#well actually the next chapter Was done but then i decided i needed to add aNOTHER chapter and so | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

chochuuya · 5 months

Text

manga genres.

matsuno chifuyu x fem!reader

disclaimer/note: lots of bickering, chifuyu is a hardcore, he called you a dork and actually roasts you bad but.. finally breaks his christmas curse? (｡- .•)

wc: 1.6k [1668]

you both can never get along when it comes to your manga preferences.

“shut up.” chifuyu sneers.

“no, you shut up!” you say in return.

it’s been about 30 minutes since you first started arguing. chifuyu is a softie at heart, and enjoyed the romance genre. while you were a person of action, enjoying the thriller genre much more.

“the art style is so much better. i don’t even know how you can read a story with such bad flow!” he argued.

you scoffed, turning your head away for a second before looking back at him.

“bad story flow? how dare you. as if your fav isn’t so predictable and mundane, chifuyu. trust me, action is sooo much better than romance.”

“well at least my favourite doesn’t have bad character development! at least they have likeable characters with diverse personalities, compared to your fav show where everyone is plain and boring.” chifuyu says, clearly not going to budge.

“oh, and your fav also has shitty romance.” he adds with a smirk.

he’s getting annoying, you swear you could punch his dumb face but you decided against it.

“well, at least my manga has plot twists and actually keeps their audience wanting for more! your romance? twelve episodes and we’re done. you can just read another of the same genre and you’ll get same plot every time.”

“oh no plot twists, huh?” chifuyu retorts gleefully.

“like who died in the latest chapter or some other bullcrap like that? i rather read and watch something where i can relax and enjoy.” the blond says, “you know, something that doesn't overstimulate your brain.”

“and plus, with romance i get to enjoy some sweet and spicy scenes that i like so much.”

he adds cheekily, “besides, i hate waiting a week for the next chapter. romance is much better than that.”

you scoffed in disbelief. the audacity and ego of his is something else.

“maybe your attention span is just too short to be watching or reading action, chifuyu!”

“and maybe your brain is a bit too simple compared to mine.” he retorts snarkily, “maybe you need constant action and stimulation to keep you entertained, because you get bored too easily.”

“and, it doesn’t matter how long a manga or anime is, it’s the enjoyment and the quality of it that counts. and clearly romance does it best.” he adds smugly, knowing he’s won in his eyes.

you actually rolled my eyes at his reasoning.

“maybe your authors keep dragging the story because they know romance and slice of life is just too simple without any action in it! yeah, what about that?”

“not to mention some of your favourites are quite questionable, chifuyu. what was it again.. oshi no ko? fruits basket? yuck!” you added.

chifuyu chuckles in amusement at your annoyance.

“you know what else is funny? i bet you can’t watch a romantic comedy without feeling cringe or getting embarrassed. and i mean real romcoms, like wotakoi and kaguya-sama.”

"and yeah, they’re my favourites, the anime just elevated them more. i mean come on, they’re cute and funny! and oshi no ko’s mystery and drama, even the comedy at times! how can you hate them?!” he states, annoyed.

“you bet i do, i don’t know how you feel all giddy inside when watching or reading them. maybe you’re just a hopeless romantic!”

you laughed wholeheartedly at your own remark.

“kaguya-sama? even i know better romances than you, ao haru ride and kimi ni todoke is so much better.”

“you know nothing, (y/n).” chifuyu says, amused.

“i admit kaguya-sama has its flaws, but it’s so damn good too. and ao haru ride is nothing but a sad, slow-burn romance that is painfully boring." he says, feeling a bit annoyed at your remark.

“and kimi ni todoke? again, slow-burn that is a bit too cliché.” he adds before saying, “i’d rather read or watch wotakoi. that’s a much better romance manga.”

you sighed in defeat. just hurts your throat trying to even get your argument against him.

chifuyu laughs, “told you! you clearly don’t know enough about manga and anime. you should learn from me, (y/n)!”

“and maybe, just maybe, if you try to change your tastes in manga and anime, you’d start attracting people who like the same thing as you.” he smirks, knowing he hit a nerve with that last comment of his.

you nudged him.

“you say that as if i don’t hear you complaining every christmas that you can’t get a girl, chifuyu. shut up!”

he goes silent, a slight redness creeping into his skin, “h-hey, c’mon! you didn’t have to point that out!” he says, trying to defend himself.

“besides, one day i’ll get a girlfriend.. just you wait—” he grumbles, looking away.

“yeah, whatever. i would probably be dead before you even can get yourself a girl.”

he goes silent again. his face seems to get redder, his annoyance clear.

“what’s that supposed to mean? you think i can’t have a girlfriend?” chifuyu retorts, annoyed.

he didn’t appreciate you mocking him like that.

“um, yeah. every time a girl talks to you, you chicken out. be grateful that i stayed.”

his face turns to disbelief at your words, still red with anger.

“i chicken out? chicken out?! that’s rich coming from you, who’s too scared to ask anyone out on a date.” he says, not backing down.

“and at least i’m not an introvert who gets anxiety whenever they meet new people, scared of embarrassing themselves and avoiding any and all social situations.” he adds, being as brutal as he can be.

your jaw dropped but you quickly compose yourself. don’t let him get to you just yet!

“h-huh? what do you even know about dating?! i bet i have more chance than you do, chifuyu.”

he chuckles in amusement at your outburst.

“oh you’re just all bark, no bite, (y/n). i’ve been on a few dates, sure maybe none of them really lasted, but at least i’ve been on some. you can’t say the same, can you?”

“and i doubt anyone would wanna go out with a dork like you anyway,” he adds with a smirk.

you had enough. you stood up from the floor of his room and exited the door. wow, so much of a hangout!

“hey hey hey, where do you think you’re going, (y/n)?” chifuyu taunts, standing up and walking towards you.

“the conversation isn’t over yet, now is it?” he adds.

“i’m going home.” you said plainly as you walk down the hallway.

“no, you’re not," he says, grabbing you by the arm and stopping you from continuing your walk.

“who says you can leave now?” he asks, annoyed and determined to carry on with his argument.

you nudged your shoulder, removing your arm from his grasp as you continue to ignore him.

coincidentally, baji came and opened the door. poor guy must be confused to see you leave right after. he stepped aside as chifuyu tried to chase after you.

“hey! what gives you the right to ignore me like that?!” chifuyu shouts, watching you walk out of the front door.

“damn it!” he yells angrily at you as you walk away with your nose in the air.

“way to go, chifuyu.”

“kindly shut up, baji-san.”

the next day at school, you were not in the mood. maybe his words got to you yesterday.

you stare into the void of your locker as you got your books out slowly.

chifuyu notices something is off with you. he decides to walk up to you as he sees you get your books out slowly, looking at you with a concerned expression.

he decides not to bring up the argument you had yesterday, for he knows his words can cut deep sometimes.

“hey (y/n), are you alright?” he asks quietly.

“hm.” you simply hummed in response as you shove your books into your backpack. you adjusted the straps before closing the locker and walks towards your class.

chifuyu follows you. he decides not to follow up with his previous question, and instead makes an attempt at being friendly.

“can i walk with you?”

“sure.”

he walks alongside you, feeling quite uncomfortable with your silence.

“so, um, do you mind if i ask what’s got you so down?” he asks, as he walks with you to class.

“was it that argument we had? or something else..?” he asks again, genuinely curious.

“maybe next time don’t call me a dork when you know i dislike it, chifuyu. i get it, i’m sensitive sometimes but—”

“that was yesterday, is that why you’re pissed at me still?” he asks, not fully understanding the situation.

“besides, i wasn’t being serious, (y/n)! we’re friends, you’re no dork.. i’m sorry okay?” he says, feeling a bit saddened.

“and besides, i like it when you’re sensitive. it’s adorable.” chifuyu says with a small smile. he felt that admitting that is rather embarrassing, but he wanted to reconcile with you.

you paused on your tracks as you look up to him. “did he just.. call me adorable?”

“come again?”

“you heard me.” he smirked.

“you being overly sensitive is such an adorable trait to have. not to mention, i would prefer my future girlfriend to be somewhat sensitive, instead of being a cold and mean person.”

he said it all so boldly that makes your mouth hangs open slightly. your cheeks are betraying you already.

“what..?”

he can see your cheeks getting slightly red tinted now. he was getting flustered himself.

“i.. uh..” he stammers.

“i mean, everyone would want their future partner to be someone they like. and i like you, (y/n).”

“plus, what i said is the truth. people do think you’re cute and adorable whenever you’re overly sensitive. even your anger is adorable.” he adds, giving it his all to persuade you into admitting you like him.

he’s clearly into you now.

and, you have no choice but to answer.

please do not steal, copy, translate, repost to other sites or claim my writings as your own. plagiarism is real!

chifuyu is so cute (i am biased) and a fluffy fluff is what he deserves (ง ˃ ³ ˂)ว ⁼³₌₃⁼³ i hope you like this one~ all reblogs & likes are vv appreciated!

#🐯 luna writes #🐯 luna's fics #tokyo revengers #tokyo revengers x reader #x reader #chifuyu matsuno #chifuyu matsuno x reader #chifuyu x reader #tokyo revengers fluff #tokyo revengers scenario #tokyo revengers imagines

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ax-y10 · 8 months

Note

WILBUR SOOT AS SPIDERMAN AND READER IS SPIDER WOMEN AS WELL. AND THEN THE WHOLE TIME THEY ARE FIGHTING MONSTERS AND STUFF AND WILBUR IS JUST FLIRTING THE WHOLE TIME??? LIKE YOUR SWINGING AND WILBUR IS LIKE,

“So, darling, how has your day been?”

AND READER’S JUST LIKE:

“Dude we are literally about to die.”

AND YOU CAN ADD YOUR OWN TWIST TO THIS WITH IT BEING LIKE THE NEW MOVIE OR THE OLD MILES MOVIE. AND ITS LIKE THE SPIDERVERSE AND STUFF???

But can it be f!reader? :D

Shut up

In which- Your best friend is a little too flirtatious in bad situations

A/n: Omg my dad force-fed me Spiderman and Marvel so ofc I can do this. I love this idea so much. Sorry it's really short, I had school work to do and it's due today.

Chapter info: Shitty flirting, near-death situations, probably completely off of the plot because I haven't watched spiderman in literally forever, swearing

Pronouns: Mainly you/yours (small use of she/her)

Masterlist:

"Look! You've got me swinging for you," Wilbur shouted from his distance away from you. This entire time while you were trying to get out of this situation, Wilbur was just hanging off of buildings, swinging over next to you, hanging upside down, all the while trying to get your attention. Were you paying attention to it? No. Was he trying to get your attention? Yes. Was it working? Maybe.

"WILBUR! You need to shut up and help me get out of this situation and then you can do all the flirting you want," You reasoned, the man beside you smirking and slowly nodding his head.

And the next day wasn't any better. You were trying to help civilians get out of the rubble from an attack that had happened about half an hour before, when something pushed you from behind and into the rubble you were searching through. Wilbur spotted you and decided to take some weight off the situation.

"So darling, how's your day been?" He teased, the reaction in you slowly bubbling up to the top.

"Quite shit, actually. We are literally about to die, so if you wouldn't mind, can you help me out of this?" Luckily for you, Phil came around and yelled at Wilbur, saying-

"Stop flirting with her and help the poor girl out. Nothing will get done if she can't save people, Wil!"

You best believe the flirting only escalated once you both went back to school the next day

#wilbur soot #wilbur soot x reader #wilbur soot imagine #wilbur x reader #wilbur #wilbur fluff #wilbur soot fluff #wilbur imagine #wilbur imagines #wilbur soot fanfiction #100 follower event #follower milestone #100 followers #event

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cecilysass · 18 days

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Shine On (15/16)

Read on AO3 | Tagging @today-in-fic

Chapter 15: Walled Garden

Farrs Corner, Virginia February 25, 2015 Ten minutes later

Jackson and Rose burst back into the kitchen, both pink-cheeked and sweaty, and promptly start chugging glasses of water. Mulder’s back at work with the crowbar, and Scully decides to make herself useful and start sweeping up some of the wood chips on the floor.

“We ran five miles,” Jackson announces to them.

“Pretty far,” comments Mulder.

“I don’t think I’ve ever run five miles before. It’s a personal record.”

“That’s amazing,” Scully replies back encouragingly. She can’t help but watch Rose out of the corner of her eye. She’s holding the cool glass of water to her cheek, watching the rest of them.

“We went a different route than yesterday. There’s this really pretty stream near here with a path, and we followed the path for a while.”

Mulder and Scully both nod knowingly. “Yeah, that’s a good run,” Mulder says. “I’ve done it many times.”

“We saw the ruins of an old mill from the 1800s,” Jackson says, walking over to Mulder and Scully with his glass of water. “I made Rose stop and read the historical marker. Didn’t I?”

“Yep,” Rose answers him, a small, subdued smile.

“Almost nothing in Wyoming was built in the 1800s,” Jackson says. “Things in Virgina are old.” Some kind of lightbulb goes on in his mind. “Wasn’t George Washington from Virginia? Can we go see where he lived?” He stops abruptly and looks down. “Does this house have, uh, termites or something?” He’s staring at the pile of wood chips at Scully’s feet.

“Just some mold,” Mulder says. “Don’t worry. We’re getting rid of it.”

Jackson looks at the pile analytically. “Mold can get in anywhere. I read an article.”

“What are your plans today, Rose?” Scully asks, changing the subject.

“Well,” Rose licks her lips, rotating the glass in her hand. “I need to go home at some point, back to Maryland. I have a few things I need to take care of.”

Jackson is bending his leg in a hamstring stretch, wobbling a little for balance. “But you’ll come back, right?”

Scully and Mulder’s eyes both dart over to Rose, interested in her answer, too.

“Yes.” Rose peers back at Jackson through the glass, her image refracted. “Of course I will. When I can.”

Jackson seems to remember something and drops his stretch suddenly. “Oh hey, Mulder.” He swivels to face Mulder, suddenly all energy again. “Rose said that Clifton, Virginia isn’t very far from here.”

Mulder looks at him curiously. “No. It’s about ten minutes. Why?”

“That’s where the Bunny Man Bridge is. Where the ghost of the Bunny Man haunts people every Halloween? I read about it in that book you have about the ghosts of Virginia.”

“Yeah,” Mulder says, an irresistible smile. “That’s right—it is. The bridge is over Colchester Road.”

“Is the Bunny Man real? Have you seen him?”

“I haven’t actually gone over to check it out,” Mulder says. “I’ve been out of the monster business.” He throws Scully a begrudging look. “And to be honest, that story seems sort of along the lines of an … urban legend.”

Scully raises her eyebrows with cool significance, but Mulder avoids her gaze.

“Can we go see the bridge?” Jackson asks, leaning into another stretch. “Before I go home?” He stops, furrows his brow. “I mean—not home. Wherever I’m going next.”

“Sure, we can drive by,” Mulder says, upbeat, putting his hand on Jackson’s shoulder. “What else is in that book? I wonder how many of those ghosts Scully and I investigated before.”

“It’s upstairs in my room,” Jackson says.

“Let’s go get it,” Mulder suggests. And Scully suspects he adds something else privately to Jackson in his mind, too, because Jackson immediately glances between her and Rose.

“Yeah,” Jackson agrees.

That’s quite the dynamic, Scully thinks wistfully, watching as they bound up the stairs after one another. Identical gaits, she notes. Consciousness entangled. She wonders if she’ll ever be able to separate out her envy from her joy.

“I know exactly what you mean,” Rose says in a voice so quiet Scully could almost miss it.

Scully leans her broom against the door. She’s still unsettled by having thoughts so transparent, but she wants to take it more in stride. This is what having telepath children must be like. She lifts her chin, armor up, and turns to take in the young woman across the room.

“Are you envious, Rose?” she asks casually. “Of Jackson?”

Rose lifts a shoulder. “Maybe a little.” Her eyes begin to roam around the room. “He’s lost his parents, same as I did, but he’s found this, too.” She gestures around her with her hand. “I knew a long time ago I wasn’t going to have anything like this.”

Scully feels herself frown. She doesn’t understand this kind of statement, and it hurts her in ways she can’t even pinpoint. “Rose,” she asks, “do you mind if I ask you questions about your past?”

The young woman had been leaning against Mulder’s desk, but she stands up instantly, like she’s prepared. “No, of course not.”

“Good, because I’ve been wondering…” Scully takes some uncertain steps towards her. “You knew where we were for years.” She hesitates. “But …you never contacted me.”

Rose doesn’t bat an eyelash. Strong and straight. “No, I didn’t.”

Scully blinks in confusion. She can’t really help it; her whole world is bifurcated when she looks at Rose. In one jagged half: this young woman, standing impassive like a warrior—reminding her of her father the sea captain, reminding her of herself. In the other: the memory of a tiny child, crouched over playing, bangs and shy eyes, reminding her of Melissa, reminding her of innocent lives lost.

Somehow she has to hold this together, make these two broken pieces make sense.

“Why didn’t you?” Scully says, and her voice wobbles. “Were you… angry with me?”

Rose’s stoic expression flickers a little. “No,” she says. “Why would I be angry? I liked you. I knew that… if I let you know I was alive, you’d want to see me.”

“Then why?” Scully’s vision is blurring a little, but she blinks the tears back determinedly. She doesn’t want to cry right now. She wants to think logically enough to understand.

Rose walks across the room to Mulder’s small dining room table and sits down with her glass of water. She bends her knees to sit in the chair with her legs criss crossed. This makes her seem younger, like the very young woman she is. Like someone who should be going on spring break trips and taking Physics 201, Scully thinks. Like someone who should be putting her hair up in messy buns and pulling all nighters and getting drunk with friends.

All of that seems to have nothing to do with this strange, remote girl.

Scully trails like a ghost and sinks down in the chair across from her, staring wordlessly, waiting.

“You know already that I’m not the same as Jackson,” Rose explains kindly, her eyes wide and serious. “He’s all yours. Genetically he’s entirely derived from you and Mulder. In a relatively normal, human way.”

“So you couldn’t come live with me … because Mulder isn’t your biological father?”

“No, no,” Rose says, shaking her head firmly. “I couldn’t live with you because no one is my biological father.”

Scully sucks in a breath slowly.

“You saw—the cyst on my neck, right? The toxic blood? When I was little?”

Scully nods without speaking.

“I’m dangerous to humans, Dana,” Rose says. Her gaze does not waver, her eyes like a calm sea. “It’s just the truth. Not just the blood. Other things, too.”

“You wouldn’t have been dangerous to me,” Scully says in a fierce voice before she can stop herself. “I could have taken care of you. I would have known what to do.”

“How could you have known?” Rose smiles sadly. “No one knows everything about what we are. We’re something new. Not entirely human, not entirely inhuman. We’re still discovering things about ourselves.” Her smile fades. “And truthfully, it’s not only that we’re dangerous to humans—it’s also that they can sometimes be dangerous to us.”

“I would have protected you. Mulder and I would have protected you. I was prepared for that.”

“You would have tried. I know you would have,” Rose concedes, looking down. She takes a drink of her glass of water. Her eyes spring back onto Scully. “But how long would it have been before you ended up like the Sims? Like the Van De Kamps? When they explained that to me, that risk… I couldn’t see it happen.”

“Who explained that to you?” Scully asks, suddenly on alert. “How old were you?”

Rose looks away evasively. “The group I’m with, the Walled Garden, that’s the whole point of what we do—we’re all products of the hybrid program. We’re the same. We protect one another. We take care of one another. It’s how it should be.”

“The Walled Garden,” repeats Scully.

“Yes.”

“The group that was trying to kill Jackson. The group that actually did murder his parents.” Scully emphasizes each word carefully, hoping it will penetrate. “Take care of one another? Protect each other? How can you trust people who would do that?”

“I don’t trust all of them,” Rose replies defensively, lifting her chin. “There are dangerous elements within the organization. There always have been. We’ve had to be so secretive, and sometimes, in the name of keeping secrets, some of us have done … too much. Gone too far. Like with Jackson.”

Scully realizes her own hands are trembling. Everything inside of her is crying out to tell Rose: this is what evil organizations always say, this is how they always begin. Keeping secrets justifies all manner of unjustifiable acts.

“They’re my family,” Rose says in a different, more vulnerable voice. She looks at Scully like she wants something. “The only people who are really like me on the planet.”

“That’s not true. There’s Jackson.”

Rose smiles weakly. “Yeah. You’re right. Apparently there’s Jackson.” She taps her dark red fingernails lightly on the table. “Which is… interesting.”

Scully says nothing, concentrating on blinking rapidly, holding back the tears again.

“Really, despite its flaws, the organization has so much good in it. We have the best interests of humanity at heart,” Rose says. “We really do. We’ve saved humanity before. It’s our ultimate goal.”

That’s what the Syndicate said, too, Scully thinks bitterly. That’s exactly what they said. But Rose’s eyes are round and earnest, and Scully sees she won’t be able to make a convincing case against the Walled Garden. Not right now. Not without evidence.

She can deploy persuasive arguments against ideas, but not against family. You can’t use logic when it comes to family.

“But that’s exactly it,” Rose argues abruptly, placing her palms flat on the surface of the table. “You can use logic when it comes to family. You have to use your head sometimes to protect your family, even when it isn’t what your heart might want.” She leans forward, speaking intently. “You know that, Dana. You, of all people, know that.”

Scully feels her lip trembling. This isn’t a lesson she would ever, ever want to impart.

“Understand that I wanted to see you,” Rose says urgently. “When I was little especially. Little kids want to have moms. But I … had to protect you. Just like you had to protect Jackson. Don’t you see that?”

There is a moment of silence, except for the clock ticking in Mulder’s kitchen. Scully shifts uneasily in her chair.

What can you say to that? Scully thinks. What can you say to mistakes made out of love, even mistakes that leave such scars?

She reaches out across the table and firmly takes Rose’s hands in her own.

“Do they listen to you?” Scully asks purposefully. “The leadership of the Walled Garden? Do you have their respect and trust?”

Rose hesitates before answering. “For the most part … usually. Yes.”

Scully’s eyes narrow. She takes in the line of Rose’s determined chin, the tiny crease between her eyebrows. Scully exhales heavily. “Okay,” she says. “Okay. I understand.”

Rose’s shoulders immediately fall in relief. “I’m so glad,” she breathes, her eyes shining. “I’m really happy. I wanted you to understand that it’s not like … I didn’t care.”

“We’ll get to see you more regularly now, right?” Scully asks tremulously. “You won’t vanish from our lives? I would like to … I would like to see you.”

Rose nods tightly. “You should know there will be risks,” she says. “It’s not entirely safe for us to have a relationship.”

“That’s fine,” Scully promises, tightening her hold on Rose’s hands. “We can deal with that. Please don’t worry about that.”

“I want to see you, too.” Rose’s voice is suddenly high. In Scully’s bifurcated vision she sees both the woman clasping her hands and the little girl on the floor coloring. Two in one, the same.

“Do you definitely have to go home today?” Scully asks. “You’re sure you can’t stay and have dinner?”

“I do,” Rose nods. “There’s something important to take care of. And I need to go back and check in—or they’ll worry.”

Scully nods somberly, not sure what to say to that. Her lip twitches involuntarily, thinking about the Walled Garden, about the many questions she has about where Rose lives, how she spends her days. Would she ever be able to see Rose’s accommodations? Would she ever be welcome there? Does Rose work or go to school?

“I should probably get going soon, actually,” Rose says, beginning to stand up from the table. “My car is parked about a mile away. I should start–”

“Rose, the Walled Garden operatives who came after Jackson,” Scully interrupts without stopping to think.

Rose freezes where she is. “Yes?”

“They mentioned that there were those in the organization who viewed Mulder and me as their flesh and blood.”

“Yes,” Rose says, nodding slowly.

“But Mulder isn’t related biologically to you.”

“No.”

“Yet they included him in that statement.”

“Like I told Mulder, most of the hybrids don’t have living family.”

“Most.” Scully feels her stomach knot.

“There are … a few others that do. Besides me.”

She considers her words for a heavy beat. Mulder must have thought of this, too. Scully knows he must have. Maybe he’s protected himself from thinking too much directly about it.

“The agricultural clones,” Scully guesses. “They are some of the hybrids that have family, too?”

Rose nods shortly. “One agricultural clone specifically,” she says.

Scully wonders if there’s some part of Mulder deep in denial that has kept him from asking Rose questions about this.

But she knows there’s a more important part of him that will, someday, want to know. That part of him that refuses to let things go. The dogged, loyal, ever-faithful part that puts family first, that never gave up on fixing things in their relationship, that always wanted to make things right with William, that set in his sights finding his sister for all those years.

It might be the very best part of Mulder. The part that made her fall in love with him. The part that went dormant when he was most depressed, and that had brought him back to life again recently.

When he’s had a chance to really think about this agriculture clone, Scully doesn't think that he’ll let go of hope where she’s concerned either.

“This clone. Does she… know she has family?”

“She does,” Rose says. “But … I don’t know what the idea of family means to her. The agricultural clones were raised differently than I was, you know. She’s older than me, but she didn’t have language until later in life.”

“What does she … what does she call herself?”

“Molly,” Rose says. She tilts her head. “Come to think of it, I think she chose it as a variant of her original’s last name. So maybe family does mean something to her.”

“I imagine Mulder might want to meet her someday.”

Scully remembers, for a moment, Mulder wanting a bigger house. More guest rooms.

Rose nods soberly. “I’ll mention it to her. See what she says.” She looks around at the kitchen, at the breakfast dishes, at the framed photos of Mulder’s parents. “Family definitely means something to Mulder, doesn’t it?”

Scully smiles. “Like it does to you.”

“I guess that’s right.”

“All those years,” Scully says wonderingly. “Were you happy? Were you loved?”

Rose’s eyes grow distant, as though she is replaying the events of the past to come to a decision on her answer.

“In some ways I was happy,” she says. “In some ways I was loved.” She pauses. “In some ways I was … neither.”

She begins to walk away, and Scully thinks to herself that she may never stop having questions for her. She may have to start making lists.

But suddenly Rose stops, and turns around halfway, speaking thoughtfully. “I think I did know what it was to love. To have that feeling ... directed towards someone else.”

She starts walking again, and her next words are almost to herself. “I’ll always be grateful to you and Jackson for that.”

***

#xfiles fanfic #the x files #x files fanfic #fox mulder #dana scully #x files #xf fanfic #msr #jackson van de kamp #x files revival

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yeehawbvby · 3 months

Text

Falling Away With You | Ch. 48

Sebastian x F!Reader and M. Rasmodius x F!Reader

Rating: Mature/Explicit

Chapter Summary: Y/n goes a little apeshit at JojaMart lmao

Author’s Note: *Crawls out of a pit covered in dirt and blood. Slaps this chapter down in front of you, on a SUNDAY no less!*

My health situation hasn’t improved whatsoever, but I will prevail, damnit!!

I wrote most of this and posted to ao3 early this morning, and haven't had a chance to proofread really. I'll do my best to get that done soon ^.^ Sorry if there are any weird wordings. Also sorry for the complete lack of Seb and Magnus in this one, I hope the shenanigans make up for it <3

Table of Contents + Work Summary

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I hate that stupid, cryptic, blue note I got.

Ever since it came, I think about it every time I check the mailbox, without fail. I don’t want to, I kinda just want to forget it exists, but I just… I dunno. I have a bad feeling about it. A gut feeling. Like, something’s totally up with it. It’s just been sitting in my closet for safekeeping until I decide what to do, though.

For some reason, I’ve been too nervous to bring it back up to Magnus. He’s forgotten it exists, from what I can tell. I think I’ll do my best to keep it that way for now. It feels more like my burden to bear than his, and besides, he’s already got the whole region to take care of.

After today’s confirmation that I don’t have bills or anything important like that, I head inside to get ready to leave the farm. Reeeally hoping my routine will shake out my heebiejeebies.

I got the OK from Magnus to use his fancy shrine for Spirit’s Eve. Got an idea of what I think I want to make myself look like, too. Maybe a tiefling or something. If tieflings don’t really exist, I’m sure some sort of succubi, or imps, or some sort of creature that looks like one’s gotta, no? I suppose I could always fall back on just pretending I’m an elf… man, a tail and horns would be so fun though.

Either way, tomorrow is the big day and I am so ready for it.

I mean, like, almost ready. Whatever.

Today I’m going to Magnus’ place to get some practice in. Just a precautionary measure to try not to, like, blow myself up or something.

I’m gonna keep my outfit cozy and easy to move around in, but I have half a mind to make sure I wouldn’t mind losing these clothes in particular if something goes wrong with the transformation. Just some leggings, some crew-cut socks, an old hoodie, and my favorite boots, since I won’t have my shoes on in the shrine anyway. All of it is in black. Sebastian cosplay.

I’ll pop my red studs in too, gotta commit to the bit. I haven’t had time to talk to The Emo and see if he actually did get his shit pierced last night, but assuming he did, and assuming he was able to use these for it, I wanna go all out, baby.

Now, before I head to the tower, I’ve got some errands to run around town. I woke up a bit late so there’s gonna be more people out than I’m looking forward to, but hopefully I have no creepy Alex encounters or awkward conversations with Shane again.

I promised Sam I’d visit him at work sometime soon, so I might as well head there first. He hates it there, and it’s been a while since we’ve caught up, so I’ll hopefully be a welcome distraction. I’ll bring him a coffee too to keep his spirits high.

After it’s done brewing, I grab two foam cups and pour the coffee in. Knowing Sam, he probably needs this stuff sweet, and I’m in the mood for sweet too, so I pour in a bunch of vanilla-flavored creamer. To make the beverages ~gourmet,~ I add a little whipped cream to each, as well as a light drizzle of chocolate syrup. After securing the plastic lids and giving Cannoli some well-deserved love, I head out.

While I pass by the bus stop, I make eye contact with Pam. I’ve never spoken to her, but… I dunno. I can’t tell if I like her or not. She gives me a nasty stink eye and I can only further assume she’s as mean as she outwardly appears. Unless she was just cursed with an intense resting bitch face...

I smile Pam’s way anyway. She doesn’t smile back, but that’s okay. It doesn’t benefit anyone to be so judgemental of her.

I pass a few local moms once I make it to the town square. None really mind me, which could mean they either didn’t notice, or they don’t care. Either is fine by me. I don’t hear what they’re saying, but Caroline talks very animatedly just before the rest of the group bursts into laughter.

I turn my attention back ahead as I pass by Pierre’s and nearly bump into Marnie as she’s leaving the shop.

We both squeak out a little “Oh!” before apologizing in unison.

“I wasn’t really paying attention,” I double down.

“Oh, that’s fine. I rarely ever am!” She then motions to the two cups in my hands and adds, laughing, “At least the coffee’s safe!”

I awkwardly nod in agreement. Then, a brief flash of myself actually spilling coffee somewhere down the road raids my mind, my necklace tingling against my skin and my fingers practically buzzing.

Great.

“Everything alright, sweetie?”

That probably looked weird. “Yeah, sorry,” I try to recover, “just sleepy today!”

I take a sip of coffee to emphasize my point. Plus, I might as well drink what I can before these puppies go down. Hopefully I’ll be able to save at least one of them when the time comes.

“Aw, I’m sorry to hear that!” She puts a gentle hand on my shoulder. “I need to get back to the shop, but take it easy and don’t overwork yourself, you hear?”

I nod, thanking her and waving her off with a shy grin before I continue moving. Once I get closer to the spot I’m supposed to be spilling these drinks — just before that little bridge over the river by JojaMart — I begin to walk more cautiously. If I can just keep these steady and focus on the ground…

A sneeze creeps up on me. Oh god. Oh god oh fuck oh no.

Just as I’m beginning to carefully place one of the cups on the side of the bridge for safe keeping, the sneeze forces its way out of me. Luckily, one beverage — the one I hadn’t drank from yet — stays safely in my hand. Unluckily, the one I was working on trying to keep safe fell to the stones at my feet, opening up and dispersing its contents fucking everywhere.

God damnit.

“Nice one.”

God fucking damnit.

I look up to the voice. It turns out Shane’s outside having a smoke. He’s at the opposite end of the bridge watching my clumsiness unfold with an aloof look about him. He’s bent over to lean on the stone wall, his right elbow propped up and his corresponding cheek in his palm. His left forearm is flat against the structure while his left hand lazily dangles his cigarette between two fingers.

Is that pink nail polish on one of them? I wonder if that’s Jas’ doing.

I merely groan back my response, picking up the now-empty cup to discard in the trash bin near the store. As I proceed on my walk of shame past Shane, I point out, “At least my clothes stayed safe.”

Shane follows and asks, “How many ants do you think you murdered with that accident?”

I grin a little at his dry humor. “Oh it was a massacre,” I bounce back. “The war in Gotoro pales in comparison.”

“Ha!” Oh my god, I made Shane — the grumpiest fuck I’ve ever met — laugh?! “Right on. Seems like pointless violence anyway.”

I turn to see if I can catch him smiling for the first time, like, ever. It’s not there anymore, but there’s a residual brightness in his features.

Shane snuffs out his cig on the ashtray built into the garbage’s lid, abandoning it there before shoving his hands in the pockets of his bright blue shorts.

“Those sons’a bitches,” he nods in the direction of my carnage, “they had it coming.”

My nose scrunches as I laugh a little, giving him a funny look. “Damn, what’d they do to you?”

There’s a playful glint in his eye, as he deadpans me. “Exist.”

I shrug and nod — I get it, they can be pretty annoying! — and follow the man as he makes his way through the white-rimmed, glass-centered automatic doors. I try not to cringe outwardly at how many self-righteous pro-Joja fliers are on them.

Shane stops a few steps into the store. Turns around. I stop too and look up, tilting my head. What’re you looking at, punk? I think to myself. Dunno if I’d be pushing my limits by trying to say it out loud. Better not.

Shane gives me a weird look too, but I can barely see it. My senses are taking their damn time getting used to the obnoxiously fluorescent lighting.

“Don’t you shop at Pierre’s?” Shane wonders out loud.

I blink a few times as I adjust to the environment and then nod. “Visiting Sam,” I explain.

“Ah.” He nods too, in understanding, and then looking the other way he continues, “Enjoy.”

Shane makes his way towards a door to the right of the manager’s office. Says “Employee’s only,” so I’m assuming it’s a break room or something. I don’t miss the incorrect apostrophe, but choose not to linger on it either.

“You too.” He looks back over his shoulder, so I pair my well wishes with a lazy salute.

“Buh.”

…Buh?

I smile. I think he’s warming up to me!

Feeling a tad lost now that I’m alone, I look around before making any advances. Should’ve asked Shane if he knew where Sam would be around now. I dunno how the shifts work around here.

The cashiers to my left — a visibly exhausted red headed woman, probably in her late 30s or early 40s; and a scrawny, scruffy looking teenager, with thick-framed glasses sitting atop his freckled nose — both look miserable.

The boy is boredly leaning against the counter, zoned out on the ground in front of it. The woman looks totally spaced out on nothing in particular. It almost seems like she’s fighting off sleep, too. Poor lady.

The woman and I lock onto each other. She looks away from my face before I can even register it, but I notice her eyes flicker longingly to the coffee cup in my hand a few times after the fact. I peer between her and the beverage twice before I all but scurry away into the aisles. I’m too awkward for this. My only option is to retreat. Never said I wasn’t a coward.

While I venture past the boatloads of boxed, bagged and canned foods in search of the resident dog boy, I observe some of the products. Some don’t look safe for consumption, while others seem like they’d be fun to try as a one-off sort of deal. It overlaps a few times as well. I mean, why wouldn’t I want to try this cereal which very explicitly states on the box that it’s more sugar than grains? It makes me stifle a giggle. I like the brutal honesty.

I stop and stare at it for a sec. Gnawing my lip. Wondering if I should just…

No. I shan’t.

I break away from temptation and trek on. As I reach the end of the aisle, I pan across the back of the store. More shelf-stable products, a small produce section… ah!

Sam looks like he’s supposed to be mopping the floor near the freezers. To be fair, he is holding a mop, and it is touching the floor! But instead of cleaning, he uses the tool as a microphone; singing against the end of the brown wooden handle, both hands passionately gripping it as he bends his torso to quietly belt one part in particular. Sam’s eyes are shut, his bulky black headphones are secured over his ears, and he has not a single worry in the world.

Holding his coffee in both hands now, I stop walking and lean against a nearby shelf. Observing. Waiting. Eventually he’ll have to see me.

He does a little spin move and carelessly bumps into the bucket of soapy water he’s working with, causing it to slosh around a little. Some of it lands on the floor, and some on the pants of Sam’s jumpsuit. Doesn’t faze him in the slightest.

He does another spin the opposite way and nearly knocks over the conveniently placed display of sprinkles that are situated right in front of the ice cream freezer.

I feel like I should probably stop him before something bad happens, but he looks so damn content and so stinkin’ cute that I can’t be assed.

Just as I’m thinking this, he opens his eyes, completely avoiding my direction while he immediately peers over his shoulder. Sam scans around, getting a full view of the proximate areas. It seems like he’s just making sure he’s not about to get caught by his boss or something, if I had to guess.

Eventually he lands on me. We both smile wide, and I triumphantly hold up his (unspilled!!) coffee in one hand, presenting it with a small flourish of the other and a bow of my head.

“For you, my good sir.” I make sure to sound extra fancy, dropping my voice an octave and annunciating my words a bit too much.

He looks around again before meeting me in the middle with a fist bump, completely ignoring my bit. Aw man.

“Hell yeah, thanks dude!”

I shoot some awkward finger guns at him, “You got it, bud.”

“You didn’t make yourself one?”

I sigh, lamenting, “I did…”

Sam scans my face as we share a short silence. Then, the lightbulb almost visibly goes off in his noggin. “You spilled it, didn’t you?”

Pursing my lips, I nod. “I spilled it, yeah.”

“Buuummer, dude.” He pats my head and I sigh, leaning into his touch. I’ll be damned if I don’t still love head-pats, even if it’s been a while since I’ve gotten one. “Wanna split this one then?” he offers, palm still on my crown. At this point he’s just trying to messy me up.

“No thanks, I’ll just grab another later if I’m really craving it.” Not having noticed the trance I’ve been in as my hair gets slowly and steadily ruined — it feels nice, okay? — I finally look up at him, cheekily glaring as I manually remove his large hand from me. I add on as I try to repair the frizzy aftermath, “Sick performance, by the way!”

“You think so?” he beams. Makes me laugh.

“Of course! It looked like you were having a lot of fun.”

Sam’s face is a bit flushed as he takes the compliment, not even trying to hide it; he has a big goofy grin on his face, too.

It drops and Sam looks behind him as a deep voice with a bit of a southern twang booms from one of the aisles nearby. “Samson?”

“Shit, here.”

Sam hurriedly places his coffee into my hand and rushes back near his water bucket, looking around for his manager as he moves. I try to make things less suspicious by pretending to look at some nearby end caps.

I take a peek over when I hear Sam greet the man, “Hiya! What’s up, Morris?”

Crossing his arms and puffing out his chest to try and make himself look mighty, a man in a navy blue suit, a bright red bow tie, and a poorly-applied black toupee corrects him. “That’s Mr. Saxton, son.”

I roll my eyes. Awesome to know the guy running this Joja is just as insufferable as the dudes who work on the corporate side.

Sam puts an anxious hand on the back of his neck, and halfheartedly smiles as he apologizes, his speaking patterns much more formal than before. Poor guy… it hurts to see him having to tone it down so much for this dipshit.

I turn my attention back in front of me so as to give him some privacy. Not sure he’d want me to hear him getting his ear talked off.

This display is full of holiday cards... I might as well waste some time with these bad boys. I pick up one with a cartoon beagle wearing a birthday hat on it, stealing a sip of Sam’s coffee as I read the pun on the front: “Have a doggone good birthday!” Alright, nice and cheesy start…

I flip the card open. It starts blaring Baha Men’s “Who Let The Dogs Out.” Fucking hell. Jumpscare me, why doncha! I shudder at how tinny the music sounds — likely made worse by its volume — then close the card and place it back in its spot, not bothering to read more.

“Excuse me, miss?”

I peer over my left shoulder, and see that Mr. Saxton is making his way towards me. A vein is popping in his forehead, but he has a toothy smile on his face that screams customer service. Not sure what’s going on and feeling a little anxious about the situation, I don’t answer with words — I just turn my body to him and watch him expectantly.

My eyes flicker to Sam real quick, who’s closer to the opposite end of the freezers now. He’s looking over here though, and when his eyes catch mine, he mouths “Go!” and motions his arm towards the front end of the store. Maybe he got caught socializing or something… wouldn’t doubt that there’s probably heavy surveillance in here. Man.

I look back at Sam’s boss as he says, “I’m going to need you to discard your beverage.”

My brows furrow and I tilt my head. “Why?”

Ah, he’s the asking-questions-is-talking-back type: He huffs a deep breath and tilts his head as if to mimic me, clasping his fingers together in front of his ribs. The smile and vein are both still on his face.

“It is not only unacceptable to bring your own food into a grocery store,” he strains, “but I cannot have you spilling your drink all over our products.”

…I haven’t spilled anything. What does he think I am, some crusty little kid?

Damn, this is bringing out a rage that I haven’t experienced since working behind a Joja desk. I didn’t know I was even capable of it anymore. Must be something about the overstimulatingly bright blues, or the blindingly white strips of lights. Same ones we had above each cubicle in the office.

My anxiety is rapidly replaced with a petty yearn to cause a ruckus as I realize that I don’t work for Joja anymore. I never have to even come here again, actually.

I don’t answer to this fucko! I don’t answer to anyone!

Screw this guy!

Feeling courageous, I put on my own customer service mask as I inquire, “Do you want me to spill this on your products?”

“E-excuse me?!”

I hover the cup near the cards, tilting it a little. Doing a little eyebrow wiggle too for good measure. “It feels like you dooo.”

“I— w-what are you doing?”

Seb would be so proud if he were here. Not sure how Magnus would react, but I’d like to imagine he’d support me too.

Completely on impulse, I bring the cup in front of me and splash a little coffee in the man’s direction instead of the cards’. The now-lukewarm liquid splatters onto the white button-down beneath his jacket and rapidly seeps into the fabric, leaving a light brown, unsightly splotch.

Sick, got him where it hurts and none got on the floor! Less work for Sam!

Making sure my voice is just as cheery as Morris was trying to keep his, I cap this off, “Stop treating your employees like crap and stop treating complete strangers like children, asshole.”

This feels so good. My heart is racing and my pits feel a little moist and I might just end up an anxious mess the second I walk away, but I’ll be damned if this isn’t cool as fuck in the moment. When Leah asked me last week if Magnus ever wanted to go apeshit, it didn’t even occur to me how badly I wanted to go apeshit.

I walk down the nearest aisle as Morris continues sputtering something about me leaving, paying for this, whatever.

Shane’s kneeled down in the middle of the aisle stocking shelves. He faces me for a moment and grins slyly. “That was cool as hell.” Why does this feel so validating? “A woman after my own heart.”

HUH?

I blink that fucking flashbang away — seriously, the last time I saw him he was still being a dick, and today he’s treating every interaction like we’re fully acquainted, if not more, what the heck — as he turns away to scan items onto the shelf again.

“I really didn’t do much…” I really didn’t. Just kinda caused a minor inconvenience for the guy.

My hands are shaking though, so it must be catching up to me.

“That still took some balls.” He glimpses at me briefly and adds, “Y’look like you might cry, though. Get outta here before I change my mind about you.”

I huff out a quiet laugh and steady Sam’s — well, my, now — coffee in both hands. “On it, boss.”

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call-of-ishmael · 21 days

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The Last Ishmael OCD Post

One of my first times that i dabbled into character analysis was about Ishmael's OCD, people like that post but i really feel i could have done better

Canto V was my last major chapter i was willing to read. As i put more distance between me and the story, i want one final farewell in the form of finally fixing up my analysis

PART I: THE META-TEXTUAL

Before i delve into the writing itself, here is some pointers the story gives to her OCD in the form of flavor text and descriptions.

Firstly we have her Bio

This is easy to miss as its just a tiny blurb above her whole intro blurb.

Now, "obsessive compulsive neurosis" is a very weird way to phrase it, "obsessive compulsive" is clear enough but "neurosis" is odd, this is not TOO odd though, as "neurotic" used to be how OCD was classified as a disorder.

However if we look at her bio in Korean, the particulars do simply straight up say "OCD" very clearly, you'd need to MTL but this was also confirmed to me by a friend from SK

The sinner bios are biased though, and are written through a very corporate lens, so lets see if there's any other pointers elsewhere

Her base EGO, Snagharpoon, actually does just that

Her passives name is called "Compulsion" and in its gameplay design its a very interesting way to also point to it

Ishmael is a very all or nothing person, you do it well or you don't do it at all, and this is reflected on how this passive aids you to play

This passive is excellent for boosting the consistency of playing by only going for "Favored" or "Dominating" clashes, while punishing you for taking chances on clashes you MIGHT win

Base ID Ishmael is also a unit with all single coins, rolling tails puts her in a very unfavorable position so this also adds an extra safety net on top. Worth noting being all single coins is also a high risk high reward type of play style.

Finally we see two more pointers id like to note, both from Canto V

The Compulsive`s Knot, an ego gift themed after a naval rope, one of many in the dungeon all alluding to her struggles.

Most obviously though

Her exclusive status effect, Compulsion. This is in direct reference to her EGO passive, providing an attack boost at the same time it provides a drawback in the form of low SP.

We are gonna talk a bit more about this passive since it ties into another gameplay oriented way to point towards her OCD

During the story dungeon we have an event where a noise is heard, you are given two choices, check, gain SP, don't check, lose SP.

Compulsive checking is probably the most well known (to the conditions detriment we will talk about it later) hallmark of OCD

Notably, this doesn't aid Ishmael, while checking can avoid the combat encounter, not checking only has a chance of triggering it, and most interestingly, her SP will always start at -25 during combat encounters. Meaning the temporary boost in her sanity will just get reset next battle, should you decide to check. Checking wont satisfy her anxiety for more than a brief moment.

Lastly the most obvious ones are all the references to Obsession. These are so abundant i feel if you are familiar with the Canto its redundant to have them, i wanted to draw more attention to the allusions to compulsion, as they are less common.

PART II: BEFORE THE STORM

Even since before her own Canto, we can see Ishmael's ruminating and anxious tendencies pop up during previous chapters, which for OCD is important to explore as OCD is an anxious and ruminating disorder.

So lets talk a little bit about OCD! Its a disorder characterized by repetitive and constant intrusive urges to perform a task or a thought (lets keep this in mind for later)

These thoughts or actions are used to try to relieve stress from an anxiety inducing thought or situation. The most common example is OCD exacerbating germ phobia, and causing people who have it to wash their hands in excess.

While OCD is usually described as "irrational thoughts" i feel that's a pretty limited way to view it in my own experience with it. OCD compulsions and thoughts can be informed by very real worries, the worry of getting sick, of making the wrong moral choices, of hurting others. Being clean is a normal and a good practice to stave off getting sick, its the frequency and intensity that turns it maladaptive, OCD turns your own lived fears and traumas against you, and those might very well be real things to worry about, which makes dealing with it very hard.

Enough of that off to the writing!

Lets start with Canto II

This is the first example of her constant need for a lack of ambiguity, previous to this we see her complain about the treatment the sinners are receiving from Effie and Saude, skeptical of the whole deal.

Until shes shown the plans, they are so well crafted shes able to anchor to that and calm down.

This by itself is not really much other than being very detail oriented, lets look a bit further into the chapter

Here we see that aspect elaborated upon more, this moment is framed as a very important one between Dante and Ishmael in their dynamic later on, Ishmael is incredibly upset at the plan having fallen apart so quickly, while yes this is not unreasonable to be upset at, her anger is remarked on by Dante and Gregor as very intense and unusual. This in my opinion is a minor but clear indication her need for planning and considering every option is due to a deep anxiety, but don't take it from me, lets look at Canto III

Here we are told pretty explicitly, Ishmael moving quickly and asking lots of questions is something Dante has noted as an anxious habit.

And here we have more elaboration on what exactly that moment at the Casino meant for Ishmael, it was enough anger and disappointment she has stopped expecting Dante to perform well and instead taken it upon herself to see things go according to plan, this is VERY important to her.

And her worries, are repetitive enough to annoy others, and to be remarked upon by Dante.

This is perhaps the more notable chain of events to point out previous to her chapters aside from 4.5, as it helps contextualize all her usual ways of acting in a more complete light, showing a lot of this is driven by a deep anxiety

And this all makes S.E.A all the more interesting as it pays off on this.

Something i quite enjoy about Limbus is how it re-contextualizes things characters have previously done and said. And the events of S.E.A and Canto V bring a lot of interesting stuff to the table

Lets get cracking with this chapter

In general shes extremely confrontational, and tense, more than usual

But its her anxious outbursts i wanna focus on, what she puts

emphasis on.

This chapter is so crucial in this whole analysis. We see some behaviors way more clearly now, firstly we see her emphasize her need to be absolutely 100% prepared for this, no ambiguity no risks she wants certainty.

But we see something even more clearly and that's her ruminating behaviors, shes brought up things like this to a smaller extent before like commenting on a lot of aspects but here we see in full display her inner world become externalized, shes started voicing worries shes never voiced before can Dante turn them back always? What if Dante dies? What if the sinners get eaten can that be turned back?

And these don't all get brought up immediately, she mentions them in different conversations, pointing to the fact shes constantly going over the subject in her head with no pause, and she gets frustrated when she cannot work on these worries when she cant do anything to quell the anxiety.

And the last part, when Dante finds her so fixated in her planning its impossible to even talk to her. She has to perform some action do something to stave off the disaster she can see coming in her head

As someone with OCD inevitably i have to mention the personal component that drew me to analyze this was how real this feels to when you spiral

A lot of the times OCD is explained as the compulsions being something you do cause you feel its a sort of ritual to stave off disaster. Its in this way i see it reflected in this moment.

As we see with Heathcliff acting as her foil, he points out her worrying is really not doing much other than just her talking and talking, and by the state shes in when Dante checks in on her, aimless not even paying attention to anything else we see the main objective of the planning really isn't practical as much as a compulsive coping mechanism.

She has to do something

PART III: INTO THE DARK

Lots to cover and honestly i will make a companion post to this with all the examples, so for this section i wanna cover some highlights instead, as well as a general discussion of the tone.

The way this chapter is structured is very interesting, its really reflective of the mental state of Ishmael. The chapter feels really aimless, they wander around not really ever finding what they need, which drives Ishmael more and more tense and frustrate

Its a good continuation to how we see her by the end of S.E.A fixated on one goal one thing

As previously stated shes inflicted with a constant special and unique to her status effect called "Compulsion" as covered in Part I

Her behavior is also reflective of this

For a good part of the first third of the chapter shes in her room, the whole time whetting her harpoon, nonstop

However you might notice compulsion is not as present as obsession, and compulsion is also important to OCD its in the acronym! And i have seen others point to it too

However id like you to remember, in the post earlier i said thoughts can fit into OCD, compulsions can be mental and sometimes almost exclusively or mostly mental. Its even in the DSM noted that for diagnosis the compulsions to count you for a diagnosis can be mental in nature

Its in this aspect that i feel Ishmael shines a lot

In general OCD in media is lacking in representation and is often a trait given to assholes or villains

The normal conception of OCD in movies or TV is of neat freaks or control freaks, Compulsion is usually heavily emphasized when it isn't the whole picture

Often ignored though is the aspect of Obsession, some people can have Purely Obsessional OCD (Pure O), this isn't a formal diagnosis or term but its colloquially used by people who have it. Its a bit of a misnomer, as compulsions are present but internalized as mental rituals or rumination

Usually its harder to diagnose, its harder to treat as there's no apparent compulsions others can see, and the people having it seem pretty high functioning to the people around them.

This can be noticed though in people avoiding certain subjects, avoidant behaviors can be the clearest external behavior.

I personally read Ishmael as having more mental compulsions, the way she tends to be a more ruminating and anxious character than outwardly compulsive

During S.E.A and Canto V we see outward compulsions more but from the examples from previous Cantos we can see that's not her usual and she operates more on anxious overthinking most of the time.

However another aspect that ties into mental compulsions is in the previously mentioned avoidant behaviors, we see her isolate and try to stave of having to deal with her worries in both S.E.A and the beginning of Canto V when shes in her room, in both cases doing some excessive preparation in a compulsive way.

CLOSING THOUGHTS

As previously stated Canto V deserves its own companion post, and ill work on that later, i feel this encapsulates what i wanted to say well enough.

I wanted to discuss the previous signs of her behaviors that make me certain her OCD is an intended textual read, and in my opinion a well executed one

Canto V was hard to read as it felt very real and very familiar to the worst times i have had due to my OCD.

Shes a character that despite my distaste i have developed for the franchise, it will never stop meaning a lot to me same as her chapter will always be a piece of storytelling that affected me deeply in ways others haven't

To close i want to leave off what i feel encapsulates the feeling pretty well, in my favorite moment with the membrane consuming her as a metaphor for letting fear, anger, obsessions and compulsions cloud your mind until you forget why you were even there

To you, dear reader, Bon Voyage

#ishmael lcb #ishmael limbus company #project moon #lcb ishmael #canto V #canto v spoilers #limbus company #lcb

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msnanu · 11 months

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Life Twist 02 | JJK

⏤banner by the talented and sweet: @archivedkookie ❣

⏤summary ❧ After an enormous loss in your life and breaking a long relationship with your now ex boyfriend, you decided you needed a life twist. So you move into a new country to try restart your life and seek for your happiness. What you weren’t expecting was someone like Jungkook entering into your life as soon as you got to Seoul.

⏤𝘱𝘢𝘪𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 ❧ jungkook x female reader

⏤𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘳𝘦 ❧ fluff, angst, smut, slow burn, 4 years age gap (reader is JK’s noona)

⏤𝘸𝘢𝘳𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴 ❧ mature language

⏤𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘥 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘵 ❧ 7.9k+

⏤ author’s note❧ Please, enjoy the new chapter, guys! I hope you don't hate me after this one. Trust me, things are getting interesting from now on - the trip is coming too! 😏 Let me know your thoughts on the story so far! If there's any misspelling please forgive me, I tried to update as fast as possible since I'm not gonna be able to write the next chapter until next Monday so I wanted to give you this time a chapter that's a little more longer than the first one.

‘Oh, for fucks sake my head, make it stop!’ you hear your best friend groaning on the sofa while you’re in the kitchen preparing yourselves breakfast.

You placed in the kitchen counter a plate with strawberries, kiwi, and banana. You've also prepared some french toasts, scrambled eggs, and fresh orange juice. It’s not like you've worked a lot preparing everything but you know Chris likes that kind of breakfast, so knowing he would get up any time soon feeling like hell, you went for that.

‘There you have some Ibuprofen for you to take, it will help with the headache, at least I hope so’ you say when Chris approaches one of the chairs next to the counter.

‘Thanks, you’re an angel’ he says whilst he drinks the pill with help of the freshly orange juice that you’ve prepared him and then he adds: ‘I missed so much having these hangover breakfasts with you’.

Right before he started to talk, you were about to scold him for over drinking on the very first night you went out together again and leaving you with people that you just met. Thank God for Jungkook that helped you dragging his ass back to home, you don’t know how you would’ve done it without his help. But you bite your tongue because, to be totally honest there’s been a million times where the situation was the opposite, you being drunk as fuck and he being the one to drag you home so, you can only respond ‘I missed this too’ while placing your head for a few seconds on his shoulder and then start eating your breakfast next to him

‘So…the golden maknae has charmed his way out to you?’ says your friend out of the sudden

‘The golden what?’

‘Maknae means the youngest. JK is insanely good at every thing that human beings can possibly do, so Namjoon thought of that nickname and now most of the guys in the group call him ‘golden maknae’ because of that’ he explains while you just nod

You feel like you’re starting to blush remembering about yesterday’s events so you look away and then you think to yourself – how the fuck did your friend noticed? He was so freakin wasted but he still noticed the flirting? Well…at least that’s what you think you were both doing…you were both flirting each other, right?

Chris knows you like the back of his hand, he noticed how you looked away and he clearly saw you blushing while spacing out. ‘I was wasted but not to that extent to not remembering how you were both obviously flirting with each other’ he says suddenly making you return to Earth

‘I wasn’t flirting!’ You respond almost immediately knowing it’s a lie and that Chris can see right through it

‘Hey – It’s me who you’re talking to, since when do you get this shy over a guy that you flirted with? I’m actually happy that you’re putting yourself out on the market again. I mean, it’s been like ages’

‘It’s only been a year’

‘Only a year? Dear God if I didn’t get my dick wet for a week I would be bawling like a baby’

‘That’s because you constantly think with your dick, there’s more in life than sex’

‘Oh yeah? Like what? Watching Netflix on your couch while eating popcorn alone on a Friday night? – what’s wrong with that? you think to yourself while your friend keeps talking - Come on, you’re about to turn 30, you haven’t been single for almost a decade... you need to start having some fun again’

‘Honestly, I don’t know if it can be catalogued as flirting what happened last night, maybe he was just being friendly with me. I have been in a relationship for so long that I feel like I don’t even know how to act properly with a hot guy’ you say sincerely

‘From what I remember I’m convinced that my man JK was flirting with you too… but stop worrying so much, go with the flow…you’ll know what to do’ your friend tries to comfort you

‘He asked me for my cellphone number before leaving’ you confess

‘He did, huh?’ - says wiggling his eyebrows over to you while you roll your eyes - ‘Though, I have to say, I’m surprised you’re even attracted to him, he is an insanely handsome guy...but you were never too fond of younger guys’

‘That’s what I thought exactly when he told me how old he is. But I’ve never really tried with a younger guy anything so…maybe it wouldn’t be a bad thing to give it a go at one point’

‘Now that’s my best friend! Go get that dick bestie!’

‘Eww, why do you always have to be so explicit? I’m not even sure something is gonna happen with him… we just talked a bit and he asked my cellphone. It doesn’t mean anything’

‘Maybe we’ll find out tonight’ says Chris while heading over to wash the dishes

‘Huh? Why tonight?’ you flip your head towards him and curiously ask

‘Didn’t you check your phone? The guys added you to our group chat. We’re going to a night club tonight; we’ll keep it going with Jackson’s birthday party… he really enjoys celebrating the whole weekend whenever he’s the birthday boy’ says your friend

And then he adds: ‘And I’m pretty sure that your lover boy JK confirmed he’s going tonight’ while he winks at you

‘Shut up, he’s not my lover. And who said I’m going too? I might be busy’

‘Are you, though?’, he looks suspiciously at you because he already knows you’re lying

‘No’ you almost whisper

‘Then that’s it, you’re coming. You need to get laid, it’s good for your health, you know’

‘Oh my god Christian, I just met the guy last night, I’m not gonna sleep with him immediately!’

‘Why not? You’re not hurting anyone by enjoying yourself’

You go near him and hand a few dirty dishes that were left in the counter while you sigh and say ‘I'm aware that I’m not hurting anyone, it’s just that I don’t usually go sleeping around, you know it. And we’re getting to much ahead of ourselves, I already told you I don’t know if he’s even attracted to me, I just saw him one time, I barely know the guy for crying out loud!’

He chuckles while saying ‘Trust me. I have the feeling that he wants to pound you until you don’t remember your own name’

‘Oh my f – You’re such a pig sometimes!’ you say while punching his arm with your small fists, though he doesn’t even budge

He smiles at you and says ‘So, that means you’re coming, right?’

‘Fine, I’ll go. But I don’t want to drag your drunken ass back home again tonight so please control yourself’

‘Don’t worry, after last night I think I’ll just drink water tonight. I’m not getting any younger and it takes a lot more time to recover now than when I was 18’ and you both chuckle at your friend’s sincerity while you take a rest scattered in your couch

°•○•°●♤♡◇♧•°○•°□▪︎☆♤

‘Ugh, I don’t know, I’m not sure… maybe this is too revealing or maybe it’s too tight, why am I getting so stressed over a dress?!’ you say while you show your outfit through videocall to your best friend

‘Maybe because you know you have pretty good chances on hooking up with certain someone today’

‘Please, cut it out. You’re making me nervous, I just want to have a good night’

‘Okay, okay sorry… you know I’m just kidding. You look amazing, stop having doubts. You usually don’t give a shit about what people says so what’s with the insecurities now?’

‘It’s not insecurities, I know I’m gorgeous’ and you see him rolling your eyes at you ‘Hey – don’t you roll your eyes on me, mister. You know it’s true’

You both snicker at this point and he simply replies ‘Yeah, I honestly can’t disagree on that’

‘Maybe I’m nervous because he’s also kind of your friend and I don’t want to make things awkward. Imagine that we hook up... and then we start dating... and then for some reason we break up, it would be so weird giving that he’s in your friend’s group and now I’m also being included’

You see your friend laughing like crazy through the screen, till the point that he’s cleaning a few tears of his cheeks

‘What the hell are you laughing for?’ you say with greeted teeths

‘It’s just that you said to me earlier that we were getting ahead of ourselves because you don’t even know if JK feels the same way about you and now here you are imagining scenarios were you two are dating… gosh, you can be so funny sometimes’

‘Fuck off’

He snickers and says ‘Listen, just go with the flow. He is my friend too, yes, but don’t even think about that. Just do whatever your heart… or your pussy says’

You can’t help to laugh at your friend’s words, and you respond ‘Okay, we’ll see were the night goes. Let’s have fun tonight!’

‘I love that spirit! I’ll pick you up in an hour, bestie. See u’

You send him a flying kiss and you see him faking like he passed out after he received it ‘See u, clown’ you say while laughing at his bad acting skills

°•○•°●♤♡◇♧•°○•°□▪︎☆♤

This club looks posh, you think to yourself. Although, it’s not that big as you imagined to be, it has only 2 dance floors, one of them is basically a huge ass balcony right next to the Han River with a beautiful view to Seoul city

Chris guides you to the usual spot where he and his friends use to hang out, he told you that Jin’s brother-in-law is the owner, so they come very often to this particular night club.

You spotted Yoongi, Hobi, Jimin and Taehyung with smiling faces waving at you from across a table that’s right next to the dance floor.

Once you greet everyone, they start telling you that Joey and Emma couldn’t make it, they were still recovering from last night. Aria had her best friend’s baby shower during the day and felt exhausted, so she couldn’t come either. Namjoon and Jackson were asking for some drinks at the bar… and JK and Jin where nowhere to be found.

Suddenly, you started to feel a little bit more nervous at JK’s mention and Chris noticed it so, he grabbed your hand and asked at the same time looking on the guys direction ‘Hey, we’re going to grab some drinks, do you want anything from the bar?’. Yoongi said a short 'No, thanks', Jimin and Taehyung were already drinking Soju so they raised their glasses and said ‘No, thank you hyung!’ while Hobi said ‘Um, could you order a whisky on the rocks for me, please? Thanks, hyung!’. Chris just winked at Hobi and said ‘You got it, buddy’ while dragging you with him holding your hand

When you got to the bar, Chris said while ordering the drinks ‘Okay, maybe a drink will help to make you loosen up a little bit. Remember, we are just having fun!’

‘Yeah, I know, you’re right. I need a drink ASAP’ you respond to your friend and then you redirect your attention towards the bartender who was waiting for you to order ‘A gin tonic for me, please. Thank you’

You take your drinks to the table with the guys and once your glasses are empty, Chris says ‘Come on, let’s go dancing bestie’. The gin tonic definitely helped you to loosen up a little bit more because you didn’t even hesitate and accepted your friend’s request while you grabbed his hand and went towards the dance floor

‘I’m good yeah I’m feeling alright, baby Imma have the best fucking night of my life and wherever it takes me, I’m down for the ride’ you were singing along while dancing with your best friend. You danced for about half an hour when you said to Chris ‘Hey I’m going to the bath, I’m about to pee myself’ which he only replied ‘Who’s the one being explicit now, huh? Go go! I’ll be here when you come back’

So, you started running off to the bath, on your way there you spotted Jin right on the other side of one of the bars grabbing a bottle of Soju as if he was the owner of the club, he smiled brightly and waved at you which you replied back and suddenly you saw his eyes widening… you curiously followed whatever his eyes were looking at and saw a blonde girl kissing… Jungkook.

Your smile dropped instantly. You didn’t want Jin to see your face, so you quickly continued your way to the bath not looking back.

After emptying your bladder and sanitizing your hands, you stayed for a few minutes in the bath against a wall spacing out. Did I really misread that bad his intentions? Fuck I’m really out of the game, how could I think that he was interested in me? He was just being friendly with you, y/n. You’re such an idiot. Is she his girlfriend? I mean, of course he has a girlfriend, he's so fucking gorgeous...stupid, stupid, stupid – You kept scolding yourself in your own mind. You somehow felt sad and stupid, how could you feel sad about a guy that you just saw one time in your whole life? Maybe it was the fact that he made you feel wanted after such a long time of not having that feeling – though, you now realize it wasn’t like that at all, you just felt that –

Suddenly you realize you have been inside the bathroom for almost 20 minutes and Chris might start worrying if he sees that you are not coming back. So, you arm yourself of bravery and get out of there, you’ll just walk quickly towards the dance floor, that way you won’t have to witness again that scene of Jungkook and that blondie kissing.

When you were already passing by the bar, you feel a hand pulling yours… you move your head to see who’s the person that grabbed you and it’s none other than Jungkook. ‘Hi, noona – you look beautiful’ he says while smiling with that sweet tone that you didn’t even know you missed hearing. You don’t know how to react, you just keep repeating in your head the scene of that girl kissing him, but you must be mature about it, he’s nothing to you… he’s just... a friend of your best friend that you’ve just met, and you were the one to misread the signs, it's not his fault. So, you just reply with a simple ‘Hi Jungkook, thanks… you look good too’

You feel like his hold on you is almost burning, so you take back your hand unconciously which Jungkook notices and looks at you strangely. ‘Is everything okay?’ he asks, and you just respond ‘Yeah, everything’s great’ though by the way he’s looking at you, you know he didn’t buy your fake smile. You start to feel insanely uncomfortable, so you immediately say ‘Um, I have to go, Chris must be looking for me… It was nice seeing you again’ and you don’t even wait for him to respond when you turn your heels and walk away as fast as you can.

Of course, Chris disappeared. You went looking for him on the same place where you left him before going to the bath and he wasn’t there. Knowing your friend, you know that he probably met some random girl and must be having his fun somewhere around.

You really need a drink, pronto. So, you head towards the bar and sit on one of the stalls while looking at the dance floor. From where you are situated, you could see Jimin and Taehyung dancing on top of a speakerbox, they seemed to be a little bit hammered, and it made you laugh for a minute. Those two share the same braincell, they remind you of Chris and you – soulmates -, you can’t help to think

You were waiting for the bartender to finish preparing another gin tonic for you when a guy sat on the next stall right next to you. You were already cursing inside your head; you had already sent off 3 guys that came up to you with cheesy lines trying to get your number or for you to accept them buying you a drink… you just weren’t in the mood to hear any more fuckboys coming to you with their stupid attempts.

‘Rough night?’ you hear from the guy that just sat next to you

Well, at least this one’s trying to make a conversation before coming up with a cheesy line – you think to yourself

‘I don’t know if rough is the right word… nothing that tragic happened, it’s just not what I had in mind’ you reply while you thank the bartender that has finished preparing your drink

‘You and me both, my friends dragged me here with the excuse that I should get out of my house more often and have fun… and they’re nowhere to be found’ he responds and then asks you ‘so…your boyfriend is an asshole or what’s been troubling you tonight?’

He got a good laugh out of you this time while you respond ‘wow, smooth way to find out if a girl has a boyfriend or not’

‘What can I say? I have my ways’ he responds giving you a cocky grin

You take a proper look at him now… he’s handsome - you think – while holding his gaze you respond ‘I don’t have a boyfriend’

He smiles at you and says ‘Nice to know that. So, what’s in your mind?’

You don’t know if it’s the gin tonic that once again is putting your filters down or what, but you start telling him ‘Well, I met this guy… I saw him only once, but I don’t know… I felt like we had kind of a connection and that we were both flirting back and forth and thought that maybe tonight was going somewhere with him but on my way to the bath I just saw a blondie sucking his face – so I clearly misread the signals and I’m feeling like an idiot’

‘Auch, that’s a bummer’ he responds while taking a sip of his drink

‘You don’t say’

‘You don’t have to feel like an idiot though, we all been there at some point of our lives’ he says while keeping his gaze on you

You noticed he never told you what’s his name was throughout all the conversation, so you offer your hand while smiling at him and say ‘I’m y/n, by the way’

He smiles and says ‘I’m Minho, Choi Minho. Nice to meet you, y/n’ while taking your hand on his

‘Nice to meet you too, Choi Minho’ you say while also smiling at him. You feel like you don't have any shame left in your body, alcohol does wonders indeed- you think to yourself for a second - and bravely ask Minho ‘What do you say? Wanna have a dance with me? Please don’t reject me, I already had too much embarassment for one night. Oh..wait.. do you have a girlfriend?’ -

‘Only an idiot could reject a beautiful girl like you and no, I don't have a girlfriend’ he says in the most flirticious way while you both smile at each other like two idiots and without further do, you both headed hand in hand towards the dance floor

°•○•°●♤♡◇♧•°○•°□▪︎☆♤

What you weren’t aware of, was that there was a pair of burning eyes watching the whole scene unraveling between you and Minho.

Jungkook was about to head to the dance floor and drag you out of that guy’s hold when Jin putted a hand in his shoulder and told him ‘That wouldn’t be wise to do’

‘What the hell do you know, hyung?’

‘JK, she saw you kissing Lina and I saw y/n’s face… she seemed as shocked as I was. It’s only fair to say that right now she must be thinking that you either have a girlfriend that you didn’t tell her about or that you are not interested in her. Either way, if you go there and make a scene, she will probably tell you to fuck off and I wouldn’t blame her to be honest’

Jungkook’s eyes were big as a plate when he said ‘She saw me with Lina? Oh no.... no no no. Fuck. I didn’t even kiss her, she did. I stopped her as soon as I realize what we were doing. She just came out of nowhere and kissed me, I haven’t seen her in 3 months, hyung’

‘Well, my friend, bad luck. I think you lost your chance… at least for tonight. Just don’t do anything stupid. When you get the opportunity to talk to y/n, you can let her know what really happened tonight but barging in when she’s having a good time with someone else, it’s not a good choice’

‘It should be me the one dancing with her, not that guy’ he says with greeted teeth

‘She’s just dancing, it doesn’t mean it’s going to go fur- okay, forget what I said… he’s kissing her’ Jin said a little bit preoccupied

‘Fuck this, I can’t keep just staring while she’s kissing some random guy’ Jungkook responded with jealousy running down his veins while walking towards you and Minho

Jin got to him quickly and dragged him back to the bar saying ‘Jungkook don’t! Be mature about it. You’ll ruin any chance you have with her if you get in the middle. Let her be’

Jungkook sighed and said with a defeating tone while looking on your direction ‘I fucked up, hyung. I like her, I don’t even know how to explain it… I just saw her yesterday and every time she smiled at me, I felt like I was going to pass out. I should have kissed her last night’

Jin looked the maknae with a pitiful look and while hugging him responded ‘Hey – if it’s meant to be, it’ll be – Maybe in time you’ll get closer and you’ll be able to tell her all of this. But if I were you, I’d be careful not to hurt her in any way because Chris will sure beat you ass’

And that got a little chuckle from Jungkook that left Jin content, his job was done. He somehow avoided Jungkook doing something that he would have regretted for sure later.

‘Come on, let’s get something to drink and swallow our sorrows’ Jin said while taking JK with him

°•○•°●♤♡◇♧•°○•°□▪︎☆♤

Alcohol was flowing freely in your body, everything felt numb. You loved how free you felt whenever a few glasses of alcohol were involved. It’s been such a fucking long time not feeling this good. You don’t overthink anymore, it’s the first time over the night that you don’t think about Jungkook and that blondie and you just let yourself enjoy every second of dancing with a handsome guy like Minho who’s been giving all his attention solely to you.

His hands are respectably on your waist while you turn around and have your back pressed against his chest, you don’t even care that your ass is brushing against his crotch. He doesn’t seem to mind, not at all because he doesn’t put any distance between you two. In fact, he grabs one of your hands and places it on the back of his head while one of his hands goes from your waist to your stomach, the palm of his hand holding you as close as possible to his body

Excitement overflows in your body, you’re trying so hard to act unaffected but once you share a look with Minho, you realized you’re failing to do so. His gaze is so intense, he’s driving you crazy and he’s not even doing anything… just sharing one dance with you, a very very close dance.

When you look away, you can feel his breath hitting the crook of your neck and God how you wish he would press those lips onto your neck. You don’t know when you got this bold, but there’s this sort of confidence boost that makes you shamelessly grind your ass against Minho’s crotch and that’s when his lips brush against your jaw… he knows what you’re doing… so, you take one more look at him, you realize his gaze goes straight to your lips and then to your eyes like he’s asking for permission.

And then your own eyes can’t help but do the same, your gaze going towards his lips and then look directly to his eyes while nodding. Without even sharing any words, he gives you the sweetest smile and then proceeds to kiss you.

You don’t know if it’s because you haven’t been kissed in a long time or the fact that you’re a little bit tipsy, you can’t even think straight… you just know that his lips feel so amazing against yours. So, you let yourself enjoy and start moving your lips against his own while you’re being turned around by his hands. Your hands go behind his neck and his hands stay by your hips, grabbing you tightly.

The first touch of his tongue entering your mouth makes you feel like you’ve been electrified, you feel 100x times horny than what you were already. You’re so close to him that you can feel his bulge starting to grow harder and you can’t help to moan once you feel him. You know he heard you, he stopped the kiss for a moment while looking at you in the eyes and smiling again. Then he kissed you once more, it was so passionately, you haven’t been kissed like this in ages.

That’s when you grabbed his hands and moved them from your hips to your ass and you could swear this time you heard him trying to restrain his groaning. You didn’t care you were in the middle of a night club surrounded by people, you just wanted to feel him

‘We should go somewhere else’ you say breathlessly – since when you sleep with guys that you just met? It came across for a split second in your mind, but you quickly shush all your thoughts away, right now you just want to enjoy the moment. Plus, just like Chris said, you’re not hurting anyone by enjoying yourself -

‘We can go my place’ you visibly see him gulping while he offers, you don’t know how but he looked so innocent for a second while he was telling you to go over his place

‘Sure’ you respond simply while giggling

By the time you’re walking hand in hand with Minho from the night club, you grab your phone quickly and text Chris that you’re leaving with a guy that you met in the club and that you’ll leave you’re location tracker activated – Chris always makes you do that in case you have any problem, so he can locate you easily - you don’t even wait for your friend to respond and get on an Uber that Minho called.

°•○•°●♤♡◇♧•°○•°□▪︎☆♤

The ride to Minho's apartment building felt long but it was maybe less than 10 minutes. The only moment when you weren’t kissing each other like maniacs was when the car slowed down because you’ve had arrived to your destiny. You almost jump out of the car while Minho was holding the door for you and helps you get out of it while also thanking the driver. As soon as he shut the door, he grabbed your hand and hurried guiding you through the building entrance.

You waited for 2 minutes until the elevator finally arrived, the longest 2 minutes of your life. While you were waiting for it, Minho cupped your face and gave you a sweet kiss on your nose and said ‘You’re so fucking gorgeous’ – gosh, you’ve a pool between your legs by now, it’s all you can think of – and as soon as the doors of the elevator opened, Minho clicked the button of his floor and as soon as he turned around you both threw yourselves at each other.

Minho opened his front door so quickly you didn’t even saw him taking his key out. He took you in and his hands were all over your body, fiddling with your tight dress, feeling every part of your body and all you can think of is: please just, take it off of me

He leads you to his bedroom while your mouths are attached to each other, oh my…this is really happening

Once you see his bed, you push him lightly and he lets himself fall and sit into his bed while he’s eye fucking you. You grab the end of your dress and while pulling it off from your neck you see him biting his lower lip, he seems hypnotized.

You sit on his lap in your black lacy underwear, feeling his bulge so hard and you almost salivate at the feeling. He goes for your neck with slow but intense kisses.

"Minho" you whisper, feeling his breath ghosting against your neck.

"Hm?" he hums, while he’s occupied sucking your skin, the tips of his fingers grazing over your exposed thighs.

"Please, fuck me" you keep whispering on his ear while grinding on him and he swears he could bust his nut right there just by hearing your sweet voice asking him to fuck you

‘Fuck, you’re so hot. Your wish is my command, gorgeous’ he says with a raspy tone

He then turns you around and your back touches the mattress, while he takes off his shirt and you swear your pussy just clenched by itself by taking one look at his toned body – Good, God, what do they eat in South Korea? Do they all look like they’ve just come straight out of a Calvin Klein’s publicity? – your hands start to work on his belt and pants while he’s smirking at your desperation.

Once he's only on his boxers, you palm his bulge giving him a few strokes through the fabric – and oh…he’s big that’s for sure - while he grunts at you and says ‘I swear you’re driving me insane’

His lips start trailing his tongue on your collarbone, a small moan slips out of your mouth and it’s just in a matter of seconds that your bra and panties are taken off you and thrown somewhere in the room.

You feel like you’re starting to blush and maybe he notices it because he stops for a moment while looking you straight to your eyes and says sweetly ‘If you want me to stop just tell me, it’s okay, we don’t have to do anything you don’t want’ and you respond ‘I do want it, I really do. It’s just that’s been a long time since I had sex and…I’m nervous’

‘You’re doing great if you didn’t notice’ – he says signaling his bulge while you both chuckle at the sight – ‘You’re so beautiful, baby’ he says and starts to kiss you all over again gaining some more moans from your mouth ‘Just tell me if you want me to stop’

‘Don’t. Please don’t stop’ you manage to mumble somehow. And that’s all he needs, your reassurance, because as soon as you gave him the green light, he connected his lips to your nipple while one of his hands is cupping your other breast, driving you insane, fogging your mind with nothing but pleasure

“Fuck, your tits, so fucking perfect, you like the feeling of my tongue in your tits, huh? I can tell baby, your body is speaking to me, who knew you were such a dirty girl?” he whispers in your ear and proceeds to bite your earlobe earning another moan from you, fuck.. the dirty talk is about to kill your pussy

Suddenly, you feel his fingers slipping inside you, thrusting in while his thumb rubs circles on your clit. You can’t help but scream at the pleasure his giving you, grabbing the sheets with a fist while he tells you ‘That’s it baby, keep moaning for me, we have to stretch you out so you can take me’

You’re blinded by pleasure by now, you feel the knot about to unleash while he keeps thrusting his fingers in and out of you at a fast pace. ‘Shit, yes – don’t stop – keep doing that, please. I’m cumming… I’m cumming’ you inform him almost screaming though he was already feeling how you were clenching around his fingers uncontrollably, ‘Yeah? Cum for me baby, come on, make a mess on my fingers like the dirty girl that you are’ and that was the final point. You came so fucking hard. Finally, you get an amazing orgasm and he rode you through it thrusting in a few more times his fingers. And then, when he finally takes them off, he licks his fingers and says ‘You taste amazing’ making you go crazier from all the dirtiness.

You grab him by the neck and kiss him tasting yourself on him and start taking off his boxers, you can’t wait anymore. Your thirst is still there, even though he just gave you one hell of an orgasm… you need him inside you right now.

He smiles through the kisses and grabs a condom from his nightstand, you watch every move he takes while he’s putting on the condom and giving himself a few strokes to check everything’s okay.

“Are you ready, princess?” Minho asks, while his hand is trailing your thighs. You respond ‘Never been more ready’ while you smile at each other, and that’s when he positions himself to be on top of you, his eyes trailing every part of your naked body as if he’s taking a mental picture of it.

You gasp when he enters you in one go, followed by a long pornographic moan from the sudden stretch you feel from his cock. He grabs your cheek, forcing you to look into his big eyes.

‘I’m gonna fuck you so hard, princess’ You stare into his eyes while he squeezes your cheeks. You whimper and he adds: ‘I’ll start moving now, okay?’

You nod your head, and he starts thrusting in and out, biting his lips while he pushes his cock deeply into you and you’re just a mess, you keep moaning at the amazing feeling of him inside your pussy.

It’s been so long since you’ve felt this, you feel like you’ve almost forgotten how it felt to have sex— how the fuck did you go a year without this?

“You feel so fuckin’ tight, fuck princess.” Minho moans on the crook of your neck, and you close your eyes taking all the pleasure in while your legs automatically wrap themselves around his waist as he is still thrusting at a slow pace, so you can get used to him inside you.

In the meantime, his lips are occupied on yours, his tongue entering your mouth and meeting with yours in a passionate kiss. That’s when he starts to thrust faster into you, and you moan desperately on the kiss.

“M-MMinho!!” You moan his name, and you hear him cursing loudly making him go feral, while you’re scratching his back with your nails as he thrusts roughly into you, without giving mercy to your clenching pussy.

The room is filled with the sounds of your skins meeting each other, you feel how insanely wet is your cunt, your juices and his cock mixing and how close you’re from your second orgasm.

You are out of this world, so out of it that you didn’t even realize but in a split of a second he’s out of your cunt and turning you around, putting you in all fours with your ass perked up while your hands are pressed against the mattress.

He thrusts his cock inside you once again and you both curse at the amazing feeling that it brings. His hands grab your hips while pounding you as fast as possible, he feels his cock starting to twitch and he says ‘God, princess, you feel so good, so warm, so fucking tight’ while the only sounds that come out from you are moans and his name being screamed all over again and again as if it was a chant.

He feels you getting tighter every second that passes and says, ‘My dirty slut wants to cum, huh?’ and you’re going crazy, you’re so close, so fucking close. You respond breathlessly ‘Yes, please daddy I wanna cum so bad’

You feel his balls slapping against your cunt while he sets a ruthless pace and then you feel one of his hands going for your clit, rubbing it while he keeps pounding you from behind and opens that dirty mouth of his saying ‘Cum princess, cum all over my cock’ and that’s it, that’s when you hit your second orgasm of the night while being a moaning mess.

As soon as he feels you cumming, clenching like crazy around him, he feels his balls tightening ‘I’ll fill you up so good baby, I’m cumming fuck fuck fuck’ he keeps cursing as he shoots his cum into the condom with a few more sloppy thrusts until he slows down trying to come back from his own high while you both are out of breath

A few moments later, he pulls out slowly. You can’t help but to fall onto the mattress while he’s taking the condom off and throws it away to a trash can near the nightstand.

He falls right next to you, both of you sweating like hell and still recovering your breaths while you share a look and start chuckling, still none of you over the mind-blowing orgasms you just had

‘That was-’ you start saying but he interrupts you by saying ‘The best sex I ever had’ while panting and you can’t help but to laugh again. ‘Yes, it was indeed’ you say

When you both recover, he says ‘Um, you can take a shower if you want. I can give you some of my clothes to sleep with if you’d like’

Well, thank God he’s not the kind of asshole that sleeps with someone and throws them out immediately after the act – you think to yourself. You look at him and say ‘Yes, a shower sounds amazing right now. Thanks’ and then you give him a sweet peck on one of his cheeks that he returns with one of his beautiful, sweet smiles while caressing the side of your face.

You take a shower separately and by the time he’s finished with his, you’re all covered up on his bed wearing nothing but one of his long shirts and a pair of boxers that he gave you. He gets in the bed wearing only boxers and you just can’t help but to think – what a fine piece of art – he pecks you on your cheek and says ‘It was an amazing night with you, goodnight princess’ and you’re already dozing off when you say ‘It really was, goodnight to u too Minho’

°•○•°●♤♡◇♧•°○•°□▪︎☆♤

Next morning, you got up with the sound of Minho preparing both of you breakfast. You had a nice talk with him where you both got to know each other a little bit better. He told you all about his job being a lawyer, he’s working in one of the most important law firms in Seoul now. He surely knows what he wants in life and that’s something you really like about him.

You told him about your job as a Manager in the Finance team in this big multinational tech company that you’ve been working for 2 years now and that thankfully when you decided to move to South Korea there was an opening at the Seoul Office so you didn’t even have to look for a new job, you just switched positions from your native country base to South Korea’s. Which honestly it was a big relief for you. Not having to look for a new job made everything so much easier to you.

Since the moment that you got up and went over to the kitchen to encounter him, the conversation with Minho was totally natural. It wasn’t awkward at all. It felt nice. It felt fresh.

Before you leave, he made sure that you have exchanged numbers and you both promised to see each other soon. You waved him goodbye before by his door frame and while you were waiting for the elevator his hands turned you around and he gave you the sweetest and most passionate kiss ‘Sorry, I couldn’t help it, you’re so addictive, princess’ he says - and that’s when the elevator comes, and you hit him slowly in the arm saying ‘Stop it – you’re making me blush’ while he chuckles he says ‘You’re so cute when you get shy’

You enter the elevator and tell him ‘I’ll see u soon, thanks for the breakfast…and last night’ and he gets to respond before the doors close ‘I’ll be eagerly waiting to see u again, thank u princess’

You realize when the elevator opens its doors again that you’re smiling like an idiot – what a good night that was –

Once you get home, you take out your cellphone from your purse and realize you have 5 messages from your best friend all from last night

Chris bestie: what? Who? what guy are you leaving with? When did that happened?

Chris bestie: what about JK?? Did he do something bad to you??? You better tell me because I’ll kick his ass if he did

Chris bestie: Honestly, I never felt so happy to say that my best friend is finally getting a dick again

Chris bestie: If anything happens and you need me to pick you up, I’ll be one call away

Chris bestie: Use protection, bestie! Have a nice fuck! ;)

You can help but to laugh at his messages while you start replying

‘God, I didn’t even realize how much I missed having sex until now’

‘I’m home by the way, safe and sound. And to respond your various questions, I met this amazing guy while having a drink at the bar. Remember when I went to the bath? Before you ditched me? Well, on my way there I saw a blondie sucking on JK’s face… so, I guess he has a girlfriend that I didn’t know of and clearly we were wrong about him having some kind of interest in me, I got it all wrong :/’

‘I’m not complaining tho – I did felt like an idiot for a while - but, because of that I met Minho and had the most mind blowing orgasms so, the night didn’t suck at all, not at all :)’

Clearly your friend was expecting your messages because as soon as you sent them, you saw that he read them and started to type

Chris bestie: ‘I told you it’s good for your health having sex!!!’

Chris bestie: ‘JK and a blondie? Wtf? JK doesn’t have a girlfriend, at least not that I know of, and I already told you, I saw the way he was looking at you… I’m sure he likes you; I don’t know about the girlfriend thing but I’m sure that he likes you’

Chris bestie: ‘Oh my god, I’m getting déjà vu of all the times that I sent you messages after a hook up but now the tables have turned! Well done my friend!!’

Chris bestie: ‘by the way, is this the same blondie you saw with JK yesterday?’

You download the photo that your best friend sent you and immediately recognize the blondie girl that was sucking JK’s face last night

‘Yep, that’s the blondie’

‘Honestly, I don’t know if he has a girlfriend or not. I only know what I saw. And they were kissing’

Chris bestie: ‘I knew it. The blondie’s name is Lina. JK hooked up with her for a few months, they didn’t get to be official because JK found out that Lina was hooking up pretty much with anything that moved on the Earth at the same time she was with him – so he stopped being with her a few months ago’

‘Well, it seems like he has forgiven her because she had her tongue down his throat yesterday. Anyways, it sounds messy and complicated and honestly, the last thing I need right now it’s something complicated. I guess JK and I will be friends from now on… or something like that’

Chris bestie: ‘As far as I know, he despises her. I really don’t understand why he would be kissing her again. It’s weird’

Chris bestie: ‘But anyways, I’m happy you had a nice and orgasmic night. Are you gonna see this Minho guy again?’

Are you? – you thought to yourself – and then all the sudden JK’s face with that Lina girl came right at you – God, why the fuck you keep thinking about JK when you had this amazing night with an amazing guy??

Whatever relationship that JK has with that girl is none of your business. It would be the best to maintain your relationship with JK as friends – just friends – and maybe you should give Minho a chance, I mean… if he’s also interested of course.

And you start reminiscing last night with Minho and all that wonderful sex. Yes, you should give it a try with Minho definitely

‘Yes, I think I’ll see Minho again’ you respond to your friend with a smile on your face

‘I’ll go take a warm bath, talk to u later bestie’

You leave your phone charging and head to have a nice bubbly bath to relax for a bit while listening to some music. After a good half and hour of being on the bathtub, you dry yourself and check on your phone where you had 2 message notifications.

You thought that Chris was the one that texted you, but you saw Minho’s name on your screen, for a moment your heart skipped a beat and you quickly read it:

Minho: ‘Hey princess, just wanted to make sure you got home safely. And I also wanted to ask you something’

Minho: ‘Do you wanna have dinner with me tomorrow night?’

Excitement overflows in your body. Did he just ask you on a date? Oh my god, oh my gooooodd!!!

‘Hiii :) I got home safely, thank u for asking’

‘Of course, dinner sounds great. It’s a date’ you responded immediately, and then you start regretting the message you just sent ‘It’s a date’ - maybe he wasn’t inviting you like a date date, oh my god what if you scare him away? Ughhhh why do I over think everything? Since when am I this idiotic when it comes to guys? – and while you were busy mentally scolding yourself your phone vibrates and you see a new notification

Minho: ‘Cool. It’s a date :) I’ll pick u at 8PM then, see u princess’

You have a date. With Minho. OH MY GOOOOOOOD!

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#jungkook fic #jungkook imagine #jungkook smut #jungkook x reader #jungkook x you #jungkook fanfic #bts smut #fic recs #jeon jungkook #bts fanfiction #lifetwist #jjk smut #jjk x y/n

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tallymonster · 6 months

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Memories of Us Chapter 4

Chapter list (1) (2) (3)

I have no clue what to even say, all the support, reblogs, and comments from everyone who has been reading this beautiful thing I've had in my daydreams has been pretty amazing. I can't thank you all enough 💕

Summary: Octavia has a little mess to clean up.

As always, thanks goes to my beta and best friend @micropoe10 . She's the driving force behind this idea because she kept telling me how good it was. So thanks, I owe you many lol.

Inspired by @cheesy-cryptid 's piece of fan art that buried itself in my brain and kept telling me what to write.

Chapter 4

"sleep til the sun burns out"

The next morning, Gale walks up to his shared office. Octavia should have already begun on the last of their tasks. At least a month of work finally coming to an end. They decided early on to share the office he had, after all one person doesn't need that much space to themselves. As he fumbles with the door, Astarion stops him. "Ah! My favorite assistant! Good morning Gale. I trust that you and our dear Octavia are prepared for the opening?"

Gale enthusiastically nods. The coffees he's got stacked on top of his pile of books are slightly shaking. He catches himself against the door and steadies the drinks, "Oh most definitely. Octavia has been staying after hours a few nights, at her insistence mind you, and she's incredible! She did at least three days of work in only half the time! I don't know what I would do without her at this point."

A small blush lands on his cheeks and he clears his throat. "Thank you for trusting me to bring her on board, she's a wonderful addition." Gale smiles awkwardly as Astarion gets in front of him and takes the cups. "Let me hold this for you before you wear this instead of your dashing sweater." Gale's shoulders fall a bit and he rolls his eyes.

They walk into the office to see a gigantic mess. Books, paperwork, pens, all matter of snack foods and energy potions surround Octavia and Gale's combined desks. "Octavia? Are you...?" Gale places his books on the desk softly, meanwhile Astarion places the cups down, picks up a book, and slams it on the table in front of her.

"I'M AWAKE! I'M HERE!!" Octavia springs up, a small note stuck to her cheek. She looks around bleary-eyed and rubs her face, as the room comes into focus, two faces come into view. Gale, and...OH SHIT. "MR. ANCUNIN! GOOD MORNING!!!"

She looks around and sees the mess left behind, quickly fixing her hair and ripping the note off her face. "I'm sorry, I didn't know" Gale mouths to her, he hands her the coffee and begins to gather the room. She puts her face in her arms and hides into the desktop. Thoroughly embarrassed, she lifts her head and looks at Astarion. "Good morning...sorry...I just really wanted to be done, and good news. It's done." She takes a lazy swig of her drink.

Astarion yawns and sips a bit from Gale's cup, coughing dramatically."Gods! How many sugars do you add to this?! This tastes absolutely vile!" He makes a disgusted face and places the cup back on the desk.

"Please tell me you aren't one of those people who asks for the drink with the longest name just to feel important?" He huffs, rolling his head to the side. "I'm not sure how to react to that." Octavia states, she looks down at the pile of papers Gale has already gathered.

She gets up to help, but Astarion stops her. "There's actually a reason I came by to see you both. Something that will pique both of your interests." Gale shoots him a suspicious glare, "What have you done now?" Astarion smiles and places down a well worn book, its black and red cover fraying like it's about to disintegrate if you sneeze in its direction.

"While I was away in the Underdark, I met with a lovely mind flayer and hobgoblin who had all kinds of interesting rare artifacts. One of which was this very book. They told me that this was procured during the siege on the Szarr estate, I'm hoping that it has more insight into our mysterious subject."

He slides the book over in between Octavia and Gale. "I'd love for the pair of you to tackle this long game Gale has played by himself. Octavia, your dedication to our last project surely landed you the task of caring for this book. Not a soul is to even breathe on it. That means you too, Gale."

He tilts his gaze over to Gale who scoffs a little at the notion that he can't read this book. "No offense, dearest Gale, I just don't want it leaving this office and we all know how you like to take work home." He pats Gale on the shoulder as he turns to leave the shared space.

"Also, one last thing. No more overnights, Octavia. You need your beauty rest, my darling. I've told you once before.." he leans in close to Octavia's left side and softly speaks near her ear "Can't have that beautiful mind of yours working too much, you'll turn into Gale, and I feel like you're far too much fun for that, hmm?"

She turns to him, their faces a few inches from each other. He's slightly taller than her, but in this closeness, he feels ten feet tall. His eyes hidden again behind pitch black lenses pierce through her, and the previous chill builds in her core, a shudder escapes her lips as the flush creeps onto her face. "Of course, sir, no more overnights."

She keeps her gaze on the glasses, her own eyes watching in return. She sees the vulpine expression start on his lips "Octavia, what have I told you about calling me 'sir'? We're in private chambers, not the atrium. Live a little, dearest." His voice dripped with suggestive candor.

Octavia on the other hand, was melting into the floor underneath her in return. She's never been around someone so well spoken, and it's pretty intimidating. "Of course....Astarion. I will go home tonight and sleep in my bed, not on my desk." She smiles timidly, back up at her as she looks towards him. "Wonderful, glad to hear it."

Astarion turns quickly on his heels, he must have somewhere to be. Octavia turns to Gale, an incredulous look on his face. "So he wants you to rest but he gives you another gargantuan responsibility to fulfill? I don't get that man sometimes." He shakes his head and keeps filing away paperwork.

—--------------------------------------------------

Later on, Octavia finalizes the displays and wanders back to her office. The last of the visitors are filing out, their dull rumblings and soft murmurs keep her company for a moment. As she turns the corner, mind elsewhere, she doesn't notice the person in front of her until it's too late.

The shock is like walking into a wall, her little pad falls to the floor and her forehead starts to feel warm. "You know, we really have to stop running into each other like this" there's a tiny sarcastic laugh behind the statement.

Astarion was standing in front of her and Gale's office holding two black envelopes adorned with silver writing. One for Gale and the other for her. "I meant to give this to you earlier. Before we got caught up in…all that…" he grimaces towards the office.

"Anyway, we're having a little party here for the board members, staff, beneficiaries, pretty much anyone who wants to have their name on a wing or a bench. I came to give you and Gale your invitations but you were both gone. Figured you actually listened to me for once." He shrugs loosely, picks up Octavia's notepad, and hands it back to her along with the envelope.

The black matte paper was smooth in her hands, her name embossed in silver leaf. She flips over the envelope and sees a silver wax seal with a Sharran symbol stamped in the middle. "Spared no expense, huh?" She remarks as she opens it.

"No, of course not. How do you think we pay for all the exhibits? We have to wine and dine these benevolent people to give us more gold to cover what I spent trying to convince other people to let me have their pretty little treasures they kept in dilapidated, crumbling, piles of rubble and bone for two hundred years." Astarion rambles sardonically, waving his hands as he rounds off. "That's all in a day's work for me. Having to put on airs to impress people who wouldn't even give me a second glance had I not worked my way up to where I am now. I've been one with the shadows for as long I can remember."

His voice lowers, a forlorn twinge to his words. "Having to sort through rushed, sloppy graves. You almost feel sorry for the corpses, I think I do. Hmm. Nevermind any of that. There's a dress code by the way. Black preferably. Spend some of that graduation money you mentioned and get yourself something nice."

He brushes some hair off Octavia's shoulder, his hand lingers there for a bit. She stares at his hand there and looks back at him, wide eyed. "You deserve it after all." He takes his hand off, placing both his arms behind his back. "Well I'm off. Looks like I'll have to look for Gale at his place. I'll see you there, dearest."

Tag list (thank you 🥹❤️, if you want to join, please let me know!) : @satanicspinosaurus @sleepy-timaeus @justporo

#bg3 #astarion #baldur's gate 3 #astarion ancunin #baldurs gate 3 #bg3 astarion #gale of waterdeep #gale dekarios #astarion bg3 #bg3 gale #fanfic #headcanon au #fic: memories of us #my fic

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dalchiid · 11 months

Text

𝕮𝖍𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖊𝖗 37

A story of obsession, fear, and lust. You're a maid whose Masters forbid you in meeting their guests for the night but your luck runs dry when you run into them and catch the attention of Lord Hoseok himself. He's smitten from the beginning and thus, your fate has been decided.

Pairing: Yandere Vampire Hoseok x Fem/AFAB Reader

Word Count: 7,076

Warnings: 18+, Yandere, Obsession, Possessive, Angst, Fear, Blood, Biting, Dub-Con, Eventual smut

Will add or remove warnings based on what's in each chapter.

I do not condone the behavior being exhibited in my work. This is solely for entertainment purposes and I hope if any of you are ever in a situation like this that you have the chance and ability to run away from it. Take care out there.

DO NOT copy, edit, or repost my work anywhere.

Chapter 37 Warnings: Yandere, Possessive, Obsession

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When Hoseok reads the letter your heart is in your stomach. He clearly looks annoyed but you hold onto hope that Namjoon is right and that Hoseok will accept what you've given him. You think he reads it a second or even third time because of how long he's taking. It makes you bite your bottom lip in worry. When finally he sighs and brings the letter down onto the desk in his study he brought you into your ears and brows perk up waiting for an answer.

"Well," you ask. "How is it?"

Hoseok sighs again. He still looks annoyed. Bringing a hand up to his eyes where he rubs them harshly with his fingers.

"Fine," he grumbles.

You hum questioningly. "Fine?"

"Yes fine, Y/N."

Your lips purse because he sounds the least bit fine about it.

"If it's fine then why do you sound mad?"

"Because I am mad."

You visibly deflate before him.

You don't need to ask him why he's mad because you know but it doesn't stop him from complaining.

"I told you Hyun-Woo is fine. I don't know why you need to do this."

You frown his way and he can sense it because he mumbles a "Don't look at me like that" under his breath.

"Hyun-Woo isn't fine. It doesn't matter how many times you say it and I want to do this so that he can get better."

Hoseok twists his neck in agitation but when he looks at you his expression softens.

"The things I do for you."

You lick your lips. "So it's okay? Will you send the letter?"

He sighs with a subtle roll to his eyes. "Yeah I'll send it but that's it. Don't get ahead of yourself and think that I'll allow you to see him in the long run."

You figured that much by yourself so you nod with a small "Okay."

The two of you are alone together after Hoseok went and fetched you from his brother. You recall Namjoon giving you a reassuring smile when you hesitated to leave. It's what kept you going so far and now that Hoseok approved of the letter you feel like some weight was lifted off of your shoulders.

"So when can we send it," you ask.

"It'll be sent."

Your face drops as that weight that had been lifted comes to rest upon you again.

"Hoseok."

"It'll be sent. Don't worry."

That's the thing. You can't help but worry. He says the letter will be sent but how can you be so sure about that? He can easily lie to you and say it's been sent when in actuality it wasn't.

He seems to sense your worry because in a big show of exasperation he opens his drawer and fishes out an envelope and a stamp. He folds and slips the letter into the envelope and grabs his pen where he begins to scribble the information needed on the front. You watch him as he stamps the top right once he's done writing and brings the envelope up to shake it into your face.

"See? Done." He slaps it back down onto the table. "I'll have it sent out tomorrow. Happy?"

You nibble your bottom lip.

"Stop that." His words are soft as he pries the petal that makes up your lip from between your teeth. "I promise I'll have it sent tomorrow. Now, no more worrying."

You don't know if you can fully trust him, as per usual, but you'll give him the benefit of the doubt.

Hoseok leans himself against the desk before grabbing you to draw you into his arms.

"How was your time with Namjoon? Did you do anymore reading?"

No you didn't. You spent the time in his arms talking about your life. He wanted to know more about your past and you told him as much as you could. You told him that most of your life was spent catering to the Baeks. You had no real childhood and how you have no family. He looked concerned but you laughed it off and told him that you were fine.

Much like Hoseok he asked if you wanted to learn about your family. That if you wanted he could have a detective sent to find out about your parents but you told him no. You were okay with not knowing who your family is because you had a found family with the head of servants. Ji-Woon was all you needed even though he didn't treat you much like a daughter. He was your boss but he cared for you and you cared for him.

Namjoon asked if you missed him and you admitted that you did. You wonder what he's up to but you imagine he must be doing just fine.

The rest of the time was with you finding out about Namjoon's childhood. He's always been close with his brothers. His mother tried making his upbringing as normal as possible despite his father. The other mothers were just as kind to him, he said. All the mothers were nice to the other children but they, of course, held their own in high regards. Unlike Jimin and Jungkook's moms though Namjoon's could be strict. She wanted the best for him but she never spoiled him. She wanted him to learn how to correct his mistakes and to learn from them. He admits he's been far from being a perfect child but he tries his best. It made you smile.

Your silence goes on for a little longer than it should and Hoseok pulls back a little to look at you.

"Y/N?"

You hum questioningly.

"I asked how your time with Namjoon went."

"Oh! Oh it was fine. We just talked for a bit. Not much else."

"About?"

You shrug. "About our lives. He learned about my childhood and I learned about his."

He squeezes you tight with a hum.

"You know I can always get that search for your parents going."

You shake your head. "I'm just fine without them."

Your response makes him hum again.

For others they might want to know more about their parents but not you. It's not something you want to break your head over. They may or may not have had reasons leaving you behind but to you it doesn't matter. You wish Hoseok and Namjoon would see that.

Hoseok breaks the hug apart so he can look down at the letter. He purses his lips before picking it up to look at the front and back. He has a frown on his face but he switches it for a pout.

Looking back up at you he places the envelope back down before tapping it twice.

"I'll have the letter sent out. For now though let's focus on something else."

"Okay." It's all you can say before Hoseok leads you out of the study.

By the time Hoseok had fetched you it had gotten dark out. The vampires are free to roam everywhere around them without sitting under the sun.The curtains are open to show the way both the front and back of the house is lit by lights. Around this time you would be getting ready to call it a night but ever since you came here it's been different. Now you're accustomed to being up the whole night. Until the early morning sun changes the hues of the sky - it's when you would find yourself falling asleep. It's no different now but you're surprised to see when Hoseok yawns.

"Tired," you ask.

He nods his head. "There was a lot that needed to be done today. My brain feels like it's on fire." He gives a pained expression. "Think I'm getting a headache."

"Don't you have anything for that?"

"I do but I think I'll be fine." He turns to you with a smile. "So what do you want to do?"

You look off to the side as he brings you two to a stop in the hallway. You're near the playroom and you think about searching for something in there but then you recall what happened to you the last time you were in there. It sends a shiver up your spine and you decide that's the last place you want to be right now.

"I don't know honestly."

Hoseok hums before grabbing your hand and bringing it up to his lips. "We're free to do whatever you want."

You purse your lips as you think.

Normally by now, with Hoseok, you would spend time in his room or the garden. You feel like doing something different with him though. Not for his sake but your own. You're always locked up in the house but you doubt he'd want to go outside at this time. To do what? You're not entirely sure. You just know you want to do something outside of the norm.

"You're thinking really hard."

You grunt. "Trying to think about what to do."

"You know we don't have to do anything. We can just relax."

Looking up at him you can see he's looking a little tired and it's dawning upon you that he might not want to do anything. You guess it wouldn't hurt to rest.

"We can just rest for now."

His brows draw together in concern. "You don't want to do anything?"

"You look tired."

"Still. If there's something you want to do we can go do it."

He's so persistent it almost makes your eyes roll.

"Hoseok, you're tired and you have a headache. Let's just rest. There's always tomorrow."

Like a weight being lifted off his shoulders, his body sags.

"Are you sure?"

You give him a deadpan look to which he smiles.

"Then let's head to our room then. I want to change out of these clothes."

Hoseok looks grateful to you and you don't know how that makes you feel. You only decided on a night in because if it were you feeling the way he does you wouldn't want to do anything. You may not like him but you're not an asshole. You'll let him rest.

The rest of the way through the house is quiet but he keeps his body close to yours. Your arms rub up against each other and you feel the way his fingers brush up against your own. It tickles a little and you itch to pull it away so you can avoid his tender touch but you don't. It's odd why you don't but you try to keep your irritation down to a simmer. You remind yourself that you promised him you wouldn't be as aggressive with him anymore and you, admittedly, kind of regret that. But you know that if you want to make your time here go as smooth sailing as possible you need to keep the promise. Do what you have to do so that when the time comes you can leave without him suspecting a thing.

If you're always pushing against him he'll limit your chances of freedom. So you know you have to play along and play along well.

When you reach his room he lets you in before following after you. You hear the way his feet drag on the floor and when you look at him there's a grimace on his face. It brings you to a pause as he walks around you to head to the closet.

He doesn't seem like his usual self and you don't know how it makes you feel.

"I'll grab our pajamas. Think you can get the headache pills I have under the bathroom sink?"

Oh right. You forgot he has a headache. His voice is low as he speaks and the grimace is maintained as he shuffles around. He squint his eyes when he turns the lights on and you figure this might be more than just a headache.

You walk into the closet after him and tap his shoulder. He whips his head around to face you but you can tell he instantly regrets it because he winces and places a hand to the side of his head.

"Are you sure it's just a headache," you ask.

He nods his head. "Pretty sure."

"Do you feel nauseous?"

Licking his lips he goes back to grabbing your pajamas. "A little but it's nothing bad."

"Hoseok," you start. "I think you're having a migraine."

He sighs. "Maybe, maybe not. I'm sure I'll be fine."

You shake your head even though his back is turned towards you. "Pills for headaches won't be enough for that. You'll need something stronger."

Hoseok turns and hands you your clothes before he begins to slip his clothes off in front of you.

"I don't have anything stronger." His words are muffled by his shirt but you hear him all the same.

"Then wait here."

"Where are you going?"

You don't answer him as you slip out of the room in search for a maid. No one is around this side of the hall so you have to walk pretty far. You're back near the stairs and from up top you see two maids talking to each other at the bottom.

"Excuse me," you say but they're too absorbed in what they're talking about so you speak a little louder. "Excuse me!"

The two maids look up at you and bow. It makes you cringe because you're not used to being the one being waited upon.

"What can we do for you, Lady Y/N?"

You bite your bottom lip for a second of nervousness. You don't know why you feel so nervous. Maybe it has to do with the fact that you don't know what the help thinks of you. Do they like you or not? Do they just tolerate you because you're with Hoseok? Their eyes and ears are everywhere. Do they see you with Namjoon? What do they think of that? Did the news spread around about what happened to you after the incident with Jimin? Back at home every single one of the help would have been known. You figure it must not be that much different here. People love to talk.

"My Lady?"

You snap out of it and stutter. "O-Oh um, I just wanted to send for someone to bring up some water and any medication for migraines. Hoseok needs it."

The two women bow at you before straightening up. "We'll have it sent up. Don't worry."

You nod at them before heading back to Hoseok's room where you find him sitting on the bed with his elbows resting on his knees and his head in his hands.

"Where did you go," he mumbles.

You give him a onceover before changing your clothes.

"I went and had some maids find you something for your migraine. They'll have it brought up in a bit."

He hums.

After you change you head towards him. Staring at him you realize how vulnerable he looks. You've never seen him like this. It's a bit unnerving. You've taken care of Hyun-Woo once or twice before when he would get like this. You know what to do but to do it with Hoseok? To take care of your captor? Life really likes making you the brunt end of a joke.

You sigh and jut your hip out as you stare at him. Despite not really wanting to the innate need to care for someone who is sick or injured kicks in. So you straighten up and rest your hands on Hoseok's shoulders.

"Come on. Let's lie you down."

Without question he lets you maneuver him around until he's slipped under the covers. You go to turn the lamp on your side on before turning off the ceiling light. The less light there is the better.

Hoseok groans as he tries to rest his head comfortably on his pillow. You can't tell if it's out of pain, pleasure or an odd mix of the two.

You slip under the sheets to join him but stay perched on your elbow so that you're hovering near him. Your body blocks the bedside lamp and the frown that marred his face begins to soften.

It's nothing but silence as you look at him.

He looks so innocent like this. Eyes closed with the occasional scrunch of his nose or brows. He looks like he could never hurt anybody. Instead he's the one in pain and you're looking down at him devoid of all emotion. You have the brief thought of smothering him with a pillow but you actually find yourself hating that idea. Even though he deserves it. You're not going to start thinking why that idea bothers you because you're too afraid of what the answer will be. You don't think it's because you care for him per say. Still you don't want to think about it.

There's a soft knock on the door and you welcome them in. One of the maids from before comes in with a bottle of water and pills that rattle in her other hand.

"Here are the things you asked for, my Lady." She hands them to you with a smile. "Is there anything else that you need?"

You shake your head. "No that will be all. Thank you."

She bows to you before slipping out of the room leaving you and Hoseok alone again.

You turn back to the man who has altered your life completely before reading the back of the bottle. You see that it says to take two pills so you shake them out of the bottle and open the bottle of water.

"Hoseok," you say.

He doesn't answer at first and you think he might have fallen asleep.

"Hoseok." Your voice is more firm and this time he answers you.

"What?"

"Here. Take these. It should help with the migraine."

He doesn't open his eyes at first but when he does he frowns. He sits up a little and for some reason or another you bring the pills up to his lips. Hoseok looks up at you with wide eyes that seem to shine in the dim light. Your eyes widen as well and you're about to pull your hand back but Hoseok's lips part to let you slip the pills in.

With a bit of hesitation you drop the pills in his awaiting mouth and hand over the water. He takes it and drinks everything down until all that's left are his wet lips and a half empty bottle.

"Good," you ask.

He nods his head before handing the bottle back to you to close and place on your nightstand. When you turn back around you see that he lies on his side facing you. His eyes ache to keep open but when your body blocks the bedside lamp from him again he closes them without a wince.

Hoseok sighs. "Sorry."

Your brow raises in question. "For?"

"For getting like this. I wanted to spend some time with you but then this happened."

Your face goes blank before him but his eyes aren't open to see. As much as you would have liked to leave the house you know he had no control over this situation. It's not his fault...

You never thought you would say a sentence like that. It's not his fault. There are a lot of things he has fault in but not this. You can be petty but not so petty to hold his health against him so you just sigh.

"It's not your fault. Things like this just happen."

Without thinking your hand comes up to push his hair out of the way. It freezes for a moment near his forehead and you question yourself why you're doing this. You just figure that maybe it's because when you get like this there are certain things you'd like to be done for you. To be doted upon. It still doesn't explain why you're doing it to Hoseok of all people, but you try not to think about it. You just do as is without question.

Your fingers slip into his hair where you spread the soft strands apart. He doesn't have any wax in it to keep it swooped off his forehead like he normally would so it doesn't feel tacky. Hoseok sighs at your touch but you ignore it as you continue to brush his hair back and scrape your nails across his scalp the way he would do to you.

You're doing this because it's what you would have done to Hyun-Woo, you think to yourself. It's what he would have liked and you're just a caring person. That's all.

Hoseok sighs in comfort at your gentle touch. You wonder what he must be thinking but you think you'd rather not know. Some things are better left off in the dark but it seems like you won't be given that peace.

"I love you. You know that?"

Your hand pauses in its movements as Hoseok's eyes open to look up at you. There's adoration in them and it's all directed to the object of all his desires. You. It bears so much weight that you have to look away to try and ease your discomfort but even then it's still too much.

"Hey."

Hesitantly you turn to look back at him to see him give a pained smile.

"Thank you. For everything." His eyes close then before he moves his head against your fingers to encourage you to continue where you left off.

Your lips pout in thought.

You don't know how to accept his feelings. It feels like too much. After the reality of it all how can he say these things to you? It's unthinkable yet it comes so easily to him. In all honesty it worries you because when the time comes for you to leave, you can scarcely imagine the man he'll become when you're gone. It doesn't just worry you. It scares you. And with you running your fingers through his hair in comfort - you're not helping the situation. You're just making things worse and making him fall even more deeper in love with you, but right now you'll just let things be as they be. You'll worry about everything when the time comes. For now you just wait until his breathing evens out, until you call his name and he doesn't respond because he's fast asleep. You wait until then to turn so you can turn off your light and lie down completely in bed where you grab your phone and hold it close before unlocking it.

Hoseok is completely knocked out so you don't even think twice when it comes to opening up your text messages and sending one out to Namjoon and the other to Yoongi.

To Namjoon:

You: Hoseok is asleep.

To Yoongi:

You: What makes you love Hoseok? Besides the fact that he's your brother.

You wait a little bit until your phone vibrates and you see that you get a response from both men almost immediately.

Namjoon: Everything okay?

Yoongi: That's a loaded question.

You purse your lips to avoid biting your bottom lip raw. You're feeling a little bit of everything. A little bit of anxiety and a little bit of sadness. It's leaving you feeling just a tad bit confused.

To Namjoon:

You: Yeah it's just... I don't know. I guess it's just that I miss you.

To Yoongi:

You: Sorry. You don't have to answer if you don't want to.

Yoongi's answer doesn't come as quick but Namjoon's does.

Namjoon: I miss you too, princess.

You smile.

Namjoon: What did Hoseok say about the letter?

You: He approved of it. He said he'll have it sent out tomorrow.

Namjoon: I'm relieved to know. I'll make sure he sends it out otherwise he'll seemingly forget if you know what I mean.

You do know and you're thankful Namjoon will see this letter issue through. When you're about to send your thanks the phone vibrates with a message from Yoongi.

Yoongi: I have an idea as to why you asked and I don't mind answering...

Yoongi: Despite his shortcomings Hoseok has a lot of love to give. Even if he's hurting he'll always love. He's a breath of fresh air and he's what I call my battery.

Yoongi: He energizes me. Keeps me going with his positivity. He honestly inspires me a lot.

Yoongi: Like I said I have an idea as to why you asked me this. I can't tell you what to do or how to feel but if you were to ever give him a chance you'll see what I mean. Again I can't tell you how to feel. You've been through something I can't imagine to be fun. He's taken a lot from you I'm sure but yeah...

Angling the phone's screen towards Hoseok, you use the light to see his face. He's completely knocked out and you see how utterly peaceful he looks.

You think of Yoongi's words and how it can apply to you. You don't think you could ever give Hoseok a chance. Not in a million years. There are too many things that he's done wrong. Once upon a time things were okay but they're not now. He ruined that not you and now you're left with broken trust. It's sad when you think about it but it's the reality that you're living.

It's hard to think of a response back so you leave him on read. Namjoon too. You take the chance instead to delete all the texts just in case Hoseok goes to read them. Your privacy is not safe with him around.

You flip onto your other side and wonder what you should do now. You're not tired at all and there's nothing to do. Are you expected to stay locked up in here because Hoseok is asleep? You think on that until a thought springs up in your mind.

You could leave, right? Maybe leave and do something then come back before Hoseok can wake up. It's risky but you're bored.

Turning your head his way you shine the light from your phone's screen on him.

He's definitely knocked out. You think about shaking him a little - calling his name to make sure but you don't want to accidentally wake him.

If you're going to leave you figure that now would be the time to do it. It takes an immense amount of courage to get you to stand up and even more to get you to the door. Your hands are shaking and you don't know why. It's not like you're making your escape now... Should you do that? Everyone is awake now. It'll be too risky so you think not but how far can you push before someone notices?

Licking your lips you turn the doorknob and slip out into the hall where you close the door softly behind you. The next move is to walk away and it takes you a couple of seconds before you find the will to do so. Your heart is beating a mile a minute but you remind yourself this isn't you trying to escape. It's just you're looking for something to do to keep you entertained. That's it. Where will you go? You're not sure but you know it's far from Hoseok.

You're power walking through the hall and your eyes are everywhere. Your grip on your phone is tight as you nibble your bottom lip. Any maid that you come across ignores you but you know you're not safe. Any one of them can easily sell you out to their Lords and it makes your heart hammer faster and harder. You can feel your heart beat in your throat and it makes it hard to swallow. When you reach the stairs you hesitate.

You look down them towards the entrance door. You're so close. Could you possibly try and slip out just to see the area around you? It's just a test to see how security is at this time.

You nod to yourself. Yes, that's it. It's just to see.

"You seem nervous."

You jump at the sound of a voice behind you. When you turn to see who it is you freeze when you notice it's Taehyung. He is expressionless but you can only imagine what he must be thinking.

"Where's Hoseok?"

Licking your lips you make a lame attempt at stretching your hand out towards the direction that you came from.

"He's asleep."

Taehyung's brow raises in interest. "So I'm assuming he doesn't know that you're making a little escape right now."

The anxiety within you turns into flames and you react in irritation.

"I wasn't trying to escape. I'm just bored."

"You're bored?"

"Yes." You can barely believe yourself but you'll go with it.

He doesn't seem to believe you but after a second his other brow raises and he gives a small pout.

"Whatever you say."

You release the tension in your body before rolling your eyes.

You weren't exactly planning on leaving but Taehyung doesn't need to know the specifics. Instead you cross your arms and shift your weight onto one leg. He eyes your new stance but you know he's listening in to your heart that's rattling in its cage. He can easily call you out on it but instead he angles his head before looking off down the stairs.

"Come with me."

Your brows furrow as you frown. "What?"

Taehyung starts his descent down the stairs without you but he pauses for a moment to look up at you.

"I said come with me. You're bored and so am I." He turns his back towards you and continues down.

You're left feeling just a tad bit confused but you follow after him anyway. You could have said no to him but you feel like he wasn't really giving you an option here. He caught you acting suspicious. It's your fault and now you have to deal with the consequences.

You huff out a sigh that you know he heard but he says nothing about it.

He doesn't stop moving when you both reach the bottom of the stairs. He keeps going until you both enter the kitchen and he goes in search of something.

You're standing by the door as he digs through the pantry in the far off corner. The kitchen is empty but spotless. You can smell a faint scent of a type of cleanser used to clean everything up and whatever mess there once was after dinner is no more.

"Y/N."

You're pulled out of your thoughts when Taehyung peeks his head out to wave you over. You're hesitant at first but walk towards the pantry where you see he already has two bags of chips in his hands.

"Here."

He pushes them into your chest where you hold them close before he gathers some other snacks. It confuses you on why he keeps grabbing things and you question him on why so many snacks.

"Jungkook is waiting in the playroom. They're mostly for him."

Your heart skips a beat and the anxiety from before comes back. It catches his attention because he turns around and towers over you with a raised brow.

"Your heart beat is accelerating. Why?"

Looking off in discomfort you squeeze the bag of chips closer to you. "Jungkook doesn't like me."

Taehyung huffs a deep laugh that catches you off guard.

"Jungkook doesn't like a lot of people. Who cares?"

Your cheeks grow warm in mild embarrassment. "It's just... Wouldn't he get mad if he finds out you brought me along?"

The vampire before you rolls his eyes. "He may not like people but he's not an asshole so he'll get over it."

Licking your lips you look down at your full arms.

Is Taehyung right? Jungkook is hard to read but you know, despite what others like Namjoon says, he absolutely despises you. Otherwise he wouldn't talk about or to you like you're scum.

"If you're done feeling sorry for yourself you can help me grab some drinks."

His comment just makes your cheeks grow warmer. You can't help but frown in his direction but you'll keep quiet. The last thing you want to deal with is one of Hoseok's brothers with an attitude. Especially when that brother is Taehyung. He definitely scares you the most.

After grabbing everything the two of you head towards the playroom. He doesn't say anything else to you but you know he can hear the way your heart beats. It's not regulating. Just constant thump, thump, thumps that don't seem to want to calm down. It makes you swallow deeply and hold the drinks and snacks tighter to you. It's frustrating to feel this way and you're about to back out on this hangout but something happens. Something changes and you're suddenly feeling calm. You don't think you've ever felt this calm before. Like all your problems are gone and you have nothing to worry about. You would go along with it but it makes you feel just a tad bit suspicious. What's going on?

"Better," Taehyung asks.

You look up at him with a tilt to your head.

He can tell you're a lot calmer now. When he looks at you he gives you a knowing look and you can't help but ask "How?"

He shrugs. "Don't worry about it. Just try to keep calm, yeah?"

It strikes you then that just maybe Taehyung has something to do with this. Can he control your emotions? That... that's amazing, you think. You want to ask him more about it but he seems done and walks past you into the playroom.

When you step in you see Jungkook sitting on the couch staring at his phone. He doesn't look up at you but you know he knows you're here.

Taehyung drops everything he has on the desk in the corner where all the PCs are at then turns to you with open arms. You walk over to him to give him everything and it's at that point does Jungkook stand up to join you.

"What are we playing today?"

Jungkook shrugs. "I don't care."

"PUBG?"

"I don't care."

Taehyung huffs. "PUBG it is." He turns to you. "Do you know how to play?"

You shake your head. "No. I'm okay with watching though."

"That's no fun." He pouts and it's the first time you can say he looks cute.

He doesn't look scary for once. It's a welcome change.

"Trust me it's fine. I don't know how to play games."

"You were playing something back at the Baek's."

Your attention snaps over to Jungkook who spoke up. Your eyes widen a bit. You didn't expect him to remember that. That was back when you were having the withdrawals and he was mostly there to play something himself.

"Oh," you start. "But that doesn't mean I'm any good."

There's a subtle roll to his eyes. "Whatever you say." He heads over to a PC and sits down to start things up. "Ready whenever you are, Tae."

Taehyung looks between his brother and you with a raised brow. He looks like he wants to know more but there's nothing else to say about the situation.

"You can watch me play," he says.

He sits down and motions for you to sit next to him. You do and watch as he turns everything on and signs into his account.

"Do you at least know what the game is about?"

You nod your head.

"Do you?" He looks interested to know.

"Yeah. I watch people play video games so I know." You shrug.

"Why just watch when you can play too?"

"I didn't have time to play. I've only ever worked."

"That sounds sad."

"It sounds pathetic." Jungkook chimes in and it makes Taehyung laugh.

Unlike Taehyung neither you nor Jungkook laughs. For obviously different reasons. Him because he could care less and you because you didn't find it funny, but you try and ignore him.

The two brothers load up the game and put on their headphones. Taehyung adjusts the volume so he can continue talking to you much to your surprise. He's going over the basics of the game and what you should or shouldn't do.

"Don't hesitate. Hesitation is the killer of games like this."

"I figure," you say.

"Have you seen anybody play battle royale games?"

You nod but then you realize he couldn't see since his eyes are on the screen. "I have. Mostly Eternal Return: Black Survival. Have you heard of that game?"

"I have actually." He smiles. "Seokjin loves that game. He's been trying to get us to play that with him."

The light hearted conversation with Taehyung makes you smile. You never thought that both you and Taehyung would talk so easily like this. You thought he hated you as much as Jungkook. The idea of it all actually makes you hesitate because you remember Jimin. He annoyed the hell out of you and you thought things were going okay between you for once until he pulled the rug right out from under your feet.

Your switch in attitude goes unnoticed but you try to ignore it for your sake more than anything.

The match in the game starts and you watch as Taehyung makes his way through and grabs everything he can to try and survive. Jungkook appears on the screen a few minutes after and the two of them talk as they play. You keep an eye out for any opponents but before you can even spot them the brothers do and take them down. It amazes you how fast their reflexes are.

"I think there's someone behind the hill there." Taehyung says.

"I see him."

Jungkook takes him out quickly and takes the bike the opponent had. The brothers work well together and you're so into what's happening that you don't notice your phone going off. It's vibrating on the table and it takes Taehyung giving you a quick look to notice anything.

"What," you ask.

"Your phone is vibrating."

You hum questioningly and grab the device. When you do you see the call has ended and that you have two missed calls from Hoseok. It starts to ring again and you're quick to pick it up.

Before you can even says hello his panicked voice speaks up.

"Where are you?"

"Oh um, I'm downstairs with your brothers."

"What?"

You can hear the sound of rustling sheets as he goes to sit up.

"Which ones?"

You don't know why it matters unless he's worried one of them is Jimin.

"Taehyung and Jungkook."

"Oh." There's a pause. "I'm coming to get you."

You suck your teeth and pout. The sound catches Taehyung's attention. He looks between you and the phone and motions with his chin. You look at him to ask him what was up when he speaks.

"Let me talk to him."

At that moment his character is gunned down and Jungkook whines.

"Taehyung."

"Give me a minute, yeah?" He takes his headphones off and takes your phone from you. "Hoseok. Yeah. Y/N is with me... I invited her. It's okay."

He continues to talk to his older brother as you watch the screen. Jungkook is trying to revive him but he's swiftly gunned down as well and they only make it to 15th place. It makes Jungkook tsk but he doesn't say a word. Instead he grabs a bag of chips and pops it open to eat.

"You're more than welcome to if you want. Okay then. Suit yourself." Taehyung hangs up your phone and hands it back to you.

You look down at the device before looking back up at him.

"What did he say?"

"He'll be joining us shortly."

"Oh." You can't help the way you sound. Like you're disappointed and you are.

To this Taehyung huffs a laugh. "He didn't say you have to leave so you're welcome to stay and maybe play a game with us now that you know what to expect."

Your eyes widen a fraction as your heart skips a beat. "Why are you being so nice to me?"

Taehyung looks at you confused for a moment before he shrugs. "I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt. Why? Should I not?"

Your eyes trail over his face as you think.

He doesn't have to do this you realize. He can still be the cold Taehyung he was before but for some reason he's changed his mind about you. You don't know how that makes you feel to be honest. You definitely prefer this version of him that's for sure and if he's giving you a chance that means you have one less person in this household that dislikes you. That's not to say that you actually believe he likes you but that you've become tolerable to him.

"Y/N?"

You snap to attention at the call of your name. Taehyung is waiting for an answer.

"Can I trust you?"

No, you don't think he should because you have every right to get the hell out of here and break his brother's heart. He doesn't need to know that though. Not for now at least.

You nod your head. "Yeah. Yeah you can."

He smiles at you. It barely reaches his eyes but he smiles nonetheless.

He grabs a bag of chips and hands it to you to which you grab it with a barely there smile of your own. Like a peace offering you guess and you accept it.

Taehyung starts talking to Jungkook and promises him he'll play better. The youngest only shrugs but you know he's holding his brother to that promise.

You oftentimes forget these men are actually related to each other. The way they treat you is a stark difference to how they treat each other. There's love and acceptance. Happiness and little spats that get resolved within the minute they happen. It's a little bizarre to you. One, because you don't have a family and never experienced this and two, Hyun-Woo and his brothers never treated each other like this. They are triplets. You would think they got along with each other better but they don't.

It's a bit odd seeing them treat each other with love but it's not bad. Would you ever miss this? Could you ever? You don't know to be honest.

You don't know.

#bts x reader #bts fanfic #bts fic #yandere bts #hoseok x reader #yandere hoseok #yandere bts x reader #yanderebts #btsfanfic #jhope #jung hoseok #hoseok #reader #fanfic #reader insert

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zeroducks-2 · 2 months

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I was about to drop my latest chapter for my sladin fic (which i dont think I've touched in a year, soz gang)

But i did the stupid thing completely changed the ending and added more plot and now will have to write another chapter to conclude things.

So, my question is.

How do you resist the urge to just continue a fic?

You don't. Let the writing demon possess you anon. Become one with the keyboard.

Jk, the answer is discipline actually. When I was writing professionally I had a pretty strict schedule: lay out the chapters by writing scene after scene like a script up to the end of the story, then start actually writing by "filling up" the scripted sections of each chapter. When I had tight deadlines I could do two chapters a day, but I didn't have a 8 to 5 job back then so all my time was dedicated to it (good times). This way you don't end up writing more because you "already wrote" when you laid out the structure of the chapters. Sure one or two more scenes might come to you, or you might decide to change something, but nothing major if you just follow the path you set for yourself.

I absolutely do not do this for fanfictions. They exist to be relaxing and I ultimately don't care if I add a chapter or cut something if decide I don't like anymore. One chapter is 5k and the other is 10k ? Professionally this is a big no (chapters were supposed to be between 7k and 8k max, which also prevented me from writing too much and forced me to cut the excess fat from the story, made me think which bits were useless and which dialogues could have been shortened), but in fandom writing, who gives a damn honestly. You wanna write that additional chapter, do it. You wanna write that pointless dialogue, write it, make it 90k. You want to spend the next 90k talking about the architecture of a castle in useless detail, go ahead. Fics don't need to be professionally written and edited, they exist for us to have fun and relax.

That being said, if you´re having a hard time finishing the fic and can't wrap your head around HOW DO I DO THIS, outline the chapter and just write the scripted scenes. If something else comes to mind it can go in another story - a sequel or a spinoff or what have you, so by all means write it but keep it out of your fic and instead put it somewhere else. It's what I did with my Sladick connected fics by the way. Instead of making an overly long, likely to be unfinished mammoth of a fic, I preferred to split the events into small entries and that worked very well for me.

If your issue is only related to finishing a fic, as in you don't manage to bring yourself to conclude things, just cut the umbilical cord. Ending things is hard and sometimes you need to just force yourself to say "I'm done, even if I have more to say this story is over. I will say it in the next". Pushing yourself a little is beneficial in these cases. It was for me at least.

Good luck!

#my asks #writing advice

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plant-gt-thought-box · 1 year

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Virtual Lies

Hello people reading this! Some of the older members may remember an idea @apersonstories , @funtimemoth , and me came up with in the old community server (that is forever lost the time). I have finally gotten the free time to write the first chapter of this AU! I'm hoping for there to be at least six parts and that you all well enjoy it! TW will be warnings for all of the things that will be going over in the story! I hope you all enjoy! :D

Also if you have any questions don't be shy to send them to me!

TW for all parts- intentional / unintentional dehumanization, accidental fear play, feelings of being trapped and despair, and if there are any more I will add them!

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"Are you sure you want to play this Phil? This game seems kind of weird…" Kristen commented as she read over Philza's shoulder as he installed a simple sim game for his phone, he had happened upon the game well looking for something to entertain himself and the game seemed pretty interesting.

"Kristen it's just a little life sim, these terms and conditions are probably just making sure you don't do anything creepy with the game" Philza finished installing the game and started making the custom home he would have in the game "I well say tho it's kind of annoying I can only make boxes for the rooms and not connect any of them, it would be nice to make a more complicated hallway then just a straight line."

Kristen just laughed as she sat down on the couch next to Philza and watched him work on the rooms over his shoulder, she every now and again would help setting up some of the rooms. Philza and Kristen did find it a bit strange there were certain rooms they absolutely had to have before they could add bonus rooms.

The game told them they needed three bedrooms, two bathrooms (one with a bath and one without) and a kitchen with a table and chairs in it. Philza found it a bit annoying cuz he didn't even know what kind of virtual family he was going to make and put in this house but he did it anyway.

"There finally fucking done- now to make an actual dining room and living room for this house." Philza got a bit more comfortable on the couch leaning up against his wife as he added the final details to the house and made sure there were a few windows so natural light would come in, the blonde hit done and instantly got a notification saying that his house would take an hour to make.

"What the fuck- this game has literally only been out for a month at best, how is it this fucking slow?" Philza grumbled until he noticed a new notification and clicked on it "Oh wait do I not make my own tiny family for this?"

"I guess not, maybe they had to trade out the customization for the family so you can customize your house more?" Kristen noted as she slowly took her husband's phone and started scrolling through the small family's they could get, she smiled when she found a very nice particular looking pair.

"You should get these three, the Neapolitan ones!" Philza took his phone back from Kristen and smiled at the three young looking NPCs she had picked out, he clicked the check mark next to them and the app informed him that within an hour his home would be done and these three would be moved in. Philza decided to just set his phone down and talk with his wife for a bit till it was time to actually decorate the house he had made for the three, he was really looking forward to the decorating expect of this game!

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Philza has been decorating the house he had set up in the game for at least 2 hours now and thankfully had only spent $10 on extra furniture for the house, plus well setting up the furniture he had learned a very fun and kind of cute thing about the three brothers.

Tommy and Wilbur were little shits and sometimes moved the furniture slightly to a different spot just to mess with Philza. Well Techno straight up picked the furniture up and completely moved it to a different room, Philza didn't really mind and found it kind of funny. The boys were all roughly the age of teenagers so it was probably in their coding to be rebellious.

"Kristen, come look at the house! I finally finished decorating!" Philza called over his shoulder as he looked over at the kitchen, he smiled as his wife walked out and sat back down on the couch next to him. Philza excitedly handed the phone to her, starting to show off each of the rooms.

"So the game gives you a tiny descriptive on the three house members so I tried to decorate their rooms to fit things they like, for example Tommy really likes animals so I gave him a bunch of different toy animals for his room- well Wilbur only likes one animal and that's a sheep so I gave him a bed that kind of looks like a sheep!" Philza explained excitedly as he finally pointed at Techbo's room "Now Techno's room was probably the hardest, his description was pretty blank and the only notable thing was that he likes to read. So I just gave him a few extra bookshelves and made sure they were full of books that he would like!"

Kristen smiled as she looked at the three tiny rooms and zoomed in to inspect them a bit more, she then noticed something a bit strange in Wilbur's room. "Hey Phil, why is there a hole in the corner of Wilbur's room?"

Philza looked at his wife a bit puzzled as he took the phone and also looked at the strange hole in the corner of the room, he and Kristen became even more confused as Wilbur suddenly dropped a pillow over the hole acting like he was trying to hide it.

"I don't know…maybe the game is just glitching out?" Philza suggested as he moved over to the kitchen and went back to adding small details to the counters so it felt a bit more lived in, he set his phone down as it started to load and set up decorations.

"Why is it loading? You just added some small decorations to the kitchen."

"Hm? Oh I'm not really sure but whenever I place decorations a loading screen pops up, I'm starting to think the game didn't add in the future of you placing the item down like the Sims." Philza explained as he picked his phone back up once it was done loading "Do you think I need to add anything to the living room or kitchen?"

Kristen took the phone again and started inspecting the kitchen and living room, she moved over to the dining room and pointed at one of the corners that was very bland looking. "I think you just need to add a painting here and you should be all done with decorating!"

"I'll do it later, is dinner ready by any chance?" Philza asked, turning his phone off for now and standing up from the couch, he followed his wife to the kitchen and smiled as he spotted the finished pasta.

"I have! We just need to wait for the cheesy garlic bread in the oven to finish up, can you grab my oven mitts?" Kristen asked as the timer on the oven went off and she started turning the heat off, she thought of her husband as he handed her the oven mitts and pulled out their cheesy garlic bread.

The two started dishing up their plates and getting ready for dinner Philza ignoring the notification he got on his phone from his new game.

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Tommy inspected all of the plush animal figures that had been left inside of his room and started moving the ones that he found extremely creepy into a corner making them stare at the wall, he didn't like the stuffed animals lacking button eyes. He actually found it pretty creepy they just had weird black buttons replacing their eyes.

"Tommy? What are you doing?" Wilbur asked as he walked into his little brother's room and noticed him moving the toys around. "Um…why are they all just staring at the wall-"

"They are creepy evil creatures that don't deserve to stare at the room!" Tommy explained as he shoved yet another large plushie into the corner. "I hate them."

Wilbur leaned against the door frame as he watched his little brother continue to choose which stuffed animals would be staring at a corner and which ones got left alone in the room; he patiently waited a few minutes until his little brother seemed to be done.

"So now that you've exiled some of these guys to the corner do you want to go eat? Techno was able to find a small bit of food in the weird cold box thing." Wilbur asked, taking his little brother's hand and started to lead him towards their kitchen.

"I guess, when we're done eating we're going to skip and go home right?" Tommy asked with a big smile on his face as he looked up at his brother. They had been stuck with these horrible humans for at least two months now and Tommy just wanted to go back home.

Tommy didn't really notice the weird face his brother made as they walked into the kitchen and he sat down at the table, the young borrower's nose scrunched up and disgusted as a plate of nothing but vegetables was placed in front of him.

"Why are there so many carrots and peas? Are there any crackers, nuts, or fruits?" Tommy asked poking the two peas on his plate with his finger, he knew not to complain about food too much but this was all they had been eating for months!

"No. That's all that was in the cold box Tommy, just eat up and then go to bed." Techno said in a Stern voice as he started munching on his own peas and carrots.

Tommy wanted to protest but felt Wilbur lightly kicked his foot and decided not to argue with Techno, he begrudgingly started to eat his peas and carrots hating every minute of it. Why can't the stupid humans in the white coats give them actual food?

The young blonde finished his dinner instead of from his seat getting ready to head back to his room, he walked around the table and gave his brother Techno a hug.

"I'm sorry I complained about the peas and carrots, they weren't that bad." Techno reached up and padded Tommy on the back and then sent the young boy back to his room, Tommy tried to ignore his brothers as they obviously started to have a conversation without him.

The young blonde grabbed one of the small plushies that looked like a moth and climbed into his weirdly shaped bed, for some reason it had Wheels but both him and his brother said it was not in fact an old wagon turned into a bed. Especially with the ugly silver color it was.

Tommy wrapped himself up tightly in the blankets hugging the moth plushie close to his chest, a few moments later Tommy felt a soft kiss against his forehead and finally fell asleep hoping he would wake up home with his brother's and they could finally eat something that wasn't peas and carrots.

#mcyt g/t #mcyt gt #mcyt g/t community #mcyt gt community #tiny!tommy #tiny!wilbur #tiny!techno #giant!philza #giant!kristen #virtual lies au

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ilikerafayelwaytoomuch · 16 days

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Lemuria Pottery- Chapter two

Rafayel x y/n, pottery au? (Rafayel is a potter/teacher)

You decide to take some pottery classes at a pottery studio run by Rafayel...

The next class seemed to come up quickly, my busy week finally getting a small break. I was excited for the pottery class today. Afterall, today was the day I’d make the vase, then it’d dry and we’d paint, and finally pick it up when it’s done. It was a crucial day, a huge step in the process. I got ready with plenty of time to spare today, so I stopped by at a cafe nearby before heading to the studio. The cafe was cozy inside, the lighting just right and the chairs decorated with fluffy pillows. It was a perfect place to eat and relax before class. I smiled at the college aged girl at the counter, giving her my order. She gave me the total and I reached into my purse to grab my wallet, but before I could grab my wallet, I heard a familiar voice. “I’ll get it.” I furrowed my brows and looked up to see the lavender haired man. “Oh, Rafayel. You don’t have to-” I began.

He interrupted me, waving his hand. “Add a latte to the order please,” he let the girl at the counter know. She nodded, eyeing us before doing that and telling Rafayel the new total. He swiped his card before I could argue. He took the number from the girl and gestured to me to follow him out of the line. “Want to sit with me?” he asked, I nodded, definitely not wanting to be rude. “I didn’t think I’d see you here,” he smiled as we sat.

“Ah,” I chuckled. “I’m usually a pretty on time person despite last week. I tend to get places too early, so today I decided to come here before class.”

“Well, you chose a good spot. They sell the best coffee in the city, the atmosphere is unbeatable too. I tried to make the studio give the same vibes, but I don’t think it can even compare to here.”

“Mm, I think it’s pretty close. Your studio has a certain charm to it that you don’t always get to see,” I reasoned.

“Oh?” I nodded.

“It’s cozy in a different way. Cozy, yet still makes you feel like you can be productive I guess. I think if I tried to work here I’d fall asleep, though that could be nice.”

“It’s definitely a place you can fall asleep in,” Rafayel agreed. I raised my brow.

“Speaking from experience?” I asked.

“Came a bit too late in the night,” he pursed his lips. The girl at the counter called out the number and Rafayel stood, telling me to stay put while he gets our order. He handed my drink and food to me before sitting down. I took a sip of the drink. “What do you think?”

“It’s actually really good, I wish this place was closer to my apartment,” I chuckled. He nodded. A soft buzz interrupted what he was going to say, a frown appearing on his face. “I hate to cut this short, but I’m going to have to take this to go. I have a meeting with my manager and he’s there early waiting for me. I’ll see you in class though,” he explained. I nodded.

“See you,” I smiled, waving to him as he left the cafe.

About half an hour later, I walked into the studio, grabbing an apron and getting ready like the rest of the class. Rafayel gave us a few more tips before beginning to make his rounds around the classroom. I began right away, sculpting the clay and reminding myself of the correct amount of pressure to make the wheel spin. I had lost count of how many times I had almost had it- then watched in defeat as the vase fell over. Couples were beginning to leave one by one, completing their project. I glanced at the clock, noticing I only had a few minutes left and my most recent attempt at the vase had just caved in on itself. With a frustrated sigh, I punched the rest of the clay in, needing to restart once again. Rafayel had noticed, glancing at me before returning to help the couple in front of him. They were the only ones left besides me. I bit my lip when I saw them getting up to leave. I carefully moved the clay, squinting hard to try to be precise. This is where it always ended up in failure. I watched as the clay began to once again cave in on itself and frowned, hearing footsteps come over to me. I looked up to see Rafayel and sank down into the stool. “I’m not cut out for this,” I told him. He shook his head.

“Your design just isn’t beginner's level,” he nodded at the sketch that was on the floor next to me. I nodded.

“I suppose. Let me just make a small bowl or something really quick and then I’ll leave, I don’t want to keep you here,” I told him. He shook his head.

“Nah, I’ll help. Give me one second to go grab some water and I can help you out. Get the basic shape you’ve been getting, but then wait on the rest for me,” he instructed.

“You don’t have to, I’m sure you’re busy,” I argued. He shook his head and smiled.

“I just have a few things I have to work on. No other classes or anything though, so feel free to take your time,” he said, heading upstairs before I could argue. When he came back downstairs, I had just begun to shape the vase. He nodded, before disappearing into the back, returning with a small mug and placing it on a table nearby, leaving once again and returning with some paint. I watched as he sat down and began to paint, not even realizing I was staring until he interrupted me. “Your clay is about to collapse if you stop there,” he smirked. I quickly returned to my task, keeping a hold of the clay. I got it steady and to the step as Rafayel instructed, so I stopped the wheel. He looked over at me. “Ready?” he asked. I nodded. He stood and came over to my station. “With what your idea is, the rest is going to be easier to do without the wheel spinning, that’s why it’s caving in. Use these,” he lifted a tool, “to get the smoothness you want. You’ll want to use a lot less pressure so that you don’t poke a hole or make it too thin, both of those things will make it collapse.”

“Ah, so I was making it too thin before,” I gathered. He nodded.

“I’ll show you how.” He sat down next to me and began to work on the vase, checking my design to make sure it matched. I hadn’t realized how close I had leaned into him and the vase, watching him work so I could try until he looked over at me, our noses a few inches away. My face heated up and I quickly moved back. “Got it?” he asked. I nodded and took the tools from him, beginning to work. He returned to his piece, grabbing a paintbrush and beginning to paint. The both of us were quiet for some time, focused on our projects as music softly played in the background. I hadn’t even noticed he’d turned on some music. After some time I had finally finished, looking over at Rafayel. His eyes were focused on the mug, lips pursed slightly into a pout as he painted, head tilted for the angle. He looked in his element. It’s hard to explain, but sometimes when you see someone do something, you can tell it’s their thing. It’s like they were made to do that. Just as Rafayel looked like he was made to be in this studio, under the soft lighting, painting and adding to his art. I only realized I was staring when he turned to look at me, meeting my gaze. “You know if you keep staring there’s going to be a hole in my head,” he nonchalantly said. “Are you done with the vase?”

“Yeah,” I muttered, embarrassed.

“You can come watch if you want.”

“Can I really?” I said, a bit too excited. He smiled.

“Yeah. Pull up a chair.” I did just that, trying to be quiet so I wouldn’t interrupt him. Being closer, I could actually tell what he was working on, though the colors seemed off to me. It seemed like something that would hold jewelry, a fish tail holding up a platter. The platter seemed to look similar to an ocean's bubbles, but tannish-green. He was working on something in the middle, though I couldn’t tell. The fish tail was a sort of grey-pink. It looked like it was supposed to be something ocean themed, but the colors were weird. “What do you think?” Rafayel asked, sitting back and stretching his neck.

“Why is it so grey?” I asked, a look of slight disgust on my face without me realizing. He burst into laughter.

“The color changes after firing it,” he explained.

“Why? How?” I asked, tilting my head.

“When it’s fired in the kiln, the chemicals in the glaze interact with the air and change its color,” he explained.

“Weird. So what color is this going to be then?” I asked, pointing at the fish tail.

“A deep purple.”

“No way,” I squinted at him, not believing him. He nodded.

“It’s true. I’ve sampled all of the colors. This one turns to a dark purple.”

“Then, does this top bubbly part turn into blue?” I asked.

“Precisely, how’d you know?”

“It’s supposed to be an ocean type theme isn’t it? That’s at least what it looks like so it makes sense for the top to be blue.” I shrugged.

“Pretty much, yeah. It’s a commission from a ceo in a nearby city,” he explained. I nodded.

“You do commissions?” I asked.

“Of course. I have to make money somehow. She apparently saw one of my exhibits and wanted something to hold her diamond necklace.”

“Fancy,” I nodded.

“If she places it right, the sun could reflect off the diamond and make the top look like it’s shimmering water,” he looked at the piece.

“Sounds pretty,” I paused. “But also like a really expensive disco ball.” Rafayel laughed.

“Yes, but a diamond reflects a rainbow pattern, haven’t you seen that before?” he asked. I bit my lip and shook my head.

“Nope. Never owned a real diamond,” I admitted. His eyebrows raised as he looked at me.

“Never?” he asked, surprised. I smiled and shook my head.

“I’m not exactly rolling in the bucks,” I explained. He nodded, but frowned.

“Wait here,” he instructed, getting up and practically running up his stairs. I was confused and didn’t move, wondering what on earth he was doing. “(y/n)!” I suddenly heard him call.

“Yes?” I called back.

“Come up here!” Confused, I did as he said, heading up the stairs. I opened the door and saw him standing near a window. He waved his hand at me. I walked over to him. He sat a piece of paper on the ground and set a bracelet onto it. “See, now you know,” he nodded to the paper, pointing to the slight rainbow on the paper, reflecting off of the diamond.

“Woah,” I gasped, crouching down to see. “This is real?” I asked.

“100% genuine diamond, yes,” he confirmed.

“It’s pretty,” I dumbly stated. He nodded.

“Now imagine this reflecting on the top of that necklace holder.”

“It’d be gorgeous,” I agreed, looking over at him, the two of us squatted down and looking at the diamond.

“Rafayel!” a voice yelled, interrupting us. Rafayel’s face paled. I tilted my head, about to ask him what was wrong before his door opened. “What do you think you’re doing? That piece needs to be done by tomorrow morning, it should be firing already!” a man wearing a suit scolded him. He froze when he saw the scene in front of him. “Who is this?” he cautiously asked.

“Ah, a student from the beginner’s pottery class. I was helping her out,” Rafayel explained. The man narrowed his eyes at him, clearly biting his tongue.

“I should get going before it’s too late, I wouldn’t want to miss the subway,” I awkwardly excused myself. Rafayel looked at me horrified. “Ah, I can get you an uber, I believe we still have some work to do on your vase!” He suddenly said, quickly pressing a hand to my back and leading us downstairs. He glanced behind him before he let out a breath. “Um,” I began, not knowing where to start. “Sorry, that’s Thomas, my manager. He’s always like that,” he waved me off.

“But he said that needs to be done-”

“Don’t worry about it,” he waved a hand.

“You should,” Thomas appeared out of nowhere, making Rafayel scream and run behind me. My eyes widened, growing concerned for Rafayel.

“Should I-”

“No. Don’t go,” Rafayel pleaded. Thomas sighed.

“Rafayel, stop holding the poor woman hostage. You do this all the time. Ms. Young is not a patient woman, if she doesn’t get that necklace holder on time tomorrow, she won’t give you the commission money. I apologize about this, and him,” he spoke, directing his last sentence to me. “He’s a terrible procrastinator.”

“Am not! How do you expect me to work if I don’t have any inspiration?!” Rafayel exclaimed, still standing behind me. Thomas sighed.

“Rafayel, please,” he looked at Rafayel, who pouted, clearly unhappy.

“Fine, but I need to make sure (y/n) gets home safe,” he decided. Thomas rolled his eyes.

“You’re not walking her home. Who said she wants you to know where she lives? And I know you’re saying that because you don’t want to work. I will call an uber for Ms. (y/n) and then I expect you to be working,” Thomas decided.

“Fiiine,” Rafayel whined. Thomas shook his head and headed upstairs, leaving just the two of us, me in utter confusion. “Such a party pooper,” Rafayel said under his breath.

“I heard that!” Thomas yelled down, making Rafayel stick his tongue out at him. I chuckled at his childishness. “There’s no need for me to take an uber, I can catch the subway,” I told Rafayel.

“Nooooo, don’t leave me here with him,” Rafayel whined.

“But you were just working on the piece,” I reminded him. He sighed.

“Yes, but now my inspiration is fleeting and I need to recharge. Thomas doesn’t get that,” he explained.

“Okay, then how do you get recharged?” I asked him. He thought for a moment.

“Going to the cafe!” he announced, grabbing my wrist and leading me out the door. I figured arguing was useless, so I followed. We ordered a few drinks from the cafe and headed back to the studio. My uber arrived soon after, leaving Thomas to do God knows what to Rafayel to get him to finish. I was exhausted after it all. The actual labor it took to get my vase working, to the weird mood changes from Rafayel before and after Thomas. Rafayel was interesting. Definitely not the serious artist he seems to be online, not that I’ve stalked him or anything. I’d never.

I couldn’t wait for the last pottery class. I was excited to finally add the finishing touches on my vase, but also a bit sad it was the last one. The subway ran behind so I headed straight to the studio today, getting ready with the others. Rafayel brought us to the back where the glazes were and explained how everything was organized. There was a small piece of clay that had been fired to show what the color would look like, since it would change. There were rows upon rows of glazes and paint brushes, and we were free to use whatever. I somehow ended up taking the longest, wanting to find the perfect colors for my vase. I finally settled on some and headed back to my station to paint them. Painting them wasn’t too difficult, it was actually fun. Rafayel had music playing softly in the speakers, most couples not requesting help with painting. Though he still walked around as usual. “It’s looking good,” he said, nodding at my vase. I smiled.

“I think so too. It’s exactly how I wanted it to be. Thank you for all of your help.”

“It’s my job,” he smiled. “What colors did you go with?” he asked, picking up the bottles of glaze I was using. “Oh? This is one of my favorites,” he said, showing me the bottle of blue glaze I had been using.

“Really? Me too. It’s a gorgeous color. I think it’ll look nice with the greyish color on the bottom,” I explained my vision to him. He nodded, smiling before excusing himself as a couple was finished. I was once again somehow last in line to label my piece with Rafayel. “Can I get your number?” he asked, smiling, then quickly panicking. “I mean for the piece, sorry, well?...no, yeah, for the piece. I can send you a text when it’s ready.” I chuckled and nodded, giving him my number.

“How long will it be?” I asked.

“Usually a day or two, they’ll all go in at once, but sometimes they need some extra time,” he explained. I nodded.

“Then I guess I’ll see you again then, thank you again. I’ve really enjoyed the class.”

“I’m glad.” I smiled and nodded, heading for the door, almost disappointed this was going to be the second to last time I’d see Rafayel.

“(y/n)” I heard him call after me. I stopped and turned. He seemed to hesitate before simiing. “Get home safe,” he finally said. I nodded and left the studio.

Late the next night, I got a text from Rafayel.

Unknown: hey y/n, its rafayel. Just wanted to let you know your piece is done firing and you can come by tomorrow and pick it up

Me: okay! Is any time fine?

Rafayel: yup!

Me: perfect! I’ll swing by after work to get it. Did it turn out well??

Rafayel: i would say so

Me: yes! I’ll see you tomorrow! Get some sleep!

Rafayel: you too it’s late

Me: says the one who decided to text me at 1am 🫢

Rafayel: touche

#rafayel x y/n #rafayel x reader #rafayel #rafayel love and deepspace #love and deepspace #love and deepspace fanfiction

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defiledtomb · 1 year

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Ouroboros: Progress

I haven't written one of these in forever, so it's slightly clunky, but I aim to have one of these out at least every quarter, if not monthly. Let's dive into it! Spoiler warning for the sneak peeks at the bottom.

What I got done since last month:

After the update drop, I took some time off the main story to prevent the budding burnout. I’m sure you are well aware of my malaise by now- it's a constant effort to stay on the tightrope.

I don't think I brought it up explicitly but when I started writing Ouroboros it was me riding the high of becoming a person again right after years long sick leave and battle with mental health, meaning that while I am absolutely thrilled that I'm getting so much out of life again, that fragile part of me still lives on and I have to take care not to let it get the best of me, and that means constant vigilance and self-compassion. Writing a project this big could easily be a full time job on its own, but I also have to account for going back to the workforce after being gone for so long. It's tough! irl work/life keeps amping up and will continue to eat my energy. Though, come summer, I might actually have some good news on my schedule and how my writing will fit into that. Fingers crossed.

Otherwise I have really enjoyed interacting and goofing around with you on tumblr again, and I’ve had a blast just reading and playing games. It was a very welcomed break. I still got a lot done regarding Ouroboros:

- Got started on all the short stories you voted on, and built the framework of code for how stories will be unlocked as you progress the story.

- I got some much needed help with setting up a side-blog for writing content only; it’s getting there! Soon Ouro will have its own space.

- I added about 3k words to the next chunk of act 1. A drop in the ocean, but progress is progress.

- I started sneak-writing on the next act and specifically, the underwater/caving chapter. I am so excited for it! Besides writing and hiking, diving and caving are core parts of my interests. (Didn't I once say that Ouro is disgustingly self indulgent? x] Because it sure is.)

What’s next:

I am still taking it slow, since most of act 1 pt2 is already written (60k words ish), and I have some responsibilities I’m gonna need to devote my time to. My goals for February are leading up to Ouro’s first anniversary, so I want to prepare something fun for us to enjoy! If it will be a chunk of update or something else remains to be decided. On the 8th of March we ride.

My priorities for February are:

-having fun with the short stories

-get the sideblog up and running with a new FAQ and character pages, and a new intro post.

-solidify the code and scene transitions for the next update

- (stretch goal) edit/rewrite/add to the unhinged mess that the next update still is

Re: bug reports

Thankfully, last update was relatively bug free, but there are still a few reports sitting in my inbox waiting for changes, mainly

-the egregious oversight of having id's romance scenes appearing although the hunter is committed to L/not in the poly. More on that here.

-the questions with Iontif cutting off short in one path

-a section of the flashback with wrong pronouns + other pronoun variables not displaying correctly (the bane of my existence!!)

Thank you to those who reported these, I always note them down if I don't fix them directly. The reason why I am almost always tardy on bug fixes is because I'm treating this as a first draft that will be rewritten; it makes little sense to dedicate so much time to fixing things that will need to be fixed again. I do them when I have little else I want/have to do. I'm sorry! Triaging problem areas is essential to keeping this show going. I hope that it isn't too invasive to have a few errors in the scenes; rest assured that they will get fixed (eventually 🤡)

Re: save system

Something that has really bothered me lately, is thinking about CoG's obstinate refusal to implement save systems. I absolutely won't release Ouroboros without one, as with how much variation goes into the story (and knowing from first-hand experience playing large games, that one miss-click (or that horrendous bug that chooses options for you if you even look at it wrong) will have you go down a path you didn’t want, or you are faced with starting over, which sometimes leads to such fatigue that you just…stop playing.) it feels like shooting yourself in the foot to not have one. And worse, it feels plain cruel to subject the reader to that. There isn’t any possible way to fit every nuance of a choice into the box-text, or to imply a delayed outcome as a result of making a choice that seems very “innocent” at first glance.

So I stand before a really difficult decision; either code a save system from the bottom up, and I would have to do that sooner rather than later, or port the game to twine which brings its own bundle of problems. Right now I honestly no idea what I want to do, and I have to admit that it fuels a bit of writer's block as I feel locked in place until I come to a decision. Heurgh.

Now for the fun part. Sneak peeks!

I wont share the latter parts as they are still... Unhinged. But the next update isn't just romance, its weapons and insidious cults and fighting, too. More on that, later.

Thanks for your support, your kind words and for sharing your journey in Ouro. It means the world to me. I’m serious!

#ouroboros-if #interactive fiction #hosted games #dev log #writers update #progress report #me throwing every possible tag on this post cause I can't remember which one I actually use: random bullshit go!#And now :] DARK AND DARKER BABEEEEYY #please let me know if you use a screen reader and it doesn't pick up the text <3

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i-sveikata · 3 months

Note

GIRRRRL

I often check your unhinged playlist if you added something new. And oh boy. The last couple of songs tell me so much about this chapter 😂

I can tell some of them are for Vegas POV but they can be as well for Pete. So many feelings!!

So can I ask if you decided for the chapter title?

I will need to add some of these songs to my main playlist and they forever will be my VP songs 😂

I'm very excited for the chapter ☺️😩

OMGG hahahahahahhaha they're not all specifically chapter related! i usually just chuck potential songs into a separate playlist and then give them a few listens before deciding to add them to the unhinged playlist. but i have been listening to a lot of songs lately so that's why so many new ones have been added!

yes a lot of the songs could be either vegas or pete vibes for sure!!

i'm not fully locked in yet could change my mind last minute which i have done before hahah but it's looking like itll be rock bottom by eat our heart out

oh go for it!! happy to share the music vibes for sure. ngl ive legit been scouring horny spotify playlists for sexy songs that suit them hahahahahahaha so i totally get it.

ah im so glad!!!! i am steadily getting through it now just a few scenes to throw in for the first half of the chap and then a few more missing scenes scattered throughout the end- can you tell i don't write in order hahahah.

it's also looking like vegas' POV is actually going to be pretty brief this chap and then will lead into the next one (was not expecting pete's inner thoughts to take up so much space in this chap but to be fair vegas is unconscious for more than half of it lol)

#fic asks #ill fill the graveyards until i have you

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sebstanaddict · 2 months

Text

Too Good To Be True

Sebastian Stan x Reader Story

Summary: A romantic comedy story where Sebastian Stan falls in love with reader but she is not who he thinks she is.

Luck was finally on reader's side as Aurora was taken away to jail for a whole month. She was free to be who she really was. Great expectations were in her heart as she and Sebastian were going to spend the weekend together practicing their scenes. But what she expected to happen didn't happen and she was left to wonder what she did wrong as Sebastian's behavior towards her changed completely.

Pairings : Sebastian Stan x Female!Reader

Chapters : 14/28 (Might add more)

Chapter list >

Warning : slight cursing, some spoiler from Sebastian's potential next project Pumping Black (I changed the character names and some of the plot details though). I also took a scene from the actual script and incorporated it here. Just a head's up.

Word count : 9k words

---

Chapter 14 - Great Expectations

13320 Mulholland Drive, Los Angeles, California - Wednesday, July 12th 2023 - 3.00 pm

—

“No! I don't want to go to jail! I'm innocent!” Aurora shouted as she started to run away from them.

“We're really sorry Miss Watson, but it's the best we could do. Better than three months like what the judge originally wanted.” The lawyer continued to say.

“Yeah, thank you. I.. I know you did your best.” She smiled at the lawyer.

“No! Get away from me! Don't touch me!” Aurora continued to shout as she ran all over the backyard with the two policemen hot on her heels.

Her jaw dropped as she watched the scene unfold before her eyes. Aurora insisted on not being caught but of course she was no match to two big bodied policemen. They succeeded in cornering her near the pool but Aurora decided to jump into the pool, startling everyone.

“Your assistant is.. interesting.” One of the lawyers remarked as they watched Aurora swimming in the middle of the pool and refusing to be arrested.

“Yeah, she's one of a kind.” She said, laughing internally.

Several minutes later the policemen finally succeeded in catching Aurora as they both decided to jump into the pool as well.

The three of them walked past her, dripping wet and Aurora looked at her in derange.

“This is all your fault! You are going to pay for this! I swear to God, once I get out you will pay for this!” Aurora spat right in front of her face, leaving wet marks on her cheeks.

She wiped Aurora's spit away from her cheeks and continued to look at her as the policemen handcuffed her and dragged her away.

“Miss Watson! Are you okay?” Rosa asked in surprise.

“I'm fine, Rosa. It's just spit and she had the right to do that to me.” She replied, smiling wanly at Rosa.

“No one deserves to be treated like this! I can't believe how different she is from the first time we met her! I mean.. breaking and entering? Cursing and spitting at you?!” Rosa asked, dumbfounded.

“Yeah.. I know.. It's like she's a different person isn't she?” She said and Rosa nodded.

“Well, Miss Watson, now that we've done our job, will you excuse us.” One of the lawyers said.

“Of course, thank you so much.” She said and they finally left after she shook both their hands.

“Are you going to tell Mr.Stan about this?” Rosa asked.

“No, I don't think I will. It will just make him feel bad. I'll just tell him she needs to go out of town or something to visit her family.” She replied.

There was no way she was going to tell Sebastian what happened. If he knew, she was afraid of losing the chance of becoming his assistant again once she and Aurora switched back to their own bodies.

“Yes, that's probably for the best. By the way, do you need anyone to replace her and Gabriella? I can probably find someone who needs a job.” Rosa offered.

“Umm.. I think I can manage without her for now. As for Gabriella, I'll help clean up whenever I can. So you don't need to do her tasks.” She replied.

Rosa's eyebrows shot up at that.

“Are you sure, Miss Watson?” Rosa asked, her face full of doubt.

“Of course I'm sure, Rosa. I can do some cleaning too. I mean, it's a great alternative to regular exercise, right? And you kill two birds with one stone by doing some cleaning.” She winked and Rosa smiled.

“Well, never in 15 years of being your maid have I ever heard you say something like this.” Rosa chuckled.

“Well, people change. I can change too.” She smiled, hoping Rosa wouldn't realize who she really was inside. With Aurora gone she felt like she didn't need to keep up with her behavior. She decided to just behave like herself. Besides, acting like herself made Sebastian seem to like her. So why shouldn't she start behaving like herself with other people too.

“Well, in that case, I'm happy to see the change in you Miss Watson.” Rosa smiled and she smiled back.

“Thank you so much, Rosa. Appreciate it.” She said, patting Rosa's shoulder.

“Anyway, what would you like for dinner Miss Watson?” Rosa asked.

“Hmm.. why don't we just order some pizza. You don't have to cook.” She winked and Rosa's eyes widened.

“Miss Watson! Pizza? Are you sure?”

“Rosa, I told you I've changed. Life is short, why not enjoy something like pizza once in a while. It's not like I eat it everyday.” She protested, remembering the time when she really did eat pizza daily for a week when she was still in Silicon Valley.

“Well, as you wish Miss Watson. Would you like me to order it for you?” Rosa asked.

“No, it's okay, I can do it myself.” She said.

“Very well, Miss Watson. Well, if you'll excuse me. I have some ironing to finish.” Rosa excused herself.

“Thank you so much, Rosa.” She smiled and Rosa finally left after returning her smile.

Once Rosa was out of sight a grin spread on her face. She couldn't believe her luck! Yes! She could finally say it now! Luck! Luck was finally on her side!

Then it hit her. This was God's answer to her prayer last night.

She looked up and smiled “Thank you God. I know now that You listen. I'm so grateful for this and I will not let You down.” She made a silent prayer in her heart then she walked back towards the house with a spring in her steps. Her heart felt light and for once she felt so carefree. No Aurora for a month!

A month! A lot can happen in a month! She couldn't believe all the things and the possibilities she could do as Aurora in a month.

Well, the first thing she should do, she finally decided, was to shop for new clothes. She had checked Aurora's closet and most consisted of dresses and mini skirts. She wasn't comfortable wearing them. She was much more comfortable wearing jeans and pants rather than dresses and skirts.

So after she took a quick shower and changed out of her exercise outfit, she asked Nelson to take her out shopping to Rodeo Drive.

It was her third time going to Rodeo Drive and the difference in experience going there compared to the first two times she went there as herself was immense.

This time around the store attendants immediately paid attention to her and were very kind and helpful. Some even asked to take a selfie with her, which she couldn't say no to of course.

“Oh, thank you so much, Aurora. This means a lot. I'm glad I asked because the last time you were here you didn't want to take pictures.” One of the store attendants commented.

Yes, she remembered it now. When she was there accompanying Aurora, Aurora rejected all requests from people to take pictures. She even scolded a fan and left the fan in tears.

Well, she wasn't going to be that Aurora anymore. She was going to be herself and there was no harm in agreeing to take pictures with some people.

It didn't take long for her to shop for some jeans and pants so afterwards she decided to drop by Felix Trattoria restaurant again and order some pizza to take away. The pizzas were to die for and she wanted to have some again and share them with Nelson and Rosa.

It was with great surprise that Nelson and Rosa accepted her request to eat the pizzas together that night while watching some movies together.

“Miss Watson, I'm really sorry to say this, and I'm saying this not to offend you in any way. But.. what happened?” Nelson had asked when they were all sitting on the sofa in front of a huge TV in the living room. A classic movie, one of Rosa's choice, was playing on the TV and 3 boxes of pizzas were opened on the coffee table.

“What do you mean, Nelson?” She asked, pretending not to understand what he was talking about.

“This.” Nelson said, gesturing his hand between all of them and waved his hand towards the pizzas and the TV.

“Nothing, I just want to share this amazing pizza I had the pleasure of having the other day and what could be better than enjoying it while watching some movies.” She replied, smiling at all of them.

“Well, in the five years that I have been working for you, this never happened. This definitely is one for the history books.” Nelson chuckled.

“I'm sorry if I was a pain to be working for these past years, Nelson. And you too, Rosa. I've changed. And I'm going to try to be a better person now.” She said and both Nelson and Rosa's eyes widened.

“Well, I'm really glad to hear that, Miss Watson. You know I've watched you grow since you were a teen and became this beautiful young woman. But there was always something missing. I think you finally found it now.” Rosa commented.

“Yeah, maybe I have.” She smiled. If Rosa meant Aurora was missing a heart, well, she was absolutely right, she laughed internally.

“Anyway, I don't feel comfortable that you guys are calling me Miss Watson again. Just call me Aurora, okay?” She said and once again Rosa's and Nelson's eyes widened.

“Oh, of course, Aurora.” Nelson nodded.

“Yes, Miss.. I mean.. Aurora.” Rosa nodded.

Well, she knew once she decided to change her behavior that Rosa and Nelson were going to be suspicious, but she didn't care. She wasn't going to change her personality just because she was in Aurora's body. And with Aurora gone, even if for just a month, she was free to be who she really was and she knew she was also somewhat helping Aurora.

—

The next two days were exhausting but interesting for her. On Thursday she did a photoshoot for Givenchy. The photoshoot was done both on location and indoors. There was a new fall collection that she had to model. So she had to wear a lot of sweaters and jackets. Being in LA during the summer it didn't take long for her to start sweating but she tried to be professional and hid all the feelings of being uncomfortable away.

It took her much faster this time to finally master posing for the photoshoot. She did the same as she had done during the photoshoot for AquaChic and pretended she was an actress that had a role as a model. That mindset worked wonders for her and the photoshoot director was really happy with her work.

“Aurora, that was brilliant! I remember having worked with you in the past and you were good but this time you were absolutely brilliant!” Dave the photoshoot director gushed as she was leaving the set.

“Oh, thank you so much, Dave. I really appreciate it!” She smiled widely.

Not only was she told that she was a good actress but she was also told to be a good model! She had never imagined ever experiencing something like this ever!

On Friday she did a shooting for a dog food commercial with Paris. She was kind of scared that Paris wouldn't want to work with her. But much to her relief, the dog was quite tame and was able to work well with her and the day went quite well for her too. She never knew she had the talent to be both an actress and a model.

It wasn't until Saturday morning that she felt her happiness start to taper away. She had high hopes of meeting Sebastian that day to practice their scenes together. She had chosen the best outfit she could think of and styled her hair and makeup the way she liked. She even had ordered some food for lunch that day because she had asked Rosa to take the weekend off. She also asked Nelson to take the weekend off. So she was essentially alone in the big castle, hoping that she could have some quality time alone with Sebastian.

She sat on the sofa in the living room that morning at 10, Aurora's cellphone in hand, contemplating whether to call or text Sebastian. He had not contacted her at all ever since he dropped her off at the castle after the table read, and she was too busy to contact him too. She assumed he would just show up like he always did. But it was already 10 in the morning and she wondered if Sebastian forgot about his promise of coming over.

She was just about to text him when Aurora's cellphone rang, startling her. Sebastian's name was on the screen and she immediately picked it up.

“Hello.” She greeted him.

“Uh.. hey, Aurora.” Sebastian's voice traveled through the speaker, his gentle voice made her heart flutter.

God, she really needed to control her reactions towards him.

“Hey, Sebastian.” She replied, smiling from ear to ear.

“How are you?” He asked.

“I'm good, thanks. How are you?”

“I'm good too, thanks. Umm..listen, I'm really sorry for letting you know too late but I'm afraid I won't be able to come to your place and practice our scenes together this weekend.” He said quickly and her heart dropped to her stomach.

“Oh.. okay. Yeah, that's.. fine. What's going on?” She asked, trying to mask her disappointment.

“I.. uh.. something unexpected came up and I need to focus on it for now. So, I'm really sorry, Aurora.” He replied.

“Oh, right. Okay. What about tomorrow?” She asked, still trying to have hope in her heart that he would be able to come the next day.

“I'm really sorry but the thing that came up.. it needs my attention this whole weekend including tomorrow. So.. I'm really sorry but I can't come either tomorrow.” He explained and she couldn't help but felt her heart dropped even more.

“Oh, okay. That's fine. I hope everything is okay?” She asked, hoping whatever it was that he had to focus on wasn't something bad.

“Oh yeah. Everything is fine. Nothing to worry about, really.” He replied.

“Okay.. that's good to know.”

“Yeah. Well, I gotta go. Take care, Aurora.”

“Thanks Sebastian. I'lll see you at the shoot then?”

“Yeah. I'll see you at the shoot. Bye.”

“Okay, bye.”

He hung up first, leaving her hanging, causing her to finally feel the disappointment in her heart.

She sighed as she looked at Aurora's cellphone screen. All the preparation she did that day was apparently for nothing.

She didn't want to think badly about him but he sounded kind of weird, like he wasn't telling her the whole truth. But she decided to brush it off. Maybe he did have something urgent that came up. Yes, she was disappointed that he couldn't come, but she was going to meet him at the shoot of Pumping Black for three whole months anyway, well, at least for a month, assuming she would switch to her own body after Aurora finished her jail sentence. So she shouldn't be too disappointed about it.

Having the castle all to herself she decided to enjoy it and also practice for the shoot herself. There were still many lines she needed to memorize and she needed to determine how she was going to perform them.

Being an introverted girl at heart she enjoyed being alone. She spent most of her time learning her lines but when she got bored she explored the whole castle.

Aurora's castle was truly a beautiful castle. It had everything anyone could ever need. She felt it was such a waste of space having a huge place just for one person. She knew if she was Aurora she would just move to a smaller place, like Sebastian's penthouse for example, which was still big compared to the apartments she had stayed at over the years, but she thought it was enough for someone with a status like Aurora.

Of course she knew that moving to a different house was something she couldn't decide for Aurora. But if she really was going to be stuck in Aurora's body forever, she would definitely move out of the castle.

Speaking of switching bodies, she had opened Aurora's cellphone earlier and read the messages Aurora and the private investigator she had hired had exchanged over several days. The investigator had texted Aurora saying they had found a lead of where the Gypsy woman might be and told her that they needed more money to pursue the lead because it was leading them overseas. They asked for five thousand dollars! She knew she needed to ask Aurora whether she would agree to it or not. But knowing how Aurora would definitely agree to pay the investigators more, she decided to just ignore it for now. She didn't want them to find the Gypsy woman so soon so she decided not to reply to the investigators question just yet. She would just prolong it as long as she could.

It was 7 at night during dinner when she finally felt the subtle feeling of being lonely. It wasn't the first time she was eating dinner alone. She had spent many nights alone back in Silicon Valley, but at least she had Lara back then as her neighbour. Now, Aurora's neighbours were far away. Her castle stood on top of a hill and had tall fences surrounding it. There were no humans around in her immediate vicinity.

Her eyes started to burn as tears started to form in her eyes. She never knew being a famous model and actress could feel so lonely. She wondered if Aurora ever felt that herself.

She realized being Aurora was not as much as fun as she once thought and she started to miss her own life.

She sighed and blinked furiously to stop herself from crying and decided to have a chat with Lara, her ex roommates and her parents. It had been a while since she last chatted with them.

Unfortunately none of them replied to her text, it seemed like they were all busy. She couldn't call them because she was sure she would sound different in their ears. So she had to fight the urge of calling them and just wait until they texted her back.

Having nothing else to do after dinner she decided to go back to learning her lines that night and hoping her friends or her parents would text her back soon. She couldn't deny that she missed them too.

Her friends and parents finally texted her back several hours later when she was getting ready to sleep. She spent a short time chatting with them and was glad all of them were doing okay. However, she still couldn't shake the loneliness in her heart. She ended up going to sleep imagining Sebastian again, lying down beside her and just being there for her. She wondered if that would ever happen. She wondered if a real relationship could happen between them. With that thought in mind she finally fell asleep with Sebastian's gorgeous face etched behind her eyes.

—

The next Sunday turned out more or less similar to the day before. Since she had allowed Rosa and Nelson to take the weekend off she was alone again in the castle.

In order not to feel so lonely that day she decided to turn the TV on out loud and just leave it on for the whole day even if she wasn't watching it. She also tried to focus back on learning her lines. The next day was the first day of shooting and she didn't want to mess it up.

Despite the loneliness she felt, she survived that day and was able to memorize almost all of her lines from the movie, making her feel more confident in doing the shoot.

It was finally the first day of shooting and she woke up feeling excited yet nervous. Rosa and Nelson both came to work and she felt much less lonely with them around.

It was 8 in the morning when she arrived at Universal Studio Lot for the shoot. She was scheduled to have her first shoot with Sebastian and Jennifer Aniston that day.

Heart pounding hard, she walked out of her car and was immediately welcomed by one of the crew members from the movie. She was quickly taken to her trailer and soon had her hair and make up done.

The scene they were going to shoot that day was in a wedding reception of one of Celeste's cousins so she was wearing a beautiful peach dress, something one of Celeste's cousin's bridesmaids was supposed to wear. Her hair was styled in soft waves and pulled back in a half up half down style, a floral hairpiece placed at the back completed the look. She smiled at the mirror as the make up artist and hair stylist were done and felt she looked the most beautiful she ever had in Aurora's body.

“You look absolutely beautiful.” The make up artist, Lisa said.

“Thank you, you did a wonderful job.” She smiled at Lisa.

“Thank you, Aurora. I didn't have to do much. You already look beautiful naturally.” Lisa commented, making her blush.

“Thank you again, Lisa.” She smiled.

“You’re welcome. You know, those that have worked with you in the past told me you would be a pain to work with. But, I find you to be nice and pleasant to work with.” Lisa commented.

“Yeah, I heard about that too.” The hairstylist, Shannon commented.

Her heart seemed to stop as she heard their comments.

“Well, rumors aren't always true huh.” She said quickly.

“Yeah, that's true.” Lisa nodded.

She was saved from commenting on the subject further when a crew from the movie came to fetch her.

It was 11 when she walked out of her trailer and was quickly ushered towards the studio where the set of the wedding reception was located.

As she walked towards the set she looked around hoping to find Sebastian or Jennifer but they were nowhere in sight. She was surprised that when she got on set, she was the first actor there. Well there were plenty of extras of course, and Maya as well as Hannah were there too. But Sebastian and Jennifer were still nowhere to be seen.

“Hi Maya.” She stopped next to Maya and smiled.

“Oh hey Aurora. Excited for today?” Maya turned to her.

“Yeah, excited and nervous.” She replied.

“Oh don't be. I'm sure you're going to be great.” Maya smiled and patted her arm.

“Thank you Maya.” She smiled.

“Hello everyone.” Jennifer Aniston appeared on set with Sebastian walking next to her.

She looked up and smiled at both of them. Jennifer smiled widely at her while Sebastian looked at her like a deer who just got hit by a headlight. His jaw dropped a little and he seemed to be mesmerized as he continued to stare at her, making butterflies fly around in her stomach. But then he quickly looked away and continued to walk towards her, making her wonder again why he did that.

“Aurora darling, how are you?” Jennifer stopped in front of her and gave her a brief hug.

“I'm good Jennifer, thank you. How are you?” She asked.

“Good too. Excited for today.” Jennifer smiled.

“Hey Maya.” Jennifer then continued to walk past her and greeted Maya, leaving her and Sebastian standing face to face. Her heart pounded hard in her chest as she looked up at him.

“Hi.” Sebastian looked down at her and smiled a little.

“Hi.” She smiled back. Sebastian looked gorgeous wearing a blue suit. The suit highlighted his ocean blue eyes even more. Staring at them made her heart flutter.

“You look.. good.” Sebastian said, looking at her from top to toe and she couldn't help but blush.

“Thanks. You look good yourself.” She smiled.

“Yeah. Thank you.” He smiled back but she couldn't help but notice how quickly he averted his eyes from her.

“So, ready for the dance?” He asked and her heart skipped a beat.

Yes, there was a dance scene they were going to shoot that day. It was nothing elaborate, just them dancing slowly to the music while talking, which was why they didn't prepare much about it. But it still made her nervous.

“I hope so.” She chuckled.

“Yeah, I hope so too.” He replied.

“Maya!” He called out suddenly, startling her.

“Sorry. I need to talk to her.” Sebastian said and she nodded.

Sebastian turned away from her and walked towards Maya who had walked away from them and was talking to one of the camera men.

Once again she felt Sebastian was kind of different towards her and she wondered why that was.

She decided to try and forget about it for now and focus on the shoot she was going to do that day. She was a professional actress and her feelings about Sebastian's behavior was not her priority.

The first scene they were going to do was a scene during the wedding reception where Mike, Celeste and Celeste's mother were going to talk.

She took a deep breath as she waited for everyone else to be ready and she repeated her lines in her head.

Half an hour later they were finally ready. She sat between Sebastian and Jennifer at one of the circular dining tables on the set. Extras were all ready around them, sitting on tables next to them. The actors playing Celeste's cousin and her husband were seen sitting at a special table in one corner of the room.

Her heart pounded hard in her chest as she noticed all the cameras facing towards them. It was one thing to practice the scenes at home or at the table read, the vibe was completely different during shooting and her hands started to sweat as the realization dawned on her.

She closed her eyes for a moment, made a silent prayer in her heart that she would not mess things up, then imagined herself as Celeste, being in her cousin's wedding, having a chat with her mother and boyfriend.

She opened her eyes just as she heard the sound of a person calling out “Scene 20, take 1, mark!”

A clapperboard was clapped then she heard Maya shout “Action!”

She picked up a fork and knife and started to eat the dish in front of her which was chicken gallantine with potatoes while she waited for Jennifer to start her line.

“So, Mike. How's the preparation for the Tour de France going?” Jennifer as Mary Nichols, Celeste’s mother said, looking towards Sebastian.

Sebastian, who was also eating, swallowed and cleared his throat. “It’s doing well.”

“Oh, that's good. I hope nothing like what happened last year will happen again, huh?” Jennifer snickered, referring to an accident Mike got himself into during last year's Tour de France.

“Mom!” She exclaimed in annoyance.

“What?” Jennifer turned to her, her eyebrows raised.

“Could you not mention that again, please?” She replied, exasperated.

“I was just expressing my hope that Mike will not get into the same situation again this year. I didn't mean to offend you, Mike, I'm sure you understand that, right Mike?” Jennifer turned to Sebastian with her eyebrows furrowed.

“Yeah, I know you mean well Mrs.Nichols.” Sebastian nodded, then he placed his fork down and took a gulp of water.

“Will you excuse me for a minute? I need to go to the restroom.” Sebastian put the glass back on the table then pushed his chair back and stood up.

“Okay.” She looked up at Sebastian with concern all over her face. Sebastian gave her a small smile. She smiled back then watched as Sebastian left the table.

“I wish you didn't mention the accident, mom.” She protested as soon as Sebastian left them.

“Celeste, I mean no harm, you know that.” Jennifer defended herself.

“Yeah, it's just.. it took him a long time to get over the incident. Both, physically and mentally.” She commented.

“I understand, Celeste. I'm sorry if what I said caused you and him to feel uncomfortable.”

She sighed. “It's okay, mom.”

“So.. all of your cousins have been officially married now. When are you going to take the same step?” Jennifer asked.

“Oh mom.. why do you have to ask me that?” She whined.

“Celeste, you're almost 30, I had you when I was 25 having been married since I was 23. I'm just concerned, honey.” Jennifer said, reaching out and patted her hand.

“I know. It's just.. getting married is not exactly on our minds right now. Mike is focusing on the Tour de France this year and you know I have my own career to think about.” She explained.

“Well, you can't prioritize both your careers all the time. Before you know it, time has flown by and you will regret not having started a family sooner.” Jennifer advised.

“I know. I'll try and talk to him about it.” She sighed.

“Yes, you should. Celeste, listen. If he isn't willing to do the next step with you, maybe he's just not the one.” Jennifer said and looked at her pointedly.

“Oh mom. I love him. Okay? And I will wait. I'm not going to push him into doing something he doesn't want to do.” She stated, her eyebrows knitted together.

“But it's for your own good, Celeste. If he isn't willing to commit, I say you better dump his ass and find someone else who will. If he really loves you, he wouldn't hesitate to commit. I'm just saying. I love you so much, my baby girl. And I just want what's best for you.” Jennifer said as she reached out and placed her hand on her cheek.

She sighed as her eyebrows straightened and stared at Jennifer.

“Thank you, mom. I love you too. And you don't need to worry. I know Mike loves me. He just.. he still has this ambition, you know, of winning the Tour de France before he can focus on something else.” She said.

“Tour de France is just a race. He has been doing that for years hasn't he? He shouldn't prioritize a race over you. I'm just saying.” Jennifer dropped her hand from her cheek and stared back at her, her eyebrows furrowed.

“Yeah. Thank you mom for the enlightening conversation.” She said coldly then she pushed her chair back and stood up.

“Where are you going?” Jennifer asked.

“The restroom.” She replied then she started to walk away.

“Cut!” Maya shouted and she stopped in her tracks.

Maya sauntered over to her with Sebastian following behind her and they stopped in front of her.

“Okay, that was good, Aurora. But could we do that again? You need to show more how annoyed you are at Mary towards the end.” Maya requested.

“Oh, yeah, of course.” She nodded.

Maya left them and went towards Jennifer, leaving her alone with Sebastian.

“That was good, Aurora. You did a good job.” Sebastian smiled at her and she couldn't help but blush.

“Oh, thank you Sebastian.” She looked up at him and for a split second could see the admiration in his eyes when he looked at her. But once again he quickly averted his eyes and started to walk back towards the table.

She sighed and wondered what was going on with him. She turned around and followed him and tried hard to brush the feeling away.

It took them four more takes before Maya was finally satisfied. She breathed a sigh of relief after Maya told them that.

The next scene that was scheduled to be shot was of her and Sebastian dancing and talking. The makeup artist and hairstylist touched up her makeup and hair as she sat on a chair by the side of the set.

She looked across and watched Sebastian talking with Maya and he laughed. Her heart swelled as she looked at him laughing and she couldn't help but smile. But then he glanced at her and abruptly stopped laughing. He said something to Maya and turned away, walking to the other side of the set.

If her eyes weren't playing tricks on her, it seemed he purposely avoided her. Again she couldn't help but wonder what happened. She contemplated whether or not to ask him about it. It made her sad to think that he could be purposely avoiding her. She wondered if she did anything wrong.

Her thoughts about them were gone however as they started to do the next shoot. Once the cameras started rolling she could see the change in him and how he turned to act like he used to around her.

“Celeste..” Sebastian whispered as she was shot walking towards where the restroom was supposed to be. He was standing behind a wall not seen from the reception area. His hand shot out, grabbed hers and he dragged her behind the wall, making her jump in surprise.

“Mike! You scared me!” She protested, clutching her chest.

“I'm sorry, sweetheart.” Sebastian looked down and smiled at her. She could now see the adoration again in his eyes and it made her heart flutter.

“What are you doing?” She asked as Sebastian let her hand go.

“I.. uh.. waiting.” He replied.

“For what?” She asked, her eyebrows raised.

“For the right time to come out.” He replied, blushing as he said it.

“Oh, Mike. I'm sorry about my mom.” She sighed.

“It's okay, honey. What did you talk about? You look annoyed.” He said as he raised his hand up and his fingers started to stroke her cheek gently, making her breath hitch.

“I.. umm..” She forgot! She forgot her next lines, so focused she was at how his fingers felt on her cheek.

“Cut!” Maya shouted and her shoulder slumped.

“Aurora! Focus!” Maya shouted at her.

“I'm sorry.” She turned to Maya and grimaced.

“The usual marriage talk.” Sebastian said.

“What?” She turned to him, looking at him in confusion.

“Your next line.” He replied.

“Oh! Yeah, yeah. Thanks.” She nodded, feeling the blush rising in her cheeks.

“No problem.” He smiled at her warmly, making the butterflies fly around in her stomach.

“Aurora! Go back!” Maya shouted.

“Oh yeah, okay.” She nodded and turned around back towards the reception area, kicking herself mentally for being so unfocused because of Sebastian.

They started to do the scene again until the part where she forgot her lines came up.

“It's okay, honey. What did you talk about? You look annoyed.” Sebastian said as he raised his hand up and his fingers caressed her cheek gently, making her breath hitch again.

“The usual marriage talk.” She grumbled.

“Oh, right. Typical at an event like this.” He commented.

“Yeah. I don't understand why she needed to push it on us. I mean.. we have our careers to think about.” She said, looking up at Sebastian expectantly.

“Yeah. We do. I mean, once we're ready, we'll do it but right now we both know it's not the right time.” He stated.

She didn't respond immediately and she gazed at him, trying to convey a million emotions through her eyes. Sebastian stared back at her and once again she felt like he was seeing into her soul, making butterflies fly around in her stomach.

“When will the right time come, though?” She asked slowly.

“Oh Celeste, please don't ask questions like this. I don't know. Okay? I just.. you know what's on my mind.” He stated as he dropped his fingers from her and he balled his fist in agitation.

“I know. The race! Which has been on your mind for the past.. what? Fifteen years? It's what's on your mind when we met five years ago and it still is.” She grumbled.

“I'm sorry, honey. I just need to win this one.”

“You've been saying that since we met.” She said pointedly and she could see the hurt flashed in his eyes.

“Because it's important to me, Celeste. You know that!” Sebastian protested.

“Am I not important to you?” She asked and Sebastian’s jaw dropped.

“Honey, of course you are! You’re the most important person in my life!” He exclaimed as he placed both hands on the sides of her arms.

“Then maybe.. maybe you need to show it.” She said slowly.

“I’ll show it right now. Come on!” Sebastian said and her eyes widened.

He grabbed her hand and guided her back towards the reception area. She could hear slow romantic music playing and some people were slow dancing on the dance floor.

Sebastian guided her onto the dance floor and they stopped at the edge. They stood facing each other. Her heartbeat raised as she gazed at Sebastian who was smiling warmly at her.

“Celeste Nichols, would you please give me the honor and dance with me?” He asked as he picked her hand up and kissed it gently, sending shivers down her spine.

“Oh, Mike. Of course.” She sighed and nodded.

Sebastian smiled wide and picked up her left hand with his right then placed his left hand gently on her waist. He pulled her closer to him and their chests almost touched each other. He started to sway to the music slowly and she followed.

He continued to gaze at her softly as she tried hard not to hyperventilate and shifted her mental state back to being Celeste.

“I’m sorry, sweetheart.” Sebastian started to say.

“Hmm..” She mumbled and he sighed.

“You are important to me. Soo important that I want to give you the world! I mean, you know how much money I can get if I can win the Tour de France. I’ll get money not just from the race itself but also from sponsorships and advertising deals, you know.” He explained.

“I know. But I don’t need the money, Mike.” She protested.

“Honey, I know you’re a successful model but we will need more money in order to live comfortably and start a family. You know I still don’t make much with my current condition in the team.” He sighed.

“You can quit racing and continue your father’s business.” She suggested and Sebastian’s face quickly turned sour.

“You know it’s not my passion running a slaughterhouse.” He objected.

“I know, but it keeps the money coming in. And you know you just need to continue it. Everything has been set up by your late dad. I mean, I’m sure he would have wanted you to run it instead of having it run by a third party.” She suggested.

“Celeste, please. I don’t want to run it. I hate it there. Just.. trust me. This year will be different. I can feel it! Yesterday Alex brought in a new doctor. This doctor successfully made the American cycling team win at the Olympics! She said she has a method that will make us stronger and have better endurance. She’s going to start the method tomorrow.” He said excitedly.

“A method? What kind of method?” She asked, her eyebrows raised.

“She hasn’t told us yet what method she’s going to use.” He replied.

“Interesting.” She commented.

“Yeah. If I win the Tour de France this year then I can retire and we can live comfortably and start a family.” He said with hope in his eyes.

“Well, if you win, aren't you going to be needed for next year’s race?” She asked.

“No, I’m.. I will be too old. I don’t think Alex is going to let me stay in the team next year.” He replied, his mouth turned into a frown.

“So you want to go out with a bang.” She stated.

Sebastian’s mouth turned up into a smile. “Yes! You know me so well, Celeste.”

She couldn’t help but smile back at him, both, as Celeste and as herself.

“Trust me, Celeste. I love you and I want to give you the best life you can get. But I can’t if I don’t win this year’s race.” Sebastian pleaded.

She didn’t immediately respond to him but stopped dancing. She released her hands from his hand and shoulder and cupped his face.

“Mike Taylor, I need you to know that I love you, no matter what happens. Even if you don’t win the race and you have to retire and do a regular nine to five job, I will still be here. Because I love you as you are and not because you’re a pro cyclist.” She stated, gazing at him sternly.

Sebastian gazed back at her. His eyes widened and his mouth opened in surprise. Then a smile broke on his face.

“I love you so much, Celeste Nichols. I don’t deserve you but I will try to make myself worthy of you.” He said slowly, giving her a look of complete adoration, making her heart beat so fast in her chest.

“By winning this race?” She asked.

“Yes.” He replied.

“Fine. I said I love you as you are and this ambition of yours is a part of you, so..” She trailed, dropping her hands from his face.

“Thank you for understanding, honey.” He smiled.

He leaned closer to her, making her heart do somersaults in her chest. Then he placed both hands on the sides of her face and kissed her forehead gently, making her smile. Then they continued to slow dance, but their bodies were even closer than before. His left hand took her right hand, he placed his right hand on her waist and she placed her left hand on his shoulder, then she turned her face to the side and leaned her cheek on his chest.

The cameras continued rolling as they slowly danced. It felt very comfortable to dance in his arms. She could smell his signature scent wafting from his suit. She could hear his heart beating fast in his chest. She could feel his hand in hers starting to sweat, making her wonder if he was as nervous about the dance as she was.

“Cut!” Maya shouted and Sebastian immediately let her go and stepped back, startling her.

“Okay, we got it! Great job you two!” Maya shouted at them from the side of the set.

“That was really good.” She commented and looked up at him.

“Yeah, as usual you did a great job.” He smiled but his smile didn't reach his eyes, making her heart plummeted.

“Umm.. I have to go and get ready for the next scene.” He continued, his eyes averting hers yet again.

“Oh yeah, okay. I'll see you.. hmm.. the day after tomorrow I think, for our next scene together?” She asked.

“Yeah, I guess so.” He nodded.

“Okay.” She nodded and he smiled then turned around, leaving her alone on the dance floor with people walking around her as the set was starting to be cleaned up.

She sighed as she watched him go and kept wondering why he acted so differently around her.

Maybe he has some kind of problem. The thing that came up yesterday probably stressed him out. She tried to reason. But deep down she had an inkling that she was the reason he was behaving like that towards her, as if she had made a big mistake.

She walked back to her trailer with a frown on her face and her shoulder slumped. The dancing scene was the last scene for her to shoot that day so she could go back home if she wanted.

She contemplated on staying to watch the others shoot, but decided to go home instead. She was tired and tense and needed to relax.

So she went to her trailer, changed into her own outfit and went straight home. Feeling the complete opposite of what she thought she would feel at the end of that day.

—

The next day she didn't have any shoot or any other work scheduled, but she knew Sebastian was going to shoot some scenes with Rooney Mara, Jude Law, Chris Evans, Anthony Mackie and Chace Crawford. She was curious about it so she decided to come to the studio and see it if she was allowed. She also wanted to try and talk to him about his change of behavior towards her. It was still bothering her and kept her almost awake the entire night.

Thankfully security let her in so she could watch the shoot. It was being done at a studio next to the one she was shooting at the day before.

When she arrived the shoot was already starting. The studio had been set like they were in the racing team's headquarters with two different areas set up. One was a changing room area with lockers while the other one was a room similar to an infirmary with a small hospital bed in the middle and an ominous machine standing next to it.

She could see Sebastian, Chris, Anthony and Chace with other actors she assumed to be part of the racing team, standing side by side facing Jude Law who seemed to be informing them of something. They were all standing in the changing room area.

Then she saw Rooney Mara standing to the side of the room behind a door, seemingly waiting to come out. After a while Jude Law opened the door and Rooney came in.

She watched as Rooney gave a chilling performance as the racing team's new doctor. She was tough, stern and mysterious. Being the professional that she was, she nailed the scene in one shot, allowing them to move to the next shoot in the next area.

The actors were given some break time and they walked out of the set to their designated chairs. She saw Sebastian walking towards his chair and just then he looked up at her.

She waved at him and smiled a little. He looked a little surprised but then waved back at her and nodded. She thought he would come and approach her but instead he turned his back on her and sat on his chair, his hand grabbed a bottle of water on the floor and he started to chug it down.

Her heart plummeted seeing how he behaved towards her, but she tried to make up another reason for his weird behavior. She thought maybe he didn't approach her because he wanted to focus on the shoot. He wanted to stay in character maybe and talking with her would just ruin that. She finally reasoned. With that thought in mind she continued to watch the shoot.

The scene they were shooting next was the scene where Rooney’s character Ava performed a stress test on the whole team.

She watched as Sebastian walked into the room with the hospital bed and ominous machine alone and faced Rooney.

Rooney circled him and prodded his arm, making him wince.

“Strip down.” Rooney commanded and Sebastian's eyebrows raised.

“I need to see what I'm going to work with.” Rooney continued when Sebastian didn't make a move.

He looked at her defiantly and they stared at each other, unblinking. Finally, Sebastian took off everything but his boxer shorts.

Her heart skipped a beat as she looked at his body. He was lean but muscular with sculpted biceps and a six pack stomach. She had seen his naked upper body pictures and even his fully naked body in movies before, but to see him in person like this was a completely different experience.

“Lie down!” Rooney commanded.

“Which test is this?” Sebastian asked.

“Lie down!” Rooney commanded and Sebastian quickly laid down on the bed.

Rooney strapped his wrists and ankles onto the bed and put electrodes on his biceps, quads, neck, calves and both his temples.

“You will feel a shock.” Rooney said.

“Okay, wh..” Sebastian responded just as Rooney threw a switch on the machine and Sebastian's body started to convulse. Electricity coursed through him and his face contorted in pain. She couldn't help but be horrified to witness the scene in front of her. She knew Sebastian was just acting, but he looked to be in so much pain that it was unbearable to watch. The scene reminded her so much of the scene where Bucky Barnes had his mind wiped out when he was still the Winter Soldier.

“Do you want me to stop?” Rooney asked. “Nod if you want me to stop.”

But Sebastian didn't say anything, he looked at Rooney with his face in agony but he endured the pain.

Rooney glanced at her stopwatch and looked at Sebastian with a gleam in her eyes.

Sebastian continued to endure the pain as the machine hummed menacingly, louder and louder until..

“Stop! STOP!” Sebastian screamed.

Rooney turned off the machine and wrote down the time as she consulted her watch. Sebastian caught his breath, tears streaming down his face.

“F""k.. “ Sebastian said.

“Why?” Sebastian continued.

“Baselines. Your muscle’s maximum ability to contract is higher when the mind is not involved.” Rooney answered.

“How’d I do?” Sebastian asked.

Rooney didn't answer. She stared at him, reading something in his face.

“It is a difficult test.” Rooney finally said.

Sebastian's face fell.

“Let me go again.” He quickly said.

Rooney paused her movement. She gazed at Sebastian, reading him, unpeeling him.

“You would submit yourself again to this? Willingly?” Rooney asked.

“I can do better.” Sebastian stated.

“The pain will break you.”

“I don’t care about pain. I care about winning.”

The sentence triggered something in Rooney. For a split second she almost looked like she might smile, but..

“There are no do-overs in the Tour. Why would I give you one here?” She asked but her eyes gleamed as she said it.

Sebastian slumped, seemingly feeling devastated and like a failure.

“Cut!” Maya shouted.

“Okay, that was amazing, Rooney, Sebastian. We got it.” Maya continued.

She was amazed at how both Sebastian and Rooney were able to nail their scenes in one take and made a mental note to ask them for some tips.

There were several more scenes that were shot that day. She ended up watching all of them as she was fascinated by the whole shooting process and wanted to learn as much as possible by watching the other actors perform.

It was 6 in the afternoon when the shoot was finally done for that day. She waited for Sebastian by the side of the set. Throughout the whole day he effectively ignored her and she was itching to ask him about it.

He finally walked off set and walked towards her with Chris, Chace and Anthony walking next to him.

“Sebastian.” She called out as they went nearer.

“Aurora, hey.” Sebastian greeted her.

“Hey Aurora.” The other guys greeted her and she nodded.

“Today was amazing. I loved watching all of you perform. You were all amazing!” She smiled at them and they smiled back at her.

“Why thank you, Aurora. That's very nice of you to say that.” Anthony said.

“Where are you guys going by the way?” She asked.

“Umm.. We're going out for dinner. There's this new place near Chace's apartment that he said has the best Kung Pao chicken.” Chris replied.

“Oh, I see.” She nodded.

“We'd love to ask you to join us but..” Chris glanced at Sebastian, waiting for him to continue.

“We're having sort of.. a boy's night, you know. So.. I'm really sorry.” Sebastian said, staring at her, his eyebrows furrowed.

Her heart dropped at his answer. She was certain now that he was avoiding her. The question was why. Unfortunately she couldn't find the answer that night.

“It's okay, Sebastian. I guess I'll see you guys tomorrow.” She said and they nodded.

She gave them one last smile, her gaze lingered for a moment at Sebastian who was gazing back at her with an unreadable expression on his face. Then she turned around quickly as she felt the telltale sign of tears forming in her eyes.

—

She woke up the next morning with bags under her eyes. Once again she found it hard to sleep because she kept thinking of Sebastian. Several times she almost texted him to ask him why he acted so different towards her for the past few days, but she couldn't bring herself to do it.

Still feeling sleepy and worn out she left the castle having only drank a cup of coffee and nothing more. She wasn't hungry. She had no appetite whatsoever.

The scene that they were going to shoot that day was an outdoor shoot done at, coincidentally, Mulholland Drive. Sebastian and the others were going to be shot doing a local racing at Mulholland Drive. She was supposed to be shot being in the crowd and watching them.

When she arrived on set, which was only several miles away from the castle, Sebastian, Chris, Chace and Anthony were already there, wearing their team's signature cycling jerseys which were blue in color and had the team's name, “Inverness” written at the back.

She didn’t have time to greet Sebastian and the others because she was immediately ushered to her trailer.

Once Lisa and Shannon finished putting make up on her and styled her hair, she was rushed to the spectator's box.

There was a monitor at the spectator's box where people can watch the progress of the team. She sat on a chair in the box and watched the screen.

A real pro cyclist team had been hired to do the hard stuff but since some shots were for close-ups, the actors were also needed.

She watched as Sebastian and the other actors started the race. Chris, as the fastest rider, was obviously leading the team. Behind him was Chace, Anthony, another actor in the team by the name of Johnny, and Sebastian was at the tail.

The shoot for the part of the actors took several takes. It was on the fourth take that something unexpected happened.

They were riding past a curved road when all of a sudden a stray dog came out from the woods next to them and ran in front of Sebastian. Sebastian was surprised and steered his bike to avoid the dog. He couldn't control his bike and crashed.

“Sebastian!” She shouted in panic. Her heart dropped to her stomach as she saw Sebastian toppled over and fell down on the ground hard.

Chapter 15 >

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