my chest and turning to present the small pink pompom affixed to my lower back.

“I can see that,” the stranger replied through a genuine chuckle. But while the action was amusing to at least two of us in the conversation, Spencer looked mortified. It wasn’t necessarily negative, though.

I couldn’t be sure, of course, considering that I had already consumed more liquor that night than I had in the past month, but something told me that Spencer was less humiliated by me, and more worried about how blatant his response to my answer was. Because when he spoke, he did so through a smile.

“She’s uh... my teaching assistant.”

“Teaching assistant, huh?” his friend repeated, clearly amused.

There was almost a challenge to the title. Something about the way he said it setting my heart into overdrive. Unable to control my own treacherous tongue, I continued to dig myself a wonderfully sized hole to jump in to.

“I’m also very good at hopping,” I said.

Once again, the better company of the two laughed. Spencer, however, covered his smile with a hand that brought attention to just how red his face had grown over the course of a few seconds. I was so distracted by it, lost in the way I could still see upturned lips just from his eye shape alone, that I failed to acknowledge the other man for a suspicious length of time.

“Well hey, don’t let me get in the way of you two catching up. Reid, I’ll go tell the hostess we’re here, so the others know where to go.”

With a firm pat on the shoulder, the man almost turned to walk away. But before he could, I drew him back again.

“Ooh, is there a party?”

Spencer, finally able to speak again, rushed his reply.

“No, it’s nothing.”

It was obviously not nothing, though. Judging by the toothy grin that his friend flashed, it was a very big not-nothing.

“Did he not tell you?” he asked with an incredulous, mischievous tone, “It’s his birthday.”

And it was, by far, the most insulting, scandalous news I’d heard that night. Enough to elicit a sharp gasp and hand reaching out to grab his wrist in a way I knew I shouldn’t have.

“You didn’t tell me it’s your birthday!”

My mind was racing, kicking myself for having not figured it out sooner. I was trying to recall the monthly staff newsletter, but then quickly remembered that I usually relied on Spencer to summarize them for me.

“It’s not my birthday,” he explained with a sigh, “It was a few days ago.”

His friend seemed pleased by my response, although he clearly saw it dwindling. My heels had already dropped back down with my hands that fell away, signaling a very different emotion than the excitement from seconds prior.

“We’re meeting up with some people for drinks and dinner. You want to come?” he asked, trying to convince me before it was too late.

But the moment had passed, replaced by loud, insecure ranting that insisted that Spencer wouldn’t have avoided telling me his birthday unless he didn’t want me to know. That meant he either didn’t enjoy making a fuss out of his birthday, or he didn’t want me to, specifically.

“Uhh...”

“Don’t answer that,” Spencer cut in, swiftly raising a hand to dismiss the other man whose name I finally learned. “Thanks Derek, I’ll be there in a minute.”

“Suit yourself,” he mumbled back. But Derek, in all of his disappointment, didn’t fail to draw out one more flustered laugh from the two of us who remained as he gave a tiny half-wave and sang, “Goodbye, Bunny.”

Spencer’s neck craned back, never once leaving his friend until he had safely entered the restaurant. Once he was sure that he was safe from ridicule, or at least observation, his entire demeanor changed.

“I’m sorry about that,” he offered, but I couldn’t accept. If anyone had been a bother here, it was me (and my friends).

“No, I’m sorry I bothered you!” I rushed.

The silence stretched between us, an unsettling reminder that we rarely interacted outside of work. That he’d never known me to party, and I’d never thought of him doing something as routine and normal as celebrating a birthday. It shouldn’t have been strange, but it was.

Perhaps that feeling was what drove me to continue, proudly stating, “I promise that I will have all your work ready first thing in the morning.”

It wasn’t until Spencer’s eyebrows furrowed and his mouth opened in a strange, lopsided grin that I’d realized I made a mistake.

“Um...” he spoke through laughter, “Tomorrow is Saturday.”

“I’m very motivated?”

Thankfully, he saw the humiliation and was happy to offer me a graceful escape from my humiliation. “How about I give you until Tuesday, instead?”

“Yeah, that’s probably for the best, huh?”

I gladly took it, staring down at my heels as I tried to find anything else to focus on. Anything that wasn’t his eyes that seemed even more powerful after dark. But true to the magnetism I always experienced in his vicinity, I was drawn back into golden irises full of an emotion that made my heart beat twice as hard.

“Where did your friends go?” he asked. I didn’t trust myself to answer, so I just threw my thumb over my shoulder and towards the bar behind me. I didn’t turn away from him then, too scared to acknowledge that I would be leaving him soon. That we would go our separate ways again and I would have to wait until Tuesday to drown in the honey of his eyes again.

Sure enough, Spencer gave a solemn nod and cleared his throat before mumbling, “Right. You should probably go find them, so they don’t get worried.”

But I didn’t want to leave. I wanted to stay with him, the rest of the world be damned. I wanted to feel his eyes on me longer, especially when they started to wander my figure that I’d secretly hoped he would see.

I could pretend to hate my friend for calling him over all I wanted, but when I slipped into the costume hours earlier, I’d wondered what he would do if he saw me like this. And now that the answer was in front of me, torn between the exposed skin of my thighs and chest, I wanted to experience it for as long as possible.

With my fingers on the zipper to try and calm my heart, the inebriation manifested in soft giggles as I replied, “I think I’m pretty safe with you, Professor.”

Spencer didn’t need to vocalize his disagreement. I saw his contention in the form of wayward eyes falling to my hands that fiddled with the tiny piece of plastic keeping me covered. When they trailed back up the zipper teeth to meet my eyes again, they were filled with a hunger that took my breath away.

Unfortunately for us, though, our smitten haze wasn’t shared by anyone else in the vicinity. Especially not the drunk pack of men who passed, completely unaware of the amount of space they took up on the sidewalk. I don’t even remember one of them running into me, but I definitely remembered what followed in extreme, vivid detail.

Spencer caught me, quickly and more gracefully than I thought him capable of moving. His arms were locked around me, not only preventing me from face planting on the concrete but causing me to press my face directly against him.

Before he had a chance to say or do much of anything else, I placed my hands on his chest and tore myself away from the warmth of his embrace. Because I was already drunk enough on the alcohol — I didn’t need to be any more inebriated from him.

“S-See? You caught me!” I squeaked.

I didn’t miss the fact his hands stayed on my waist even with the added distance, his fingers subtly digging into and stroking the plush fabric. I didn’t try to stop them, either.

“Are you going to be okay? Should I take you home?”

I knew it wasn’t how he’d meant it, but my inner voice still pleaded, Yes, God, please, yes! My outer voice, however, clung to reason and respectability.

“No! Don’t miss your birthday dinner!” I insisted, but he didn’t look convinced. “I’m fine, seriously. I just suck at walking in heels.”

Any part of me that would have normally been offended by his insistence that I couldn’t handle myself while drinking was quelled by my desire to keep his hands on me as long as possible. Although there was enough space for my arms between our chests, I swore I felt his fluttering heartbeat against my fingers. I thought of hummingbirds.

Resigned to my stubbornness, Spencer took a moment longer to stroke patterns through the pink fabric wrapped around my waist before he sighed, “If you say so.”

“I do!” I giggled, leaning closer like I might convince him not to leave at all, “So you better listen up, mister Professor man.”

The look he gave me was sweet, honeyed bliss. But even that seemed minuscule in comparison to the way his hands slid over my sides, making their way over my shoulders and gently brushing the errant bunny ears back out of my face. He left them there, too, with a barely-there caress of my face.

“You look cute,” he said, like it wouldn’t break my heart.

Shier than he’d ever seen me before, I somehow managed to still look him in the eye as I answered, “So do you.”

It was a good thing I’d been paying attention, too. If I hadn’t been staring into his eyes, I would have missed the flash of chaotic playfulness that appeared just as he glanced down at the space between our chests.

I wouldn’t have been prepared at all when he dropped one of his hands from my face to the zipper of my costume. Not to say that anything could have prepared me for the way it felt to have his knuckle brush against the skin just below the lace bralette that had been meant to protect my modesty.

Before I could even comprehend the delicious friction of our skin, it was gone. Spencer pulled the zipper up to my chin, releasing the plastic in favor of grabbing hold of my chin once more.

“Be careful with that zipper,” he instructed, “I don’t need you getting hypothermia this early in the semester.”

Unsure of how else to respond, my body responded on instinct as it stammered, “I-I promise.”

“Are you sure you’re okay?” he asked again, and my autopilot continued.

“Double promise. Promise squared.”

“Okay. You have my number so... call me if you need anything.”

I absently nodded, but Spencer accurately concluded that I hadn’t actually processed what he’d said. When he let go of me, he took the time to smooth out the bunched up fabric over my shoulders. I tried to convince myself that he was just interested in the soft fluff, but it was hard to ignore the hunger that’d only grown stronger. The darkness that rivaled the moonless hallow’s eve.

“I don’t mind giving you a ride home if it means you get back safe,” he said with a deathly seriousness strongly contrasted by the flippancy that followed. “Otherwise I’ll have more work for Tuesday.”

I was grateful for the shift, because it made the loss of his hands hurt less. My chest filled with laughter that quickly burst from me with frantic, messy words.

“Of course! The work. For Tuesday. Okay! Thank you!”

“For what?” he also said through laughter.

“I— don’t know.”

Spencer turned away from me, looking behind him at the obligations that would tear us apart. I wondered if he, too, was busy contemplating how well it suited just how different we were. How two establishments side by side could house such different things. How we were frequenting opposite ends of the spectrum.

Whatever he was thinking about, however, it didn’t break his spirits too badly. Because before he sent me on my merry way, he flashed me the goofiest little bouncing peace sign before he sang, “Hop along, little bunny.”

So I did, turning back to my life and letting him return to his. But I couldn’t shake the feeling of his eyes following me until the darkness of the bar swallowed the space between us.

Still, I didn’t need him to be there to remember how it felt for his hands to roam my body like familiar territory. I saw that look in his eyes every time that I closed my own and remembered how it made my legs shake like weak stems bending to the wind.

I decided then that it wasn’t the worst thing in the world that he’d seen me in my costume. In fact, I think he quite liked it.

——————————————————

There are few things more relentless than Derek Morgan. Death and taxes, perhaps. When it came to mocking me, there wasn’t a single missed opportunity. Even at the darkest hour, I trusted him to be consistent and predictable.

That was precisely why it made no sense that I had made it through an entire dinner and drinks outing with the team without him mentioning what had happened. Not even once. I almost let myself be relieved. Perhaps time spent with a child that can talk back did him some good, I thought. But when the time finally came for us to take our leave, I realized my mistake. He wasn’t holding back out of the kindness of his heart.

No, Derek wanted to wait until there was no escape route. He wanted to have me trapped in a car hurtling down a highway before he spoke the words that he’d been waiting to say all night.

“So... Bunny.”

“Her name is (y/n),” I quickly corrected. Unfortunately, Derek wasn’t in a merciful mood. Although there was a notable smirk on his face, his next words were uttered with a hefty dose of skepticism. A warning that it was a subject that ought to be approached with a critical sincerity.

“Her name is Trouble. That’s what her name is,” he said, shaking his head.

“She’s just my teaching assistant,” I said like I might actually convince myself, though we both knew that I wasn’t going to convince him. “It’s fine.”

“Is that what they’re calling it nowadays?”

But that time, it was me who issued the warning.

“Stop,” I ordered, meeting his eyes to find him hiding his genuine concern under jokes that weren’t really jokes at all. “I respect her. She’s very bright and she earned her position.”

“I never said she didn’t. I know she’s probably smart, but I also saw the way you looked at her.”

The words felt like a blow to the stomach — yet another reminder that my affections for her were so thinly veiled they might as well be scrawled across my skin. He didn’t need to be a profiler to notice that I was fond of the girl, but it certainly made it worse.

Because he knew that I was lying when I muttered, “You don’t need to worry about it.”

He knew that I was lying, but he still asked, “Why’s that?”

“She’s...” I started, pausing while the word tried to form on my tongue. The word that had haunted me ever since those damned girls mentioned it. That short, simple little noun that had taken a cursory affection and turned it into full blown lust.

“She’s a virgin.”

Derek’s brows jumped up his face, his jaw dropping the same way mine had when I first heard the news. Then, just as I had, he put the pieces together and realized that it should have been a foregone conclusion.

“Trouble with a capital everything,” he half laughed.

But this wasn’t a joking matter, and I really wished that I could make him believe that. That definitely wouldn’t happen, though. Not when he looked up to see me hiding behind my hands, sinking into my seat like it would get me out of the conversation.

“Don’t be ridiculous. She’s obviously waiting.”

It was the wrong thing to say. I should have seen his response coming from a mile away. But I didn’t, and so I was forced to listen to his childish giggles that were followed with an even more lighthearted crooning.

“Yeah, waiting for the right professor to come teach her the lesson on the birds and the bees.”

“Cut it out.”

Without even looking, he astutely observed, “Kid, you’re blushing.”

“Yeah, because you’re talking about me fuc–”

The word never made it out, getting caught between my teeth as I bit down on my tongue damn near hard enough to make it bleed. I wished it would. I wanted the iron to drown me and rid me of the sinful things it sought to do, instead. Opting for a more… distinguished explanation, I eventually stammered the rest of the thought.

“You’re talking about me... deflowering my significantly younger employee!”

“You can say fuck, Reid,” he deadpanned, “I think you’re old enough now.”

“I don’t want to. It sounds too... crude.”

I didn’t expect him to understand. How could he? He’d only seen her when she was at her most provocative… by far. Part of me envied him, to be able to sequester her innocence and view her as just another girl.

But she wasn’t like anyone else. She was an untouched bloom, a magnolia of unearthly shades. A beautiful blossom that had broken through the concrete walls I’d maintained for so many years. A tantalizing taste of the life outside that I refused to let in.

A fucking tease.

“Too crude for little miss innocent bunny?” Derek cooed, and it was so uncomfortably close to my thoughts that I couldn’t help the way I snapped back.

“Are you done?”

As we pulled into my parking lot, Derek just waved off my hostility, recognizing it as nothing but misfired shame and anguish at the thing I wanted being out of my reach.

“Yeah, I’m done. I hope you had fun, even with the teasing.”

I chose not to dignify the second half of the statement, climbing out of the car like I couldn’t step away from the conversation fast enough. But of course, I knew that only made my guilt more apparent. My culpability was clear and conclusive. There was no argument to be made.

“You know I’m right!” he shouted just before the door shut. A final reminder, one last cautionary call for the beast inside of me to keep itself hidden lest I allow myself to sink my teeth into something pure.

“Goodnight!”

Few things changed when I reached the confines of my apartment walls. Fantasies had only devolved into a vividness that was borderline frightening. How easily I could get lost in visions of her, only promising my return in exchange for my imagination agreeing to become a reality that I would get a chance to experience.

But that wasn’t fair to her. She was just a girl doing her job with an astounding amount of patience and understanding for her hopeless romantic of a boss. For a moment, the guilt became so overwhelming that I let it win. I managed to swallow my newly acquired memories well enough to navigate my nightly routine without wishing she was there every step of the way.

Wishing that she would call me. That she would grant me the excuse to return to her, to touch her as freely as I had earlier. I imagined a world where, upon arriving to her destination, she invited me in.

As I collapsed on my bed, I wondered if she would have preferred the privacy of my home. A place far enough away from other students and academics to finally see me as something more than a superior. Something attainable in a way she never seemed to be.

Just as I closed my eyes to give in to the dreams, my phone buzzed. The sound set off every nerve in my body, all of them very poorly coordinating to allow me to grab the device and turn it on to reveal her name.

“Hey Professor! I just wanted to let you know that I got home…”

I’d never opened a notification so quickly, but I should have waited. I should have paused and taken the time to notice that what I was opening wasn’t just a collection of letters and symbols.

It was a set of pictures.

Pictures of her.

“Safe and sound and zippered up. No hypothermia for this bunny tonight,” she tagged onto the end, “Sweet dreams!”

How could I ever dream of anything but her? How was I meant to turn off my phone now, knowing that she was there; her drunken, lustful stare on display? I only tore my eyes away from her face long enough to notice her surroundings. I took extensive, painstaking notes on the color of the sheets on her bed and the way the zipper I’d tugged at to control myself from taking her had fallen away again.

I could feel the softness of her skin against my knuckle again. I heard the way her breath nearly broke at the force with which she sucked in air at the feeling of me touching her. How hard she pressed herself against me, how her back arched when I held her and how she never even tried to stop my hands from finding new places to rest.

They worked diligently now, too, trying to keep her awake and with me for as long as I could, but also wanting to free myself of obligations so that she wouldn’t notice how long I’d stared at the pictures she’d sent.

“Goodnight, little bunny,” I sent before adding, “I’ll be counting rabbits instead of sheep tonight.”

As if to reward my efforts, another picture flooded my screen. Her face was scrunched up in an adorable innocence, half covered with her hand but still effortlessly beautiful.

I stopped myself from responding again. I forced myself to stop, to prevent treacherous hands from calling her and begging her to let me come to her. It wasn’t fair — it was manipulative, downright evil, even — to take advantage of her inebriated state to hoard any insight she might provide.

But she’d already sent these… So, would it be so wrong to indulge in her? By touching my own body to the thought of her, would I taint her? Did I care even if it did? Maybe it was for the best to plant the seed of impurity now, to strip her of her power over me.

But deep down, I knew that I would still want her. I would still wish that the hand that sneaked beneath the sheets belonged to her. I could almost feel it as my hand traversed familiar territory. It would be new for her, and it would be new for me to feel the delicate, unmarred skin of her palm slowly sliding down my stomach. Her fingers bashfully brushing through soft curls at the base of me, still too nervous to hold me the way I needed her to.

Her face would be buried in my shoulder, with dew from her breath wetting my neck and raising the hairs on my arms. I would take her hand in mine and guide her to wrap her trembling hand around my cock.

Just like I was doing to myself now, with my other hand still holding the phone displaying the image of innocence. My hand wasn’t as soft or inexperienced as hers would be, but as long as my eyes stayed on her half-lidded gaze staring back at me, I could pretend.

I could hear her panting my name— my real name, Spencer— in my ear, praising the feel of silky skin beneath her fingertips. She would whisper about how she wanted to feel it elsewhere, too. She would beg for me to replace a hand for her most precious place.

That damned angelic girl showing her hand on the zipper would beg me to steal away her innocence. She would unveil herself slowly, knowing that I needed the time to memorize every inch of her skin as it was seen by another for the first time. Seen by me, and only me. The vision would be for my consumption and indulgence.

I wanted it. I wanted her.

My stomach tensed as I pictured the girl staring back at me straddling my hips. I stroked myself harder, faster, letting my thumb trace down her body on my screen.

If I stole it from her, would it be mine?

Would she be trapped as I was, only able to feel anything when I was with her? Would she dream of me? Would she cherish each and every memory of my touch and play it back in her mind? When she felt the urge to break and burn, would she picture my hands lighting the match?

If I ruined her, would she be mine?

I pictured the girl on the screen with tears in her eyes, her mouth stuck open in a silent scream and her hands clutching desperately to mine. I imagined how tightly her body would grip me as I fucked her. How hard it would fight the intrusion of my sinful touch. How I would hold her down despite the resistance until she gave in to me. Until I broke her, thoroughly and irreparably.

She would be mine.

That was the thought that took me over the edge, all energy that was not delegated to my hand feverishly stroking my cock remained with my other hand to hold her picture in front of me. It never even wavered, never once shaking and risking losing any clarity. Even my eyes refused to close all the way.

She would be mine.

The warm, sticky mess of my desire coated my hand and stomach, but all I could think was how it would feel to mark her as mine. To feel the excess drip back down my cock as she collapsed against my body. To know that she would never be the same, never be wholly herself again. That she’d let me inside of her soul and that when I left, I hadn’t left empty handed.

She was already mine.

——————————————————

| Part Four |

1K notes · View notes

harveywritings92 · 3 years

Text

BNHA Vampire soulmate au: they feed off you for the first time.

They explain to you how blood tastes to them and enjoy a meal...

Tw: Blood drinking, heavy petting

---------------------------------

Hawks: It's been a year you and Keigo seem to be together, you've been talking about moving in together anywho, You got a paper cut and Keigo who was crashing at your placed smelled it from your living room, he nearly gave you a heart attack when you turned around to see him standing behind you, his gold eyes had red tinge as he eyed your finger like a like man who hasn't eaten in a week. "Ey, there I thought you've already had enough to drink today?" you were referring to the black and red sports bottle he'd brought with him. "I did, It's just- You have no Idea how hard I've been holding back, your blood it does something to me..." Keigo husked eyes locked on the crimson nectar dripping down your hand he was salivating and swallowed hard. "My blood...does it smell good?" you asked timidly.

The blond snapped out of his trance. "Petal, you smell like ripe strawberries and chocolate to me..." Keigo has already told you how smoker's blood smells and taste to him, well you now you were curious about non-smokers, and asked if blood type also has an effect on the blood's flavor? the winged vamp was happy to answer!

Smokers: Charcoal/moldy bread.

Drunks: depends on how drunk they are, it's somewhere between hard soda and hard wine or liquor.

Drug users: no idea, he says they smell like rotten eggs, and he's seen how loopy other vamps act after feeding on them and stays clear of them.

Sick/injured: He stays away from sick people but they smell like a cross between a hospital or a funeral home.

Virgins: sweet/tart like fruit-punch.

regular folks: like Sangria the fruitiness is still there but it's mixed with bitter wine .

"Blood types don't really change up the flavors, but I've noticed type As have a spice to them, Bs start off sour, and type Os are pretty mellow." You hummed very intrigued at what you were hearing then, noticed Keigo was still eyeing your finger, like a starved animal, you looked down at the cut then back Keigo and noticed his wings were tense and he was clenching his jaw, after some thought you sighed you held your hand out to him. "Go head before your jaw breaks" His wings bristled. "I'm not some desperate leech y'know." he huffed you shrugged and went to went to put a band-aid on, but Keigo stopped you.

"Let's not be hasty here..." He stammered out at you cocked a brow at him. "Yer really giving me mixed signals here." you huffed did he want your blood or not? " Um... Are you sure about this?" he said blush adoring his cheeks. "I'm just letting you suck my finger...Why are you acting like I just asked you to pop my cherry?" Keigo's face was as red as a cherry as you said this. "Because you essenually are..." He explained the big difference between mates and prey, on instinct he wouldn't give a crap about some rando he picked up off the street or whatever mystery pack the commission gives him, but you...

You're his soulmate, his fated one... and right now your pretty much telling him to make you his! He's not gonna stop at your finger, once he's had a taste he's going for your neck! And once he bites you that's it, you have his mark forever, You paused absorbing what the blond male just told you...Well, he hardly leaves you alone already might as well go all in? "Do it." Hawks's eyes were red now. "Come" he hissed sitting across from you and gesturing to sit in his lap.

You complied and watched Keigo warily as he brought your finger to his mouth, immediately you felt a shock go through you the second Keigo's tongue started lapping at the cut, he moaned tasting your blood for the first time. He was right you tasted every bit as sweet as he thought you would...*more...more...* his monster groaned euphorically he felt the cut on your finger close from his saliva's healing properties.

Keigo's eyes drifted towards your neck, You gasp feeling his grip on your hand tighten before his free hand found it's way behind your head, you tensed seeing Keigo's fangs elongate but before he could pierce your neck he smelled your distress.

His rough hold on you suddenly slacked and his hands lowered to your hips his thumbs gently rubbed you sides as he left little kisses and nip along your jaw before you calmed down enough to trust Hawks wasn't gonna tear your throat out. "Just relax." he cooed kissing you neck a couple more times like a countdown. one...two... three!

You tried not to scream as you felt his fangs pierce your neck, your fingers gripped his jacket as you felt yourself be drained... then like a switch had been slowly tuned the pain tuned into pleasure? moans started sneaking their out from your mouth which confused you, the blond vampire groaned in ecstasy at how rich your blood tasted with lust mixed in he buck his hips against you, after what seemed like hours Keigo's fangs finally retracted from your flesh and lap at the two holes he left on your neck, they sealed as you whimpered weakly Keigo just shushed and you. "It's alright kid, you did good" he cooed kissing your head as you started drifting out of consciousness.

When you woke up your head was pounding like a bad hangover Keigo was cradling you in his lap looking relieved and sheepish, he explained he went a little overboard with his drinking and venom dosing and you got drunk on him and passed out! you must've looked panicked cos Keigo assured you were completely fine, the venom isn't lethal... (To you anyways, one of the benefits of being a vampire's soulmate.) Though you might be a bit feverish and cranky for the next couple days.

----------------------------------------------------

Dabi: You were on your period so yes Dabi's self restraint was breaking! you had no fucking idea what you blood was doing to him you smelled like a 5 star meal and all he could do was sit and drown in his own drool and watch you, like a hawk as you moaned and groaned about cramps and ruining your pajama shorts when you woke up this morning! a low growl escaped the faux raven haired vamp when he saw you toss out a bag with said aforementioned shorts, it took every nerve in him not to run after the garbage truck like a starved dog! before something you said snapped him out of his trance. "hn...What ya say?" he looked at you drinking his third pack of cow's blood.

"I asked if my blood smells good and what does it taste like?"

"I wouldn't know haven't tasted yours yet..."

"Well, what about anyone else's?"

"Why are you suddenly interested?"

You huffed "Sorry for wanting to know you..." and were about to tell him to forget it, when the the undead cremator spoke up. "Mocha mixed wit' something spicy like cinnamon or rum" he muttered not looking at you. Of course you cocked a brow now intrigued, now that that was out of the bag he might as well tell ya the rest.

Smokers: burnt rubber/earwax (eh, everyone was a kid once, had to know what that gunky crap in your ear tasted like.)

Drunks: Depends on how much they've drank, it could between hard water to straight up red wine.

Drug users: the one time he fed on one he thought they were just a pothead, but in turned out they had ate a few shrooms which made them kinda taste like... orange juice and black liquorice?... Honestly he can't give a straight answer, as he was too busy trippin out on another plain of existence to remember.

Sick/injured: doesn't feed off the sick, but they smell like a hospital or a morgue.

Virgins: like apples and honey

Regular folks: they taste like Apple cider.

Animal blood: kinda tastes like artificial cherry cough syrup, and he hates it!

"Then why do you drink it?" you gulped seeing his cerulean eyes flash red for a brief second as he locked eyes with you. "Why?...*growl* your standing in front of me smelling like a walking buffet and you have to gall ask me why I drinking this crap?!" he snapped crushing the blood pack in his hand as you started backing away, you were nervous that only fueled Dabi's sadistic side you learned early that he enjoyed agitating you via flashing his fangs, popping behind you out of seemingly nowhere, and faking you out.

I.E. making it seem like he was gonna bite you then blow air in your ears before walking away laughing at your reaction, something about putting you on edge and having your adrenaline pumping through your veins adds more "spice" to your scent, it happens so often that Dabi started noticing arousal was mixing in with your fear, you bet your ass he started mocking you for getting off on him scaring you.

Of course right now you weren't sure if he was seriously mad, or making fun of you again? He was not making fun of you again he was seriously pissed off, The nerve of you walking around asking him about useless crap, and offering him nothing in return! Dabi had you backed against a wall face buried in your shoulder you felt him sniffing you and flinched you felt him nipping along your neck, and like all the other times he's riled you he smelled that that little speck of arousal through the fear.

He let out a low chuckle causing you to to become fed up, you though he was screwing with you again! "Goddamm-.hm!" You were cut off by sharp yelp as Dabi's fang suddenly pierced your neck! oh god it hurt! you whimpered tried shoving Dabi off! he groaned pushing your back against the wall, suddenly your body felt weird... you moaned it was hot and and everything felt sensitive...

You barely registered Dabi lifting your legs up you instinctively wrapped them around his hips, he let out a low purr and his demeanor became less angry and forceful, his shoulders relaxed as his hands gently rubbed your legs, after what seemed like hours Dabi finally pulled away from your neck lapping at the pin holes he left on, he checked on you only to find you passed out his eye had a rare tenderness to them as he eyed your flushed appearance. "Well aren't you high maintenance." he cooed his thumb caressing you chin before taking you to bed.

----------------------------------------------------

Bakugou: He didn't want say what you smelled like to him as it made him look soft, he finally cracks after more poking a prodding. "If I fucking do will you shut up and let me sleep?!" he hissed it was 8: 47 p.m. and he was tired which confused you, the sun was still out and you could hear kids playing in the streets outside. You heard a angry growl Katsuki's ears were pink. "S'mores...you smell like S'mores, happy?" he groaned when you started shaking him, no point in trying to sleep now that he's lit the fuse! He gave you the sum up of what blood tastes like to him.

Smokers: old news paper and figs.

Drug users: No clue stays clear of them, they smell like pickled eggs.

Drunks: Somewhere between hard water and flavored vodka.

Virgins: Why would you want to kno-... arhg! Coffee and vanilla!

Regular folks: Irish coffee and bitter mint.

Then you you started asking about blood types and what it was when he drank, Next thing you knew Katsuki let out this frustrated bellow! You yelped as he grabbed your wrists and pinned you under him. "You wanna know what it feels like?" you sheepishly mumbled a meek "yes" but the blonds red eyes narrowed. "Hah? say that again I couldn't hear ya?" he jeered trying to get you to use your voice, you repeated "Yes" again a bit more forceful as the ash blond unbuttoned the shirt he let you borrow exposing your neck to him.

Katsuki frowned he could smell your reluctance, then grumbled in annoyance as he recalled Shitty-hair's advice ""Take it slow, be gentle..."" He took a deep breath and carefully buried his face in you neck, You flinched expecting him to clamp down, giving how much you annoyed him, but to your surprise; Katsuki instead opted to started leaving kisses along your jaw and collar bone.

You bit back a moan when he found you sweet spot and causing Katsuki to smirk if wasn't so hungry and tired right now, he might've taken this much farther, but the mouthwatering scent of your blood calling him was too much to pass up. "I'm gonna do it" he husked as you nodded and with that, Katsuki's fangs pierced your neck.

You gasped in pain felling them puncture your skin as Katsuki grasped your hand, the blond groaned in euphoria your blood tasted every bit as rich and sweet as he thought it would, he could smell your discomforted and on instinct inject a doses of his venom into your bloodstream in minutes your blood's flavor intensified with added lust, your tiny moans and whimpers were music to his hears, soon his instincts were warning him stop.

Katsuki's fangs retracted he lapped at the punctures he left on your neck, before pulling away to look at you and snorted you were a flushed out mess. "That sate your curiosity?" he huffed fixing your shirt you tried to say something but were too exhausted to say anything tangible, the ash blond chuckled and settled down next to you for the night.

-------------------------------------------------------

#boku no hero academia #bnha fanfiction #bnha scenarios #bnha soulmate au #bakugou katsuki #bakugou x reader #hawks x reader #keigo takami #Dabi #dabi x reader #touya todoroki #bnha vampire au

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outivv · 3 years

Text

— falling in love headcanons —

Synopsis: albedo falling in love :)

Warnings: none!

Game/ fandom: genshin impact

Character: albedo!

Pronouns for reader: gender neutral/ not mentioned

A/n: hello everyone! I have been ever so slowly dying from the inside, but I’m fine! Everything is fine! Just second dose of the vaccine is hitting me harder than I expected it to :’) (am I complaining about this? Maybe. Maybe). I really needed some comfort, and while I was going to write for xiao… albedo just be… on the brain… constantly. I don’t know what it is about smart men but boyyyy… just… damn. Maybe it’s to compensate for my stupidity but anyway! I hope you enjoy because of course I enjoyed writing it, and take care of yourself! Drink plenty of water and eat something if you haven’t today!!! >:(

Albedo is… to say the least new to love. He’s never quite felt this way about someone, I mean sure he loves klee but that’s as a sister. He loves the fellow members of the knights, but that’s as friends. But with you all of a sudden he loves you more than all of that. Which is saying a lot because honestly albedo does care very deeply for all of his friends, and klee. So for him to love, and care about you even more than that is… overwhelming.

Albedo doesn’t fall in love easily. I mean he does… but he doesn’t at the same time. He’ll feel butterflies in his stomach the fist time you two meet, but it’s not like the ‘whole love at first sight’ thing. Albedo doesn’t believe in that, and yet… it kinda happened.

He’ll have to trust you and know you very well to actually consider what his feeling are for you though. Albedo is someone who for lack of a better word is thorough when it comes to feelings. He can think for hours about what his feelings are for you, to the point where he’ll be completely zoning out. Let me paint you a picture real quick, albedo is sitting in his office dealing with very dangerous chemicals while zoning out thinking of you, he almost would’ve mixed the wrong chemicals together if it weren’t for kaeya bursting in through the doorway, and bringing albedo back to his senses.

It is odd for albedo to be so careless so many people could tell something was wrong. Sucrose probably asked him multiple times, but he only looked at her confused, and asked what she was talking about. Albedo doesn’t talk about his feelings, and if I haven’t made it clear he’d much rather think about them to the point of a headache.

Now when albedo sees you he doesn’t get butterflies in his stomach anymore. Instead his heart starts beating at an ungodly pace. He’ll keep his cool though. He knows how to keep a straight face under pressure, and how to hide his emotions. He’ll talk to you as if his heart isn’t about to jump out of his chest, and then when he’s alone just be like “why??? Why???? Huh??? Oh my archons they were so freaking attractive. Why???? Why were they so attractive???? Holy mother of… wow.” It seems that many people forget that albedo still has feelings, and while he may not be human… exactly, he does have human emotions and reactions. Henceforth why I think that under his cool facade he just… panics. Like panics when he sees how attractive you are.

Albedo doesn’t really… do anything that tells you that he likes you. Like he doesn’t drop hints, he doesn’t give you weird shiny things like childe does. Albedo doesn’t do any of that. Well at least at first thought. Once and a while when you go on commissions, and get injured albedo will be right there for you. He’ll insist that you let him help you, for he’d rather see himself that you get better. He understands the cathedral is reliable, but at the same time why go through all the trouble of going to the cathedral when it’s only a few cuts and bruises. It’s the way that he gently treats your wounds, and makes sure not to hurt you in any way that he shows that he loves you.

Albedo confessing happens by accident. It’s a slip of the tongue that he somehow didn’t notice. There are many different ways that h could imagine this happening, but the most probable one is when he’s patching you up after a particularly rough commission and albedo says something along the lines of, “be more careful, I don’t want to see the one I love hurt.” And then realizes his mistake and panics. On the inside. He’ll have this wide eyed look, and say “I’m sorry… I don’t know why I said that.” He meant every word he said though! Please tell him that it’s alright and that you love him too :’)

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thehomothings · 3 years

Text

Analysis of Kite's conflicting moralities, relationship with death, and the toll reincarnation may take on one's psyche

So, today I decided to compile all the thoughts I have had about Kite's interesting worldview since the first time I saw him into one post, mostly for my own sake, really. If you're familiar with the few posts I've made, you know it's gonna be a mess, but hopefully a comprehensible mess.

A heads up, this is going to be spoiler-heavy, and very much deal with subjects of death and dying as a whole. Also, some of these conclusions are drawn from my own experiences and close brushes with death, I'm not going to go into much detail but it might get personal and definitely dark. I'm not even sure if I can call this a meta-analysis, and I'm obviously no expert, so mayhaps take all of this with a grain of salt.

Been getting into drawing lately, and during the more simple and mindless part of the painstaking process of dotting every single star in this, I let my thoughts wander through the latest part of the fic I'm writing, and I got a better grasp on what exactly made Kite such an elusive character to me.

I'm not quite sure why I got so attached to Kite. Perhaps it was the air of tragedy surrounding him, how despite his sordid past he remained still open and gentle even if outlined by a healthy dose of cynicism.

But sometimes, I think it's the fact that he is so paradoxical. He's brave, yet fears death to such a degree that creates a whole Nen ability around it, is a pacifist yet will not hesitate to spill blood for his own sake or someone else's. Despite the many ultimatums and warnings of 'I will not protect you', he gave his arm and then his life to save Gon and Killua. He approaches each hunt and battle with a clear plan of action in mind, but his Hatsu takes the form of a roulette that gives him random weapons which are never what he wants, but what he seems to need for that exact situation, which he cannot dispel without using. When he draws a weapon, the decision is locked in and his or his opponent's fate is sealed. That's why each time he dubbs his weapon a bad roll. Every time he has to gamble, he sees himself as having run out of luck. When it comes to having to choose between himself and somebody else...well, there had never been a choice. In fact his aversion to using it may feed into its sheer power that we, unfortunately, saw too little of.

Let's go over his very first appearance when he saves Gon from the mother Foxbear.

It's not hard to see the strain searching for Ging has put on him; he's rash, prone to anger and punching a child for daring to get into trouble. In his mind, he's failing at his most important task, has not yet earned the right to call himself a hunter despite being in possession of his very own hunter license.

After killing the mother Foxbear and raging about having done so, he says this interesting line:

So yes, he finds killing for any reason rather irksome as most would do, yet I think something deeper caused him to absolutely lose it in this scene:

He had not been aware of Gon's identity, and despite being an animal lover and a naturalist, he made a choice to save the human instead of allowing nature to run its course. In fact, he says: 'No beast that harms a human must be allowed to live.'

How does one weight one life against another? How is the worth of it determined? The value of life... an impossible choice he's faced with and a choice which he seems to regret to some degree.

The Foxbear cub.

Here, he's speaking from experience, a tangible loss he has felt himself, and a hard and bitter life he does not want to impose on the cub.

His backstory is exclusive to the 2011 anime adaptation but there are hints alluding to it in the manga, for example, the fact that he does not seem to know his birthplace, or:

The choice of words is chilling.

Reading between the lines, one could draw the conclusion that he is an orphan. Something supporting this hypothesis is how he visibly deflates after Gon tells him his parents have (presumably) died.

So we see he is willing to go against his own moral code of not killing as to not doom another living being to the life he led, a lonely, hopeless existence that could barely be called one. He saw it best to put down the cub rather than leave it to die a painful, slow death.

The reason Kite himself isn't as cynical and cold-hearted as one would be after witnessing cruelty in its rawest form is those small crumbs of human kindness which he may have found in Ging.

It was not only a chance at an honorable life being Ging's apprentice gave him, but it also 'saved' him from being broken and twisted into what he hated and worst of all, death.

If we take that one minute of backstory as canon to his character-which I find myself inclined to do- these quirks of his make much more sense. He lived on the run. He lived on the knife's edge between giving up or pushing forwards. He lived as so a wrong move could be the difference between survival and the end.

Between rock and a hard place creates a mentality of black and white, absolute good or extreme evil, this or that. Except in reality, it's much harder than that. Deciding who to save and who to strike down is a heavy burden to bear.

It's almost easy to see how struggling to keep surviving could lend itself to a crippling fear of death and subsequently developing a Nen ability which once more goes against his own moral code in order to give himself a second chance...yet something about it strikes me as unlikely when I look at it this way.

Living life knowing it could end at any moment has the opposite effect, at least for me it did. One comes to accept that it is fleeting and while not eager to let it go, when death eventually and inevitably does come, there is no fighting it.

Especially when there is no hope that tomorrow will be a better day than this one.

Frequent near-death experiences numb one's fear in a way, even if it drives them to take precautions that render it unlikely to happen again and results in c-PTSD, but still, it does. It sparks a certain nihilistic view of 'if it all can end so easily, then what's the point of it all?'

Unless there are things to live for, a sure promise of a better future, and Ging gave Kite that. When he faced the threat of losing his second chance at life:

Really, what else could lead someone to develop the ability of 'the hell I'm going to die like this'?

I think a separate event, an even more brutal near-death experience that almost cost him his life as the hunter he so strived to be set him off to develop the secret roll of Crazy Slots, what I call Roll No.0, Ars moriendi. Unlike other weapons, it cannot come up in random and is directly summoned by him, or better said, summon by his overwhelming will to keep going and hopelessness of fighting a losing battle. I don't believe roll No.3 was the weapon that allowed him to reincarnate. I've named that one Wand of Fortune, a sort of armor instead of an offensive weapon since I find it hard to believe Kite, a Conjurer, would not focus on defences as well, and I will go into both mechanisms of these weapons hopefully in his backstory.

Despite knowing this battle to be a pointless one and being acutely aware of his soon to be demise, he did not immediately draw Ars moriendi, no, he stayed back and fought for the sake of the boys, kept Neferpitou occupied until they could reach safety. We can see evidence of this in the aftermath of the battle that seemed to have gone on until dawn, a torn apart landscape only signaling a fraction of the devastation that was Kite's power unleashed. It still wasn't enough.

In the anime sub I watched, when Gon apologizes to Ging about Kite's death, Ging said a sentence that infuriated me, because it belittled the utter suffering of the NGL trio.

"He would not die in your place." (No screenshot, sorry)

And I remember practically shouting at the screen, screaming 'how could you possibly say that? Of course he did. He absolutely did die in their place. How could you not know your own apprentice? Why-'

It was only last night that it hit me why Ging would say that.

Once upon a time, maybe Kite would not have given his life for anybody under any circumstances, even if he had a way out of it all. He would still need to die to come back to life.

His Thanatophobia could be attributed to the (possibly untreated) PTSD of the near-death experience in his later life, being so certain of dying that finding himself alive afterwards drove him to never want to go through that again. He quieted his fear by creating a sort of a loophole, that even if he lost the battle he would remain. Ging remembered that, but as evidence shows, something changed. Maybe he healed a bit, perhaps growing up dulled his fear to a certain degree, but eventually when it came down to his life or another's, he didn't choose himself.

Now, I can hear you saying 'but he didn't die, so what are you going on about??' And so I reply: Yes, he is alive, but he did die. He experienced that painful, horrible moment of staring death in the eyes and thinking 'This is it, this is the end', went through the actual process of having his soul removed from his body. And that moment stretches into infinity, ten lifetimes condensed into the mere seconds before oblivion.

Dying isn't so hard if one stays dead.

It's not so easy to open one's eyes and find oneself alive again after that, no matter how much that is the heart's desire. It's difficult, nigh-impossible to reconcile with life and walk amongst the living when everything had been so final, when death had been accepted to its fullest.

So Kite awakens, the twin of Meruem and back from the dead, his mind and identity both intact and fractured. In that he is Kite is no mistaking, yet he is not the same gentle pacifist whose first reaction upon sensing a monster's aura was to shield two kids from it at the cost of his arm.

I don't think many of you are familiar with Zoroastrian ideology, but Togashi is known for loving his religious imagery, and it's not only Christianism he derives inspiration from (evidence of which can be seen all over Kite's character and resurrection).

In Zurvanism-a branch of Zoroastrianism- there is talk of the twin spirits: Ahura Mazda -epitome of all that is good- and Ahriman -epitome of all that is evil-, the parent god Zurvin decides that the firstborn may rule in order to bring "heaven, hell, and everything in between."

Upon becoming aware of this fact, Ahriman forcibly tears through the womb to emerge first. Sounding familiar yet?

Zurvan relents to this turn of events only on one condition: Ahriman is given kingship for 9000 years, and then Ahura Mazda may rule for eternity.

Meruem ruled for 40 days, his death leaving the throne vacant for ant Kite, wearing a dead girl's face and seeming to be brewing some nefarious plan. No more is there any sign of that unrelenting pacifism and the sanctity of life he held so high, losing his own may have only served to show him how meaningless the pain and suffering he went through had been, dying only to be reborn as a member of the species that killed him. It may be that he has no desire to rule over the remaining Chimera ants or create an army of his own-

Yet I dread to think what a broken mind possessing limitless power might do to the world.

And that's it. If you made it this far, thank you for reading! If you found it interesting, stay tuned, as I think a lot and I will make it your problem.

#Cw: talks of death and PTSD #When I say I unknowingly projected onto him #I can't tell if writing this was cathartic or torturous #and I gave myself heart palpitations so this is enough for today #And yes I refer to ant Kite by he/him pronouns because misgendering him on the account of his body being afab is just ignorant #even if I think skrunkly's genderqueer af and actually wouldn't mind she/her #still i wanna push the trans ant kite agenda #So yes this is how I unknowingly picked up Kite as a coping mechanism even if out attitudes towards death are practically opposites #don't mind your grandpa trauma dumping #What I'm saying is get ant Kite therapy before he sinks the world #I love reimagining Kite as a villain and I don't know why #Kite hxh #hxh kite #kite hunter x hunter #kaito hxh #hxh #hunter x hunter #meta analysis #theories #fic rambles #Icarus waffles #Kitkat #gon freccs #Ging freecss

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naralanis · 3 years

Text

little bumps in the road (pt. 26)

Previously, on LBitR...

Lena has never given much thought to what happens after death.

She’s heard all about feeling cold—she’s felt that cold, more than once. She’s heard all about darkness—which she has seen, but not exactly in a near-death context. She’s also heard all about the light.

She does see that—not exactly a light she has to follow or whatever it is people see when they die, but a blinding expanse of white, as far as her eyes can see, though a little fuzzy, darker around the edges of her vision.

Considering the way she went out, Lena’s very surprised she doesn’t see any green.

Green. Kryptonite.

Kara.

Something that feels like a sob wrenches itself out of her chest by force. That dumb, stupid, idiotic Kryptonian—if Lena’s dead, then Kara is for sure—how dare she—

“Lena?”

The voice is familiar, and close; physically close, something that Lena didn’t think was possibly in this ethereal, post-death realm. Lena turns her head and realizes that, despite the brightness of the light she’s seeing, her eyes are most definitely closed.

Huh.

She opens them, then blinks, because the only difference seems to be… a lot of fuzzy shapes.

“Lena?” the voice calls to her again, closer still.

“Eugh…” is Lena’s less-than-eloquent reply. She could have done worse; her throat constricts painfully around something, and it’s like she’s pulling air the wrong way in, which causes a coughing fit that rattles her to the bone.

“Hey, hey, it’s OK, take your time,” the voice continues, and Lena knows that voice, but right now her brain feels like actual Jell-O sloshing around in her skull, and her entire body lights up with pain, so it’s understandably taking her a little while to get her bearings.

She blinks the crust out of her eyes; the speaking blob at her side begins to take shape and look like a person.

“Lena, don’t worry. You’re alright, you’re at the DEO. You’re hurt, but we could take the implant out—there will be an adjustment period, but you’re alright.” The voice explains, and Lena finally, finally places it.

“Agh… ah—ugh… L-lex?” she tries; her tongue feels like a wad of cotton in her mouth, and her throat is just burning.

The voice grows soothing. “We got him, Lena, don’t worry, we got—”

Lena shakes her head, which is a terrible decision—there is s sharp jolt of pain that shoots down her temple and settles all the way at the base of her spine; it makes her clench her teeth, which in turn just worsens the throbbing in her head.

She attempts to raise a hand; that fails when another painful shock travels from her shoulder across her collarbones. Lena groans in frustration, she needs to ger her words out, but it’s like her entire body has decided to call it quits.

Finally, she manages.

“Ah-Alex… Alex?”

The figure releases a breathless little laugh, and a reassuring hand comes to rest very gently at Lena’s shoulder.

“It’s me, Lena. I’m alright, you’re alright. Rest now, OK? Your meds will be kicking in again any time.”

Lena is equal parts relieved and panicked; there’s the obvious relief that comes with the knowledge that Alex is fine and right here next to her. But the agent doesn’t say a word about her sister, and that fills Lena with a dread she cannot express in her condition; especially now, as her lids grow heavier by the second, as her body sinks into an undoubtedly double-padded mattress.

“K—K..agh…” she tries, needing to know that Kara is alright, that she’s alive, because if Lena made it, Kara has to be alive. The alternative is unthinkable.

She manages another unintelligible gurgle before the meds do kick in, and then she’s out like a light.

Lena dreams.

This time, she does see green—a lot of it as the entire space of her LuthorCorp office is awash in the glow of the fully-armed Kryptonite cannons, and when Supergirl—Kara—lowers herself onto her balcony, Lena realizes this is not a dream at all.

It’s a memory.

She watches Kara raise her arms in surrender, sees the crinkle of confusion on her brow as the Kryptonian stares at her as if she’s seeing someone else entirely.

Lena watches her fall once she’s hit by what was meant to be a lethal dose of Kryptonite.

The memory shifts.

They’re in the Jeep, this time. It’s the dead of night and Kara’s in the driver’s seat, hair cropped short—Christ, Lena had forgotten just how short it was during those first couple of weeks. Kara’s driving, but she’s not looking at the road—no, in this snippet of reality, she’s staring straight at Lena, her gaunt, pale complexion fixated on her passenger. She looks perplexed, but also, inexplicably, relieved.

The memories keep shifting—they’re at the diner where they finally spoke to one another again, then they’re at a gas station, a phone booth, on and on and on—until everything seems to move and merge into a blur of colours, shapes, and sounds. It’s a convoluted, puzzling mental kaleidoscope, but surprisingly, Lena finds it remarkably easy to make sense of it all.

After all, how could she not? These are her memories. She’s lived through it all before.

Lena blinks into awareness slowly, this time. Her dream—or actual trip down memory lane—fades away softly, giving way to the soothing darkness of eyes gently closed for sleep.

There’s warmth at her side, and movement, too. It’s the up-and-down, in-and-out steady rhythm of deep breathing.

Lena instinctively tucks into the warmth and feels it in a solid, unmovable presence on her bed. She blinks once, twice, registers the lower lighting of her room, the tell-tale beeping of hospital equipment…and a very warm Kryptonian, glued to her side, squeezed so tight into the MedBay bed she cannot be comfortable.

Lena shifts—she needs to get a better look, needs to touch, to make sure she’s not dreaming, that her mind (which hasn’t been extremely reliable as of late) isn’t playing a cruel trick on her.

When she moves, blue eyes rimmed by dark circles snap open; they crinkle at the corners with a smile as they meet Lena’s gaze head on, and Lena releases a breath of pure relief.

“Hey,” Kara murmurs, her voice a soft breath ghosting over Lena’s cheeks since they’re only inches apart.

Lena can’t really help it; the tears are running down her cheeks before she realizes she’s crying, and she breathes in through sniffles as she reaches out to touch Kara’s face.

She’s there, inches away, warm and soft, and alive, and Lena lets the sobs rip through her chest. Her breaths are short little stuttering gasps, really, and she can’t stop smiling.

“Hey,” she whispers back, leaning into the warmth of Kara’s touch once the Kryptonian delicately wipes at her tears with her thumb. Her hand stays there, cradling Lena’s face as they smile like idiots after one-too-many near-death experiences.

“I have to admit,” Kara says after some time, smile unwavering and bright despite the pallor of her features, “that wasn’t the reaction I was expecting.”

Lena chuckles—she does so lightly, since her ribs (most likely broken) protest at the slightest movement. “What, crying?” she asks. She can’t really move her arms, or really anything at all, so she settles for slightly craning her neck, leaning further into the hand Kara has kept in place at her tear-stained cheek.

Kara just nods, laughing a little. There’s a warm yellow hue around them—Lena surmises someone probably moved a sunlamp to her bed once Kara invited herself in—and it makes Kara’s hair, growing at awkward, adorable angles, glow golden and beautiful.

Lena soaks it all in.

“Is this real?” she can’t help but ask. She doesn’t think she would survive another trick of the mind, especially one so cruel.

Kara shifts on the thin mattress, impossibly closer, body practically melding along Lena’s. She’s still smiling, and there’s such certainty in her gaze, Lena practically melts with relief before Kara can even reassure her.

“Yes,” Kara says. “I have to admit the details are a little bit fuzzy,” she raises her arm with some difficulty to poke playfully at her own head, “but it seems I uh, ripped the Lexosuit apart and tossed it just before it exploded.”

Lena furrows her brows, trying to remember. All she can recall was the countdown clock and the split-second feeling of weightlessness before she began falling to the earth once the suit powered down.

“And then?”

Kara shrugs—Lena notices how her movements are stilted, like moving pains her, and wonders just how close to dying Kara had been. Again. “As far as I know, J’onn got to you in the nick of time.”

Lena narrows her eyes. “And you?”

Kara looks sheepish. “I uh. Hit the pavement.”

It’s said so… matter-of-factly, so casual and off-hand. It wrenches another sob right out of Lena, and her ribs ache in protest, but all she can think is Kara falling again, crumpling limply onto the pavement again, being on the brink of death again, and she can’t—Lena can’t cope with the image at all.

“Hey, hey, no, it’s OK,” Kara moves in, ready to calm and soothe, wiping at Lena’s tears with both hands. Her lips find Lena’s forehead, and while the gesture is entirely unprecedented, it has the desired effect—Lena’s body instinctively relaxes, and her sobs begin to abate. “I’m here,” Kara says, lips still on Lena’s skin, “Good as new, I promise.”

Lena doesn’t believe that for one second—there’s an unhealthy pallor to Kara’s complexion that tells her she still has a lot of time to spend under the sunlamps, and Lena can tell just how much it hurts for the Kryptonian to move. She bets there are slow-healing bruises all over her skin under the DEO-issue henley and sweats.

Though—she considers as her own body twinges with pains she hasn’t yet had the mental fortitude or will to catalogue in their entirety—she supposes she also has a long way to go as well.

“How long have we been out?”

“A few days,” Kara replies, chin resting atop Lena’s head and showing no inclination of moving. Good. “I just woke up a few hours ago.”

Lena grins. “And then the first thing you did was come to crowd my space while I recovered?”

Kara laughs. “Of course not. I went to pee first.”

It’s worth the twinges in her ribcage to chuckle a little. Lena lets out as deep a sigh as her injuries will allow, and her breathing adjusts to follow the steady rise-and-fall of Kara’s chest, still melded to her side.

“So, what now?”

Kara’s sigh is deep, and when she speaks, her voice grows heavier with sleep by the word. She’s probably exhausted and just about ready to conk out.

Lena thinks she’s got the right idea.

“Well,” the Kryptonian murmurs, voice so soft Lena has to strain to hear over the faint hum of hospital machinery surrounding them. “Nia caught Lex—gave him a good ol’ trashing, from what I hear. Uh, your name’s been cleared. LuthorCorp is yours, or will be after Lex’s trial—again. Supergirl is alive and back, sort of. Kara Danvers, meanwhile, is due to return from a mysterious illness… or something, I’m not sure what lie Nia made up at CatCo. Oh, and…”

Lena nods, barely processing Kara’s words. She’s just sinking into warmth, and Kara’s rambling in earnest now, and it feels so familiar. Comfortable, even here, cramped in this tiny MedBay cot.

Especially here.

Lena tucks further into Kara’s neck, and that stops Kara’s talking just enough for her to get a word in edgewise. “OK,” she whispers against Kara’s skin. “But for now… we just rest?”

She feels Kara’s slight nod, and Lena’s smile stretches wider while her eyes grow heavier. “Together?”

Another nod. Another whisper. “Together.”

<<<Previous||

That’s it! It’s done! Oof! Thank you all for humouring me in this wild, bumpy ride. All chapters (plus an epilogue!) will be posted on my AO3 within the next few days.

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bemused-writer · 3 years

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VNC Chapter 52 Analysis

Going from the newly aired first anime episode to our latest chapter is some kind of whiplash, let me tell you. XD I meant to get this posted much sooner, but you know how it is.

There is nothing but spoilers from this point onwards, so anime-only viewers in particular will want to read with care.

A couple of you have already pointed out that this version of the scene isn't actually how it happened! Visually everything is much rosier: there are sparkles, bubbles, Vanitas looks extra beautiful, and Noé seems more elegant as well. I was taken aback because Vanitas in particular looks quite different from how he normally does. Meanwhile, the actual scene is this one:

So, what happened? The story is being told through Noé, but often the retelling is indirect and it's more like a regular manga. There are times, however, when Noé as narrator shows through more obviously, such as when we hear his inner thoughts or he summarizes what is happening. This scene reads more like how Noé remembers the event rather than a faithful, neutral flashback. At the time, he wasn't terribly impressed with Vanitas, but everything we've seen up to this point changed that. As such, it makes sense that Noé wouldn't remember it quite right; he's seeing the event through the lens of someone who is actually fond of Vanitas as opposed to someone who simply found him annoying like he did back then.

In other words: he's remembering their first meeting through rose-tinted glasses.

While Vanitas landed a solid blow against Noé, it's not Noé who is really suffering here as I thought he might, which really goes to show the difference between vampires and humans. Still, Vanitas isn't injured because of Noé's actions, but his own, which is really a running theme with his character in general. He's now on his second dose of chasseur tonic ( the first we saw him take being in chapter 50), but his reaction to the stuff is a lot stronger than I think it should be. When Roland took one dose, he was fine, no bleeding from the face or anything. When Astolfo took one dose, he was likewise fine; it was only when he took the second or third that he started demonstrating the problems Vanitas is having now. Vanitas is bleeding from the face after only one dose and then proceeds to take a second.

This makes me wonder if perhaps each dose is created for a specific person? If so, one dose might already be too strong for Vanitas, so taking a second is incredibly ill-advised. Alternatively, he doesn't have a high tolerance for it in general. Regardless, Vanitas is pushing himself towards an aneurysm or some other kind of head injury and that could very well be what stops him as opposed to anything else because it seems unlikely that Noé will bring himself to injure him all that seriously, which Vanitas has been using to his advantage.

This is the first real fight the two of them have had since the very beginning of the series and it's only now dawning on Noé how Vanitas has put his analytical skills to use. "Even the patterns in my attacks that I'm not conscious of... He probably knows them all."

I'm forced to agree. What Vanitas lacks in raw strength he more than makes up for with intelligence.

Noé makes another interesting point that I'll quote here: "He said I didn't know anything about you. He laughed at me, and yet you-- You're always like that! You always act as if you, and only you, know everything. And yet... you never tell me anything!"

I think what Noé is trying to get at here is that Misha behaved exactly how Vanitas always behaves: as if he knows a great secret that Noé isn't privy to. The difference is that Misha actually told Noé something of their past, something Vanitas hasn't done whatsoever. In other words, Noé is enraged that someone like Misha is being more honest to him than Vanitas has been and Misha is the one that kidnapped Dominique and threatened his life. This has been an ongoing problem for Vanitas and Noé and is something Noé vocalized during the Gévaudan arc. He believes Vanitas, so why won't he tell him anything?

Actually, the focus of this chapter was kind of just Noé airing all his grievances. Sure, they're still fighting, but Noé has some stuff to get off his chest and who can blame him? The problem is that none of it is getting through and, interestingly, it's not just because Vanitas is a difficult person.

So, this actually seems like a completely insane thing to do. 8D Vanitas hypnotized himself so that, no matter what, he would kill whoever tried to steal his memories. This is one of those things that sounds like a great idea at the time until you realize you've taken away your own ability to determine your own future actions. I can't... Still, I don't know if this was Vanitas's idea initially. We know someone (most likely Luna) asked him to promise to never let anyone see his memories and I guess Vanitas is fulfilling that promise, but why? What is it that he knows that cannot be shared no matter what? Is it something to do with the Mark of Possession? Something to do with Luna? Because while Vanitas is a private person, this is taking things to a whole different extreme; you don't hypnotize yourself just because you'd like some privacy. You do something like this when the truth can literally be a dangerous thing.

At this stage, it's really difficult to even hypothesize what could be such dangerous knowledge, but let's take a look at what we do know.

1) Whatever this knowledge is was probably gained during his time with Luna since they made the request (probably) 2) Not even Misha can know what this knowledge is 3) Vanitas refuses to tell Misha why he killed Luna 4) Luna didn't want to mark them originally

With this in mind, I can only assume there's something strange about Luna's death, which I've thought for a while now. We also know that Vanitas is trying to wipe away any evidence of Luna's existence by curing red moon vampires. The curse itself is spread through Charlatan.

Okay, some possible half-baked theories:

1) Luna didn't die; they joined with/became Charlatan 2) Luna merged with Vanitas's and Misha's marks or some part of their essence resides there still (the mark is notably still active while marks on Astolfo have faded after a vampire died) 3) There's a possibility another being like Luna could be created and possibly manipulated. Misha and whoever Misha is working for wants to bring them back at least, which means it must be possible. 4) Luna is similar to the Children of Misfortune in Pandora Hearts. In other words, their very existence distorts the world around them causing chaos.

We definitely need more information, though. Moving on, I still think Misha's motives are a little... suspect. He pushed things to this point claiming he wanted Noé to read Vanitas's memories, but this is the same kid that also knew Vanitas put a hypnotic suggestion on himself so that wouldn't happen. Therefore, I can't help but wonder if perhaps Misha isn't being entirely honest; I think he wants to break Vanitas so he has no choice but to stay with Misha, recreating the family he misses. It means he can both have revenge upon Vanitas (because he must know killing Noé wasn't something Vanitas wanted to do) and keep him to himself all at the same time.

We get an update on Dominique this chapter. I find the above interesting because it definitely shows the influence of Misha's Book of Vanitas. Dominique finds herself in an empty space speaking with a younger version of herself. I wonder, could this be a representation of her true name? Manipulated into believing she must jump no matter what, given one, singular purpose. Of course, this could also just be a representation of how Dominique sees herself: she never moved on from when she was kid, trapped in that moment she lost Louis. This representation seems to have some awareness outside of Misha, though, since it finds an alternate solution.

Regardless, we see how potent Misha's ability is. We also see that Dominique and Noé really aren't that different from one another in a certain regard:

They're each phrasing it a little differently, but at the heart of the matter is that neither of them can bear losing the other because they can't handle reliving the loss of Louis. Dominique once expressed worry that Noé blamed himself for what happened to Louis, but the fact of the matter is that they each blame themselves for the event and that neither of them has ever moved on from it. Louis is haunting them and their relationship, but neither can really talk about it. Dominique is suffering from this in more overt ways and it's manifesting itself aself-loathing and what's turning into an unhealthy love for Noé, but lest we forget, Noé's entire motivation for the whole series stems from how he never moved on from Louis: he wants to save curse bearers. The only reason he wants to do that is because Louis died as one.

Neither of them is coping well, basically, and I think we'll soon see Noé handling things about as well as Dominique is right now. Noé, in my estimation, is very good at suppressing things, but they have to come out at some point, and this arc looks like he's being set up for exactly that.

As for Dominique, she takes the only path available to her that will both save Noé and herself from Misha (though not from death) and she jumps. Literally no one expected that, including Misha. I was worried this was the path she would take.

But the chapter ends before we see the results of this decision, so the question becomes: Will Dominique survive?

This is a pretty straightforwad yes or no scenario, so let's consider the possibilities of both

1) Dominique survives. Obviously this would be the preferred option and it would allow Noé and Domi to actually talk about what happened and possibly reach a new understanding. How would she survive, though? I keep expecting someone to show up to break up this battle, and that still seems likely to me. This person could save Domi. Actually, and this may sound odd, but I'm now seriously considering it might just be Teacher that shows up. We know there's something up with Murr, and we know that one of Teacher's descendants is directly threatened (presumably not by his own machinations). He wants Noé to explore the Book of Vanitas, but if Domi dies Noé would likely never want to see Vanitas again. As such, I could see Teacher intervening for his own purposes if not necessarily out of any particular affection for Dominique.

Also, it's still possible Noé himself saves her, either by catching her or manipulating gravity. We'll see.

2) Dominique dies. This would... really shift the tone of the series as well as Noé and Vanitas's dynamic to such a degree that I have to wonder if Mochizuki would really go that route. She definitely could! It just means that the shift between Dominique's death and Noé eventually missing Vanitas in his memoirs would require a great deal more time to explore. Regardless, I think this route would force Noé to explore what could have been with Dominique if he'd paid more attention as well as whether he can bear to work with someone like Vanitas for the purpose of saving vampires. Considering the nature of the series, the answer would have to be "yes" eventually, but it would be a hard decision.

And then there's Vanitas and Misha in the midst of all this. I have no doubt Misha will escape this confrontation one way or another, but how will Vanitas handle things when he finally returns to himself? He has seriously burned some bridges; I'm curious whether he can work up an adequate apology for that and whether he'll remember Noé's grievances. I'm particularly curious whether he'll actually change any of his behavior or not. It's going to be a mess no matter what, that's for sure.

#bemused's post #long post #vanitas no carte #vnc #case study of vanitas #vnc spoilers

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dustofbrokenheart · 3 years

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The Covenant: Lazy, Summer Day

Tyler Simms x Reader

Word Count: 1,650

Summary: Tyler and reader enjoy a day on the water to get away from the heat. Based on this post by @saviorsong which you should all totally check out!

“I called in sick?”

“Yeah, this morning. See? We crossed your name off the schedule and everything.” A finger tapped rapidly on the big whiteboard that had everyone’s name written in dry erase marker.

Sure enough, there was a hastily drawn line going right through the middle of yours.

They really had thought you weren’t coming in. “That’s impossible,” you said confused. “Because I didn’t call in sick.”

“Alright, alright. I believe you,” the supervisor said. “You’re one of the normaler ones that we have and a normal person wouldn’t have driven clear across town when they already had the day off.”

Both of you stood there scratching your heads. Your thoughts were leaning towards this possibly being a dream. You had weird dreams all the time, right? And it wasn’t unlike you to be dreaming of work even when you were off the clock.

There was a good chance you would wake up any second now, still swaddled in bed sheets.

The supervisor had a completely different reaction. “Well, the building ghost strikes again! They must’ve called on your behalf knowing how hard you’ve been working. Just take the day off. We’re covered anyway.”

“Are you sure?” you hesitated. It felt weird taking the day for yourself when you were perfectly able to work. “Since I’m here, I could do—”

“Nope. Enjoy some of this weather. Summer is almost over, you know.”

With that you were ushered out the door and left standing on the concrete sidewalk, not a clue as to what you should do.

There were always things to be done at the apartment. You hadn’t cleaned the bathroom in a while…yikes. Tyler also had his collection of expired leftovers in the fridge that he was terrible about tracking of.

Oh! You could wash the cars, too! Tyler had finally gotten rid of his monstrosity of a Hummer a few summers back in favor of a classic sixties car that Pogue had helped him fix-up. He liked to keep it spotless.

Speaking of his car…you looked up and noticed it parked across the street. And it was definitely his. Not only were there not many of them still out on the roads, but that was clearly Tyler smiling at you in the driver’s seat as he waved you over.

“Were you flagging me down this whole time?” you asked. He nodded with a heavy dose of enjoyment sparkling in those baby blue eyes. “Sorry. It’s been a weird morning.”

“Didn’t expect to have to day off?” Tyler’s smile becoming more pronounced.

“Of course not—wait,” you trailed off in realization. “It was you. You’re the one who called in sick for me!”

He stroked your wrist through the window with his thumb. “You caught me. But don’t be mad, I promise it was for the greater good.”

Greater good? You raised both eyebrows. “And what’s the ‘good’ in question?”

“Weather man predicted we’re supposed to hit high eighties today. What kind of boyfriend would I be if I didn’t drag you to the lake house to take advantage of it?”

“That’s a terrible excuse, Ty.”

“Fine,” he admitted with a laugh. “How about you’ve been working this whole summer, and I miss you and want to do something nice for you?”

On the inside you felt yourself vibrate with excitement but you tried to keep it together. You shouldn’t encourage him making plans without you, especially when they disrupted work, but you were a sucker for surprises. “Better,” you admitted with your nose titled up.

And he knew that. Knew that you weren’t really cross with him as he turned the engine over, jolting the car to life with a heavy rumble. “Come on, my lady. I promise that it’ll be fun.”

The lake house in question referred to one of several Simms family properties in Massachusetts, appropriately named for it’s position right next to a small, picturesque lake. The area was naturally beautiful with shimmering water that was encased by tall, shady trees that were a godsend when the sun became too much to handle.

The drive there went like it always did: fast, thanks to a good playlist and easy conversation, and soon Tyler was pulling up to the lake house.

Not wanting him to fixate on the fine dust the gravel kicked up, and how it was dirtying the car, you leaned over the center console to kiss him. It was just long enough to steal his attention.

When his hand cupped the back of your head, you pulled back. “Last one to the dock has to use the tacky orange kayak!” You stuck your tongue out at him as you dashed out of the car and towards the dock.

Unprepared for the challenge, Tyler sputtered as he tried to take his seat belt off with clumsy fingers.

You ran around the outside of the house and dodged trees as best as you could, laughing the whole way. You may have gotten the head start but you could hear the tell tale sounds of the man gaining ground behind you.

The dock was so close you could picture your victory as. Only a few steps more, you would’ve had it.

Then two arms wrapped around your middle in a steel tight grip, halting you in your tracks. A large exhale was forced out of your lungs at the sudden impact.

“No fair,” you whined. Slumping back into his embrace, you turned to look at his smug face. “I can’t match your stupid arm strength.”

Tyler laughed, the argument a familiar one. “We’ve been over this. If you can use the element of surprise, then the element of muscle is fair game.”

That was the agreement but that didn’t mean you couldn’t pout. Not everyone was blessed with good genetics and years of a background in competitive swimming.

“Well, let’s consider this a tie then because I refuse to use that hideous orange boat.”

Tyler hummed, the vibration noticeable against your back. “Nope,” he said. The answer was abrupt and before you could get another word out, you were sailing through the air, lake water rushing to swallow you up.

The shock made your lungs seize up and your limbs flailed in the haze of the foggy water.

Breaking the surface, hair and clothes plastered to your skin you paddled around to glare at him. The effect didn’t have the ferocity you hoped for because he merely but his hands on his knees and laughed so hard it seemed like he might tip over.

Dodging the water you splashed at him, he got the laughs under control and walked to the edge of the dock to give you a hand. You glared at it personally offended by the gesture. Those were the hands that had just thrown you in without any warning.

But Tyler was patient and held his hand out steadily until you were ready to grab hold of it. For a moment, you debated trying to sink him to the murky depths along with you, but as his impressive looking biceps flexed under the warm glow of the sun, you realized you’d have to take revenger later when you were more certain of your success.

With the added help, you hauled up to the dock. The access water from your clothes ran off, darkening the wood in random splatter patterns, and you realized for the first time that it was pretty hot out.

The sun was bright even with your hand covering your eyes as you looked up; not a cloud in the sky as the bugs buzzed around lazily.

“Sorry.” Tyler fidgeted awkwardly, bringing your attention back to down earth. “I didn’t mean to be, well, mean.”

“Most people would think you’re an angel but you surely have a competitive streak, Tyler Simms.”

He shrugged apologetically. After a moment, he stood up and called over his shoulder as he jogged away. “I’ll go grab a towel for you. Meet me in the cabin!”

It was hard to stay mad at him. Especially when he tried to make up for it by doing something cute, like literally running to get a towel. He really was puppy-like; a little reckless but very contrite when he realized he messed up.

True to his word, he did bring you a towel along with a whole bag of clothes he had packed for the trip. Figuring it’d be a waste to dry your hair—you’d be on the water soon again any way—you settled for patting down the rest of your body and changed into extra clothes.

After Tyler managed to coerce you into putting on sun block (he was strict about it, likely leftover from his swimming days, while you tended to be lazy about it), it was back to lake where each of you set off in a kayak.

And even though he had won the bet earlier, he took mercy and neither of you had to row in the garish orange kayak; a mercy on both pairs of eyes, to be sure.

The sun turned sweltering before it had even reached its highest point, the heat feeling like pin pricks all over your body. The water definitely helped. Between kayaking, swimming, and even a brief diving contest off the end of the dock, you kept cool enough.

Enjoying a late lunch under the shade of a large tree, you felt the pull of an after-lunch nap calling your name.

Tyler noticed the way your eyelids drooped and laid down on the blanket and pulled you into his chest. “Nap time?”

Utterly content, you nodded languidly.

“Alright then, let’s nap.” He pressed a soft kiss into your hair. “Thanks for letting me drag you here. This is perfect...”

The was the last words you heard as the summer heat, filling lunch, and buzz of cicadas lulled you to sleep.

_______________

We could all use a summer day like this. I’m contemplating writing more based on the other boys’ preferences too, but we’ll see. Hopefully this one was enjoyable!

#the covenant #tyler simms x reader #Tyler Simms #the covenant imagines

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thecitythatdoesntsleep · 3 years

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Vampire Master-Guide

First of all I want to start off by saying I've gathered inspiration from MANY vampire medias. Fictions, games. The biggest influences are Vampire the masquerade (primarily bloodlines) and Vampire Knight (manga). As well as honorable mentions to Vampyr (game), Queen of the Damned (movie) and Van Helsing (movie, anime). So if anything sounds familiar, chances are it is. I highly encourage you to explore them as they are a few of my favorites.

Second of all this is going to be massive, so I'll be putting it under a cut. But it will be a comprehensive guide to my personal vampire lore that I've crafted and worked with through the years. If you like it, feel free to use it! I'd absolutely love to be tagged (so I can shower the creations with praise) but it's not required. I'm just out here making one more version of vampires that hopefully inspires you. There will be a couple different categories that I will touch base on.

History (this part is super short)

Physicality - Medical Information

Physicality - Appearance/Body

Mental Effects

Society

Anything from my vampire lore will be tagged #vlor

Now follow me under the cut, lovelies. But please be Warned: We'll be discussing blood, violence, physical and mental illness. As well as regular vampire related things. If any of this could trigger you, please kindly skip this post because you're far more important to me!

'History'

The original vampire to walk the earth, cursed by the heavens was Caine. After committing the first murder, a blood-soaked punishment was to forever be banished to walk the darkness with a constant reminder of his crimes. Thirst. Craving for the same blood he shed against his own kin. The sin was carried through the years and he came upon another outcast kindred by the name of Lilith, cursed by God in a different way and hexed with powerful disciplines.

They bonded as kine and Lilith taught her chaos to Caine in hopes they'd rule together. In the end his nature stayed true and his now empowered wrath befalls Lilith, committing murder yet again and taking her life.

To feed upon and be fed, was a now animalistic instinct that spoke louder than supposed human nature ever could. And thus the curse spread. To anyone that drinks from the tainted or is bitten by a rabid, is surely to bear it at the final heartbeat. The path to redemption is sealed but survival is nearly infinite. So long as the beast is obeyed and satisfied, there is no constraint on lifespan. They will be damned to an eternity enslaved to thirst.

(Primarily from VTMB but I really like the idea of it being some sort of ancient curse from the gods so I thought I'd include this tiny historical bit. Onto the good stuff.)

Physicality - Medical Information

Vampires are anemic, let's just establish that all vampires are what modern day medicine would consider anemia. But they also have super aggressive red blood cells that function x100 that of human white blood cells. All in one combo of super cells. No illness spreads. No disease can contract, nothing can live in their system. They don't fall ill with colds or flu. STD's aren't feasible. Their systems are far too strong and combative to infections, bacteria.

Their integumentary systems regenerate about x200 - x300 times faster. Within seconds (if there is or has been fresh blood in the system recently) their skin regenerates and goes even beyond that. Mere hours and limbs grow back, bones realign.

Vampires don't have functioning organs. (If they are turned from humans they are there but they don't work and will eventually wither.) Hearts don't beat, lungs have no need for air.

Vampires can't drown. They don't breathe and even if water fills their lungs, they would be weighted down but not die. They also don't float like humans do naturally.

Vampires can go out in the sun but they have hard times with sun poisoning. Think of a sunburn but more like a rash. They can't process the vitamin D very well and almost all of them have trouble with getting severely burnt very rapidly or having a rash from the sun. Prolonged exposure can make them feverish, nauseated and give them body cramps and fatigue. Even longer can make them violently ill and can essentially melt their skin. It can be healed but takes longer.

Staking their hearts immobilizes them but does NOT kill them. They can be detained this way and it is excruciatingly painful. But it doesn't kill you.

Vampires can't eat food. Only few can consume liquids aside from blood. They have no ability to digest it and no longer make acid. They'll usually heave it up along with whatever blood content is left in their gut.

They have perfect eyesight, hearing, hyper senses of taste and smell. Touch is extremely sensitive as well. Their skin isn't fragile, in fact it's a bit thicker than average skin from how fast it regenerates and is constantly maintaining itself.

They are very resistant but not impossible to scar. Scars from human life are erased with first turning.

Vampire blood tastes like flat soda or icky, room temperature tap water. Unpleasant to other vampires but in a desperate pinch, it will sustain but nowhere near as good as foreign blood does. Even animal blood takes better care of a vampires system than another body of recycled blood. (Think of it as they've already taken the good stuff out of it for their own bodies so all that's left is the taste and a few stray nutrients.)

Vampires fangs grow back indefinite. At about x10 the rate of humans losing and replacing their first set. No matter what comes of them, their fangs will always grow back. No other teeth mutate like this.

Fangs lengthen and retract when around blood or not. It's not something that can be helped or even trained out. When blood is present, fangs will lengthen even if there is no intention to feed. Automatic reaction and a painful one at that. They get used to it but it's a sharp pain like having a human tooth extracted but it doesn't have prolonged swelling or discomfort. Only when getting longer or retracting back in.

Whenever they're in bloodlust or a state of starvation, they gain a sense of x-ray vision but instead it's vein mapping. They can see through skin to arteries and if it's severe blood lust, they can even see the smaller, tinier veins in fingers and faces. This is a sight that ever vampire possesses in order to obtain blood easier or figure out a good place to bite. Anything that is living will be seen in a structure of veins. Animals, humans, other vampires.

Severing the brain stem from the body is one of the few sure-fire way to kill a vampire. Alternatively burning them to pure ash and scattering them or holding them in separate vessels. (If ALL ashes are contained somehow and mixed with fresh blood, there is a reanimation process so beheading them is more permanent.) Silver weapons or exposure to silver prior to wound can result in death as well.

Alcohol is SUPER effective when they drink it. Think of one shot making them drunk because it hits their bloodstream almost immediately. A double would have them seeing double and acting like a hot mess. 3+ for even the beefiest of men would have them blacked out and vomiting on the sidewalks.

Drugs effect them but only in extremely high doses and for nothing really over 2 hours or so. Short, short longevity but they have the same crash that humans do. If it's hard detoxing symptoms for humans, it's the same but faster. They can do a hard drug, feel the high for maybe 1 - 2 hours and immediately go into hallucinating and shaking from the aftermath. The same goes for Pharmacia. There's really no medicine that works.

Garlic is a myth. So is wolfsbane.

Silver on the other hand is a very real, very deadly weapon that still rings true. A single pinprick of a silver sewing needle and it can render a vampire powerless. Slow them down to the speed of a human, take away their rapid healing and remove all of their heightened senses. Silver directly into the bloodstream essentially renders them as they were before they turned in physical response and structure. It's the only metal that burns vampires skin and will char it if it sits in one spot for too long. Silver is the only kind of metal that can forge chain that vampires cannot break and can successfully be restrained in. Any wounds inflicted in silver take longer to heal.

They can't reproduce after being turned. Purebloods + Purebloods are the only exception and it's still extremely rare. (Only 9 children born in over 2,500+ years.)

Physicality - Appearance/Body

Whatever color their eyes are, blood-lust accentuates the brightest color. I.e: Brown eyes turn Yellow/Gold, Blue eyes turn White/Purple exct. (Different powers can change this depending on the vampire and their history, sire.) Just think neon, glowing eyes in the dark if they're thirsty or hunting.

They stay frozen in whatever physical appearance they're turned in. Their metabolism is whack so they don't really lose or gain weight, it's down to cosmetic changes or cosmetic surgery. Which at least it heals flawlessly and doesn't ever change. But there aren't many options for personally invested physical change.

Their hair and nails grow super fast.

Vampires usually have the hair color they have when they are turned but around 15% experience graying or whitening of their hair within a few days of turning. Due to a semi-common genetic string in humans.

Vampires don't tan. They burn. No matter what their skin color is. Most are the palest/pasty tone of their natural skin color merely due to anemia and lack of blood circulation.

They don't blush or show physical signs of fever.

Vampires don't sweat or flush when exerting or exercising. They don't have to regulate their body temperatures.

They get dry skin pretty often and it's important to combat it with baths and soaks and lotions/oils whenever possible.

They are usually a lukewarm body temperature. As low as 15°C|59°F to as much as 21°C|69.8°F.

Every vampire has a certain amount of charming allure to them. In whatever form or fashion suits them the best, it's a natural attractant to their human counterparts. A glint to their eyes, a certain smile, the pitch or timbre of their voice. Endearing, seductive, mysterious, whichever shines through in their personality. They are magnetic, attractive to the human eye, no matter what they tend to look like.

They can see themselves in aluminum coated mirrors. Just not silver.

Mental Effects

There is a staggering 95% probability that 'created' vampires will have amnesia unless turned by a pureblood/noble/king/queen/high ranking blood vampire. They remember nothing of their human lives and this is extremely common. It's actually very rare to remember anything prior to your awakening. (That's why there are usually strict laws about siring without consent and proof of consent.)

It is very easy for vampires to be blinded by fits of rage when starving for blood. They can fly into blind anger and attack people they normally wouldn't or even foes they have no chance of winning against. Depending on their remaining strength when this tipping point of starvation happens; it can be extremely dangerous to be around.

Most turned vampires suffer a psychotic break in their early turning years. (Between 6mo and up to 25 years of awakening age. I.e: from the date of being bitten.) The brain is the last thing to be altered in the physical process and because of this, it's believed that their mental state has to crumble to be built better. It's unknown as to exactly why this happens but it's almost guaranteed. It's the vampire equivalent of 'adolescence'.

Over 75% of vampires experience periodic depression and random bouts of sadness. Another 39% live with bouts of mild to moderate psychosis. (This has been suspected to happen because of the physical stasis and improper circulation of chemicals/hormones/exct. Many believe it's because of the guilt of their King, Caine.)

Mental illnesses that aren't born from physical imbalances are in cases of amnesia, cured. Those that are chemically related are usually worsened by the stagnant physical changes of vampirism. It's rare that those with amnesia remember their traumas or emotional upsets after turning.

The "amnesia" of turning is the death of a human psyche. With the staggering rate of permanent amnesia, it is hard to figure out exactly how it happens but it's widely known.

Society

Humans are not fully aware of vampires. This still rings true with the fear of world war and or wiping out the human race given their species.

There is a high society "government" type of monarchy. Each clan or type of vampires has a leader "elder". This is usually the oldest vampire to date of that specific type. Sometimes it's a group or a family of elders. In most modern day they have adapted to a more "presidential" route and have to establish themselves as leader types to be considered for any kind of law making or enforcement. (I.e: Noble bloodline, diligent efforts of servitude such as public service, military or other.)

There is a strict law against turning humans. Vampires are required to have clearly given consent and the process is to be looked over by an elder or enforcer. They must show strenuous documentation of that persons preservation in the name of probable amnesia. They must have a comprehensive processing of that persons interests, personality traits, societal standing, proof of occupational termination, familial status and situational agreement. (Basically they don't want humans forgetting their lives entirely and they want to make sure that they are able to move somewhere or hide from their families until they're well trained enough to be around them again. It's a very long to legally accomplish it.

Every city handles turning differently. Some require the sire to pay the death penalty and others are strictly against killing the one person responsible of their turned kindred.

Vampires are in every day jobs, doing anything and everything that humans do. From trash collecting, to law and doctors. Fame, fortune, poor, criminal; they all live as many walks of life as humans do.

Anti-vampire establishments are alive and well. Most are run by other vampires. Some humans share their beliefs but most typically it's a resounding amount of vampire extremists. This is legal due to the fact that they try to adhere and coexist for their sanctions ordinance. Helping enforce justice for their regions and implore an opposing force for rampaging vampires or other law breaking kindred.

Most human killings are covered up, tampered with or has someone on the inside working on doing both. It's a constant job but a needed one to keep their existence safe from being proven.

There is a massive shortage on vampire doctors serving other vampires or studying from what little information there is on vampirism. The ratio looking like 1 to 300. 1 doctor for every 300 vampires.

The most vampire dominated and lucrative occupations are generally law, publishing and sex working. There are 3 vampires with these jobs to every human worker.

Here is an additional post about how vampire blood would effect humans.

So that was everything I could think of for the time being. I may continue to edit and update this as I have time or I think of something that I haven't touched base on yet. But this is just the general lore I work with when I do write about vampires or when I think about them in general. Feel free to skip certain parts or like.. adapt it however you'd like. I made this to more so inspire people not to show a list of HOW things should go. Take of it what you like and ignore what you don't! Add more if you think of something!

Some of it gets a bit random but it's still things that I've either incorporated in some unpublished fics or talked about with some friends or just fantasized about in general. There's bits and pieces in all media for vampires that I really enjoy and I think every new style spins something different and makes for wonderful content!

#whump prompt #vampires #vampire prompt #whump list #character development #character reference #character sheet #vampire reference #character guide #vampire #vampire list #tw blood #tw violence #tw vampires #vlor

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