@czigonas wanted to see me answer those artist questions and I did them all so it’ll be under the cut

1. Art programs you have but don’t use?

As of rn I cannot draw on my laptop/tablet so technically paint tool SAI and photoshop(idk what version). But I guess I hadn’t used photoshop for /years/ back before my drawing hiatus. Sorry but SAI is so much nicer to look at and to use, for me personally.

2. Is it easier to draw someone facing left,right, or forward?

I flip flop my canvas a ton to a) look at it for wonkiness and b) to get specific lines in a direction that feels good, but the actual act of drawing I typically like to have them looking left cause most the the lines flow from top right to bottom left which is nicer to do since I use my right hand to draw even tho I am ambidextrous.

3. What ideas come from when you were little?

This question confuses me on what it’s actually asking soooo? When I was like 12 I had to write a story for school so I did a story about a plane crash in which the survivor came face to face to a rat/bat/cat/dog creature thing? I’ve always wanted to redraw the creature, idk if I have the original drawing I did and I don’t feel up to digging to see if I kept it during all my moves.

4. Fave character/subject that’s a bitch to draw?

My favorite animal color patterns aka brindle, merle ,roan, spots/stripes. So time consuming. In terms of shape, human faces for sure.

5. Estimate of how much of your art you post online vs. the art you keep for yourself?

Before hiatus, probably 90% /shared/. Currently, probably 75% /posted/cause I can’t post the porn to tumblr lmaoooo but I have shared them with like half a dozen friends.

6. Anything that might inspire you subconsciously?

I’m sure there’s a ton but if it’s subconsciously then how would I consciously know?🤔 ok serious answer, probably every single 2D animated movie or show I’ve ever seen, and all the various artists I follow. I mean, there’s parts of my style I can pinpoint you to what it’s inspired by.

7. A medium of art you don’t work in but appreciate?

I’ve never /seriously/ tried oil paint, acrylic paint, or pastels but that shit always looks so good. Also watercolor even though i have tried and enjoyed using watercolors but I am far far faaarrr from being proficient in them. Non drawing wise, I fucking love dioramas, especially those that are then filled in(?) with acrylic(?). I watch a lot of those videos on YouTube.

8. What’s an old project idea you’ve lost interest in?

Most of my old animal ocs I had in the same universe in my mind and had a comic planned that I never got around to. I still love and wanna revisit those ocs. But also my dragon age ocs who I’ve SERIOUSLY BEEN CONSIDERING drawing in @soaps-hoe-141 universe 👀

9. What are your file name conventions?

Before hiatus/ on my laptop, subject or character and whatever was happening in the pic. Now using procreate on my iPad? I don’t think I’ve named a single one lol.

10. Favorite piece of clothing to draw?

Nothing, no clothes, nude, nakedness please and thank you. lol but I guess I do sorta enjoy figuring out clothing in general, folds and shit, getting that practice in. Like how it hangs and creases in poses since I’m not used to drawing it.

11. Do you listen to anything while drawing?

I don’t usually listen to /only/ music while drawing, I much prefer having a favorite movie playing in the background and/or a show I enjoy rewatching/am actively watching. I also watch a lot of gamer YouTubers I put on as background noise/short watch breaks that their voice is just soothing to me even if I’m not /watching/.

12. Easiest part of the body to draw?

I’m not sure… maybe boobs/pecs for humanoids. General body shape for animals?

13. A creator you admire but whose work isn’t your thing?

Honestly can’t think of a single one. I mean, plenty of artists do work(or with a medium) that I can’t or don’t want to do/use personally but I read the question of “isn’t your thing” as “subject you don’t enjoy”. If that’s correct, then idk what to tell you. I don’t follow or remember people who majority does things I can’t enjoy on some level.

14. Any fave motifs?

Quite a lot of religious imagery I guess ex. Circles around a persons head. Less serious answer is drawing characters in meme formats lol

15. Where do you draw?

Please don’t tell any physical therapists I live like this… on my back on my couch with my head on the arm rest while holding my iPad propped up on my chest like 8 inches away from my face lmao

16. Something you are good at but don’t really have fun doing?

Idk???? I do shit for my own enjoyment so I’m not sure? Maybe perhaps backgrounds? Like I could do something decent if i wanted to but I’m not into it so I usually just don’t?

17. Do you eat or drink while drawing?

I take breaks… but while actively drawing? I often drink aka let the horny demons out while I enjoy whiskey lol.

18. An estimate of how much art supplies you’ve broken?

Broken broken? Next to fucking none? some charcoal sticks but otherwise…. None… I majority do digital art so really nothing to break there lol

19. Fave inanimate objects to draw?

Idk? I like doing life charcoal drawings? Of whatever, but particularly statues if that counts? I usually have living beings as my subjects.

20. Something everyone else finds hard to draw but you enjoy?

Ok, I hate this question, cause we are all good at different things. Maybe it’s just most of those I follow have different strengths than me???? But I guess if I had to pick, recreating from life(or picture) is a lot easier for me than some others(like making it life like/very accurate).

21. Art styles nothing like your own but you like anyways?

Yooo, anything I’ve reblogged honestly. Love everyone.

22. What physical exercises do you do before drawing?

Absolutely none, again don’t let the pros know cause damn. But I will do stretches or take breaks as needed.

23. Do you use different layer modes?

Absolutely. Mostly for lighting and shading but yes, if I’m doing digital imma take advantage of it.

24. Do your references include stock images?

Yes? I don’t really understand what it’s asking?

25. Something your art has been compared to that you were not inspired by?

Idk? I don’t usually get feedback of that sort.

26. What’s a piece that’s viewed a wildly different interpretation from what you intended?

Again idk? I guess my shit is straight forward?

27. Do you warm up before getting to the good stuff?

Almost never, again don’t let the pros know lol I do sometimes jump between pieces or start a new sketch before going to something farther along.

28. Any art events you have participated in, like zines?

Nope, wanted to and have tried before but I tend to NOT do something if I feel pressured to do it.

29. Media you love but doesn’t inspire you artistically?

Again I feel like this is a weird question or maybe it’s just my understanding of it but I can feel inspiration from all sort of artist shit even if it’s something I’ll never do(ex making a crochet animal or dioramas). I guess I can feel inspired to create from other creators even if it’s not direct inspiration/subject/medium.

30. What piece of yours do you think is underrated?

Underrated as in no one has seen aside from a few people irl would be my colored pencil pieces I did during afternoon naps when I worked at a daycare a few years ago.

A Novel Thief {KomaHina}

A/N: it’s been a little bit since I last played DR2 and I still haven’t seen the anime, so this might be a little bit wonky in terms of story set up, sorry about that! I wanted them to be in a more free setting so this takes place when they’re still at Hope’s Peak Academy! I hope you enjoy, I’m excited to finally write for Danganronpa! :D

Summary: After a long day at school, Hajime is ready to go home and get some rest. However, his mischievous partner decides to mess around with him instead.

Word Count: 1.2k (under the cut)

Hajime hummed to himself, checking his watch. His class was almost over, and then he would be free for the day. He looked at the window, seeing a few birds fly by as he sighed, placing his chin on his hand as he zoned out, not paying attention to the last few bits of his teacher’s lecture.

He turned his gaze ahead of him, staring at a plume of white hair that sat in front of him. He smiled to himself, seeing it bob up and down as the person in front of him nodded along eagerly to the professor who continued to teach.

Finally the bell rang and Hajime sighed in relief, pulling his books out of his desk and setting them on top, about to grab his bag to put them away.

“Hey Hajime! …What’s this book? We don’t have any assigned reading right now,” A voice came, and Hajime quickly looked up from his bag that he was currently putting his pencil away in. Hajime looked up and saw Nagito holding up one of his books, flipping through the pages.

“Give it back,” Hajime said, stuffing the rest of his books into his bag and holding his hand out for Nagito to give him the book back. He normally wouldn’t be so cold to Nagito considering how they were together, but he really just wanted to get home. Nagito was going home with him that day anyway, it wasn’t like he wasn’t going to see him.

The other students and the teacher cleared out of the classroom, leaving Nagito and Hajime alone in the classroom as Nagito seemed to tune out Hajime, reading the book without paying attention to what he was asking.

“Nagito,” He said, and Nagito looked up from the book, smiling at Hajime.

“Yes?”

“Can I have the book back? I want to go home,” Hajime said simply, thinking that Nagito would understand and give the book back. But he didn’t. He grinned, pulling the book closer to himself, flipping through the pages.

“Do you not want me reading it? It seems interesting…” Nagito said, a slight lilt in his voice, which irritated Hajime. 

“Nagito,” Hajime rubbed the bridge of his nose and sighed. “Give me the book back.”

“No~” Nagito teased. Well, that was pretty direct. Hajime groaned in annoyance and reached out to grab the book, but Nagito quickly turned so the book was just out of his reach. Hajime seriously didn’t have the energy for this, but it looked like sensible methods weren’t going to work with Nagito… Did they ever?

An idea popped into Hajime’s head, one that might work. He didn’t really feel like doing it, though, so he tried reasoning with Nagito one more time.

“Will you give me the book back so we can go home?”

“Nah, I wanna finish this page first,” Nagito said, a small grin on his face as he continued to stare at the book, holding it above his head so Hajime definitely wouldn’t be able to reach. Hajime grumbled.

“I don’t think you realize the situation you’re in…” He said, trying to sound threatening but Nagito only laughed.

“Oh, I’m in a situation? Why? ‘Cuz I won’t give you back your precious book? This is why I love you,” Nagito laughed, making Hajime blush. He shook his head, almost like he was trying to shake off the red tinge on his cheeks as Nagito chuckled, flipping the page again as he continued to read.

Hajime finally got sick of Nagito’s antics and decided to put his plan into action. He set his bag down and walked around his desk, standing next to Nagito. He wrapped his arms around him, making Nagito chuckle in surprise.

“Oh? Interested in some affection now, are we Hajime? Sorry, it’s not gonna get you your book ba - ACK! Whahahat?!”

Hajime had his arms fully wrapped around Nagito’s torso, and using his hands he squeezed his sides. Nagito snickered loudly, lowering his arms and hitting the book against Hajime’s head as he was tickled.

“Hahahajime! Stahahap! Not thahahat!”

Hajime reached up with one arm to grab the book, and Nagito quickly raised his hands above his head again, making Hajime growl angrily.

“If you give it back I might stop tickling you,” Hajime said simply, and Nagito shook his head, his fluffy hair bouncing around as he laughed.

“Nehehehever!” He wailed defiantly, and Hajime fully took that as a challenge to get his book back from his boyfriend. He used the hand that previously reached up for the book to scribble in Nagito’s underarm, making him shriek.

His arm pulled down slightly, but he managed to keep it held above his head. Hajime smirked at Nagito’s resilience, and it made him all the more determined to get his book back. Nagito finally raised his other arm to grab the book so he could clamp down his arm, unable to withstand the ticklish sensations under his arm anymore without reflex.

“Hahahajime! WAHaha - Wait! No mohohohore!” Nagito yelled, his face red as he threw his head back, cackling.

“I’ll stop when you give it back,” Hajime said flatly, unwrapping his arm from around Nagito to dig under his other arm, making him shriek. His arm faltered again and clamped down, Nagito quickly hugging the book on his chest. Hajime stopped tickling him for a moment to try and pry it out of Nagito’s arms, but he wasn’t budging. 

“Y-You know, some manners would be nice! You haven’t even said plea - ehehehehe! Hajimeeee!”

Hajime buried his thumb in Nagito’s hipbone, kneading as Nagito wailed out cries of laughter, shaking his head around as he refused to let go of the book.

“You’re the one who should mind his manners, being the one who stole my book and all,” Hajime shot back, a small grin of amusement on his face.

His hands travelled up to Nagito’s ribs, making him shriek as he almost let go ot the book, but still managed to hold onto it. Hajime frowned in concentration as he dug into his ribs, Nagito’s frantic cackles filling the air around them. He shook with laughter, squeezing onto the book for dear life as his worst spot was easily attacked by Hajime.

Nagito shook his head, cackles spilling from his lips as his knees finally buckled, falling against Hajime. Hajime grunted at the sudden weight on his shoulders and fell backwards. 

“Are you alright, Hajime?!” Nagito asked quickly, letting go of the book and cupping Hajime’s face, turning it gently to make sure he was okay. Hajime grinned, surprising Nagito as he grabbed the book, holding it above himself triumphantly. 

Nagito gasped, looking at the book then back at Hajime, before his expression softened into a smile. He clapped for Hajime, who chuckled before Nagito leaned down to press a quick kiss on his cheek.

“N-Not on campus!” Hajime whined, slightly flustered at the sudden affection.

“Oh, but you’re allowed to tickle me on campus? I call bullshit,” Nagito frowned, and Hajime only laughed.

“It’s your fault for stealing my book.”

“I would use the term… borrowed.”

Hajime laughed again, and Nagito got off of him, helping him up. Hajime stuffed the book back in his bag and slung it over his shoulder, glancing at Nagito.

“Ready to go?”

Nagito nodded, lacing his hand with Hajime’s, who pulled away slightly at the sudden touch. 

“Is this okay?” Nagito asked, a soft smile on his face as Hajime nodded, a shy blush on his face. Nagito smiled wider, tightening his grip on Hajime’s hand and leading him out the door.

Little Secrets

for @nightimedreamersworld from the prompt list and tags you posted. Thanks to @ninemagicks for leading the way. 

From a tumblr prompt list by @mraculous and sent to the Carry On fandom by @nightimedreamersworld : ‘a mutual friend tried to introduce us, but we already knew each other from LARPing but we’re both too embarrassed to admit that so I jokingly said we used to date and oh god now our friend won’t stop interrogating us about it’ AU

Little Secrets, a Snowbaz LARPing AU (2774 words)

Simon

“Do you want to come over Friday? I can order in curry and I’ll even watch that Netflix thing you’re obsessed with, if you like,” Penny says, before taking another bite of her sandwich. I’ve already finished mine but I take the chance to steal one of her crisps. She never finishes them. I hate seeing them go to waste.

No one should ever bin salt and vinegar crisps. It’s a crime against humanity.  

It’s been harder to coordinate our schedules this term. Even meeting for lunch is a treat. We’ve not had a night in for weeks. It’s not as easy, now that we don’t live together.  

And it’s not often that Penny offers to let me decide what we watch. Says she’s got standards and I watch too much “brain numbing rot.”

Castlevania is not rot. It’s fucking brilliant. My costume for this campaign is based on Trevor Belmont. It’s wicked good.  

I’m gutted to have to turn her down though. Friday’s going to have to be a no. We’ve been gearing up for this campaign for weeks and I can’t miss it.  

“I’m sorry. I can’t Friday.”

Penny looks at me over the top of her glasses. “Why not?”

She doesn’t know about this. About the LARP club I joined. It’s something I started doing over the summer, when she was away in India with her family.  

I was bored. And lonely.

I don’t know why I haven’t mentioned it. It’s not that I’m embarrassed about it. I’m not. It’s a hell of a lot of fun swinging a sword around and taking part in campaigns. Even the costume workshops are entertaining.  

Everyone’s so friendly. Well, most of them are, at any rate.

Penny tends to frown upon things like this. Things that don’t serve a purpose. Making new friends doesn’t count as serving a purpose. She’s told me more than once that having too many friends is an unnecessary burden. “There’s only so many hours in a day, Simon. Two, three people, that’s all any of us have time for.”  

That’s all Penny has time for. I’m lucky to be one of her three people.  

Telling her I’m spending two nights a week LARPing with near strangers while dressed as a medieval monster hunter likely won’t go over too well.  

Especially as that amounts to two nights a week I’m not doing my coursework or revising. Sacrilege.  

“Uh. I’ve got . . . uh, there’s a study group.”  

“On a Friday night?” Her eyes widen.  

“Yes.” The shorter the answer the better with Penny. I can’t get caught in a lie if I’m barely saying anything.

“For which class?”

Fuck it all. I can feel my leg starting to jiggle. She’ll know the gig is up if I don’t answer soon.  

“Medieval Literature.” Thank fuck I’m actually taking that class this semester or she’d be onto me.  

It’s not that far off, anyway. Most of the costumes qualify as Medieval.

“Dedicated lot.”

“Quite.”

“It’s good to see you being so devoted to your studies, Simon, what with applications for graduate programs coming up.”

As if I needed the reminder.

“Maybe we can try to find some time next week, then.”

“That’d be great.” I reach out to steal another crisp. She smacks my hand away. “I do miss you, Pen.”

Penny pushes the bag of crisps over to me with a sigh, but she’s smiling. “I miss you too, Si.”

It’s not until the next week that we manage to make plans. And it’s not for curry and Netflix.

We’re at Foyles, having spent the last hour listening to one of Penny’s favorite poets do a reading and a Q & A. Penny’s dead gone for Nikita Gill. I thought it was mostly because she’s a femininst and Indian but I see the point, now that I’ve heard her read from her latest book. She’s brilliant.

Penny’s in line to get her book signed and I’m just sort of shuffling along with her, feeling like a bit of a tit, seeing as I’ve not got a book myself.

Should I? I feel I ought to at least have something, but it’s too late now, we’re almost to the signing table.

Predictably, Penny gets into an intense conversation with the author while I stand there, shifting from foot to foot uncomfortably and nodding every so often. The store clerk finally gets Penny to shove off. She drags it out for another minute and then we’re finally clear of that scene.

I’m ready to head to the pub for a bite, but Penny stops down the line to talk to someone from her seminar and I’m left at loose ends again. It’s mostly uni types in the crowd, nearly all of them intense and bright eyed as they talk over each other now and indulge in some excitable hand waving. There’re a few blokes here and there, moody looking types with man-buns, horn rimmed glasses, and oversized jumpers. I recognize one or two from my classes but no one I know well.

Penny stops to talk to another person and I’m in despair over dinner. I wander over to a book display and idly flip through some paperbacks as I wait for her. Thankfully it’s not more than a few minutes later when I hear her call out to me. “Simon!”

I trot over, more than ready to make a run for the pub but her first words aren’t “let’s get out of here.”

“Si, I want you to meet my friend.”

Oh, fuck. We’re never going to get to the pub at this rate. I plaster a smile on my face and turn to say ‘ hello’ to whoever it is Penny is bound and determined to have me meet.

And I freeze.

“This is Baz. He’s in my Modern British Poets seminar and he’s almost as keen about vampire lore as you are.”

I raise my eyes and meet Baz’s cool stare, that one eyebrow of his arched as he meets my gaze.

Fuck. I don’t need to be introduced to Baz. I know Baz. He’s the Mage in our campaign. He’s a fucking ruthless one too, dead brill with his spells, even though he’s a bit shit when he’s got to do any swordwork.

That was my main job on the summer campaign--give him cover so he could cast his spells and decipher his runes and whatever else it is that Mages do.

I’m front line offense now--cut down anyone in my path, long before they can get near the rest of our party. It’s up to Gareth and Niall to have Baz’s back this time around.

I can’t very well pretend I don’t know him, but I really don’t want to be explaining that I’m in a LARP club to Penny in the middle of this bookstore, not in front of Baz.

Fuck.

I give Baz a pleading look which I’m sure only confuses him, based on the way his eyebrow arches up even more. I don’t know how to convey “don’t tell Penny you know me from the Dragonknight campaign” with just my eyes.

“I’m well acquainted with Simon, Bunce.”

I am well and truly fucked.

“You two know each other?” Penny gives me a penetrating look.

Baz keeps talking. “Yes, we’ve been--” but I interrupt him before he can say anything more.

“He’s my ex.”

I have literally no idea why I said that. And there’s no taking it back, now that it’s out there.

Two sets of eyes goggle at me, both of Baz’s eyebrows reaching for his hairline now. Penny looks scandalized.

“Your what?” she asks.

“My ex-boyfriend,” I clarify, literally begging Baz to go along with this with my eyes. I probably look like a gormless twat. Just go along with it, I try to broadcast that thought across the two feet of space between us.

“Your ex-boyfriend,” Penny says flatly. “How do I not know about this, Simon?”

Baz looks just as curious, but thank Christ he doesn’t say anything.

“Oh, you now, summer romance, short-lived fling, gone but not forgotten.” I’m literally babbling.

“Very short lived,” Baz says drily. “So short lived I’d be surprised if he had mentioned it, Bunce.” He’s smirking, the smug bastard. Arms crossed over his chest, that one fucking eyebrow mocking me now.

“Yes, ah, you know, summer.”

“I’d say I don’t know at all, Simon.” Penny’s looking between us, a suspicious look on her face. “Why don’t you fill me in. I’d love to hear about my best friend and my study partner getting together and me being none the wiser.”

Baz is full on grinning now. “Yes, why don’t you tell her, Simon? Unless you’d rather I did?”

I think the fuck not.

“Ah. Well. You know we met  . . . ah . . . at the library.”

“What on earth were you doing at the library?”

What the fuck was I doing at the library? I never go to the library and Penny knows that.

Fuck.

“Wasn’t that when your laptop was being wonky?” Baz chimes in.

I scowl at him. Only one of us needs to be fabricating this tale and that someone is me.

“At least that’s what I remember you saying, when you came in that night.”

Bloody hell.

“Uh, yeah. That’s what it was. Had to come in and do a lit search on premises.”

“It’s a good thing I was working the desk that night,” Baz says, uncrossing his arms and sliding his hands into his jeans pockets.

My eyes follow his hands down and keep going.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen Baz in jeans before. Tunics? Yes. Majestic robes? Yes.

Elegant, fitted jeans that are snug all the right spots? Well, I’d remember seeing that before, is all I’m saying.

I drag my eyes back up to his face. “Uh, yes, um, good thing.”

I didn’t know he worked at the library.

“Simon came in, just before closing time, with the idea that he was going to do a search and print it all out in mere minutes.” He’s really warming to the subject and I’ve lost control of this whole situation.

“Typical,” Penny says and I’m outraged.

“What?” I sputter.

She nods her head at Baz. “He gave you those puppy dog eyes and that crooked little smile of his, didn't he?”

“Now, see here, I’m the one telling the story and–”

But Baz steamrolls right over me. “Oh, you know he did, Bunce.” He gives me a fond look that makes my face heat up.

What’s he playing at? I rub at the back of my neck, feel the clammy sweat starting to form there.

“Got you to do the whole thing for him, didn’t he?”

This is pure slander. I’m not going to stand for this.

“I couldn’t resist his roguish charm.”

“Listen, now--”

Baz just keeps talking. “I had no idea he was such a shameless flirt.” He shakes his head at me and actually manages to look almost mournful, the lying bastard. “Charmed me, wined me, dined me. But once his laptop was functional and the research project complete, just a few short weeks later, he dumped me without a second thought.”

“Simon!” Penny’s glaring at me now. She’s bought his whole fabrication and I’ve got no one but myself to blame for this farce.

“Just wait a bloody minute!” I yelp.

Baz hunches his shoulders and lowers his head. “By text, no less.”

“Really, Simon, how could you?” Penny’s all righteous indignation, her hand coming to rest on Baz’s arm, eyes blazing as she rakes her gaze over me. “I go away for a few weeks and you not only manage to seduce my friend but then unceremoniously dump him by text? You know better than that. You were a bloody wreck when Agatha did that to you!”

And now she’s airing my entire sordid dating history to Baz in the middle of a bloody Foyles on a Thursday night and I’ve not even had dinner. This takes the biscuit, I swear to god.

“Penny, listen, it was nothing like that, really, I swear.”

She’s got her arms crossed over her chest. “Then how was it, Simon?” Cold as ice. You’d think Baz was her best friend and confidant, not me.

This is a fucking disaster. I’d have been better off telling her about the LARPing.

I am going to tell her about the LARPing. It’s the only way out of this mess.

“Listen, Pen, I’m sorry. I thought you’d be upset I was wasting my time--”

“Wasting your time?” Baz interrupts. “Is that what you’re calling our two weeks, then?”

“That’s not what I meant!” I’m going to let a berserker just go by me and wreck Baz this week, I swear I am. Won’t even brandish my sword at him, I’ll just point him in Baz’s direction. It’d serve the bastard right. “Listen, Penny, I was going to tell you, but I was a bit embarrassed--”

“As well you should be, the way you behaved.” Penny interrupts me this time and I have reached my fucking limit.

“Would the two of you let me finish one bloody sentence?”

Two expectant faces meet mine but I swear there’s a glint in Baz’s eyes and his lips quirk like he’s trying to keep himself from laughing. Arsehole. I may go after him myself this week, if he’s not careful. Go rogue. It’d be worth it, just to wipe the smug look off his face.

He’s got his hair down tonight. I don’t know why I didn’t notice that earlier. He’s usually got it up when we’re–fucking hell, why am I thinking about his hair right now?

“Ok, so let me finish what I’ve got to say or I swear to Christ I am going to go off.” Baz inclines his head and waves a hand at me in a ‘have at it’ gesture. Penny frowns but holds her tongue. “So, while you were gone this summer I got a bit caught up in LARPing.”

“You did what?” Penny asks.

“LARPing. Live action role play.”

“Whatever for?”

“I don’t know. For something to do.”

“And why are you telling me this now?”

I pull at my hair and groan. “Because that’s how I met Baz. He’s not my ex. I’ve never gone out with him. I just made that all up, rather than tell you about the whole LARP business.”

“Why on earth would you concoct all that nonsense, Simon?” Penny’s looking completely perplexed but Baz has this cheeky grin, the absolute wanker.

He’s got a dimple in his left cheek.

Fuck.

“Because I thought you’d be irritated. It’s not something that serves a purpose.”

“Why would I care what you do with your free time?”

Oh my fucking god.

I give my hair another yank. “Aren’t you always telling me I should spend more time on my studies? Keep my social life a bit more contained?”

Penny has the audacity to shrug. “I’m not your keeper. If you need to swing a sword around to let off some steam, far be it from me to argue.”

She turns to Baz and smacks him on the arm. “What were you thinking, going along with all this nonsense of his tonight? I’d not expect that kind of foolishness from you, Baz.”

Baz leans against a bookshelf and flashes her a grin. “Let’s just say my curiosity was piqued, when he threw that ex comment out there. And you know how I love to spin a good story, Bunce. He certainly wasn’t going to pull one over on you by himself.” His eyes light on me and there’s something smouldering in the depths of them. Something I’d like to get a closer look at.

“Well, you’re ridiculous, the both of you,” Penny says. “You deserve each other, honestly.” She shakes her head. “Anyway, I’m starved. It’s past time we went to dinner.”  

“Enjoy the rest of your evening.” Baz’s eyes never leave mine. “I’ll see you Friday then, Snow?”

He used my LARPing alias.

I liked it better when he was calling me Simon.

Penny hooks her arm around his. “Come join us, Baz. Since you and Simon already know each other so well.”

He adjusts his book bag on his shoulder. “I suppose I could do with some dinner.”

Penny keeps her hold on his arm and leans back to look at me behind Baz’s back.

And then she winks.

I think I’m the one that’s been played.

And when Baz’s knee knocks into mine as he squeezes into our booth at the pub I realise I don’t mind one bit.

also on ao3 Little Secrets

oh, i ended up spending so much time on this, but - it’s done ! it’s far from perfect but i’m pretty satisfied that there’s a visual guide to my idea of hyrule, post-seven years war. & now, god help you all, i’m gonna talk about it lmao. click here if you want to see a full-sized version of the map, but i’m also gonna put it under the cut in this post with the original map for comparison, & go on for a bit about how hyrule has, in my interpretation, changed under zelda’s rule.

( this gets long. like, really long. like, over 4,500 words long. read at your own risk. i’d say i’m sorry, but i’m really not. & fuck drawing water features forever. )

first thing’s first - the map !

( apologies for the giant watermark underneath it all but i’ve had my shit stolen before & i’m not enthused at the idea of having it happen again. clicking it open in a new tab should make it bigger if the link above doesn’t work. )

so, it’s slightly bigger than the original map which is featured in the game, haha. here’s a comparison of the two, actually, with my map over the top of the original so you can see what’s been changed or added & where. i’ll talk about what got added & why in a bit, i want to speak just about the actual map, first.

i did my best to keep the main locations of hyrule as specified in the game in the same place, & i think did an okay job, tbh ! my biggest nitpick was just how many dang cliffs & rockfaces there are on the original map. i know they serve a purpose in-game, which is completely fair, but they limited worldbuilding a little by making the map so small, so i took some liberties. not with every cliff, of course - i kept some in the southwest to keep the border between gerudo valley & hyrule field intact, & kept the ridge the river runs through - partly for the sake of continuity, & partly because i’ve always loved the fact that falling into the river in the valley washes you down to the lake. expanding them into a new area was fun, too, because at least then they go somewhere, rather than just locking you in to a certain place.

my main point of contention, to be honest, was the giant rockface in south hyrule field. again, i understand why it was there, but, come on ! so i ended up just doing away with it all, letting it lead a path to two new areas i’d like to work into zelda’s canon. the map just fades out in certain places, too, particularly the gerudo desert, so i ended up expanding that a little more & having it lead into the cliffs above lake hylia - the river already runs from the valley to the lake, so why not have more of the desert lead into the mainland ? the mountains, too, got their range expanded, because they just seem so ... small, in canon, when they aren’t being used specifically as dungeon locations. i’d say the only place on the map i didn’t expand in some way is that little gap between zora’s domain & the kokiri forest - the forest is so hemmed in & the domain is literally inside a mountain, hidden behind a waterfall, so i was happy to just let that be empty space. if you manage to climb over the cliffs surrounding the domain, or break through the treetops in the forest, you get a view of the ocean, & that’s that !

it was fun to look at the maps of the games that came chronologically before this one & see how the position of things in hyrule change, but i’m kind of glad that there was only the three before ocarina of time, because the mountains alone move across the map at their leisure, good god. there was a bit of freedom in it, too, because in zelda’s canon timeline, the gods are going to flood hyrule anyway, so i could make whatever changes i wanted because it’s all gonna end up underwater & unseen in the end - plus, it meant i could add in more mountains to take up empty space on the map, because the hylians have to flee somewhere to escape the flood, & i don’t think the peak of death mountain could hold them all. most of the new locations were inspired by the minish cap, more than any other, so i’m going to start at the top of the map & move down to talk about them.

i always loved royal valley & the royal crypt in the minish cap, to be honest. it was spooky & cute, & i’m surprised it, or a concept like it, hasn’t made much of a comeback in later zelda games. the royal family’s tomb being in kakariko village never bothered me much as a kid ( other than the fact their headstone gets utterly destroyed & you get assaulted by what we can only assume are the zombies of previous hylian rulers ??? & then it’s just left open for anyone to stumble in & possibly loot slash get murdered by said zombies ??? actually, y’know what, this bothers me a lot more as an adult, what the fuck - ) but kakariko was a village founded by the sheikah, originally for the sheikah, so i did always find it a little strange that at some point, a ruler of hyrule went ❛ that’s cool, you do you, but make space for us in your graveyard. ❜ i know the history between the hylian royal family & the sheikah is implied to be murky ( thank you, shadow temple ) but that’s a meta for another day, so i’m not gonna go into too much detail, but it’s still something that sticks out as strange to me. call it the sheikah continuing to guard the royal family in death or whatever, but, hm. weird. anyway !

the point is, after the seven years war ends, zelda decides that what originally belonged to the sheikah should be given back to the sheikah. kakariko village was opened up to non-sheikah by impa prior to the rise of ganondorf, & that’s her perogative & not something zelda would ever dream of interfering with, but that applies to the living, & those who die within the village deserve to be buried in the same place. it takes time to get around to the rebuilding of hyrule castle & its’ town, but when it’s time to plan for it, zelda chooses to utilize the abandoned valley which lies behind the castle as the new home for the royal crypt, but not solely for that ! she establishes & sponsors a university on behalf of the royal family, with special consideration going to the preservation of hylian history ( a lot was lost in the hyrulean civil war prior to her birth, nevermind the seven year war following that so quickly, & we can see in other zelda games, such as twilight princess & breath of the wild, historical preservation within hyrule is ... terrible, to say the least. of course, it will all be washed away when the goddesses flood hyrule, but fuck, at least she tries. ) the university also covers a range of other subjects, but history is the one zelda takes an active interest in, & she spends a lot of time with scholars who specialize in it. the royal crypt lies at the very back of the valley, the university being closer to the castle, & then ... watch this space ! i’m likely to add more things to areas around the map in the future.

hyrule castle & hyrule castle town i’ve left in the same spots, pretty much - i imagine the castle is rebuilt to be something like the one we see at the bottom of the ocean in wind waker, but i intend to put my own spin on that, too. zelda wouldn’t be focused too much on getting a castle up agaiin ( i’ve mentioned in a thread before that two years post-ganondorf, she is still sheltering at impa’s house in kakariko village, as rebuilding for the civilians is her main priority, & whilst i haven’t figured out exactly how long that lasts for, it’s a safe bet to say a good few years ) & she definitely wouldn’t want to be living anywhere especially y’know, grandiose & opulent, if her people were still struggling day to day. the castle town bounces back better than ever, expanding a little more to the left over time, but that’s a gradual thing. no real change except a distinct lack of redeads, which is always a bonus !

death mountain & its immediate surroundings, i was happy to leave as they are - it’s marginally wonky in place compared to the original map but it’s not a severe drift from canon, so lets just pretend it sits a little more to the left, shhh. it’s a volcano built into a mountain with a network of caves both inside & adjacent to it, plus a place of worship built into the heart of it, & you can’t really go wrong with that, so i focused on all that empty space beyond them left on the map. minish cap came in clutch again, because by fuck, did they have a mountain range, so i ended up dipping in to it for the names of this one. the gorons are clustered at the forefront of the mountain because everything beyond their city has been mined to the absolute death by those who came before for its resources, & abandoned by the same in turn, but they still send patrols to make sure it’s fine. 

there’s a story of how, before the gorons settled into the mountain, a man of great strength climbed the mountain alone to make his home within it - he faced eruptions from a then-hostile death mountain, fought off the creatures who called the range home & weren’t fond of sharing, & forged on to what was said to be the edge of hyrule itself. it wasn’t, not quite, but it was far enough away from the central provinces of the kingdom that the mountains became capped with snow, contrasting the temperate mountains to the west. the story goes that the adventurer decided to call the furthest reaches of the mountain home, & singlehandedly carved out what would become the beginning of the mines, in order to gather materials for his forge. it’s been disputed whether said man was hylian or goron, as the biggoron family claim lineage from him, but the mountains he once inhabited are named for him now, & are one of the places zelda hid whilst on the run & masquerading as sheik - despite the extreme temperatures playing havoc with her & nearly killing her, it’s one of the harder to reach spots in hyrule, so it provided a measure of safety that other places could not. melari’s hold lies in the northeast, but the cold spot on the mountain travels further south than would be expected, resulting in a cold spot - the ice cavern - to the north of zora’s domain.

real quick, fuck zora’s domain. there was no way to make the water feature coming from here look decent, or properly portray the types of cliffs it’s surrounded by, so please don’t judge it too harshly. at the end of ocarina of time, zora’s domain is still said to be frozen, but recovering from the curse ganondorf placed on it, which, great ! i’m gonna say, i could be completely off here in how it works, but i wanted to change things up a little, so if i am, i don’t mind that much. i like a bit of artistic license. also, if we can have literal fish people, a genderless species made of rock, children who don’t grow up in a magical forest which horrifically warps those who don’t belong, & a giant fucking overworld field where the skeletons of what look like fucking children come out to fight you at night ? i’m okay with this reckoning being off a little.

so, eventually, zora’s domain unfreezes. i personally imagine, as ganondorf’s power ebbed from hyrule, that the process started slow, until one day, it wasn’t. it’s said that zora’s fountain is the source of all water in hyrule, with the domain lying under the mountain it rests on top of, & a few secret passageways here & there, which is fine, usually - the fountain never froze, just the domain beneath it. that becomes a problem, though, when the magical freeze put in place by ganondorf wears off, & the excess water from the melt ends up flooding the domain. not a problem from those who live within it, with the zora being essentially amphibian in nature, but when that excess water begins seeping out into the fountain, through cracks in the mountain, through the entrance granted to those affiliated with the royal family ? that all goes over the fountain, down the sleepless waterfall, through the river, & that river completely bursts its banks. the water level of the river rises significantly, washing away much of the path previously taken by those who wished to go to the domain on foot, causing minor flooding in hyrule field as it travels downstream, & resulting in the waters of lake hylia rising when the overflow reaches it, hence the lake being larger in my version of the map. the rebuilding of a path to zora’s domain ends up becoming one of the earliest projects zelda undertakes as queen but it’s a bit of a logistical nightmare for a while, considering that, with princess ruto ascended as a sage, zora’s domain is now in a succession crisis. does it have much bearing on zelda’s life ? not especially, but i thought it was a nice bit of worldbuilding, so here it is.

kokiri forest, the lost woods, & everything within doesn’t change much. with the dark magic vanquished from the forest, & the great deku sprout able to thrive, the forest continues to grow, & overgrow. it’s still dangerous to outsiders to go within, still dangerous for anyone to enter the lost woods without a fairy companion to guide them & save them from a grim fate, but the children of the forest do grow somewhat braver about stepping out from their home to see the rest of hyrule. it never lasts long - not all of the kokiri are as brave as link was, after all, & hyrule is so vast compared to what they’re used to - but it sparks their curiosity & their desire to explore hyrule which eventually trickles down to the wandering koroks.

the area to the south / southwest of the kokiri forest is entirely my invention. as i said, in-game, it’s just cliffs to hem you in & prevent you from breaking the boundaries of the world, but there’s none of that in roleplaying, so i just … did away with them entirely. part of this is lake hylia not being as hemmed in by these walls as it is in-game, opening up into a new river & streams which travel through the south & southeast. crossing this river leads to three paths - take middle path, & you may find yourself in what’s known as the rito village. now, i’ll say here, i know that the rito don’t technically appear in hyrule until after the great flood, when the zoras somehow sprout wings, but nintendo’s strange decisions don’t change the fact that there are many wonderful people in the zelda rpc who play rito characters with crossover verses that let them interact with those who play characters in other parts of the timeline. in order to better facilitate interactions with these roleplayers, i decided fuck it, rito village in ocarina of time. canon can be easily bent. if, however, i’m writing with someone who wants to adhere to strict canon, then it’s just other hylians who live within the village, & rito is just the name chosen for the village, with no connection to the as-of-yet-unevolved race, just a nice little coincidence. regardless of who lives in it, though, the village & its name are fixed here in a southern woodland, with the village nestled amongst the hills within.

cross the bridge to the south & take the third branch in the path, you’ll find yourself inside the bremen woods. i honestly haven’t got much to say about the bremen woods here, but it’s not because i don’t have ideas for it - i have another headcanon brewing concerning myths, fables & fairy tales within hyrule, because … i am just that type of nerd. about eighty percent of my blogs before this one involved fairy tale characters in some way. it is, as the kids say, extremely my shit, & i’d like to tie the bremen woods into that, so i’m going to save what i have to say for that headcanon, but don’t worry. it’ll probably be a lot smaller than this one. ( thank god, i hear you say. i know, i know. i’m still not sorry. )

cross the bridge, then, & take the first branch in the path, & you better have a sword with you. the castor wilds are a lawless place, which is fitting for the corner of the world where the last remnants of ganondorf’s forces lie. any that weren’t killed during the restoration of the kingdom were beaten back to the edge of the world, & it’s not a friendly place. the last of the monsters shelter in a run-down settlement known as dragmire’s hold, the last place where those who sympathize with the king of evil can speak freely, & it’s murder to get to. the entrance to the wilds is a marshy swamp, thanks to the run-off of lake hylia, but if you manage to get through the mire, the land begins to dry out until you reach the hold, where the earth struggles to bear fruit & it seems the grass refuses to grow. it is, in a few words, fucking grim, & as a result, the go-to place for banishments within the kingdom. zelda isn’t a fan of harsh punishments, but she’s no fool, not anymore, & she won’t abide those who plot to throw the kingdom back into chaos, be it in service of ganondorf, or their own selfish natures. it’s rare that anyone actually finds themselves wandering the castor wilds, unless they actively choose to adventure there, but it is a very good threat, considering its reputation as the land where the devils live.

jumping across the map entirely, we come to the cliffs of coroa to the left of lake hylia. another spot on the map which is notorious for being hard to reach, the cliffs are an inviting challenge to those who want to boast of their climbing skills & durability. if getting up the cliffs doesn’t kill you ( & there is a very real possibility that it will, especially if you fall, ‘cause this water ain’t soft ) the journey down might do it instead, & that’s if you survive your trip at the top. there has been rumours of a great treasure hidden away in the cliffs for years, though the debate on what it might be was pretty intense, if you got into it. for a time, some thought the legendary blade rested within the cliffs, & only those who could brave the rockface would be able to lay a hand on it; others argued that it contained more mundane, but still desirable, treasures, such as a great haul from a band of thieves, left behind when they were hunted down by the crown, growing only more valuable by the minute. some, with sense, said that the only thing atop the cliffs was certain doom for the morons who tried to make their way up them. the truth ? there’s nothing up there. sometimes, cliffs are just cliffs, & those who try to scale the ones facing lake hylia truly are fools. the gerudo people, however, had the right idea of how to get to them.

again, another aspect of canon i was happy to leave as it was. the gerudo desert is a vast, harsh swathe of land, continuously assailed by sandstorms, bordered to the north by what is called ❛ the great sand sea ❜ & to the south by the haunted wasteland, & it’s not hyperbole. spirit guides appear to those who seek the temple of the goddess of the sand, but very few have ever made it through the wasteland if they enter in pursuit of something else. one of the few who did was the gerudo heroine, ashai. a well respected warrior amongst them, ashai was the younger sister to the exalted rishika, the chief of the gerudo at the time, & one of the first to vow to conquer the wasteland & see what lay beyond the storm. though her sister cautioned against it, as tales of people becoming lost in the wasteland were not uncommon, ashai was a headstrong young woman, & she could not be swayed. she took with her a party of twelve, & in time, three returned to tell their story. ashai had forged a path through the ever-shifting sands & left it well enough marked that her companions were able to find their way back. it’s said that some succumbed to madness during the journey, tormented by the ghosts of the wasteland, whilst others fell ill whilst they traveled, choking on the sand which gathered in their lungs. seven of them made it through the wasteland to the valley which lay beyond, but ashai had grown sick during the crossing, & knew she would not make it back. instead, she spent the time she had left exploring the valley, & found a way through it to the peak of the cliffs of coroa. the legend says that is there she died, watching the sun rise atop the cliffs, speaking only of her sister, & her companions laid her to rest within the valley, which her sister then named in honour of her. whilst the gerudo are happy to let those who have proven themselves attempt the journey to the desert colossus, no outsiders are permitted to walk the valley of ashai, where a shrine was built for its namesake - it is considered sacred to them, & the journey to pay respects to ashai is now part of the trial given to those who wish to become chief of the gerudo, should the bloodline of the previous chief die.

that covers just about all the main areas & landmarks of hyrule, i think, so to move on to the last thing, the various settlements, villages, hamlets you see across the map. hyrule is a big place. yes, quite a few of the races are localized to certain areas, & yes, it’s entirely plausible the hyrulean civil war could have decimated the population, with the seven years war exacerbating that problem, but hyrule field just looked so … empty, once everything else was finished. so, rather than stick to a number of locales i can count on one hand, i threw a few more settlements across the map to try & make hyrule feel more like a real kingdom. not to breath of the wild’s extent, of course, but just something a little more than what was given. all those who survived the fall of hyrule castle town apparently fled to become refugees in kakariko village, which was opened to all by impa, which is fair, but i imagine as the world returned to something close to normality, & families started growing again, the village would quickly find itself overwhelmed. as queen, zelda would make it a priority to make sure none of her subjects go homeless - she knows all too well that struggle - & so she would begin a program to make sure there was enough villages or townships for every one of her subjects. those who volunteered would be given a set amount of money & plots of land across hyrule to build a home, which zelda would then personally visit to inspect, to make sure her people were thriving.

there’s little to say in detail about them all as of right now, as i’m still fleshing them out, but i have a few basic ideas. most of the settlements were named after the first to attach themselves to the project, but the names have the potential to evolve over time. they certainly won’t retain the hamlet / settlement status, that’s for sure. the offer wasn’t restricted to hylians, either - any other race in the land was free to join, though only a small number of gerudo accepted it, the others preferring to stay in their homes & travel as they need. ciela’s settlement was the one spearheaded by the gerudo who accepted zelda’s offer, hence its proximity to the valley. a lot of young men volunteered to go to this settlement, but zelda was happy to let ciela make her own call, & many were knocked back - only those with what ciela deemed viable skills were allowed in, & still, it’s very much a female dominated settlement, but it is thriving under her leadership, & blossoms into a successful village as time goes on. lon lon ranch is, well, lon lon ranch. with funding from the crown, talon was able to take on more staff & expand it at his leisure, but it is one of the very few places in hyrule which has stayed constant over time, & he was quite content to keep it that way, & zelda content with his decision. 

to the south of lon lon ranch lies damia village, the largest of all the settlements from its inception. led by a fearless young man who gave his name to the village, it is a hub of activity which could rival hyrule castle town. with damia came many like-minded people, all eager to forge their own path in the world & prove themselves as he had, as he had been part of the group which volunteered to help beat back the remnants of ganondorf’s forces. many of the families within damia village are the families of soldiers who work at the castle & it has gained a reputation for being a village full of strong, capable, trustworthy people. arborwood, which lies further to the south in a more rural location, is an outlier in that the one who volunteered to lead in this settlement didn’t wish to put their name to it - they didn’t want glory, just a place to call home where they could finally live in peace. arborwood is an agriculturally focused village, filled with farmers & those who possess green thumbs. a lot of trade is done between arborwood & all the other villages - everyone in hyrule became proficient at growing & hunting their own food in the past thirty years, as was necessary to survive, but it’s nice to have a place to get food from which specializes in high quality meat & crops. why hunt rabbits, when arborwood can provide venison ? 

last but not least, lynna’s hamlet, which settled at lake hylia at the request of the owner of the lakeside laboratory. as he was getting on in years, he wished to find someone to continue his work, & so specifically requested that any like-minded hylians settle close to the lake so that he could impart his wisdom & let them take over. he got quite a few more people volunteering than he bargained for, be they scientifically inclined, interested in cataloguing the history of lake hylia, or just desirous of a change in scenery. the smallest of the new settlements, lynna’s hamlet never truly flourished the way others did, but the buildings were never empty - as time went on & people began to move elsewhere, it became a popular spot for those who traveled the land to rest at when they came to the lake, with a very successful inn eventually being run by the lakeside, its doors open to any who wished to visit.

it’s not a lot of worldbuilding when it all comes down to it, compared to other things, but this is something that i’ve wanted to do for a long time. as i’ve mentioned in the section regarding the bremen woods, more headcanons are likely to follow regarding places on the map & how they change & evolve as time passes during zelda’s rule, but for now, there’s this ! something which makes hyrule feel less empty than what it was before, whilst still respecting canon, somewhat which was the goal all along. if you’ve made it this far, holy shit, go outside & feel the sun on your face. it’s been eighty-four years - but i can’t thank you enough for reading ! at least next time, the headcanon won’t be so long. i hope.

4 AND 18 FOR DARK X READER MY DEAR!

4: Excuse me—where is my Christmas kiss?

18: Merry Christmas, motherfuckers!

From this prompt list.

Me? Finally finishing up some requests? More likely than you’d think. Thanks @avenged-nightmare and sorry it took ten years.

This seemed like potential for absolute ego shit-show content so sign me UP. Also, something about Dark saying “motherfuckers” just doesn’t compute in my brain as believable but GUESS WHAT.

Warnings: Cursing, alcohol consumption.

Darkiplier x reader

The night had finally come, and it was all the chaos you’d expected it to be, and then some.

Getting all the egos together outside of a meeting wasn’t always an easy task, but somehow you, with your best friend Wilford at your side as your co-conspirator, had made it happen just in time for the holidays. A Christmas party to end all Christmas parties, Wilford had exclaimed in excitement once the plans had been finalized. 

You’d basically had to pry his gun from his flailing hands, and the party was still weeks away at the time.

Now it was here, and in full swing. The music, the drinks, the Christmas cookies and other treats, decorating the massive tree in the lobby, party games and catching up with each other’s lives…there was a lot going on, all the more fun to be had around every corner of the house.

Well, almost. 

Dark had yet to show, to your disappointment. Not that you were really, truly expecting him to make an appearance…but deep down, you’d hoped just maybe he’d come out of his damned study for the night, at least for you. But there was no indication of his appearance any time soon.

The thought occurred to you halfway through a card game with Wilford, Illinois, and Bing. Your head foggy from champagne and whatever else you’d been drinking throughout the night, you suddenly stood up from your spot on the couch and glanced over to the staircase leading up to the long hallway where Dark’s study was located.

“Hey, I’m gonna go talk to Dark,” you stated, finally pushing your hair away from your face.

“That miiiight not be the best idea…”  Bing started, but you ignored him, completely abandoning the game and making your way up the stairs, both hands grasping the railing so that you wouldn’t lose balance as you climbed to the top.

Dark’s study was silent, however the thudding of music and shouts and laughter from below were creeping in through the floorboards, to Dark’s dismay. 

He was reading from a stack of papers on his desk when he heard your sporadic, somewhat aggressive knocking on the door. He let out a long sigh, but didn’t bother to look up until you had decided to just let yourself into the room. 

Normally, someone coming into his space uninvited would result in serious consequences, but he made exceptions for you. Only you.

He could have gone, however, without seeing you in your current state. You stumbled in wearing a god-awful red and green fuzzy sweater and reindeer antlers haphazardly stuck onto your head, while still carrying the glass that had only briefly contained some sort of strong alcoholic beverage.

“y/n…” Dark started, but you held up a hand to silence him. Which, oddly enough, he did not protest.

“Excuse me, mister—” you slurred, stepping toward his desk. You sat down on the edge, plopping down the glass in your hand and leaning forward to meet his eyes, your face only inches from his. “Where is my Christmas kiss? And why won’t you come downstairs?”

Dark pinched the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes with a sigh. “y/n, how much have you had to drink tonight?”

“Well, you’d know if you would have been spending the evening with me instead of—“ a hiccup and a dismissive wave of your hand, “whatever you’re doing up here.”

Dark swiped the champagne glass away from your arm’s reach when you almost knocked off his desk, and held it between his fingers. You tried to meet his stare again, but you couldn’t figure out which set of eyes you were seeing were the real ones at first. He was silent, unmoving. 

“You’re such a fucking grinch,” you finally muttered, easing yourself back up off the desk and into a standing position, although you kept your hands on the desk.

“I don’t know what that means,” Dark replied, his face falling flat, “But I’m assuming you’re insulting me.”

“Whatever, Dark, have fun by yourself.” You turned and made your way toward the door. Just before your hand touched the doorknob, you looked back at him.

 “You know, I gave up a lot to stay here with you. You could at least try to respect the things I miss.”

Dark made no effort to respond as you slammed the door shut. You stumbled your way back down the stairs, and found Wilford waiting for you at the bottom.

“Didn’t go well, huh?” he asked, noticing you suddenly rushing to wipe away the fogginess that had formed in your eyes as you reached the bottom steps. He laid a hand on your shoulder to steady the both of you once you landed from the final step. You knew it was just…Dark could just be that way, but the fuzziness in your brain was making your emotions all wonky.

“No, not exactly,” you replied quickly with a shake of your head, suddenly more agitated than sad. “Screw him anyway. Wanna get back to our game?”

Wilford grinned nervously, looking toward the next room over. “Well, we COULD, but…"

His voice was quickly drowned out by the sound of the music in the house getting significantly louder, and a very distinguishable  singing voice rising over all the others. When the first “youse” sounded through to the foot of the stairs, you rolled your head back and groaned.

“You gotta be kidding me…”

“We held it off for as long as we could…” Wilford sighed, but you both soon burst into fits of laughter. Yancy was at it again.

“Dammit, let’s just go see what kind of disaster it turns into this time,” you resigned, walking into the next room alongside Wilford, who was yanked away from you by one of the other egos before you could blink. You shrugged and weaved your way through to the kitchen to find the nearest bottle of something, anything. You sighed shortly as you popped off the lid of an unopened beer on one of the long countertops and took a long sip of whatever happened to be inside. You stopped briefly to talk to Eric, who had decided he was perfectly okay with not leaving the kitchen at all and just making sure everyone got some Christmas cookies, and maybe some water every now and then…? D-don’t you think that’s a good idea, y/n?

You hung around Eric a bit longer, his demeanor a pleasant contrast to whatever the hell was going on in the main room. So much dancing, so much sound, so much excitement…and suddenly you weren’t feeling up to any of it any more. 

You were leaned against the kitchen island, arms crossed, smiling as you listened to Eric tell you a story about a past Christmas with his brothers, when suddenly he fell silent, his eyes locked on something, or someone, over your shoulder.

“H-hey, ahh, hi, Mr. Dark!” 

You spun around to find Dark standing in the doorway to the kitchen, the air growing colder around you at his presence. He was no longer wearing his jacket and tie, but stood as straight, stiff, and as regal as he ever did in your eyes.

“What.” You spat your demand. Eric suddenly found something very important to do in the dining room and scuttled away, wanting nothing to do with whatever was going to happen between the two of you.

Dark’s eyes were like magnets, pulling you in with no choice but to stare back at him, as much as you didn’t even want to look in his direction in that moment. His arms folded over his chest and he let out a short sigh. 

“You really like this sort of thing?” he asked, his voice low.

You shrugged, taking a sip of your drink. “I enjoy being with my friends, with people I care about. They all…make me feel like I have a family again. Like I can forget about reality for a while and just…be happy.”

Dark’s eyes dimmed, his head lowering although he didn’t break eye contact. “I don’t make you happy.”

“I didn’t say that,” your voice rose slightly, revealing your desperation. Dammit. You quickly huffed and rolled your eyes. “I mean, you’re not exactly winning any brownie points tonight, that’s for damn sure.”

You knew it wasn’t fair, wasn’t fair to treat him like this, it wasn’t his fault he couldn’t feel things the way he should anymore. That he had to re-learn so much from a life he had long before, a past that he could never get back. So much had been taken from him, too.

“Don’t you remember what it’s like to just…have fun?” you finally asked. A dangerous question, asking him about remembering.

He was silent a moment longer, studying you, considering. Your heart had picked up its pace. You immediately wanting to take it back, but your mouth wouldn’t form the words. You started to shake your head, taking a step towards him, silently pleading he’d just forget it and go back upstairs, you could talk about it in the morning— 

Dark hummed lowly, uncrossing his arms and dusting himself off before you could reach him. You stopped the second he moved, now only a couple feet away from him, your bones like ice.

He slowly reached for you, his hand gently cupping your cheek. His thumb glided along your skin like a whisper. He closed his eyes and slowly shook his head. A low, deep, rumbling sound came from him, something so unusual you almost jumped from his touch. Was that…was he…laughing? Maybe more of a chuckle, but…oh, he was.

“You are poisonous, y/n…in all the ways that I think I need sometimes.” His hand dropped to gently rest on the back of your neck, urging you closer. In a haze you followed the pull, closing the gap between you and allowing his lips to press softly against yours. Short, simple, but spreading warmth through your entire body.

“If you can convince me in three minutes that this isn’t an abhorrent waste of my time, I will stay with you until the night is over,” he offered, that devilish half-grin of his creeping up along his face.

Your own beaming smile outmatched his easily, and you were pulling him by his arm into the next room faster than he could blink. “Challenge accepted.”

Wilford immediately noticed Dark’s presence in the room and pushed through the crowd to meet you, his pink hair splayed wildly atop his head. 

“Darky boy!! You came out of your cave for us?!” 

Dark rolled his eyes, but the grin remained. “Hello, Wilford.”

“Wilford, did you just say Dark?!”

 “HEY THERE BUDDY!“

“Well, well, well, look who it is!” 

A small group of the egos had suddenly formed around you, welcoming Dark amidst the noise and chaos, patting him on the back, offering him drinks and holiday candy or a spot in the next round of a game. His body initially curled inward, his presence cooling around you as if he were ready to fling himself straight into the void. He glared at you, unresponsive to any of their efforts to speak to him, and at first you were worried this really wasn’t going to end well.He pulled himself away from Wilford’s sudden embrace, and you stiffened as you saw his hand clench into a fist at his side. Oh, no.

But then, he glanced at you once more from the corner of his eye, and you saw the faintest of light glinting behind his eyes.

“Alright, alright. Yes, I’m here. Merry Christmas, motherfuckers. Give me that.” He yanked a full glass of liquid from Bim that matched the one you’d been carrying earlier, studying the contents only briefly before pressing it to his lips and taking a long sip.

You wondered if you were ever going to be able to pick your jaw up from the floor. This was going to be quite the night, after all.

Change of Heart (part 2)

🐺Hey all! Finally back with a part two. My lungs betrayed me during the last week of the semester and I’m so sorry this took so long to get done! I may need to edit it a bit more this weekend, still feeling a little wonky so I may have missed some stuffs. I really hope you enjoy! If anyone ever wants me to write them some words, feel free to ask! I’d love to create something for you! Thank you for stopping by!🖤

Derek Hale x Reader (part 1)

~2,000 words

This story is a continuation of Change of Heart, it picks up right where the last left off. Derek tries to be smooth, and isn’t as subtle as he hopes to be.

Derek felt his heart warm as he watched you and Rowdy play rock, paper, scissors as he pulled the popcorn maker down from the top of the fridge.

“One big bowl?” Derek asked as he debated how many kernels to pop.

Rowdy looked up to you then back over to Derek, concerned. “But what will you guys eat?”

Derek bit back a smile, “Right, what was I thinking?”

Rowdy gave a relieved sigh, “Better make it three big bowls.” He looked over to you for backup.

You nodded your agreement. “He’s right, popcorn is serious business, you know.”

Derek laughed as he looked in the cabinets for bowls. “Fine, three it is.” Or…maybe two will do…he thought as he had an idea how to ease into his confession.

He popped one big bowl for his son and one markedly smaller bowl to share. “Rowdy, get settled where you’re gonna watch from.”

Rowdy pulled two chairs over in front of the television and struggled to get his blanket draped over the top. You got up and helped secure the blanket before setting about putting the DVD in and taking your normal spot on the couch.

“Thanks, Y/n!” Rowdy climbed into the fort and Derek placed the bowl in front of his son and laughed as he watched as his tiny arm snaked out and the bowl disappeared into the fort.

You hit play and settled back while Derek went to retrieve the rest of the popcorn. When he came back and sat down you saw he only had one bowl and so you stood up to go get yours, pushing aside the twinge of disappointment you felt.

Derek’s hand, warm on your wrist, stopped you and you turned and lifted an eyebrow in question. “You want me grab you a drink?”

“Where are you going?” Derek gestured with the bowl toward the table. “I brought us drinks already.” You glanced down at the one bowl and he continued, “I thought we’d share a bowl. Make a good influence on Rowdy and all.” He smiled, popping a piece into his mouth before raising the bowl to you and turning on the Hale charm. “Sharing is caring.”

You made a point of looking toward the tiny dino den where Rowdy could clearly not see that you two were sharing. “Uh huh…” you turned back and sat back down on the couch, confused but curious enough to play along with whatever Derek is up to.

The second Derek sat down he scooted over so that you were close enough that you could feel his warmth seeping into your skin. You hoped he didn’t feel the shiver that ran through you, and made every attempt to maintain your poker face.

Derek placed the bowl so that it balanced on both of your legs. “So we don’t get anything on the couch.” His eyebrows drew together and a look of concern passed over his face. “You OK?”

Say something…come on brain…make words happen…It doesn’t matter how good your poker face was if you were going to just sit and stare at the bowl between you, or rather at where your leg lay snug and warm against his. You’ve never sat so close before. The unexpected contact had your heart racing, and if your face hadn’t given you away, your heartbeat would be easily heard by him.

Damn wolves and their hearing.

"Y/n?” Derek waved a hand in front of your face. “Is this OK? Do you want me to fix you a bowl of your own?”

Suddenly you snapped out of your daze. “No!” If he hadn’t had a hand on the bowl you would have knocked it to the floor when you shot your hand towards the bowl to grab a piece. “Sharing is good.” Sharing is good?? Breathe…calm down…You turned toward the television and closed your eyes, trying to focus on your breathing and getting your heart rate to come down.

When you felt more back to normal you reached a hand over to the bowl and nearly jumped out of your skin when you accidentally grabbed his hand instead of popcorn. You turned and gave him a sheepish smile, “Sorry, go ahead.”

He returned your smile and shook his head and gestured for you to go first.

You grabbed a few pieces to hold in your hand and work on and turned back to the documentary. You almost knew it word for word by now, it was Rowdy’s favorite. You wondered if he somehow sensed his connection to wolves.

It wasn’t too long into the film before you heard his soft snoring coming from his fort. Derek handed you the bowl and stood up. He grabbed the blanket and threw it over one shoulder, then bent down and picked up his son, careful not to wake him.

You put one of the chairs away and pulled the other in front of you to put your feet up on, and waited for Derek to put Rowdy in his bed.

You switched back to the TV and just surfed the channels until he came back and sat down next to you. “Here, you wanna pick?” You offered him the remote but he just placed it on the coffee table. 

He never even glanced at the TV, he just looked into your eyes, shook his head and said, “This is perfect, love this show.”

You could have pointed out that it was on a commercial, but you weren’t ready to break his gaze just yet. He looked like he wanted to say something, but he remained silent. “Yeah, it’s good.” You started to feel heat creep into your face and looked back toward the screen.

You both sat, watching in silence. Your hand brushed against his a couple more times as you shared the bowl. After the fourth or fifth time, you began to think that maybe he might be doing it on purpose.

You hoped he was.

It was as though he was waiting for you to reach for the bowl and he would reach his hand out to brush his fingers against yours. You noticed the bowl wasn’t really getting any emptier considering you had been at this for almost an hour, so you decided to test your theory and you would reach your hand out and when he would too, you noticed in your peripheral vision that he wasn’t taking any popcorn.

He was just reaching out as if he were going to and then took his hand back when you moved yours back. You scooted the bowl off your leg onto the couch to the left of you, and continued feigning as though the bowl were still there. After a few minutes, you were ready to call him out. “How’s the popcorn? Good?” You tried to watch his face without making it obvious.

"Mmhmmm, delicious.” He looked content, grinning like an idiot.

You shoved the bowl at his chest, forcing him to grab it so it didn’t fall and see that it was nearly full. “Alright, what game are you playing at, Hale?”

Derek looked nervous and laughed as he placed the popcorn on the table. “Guess, I’m busted, huh?”

You crossed your arms and raised and eyebrow. “You think?” You couldn’t help but laugh. “I’ve had the popcorn over on the side through two sets of commercials now. You wanna fill me in on what you’re up to?”

He turned off the TV before turning back to you. “I have to tell you, I kind of heard what you said earlier.” He must have seen the confusion on your face because he continued on, “I walked in and heard you talking to Rowdy.”

Your mind raced as you struggled to remember exactly what you had said and then it clicked. “What…um…and so what are you doing then?” You could hardly string a whole thought together. “Are you making fun of me?”

Derek made a face at that. “Y/n, have I ever once struck you as the type of person to make fun of someone?”

You sighed, “No, of course not.” When you first moved in you didn’t even think he knew how to smile, let alone make jokes or tease someone. “I’m sorry, I’m just not so good at reading people yet.” You raised your eyes to his, and waited for him to explain himself.

“Clearly, I’m not so good at it myself.” Derek turned to face you. “I haven’t ever been good at sharing my feelings. That’s why it didn’t work out with Jess and me.” He paused for a second and a you could see the sadness wash over his face. “If I had been more up front from the beginning, Jess might have at least told me about Rowdy, instead of taking off without a word.”

You knew how much it pained him, having missed out on so much time with his son, though it didn’t occur to you until now that he also might have regrets about missing out on time with Jess too. “Do you think you would still be together now if things had been different?”

Derek laughed lightly at that and shook his head, “I doubt it, looking back I think we needed each other, we found comfort in each other. I just wish I could have understood how I felt then, so I could have avoided hurting her. It was never my intention to cause her enough pain that she thought she had to hide the pregnancy from me.”

You nodded, unsure what to say next. You had questions but this was new territory to you. You thought about the evening so far and decided just to ask the first question that came to your mind, “I don’t know any other way to ask, than to just ask straight out. Do you have feelings for me?” You stared at your hands, waiting for him to answer.

There was no hesitation. “Yes” Your eyes shot up to meet his honest gaze. “I didn’t want to scare you off by just coming out with it, so I thought I’d ease into it.”

"So wait, was that your way of flirting with me?” You had seen him flirt to get answers from people and you knew he was charming, but this had been anything but smooth. Not that you had much of a frame of reference, but still. “If you wanted to hold my hand, you could have just asked, you know. You had already heard me, you obviously knew that I have feelings for you.”

He was silent for a beat too long so you snuck a glance up at him. He looked nervous as he slowly stretched out his left arm and traced his fingers lightly over your wrist before lacing his fingers through yours.

“Over the last couple of months, I’ve started to…feel things for you.” He pulled your hand closer to him and started to rub his thumb over the skin where it lay. “At first I just brushed it off as a sexual attraction, but it didn’t take long for me to realize that it is more than that. When you smile I can’t help but smile, when you’re sad, or sick, I want to be the one to cheer you up and help you get better. I’m sorry, I’m not good at expressing myself, but I want to spend more time with you. I want to get to know you.”

You reached your left hand over and placed it over your intertwined hands. “You’re doing just fine.” You hesitated slightly, “Derek, you do know me, you know everything there is to know. Before Deaton found me, I don’t…remember much of anything. Occasionally, I get a flash of something, but I can’t seem to hold on to it. He says the group that held me had wiped my memory. So I’ve been getting to know me, just as you have. I don’t have any quirky stories, or any childhood anecdotes to share. I…”

Derek’s hand tightened around yours. “Then we will just have to make memories and stories of our own. I’m in if you are.” His face read cool and collected, but his eyes betrayed that confidence and gave away his nerves. Despite him knowing that you also shared feelings for him, he was scared that you were going to reject him.

You removed your hand from his and he looked crestfallen, but then you turned and held out your hand as though you were making the deal of a lifetime and gave him the answer he was hoping for. “I’m in.”

🐺Thanks again for giving my stories a chance! I have more stories in my drafts for this reader that I can flesh out if anyone wants to read them.🖤

Chapters: 14/? Fandom: Fuller House (TV) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Jackson Fuller/Ramona Gibbler Characters: Jackson Fuller, Ramona Gibbler, Bobby Popko (Fuller House), Lola (Fuller House), Gia Mahan, D. J. Tanner, Michelle Tanner Additional Tags: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alpha Problems, Scent Marking, Scenting, Pheromones, Knotting, Puberty, Angst and Feels, Grief/Mourning, Slow Burn Series: Part 2 of Alpha Jackson Summary:

Jackson's continued adventures at figuring out this whole alpha thing. And complaining about it.

Basically every trope from A/B/O fanfiction turned into a punchline. Because puberty sucks for everyone. Its a rule.

-.-.-

Chapter 14: Cookies are a Legitimate Coping Mechanism

The cold air of San Francisco poured in from the open window in the kitchen. It seared across Jackson's too warm skin as he plopped down at the table.

3am is the best time for breakfast.

"Awake again, insomniac?" Michelle groused as she climbed the stairs from the garage with narrowed eyes and reindeer pajamas.

"Sleep is for those with decent coping skills," Jackson grinned as he glanced down to see that Michelle's pajamas had feet on them. "If the last week has proven anything, it's that neither of us inherited those."

Michelle rolled her eyes, "There is only room for one snarky alpha in this house." She shoved his head down lightly and sat in the chair next to him.

The plate of snacks he'd nicked from the fridge was slid closer as Michelle kicked her feet up.

"Alright Baby Alpha," Michelle sighed, cookie rising to her lips, "Make like T Swift said and calm down."

It was perhaps the lamest alpha command Michelle had tried yet. It hadn't worked any better than the others she'd tried on him, but it did make Jackson smile.

"I think the offer to smother me with pheromones had more of an effect?" Jackson offered. Michelle wrinkled her nose.

"That was a threat, Jacks, not an offer," Michelle gestured with a pretzel stick before biting it in half. She spoke around her chewing, "And your amusement is not appreciated."

Jackson grabbed a cookie and shrugged, "You're the one that keeps trying to whammy me."

The second half of the pretzel hit his head.

"Not my fault I'm impervious," Jackson grinned around a mouth full of cookie. Michelle snorted, shook her head.

A whole week of midnight bonding with his aunt had taught Jackson several things. 1) Michelle didn't sleep much. 2) Her alpha abilities were either useless against him or her cancer was starting to mess with them. 3) She wouldn't admit to any of that. Even when bribed with all manner of stolen Christmas desserts!

"So, you saw your alpha doc yesterday right?" Michelle asked, brow raised and eyes focused on Jackson.

Jackson, very confidently, did not choke on his cookie. It just got caught in his throat a little.

Michelle snickered, eyes crinkling as she smiled, "I'd apologize, but I'm obviously not sorry." Jackson glared at her as he reached for his glass of milk. Michelle shrugged, "In my defense, your mom wanted me to ask."

"Uh, she was there," Jackson narrowed his eyes and wrinkled his nose. His arms gestured out, "She even brought up my knots, again! As if it wasn't humiliating enough talking about pheromones and how I triggered Ramona's heat!"

With arms crossed over the table, Michelle leaned forward. She didn't say anything. Just kept her face angled towards him as Jackson kept talking.

"He wants me to track Every time my instincts are triggered!" Jackson hands were flying now, a glower focused on the wall. "As if I even recognize the trigger half of the time!"

"Pretty sure that's the point of tracking it," Michelle chuckled, eyes closing for a moment as she sighed. Jackson frowned.

He did not appreciate reason during his rants.

Michelle's arms rose up, cupping her face as she propped up her elbows. She stuck her tongue out at Jackson, "That, and he wants to map out who your brain is classifying as 'pack' now. With no active scent marks, you're hormones still all wonky, it could be… what was the word DJ used… 'enlightening?'"

Yeah. Ngo wasn't even hiding his data collection for that paper now. He hadn't stopped scribbling throughout the whole damn appointment.

"You get anything useful out of it at least?" Michelle's elbow shot out to nudge his arm.

Jackson blushed.

The answer was yes. But finding out his attraction to Ramona was wholly teenage drama and not a remnant of the scent mark? Not something he was planning to share.

With anyone.

Not Ngo. Not Popko. Definitely not anyone with Tanner as their last name.

"You still tracking Ramona's scent like a bloodhound?" Michelle asked as she reached for a cookie.

Michelle was magic.

Possibly, she'd traded her soul for it because she seemed to give zero fucks about… well, most things.

Maybe that was just the dying thing?

"I will take your silence as confirmation," Michelle bit the cookie in half. Jackson watched her teeth sink into it.

The sharpness of her teeth was disconcerting as they eviscerated the chewy cookie.

“Have you ever…” Jackson trailed off as Michelle reached for a carrot stick now that the cookies were gone. It broke in half between her back molars. Jackson cleared his throat, “...scent-marked someone before?”

“Yup,” Michelle nodded, chewed her carrot. She was staring at him, eyes lulling and face flat.

Jackson groaned, “You’re gonna make me ask?” He looked at her, eyes wide. His puppy dog looks were significantly less effective now.

Or maybe Michelle was just immune to their effects…

“Watching you suffer brings me joy,” Michelle didn’t crack a smile even with her sarcasm dripping all over the room.

Jackson huffed. Definitely immune.

“What happened when you scent-marked? Was it as complicated and awkward as -”

Michelle snorted, her face finally breaking into a grin, “No Alpha in the history of Alphas has probably had this awkward of a presentation.” Michelle pointed her next carrot at him, then frowned at it, “Seriously, why are there not more cookies in this house?”

“If I get you more cookies, will you be helpful?” Jackson narrowed his eyes. Michelle turned her head, giving him a side-eye.

“Are you telling me there are more cookies?”

Max’s secret stash was easy enough to find and pillage. He set the Chip Ahoys bag in front of Michelle and she immediately held it to her chest like it was a baby.

Jackson snickered, “Okay, I get it, you love cookies, can we get with the storytime now?”

“How Rude…” Michelle muttered as she set the cookies back on the table and opened them. Jackson rolled his eyes. She huffed, “Fine~”

Finally!

“It wasn’t anything romantic,” Michelle shrugged, smirking at him as she brought a cookie to her lips, “So it’s not quite the same.”

Low blow. So rude.

“But yeah, my first pheromone party, I marked this girl I went to college with. It took me about a week to figure out why I was getting these nasty headaches," Michelle gestured with her hands as she spoke.

It may or may not have been a ploy to distract him from looking at her face. Which was twice as expressive as usual.

“Luckily, she was a beta, so it wasn’t quite as dramatic on her end.”

Annoyance flashed across Michelle’s face and her next bite of cookie ended with a particularly loud snap.

“So… what happened?” Jackson asked when Michelle quietly chewed her cookie with a pinched expression.

“Oh, she’s my assistant now,” Michelle shrugged, brows rising, “She texted me an hour ago to nag me about sleeping. Apparently I’m keeping her up with all my late night emails.”

Jackson’s face froze. His nose wrinkled.

That was not where he was expecting that story to go.

“Are you saying you’re still scent-marking her?”

Michelle gestured wide with the bag of cookies, “It makes it easy to keep track of her at shows?”

Lies. Definite lies.

Narrowing his eyes, Jackson scooted closer.

Michelle rolled her eyes, “Okay, so maybe it’s impossible to remove a scent-mark from a beta and now she’s stuck with me.”

“So…” Jackson spoke slowly, nose still wrinkled, “...all scent-marking is complicated.”

“Well, duh, dude,” Michelle snorted, “You’re literally coating them with your scent to the point that it becomes part of theirs? Outside of a honeymoon, that level of proximity and closeness is usually deemed a bit inappropriate.”

True.

Annoyingly true.

Jackson blushed, ideas in his head slamming into each other like pro wrestlers.

Michelle cackled beside him and Jackson jumped at the sound. She smirked, “Interestingly, your scent still gets all peppery when you’re freaking out.” She leaned forward, eyebrows wiggling, “Anything you’d like to share, nephew?”

“Uh…” Jackson’s mouth fell open and he blinked a few times, head tilting, “...no?”

“Wow,” Michelle’s forehead wrinkled, “You really are a shit liar.”

“Hey!” Jackson yelped, lips puckering in a pout.

She flicked his forehead.

Mean.

Jackson rubbed at the spot on his head, “Aren’t you suppose to be offering me advice and wisdom?”

“That’s your mom’s department,” Michelle waved her hand in the general direction of the stairs and then towards the Gibbler house next door, “Stephanie is sarcasm and witty comebacks.”

“And you?” Jackson asked, when Michelle dropped her arm and grabbed another cookie.

Michelle leaned towards him, smile plastered on her face, “I’m annoying.”

The laughter came out before he could stop himself. Bursting out of his chest like air from a balloon.

“See, sometimes annoying is helpful,” Michelle sniffed the air, “I can’t smell the peppers anymore.”

That did not bring him any degree of comfort.

Maybe Michelle’s nose was going? Yeah. That could be it.

Not that Jackson wanted to smell like Ramona. He just wanted her to smell like him. Wait! No…

Okay. Maybe a little bit.

But she was back on the suppressant now and it literally made him gag, so who could blame him?

“Nope, take it back,” Michelle shoved at his head, pushing him away from her, “There it is again.”

Definitely not her nose going then.

-.-.-

If you enjoyed this chapter and are feeling generous: https://ko-fi.com/raybyanothername

This chapter was finished during one of my live-writing sessions over on twitch! Feel free to drop by. :)

Hitori-Escape Tour 2019 concert reports 14-18

1-9

10-13

14 Hitorie’s Hitori-Escape Tour, 11/10/2019 at Takamatsu DIME Takamatsu prefecture

●The road was flocked with cosplayers on their way to the venue. Yuma recognized the Azur Lane cosplays, while SND recognized the Street Fighter and the Touhou. “Like Reimu and Youmu~” Yuma was face to face with a Miku across the street while waiting at a crosswalk, which amused him also..

SND “Hey! Was anyone in the crowd here who was out there cosplaying today, raise your hand! Come on be honest, tell sensei. Everybody close your eyes so you can’t judge each other, so only sensei can see c’mon.” Yuma “There’s people still opening their eyes lol.”

●Takamatsu really is full of events. There was a strange pungent smell eating away at Yu until he sought out the origin. It was a cheese event going on right nearby.  “These sort of things bother you until you find! Once you find the origin then it stops smelling, it’s an enigma.” ●A cat was spotted caught up in the cosplayer crowd too, which SND found adorable.

Yuma “I’m a dog lover and… I don’t really get the feelings of cats!! If you annoy a dog then you’re their enemy for the rest of the day but, with cats they’ll only hate you on the spur of a moment, based on mood. Yet then you spend the rest of the day depressed...!”

SND brings the flow of the conversation over to yga’s (cat-like) feelings, where Yumao dubs him the “Expressionless emo”. Yuma “He’s stoic but, mid-show he will turn around and smile at me! Sometimes he’ll be saying something too but, because it’s indecipherable I’ll just do my best to convey ‘Uhh, that seems good!!’ to him.” SND “... He looks at me a lot too but he never smiles.” Yu “Well cause the crowd could see his face then, but when he's turned around the crowd can’t see him!”

●SND “Well then. Umm.. It's uh… today...” *Unable to piece anything together while yga stares at him stifled and raring to go* “Ummm..”  ygarsh >>*BWOON*<< SND tweet "Takamatsu concert: complete, Takamatsu is the greatest place every time I come, I’m happy I got to perform in a city I love. Thank you, we’ll probs be back. Tomorrow we’ll be in Osaka y'hear"

15 Hitorie’s Hitori-Escape Tour, 11/11/2019 at Takamatsu DIME in Takamatsu prefecture

●During the handheld mic song SND went over to yg’s side and wrapped his arm around yg’s shoulders. Contrary to yesterday’s slip and slide yg did to dodge him—

●SND was late getting to the venue, due to countless self-destructive forces at bay. Yumao joked that he’s truly living the rockstar life. Truly a ‘rock musician’. At first he questioned “Sensei~ Were you busy drawing your manga~?” Because SND is an artistic person, and artist’s concept of time tends to be wonky. “Both of my parents are artists so I know this well,” he said..! SND “I drank for 12 hours straight... Until 10 AM... When the meet-up was at 12. I just had to group up with the crew to get all our gear together and hop in the car to drive down, so I told myself I would nap for 1 hour, then wake up, take a shower, get ready and go... But I ended up sleeping overtime. When I woke up even a miracle wouldn’t be able to get me there on time. So I called manager-san and told her the situation”.

Yumao “I didn’t care if manager-san gets angry at you~!” Though manager didn’t get angry at SND, she just made sure he had everything and could play okay.  SND “Though I lied and said I had some stuff ready when I didn’t... Why is it that we tell useless lies when we’re scared of getting in trouble.”

FInally in the car driving there, SND reeked of alcohol.. Yumao tells the story of how yga, in the backseat, burst out saying “This smell... It isn’t beer.. It’s... Highball. This is Kakubin, Highball whisky.. The beer was Kinmugi.. So... Torikizoku (the name of a bar chain).” Actually hitting the mark on what SND drank yesterday. SND “WTF.”

ygarshy is now the self-proclaimed ‘Highball detective’. ●Back to the show....! SND “Everybody it’s 11/11, what does that mean!“ Crowd “It’s bass day!” SND “Well then ygarshy, do your thing!” yga *>>BWOON<<*

The date 1111 resembles the 4 bass strings, thus the excuse for celebration! ygarshy also did a seminar for a bass week if that may pique your interest..: Here. SND tweet "Osaka concert: complete, thank you kindly. I'll see y'all next week then."

16 Hitorie’s Hitori-Escape Tour, 11/14/2019 at LIQUIDROOM in Tokyo prefecture

I’ll make a separate special post including all of Nishimaki’s photos etc., but for now it’s all mostly on my twitter... https://twitter.com/boat_manju/status/1195265416249139200

17 Hitorie’s Hitori-Escape Tour, 11/17/2019 at SPADE BOX in Nagoya prefecture

To dodge redundancy I’ll omit some of the happenings, as they reflected on the tour again and many topics were recycled from Tokyo. MC time! ●Yumao picked on SND again for saying “I have to sing and haven’t played a show in a forever unlike you hustlers, I have it a million times worse than you guys, I’m on a different level~~.” back when he was nervous on the first day of the tour. Yu “But... didn’t you once sing in a SOPHIA cover band?”

SND “We only were up for like 30 minutes, and we did just a bunch of L'Arc 〜en 〜Ciel or LUNA SEA or Visual kei kinda stuff.” Yu “Visual kei.. did you wear makeup!?” SND *laughs it off* “I pretended to be Mitsuru Matsuoka for 2 shows and that was the end of it.…“ ●When they were at the vacation cottage watching historical drama on TV... Despite yg seemingly not-watching and playing bass, to their surprise after he told them “That was funny”.  SND “yga never stops practicing huh” Yu “I could never watch TV and play drums." SND “Guitar might work huh.” Yu “Last show I had told everybody to feel free to ask me on Twitter about how to use the mobile battery we’re selling as merch, and someone did!” SND "I questioned how many interactions he got and.. It was a whopping one. One! *laughing*” Yu “They even told me ‘I can’t believe you replied!’” ●SND story time. He talked about how he first came to this city of Nagoya back when he was 17 or 18. He was born in Ishikawa prefecture and he passed the regional teem music tournament there, so he came for the south-east coast tournament. It was only his voice and acoustic guitar up on the loft, and he went home with no prizes but. After some thought he realized that was the beginning of his music career. What he felt up on that stage is still burned into his mind, and has kept him going all this. So being back in Nagoya, singing up on stage, feels like fate. “Our journey is ending for now but, we’ll be back. As long as we’re alive, we’ll be back.” And he sounds like Leader at the end.. Leader would say that..

●SND “It’s time ygarshy-kun! The Kirin Challenge Cup, it was Columbia VS Japan right, give us a comment on Japan’s smashing defeat of 0:2!”   yg *>>>angry BWOOON<<<* SND tweet “Nagoya concert complete, thank you. We performed footloose and enthusiastic, I hope nobody got hurt. See ya next time.”

18 Hitorie’s Hitori-Escape Tour, 11/18/2019 at Umeda Club Quattro in Osaka prefecture

The finale! Ahh the 18th show. What a long journey, but somehow it felt short.

●Yu “This show was an add-on, so it sorta feels like a bonus stage y’know. Normally I put a lot of attention into keeping my performance, my feelings as flat and stable as possible but, today.. I just scattered emo around.” SND “I feel ya haha.” Yu “Concerts are tricky!”

●SND “When we’re traveling the country, we see people smiling, people crying, people who have a face like they have no idea what to do with themselves, there’s just… so many different people, and every one is so beautiful. Every time a show ended I would go name-searching on the internet because I wanted to know what everybody thought, and just. Seriously, thank you. Thank you for mustering up the courage to come see us. With 18 concerts on our backs, we managed to shape this into something real. We’ve come so far and— Yuma, pops in like he’s feeling embarrassed or nervous or something, “Uhmm-” SND “Oi….!?” *collapses to the floor* “C’mooon I was just in the middle of something!!!”

Yuma “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to butt in-“

SND “It’s fine hahaha You’re always like this, I’m used to it hahahaaa” SND *on the verge of tears*→ Yumao *does his Yumao thing*→ Everyone  :') ●
Yuma “After all this time we figured out the trick to ygarshy too, even though he’s always stoic, right! But when he’s doing something bad or bullying, he has a HUGE smile! Especially when he’s bullying Shinoda, he’ll grin from ear to ear.” SND “Piece of shit I won’t forget what you’ve done to me. This bastard smiles the most when he’s the assailant”.   yga *Takes out his camera and begins to record SND*

Yu “See, he has fun in his own way!”

*Records Yumao twice, Yumao poses with both hands making the peace sign*

*Records the crowd* Yu “SND and I are always chatting it up about something right, but sometimes an hour or so later after we talk, yg will come over to me when I’m alone and tell me his opinion. ‘I think this I think that. Yumao you said it well earlier, you did well’… But... It’s, it’s okay to join in on the conversation too ygarshy..!” ●Onto merchandise chat!

Merch is currently available online now!!! The English site is here, but as most items are out of stock there, the original Japanese site is an option if you have access to proxy shipping, here! http://shopping.deli-a.jp/artist/hitorie.php Beware that the mobile battery cannot make it over the border due to restrictions, so even if you order it from the JP site, a problem will most likely emerge...

*Yumao poses to show off his hoodie, flops the hood up and down to show how the letters on the back appear.* *Points at ygarshy wearing the black shirt*

Yumao “The friction highlighters, if they get put in the drying machine or make contact with heat the ink will disappear! But if you put them in the refrigerator then it will come back! It’s a mystery~“ Yu “Then also the pouch... Ah where’d it go where’d it go..” Staff “Behind your drums!” Yu “I found it! I put my little drum supplies in here, it’s great, I never lose anything. The tote bag is convenient too! Throughout the tour I’ve been using it to carry my change of clothes and things.” SND “The bleach acid-washed denim was such a good idea, it looks adorable.” *Yu heads back to his drums* *yg picks up his bass* SND “Are we playin’?” Yu “Are we still talkin’? SND “We have the choice to just not do encore, right?” *yg on standby* *Yuma walks back to the microphone *yg puts his bass down* SND “Ahhhhh, that’s heavy to keep isn’t it, just keep it down.” Yu “Let’s goo!” SND “Alright ygarshy-kun.. Once this tour is over let’s drink some good beer!” yg “…?” *The lighting goes red* SND “?!” *Staring at each other doing nothing, yga puts his finger on his bass string* SND “Wait, what?!” yg *>>>BWOOON<<<*

ygarshy: “18 concerts. Thank you for mustering up the courage to come all the way out and see us. Being able to perform Hitorie’s music up on stage, was my pride and joy yet again today."

 SND: “Thank you.”

 Rie’s manager: “Thanks. I’m so proud of them.”

Yumao: Really by virtue of every one who came were we able to marathon this tour. 

I was on the same page as you when this started: totally unsure of how to present myself for these concerts. But halfway through somewhere I started to have fun, the number of smiles increased, and now that it’s over I feel like I lost something, the burdens and something special both.

I’m bad with expressing myself in text so this is all I’ll say.

~~Fin.~~

Filthy

So I finally got this finished its been roughly 2 weeks I think, @sphynx-nightmare im sorry my friend but I finally did it. I've just been really busy but I've been desperate to post also @cenobxter might be somewhere in the story. one more thing there may or may not be some NSFW. Enjoy!

Amy and the rest of the Avengers were at the compound in Upstate New York. They had gone away for the weekend to train. Unfortunately for Amy, Loki had chosen to remain at the Tower, but it was probably for the best as the rest of the Avengers didn't know about their romance and their secret meetings at Amy's LA apartment had been nice and private. The only people to know where the people who shared her apartment block with; Casey and her daughter Lily, who Loki loved to make smile with pretty flowers and gifts and just his charming personality. She didn’t want anything from Loki except him, but he insisted that Amy was to accept a gift he had made for her, it was a necklace she wore, a gift from Loki, a rare Asgardian silver that held a tree with royal Asgardian Emeralds. Loki explained that it was Yggdrasil the World Tree, It was there in the beginning and it is Yggdrasil that the connects the 9 Realms and using the Bifrost is to travel on its branches, without Yggdrasil the Bifrost would not be possible and neither would traveling between the realms, this meant that Amy’s and Loki’s love would not be possible if not for Yggdrasil. Things had been getting pretty heated lately during Loki’s visits, but nothing had gone further than an extreme make-out session. Steve frowned seeing Amy lost in thought. "Amy?" He said, sighing softly as she didn't react. "Amy?!" he said louder this time, making her snap out of it. "What? Yes, sorry, just tired." She said A few of the others chuckled as a bright blush covered her face. Tony on her left nudged her with a cheeky smirk. "What's keeping you up at night this time Sabrina? Art? New gadget? Spells and potions?" Amy laughed. "Na just couldn't sleep much," she shrugged dismissively. Sam frowned, reading between the lines. "Nightmares worse than usual?" Amy sighed - they all knew about the nightmares. More than once, when Amy stayed at the tower, she'd cry out loudly and someone would come in to find her rolling around on her bed, caught in a nightmare and drenched in sweat before they snapped her out of it. After the third time Steve had come in and found her like this, he recommended she speak to someone about it and Sam, having experience in counseling, was available to talk. She dismissed it initially, but after the fourth time Steve talked to Amy's mentor, Dr. Steven Strange, and between the two of them they all but staged an intervention to convince Amy to open up to someone about what she was dreaming about. Amy didn't react well and left the tower angry and hurt, but a few days later, talking to Casey (one of the only people who knew what the nightmares were about) calmed her down and rationalized everything after she vented the frustrations. She felt bad, she knew her friends were worried about her and agreed to meet them at Avengers tower with Dr. Strange. After apologizing for losing her cool before, she agreed to talk to Sam about the nightmares, but she still wouldn't reveal what they were about to which Sam agreed as well, saying that she would open up about them when she was ready. Steve frowned at hearing she hadn't gotten a good night's sleep. "Amy, maybe you should sit this one out, after all it's a hard course and it'll take about 3 hours to complete especially with the rock climbing." Amy shook her head instantly dismissing that idea. "No, I'll be okay, I'm not that tired, I just need to tire myself out and when we get back, I'll go get some sleep, deal?" Steve sighed and nodded. "Fine, but if you get too tired you head back and that's an order, okay?" Amy sighed but agreed, after all, she really didn't wanna get sent back. Steve talked them through the natural terrain obstacle course. "Okay, so first off today we'll be starting with the Mud mini obstacle course, in which you will be required to complete 4 different stages that you would usually find in your average assault course. Afterward, you move on to the 150-meter swim across the natural river." Steve smirked saying this next one "Then there's 'A Floor is Lava' in the forest exercise, where if you touch the floor then you restart that area." A few whooped in excited enthusiasm, Clint and Amy with Nat just smirking, they knew they could do that easily and some groaned in defeat like Tony and Bruce. "And lastly, a rock-climbing exercise, first to the top and hit the button on the Quinjet that's waiting there wins. Got it?" they all nodded. "Okay good, now you all have a wrist band to keep an eye on you meaning no tech, no magic, no helping each other either. This will also let everyone know if someone’s in trouble or in need of help at any point. Now positions…" They all lined up, ready to go, and a buzzer went. Most of them all sprinted off immediately to get across the mud obstacle course, but Amy wasn’t stupid, knowing she’d need all the energy she could get for later. She took her time going through the mud obstacles and it wasn’t long until she was overtaking Tony, Bruce, Wanda, Rhodey and Scott before she hit the first obstacle.  Thor, Steve, and Bucky were fighting for first place halfway to the 2nd Obstacle while Amy, Nat, Clint, and Sam were just starting the muddy slope climb - a 7ft slope of mud - and if you make it up the top, you slide down into the thick muddy water below. Amy managed to get over before Clint and wasn’t able to hide her laugh as she heard him yelp, tripping and going face-first into the water. Amy pushed through the thick muddy water, it was cold, wet and tough to get through, but soon they were through it and trying to keep pace with each other. Soon they got to the next obstacle: a rope swing, only you had to grab onto another rope mid-swing to make it the rest of the way across. Amy and Nat looked at each other and instantly they both picked up the pace, racing for the rope first. Amy managed to grab it a fraction of a second before Natasha could and kicked off but accidentally jerked it as Nat grabbed it, sending her into the mud pool below as Amy got over the flew through the air on the swing, knowing she was leading the pack of non-altered heroes. As she got to her next obstacle, she looked over her shoulder seeing Sam not far behind her, with Nat and Clint where right up her ass. She couldn’t help but smirk seeing Tony and Bruce pulling themselves over the mud slope and cry out as they fell into the mud before she kept going. She got onto her stomach and had to army crawl through more thick muddy water and by the time Amy pulled herself out to the other side, she was caked in mud from head to toe. She ran to the last obstacle - Monkey Bars. Amy sighed, she hated monkey bars, it killed her arms and she knew she’d need all the arm strength she had to do the swim and the climb, so she decided to go a different way. After all, Steve didn’t say they had to swing from the bars. She ran to them and kicked off one of the thick support beams and used that to propel herself to the top of the monkey bars and run over the top of them, being careful not to slip. Amy ran to the river happy she was finally out of the mud, hoping beyond hope that the river would wash away most of it, she was absolutely Filthy after all that. Amy spotted Bucky, Steve and Thor in the middle of the river, she knew the chance of her beating any of them were slim but the wrist bands they wore suppressed powers, so their strength was depleted a bit and she could only hope that it also took away their enhanced stamina. While they were rushing full speed ahead, she could tell even Steve had forgotten that their stamina might be affected so she kept her pace faster than average but steady. Amy had been swimming since she was a kid so she had no problems with keeping a good pace and she didn’t need to push her body as hard as the guys in front did, and before long, she had caught up with the guys as they were trying to do the ‘Floor is Lava’ challenge. Amy stood for a second, watching in amusement and taking in the course. This part was in the forest area at the other side of the river, there were lots of steppingstones and some were wonky, some were moving, and some were even wobbly. The highlight came from Steve falling off a wobbly one, making one of the sensors that were over the floor go off. “Shit,” he mumbled, and Amy smirked unable to help herself. “Language!” she smirked, hearing Sam, Nat and Clint laugh. They were almost across the river now, Scott, Wanda and Rhodey were about halfway across and an exhausted Tony and Bruce were just walking to the river, not even stressing themselves about the challenge as they talked. The best reaction to her comment was Thor who fell off his steppingstone and landed on his ass, his great booming laugh echoing off the trees whereas Bucky simply chuckled before turning and continuing on. Amy smirked and realized who her opponent would be for winning place, she could really feel the exhaustion in her but she was determined to win, no one had said it but they all knew whoever won would get to pick 3 things tonight: Where they got takeaway from, what movie they watched, and what the next training session would be. Amy smirked, running towards the steps but doing exactly what she had done with the monkey bars, run and lever herself up onto the trees. All the branches were pretty thick, so she quickly made her way across them, just managing to get to the other side seconds after Bucky did. “You ain’t gonna beat me Barnes!!” Bucky chuckled but shook his head choosing not to say anything, they both knew he’d have an instant advantage because of his Vibranium Arm but Amy was smaller and a little faster when he was weakened by his bracelet. She hesitated as she got to the cliffside, feeling a little dizzy and lightheaded, but she shook it off quickly, it wasn’t that bad. She could make it to the top first, press the button, and then sleep until Tony and Bruce arrived…in a few hours. Amy looked at Bucky putting on his safety harness and an exciting thought came into her head. She had climbed smoother surfaces than this with no problem, so she started to climb, ignoring the safety harness to gain first place. Bucky was close behind and not giving up the chase, but it looked like Amy was going to win. Just as Amy got past the halfway point though, another dizzy spell hit her and she stopped, tightening her grip on the rock and trying to ground herself. Bucky noticed Amy stopped and stopped himself, knowing something was wrong. Steve, Nat, Clint, Sam, and Thor, who were on their tails, noticed too but before they could say or do anything Amy’s body went slack and crumpled as her body gave out, exhausted. She started to fall, Bucky jumped, trying to catch her, as did Steve, but just as they were both about to get to reach her she vanished, leaving them to crash into each other with pain-filled groans. Loki appeared on the base of the cliff holding Amy in his arms and cradling her gently, his hand glowing as he scanned the length of her to make sure she was okay. Steve picked himself up and came running over along with the others, minus Tony and Bruce who had no clue what was going on and only just about to finish the river. The Avengers looked shocked to see Loki “Brother? What are you doing here?” Thor asked, Loki looked up after finishing his scan “What happened?” he demanded angrily. In his head, they were responsible for protecting her, she was meant to be safe but instead he had been alerted because she was in danger, and he found her falling from a cliff face. She could have been hurt or killed!! Thor frowned, “She fainted, I think.” Bucky piped up after recovering from smacking into Steve. “Yeah she did, I looked over and she stopped, I thought for a second she needed a break but it’s Amy, she wanted to win, so she wouldn’t stop when she was in the lead…her eyes rolled back and she fell.” Sam nodded. “She did say the nightmares had been keeping her awake.” Loki frowned. “What nightmares?” Sam sighed. “I don’t know what they’re about, but she struggles with them.” Loki gently brushed Amy’s hair gently to the side of her face. “Why did you not tell me my fire? I could have helped.” he said tenderly forgetting who was around, but when he did, he looked up with a very visible blush on his face. You could all but hear everything clicking together in the Avengers’ heads. Thor looked shocked “You are courting Amy?!?!” Steve groaned. “I knew this would happen.” Nat smirked at Clint. “You owe me $500.” Clint groaned. “How did you even know she was in danger?” Rhodey asked. Loki looked up. “The necklace she wears, it’s a gift, but it will always keep us connected and keep her safe.” Amy let out a soft whimper in her sleep, making everyone fall silent. Loki held her close. “Shh my love, it’s all right, I’m here…I’m going to return her home and stand watch over her…I don’t think Casey will be pleased about this…” Loki picked her up and teleported away, laying her gently in bed before texting Casey about what had happened before laying down to watch over Amy in her sleep.

A few hours later Amy groaned starting to wake up a little trying to open her eyes she finds herself nearly blinded by the morning sun. She rolled over, burying her head in the soft pillow and sighing softly, feeling much better than she had during Steve’s cross country assault course. She frowned - come to think of it, she couldn't remember how it ended. She remembered climbing up the rock face with Bucky and then...shit. She groaned, remembering the dizzy spell she took and knowing she must have fell. Surely, she was in a hospital bed with a broken something and a looong lecture from Cap and Dr Strange waiting for her as soon as she opened her eyes, but she frowned, confused, as someone kissed the top of her head. She boldly looked up, ready to look danger in the eye, only to see soft and loving green ones gazing back at her. Amy couldn’t help the smile that lit up her face seeing Loki before pulling him into a kiss. “Hello Handsome….” She smiled happily. Loki smiled but she could tell it was a sad smile. “Why did you hide your nightmares from me my love? I could have helped…”. Amy sighed. “I didn’t want you to know, it’s something I’ve had for years but I’m okay now, it just gets to be too much sometimes. You being with me helps, knowing you’re by my side, my nightmares fade and I dream about us and our future.” A happy smile spread onto Loki’s face. “I’m here if you ever want to confide in me Amy…you don’t have to hide when you are hurting or if you need anything from me.” Amy bit her lip. “Anything?” Loki smiled. “Anything.” Amy smirked in a way that can only be described as the definition of Mischief. “Then I want you… every piece of you to join with every piece of me.” Loki went wide-eyed for a second before a smile spread onto his lips as he stood. “You don’t get a prince in bed that easy Amy, beg…” he smirked they had talked about kinks before, so he knew exactly what she liked. Amy whimpered wantingly feeling much more invigorated after a good sleep. “Please my King, I want you to take me as your Queen.” She didn’t get another word out before Loki’s lips met hers in a kiss whose passion burned hotter than 1000 suns. Loki pushed her back onto the bed making quick work of removing her clothes and kissing down her body, leaving the occasional bite mark. Until he got to her other lips and kissed there with just as much skill, making Amy writhe under his strong hold. He wasn’t letting her escape his grasp that easy. He wrapped his arms around her thighs as he held her gently, but firmly, in place causing Amy to moan. It wasn’t long before she was a panting mess and she had finished. Loki smirked clearly proud of himself. “Kneel Before Your King” he ordered, and instantly Amy was on her knees in front of him waiting for his member excitedly. It was an impressive length, just like the rest of him, and Amy took him in her mouth and started to pleasure him. It wasn’t long before Loki had finished too and that was just their starter. After Loki kissed her again pinning her against a wall his cock already hard at attention. He smirked before throwing Amy on the bed and sexily crawled up her body before getting to her and pushing in, moaning loudly himself. It was like their bodies were meant to fit together like 2 pieces of the same jigsaw. All night they spent together and in many different positions, Amy’s favorite being the reverse Cowgirl and Loki’s was when she was bound and under his control. After a long night of Passion and Pure love Amy and Loki cuddled happily together. The next morning, Casey all but kicked the door down and before she noticed what Amy was sitting on. “Wit the fuck wur you thinkin Amy!? You couldae been killed! For fuck’s sake… ya Pair of Filthy Bastards get some fuckin clathes on!” walks out “Elliot! Get the Bleach…then get in that fuckin bedroom!”

Your Elusive Enigmatic Soulmate

C H A P T E R   O N E

Chapter: P | 1

A/N: Chapter 1! I hope you guys are as excited to see this back on here and active as I am!

Pairing: Steve Trevor x F!Reader

Synopsis:  You have been waiting your whole life for your soulmate, and it seems that just as you are about to give up on love, he shows up. However, he seems to be ignoring the biological, spiritual fact that the two of you are in fact meant to be.

Rated: General Audiences

Warnings: Language

“Thank you so much for doing this, Y/N.”

You placed a box down in the middle of the brightly lit room, your hands moving to your hips as you straightened up. You gave your aunt a smile, brushing a strand of hair back from your face. “It’s no trouble...Thank you for giving me a place to stay.”

“Oh…” She waved a thin hand at you. “I would let you stay here even if I didn't need your help, sweetie. You know that.”

“I know, but I would still be grateful, regardless…” You said, navigating the labyrinth of cardboard boxes to reach the small woman and wrap her in a hug.

She sighed, her arms encasing you. “I’m sorry, sweetie.”

You shrug, the smile on your lips fading. “It’s ok…Nothing we can do.”

“He’s an asshole.”

“Auntie…”

Not that you didn't agree with her.

“What? It's the truth!” She let go of you, moving towards the bedroom door.

“But he’ll be your son-in-law one day,” you murmured, bending down and picking up the wonky pair of scissors you had found in one of the kitchen drawers.

“I know…” she groaned, placing a hand on her side and looking about the room. “You have a lot of stuff, Y/N. Didn't you get rid of anything?”

You did, but this bedroom was the size of the closet in your old apartment. Luckily, your aunt had never gotten around to seeing where you used to call “home”.

“A few things…” you shrugged as you opened the box labeled “Spring Clothes” knowing she would feel terrible if she heard the truth. “I put some stuff in storage, and, if need be, I can put more in.”

“Alright...You get settled in, then. I’m going to go take a nap.” She opened the door a bit more to allow her some space to walk through before turning back to you. “Also...could you be a dear and go across the hall for me? I water his plants when he’s away, and, lately, I’ve been a terrible house sitter.”

“Sure thing, Auntie,” you gave her a smile, lifting some of your neatly folded tops from the box and placing them in your white dresser.

“Thank you.”

It was late afternoon when you finally finished most of your unpacking. Your aunt was still sound asleep in her room; you could hear her soft snores through the thin wall separating your space from hers.

You headed into the main living area, a great room with large windows overlooking the street. Your aunt had it set up so that the sitting area was by the view, the kitchen in the back of the room, and a square kitchenette with seating for four in the corner, close to your room.

There was only one bathroom in the apartment, and you had to go through your aunt’s room to get to it. It was a problem you pointed out when she suggested becoming housemates; you woke up early for work and were a morning shower person, and you didn't want to end up waking her up at the crack of butthole every weekday morning.

She assured you that she slept like a rock, and you were too desperate to leave your own place that you didn't even question the legitimacy of that excuse.

Funny, your mother used to tell stories of how light a sleeper your aunt was. Maybe things had changed?

You walked over to the front door as you pondered that thought, your eyes getting caught by the colors of the floral calendar your aunt had hung next to the key rack.

Today’s date was circled in red; “Y/N Moves In!”

You grinned at her antics, but when you noticed the date…

Oh.

You let out a sigh, grabbing the keys your aunt had specified as the ones for the apartment next door. She had the owner copy his key with a kitty pattern on it because he reminded her of a kitten. You didn't know what that meant, and you assumed he didn't either.

You opened the front door, closing it behind you but leaving it unlocked. You crossed the hall, tried the key, and turned the knob.

The place was...well, not what you expected. You weren't sure what you had thought the place would look like, but you suppose you underestimated how long this man would leave for. The place looked as if no one ever came home to it, even occasionally.

It was scarcely furnished, although it resembled your aunt’s layout. There was a couch. No television. Dusty counters with no appliances other than what came with the apartment. The doors to the back two bedrooms were closed, and you wouldn't dare open them, respecting his privacy and all.

You spotted the watering can through the window, realizing that this apartment also had a small balcony. Next to it were the plants your aunt had mentioned, along with giving specific instructions on how to water each one.

You climbed out into the cool, early spring air, the slight breeze causing you to shiver a bit in your thin leggings and tee. You picked up the watering can to find it full, probably from the rain yesterday, and began to water the plants.

You were almost done when you heard voices outside the front door.

“I told you, George, it's not a good idea…”

“But the journal clearly states…”

The door to the apartment swung open, hitting the wall with a bang and making you jump, clear liquid splashing onto your shoes and soaking your socks.

You only had a minute to feel sorry for yourself before you heard…

“Who the hell are you?”

Your head shot up, eyes wide like a deer in headlights, taking in the owner of the baritone, and his companion. And when you did, your wrist felt as if it had burst into flames.

TAG LIST - Add yourself here. Tags are open!

Your Elusive, Enigmatic Soulmate Master List

Master List

Her Royal Highness - Chapter 9

Back at the palace, later that night, Sophia helped Mal out of her wedding dress and then slipped out so Mal could get dressed and also because Stewart had slipped her his phone number and they were going to go and get a late-night ice cream together. She took the dress and Ben's suit with her to be cleaned. Mal was a bit jealous that Sophia had a life outside the palace that she could leave to every day.

Mal fumbled to plug her phone in on the bedside table and rubbed at her scalp. Her hair felt a little wonky for some reason. With her phone still connected to the wall, she scrolled through Auradon News. The media station was picking apart hers and Ben's coronation blessings, although hers was admittedly more covered. As she skimmed the brief excerpts, she dwelt briefly on the Enchantress's words from that day. "You have such interesting stories." She'd said. Mal felt a lump well up in her throat. Stories of war. Stories of magic. The thought of what might lie ahead made her hands shake.

Other stories featured click-bait headlines such as: "What magic was performed at the coronation", "Queen Mal, Daughter of Maleficent; her evil secret", and "A Villainesses' daughter is Queen – What Next?" Mal briefly examined the opening paragraph of one, found it utterly dry and devoid of thought, and closed the tab.

There was a thud in the next room over. Mal glanced towards the doors, then went to the Palace's website. She liked the palace's website a lot. There was a general BIG NEWS section which was currently filled with things pertaining to the days' events and updated according to what people were interested in reading, and there was a little series of tiny blogs – one for each royal member. Adam's included a lot of political statements, Belle's was filled with her reading list, and Ben chose to fill his with many, many short essays about Auradon and its greatness mixed in with inspirational quotes. Mal wasn't sure what she was going to put on hers.

Another crash from the joined sitting-working area of the royal suite. Mal opened the camera and took a photo of herself with her purple hair splayed out on the pillow beside her. This she uploaded onto her little blog-area with the short caption: "I hear crashes from the next room. Half of me thinks I should go make sure Ben isn't going to break himself, but the other half is really, really sleepy."

She craned her head to see if she could spot him without actually moving. She couldn't. When she looked down, Abigail Arendelle had commented: "I like your hair."

"Thank you very much." She replied.

"Where you do get it done?" Abigail asked.

"I just cut it myself," Mal explained.

"And the purple?" Abigail questioned.

Mal contemplated an answer. "It's always grown in like that. Dunno why, since Mom had brown hair."

"Still, cool," Abigail said.

"Yup." Mal agreed.

Another thud came from next door. Mal finally threw her phone down and got up. The living room was a bit larger than the bedroom and had a lower level set into the floor where a couch with a table and some armchairs laid. Other tables and chairs lined the room, along with a large desk that was supposedly for when they brought work back to the room. A television was set in view of the couch, and this was where Ben was crouched down. He was connecting a black box to the television. Mal walked over and put a hand on the dark brown couch, picking at the leather a little bit.

"What are you doing?" She asked.

Ben looked up with a little smile. "I find it abominable that you've been here for three months and still haven't seen any of the movies I grew up with, so voila! Old hero movies from Auradon's glory days!" He spread his hands proudly.

Mal scoffed lightly. "You want me to watch the people I grew up around get destroyed on repeat?" She asked.

"No… I want you to see the cool animation and hear all the awesome songs we wrote." Ben whined with a small pout. "And yeah, I know that you're not into all of the stories, but I think you'll really like some of them, so please?"

He nudged a cardboard box with his foot. Mal smiled and walked around the couch. She sat down and pulled the box up onto her lap. "Hercules?" She asked, skimming the box on top of the pile.

"And that's the gospel truth!" Ben sang quietly under his breath as he went back to matching colored cables. Mal snorted. She was glad to see he was coming back to his normal, goofy self. Apparently, his drinking didn't take that away from him.

After a few minutes of shuffling, she asked: "Why are there two Cinderellas and two Beauty and the Beasts?"

"Remakes. We'll probably watch both of them eventually. Me personally, Beauty and the Beast is my favorite story." He turned around to see if she'd get it. Mal only rolled her eyes.

"Oh really?" She laughed. "Want to know my favorite?"

"Maleficent?" He guessed.

She frowned. "Don't you mean Sleeping Beauty?"

"No, there was a movie made about your mom a while back. We'll have to watch it. I dunno if it's in there." Ben frowned, leaning forward to shuffle through the disk holders for a few seconds before shaking his head.

"Oh." Mal furrowed her brow. "Well, I was going to say the one where the blue prince is forced to hook up with the purple chick, but I don't see that one in here either."

Ben laughed. Mal smirked to the side as she continued shuffling through the plastic boxes.

Mal picked out Bambi, which she would later regret, and the Beauty and the Beast remake for Ben to choose from. "So." She said, drumming her fingers on her knees as she handed the slim boxes to Ben. "We should probably talk about this a little: are we just spending our wedding night watching movies?"

Ben shifted uncomfortably and rubbed his head as if he had gotten a sudden headache. "Yeah. I thought that was a good idea. If you don't, we can…" He trailed off, sounding a bit stifled.

Upon grasping his meaning, Mal closed her eyes and let out a small breath of relief. "Honestly, I like this idea," She agreed. "We'll get together another night."

Ben relaxed as if someone had removed an entire heavy load from his shoulders. He shrugged and leaned back. "I've just been thinking, I mean, you're still pretty young. And we don't want you to get pregnant or anything." He snorted at her as Mal stiffened, looking distinctly uncomfortable, and continued. "Also, I just don't think we're there yet. I know I'm definitely not."

"I'm definitely not either." Mal agreed, taking a breath to quell her shaking. She twiddled her thumbs, trying not to show how much his comments scared her. While it was a relief to know they weren't going to rush themselves tonight, she still had questions. She cleared her throat. "Will it be okay? With like, the crown blessings and everything? Does it matter?"

Ben shook his head as he messed up his hair slowly. "It doesn't." He confirmed. "I looked into it and everything already. Technically a royal marriage is a magical event and it won't be complete until we make it so, but since we're married politically your mother's curse is still fulfilled. Does that make sense?" He looked up with a questioning gaze.

"Yeah." Mal nodded. Her next question had actually been on her mother's curse. She cleared her throat and carefully set a hand on his shoulder. "Are you... okay?" She asked hesitantly.

Ben wouldn't meet her eyes as he continued coming through his hair with his fingers, making it stick up at odd angles. "I'm glad it's over." He whispered. "That was... an ordeal."

"It was." Mal agreed. Her mouth felt a bit dry. Should she tell him about the Enchantress? There were still other things she wanted to ask him. What was Exanton? What was up with the Moorlands?

She opened her mouth to speak, but Ben started talking. "I don't want you to be worried at all about me," Ben told her. "I know I had a couple of drinks in front of you tonight, and I don't know if you're uneasy about that or-"

"I'm not." Mal interrupted. She furrowed her brow. Alcohol was an Auradon concept since it was dangerous to not be on edge when you lived on the Isle, but that didn't mean she didn't understand it. Something to numb pain. Something to distract. "I know you have a good head and heart. I don't mind. Sophia said to me, also, that people were being a bit down on you."

Ben winced. "I'm sorry." He told her. "I shouldn't have listened to them. I know you expect better of me."

Mal gave him a weird look. "What?" She asked. "Of course I don't expect that. But I'm curious-" she sat down beside him, pulling her feet up and hugging her legs to her chest. "What do the people think of me?"

A dark look overtook Ben's face as he shuffled the disk sleeves back and forth in his hands. "You don't want to know." He sighed. "People aren't exactly transparent."

Mal shifted her weight and hesitated a moment. "They don't think I'll be a good queen."

Ben snorted. "That's the least of it." He scoffed. "People think you're spelling me, spelling my parents, orchestrating this. They're talking about what they'll do to you if you start trying to make changes. I've heard threats and subtle comments..." Ben shook his head as he trailed off. "Some people are just angry you're still sixteen. I've seen lots of back-handed things on Auradon's inter-web, people keep saying snide things to me about how I'm robbing you of your childhood and..." again, he trailed off, looking absolutely disgusted.

"I'm sorry," Mal whispered. "They don't say much to me at all. I hadn't heard."

Ben shook his head. "Good." He declared. "Because there are cruel, heartless people in Auradon, and I don't want them to attack you and my mom like they're attacking my dad and me."

"Your dad?" Mal frowned. "Why are they attacking your dad?"

"He's king." Ben declared half-heartedly. "And it's his decision to pass his own throne to me. They're attacking him for stepping down."

Mal's frown deepened. "Do they expect him to rule forever?" She asked.

Ben threw his hands into the air. "Apparently." He sighed. "They'd have been angry if he'd decided to keep it and would have called it corruption, but he can't put it down without a fight either." He shook his head.

"That's awful." Mal sighed. "Auradon is cruel."

Silence reigned over the two. Ben swallowed thickly. "Yeah." He agreed. "I guess we kind of are. You've been saying it, but... yeah. Even my friends - even Audrey - we're cruel." He mirrored Mal, pulling his knees up to his chest and staring off into the distance.

Mal raised an eyebrow at him. "Audrey spoke to you?" She whispered.

Ben immediately flinched, and Mal knew it was so. Carefully, she set a hand on his shoulder. "She's smallminded." She whispered. "Audrey just...cannot understand. She's never, ever known before."

Ben closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "She said the nastiest things about you. Asked if I needed counseling, told me to go dunk myself in the enchanted lake to make sure I wasn't being spelled, acted as if it entirely your fault." He shook his head. "She told me she loved me." He finished.

Mal swallowed. She knew Audrey annoyed Ben, that she did things that confused him and that he didn't agree with. But they had lasted as a couple, if only for a little while.

"Do you love Audrey?" She asked. The word 'love' felt cold on her tongue.

Ben immediately shook his head. "I've never loved anyone." He admitted. "Or, rather, I've never been in love. I care about Audrey, but even after all that time dating I still don't love her."

"Hmm." Mal hummed. She patted his shoulder and then gestured to the forgotten videos in his hands. "Which one?" she asked.

Ben looked down and examined both films. He sucked in a breath. "Bambi." He murmured quietly, with a sad look in his eyes.

"What?" Mal asked.

Ben jutted his lip out and looked up with a forlorn expression. "Bambi." He repeated sadly.

Mal picked up the disk. "Okay, this one first then." She decided, feeling around the edges for an opening.

Ben nodded and sat down beside her. "We should watch Meet the Robinsons later. That one is gold. Or Big Hero Six. " He let out a little sigh, the kind when someone thought about something they loved. Mal rolled her eyes.

"Bambi," Mal said as she opened the case and pulled out the shiny rainbow-disk. "What makes this work?" She asked softly, confused.

Ben laughed. "Okay, this is a spinny-disk, and it goes in the light-box there." He pointed. Mal glared and palmed him the disk. He exploded into giggles as he got up and put the DVD into the player.

"This movie breaks your heart." He warned.

Mal smiled. "Bring it on." Ben rolled his eyes. An explosion of sound from the speaker made him jump in surprise. His cheeks were bright red as he scrambled for the sound and then took a seat beside Mal on the couch as she laughed at him. Mal laughed and pulled a blanket from a wicker chest beside the couch to throw over her legs. She passed a second one to Ben and then settled in, completely forgetting what she'd wanted to ask him about.

________________________________________________________________

Mal staggered into the room with a small pillow still clutched in her arms. Belle smiled at her and asked: "Are you excited to leave on your honeymoon today?"

Mal deadpanned, trying to remember if she was supposed to know what that word meant, and shrugged. She made an exhausted pair of finger guns around her pillow and replied: "As long as there's sleep," before she collapsed into her breakfast chair. "I don't even know anything about this… so?"

"You sound like you were up really late…" Belle murmured, exchanging a look with Adam.

Mal's eyes grew big and sad as she jutted out her lower lip. "Bambi." She whispered softly in explanation.

"What?" Adam asked with a raised eyebrow. He looked uncomfortable.

"We watched Bambi," Ben supplied, wandering into the room looking equally exhausted. "And Beauty and the Beast, and Meet the Robinsons, and the Aristocats, and the first twenty minutes of Snow White." He pulled out his chair and began pawing around on the table for some milk as Mal poured herself a glass of orange juice with a yawn. Belle let out a little breath and an "Oh." She sounded a bit relieved.

Adam's mouth pressed into a straight line as he suppressed a smile. "Only the first twenty minutes?" he asked.

"Dad." Ben began with a sigh followed by a yawn. "Just because she's the nicest lady on the planet doesn't mean her story doesn't suck. And her husband is creepy. Sorry."

"Nicest lady?" Mal yawned. "She practically ran the other direction when I told her the Evil Queen had a daughter yesterday." She reached for an orange. "It gave me a little more respect for EQ. I mean, I knew all about the poison apples, but not the whole 'kill my step-daughter' thing. The lady's a bit scarier than I thought she was."

Belle shivered in agreement. "What did you think about the other movies?" She asked out of pure curiosity.

Mal shrugged. "Your voice sounded fake in the Beauty and the Beast remake, and I didn't really get the ending of Meet the Robinsons. Wouldn't evaporating Doris cause a paradox? Like, if he didn't invent her then the time machine wouldn't have been stolen in the first place, so the entire movie never actually happened." She rolled her eyes and felt around the table cloth for her spoon as Belle and Adam exchanged looks.

"You guys better get moving," Adam said, looking at his watch. "You have to take the back way out. There's a, ah, calamity?" He glanced at Belle, his literate half, (who had a book open under the table) as she ate and waited until she nodded her approval. "at the front gates." At his words, silence graced the table.

Mal paused, stood up, and walked to the north-facing windows of the room. Ben looked like he was trying to solve a brain teaser as Belle stood up. "Um, Mal, you don't need to-" She began worriedly.

"They're protesting me," Mal announced. Ben stood up and went to look out the window beside her with a frown. Mal stared over to the circle drive, where a large group of about fifty citizens was standing. Ten or eleven held signs visible to them. They were dressed in Auradonian Blues and Golds, and the signs were purple. Mal swallowed and turned away. Their shouts were silenced by distance and walls, but Mal still felt their indignation through the glass.

"Yes, we'll leave soon. Where are we going?" She asked.

"Honeymoon," Ben responded quietly, glaring out the window.

Mal raised her eyebrows. "Is that some sort of weird pet name?" She asked.

"No, it's a trip a couple goes on after they get married," Ben responded. His expression didn't change at all.

"Oh, okay." Mal nodded. "I agree we could use that. Where are we going?"

"Surprise," Ben replied with a smile.

"Surprise? I didn't sign up for a surprise." Mal glared. "Just tell me."

"Nope," Ben said. He turned and sat back down to finish his breakfast. "Finish your breakfast and we'll head out." He pulled her chair out so it was easier for her to sit down and stole her pillow as he took his chair. Mal scowled and walked back over as he leaned into it, pushing his plate back a few inches.

Belle and Adam exchanged looks as they all settled back in. Adam cleared his throat as Belle reopened her book and dipped her head down to continue reading. The back of her neck was red. "Ben." Adam began. "You and I need to have a word before you leave."

Ben looked up, looking a bit like a deer caught in headlights. He blinked several times. "About what?" He asked. Mal hesitated, hovering behind her chair as she watched the scene. Adam's face contorted like he was in pain as he struggled for words.

"About me?" She prodded him. Ben looked down, processing, and then glanced back at her.

"Dad?" He asked slowly.

"Yes," Adam admitted, gearing up a little as he felt everyone's gazes bearing down on him. He straightened up in defense. "Yes," he repeated. "Your mom and I want to make clarifications on how we expect you to conduct yourself around Mal."

"Dad." Ben stared at his father, dumbfounded. "Believe me, we got this covered."

"She cannot, under any circumstance, get pregnant." Adam continued, though he was starting to sound strained. Mal's cheeks erupted into flames and she quickly looked away. "Now, whatever happened last night was between you two in your marriage but if we're to break this curse in the end only to split up-"

"Dad!" Ben interrupted. "I am not going to... assault a sixteen-year-old!"

"That's enough." Belle interrupted, closing her book. "Your father and I want Mal and you to respect each other and if she gets pregnant you need to know that your family will split when you part your separate ways." She fixed her gaze, first on Mal, and then on Ben. "That is all." She declared and reopened the pages in her lap.

Mal felt her cheeks burning. Ben looked offended and uncomfortable, and she couldn't blame him. Breakfast was finished in silence, and then Ben escorted Mal back upstairs.

________________________________________________________________

Ben helped Lumiere and one other servant whose name Mal did not know pull their luggage down to the curb where a long-distance carriage was waiting. Whenever Mal caught Ben's eyes, she would raise an eyebrow. He refused to disclose a single word though. She kept with her a small bag that included an aged book of magick from the library, a small stack of paper and a collection of pens and scissors, and a new tablet that Adam had gifted her that included a purple case and a lavender stylus. Ben had packed much heavier than Mal. He and Lumiere each pulled a large, heavy suitcase along behind them. The last servant pulled Mal's suitcase, which was half the size of one of Ben's. Originally, she was going to do it herself, but then she'd left for the restroom and come back to find they'd called another person for the express purpose of taking it down to the carriage. After that, she'd felt too guilty for taking away their only thing to do.

Belle and Adam, who were going to see them off and run the kingdom for the next month before Ben and she returned and began to instigate changes, followed them down for the sole purpose of one hug and a kiss each. Why couldn't they do that up in the palace? No idea.

Ben kissed his mom's cheek and stood by the door to help Mal up. They were both wearing casual clothes, though Ben didn't lose his princely posture. He had tan jeans and black and white shoes. He also had a blue button-up shirt with the sleeves rolled up. So, okay, not entirely casual, but it was still a step down from suits and ties all the time. Mal herself had a purple, short-sleeved shirt with a high neckline. She had black shorts and purple tennis shoes. She'd considered going without sleeves but wasn't entirely sure how Ben would react to the mark of Maleficent on her shoulder.

She hugged Belle. Sophia had said goodbye this morning. She'd come back from hanging out with Stewart last night with a smile on her face. When Mal had asked, Sophia had explained in brief terms the concept of "good friends who are interested in each other but aren't dating yet." Mal wondered if that was where she and Ben would be, in a different world.

Mal held out a hand to shake for the king and was pleasantly surprised when he put his arms around her for a bear/beast hug. "Have fun." He told them. "We'll see you in one month."

Ben held out a hand to help her up as she neared the carriage. She smiled at him. As soon as they were seated in the carriage, they started to move. Mal looked out the window. There was no driver.

Ben put a hand over hers. "It's enchanted." He explained. "We don't use it all that often, but it is available for long-distance trips."

"Long distance?" Mal asked with a frown, mentally irritated over the idea of enchanted carriages still existing in anti-magic Auradon. "Where are we going?"

"I told you." Ben rolled his eyes. "It's a surprise." He reached under the seat and pulled his laptop out of his bag. Mal raised an eyebrow.

"Work?" She asked. "I thought your parents were handling everything."

"Not work." He replied. He pulled out a long, thin, velcro bound book and handed it to her. She opened it up and found CDs. "Movies," Ben explained. "Pick one."

"Is my mom's story in here?" Mal asked as she slipped a few disks out of their covers to examine them.

"Not yet. I put an order in for it and the DVD will be back at the palace when we get back. I do need to teach you how to stream movies, though." Ben contemplated, stowing his bag back underneath them.

Mal didn't recognize a few of the terms he was using, so she kept her mouth shut and picked a disk at random. Ben put the disk into the computer and then started it. Then, he leaned over and put his arm around Mal's shoulder. He was so warm that she immediately curled her head into his shoulder and let her eyes grow heavy.

"Are you going to go to sleep?" Ben teased her before letting out a yawn of his own. He rubbed his thumb on her shoulder.

"You act so differently when no one else is around," Mal told him. "Like, at the party and with your parents, you're a diplomat. You talk more when it's just us."

Ben considered her words as the ads began to play. "No one else knows what being stuck like this is like." He admitted softly.

"You treat me different too," Mal told him. "Have you noticed? Like when we're alone in your car versus when we're with your parents?"

Ben frowned and straightened up. "I'm sorry; are you uncomfortable?"

Ben raised an eyebrow. "Why?" He asked in a comic tone. "Are you serious? You're a girl, extremely pretty and smart, and we're stuck in a situation where you've just become my queen and you're asking why I treat you like I do?"

Mal blinked. She turned to meet his gaze. "You... like me?" She asked.

"Of course I like you. I like everyone." Ben rolled his eyes.

"We've been kissing for a month but... are you in love with me?" Mal asked. That thought took her breath away. She wasn't sure how to react to someone being in love with her.

"I don't know." Ben suddenly looked uncomfortable as well. "I told you. I've never been in love before."

"In Auradon." Mal chuckled. "The land of true love," Ben said nothing. He ran his hand down her arm and found her hand, twisting their fingers together. Mal put her head back into his neck. This felt like something they would do if they were normal. If they had actually chosen to date each other and get to know each other instead of shot-gunning this based on a spell. It felt like something she'd do with her boyfriend or whatever Stewart was to Sophia. She felt her eyelids growing increasingly heavy. "I'm not, like, a problem though, am I?" She whispered.

"I told you; I like you," Ben assured her. "You're kind, you're brave, you look for the best in this awful situation and you don't get mad when we mess up. Like we did yesterday, forgetting to tell you everything."

"That wasn't a problem." Mal yawned. The ads ended and Ben leaned a bit to start the video, but Mal was fading fast. Before they even got around to introducing the hero of the story, she fell fast asleep.

________________________________________________________________

She woke when Ben's fingers started rubbing little circles into her scalp. As far as she could tell, she'd slept through the day. Late afternoon sunlight was filtering through the window. It smelled like fruit and fields outside. She was leaning against Ben's ribcage, and both his arms were around her. She wiggled to loosen his grip and sat up with bleary eyes.

"What time is it?" She wondered as she yawned and stretched.

Ben was awake, though dazed. He'd evidently fallen asleep too. His eyes flickered back and forth from Mal to the view outside. "Almost six o'clock." He told her and rubbed his eyes.

Mal frowned. She had slept all day, and the carriage was still moving. "We're still not there?" She asked. She scooted away from his grasp and leaned out the window.

A summer breeze woke her up. She examined the view. They were moving through plowed fields. The leaves outside were pretty reds and oranges. The sun was nearing the horizon, but it was still warm for now. Small, isolated houses dotted the area. Behind them, the large silhouette of a city with a castle stretched towards the sky. Ahead of them by a little more than two miles was a long line of trees where the field ended abruptly and gave way to forest. Mal studied the site. Something about it filled her with wonder.

"The field stops soon." She told Ben.

"Yeah." He agreed. "Maybe ten minutes more, then." He seemed a little nervous.

"Since we're so close, are you going to spill any secrets?" Mal asked.

Ben shook his head. "Nope." He moved to his window and peeked out. Mal too turned her attention back outside. "That's Auroria," Ben told her, pointing towards the city. "Audrey, Aurora, Phillip, Queen Leah, and their relatives live there." The carriage crept closer to the woods, and Mal watched the sunset over the hills. When a cold breeze tickled her nose and made her sneeze, she moved back inside the carriage.

"What are we going to do while we're there?" Mal asked.

Ben shrugged with a playful smile. "We'll have to see." He said.

Suddenly, everything was warmer. The air changed in an instant. For Mal, it felt like the air pressure had changed just a little, or that there was a new, heavy scent in the air. As for Ben, he turned an immediate shade of blue and began to cough and gasp. Mal gingerly touched his shoulder in alarm as his body was wracked with coughs. Ben bent down and tried to take deep, calming breaths. Mal began to panic. She didn't know how to help people who were choking or keep them from dying. None of her friends were dumb enough to have ever needed medical treatment on the Isle. Finally, after several minutes of gasping, Ben was able to sit up. When he saw Mal's pale face, he smiled and put a hand on her knee.

"Sorry." He gasped. "I was a little worried about that barrier. No one besides Aurora and Audrey has been able to pass it in almost thirty years."

"Barrier?" Mal asked. She looked back out the window. They'd entered the forest area. Behind them, at the field limit, she could see a thin purple film shielding the path. A magical barrier that wasn't visible from the other side. The trees were towering above them, but she could still spot bits of the barrier above the green layer. The air had a feeling like static electricity to it like if she rubbed her hands together, she would shock herself. But unlike static, it felt like she was absorbing it. She turned to Ben, who was regaining color. "Where are we?" She asked though she was starting to get a feeling.

"That was the barrier to the moorland. It consists of the entire west border of Auradon. We're in the outskirts of the Moorland now. I wasn't sure the barrier would let me in with you, but I hoped because I figured you'd want to see where your mom grew up." Ben explained.

"My mom?" Mal asked. The concept felt foreign to her.

"Yeah. You should feel right at home. Maleficent was born and raised here." Ben answered, leaning heavily into the seat as his strength returned to him.

"No way," Mal said, looking out the window in shock.

"Way," Ben responded. He put his head in his hands. Mal frowned and scooted back to him. When she brushed his hand, his skin felt hot.

"You're burning up." She commented.

"I'm lucky to have not passed out touching it," Ben explained.

"Why did we come, if you weren't sure it would work?" Mal asked.

"I wasn't sure it would work for me, but I knew you should be able to get over no matter up. The moorland is inheritance for you. It wouldn't block you out." He drummed his fingers on his knee and sat back up. His skin was finally taking back its healthy pallor. "There's lots of magical creatures out here." He murmured, taking her hand and rubbing it even as he remained hunched over. "You could learn a lot."

Mal blinked and furrowed her brow. Magical creatures? "Are you… encouraging me to learn magic?" She asked.

Ben pretended to toss the idea back and forth with a smirk. The fact his humor had returned was a good sign to Mal. "Maybe." He shrugged.

"No way," Mal whispered. A wide smile spread across her face.

"Hey." Ben held up his hands. "I've known for a long time our laws against magic are wrong. When I learned you had it in you, I knew you could be a powerful force in making those laws fair for everyone. It's what the kingdom needs."

The kingdom? Mal felt a rush of something icy cold run down her spine. "A magically powerful queen-" she started, suddenly doubtful.

"Who will help alleviate racism, bigotry, and the general mistrust of magical creatures and people that began in my parent's reign." Ben interrupted.

Mal blinked. "You're using me as a weapon against closemindedness?" She asked.

"That, and I enjoy your company." Ben decided.

Mal laughed. "You've certainly thought about this a lot." She chuckled as he took her hands and held them.

He met her eyes and smiled. "I have." He agreed. After a few seconds, he followed this thought up with: "I'm glad I didn't marry Audrey."

The thought was so random that Mal had to laugh. "Strangely enough, me too." She agreed. Suddenly, her head was full of ideas. She could learn magic, show Auradon what it meant to be magical, dance around the restrictive laws Belle and Adam had started, and change Auradon for so many people.

Ben continued talking. "Or anyone else in Auradon, or the Isle, or any other daughter of Maleficent." He continued. He squeezed her hands. "I'm happy it's you I get to be stuck with. You understand how hard it is."

"If it had to be anyone." Mal smiled and leaned in to give him a quick kiss on the cheek. His smile stretched even bigger.

The cart rumbled to a stop outside. Ben released Mal's hands as she moved back to the window. The trees were thicker here, and dark. Outside, silvery light moved in the trees, and a number of corpse-like women holding rusty lanterns and dressed in white robes appeared out of the woods. They all appeared to be sleeping as they surrounded the cart. Ben let out a breath, but the people seemed oddly familiar to Mal.

"Who are you?" A voice asked, speaking in otherworldly tones from no distinct source. Their voice sounded mournful and dry. "We recognize you, but we don't know you."

"I am Mal, after Maleficent, my mother. I'm here with my husband Ben. We're on our honeymoon. He wanted to bring me to the place my mother grew up." Mal explained through the window. Something about the women seemed familiar to her as if she'd known them all her life.

"Maleficent? Have you come to renew the moors?" the voice asked again. Mal could only assume it was the disembodied voice of one of the people outside.

"I don't know what that means." Mal murmured. The Enchantress's voice was ringing in her ears. 'Queen on the Ancient Lands'. She swallowed. "Here, can I come outside real quick? It's... weird talking through the window." There was no answer, so Mal climbed over Ben and unlocked the door. Ben followed her out cautiously.

The ground was black, rich with minerals and different types of organic salts. The underbrush was great, and the trail did not continue much further. It broke off into several small, simple footrails instead. Mal knew this was as far as the carriage could go. She walked up to the woman closest to her, whose skeletal hands rested one on her lantern and one on her hip like something was causing her pain there.

"What does it mean, renewing the moors?" Mal asked.

"We must be renewed. We are stifled. Queen Aurora cannot run the moors, and as time goes on and the stretches between visits grow longer and longer our kingdom wilts. We need a ruler to revitalize, renew." The voice sounded broken and desperate. It ripped at her heart.

Mal twisted her hands. "Oh, I just got here. I don't know anything about being a queen of the moors. But, what can I help with?" She bit her cheek. Something was telling her she already knew how this was going to end, but no one could blame her for being nervous, right?

"We need a ruler." The voice broke, and the women all hunched forward as one, as if they were crying. "Heal us, heal us!" They begged. "Your mother was the queen of the moors. We flourished under her hand before wretched Stephan stole her wings. Please, Mal. Please!"

Mal turned to glance nervously at Ben. Ben clearly wasn't quite sure what was going on, but he nodded encouragingly.

Mal furrowed her brow in thought. "I have another kingdom I need to take care of." She warned. "Would you be okay with that?"

"Yes!" The women begged. "Heal us, heal us!"

Mal was completely taken aback. For a second, she almost said no, but then she thought of the people on the Isle and how similar they were. "Okay." Mal agreed. She looked at Ben. "I think I'm about to become Queen of the Moors. Sorry if this wasn't on the itinerary, but these folks need me." Only one day after her conversation with the Enchantress and already the woman was making more sense to her.

Ben nodded and tried to smile, but it was hard with the corpse women surrounding them. He folded his arms and tried to act casual. "Yup, so go and do your thing. Go be awesome." He encouraged.

Mal cracked a smile and turned back to the woman. She had no way of knowing what was about to happen. Out of the woods came thousands and thousands of creature. She could only recognize a minute fraction. There were fairies and miniature dragons flying through the air while Fae people, tree warriors, and three people who seemed to be made out of mossy, grey boulders wandering into the open. Little colorful creatures flew through the air with tiny wings and lighted eyes. A colony of people made out of brightly colored mushrooms trudged around their feet. Pixies carried hedgehogs through the air to Mal's feet, twittering excitedly all the way. Rocks rolled through the trees to spring into the forms of trolls with bright crystals hanging around their necks. Little colonies of living fruit and vegetables came walking past. Other normal creatures, things Mal recognized, came romping through the woods, like mice, ants, grasshoppers, snakes, frogs, and other rodents. Birds flapped overhead and came down to sit on the roof of the carriage and in the trees above. All of the magical creatures ignored Ben as if he were not there. They focused exclusively on Mal as she watched them come with a wide look in her eyes. When she turned to look at him for reassurance, he put on his biggest smile and nodded.

Mal knelt carefully in front of the withered woman so as not to squish any of the creatures surrounding her. The corpse woman shuffled forward and put her wrinkled hands on Mal's head. A pixie, a male fae, and a rather tall mushroom man with large, crooked teeth rushed forward. They too, put their hands on Mal's head, with the mushroom man having to reach up and the pixie hovering delicately over Mal's head.

The mushroom man went first, sputtering out a series of grunts and rumbles that Mal simply did not understand. The forest creatures went up in a cheer around him. Mal peeked out underneath her eyelashes to watch in amazement as the man spoke, and the rock men straightened up and regained their strength. The tree guards shook their arms as years of moss and wood rot vanished from their joints and weapons. As for the mushroom men, several of them grew a few inches. Their colors grew more vibrant, and their eyes brighter.

When the mushroom man had finished, he had grown an extra six inches, and his teeth had straightened out and become white. Almost all of the forest creatures looked renewed, in fact. Only the corpse women, the fairies, and the fae people waited anxiously. The man stepped out of the circle and went to rejoin his family.

The Fae began to speak as soon as the mushroom man stepped out of the circle. With his words, other creatures popped out of the ground and began to materialize from thin air. The forest grew brighter, and lights sprang forth from the leaves of the trees. The withered October fruit on some of the branches gave way to lovely jewels in the shapes of pears, apples, and pomegranates. Long chains of fine gold dropped from the branches and wove their way into the trunks of the trees so that the forest began to shimmer and glint.

A fine perfume filled the air, and from the ground, thousands of earthworms in millions of bioluminescent colors began to break forth and turn towards her.

When the Fae man was done, he floated away on renewed silvery wings above the heads of all the creatures and took his place beside a tall, regal fae woman.

The pixie began to speak in high, squeaky tones. Ben had the urge to cover his ears. It sounded like a cheese grater working into a block of metal. Thankfully, she talked fast, and the effects of her words were immediate. The barrier, bits of which Ben could see above the trees, solidified into a thick, impenetrable force, just as it had been in the days of lore. It became white instead of a polluted purple, and the parts that had been thin filled themselves in.

Finally, the withered corpse woman shuffled a little closer to Mal. "Command." She said in a stern, firm voice. "Decide. Receive. Speak. Renew." On the word renew, white light escaped from the woman and her waxy friends. Their aging marks vanished, and they became as young ladies of the court. "Arise." On the command, Mal felt invisible strings began to pull her to a standing position. She got to her feet without the woman removing her hands. "Become." The woman finished and took her hands from Mal's head. Her face was still, despite its renewal, clothed in sleep. She and her companions turned and shuffled away. Everyone in the clearing watched as their feet avoided the smooth roots and groves in the soil. Before they were out of sight, the disembodied voice said: "Love." And then Mal got the feeling she was gone.

The forest went up in cheers. A group of pixies brought forth a crown made of white vines, which Mal accepted without a second thought. Her Auradon crown was at home in her dresser while she was away.

Ben went to stand beside her. "Who was that?" He asked.

Mal blinked. It hadn't been any other ordinary creature. She didn't even have a name for the reanimated figures for a few seconds. then the information appeared on the tip of her tongue. She smiled at Ben and gestured to where they had disappeared. "That was the Spirit of the Moors. She is connected to everything here around us, and sleeps in the center of the land."

Ben let out a breath. He was staring at her in dumbfounded amazement. Mal felt her cheeks go a little pink as her new one-word blessings started to ricochet off the insides of her skull along with everything the enchantress had said. Love. The Spirit of the Moors had blessed her with love. And what that meant, Mal didn't know. Maybe it was love for the people and the grounds. Maybe it was love for Ben. Or maybe it was just in a general sense, a greater capacity to love. All she could tell for sure was that this was a moment that would change her life forever. Mal bent down as small creatures rushed to her feet to shake her hand and chatter excitedly. Every single little word was clear to her, and she found herself speaking back in the exact languages she needed to speak. Ben watched with a smile as Mal extended her finger to shake hands with the smaller ones. Fairies and Pixies were taking up residence in her hair, causing the strands to fly out around her head. Many Fae children were rushing forward with gifts of clear stones and white twigs.

They ushered Mal away from him. Ben did his best to follow at her side, but the creatures were persistent. They ignored him as he apologized for stepping over and sometimes dangerously near them. Only a squirrel paused to chatter at him as he romped behind Mal. Mal got the feeling that the moor landers were not nearly as impressed with a human prince as Auradon was.

She was led to the edge of a polluted river, and knowledge started to fill her head. Despite all the great good the renewal had completed, certain species had not been around to renew the portions of the moors they'd shouldered to maintain all these years. These she would have to personally cleanse before the magical creatures could return to help her. As water sprites and magical fish swam towards her, she graced the top of the waters with her hand. The water became clear, and the sprites began to cry, adding to the beautiful water. Lighted flowers and stones littered the floor of the river. Large quantities of water sprites rose up over the ripples to greet the new queen. It was an amazing sight, but Mal suddenly felt exhausted. The rush of magic was new and hard for her to control.

Mal looked back for Ben and noticed he was trailing father and farther behind. She reached out a hand for him, and after a moment's deliberation, he went to her. "You want me up here?" He asked her softly.

"Of course." Mal nodded as they took each other's hands. "We did agree to work together, right?" She went on her tip-toes to give him a quick kiss on the cheek. Then, she turned to all the creatures around them. "This is my husband." She told everyone. "His name is Ben. Please be nice to him." She repeated her statement in a few different ways until everyone was nodding along.

The creatures looked at him as if for the first time. They reached up, and Ben bent down to shake a few of their hands. A small bird-like pixie shook his finger, then flew off giggling. A blue mushroom child with a flower growing atop his head shook his hand shyly and asked something in a language Ben did not understand. He looked up at Mal for help.

"He's asking if you're also a king." Mal translated with a smile.

"Oh," Ben said. He turned his attention to the child. "I'm the king of the kingdom outside of yours. That way." He used a spare hand to point. Mal translated in a language that sounded like clicks and beeps. The child smiled brightly and hugged Ben's entire hand to his body. He was only as tall as Ben's elbow and rather pudgy, but the hug filled Ben with the feeling of a warm blanket falling over his shoulder. He smiled brightly.

"Since when do you know any of the moor languages?" Ben asked Mal.

She shrugged. "I don't know." She responded. It must have started with the blessing to 'speak'.

The moon climbed into the sky as the night wore on. Ben stayed by Mal's side, which she was extremely grateful for. She walked around her kingdom, purifying a few things and places that had not been cleansed during her appointment as queen. There was still lots of natural, non-magical damage, but the big things had been fixed. Mal was exhausted. The magic of the moors was the type that needed a filter to cleanse it. It flowed through Mal like natural magic did and then was cleansed just being in her presence, but the more it happened the sleepier she became. At long last, Ben laid down in the roots of a large tree with beautiful white veins threading up the trunk. Mal sat beside him as she finished a conversation with three fae women. It was clear they were both having trouble staying awake. One by one, the woodland creatures went their separate ways to leave the two alone.

When all the woodland creatures had left for the night, Mal laid her head down beside Ben's. The tree roots hollowed out into an alcove of soft grass where they curled up together. She folded her arms under her head and buried her face away from the light of the trees above. Ben let a soft smile pull at his lips, and then turned towards her. He slipped an arm around her waist and let his eyes drift closed at the end of another extremely long day.

━ ✧ ( nico mirallegro, 26, he/him ) did you hear about generation’s new record ? it’s totally bitchin’ ! isaac carberry was killing it as lead vocalist. people who have interviewed him say they’re really quixotic & convivial, but they can be sort of impish & ungovernable if you catch him at a bad time. a mischievous grin, northern grit, your ex-record label’s offices looking like a jackson pollock after getting your revenge in the form of vandalism.

hello, my loves! — i’m jess, i’m 22 and over in rainy england. i’m recently done with university which gives me a lot of downtime until i find a job so hopefully i can dedicate a lot of that downtime to this fuckin’ rp because it’s gonna be lit i just know it. i’m a huge stone roses fan and 80s/90s-music-obsessed in general so getting to play this character is super exciting for me, so without further ado, meet my trash son: mr isaac carberry. PLEASE HMU FOR PLOTS!

BACKGROUND

born 14th april 1960 in manchester, england to a normal working-class family, isaac was the first born child of james & rose carberry, with a younger sister coming along a few years later. the little family of four lived fairly happily, but struggled financially just as many people did in northern england at the time. 

when isaac was five, his father lost his job as a result of coalmine closures, and times were tough. however, the family kept their spirits high by keeping close-knit, as well as listening to a whole lotta’ music. music was key in the carberry household. it was all around you at all times.

when times would get particularly bleak, his dad would pick up an guitar and play to the kids. he wasn’t very good but watching someone play an instrument and have fun with it sparked something in the eyes of isaac carberry.

tw violence, corporal punishment — during his teenage years, he was a problem child. he was the kid that always got pulled out of class by the headmaster to receive the cane in his office. he could never sit still, was always cracking jokes when he should’ve been doing his schoolwork, etc. it wasn’t talked about at the time, so it went unnoticed, but what isaac was probably dealing with was undiagnosed ADHD. despite this, though, he was a clever child. he had a way with words and looked forward to english class every week, where he would take great pleasure in writing exercises, especially poetry. 

writing was a dreamy, escapist haven for isaac, and this extended to his life outside of school, too. the works he was producing were mostly tongue-in-cheek, light-hearted stories and poems with a recurring “stop taking life so seriously” theme. when he turned 16, however, these poems began to turn into songs. this started to take up a lot of his time especially when he finished secondary school at 16 and went onto sixth form college, where he took music alongside english.

isaac desperately wanted to learn to play guitar, so that he could form some structural melodies to these songs, but struggled with honing the skill of learning an instrument. luckily, when he was 18, he made three friends who could do just that. the four kids would bounce ideas off of each other and hold jam sessions in the tiny little basement of isaac’s family home, but things never went much further than that (at least not yet, anyway.)

isaac decided against going to university, mostly since his family lacked the funds, and instead picked up a full-time job in a grocery store to help out his household’s shared income. 

in 1979, margaret thatcher came into power as the UK’s prime minister, and times got even bleaker. money was even tighter and the working-class situation became an even harder one to be in. the carberry family started sending isaac out on the street after work to sing some of his songs for tips. 

in 1983, aged 23, isaac was in a dark place. no opportunity, no degree, no wealth in the family to fall back on. he ‘rallied up the troops’ so to speak and practically begged his friends to start a band with him. he had plenty of material, after all.

to his relief, they said yes, and were determined to make it work. they were hungry for attention and throwing themselves at any gig opportunities they could get, to get them a bit of money into their pockets. that was it, GENERATION was truly alive and kicking.

at a show supporting another band, generation were noticed by a fellow musician, who took a shine to the band and booked them to support his upcoming uk tour. thus, the band were rising to prominence. fast forward a year and before isaac even had the chance to process it, generation were shaping up to be the biggest band in the uk. isaac could finally give his family everything they needed to better their situation and was having the most amazing time ever doing what he loved.

after independently releasing their own singles, the band got themselves a record deal in early 1985 and released their first full record, a self-titled album. their management wanted to introduce them to US audiences, and thus — that’s how we find ourselves here. 

PERSONALITY

ok sorry for that LONG ass background here’s the nice lil fun part where we can just dick around lmao hey meet my baby boy chaotic aries who is a lovable mess and i will protect him at all costs

literally so much of his personality is inspired by myself lmao we love an aries legend with ADHD but also i owe some of his characterization to the stone roses’ ian brown so if you ever want a look into isaac, watch some interviews or smth because Big Isaac Mood. the last aesthetic in his app references this video

nice, but a fuckin firecracker of a man. intense boi!! he’s a Lot

on first impressions he’s cool and collected and laidback but when you get to know him he can be very exhausting to be around, talks a lot, never tires of energy, etc

has that lopsided, wonky grin that you can’t help but love

lowkey isn’t really overwhelmed by the fame at all, he’s kind of narcissistic in the fact that he??? just feels like it’s really deserved? he knows hes talented jfjhgfjkghf

lowkey maybe highkey a sweetheart

a favourite with the ladies but not good w commitment

has slept around a lot. ladies, fellas, you name it. probably has it in him to settle down someday since he likes the idea of falling in love, but just hasn’t found it as of yet 

charisma literally oozes from him

tw drugs & alcohol / dOeSnT LiKe To sHoW eMoTioNs but then will literally cry w u and pour his heart out if you’re close enough to him or if he’s hella drunk or high on ecstasy 

Reyt fokin’ northern accent, yeh get meh?

man i dont even know can i just post this dumb shit already because this is getting LONG

WANTED CONNECTIONS

ex-girlfriend / groupie — i have this as a wc on the main

best friends will prob be taken by his bandmates but at the time of writing this only one other spot is taken so maybe ill branch out

give me some ppl who just DONT fucking like him

hookups / ex-hookups

someone he can be a bad influence on

someone who is a bad influence on him

someone he’s had beef w in the industry, maybe they said some shit about his band in an interview or something

a slow burn love interest plot................. listen.... gimme the one person he’s falling for and would consider being tied down for. i’d be so soft for that

gimme anything and everything my babies

Chapter Three

Pairing: None

Warnings: None

Word Count: 1356

Author’s Note: Hey, everyone! I forgot to mention this in the last post, but I apologize if my posting schedule is a little wonky right now. School started up for me again this week and between adjusting to classes and commuting every day, my posting times end up being wildly inconsistent! And I’m not a huge fan of scheduling posts because I like to keep my timing the same across all platforms. I’ve also been struggling to find time and inspiration to write requests, so it may be awhile before I get to those! Anyway, thank you for your patience and enjoy chapter three! 💛

This was bad. Really bad. It needed to be fixed immediately, if that was even possible.

You leaned forward, twirling a strand of your now bright orange hair around your index finger. It was supposed to be a nice blonde color, but somewhere along the way something had gone terribly wrong. There was no way you would be able to go to work like this, your coworkers would never let you hear the end of it.

You stormed out of the bathroom, thankful that you had decided to do this on a weekend when Matthew was out of town. It had been a week since things between the two of you ended and you were still less than civil to one another. There was no way you would have been able to avoid his nasty comments. Besides, he had always said you would look dumb as a blonde, even when you were dating.

Your phone was still sitting on the coffee table where you had left it, so you snatched it up and began to search for ways to correct hair color. There had to be something you could do without leaving the apartment. You weren’t sure that you would be able to handle all the stares that you would no doubt get in public with your current condition.

Twenty minutes of in-depth internet searching ending up yielding no usable results. You groaned and threw your phone down on the couch and rubbed your temples. All you needed was to find a way to get in and out of the grocery store without drawing too much attention to yourself. Ideas began to cycle through your mind, but none of them seemed doable.

That’s when you spotted it: an oversized sweatshirt tossed into the corner. You ran over and grabbed it, pulling it over your head. As you walked to the bathroom, you pulled the hood over your head and cinched it around your head so that only your face was visible. Sure, it made you look a little bit dorky, but it was better than having strangers comment on your fluorescent hair.

You looked over yourself in the mirror, making sure that your hair was covered from every angle. Yes, this would do perfectly. Now all you needed to do was get to the grocery store, find a dark color to cover up your mistake, and re-dye it before Matthew got home tomorrow afternoon. How hard could that be?

Your odd outfit gained you a couple stares as you shuffled towards the back of the grocery store, but your mind was focused on one thing and one thing only.

You breathed a sigh of relief as you spotted the row full of hair dye. There were seemingly countless colors to choose from, and you weren’t sure how you were going to decide. It had taken you long enough to decide to go blonde, and look how that had turned out.

You were looking over some dark brown options when you spotted someone round the corner at the end of the aisle. He was walking fairly quickly, so you hoped that he would continue right past you and not give you a second glance. Unfortunately for you, he came to a stop a few feet away from you and began to look over some of the brightly colored options. At least he hadn’t commented on your weird outfit.

You decided a glance at the stranger wouldn’t hurt, so you discreetly turned your head so that you could better see him out of the corner of your eye. Your heart skipped a beat as soon you laid eyes on him and for a moment you stumbled from your carefully balanced squatting position.

A beautifully colored tattoo sleeve covered the arm closest to you, ending right at his wrist. Your eyes moved further up to his face, which was covered in light stubble. His brown eyes were just barely visible as they roamed over the color options. Brightly colored strands of hair, some of which were hanging over his face, stood up at all angles with dark brown roots just starting to show. You were pretty sure that you hadn’t ever seen someone so beautiful before.

He started to reach for something, causing you to quickly redirect your attention back to the boxes of hair dye in front of you as if you hadn’t just been admiring him. Your cheeks were burning from embarrassment, despite him not so much as looking towards you.

“The fact that you have a hood cinched around your head and you’re in the hair dye aisle concerns me,” he said suddenly, laughter just barely detectable in his tone.

You turned towards him, only to realize that he was looking at you. He had grabbed his own box of red hair dye and was holding it between his hands. His mouth was turned up into the slightest hint of a smirk.

“It’s a long story,” you smiled, standing back up to your full height.

“I’ve got a fair amount of experience with dying hair, if you want some help,” he said. It seemed like a genuine offer.

“Well,” you sighed, taking a glance over your shoulder. Once you realized that it was just the two of you in the aisle, you reached up and pulled down your hood. “How do I fix this?”

The man’s eyes went wide for a moment before he began to laugh. He brought a hand up to cover his mouth, “I’m really sorry, I shouldn’t be laughing, but-wow-yeah, that’s definitely something.”

“Tell me about it,” you grinned.

“Ok, let’s see,” he said, walking over closer to you. “You were definitely on the right track with a darker color.”

The two of you looked over the hair dyes together, grabbing random colors and asking for the other’s opinion. You eventually settled on a dark brunette color. Oddly enough, it wasn’t too far off from the color of the man’s roots.

“Are you going to be able to handle that?” he laughed.

You rolled your eyes at him, “I actually dye my hair pretty frequently, thank you very much. It just so happens that today went very poorly.”

“I can see that,” he smiled.

You pulled your hood up and tied it once again, hiding your terribly dyed hair from view. The man watched as you did so, laughing a little bit. You were sad that the two of you would have to part ways so soon, your few minutes together were the happiest you had felt since the breakup.

“Well, I suppose this is where we part ways,” you sighed.

“You know, I could give you my number, if you wanted it. I wouldn’t want you to get stuck in another hair dye emergency and not have anyone to turn to.”

“I would like that,” you smiled. “Who knows, if my second dye job goes as badly as my first, I’m definitely going to need the help.”

You pulled out your phone and opened the contacts app before handing your phone off to him. He quickly typed in his information before passing it back to you.

“Josh Dun,” you read out loud.

“That’s me,” he said, holding his arms out.

“I’m Y/N,” you said as you sent him a text.

He pulled his phone out just as it dinged. This caused him to smile.

“It was nice to meet you, Y/N.”

“You too, Josh. And thank you for all the help.”

“It was no problem. If there’s one thing I know a lot about, it’s hair dye.”

“I wish I could say the same,” you laughed.

“You’ll get there.”

You rolled your eyes again, but smiled nonetheless.

“So, I’ll see you around?” you asked, starting to walk backwards.

“Definitely.”

You threw up your hand in a half-wave before turning on your heel and walking back down the aisle. It was hard not to let a smile take over your face. After spending the last week feeling absolutely miserable, it was nice to finally feel like something was going your way, even if your hair still looked like a mess.

Tags (Let me know if you would like to be added!)

@svintsandghosts @a-stumpsexuals-world @ohprettyweeper @jigglypuff1999

Is the Marley-Nazi and Eldian-Jewish thing bad for the story?

Have I… wronged you in some way, anon?

That’s a sticky question.

Back when the anime was coming out, a very popular negative opinion was that the story would be more interesting without all the Shifter nonsense. My favorite objection to that (paraphrased) was someone pointing out that the Shifter nonsense was the story.

Fear of titans leading to genocide is a summary of a very large portion of the story. Drawing on more modern imagery to drive home the horrors of that might be new, but it’s always been there. There are elements of a story that weaken or improve the core, then there’s what actually makes it tick.

Humanity and all its atrocities is a definite part of the core. If you take away the hatred and the prejudice and the genocide, the story as we know it doesn’t happen. Those materials are good for the story in the way that bones are good for human bodies.

Whether the story is a good one or not is… a very long argument that the internet will be having for a while yet. Especially in the context of this specific frame of reference.

Er, and with the actual question asked as answered as it will be, follow the cut for rambles about the nature of fiction, I guess.

Using imagery from the real world to better define your fictional conflict is always going to cause problems. People talk a lot about the relationship fiction and reality have to one another. That discussion is currently a very loud one.

Personally, the way I see it, fiction is a reflection of reality, just not always in the most straightforward sense. Fiction is like a maze of funhouse mirrors, and often, because of the life someone has led, one of those wonky mirrors demolishes the line between fiction and reality. It’s distended and concave and convex all at once, yet reflects the world they know cleanly enough to be devastating.

Then another person walks by and just sees an entertaining distortion.

Throw those perspectives into a cage and poke them with a stick, and you’ve got fandom. Fiction’s a trip and a half.

Sticking with the concept of reflections, funhouse mirrors have the same light and subjects as regular mirrors. They draw on the same sources to produce their content even when the aim is something entirely different. With fiction, you can’t communicate a story without speaking in a language the audience understands.

WWII is a thing most people understand. It’s immediately recognizable in a way many defilements are not. Even in stories that draw on other instances of genocide, the immediate thought of the reader is not going to go to the intended one. The shadow cast is too large.

Borrowing from its darkness makes for easy pickings. Eldians being forced to wear armbands with stars screams what a hundred extra pages couldn’t.

I don’t know enough about the world to comment on the good taste of that, but as a storytelling tool, it’s simplistic and brutally effective.

I think Attack on Titan is a story that delves very deeply into human monsters. I am not surprised that it takes advantage of some better known ones to illustrate that point. It’s still a very touchy topic in a way that has definitely intruded upon the fiction of the story for a lot of people (in that meaning, I guess you could say it’s been bad for the story).

One of the specific ways that it’s touchy is that good old fashioned fun of giving a hated group of people extremely dangerous genetic predispositions. This is not a new point of contention by any means. As most people on the internet have probably seen at least one person yelling about, shooting fireballs from your hands is not the same as being gay.

Borrowing from real world concepts makes it easier to establish a 3D sense of a fictional world, but with the benefits comes the backlash of certain things not being the same, please stop acting like they’re the same please.

Basically, if you say the people being rounded up and thrown into camps are having that done to them for a reason, you run the risk of encouraging the illusion that prejudice is grounded in something sane.

It’s the mirror thing. It might be trying to make you look all wobbly, but your perspective means it’s just a regular mirror, and when you see, say, a spot on your face in a mirror, you’re going to use your real hand to wipe it off.

It’s awkward. On one hand, you’ve got things that brush way too close to some inescapable horrors, and on the other, you’ve got this idea for a story, and history has given you a field guide on how humans might react to it.

I am severely uneducated when it comes to history, but I know genocide isn’t a 20th century original. The series is doing what it can to evoke certain aspects of that era, because people know it, but as useful shorthand as it is to call the Marleyans Nazis, I don’t think the series is intending to retell anything this world has experienced. It’s just using what this world has experienced to establish how fucking horrific everything that’s going on in its world is.

And again, the taste of that is up for debate, as it will be with all fiction until the end of time. I’m not being glib with that, people will just forever have their own perspectives on the media they consume. It’s to be celebrated and blah blah blah, yay humans, yay free thought.

Anyway. Most of that was not an answer to your question.

I do not think that the story being graphically explicit when it comes to the ways genocide manifests does its intent or makeup harm.

[insert twelve dozen variations of ymmv here because hello intimidating things to talk about on the internet]

Thanks for the ask, sorry it came with free teasing and ponderings. :)

50 Ways to Stress_ Part 3

This takes place after Book 2: The Lion and His Lamb though you don’t necessarily have to read that story to understand this on. Though there are references to things that have happened previously in this series.

Summary: One of Shuri experiments goes horribly wrong and chaos ensues. And Prince N’Jadaka is right in the center of it….

As usual you can see all the parts listed for this series, along with other fanfics in my Black Panther Masterlist.  

Disclaimer:  Nothing really, Erik will be Erik so use of the N-word. And I wouldn’t read this at work, as I find it funny and you probably don’t want to burst into laughter and have everyone looking at you like you done lost it. lol

Already established Erik/Reader with T’Challa/Nakia

Part 3 

That night was a problem….

At first it was decided that you and your mini-husbands would make camp in the room that has been given to you to keep him in. Read that as an holding cell. However Erik refused to sleep there and has all streamed down to both of your bedroom. How you managed to get almost 50 Eriks into the room was beyond you. And where all of them were going to sleep….

You couldn't think about it.

You also couldn’t think about how to find around 50 five year old pjs on short noticed for all of your husbands and there was no way you were going to help wash up 50 of them.

You had gone through your usual routine although you quicken it. Upon exiting the bathroom, you almost quivered at the sight of so many mini-Erik around the room. Your bedroom was spacious but right then it looked like even it would be too small.

With a sigh you headed to bed and got in pulling the covers over you. You watched in amusement as a bunch of random Erik started entering the bed after you. You knew better than to offer you help or say anything.

All the Eriks were going to take whatever corner or floor or even bathtub they could. Extra blankets and pillows had been brought out.  Before entering the bathroom you had to monitor and break apart one fight over a pillow. Your suggestion of sharing the pillow had been met with almost ludicrous looks. So you left them too it….

“Is everyone settled?” You asked.

You got mostly affirmations until you realize one exited the bathroom and was marching towards the bed. He practically hopped up in bed. There was an Erik that was snuggling up to you but that Erik pulled himself away.

“Erik!” You cried as he pushed his other self off the bed.

“What did you do that for?” You asked leaning over to make sure that Erik was okay. That Erik was rubbing his head and muttering curses. He looked up as if he was going to challenge himself but the Erik that pushed him glared down.

It had become quite apparent to you that there seemed to be a lead Erik among the 50. Now you could never tell if it was the same Erik but you seemed to think so. He seemed to lead and be more like your Erik.

“He was in my way!” the Erik that pushed himself off snarled.

“Erik, that is….you…..” you trailed off.

“Don’t care. He was in my spot!” Erik cried before diving under the covers.

Since the bed was big enough there were other Eriks on the other side of you as well as one already sleeping like a baby at the foot of the bed. That one didn’t stir during the commotion and had a blanket and was hugging a small pillow. You thought that one was so cute. Something you knew that Erik would kill you for saying even if you were his wife.

“Alright now are we settled?” you asked again and got affirmations. 

A snore-snort came from the one that was already sleeping.

“Good!” you chirped before clapping your hands and the lights turned out.

You snuggled down, laying on your back. The other Eriks on your other side all huddled up into you as you did, making the the Erik that pushed himself off glare at them.

“Calm down and go to sleep, my love.” You murmured.

Erik sucked his teeth.

You couldn’t help the tease, “Are you jealous of yourself?”

Erik growled but didn’t say anything. You risked raising your arm and placing it around him bringing him into your embrace.

“Woman, are you trying to cuddle me?”

“Hush and go to sleep, my love. Would you like me to sing you a lullaby?” You knew that you might have gotten into trouble but you couldn’t resist.

“I will stab you.” Erik said though he didn’t have much heat behind his words.

You laughed softly, “Don’t worry, N’Jadaka. We will get through this. Now go to sleep. I’ll sing….”

By the second day, entire palace was alerted to the fact that there were a gaggle of Prince N’Jadakas and to be on alert. High alert.

Just about all of the Dora Milaje had to be all hands on deck to make sure that not one mini-Prince got into something they shouldn’t. The second day was a bit more lax….you were a bit stressed trying to keep your husbands occupied.

This usually boiled down into playing some army picture that you hated. You got a screen and sat in in front of you so that it blocked the view. You didn't need nightmares though all the screaming and yelling didn’t do you any favors. However all the Eriks running around playing army did keep them occupied.

But trying to keep 50 mini-Erik’s fed was a colossal nightmare. He was pragmatically eating through the storage.

You thought about ringing Shuri for an update but you didn’t want to interrupt.

And by the third day you were practically drowning in stress. You never realized that dealing with 50 mini version of your husband would be such hard work.

And never let it be said that Erik Stevens wasn’t high maintenance. Because he was, however split into 50, 5 year old versions of himself made it all the more worse.

Couple that with his own increase in boredom and anger about being in predicament did not make for him to be good company. He was grouchy and moody and it tested you patience thoroughly.

You tried to remain calm but it was hard.

You and T’Challa were glaring at Shuri. Even through the Kimoyo beads, the Princess could feel the weight of both of your withering gazes. She thought she did right ringing both of you at the same time for a 3-way conversation. At least she could get it over with at one time.

“I’m sorry, you wanna repeat that?” You asked calmly.

“I said, I’m afraid it’s going to take me a little bit more time.” She said before rushing forward, “I have the prototype but it’s still a little...wonky. I will spare you the specifics Big Sister, but I’m confident I can fix this….it will just take a little longer than I thought.”

“Explain it me then.” T’Challa voice was calm but an edge to it.

Once again, the technical jargon flew over your head but you watched T’Challa nod. “Cousin Y/N….what she says is valid. As much as we want this fix, we don’t want to make it this worse by rushing.”

You nodded but you still couldn’t help but stare hard at Shuri, “I understand that. I don’t want you to create a bigger mess than we have. However as much as I may understand that, neither of you are the one who will have to explain this to the Prince. Or would either of you like to come down and do so?”

“That is time I could be working on the solution. Then he would get mad that I wasted time….” Shuri said. 

She was well aware of being a coward right now but she did not want to face 50 mini Eriks. They scared her more than one tall grown man one.

“My King?” You asked.

“I have a meeting….:”

“You always have a meeting but thanks ya’ll. I can feel the support.”  You dryly stated.

“We both know that Erik will respond far better to you than to either of us. Especially right now….” T’Challa said. 

“Yeah, yeah….”

“Good luck, Y/N. If you do need me, you ring me.” T’Challa said seriously.

You gave a smile, “I know. Thanks. And Shuri….”

“Yes my beautiful Cousin-in-law, Big Sister…..”

“Stew it and get back to work.”

“Aye-Aye Captain….”

“Say what now?”

You gulped suddenly glad that you had instructed four Dora Milaje to be in the room with you when you broke the news. You weren’t entirely confident that the Erik’s wouldn’t turn on you.

“It seems that it will take a few extra days for Shuri to fix this.” You stated calmly. You couldn’t help but edge a little backwards so that a Dora Milaje was in front of you.

Erik looked up at you steadily, “How many more days?” he asked.

The other Erik’s were all staring at you almost too still and way to quiet. It reminded you of a scene out of a horror movie. You hated horror movies.

“Um, she didn’t say…..”

“She didn’t say. I see….”

“My love….”

Beepe---bepep e Beep Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeepppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppp

You held your hands over your ears. You had never heard Erik so so much cussing in one sitting as much as he has done since this started. The other Eriks began raging and many started getting into fights with each other.

The Dora Milaje kept a close eye on them all.

“Erik..Erik!” You called, “N’Jadaka! Calm down!!”

“I will not calm down! That…..”

The cussing spree continued.

“She will fix it!” you called out.

“Oh, she better! If I’m stuck like this I won’t responsible for anything I do”

Even you went cold at the idea of Erik being stuck this way.

You clapped your hands together, “Hey, why don’t we watch that anime you wanted to see. Mr. Punchy or something….Or Dragonball Z!!”

You were relieved to hear the amusement in his voice as the other Erik’s stilled, “I think you mean One Punch Man, ma.”

“That one too.”

“You said you weren’t sure if you’d like it. Not enough pretty boys, you said…...Though how you think Dragonball Z has pretty boys is beyond me!”

“Hey now, Trunks, Android 17, Vegeta….” you began to list. 

Erik snorted, “Vegeta? Are you serious?”

“When he isn’t being that much of a jerk, yes. Bulma married him! And then there is Goku who more a cutie pie than anything.”

“Here we be having fights and you be talking about how sexy they are until they have too many muscles and it turns you off.”

“I don’t need men looking like beefcakes you know. There is a limit to the muscles.”

The poor Dora Milaje in the room where confused as jack by this conversation.

“At least I don’t have to sit through Kamisama Kiss again….”  A shudder went through the crowd.

You put your hands on your hips, “Dont you start with me one that….”

“And that horrid opening….”

You gave an indignant squeak, “That was a cute song! I loved it!”

“Well it’s not as bad as Wyoming!”

“Kiyomi!!” You cried, “….and you weren’t complaining when….. “ You bit your tongue and trailed off remembering your company in the room. You smiled and turned to them, “I think it’s safe to let ya’ll go.”

“Princess…” they chorus before marching out the door closing it behind them.

Erik looked amused at this and you glared down at him. Other Eriks began milling about.

You lowered your voice and hissed, “I don’t remember you complaining that night. You rather liked it.” 

Erik shrugged, “Doesn’t change the fact that it’s trifling song…..”

You twitched, “I’m not gonna argue my point with a 5 year old. What anime are we watching?” you said.

bare feet

original story - [ suspense ] warnings: gore, drug usage, death, etc. 3521 words

author’s note:  hey, i know this is different. but if you’re interested in what my writing is like probably at the best of times, i’d say this is one of my best styles and though the plot’s a little bit odd, i really like what i did with it. give it a read if you’re interested. sorry it’s not a fanfic.  little note at the bottom of the fic too

-

Curiosity killed the cat.

Now I’m sure most people have heard such a phrase many times throughout their lives, usually when sticking their noses into places they shouldn’t be.

But satisfaction brought it back.

I’m also pretty certain that a number of people will smartly reply with the rest of the saying if they benefited from their nosey-ness.

No one likes it when someone pushes into a situation uninvited. Humans love their own privacy. They also love to hold secrets out of the reach of others. However, as humans, we crave the secrecy of knowing something we shouldn’t. If there’s a secret? You want to hear it. You want to know about it. Even if you say you don’t, even if you let it be and respect their privacy. Oh how you wish you knew.

But don’t feel guilty now, that’s not why I’m here. I’m here to tell you that curiosity is a lovely thing. It’s a beautiful, rewarding human trait that we all possess from the moment we are birthed into existence. The moment we start crying in the little white hospital bed. We can’t think, we can’t speak, we can’t even open our eyes. But each little touch or sound or smell or taste. It ignites this feeling inside of us. This craving, this yearning. This want to know. This need to know what is going on.

Curiosity. How beautiful.

And the phrase runs true. Although curiosity can cause trouble, whatever satisfaction may come out is usually worth it. But, may I ask, what happens if curiosity does not lead to satisfaction? What if you don’t find what you want? What if these secrets you craved lead to only despair?

Figuratively, I guess you could say that the cat stays dead.

I guess this time, that cat is me and it is not all as figurative as some might assume.

.

Seventeen days ago, my older sister didn’t come home from work. I heard Mum and Dad speaking of her after I was supposedly asleep. Dad was mad, but Mum was worried. They said she just wanted attention. They told me she’d come home tomorrow.

She wasn’t back the next day. A call from the school. A call from her boss. A second night of angry yelling and quiet sobbing.

Fifteen days ago, my older sister had her photo printed in the paper, under seven big, bolded letters: MISSING

Three days ago, curiosity lurked behind my eyes and I decided; I had to find my sister. I started planning. I spent four hours in her room, searching for something – anything – that would point me in the right direction. I spent three hours in her room, crying and begging her ceiling to give me back my sister. It remained unmoved and silent. It judged me.

Two days ago, my curiosity and I found her notebook. The velvet cover fell open and the yellowed pages glared up at me. The delicately curved words whispered to each other. They called me intrusive. They called me rude. They told me I had no place there. Guilt slithered in snakes around my neck, hanging from me and nipping at my throat. When I closed the book, I shamefully tucked it into my backpack, and returned to my room. The girl in the mirror judged me with disgust painted in her eyes.

Last night, I stayed with the book until the sun rose once more, to stare me down. My eyes were burning, and my mouth was dry. The book melted in my hands. The inked thoughts blurred into the paper. Ink stained the pads of my thumbs. My body was rusted, curled up around the book.

Monday, 5/6

Mum and Dad are too unfair. They don’t allow me to be with anyone. All I want is the chance to live. Dad didn’t even let me go to a movie with Jamie! I just wanted to hang out with him! It’s not fair. He told Amy that he thought I was pretty, and I’ve been crushing on him for weeks. And now I lost my chance.

It’s not fair.

. 

I read my sister’s heart through dry, blue ink and touched her soul with the flip of each page. I learnt about a girl who was unlike my darling sister. I read about a girl who desired boys, a girl who detested our parents’ protection. A girl who was spiteful, and daring and used harsh words that snapped at me from the book. I learnt about the girl who my sister only showed to her diary.

A girl who was my sister. A girl who did some things she shouldn’t have done. A girl who I still adored.

. 

Friday, 7/7

There’s a new girl in my English class. Her name is Kylie and she has blue hair and a nose piercing. She wanted to show me something after school, and oh my god it was so much fun! She has this dealer who hooks her up with weed once a month and it’s really convenient. We’ve made a little spot out behind the bike racks ours to smoke at during lunch and recess. My other friends keep giving my dirty looks now.

.                                                                                                       

Wednesday, 16/8

Kylie got expelled. She came to school hammered, and was sent home instantly. She won’t answer her phone, I think her dad took it off her. Understandable. Now I don’t really have any friends. Casey and Jenna totally ignored me in the cafeteria, and they didn’t look at me in class. I’m too scared to go sit with them.

I sit alone now.

I think I’ll go meet Kylie’s dealer on the weekend. She gave me his address the other day, I’ll have to find the post-it note. I don’t know what else to do but I really need a joint right now.

. 

A post-it note was stuck in the book at that page, a phone number and an address I’d never heard of before scrawled on the faded pink paper. Upon finding it, I faced away from the hateful sun and dived into my long-needed slumber. The book stayed clutched to my chest.

It was a piece of my older sister’s heart that she had left behind.

It was all I had left to find her.

Now I had the chance.

. 

That night, I left.

. 

I caught the late night bus out of the city to a more rural area. Everything was totally unknown to me and as the moon howled down at me, I realised how much could go wrong. The glare of my phone shone like a spotlight as I peered at the numbers on the letterboxes of each house I passed. 164, 166, 168…

I needed 239.

Cutting down another street I found myself surrounded by bushland area on one side, each plot of land growing larger. I kept walking. 227 passed, a dog barking and a lone horse raising its head. These areas had paddocks. I had no idea how I’d find her.

The cold bit at my elbows, my flip-flops slapping the pavement as my eyes fell upon the broken 239. The two was wonky and the nine had a crack running through it. The house was small and ragged, a shattered window at the front and a three legged chair on the “lawn”. The grass was patchy and yellow. A dead tree stood out the front. The front door hung slightly open.

All my senses heightened as I placed my backpack on the ground, and I examined the smashed window from where I stood at the footpath. Shards of glass glimmered on the dirt, the moon reflecting off them like a mirror. I carefully padded closer, making sure not to step on one, my flip-flops thin and old. I was stupid to wear them.

Surrounded by the glass, laid a shattered phone, silver and reflective on its own. I swallowed with a dry mouth and picked up the iPhone 7. Turning it over, the entire screen was a spider web of cracks. I brushed off the pieces of glass and pressed the top button.

The screen flickered, but turned on and my older sister’s smiling face showed up behind the mess of glass. My breathing caught in my throat. Unlocking it, I found her messages, and instantly recognised the ten-digit number as her most-recently contacted; the number scrawled on the post-it note in my pocket. I set my jaw, and opened the chat.

The words flickered behind the glass, the screen colouring green. In mere seconds, its insides had given up and no light shone from the disaster. I had read enough to be sure that my sister had been here in the past few weeks. She had contacted the dealer and he had given her the address on the note, and invited her over to give her the drugs.

I slipped the broken device into my pocket and looked to the open door, pure darkness swimming within.

My heart begged, “Go home!”

My curiosity pushed me forward.

. 

The door swung inwards, the softest groan sliding from its hinges. I abandoned my flimsy shoes at the door, fearing they would squeak and clap too loudly in the beyond-silent home. They watched from the door as I snuck into the dark room. The musky smell tickled my nose, caressing my body and staining my flesh and clothing.

My eyes held themselves open, trying to detect any single ray of light to lead me around the neglected house. The barest glow emitted from beneath a door to my right, slightly open and holding a large dent, and no handle. I turned the other way.

A few timid steps, and the floorboard beneath my left toes sunk under my weight, whining at the disturbance. Too loud, too loud!

“What are you doing in here!?” The burst of volume had me stumbling away, the silence shattering as I turned to look up at the man in the sad doorway. He was tall, but thin and held no muscle. Glasses sat crooked on his nose, his eyes looking over them at me with a lazy, annoyed expression. He didn’t look threatening in the slightest, but I was terrified.

Still, I dipped my toes in the water. “I’m looking for my sister, Rosemary. She came here fo-”

“Get out!” he snarled, taking two lumbering steps towards me. His eyes swam with fear, anger and he reeked of anxiety. He knew something. He was hiding something. And by his reaction, he was desperate not to reveal whatever secrets he held behind his back.

My feet backpedalled, and I watched his blood-shot eyes dart around the room, settling on me, and throwing themselves to the doorway to my right, and back. My mind willed me to leave. Run. Go. Get out and come back later. Call the police. Don’t stay there!              

I had come too far already. I swivelled on the spot and dashing into the next room, a gaping square splitting open the left side of the ground. “NO! You can’t go in there, get back here!” the man wailed, awkward footsteps dragging after me. I sucked in a breath, finding myself looking down into the darkness, a ladder attached the wall.

I wanted to know where it lead. I had to know. Not tomorrow, or next month. Now!      

The ladder was cold and I only realised how shaky I was when I was looking up at the drugged man above me, feet kicking at the rungs and hands hot against the icy metal. Fear shone in his eyes, and I watched as it was replaced with fury.

“Come back!” he roared, kicking the top of the ladder hard enough to send tremors through the metal and myself. I gasped, hands slipping and feet giving away as I fell two or three metres to the dirt below. The wind exploded out of my chest and I gasped in the pain. “Get up here! You can’t go down there!” The screeching followed me as I hauled myself up onto my feet. He sounded so desperate, so fearful. Dirt wriggled between my toes and I stumbled out of view of the entrance, already hearing the thudding of his clumsy body making its way after me.

Looking around the room, holding my ribs, I took in the huge plantation of a wide-leaf plant. Cannabis, and a lot of it. As terrified, and surprised as I was, I couldn’t stand and wait. I had no clue what this guy would do to me, especially affected by whatever he was smoking. I didn’t know what it would do to someone, especially someone who was angry, desperate and terrified.

I had to go.

The plants brushed against me, reaching out and touching my arms and ankles. My feet planted themselves among the greenery as I stopped and stared along the wall before me. The room was not huge, and it definitely wouldn’t hide me for long enough. As his voice rung out again, anger doubling in his tone, I hurried along the wall, ducking low below the height of the plants to be unseen from the other end of the room.

“You have to leave now!” he snarled, his voice lower and sharper. His voice had slowly returned to a even tone, seemingly more level with the world at present time. Perhaps my intrusion was drawing him down from the high the drug had driven him to.

I had to think of something.

“You little brat, I’ll get you myself if you don’t come out.” His words were closer and I heard the soft footfalls of his feet in the dirt as they wandered the room. I met a corner, cowering for a moment to keep further out of sight as I glimpsed the top of his head.

I started along the next wall and through the dim lighting, I found myself at a large wooden door. It looked solid, and heavy, but the brass key was already at home within its lock. Twisting it, experimentally, the mechanics shifted, allowing it to move. The wood gave half a millimetre. Open.

“Come on…” The muttering nipped at my ankles.

Now or never, I thought, gritting my teeth. Jamming the handle down, I hauled it back towards me and shot through the gap, key in hand. My bare feet slammed through ankle-deep water, jerking against the packed dirt of the tunnel. A tunnel it was, a dirt tunnel. A few lightbulbs hung from the ceiling, meaning some sort of wiring was working above, but the lighting was weak and the air carried a certain chill. It smelt… dead… Spoilt, rotting, off. Stale.

It offended my nose.

Water reared up at my ankles, outraged by my disturbance. It galloped after me, painting the back of my legs with mud, its splashing cries echoing up and back and up the tunnel, circling me as I tore into the darkness.

I skidded to a stop, water washing up over my knees as I faced a corner, the tunnel turning down to the left and curving into darkness. My stillness washed out all noise and I waited, not daring to even breathe. Back from where I’d come from, I could hear the steady, slow slopping of the drug dealer making his way after me. No haste in his step. No rush in his movements.

My curiosity wandered.

“You can’t go anywhere down here,” his voice bounced along the water, newfound confidence and joy. I felt the cold on my feet chase shivers up my spine. “The only way out is back.”

Fear penetrated my curiosity, and with wide eyes and a stuttering heartbeat, I launched my body forward once more, sprinting down the tunnel. There was nowhere to run. There was nowhere to hide. Just dirt walls and shallow water.

The hopelessness clawed its way between my ribs and into my lungs, squeezing and pinching my trachea.

“Keep running!” he yelled after me, words splashing up with the water. “You’ll see!”

No anger brushed his tone, no fear or worry. His voice was pure arrogant confidence. He knew I wouldn’t get out. He knew I wouldn’t be able to say a thing. He knew he would get me. He had me trapped.

A door. Another one. Push of the handle. Locked. My pulse sky-rocketed. I just stared at the wood.

It was locked. I needed the key. I had a key, but did I have the right key? I had no idea.

My fingers fumbled with the hot metal, warmed by my sweaty hands. I turned it around, flipped it over and sized it up to the lock. I had no choice, there was no other place that I could get a second key from. It had to be this one. It had to.

Come on. Come on!

The trembling in my fingers jerked the key away from the entrance to the lock several times. Each clink sent electricity pumping through my blood. I didn’t have time. I didn’t have time! The edge of the key jammed against the metal mechanics once more and I threw a hasty look over my shoulder.

Dim light ghosted over the space around me, but I could see nothing. It circled me, it held me, it watched with countless eyes as my fingers shook with fear and cold. The water around my feet held me frozen. I could hear distant sounds of water moving. Dripping, dribbling, sloshing.

I had to get through!

Splashing echoed around me, growing nearer. I wasn’t going to be alone for long!

Oh no.

I turned back to the lock and tightened my fingers around the sweaty key in my palm. I exhaled. Slowly. Carefully. I shoved the key into the lock and twisted.

It clicked. More slow splashing. The sound of feet disturbing the small stream of water that flowed beneath me.

My blue hands latched onto the door handle and I wrenched it open. It groaned with the weight of itself. It cried out in discomfort. It swung back towards me. It opened.

I ran.

Filthy water kicked up after me, shouting at me, snatching and scratching for my return. The cold called after me, howling in my ears. It called for me to stop. It called for me to turn and help. To go back for it. But I could do no such thing.

I had to go. I had to get out alive.

Hope swirled in my mind, though the lines between hopeful and desperate were beginning to blur. Whether I didn’t care, or I cared too much, I didn’t let it stay in my thoughts and I powered forwards. The water around my ankles receded, slowly. With each step, the droplets jumped lower, my feet hit the ground much harder.

The lightbulbs became more frequent and I could see further ahead. I had left the slow steps long behind.

A ladder, I thought, All I need is a ladder.

Instead, the tunnel produced a third door, a triplet. Hand steady, key in lock, door open. My swelling desperation/hope shied away as the door swung open. The stench hit me like a wave, sending me stumbling back with a hand over my face. It was rotten, and fowl. It inhaled every molecule of fresh air from above and stained me. I felt it cling to my hair. I felt it reach down my throat. It hugged me uninvited. It painted itself along my arms and legs.

My finger pinched my nose. I felt disgusting, breathing it into my mouth. I could taste it.

What could smell so awful?

Now. Boys, girls, strangers, friends. This is the part in my little story in which the little kitty was searching frantically for satisfaction. Any sort. A ladder; a way out was on the top of my mind. My highest hopes were to find my sister, of course. But all I wanted was satisfaction, all I wanted was to be brought back from the fear, the terror.

I was always positive, I never much thought of worst-case-scenarios. Usually, my positivity would prevent such cases.

Unfortunately, my positivity did nothing for me as I looked upon my sister’s 17-day old body, slouched against the back wall of the cell-like room. Her smell forced bile up my throat, and tears from my eyes. And God did I want to fall down beside her. I wanted to collapse and cry into her frozen body. To scream and shout and sob. But I couldn’t take a step towards her. I couldn’t even convince myself to breathe. I was frozen, and my whole body screamed to turn and run.

It was disgusting. It was revolting. My sister was dead. This man had left her to die by herself without food or water in a box, alone. She was dead. She was gone. Her body was right in front of me.

“Curiosity killed the cat.” The whisper in my ear. A hand in my hair. My head slammed against the door. I was out like a light.

There was no satisfaction to bring me back. No.

Not this time.

note: so this is something a little different, i know. but a couple of people mentioned they would be interested in an original story or two, so here is something i wrote last year for a school project. 

its actually better than most of my other writing i believe. the style is prettier and smoother and a little bit more vague. i think i might end up trying to write more like this in oneshots and such when i get the chance because it’s just so much nicer to read and write. 

either way, i have another tiny tiny 200 word fic i will post tomorrow maybe and then the next chapter of Cute will be up on Wednesday and I’ll have the bid-moo request fic up later in the week. 

let me know what you guys think! thanks a lot for all the support.

gi