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dean-winchester-is-a-warrior · 28 days ago

Text

Starting at the End Ch. 4

Summary: Lily Crawford has been receiving disturbing letters from a worrisome fan. On the advice of an acquaintance she goes to Winchester Private Security and seeks out Dean Winchester to keep her safe. Will this troubled ex-marine be able to save her, and can she save him too?

Series Warnings: Angst. Smut. Fluff. (as usual, of course!) Discussion of war, loss, trauma, PTSD, grief. Stalking. Obsession.

Chapter Warnings: Nothing major. Talk of stalking. Sexist attitudes. Innuendoes made regarding sexual harassment/assault. Nothing is shown, things are implied.

Pairing: Dean x ofc (Lily Crawford)

Word Count: 5,379

A/N: This is my Dean "Bodyguard" AU. (Technically he calls himself Private Security and not a Bodyguard, but 🤷‍♀️) I've never written a bodyguard AU before, so I hope you all enjoy this one. It's been a while since I've written an ofc, so I hope you like Lily. I'm enjoying writing her. I know OC's aren't the fandoms favourite, but I really felt like I needed Lily to be Lily in this one. Hope you give it a chance anyway. ❤️

POSTING EVERY FRIDAY! ❤️

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Lily walked sleepily out of her bedroom, rubbing her eyes. Ordinarily she liked mornings. She wouldn’t call herself a morning person exactly, since she wasn’t fully alive until she ate food and drank a cup of coffee, but she liked the quiet of mornings, the promise of a whole day that was, so far, unspoiled.

Lately though, she’d been sleeping so poorly it took a lot more than one cup of coffee to fuel her into the day. Though sleep had been a bit easier since Dean had taken up residence.

Things were definitely better, but also…weird.

She’d been living alone for years; it had been a long time since she’d had a roommate, and it was a bit tough to get used to having another person around all the time again. Also, of course, no roommate she’d ever lived with had followed her around everywhere she went.

It had been two days since Dean followed her back to her place and claimed her guestroom. One of her guest bedrooms was next door to her room and the other was down a hallway towards the back of the house. She just assumed he’d take the one with a little more privacy, but as she’d led him towards the back bedroom, Dean stopped her.

He nodded towards the other room. “Is it possible to take this one? I wanna stay close to you.”

Lily felt ridiculous over the way her belly flip flopped when he said that, so she pretended it didn’t, smiling and waving him towards it.

“Sure, yeah, of course.”

That had been two days ago and things had been a bit strange for her ever since. She’d never been around someone that seemed to be both her shadow and a ghost at the same time. Dean was literally never more than ten feet from her, but he barely spoke. He was never rude, always answered any direct question she asked of him, but otherwise he stayed quiet.

When she was home, whether she was eating, cooking, working out in her bedroom, reading, watching tv, working on her laptop, or talking on her phone, he was always standing, or occasionally sitting, by her large living room window. He spent most of his time, when he was in her house, staring out the window and scanning her yard and the street beyond.

When she went out, no matter what, he went with her. That was one of the first things he told her that first day.

“Look, I’m not here to get in the way of your daily life. I don’t want you to change your schedule or the way you live, and I’m not a houseguest. Do all the things you’d normally do, in the same way you’d normally do them. But I have just two rules that are hard and fast and can’t be changed if you want me to protect you.”

His face was incredibly serious, so even though the idea of another grown person giving her “rules” made her bristle slightly, she nodded.

“Number one,” he ticked them off on his fingers, “please never lie to me about anything. Even if you think something is insignificant, or frankly none of my business, if I ask you about something, please promise me the truth. I can’t protect you if I don’t have all the information.”

Lily nodded again. “Yeah, that’s fair. I have no big secrets, so I think we’re good.” She joked, hoping to lighten the mood. But he remained as serious as ever as he continued.

“And two, never, ever leave the house without me.”

Lily had agreed to that easily. The uneasy feeling of being watched all the time when she was outside, made her desperately happy that someone else was standing close and watching her back. When they were out, Dean’s focus never wavered, and he always stayed just a step behind her, very close. She realized quickly that he was shielding her back while he scanned the whole area in front of them, tense and ready to act.

Somehow Dean’s constant tension when they were out made hers fade away and she was very grateful.

But when they were home, she always felt a little awkward. He was so still and quiet, like a particularly gorgeous statue in a white button down shirt and blue suit pants. He went to bed after she did, and woke up before she ever stumbled out of her room.

This morning was no different. He smiled briefly at her before resuming his surveillance of the front yard.

“Morning.” She mumbled, heading for her kitchen.

She put the coffee on and began gathering ingredients for breakfast. She looked across the living room at Dean standing by the window and decided enough was enough. Who knew how long it was going to take to catch this creep and in the meantime she couldn’t take the weirdness anymore.

“Hey, I’m making scrambled eggs and bacon. Want some?”

Dean’s head turned briefly towards her. “No, I’m good. Thanks.” And he returned to the window.

Lily let out a quiet sigh. “Please let me make you scrambled eggs. Or over easy, or, I don’t know, poached. They don’t have to be scrambled.”

Dean looked back at her, his expression slightly curious. “Uh, no really. I’m good.”

“Do you eat?” Lily asked before he could turn away again.

The question seemed to catch him off guard and his brow wrinkled in confusion. “Yeah.” He said, dragging the word out slowly as though trying to guess at the reason for the question.

“When? I never see you eat. You’re with me all day, every day and yet in the last two days I haven’t seen you consume a morsel of food. If you hadn’t been drinking from a water bottle yesterday, I really would’ve started to think - robot.”

The hint of a smile played around Dean’s lips. “I eat in the room after you go to bed and before you wake up.”

“Eat what? You’ve taken none of the food or dishes from the cupboard. Or do you secretly cook a meal and then run the dishwasher after I go to bed? How soundly do I sleep?” Lily asked, only half teasing.

An actual smile hitched up the side of Dean’s mouth and made Lily wish he smiled more often. He thumbed towards his room.

“I packed a bunch of MREs.” Lily just blinked at him and he clarified. “They’re uh, army rations. I can just eat them as is.”

Lily must have seemed unconvinced because he continued, gesturing towards the bedroom. “The wrappers and packages and stuff are in the little garbage can in the room; you can look if you don’t believe me.”

She chuckled softly. “No, I believe you. But…” She shook her head. “That’s no way to eat for any length of time.”

Dean shrugged. “They’re actually not bad. I mean, they’re not a home-cooked meal, maybe, but they do the trick.”

“But…why are you eating packaged food, alone in your room when I’m offering eggs and bacon? And coffee?”

Dean shook his head. “Lily, I told you, I’m not a houseguest. It’s not your job to feed me, or entertain me. I don’t want to interfere with your life. You should just pretend I’m not here.”

Lily snorted. “Yeah, right.” As if there was some way to ignore a six foot Adonis standing in your living room. Not wanting to admit that was the problem, however, Lily offered up reasoning that was still mostly the truth.

“I’m trying to tell you, it’s not possible for me to just pretend there isn’t another human being living and breathing across the room from me. There’s no way I’m going to be able to live like that for any length of time. So, please, occasionally talk to me? And come eat eggs and bacon. Unless you're like, a vegetarian, or vegan or something?”

Dean shook his head and his shoulders relaxed a fraction as he sidled across the room. “No, definitely not.” He smiled as he got closer and for a moment Lily wondered if she’d made a mistake encouraging him to come nearer. Up close this man’s face was lethal.

His mossy green eyes were slightly teasing as he sat down at her counter. “So, eggs scrambled, coffee black, and bacon plentiful, please.”

The days stretched on, and over the first week or so, Dean and Lily fell into a kind of rhythm. They had breakfast together and Lily ran through her schedule for that day, with Dean making notes about the locations she was going to.

“So I can research them ahead of time.” He explained when she’d asked him why he needed to know.

While he researched, she worked out in her bedroom - treadmill, elliptical, and free weights. She kept her blinds down all the time now. She missed the sunshine, but there was no way she was letting the creep watch her workout, sleep or dress.

After working out, Lily showered. Dean showered at night, after everything was locked up tight, but before she was asleep, so she’d notice if anything was weird and be able to call him. Lily was slightly ashamed to admit that there had been a couple of nights when she’d contemplated making something up just to see Dean come out of the bathroom quickly, in nothing but a towel.

She was sorely tempted, but decided that it was almost stalker level behavior on her part and scolded herself out of it.

When they were out of the house, Dean returned to the stoic and silent bodyguard persona, not engaging in any conversation and barely interacting with her at all. But in the house, he’d thawed a fair bit. He’d often watch tv with her in the evening, both of them having an affinity for 70s and 80s sitcoms. The shows sometimes sparked conversation.

Lily quickly learned that Dean was much funnier than she would have originally thought. He had a quick, slightly dark sense of humor, sarcasm falling from his lips easily, and often making Lily laugh out loud in surprise.

As they passed the evenings together, they discovered they also shared the same taste in music and movies, and agreed with each other on many things to do with the state of the world. They fell relatively easily into a few conversations about politics and religion, and found they had shared philosophies.

The one thing neither of them talked about was their past or their families. Lily never liked talking about hers, and as a result, it had sort of become a habit not to ask anyone else about theirs. Dean seemed perfectly okay with that.

One evening, nine days in, Dean turned to her after seeing a trailer for a new action movie. “So, can I ask you a question?”

Lily hated when someone said that, but she nodded. “Sure.”

There was a brief pause before Dean spoke. “What happened after the Cobra Strike movies? You were so famous, and the franchise was so popular, I would have thought you’d have your pick of movies.”

Lily felt her stomach lurch a bit. Dean must have read something on her face, because he immediately backed off.

“Nevermind. That’s none of my business.”

Lily shook her head, attempting a smile. “No, it’s fine. It’s a fair question. But uh…” For just a moment Lily contemplated telling Dean the truth. After all, he’d told her to never lie, and for some reason, she found she wanted to share the truth with him.

But then her better sense kicked in and she just shrugged, giving her standard answer, the one she gave anytime a reporter was interested enough to ask it.

“You know, the industry is just fickle and it’s just all about timing. The right project just hasn’t come along. But I have faith that it will.”

The answer felt rote, which it was, and Dean seemed to notice. But he smiled anyway and shook his head. “Sure, that makes sense. Again, sorry, I shouldn’t have asked.”

They moved on to more pleasant subjects for a while longer before Lily decided to go to bed.

Two weeks passed, and they hadn’t heard or seen anything from her stalker. Lily wondered, perhaps, if YA had moved on, whoever he was. Maybe Dean’s presence hadn’t challenged him - instead, maybe it had just scared the shit out of him and made him run. Lily was beginning to be hopeful that that was the case.

One morning, as she and Dean were sitting at the counter having breakfast, her phone rang. She didn’t recognize the number and frowned at her phone. Dean noticed, of course.

“Do you know who that is?”

Lily shook her head. Dean pulled the phone from her hand and answered.

“Hello. This is Lily Crawford’s personal assistant, can I help you?”

He listened for a moment before frowning slightly. “Okay, please hold for a moment, I’ll see if she’s available.”

He took the phone away from his ear and spoke quietly. “Someone from Ethan Brown’s office?”

Lily felt her heart leap. “You mean Ethan Braun?”

Dean shrugged. “Yeah, probably what she said.”

Lily was reaching for her phone. “Give it, give it!” She said with barely concealed excitement.

Dean passed it over and Lily took a deep breath before she put the phone to her ear. “Hello, this is Lily Crawford.”

There was a slightly nasal, feminine voice on the other end. “Miss Crawford, Mr. Braun would like to sit down with you and discuss the upcoming callback audition you have for the film, Eternal Night? He’s available today at four.”

Lily nodded, trying to keep her voice level. “I would love that. Four o’clock will work, I’ll just move some things around.” She said, attempting to seem like she was busy with something more than being an out of work actor.

“Great.” The assistant said in the same monotone voice. “I’ll text you the location of the restaurant. Is this the best number to reach you at?”

“Yes. This is the best one.” Lily realized too late that she should have given the number of her agent. Successful people in Hollywood had “people”, they didn’t answer their own phones. She was suddenly even more grateful Dean had answered her phone pretending to be her assistant.

“Terrific.” The woman said, before abruptly ending the call.

Without a goodbye, it took Lily a moment to realize they’d reached the end of their brief conversation. But when she was sure the other woman was no longer listening, she jumped up from her stool and gave a big whoop of triumph.

She was desperately trying not to do a happy dance around her living room, so she just pumped her arms into the air.

“I have a meeting with Ethan Braun!”

When Dean continued to simply stare at her bemusedly, she tried to contain herself to explain. “He’s the producer for this horror movie I auditioned for a couple weeks ago and he wants to meet with me!”

She bit her lip and shrugged, her enthusiasm waning just a bit. “It’s a bit of a cheesy script, but there’s, I don’t know, the potential for something really interesting and a bit different, if they go the right direction. The role I auditioned for is Alexis and she’s…well, she’s a vampire, but she’s determined to blend into the world. She gets a job on Wall Street, and is…well, there’s the potential for a few good comparisons between the Stock Market Bros and a blood sucking vampire.”

She shrugged again. “Like I said, if they do things right and don’t lose the plot for the gore.”

Dean nodded and smiled. “That does have the potential to be awesome.”

Lily let out a little screech of excitement and bolted to her bedroom. “I gotta find something to wear that evokes, ‘Trader by day, Mistress of Darkness by night’.”

It was ten to four as Lily and Dean strolled into Vicario’s. Dean didn’t like how dark the place was. He’d looked it up, but as one of the exclusive restaurants favored by the elite of Hollywood, there were very few pictures of it online, successfully keeping its air of mystery.

Now that they were inside, Dean was even less happy. He assumed the back exit would be through the kitchen, but there was probably a delivery door as well, likely also through the kitchen. He’d like to know where both those doors led to.

Lily, of course, wasn’t paying attention to any of his worries. She’d spent most of the morning trying on clothes in her room. Occasionally she’d pop out with an outfit on, asking for his opinion. But before he could give it (that she looked amazing in everything she wore) she’d shake her head and throw up her hands.

“No, I hate this!” She’d exclaim and return to her room, where Dean could hear her rummaging around and often cursing behind her closed door.

Finally having chosen something, she scarfed down a sandwich, and then dropped onto the couch and buried herself in the script for Eternal Night. She was silent for the rest of the afternoon.

When the time came to get ready and leave, she got up quietly and got dressed, returning to the living room, in a strange, subdued mood.

Over the time he’d been with her, Dean had discovered that Lily was many things - funny, vivacious, easily happy, sometimes a bit temperamental, but she was very rarely subdued. In fact, he’d never seen this mood on her before, and he found it didn’t really suit her.

There was something in her eyes that resembled the same fear she’d had when she came into his office with that letter a couple weeks earlier. Without examining why, Dean felt the need to bring back the bubbly, incredibly excited Lily from earlier in the day.

As she grabbed her purse, he smiled at her, waving a hand at the red, pencil skirt and white blouse she’d landed on.

“That’s definitely the look of a vampire stock broker.” He said teasingly.

Lily laughed lightly and the tension in her shoulders had eased slightly.

“Thanks.”

But now that they were in the restaurant the nervousness and fear seemed to have returned in full force. Dean could practically feel the tension rolling off of her as he stood at her elbow.

The maitre’d approached them and seemed to be expecting Lily, and knew her on site.

“Ah, Miss Crawford, Mr. Braun is seated and waiting for you. Please follow me.” They walked towards a darkened corner of the restaurant and all of Dean’s senses were heightened. He absolutely hated this setting.

The man sitting at the table could have been the dictionary definition of “producer”. He wore an expensive suit, a Rolex watch, and two rings on each hand, one of which was a wedding ring, Dean noted. He was a large man, slightly barrel-chested, with surprisingly narrow shoulders. His face was tanned and round, and he wore a placid smile as they approached him.

He stood up slightly as he reached across the table to shake Lily’s hand.

“Miss Crawford, so nice to meet you.” His voice was a bit rough, almost as though he was forcing it lower.

Lily nodded as she returned the handshake, speaking as the maitre’d tucked her chair in under her. “Thank you so much, Mr. Braun. It’s a real honor to meet you.”

He waved dismissively. “Oh, Ethan, please. May I call you Lily?”

She nodded. “Yes, of course.”

As a waiter brought a pitcher of water to the table, Ethan looked at Dean standing just behind her chair, a question in his gaze.

Lily seemed a little flustered as she cleared her throat. “Oh, yes, please, um, this is my private security, Dean Winchester. Dean, Ethan Braun.”

Dean nodded at the man, who didn’t bother to try and shake his hand. Instead, he looked at Lily. “A bodyguard?”

Lily laughed lightly and it sounded nothing like her real laugh. “Oh, yes, well there’s um…” She paused for a beat, and then clasped her hands together. “You know, you can just never be too careful these days.”

Dean assumed she didn’t mention the stalker, in case this producer saw it as a potential set security issue to hire her.

Ethan Braun nodded, but seemed a bit annoyed. “I understand.” He said. “But I’m afraid some of what we’ll be discussing is of a proprietary nature, so we can’t have it being leaked.”

Dean wanted to respond that he could give a shit about this guy’s movies and certainly wasn’t about to leak any information to the tabloids or entertainment outlets. But he kept his mouth shut until Lily spoke.

“Oh, yes, I…uh, I see. Of course.” She turned her head slightly. “Um, thank you, Dean, you can, uh, can you please wait by the car?”

Dean took a step forward so he was in her eyeline and frowned at her. “No.” He said simply.

Lily looked slightly taken aback, but then stared at him meaningfully. “Dean, thank you for your concern, but you can wait outside. I’m perfectly safe in here with Mr. Braun.”

Dean begged to differ. “Mr. Braun” just oozed entitled dickhead. But Lily’s eyes widened and she made a quick jerk with her head towards the outside.

Dean scowled at her; she was obviously forgetting one of his two hard and fast rules. However, not wanting to cause some kind of issue for her, he took a step back.

“I’m going to go check out the exits in the kitchen, then I’ll sit over there.” He pointed to a table about twenty feet away. Thankfully the restaurant was relatively empty at that time of day.

He nodded to Lily and ignored the producer altogether, before moving off to quickly check the kitchen.

Lily laughed lightly as Dean walked away. “I’m sorry about that, he’s just a bit overprotective, I’m afraid.”

Ethan Braun was silent for a beat longer before he smiled. “It’s fine. That is the job of a good bodyguard, after all. Let’s order something.”

He snapped the waiter over and gave him their order without asking Lily. If this had been a date, Lily would have been walking out already, but this guy was a producer who could seriously impact her career trajectory.

She felt a small knot form in her stomach as echoes of the past rang in her ears. But she shoved them aside, concentrating on Ethan Braun and the keys he held to Eternal Night.

An hour passed as they ate and talked about those people in the industry that they both knew. She noticed Dean slip back in from the kitchen and sit to the left of them, wisely staying behind Ethan so he didn’t notice him.

Ethan was like a million other people she’d met in Hollywood, pretty full of himself and his own importance. But as producers went, she’d met worse. He was at least intelligent, with a wry sense of humor and an actual working knowledge of movie-making. He was clearly more than just the money part of the film.

Finally, as they were served coffees, Ethan threw Lily a knowing look. “So then, Lily, let us admit that we aren’t just here to spin gossip about tinsel town. You want to be in my movie.”

Lily felt her stomach twist again and she gripped her hands in her lap. “Yes, very much. I really like Alexis, and I love the idea of poking a subtle kind of fun at capitalism and greed. I think the script has so much potential.”

Ethan nodded enthusiastically. “Yes! I agree. I’m glad you understood those metaphors.”

Trying not to take offense over his shock that she could pick up on symbolism, she smiled brightly and nodded.

Then Ethan got serious. “Now, as you know, we’ve cast Tom Ridgely as Severs.”

Lily nodded again. “Yes. I’m not very familiar with his work, but he does seem like a bright up and comer.” The truth was Lily had watched some of the young guy’s reel and wasn’t very impressed. She was confused by the casting until she realized he was the casting director’s son. But she wasn’t about to say that.

Ethan agreed. “Yes, I think he has a lot of talent. However, as far as putting you in the role of Alexis, obviously, the most important thing is the chemistry between you two.”

“Yes, of course.” Lily bit her lip. “I was told that I’d be booked in for a chemistry read with him.”

Ethan rubbed his hand across his chin before leaning forward and covering Lily’s hand with his own where it rested near her coffee.

“Chemistry is everything, isn’t it?”

Lily felt her stomach plummet and the screaming alarm bells go off in her mind, but desperately tried to continue on with the meeting.

She swallowed. “Yeah, yes. I mean, obviously it’s a big part of the success of any film.” She knew she was rambling slightly, but Ethan’s hand was closing around hers and he tugged her gently forward.

“I want you to have success, Lily.”

Suddenly a shadow fell over the table. “Get your hand off of her.”

Lily jumped slightly at Dean’s hard tone and she looked up at him as Ethan dropped her hand and sat back.

“Excuse me?” He demanded, clearly incensed at Dean’s audacity. He turned his gaze to Lily. “Is this how you normally conduct business? Get your goon to hover around trying to intimidate people who are in a position to help you?”

Lily felt torn. On one hand, her logical mind knew she wasn’t imagining the look in Ethan’s eye a moment ago, and that part of her was so grateful Dean had come along.

But there was still a part of her that was desperate to make this work. The film could be her vehicle back, the beginning of a possible comeback. Her desperation argued that maybe Ethan was just overly friendly, or maybe he was just trying to shoot his shot.

With that possibility in mind she shook her head. “No, no of course not.” She looked up at the towering man beside their table. “Dean, everything is fine. You can wait outside now. I’m just going to finish my lunch and I’ll be out soon.”

Dean didn’t stop glaring at Ethan. “No.”

“Dean.” Lily said sharply, anxious for him to understand how important this was to her, and not make things worse.

Finally Dean looked at her and his green eyes were like chips of jade. Her eyes were imploring. “Please.” She said again. “I’m fine.”

After a few breathless moments, Dean turned on his heel and walked out. Lily’s lungs deflated in relief and she smiled hopefully at Ethan, who was on the verge of actually pouting.

“I’m so sorry, Ethan. Believe me, he’s just a bit too overzealous about his job. He didn’t mean anything by it.”

Ethan nodded, anger still simmering below the surface, Lily could feel it. When he smiled, it didn’t reach his eyes. “Sure.”

Lily cleared her throat. “So, to get back to things, you were talking about meeting with Tom and working a scene together.” She didn’t mention the words chemistry read again, hoping they could just move away from it all together.

But obviously, this was Ethan’s big move because, as he sipped his coffee, he eyeballed her over his cup. Then he set it down and once again reached across the table to take her hand. This time though, his thumb brushed over her pulse and his voice got softer and more intimate.

“As I was saying, Lily, I want to see you succeed, and I think we could forgo the chemistry read. You know, I can get a real sense of your appeal, your sexiness and your charisma just like this.” He entwined their fingers and raised her hand to his lips. “There are things we can work on together, to get you ready, you know. I’m not the only producer on this project, you’ll have to convince the others, and of course Stewart, the director. I can help you convince them.”

He stared into her eyes and there could be no doubt of his meaning. “Right now, you just have to convince me that you’re who I want.”

Lily felt bile rush to the back of her throat and she fought against the lump of tears that formed there too. She took a sip of her coffee and asked a question in one last hail mary attempt to resurrect her hopes.

“And if I can’t,” she looked at him meaningfully, “or won’t convince you?”

Ethan frowned. “That would be likely to ensure a bad outcome.”

Lily nodded and a tear escaped despite her best efforts. She ripped her hand away from his to dash it away quickly as she stood up.

“Well, I’m afraid that a 'hell no' is the only outcome you’ll get from me, Mr. Braun.”

She spun away from the table and wanted to walk out with her head held high. But the truth was she just felt sick, and dirty, and more heartbroken than she cared to admit; she knew she looked every bit as defeated as she felt as she slunk out of the restaurant.

She blinked into the bright sunshine as she stepped through the door. Dean was standing directly beside the door, and immediately moved in front of her, blocking out some of the glaring light.

“Lily?” He asked quietly, and there were endless questions in her name.

But she just shook her head. “Look, I won't play ball, so I’m not gonna get the role and I’d just like to go home now, please.”

Dean’s jaw clenched and he made a move to go back into the restaurant. But Lily frantically reached out for him as he tried to walk past her.

“What are you doing?”

“Dealing with an asshole.” He said simply, still resisting her pull on his arm.

Lily jumped in front of him. “Please, don’t. There’s no point, Dean. Listen to me!” She shouted, finally getting him to look down at her.

“I’m telling you to forget about it. You going in there and what, beating him up? How on earth would that make things better? It wouldn’t.”

Dean scoffed. “I didn’t say I was going to beat him up. I can just…pressure him to give you the role you deserve.”

“What are you, in the mafia now?” Lily shook her head and admitted the truth. “That role was never going to be mine. I was never really considered.” Her heart squeezed. “Or at least not considered as anything but a desperate has-been willing to…”

She bit her lip and pushed on Dean’s chest. “Please, let’s just go.”

Finally Dean relented and they walked back to the car. He looked like he had a lot more to say to her, but she practically jumped into the passenger seat and slammed the heavy door. Dean walked to the driver’s side and stood there for a moment with the door closed. Lily worried for a moment that he was going to go back inside after all.

But finally, he sank into the seat beside her. He turned the key and adjusted his mirror slightly before speaking softly. “Sorry.”

Lily frowned. “For what?”

Dean shrugged slightly. “I let you get hurt.”

His quiet words broke the dam holding back her tears and they fell silently. She laughed without humor. “Don’t be silly, I’m fine. Not the first time, won’t be the last, and there’s no one who can protect actresses from that.”

Dean grunted softly as he put the car in reverse to back out of the lot. “Huh. Bet guys like that would stop that shit pretty quick, if every time they tried, someone swooped in and broke a finger or two, maybe an arm.”

Lily couldn’t help but smile as she sniffled. “Maybe it’s worth a try.”

Dean put the car in park and looked hopeful, as though he might still get to do some damage to the pig producer inside. But Lily laughed for real and waved at him.

“No. No broken bones.”

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bestworstcase · 3 years ago

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@lizarr7 reply on this post

When I first finished the series, and started to get into the fandom, I was disappointed to see the general consensus was that season 1 was good, s2 was fine, and s3 had some good episodes/moments, but was generally bad. One of the major reasons listed always seemed to be that Cass's character ark became weird and her villain part was contrived and had no real foundation. I was like "oh, this sucks. I liked season 3! It was my fave and I loved Cass as a villain. Was I being shallow? Was I ignoring glaring plot holes or forced "character development"? I thought it seemed pretty good for a kids show, especially one so silly." I'm glad there is another community who share my opinion in that regard. It sucks to like something and have everyone else hate on it :(

if it helps any most of the hardcore s3 + cass hate comes from 1. people who convinced themselves back in s1 that moonvarian was gonna happen and are still bitter that it didn’t, many of whom additionally brag about only watching a handful of episodes in s2, and 2. people who hated cassandra from day one and were never interested in engaging with her character in good faith to begin with lmao. just ignore ’em

dunno how long you’ve been in the fandom but cassunzel circles are generally a lot more positive wrt s3, and then there is also [clenches fist] the zhan tiri corner of the fandom we are small but mighty ghdghsksh

anyways

s3 fascinates me because it’s simultaneously...like objectively the messiest on a technical level but also my favorite seasons for a lot of reasons and regardless of the bone i have to pick with how the arc was written, ultimately cassandra’s villain arc i think did deliver on the essentials of the setup done in s1-2, and almost all the things i wanted out of the show, as much as it could within the limits of being a disney princess cartoon targeted primarily at children hgkshns

tangentially related i have got. a list of fic recs floating around somewhere but tumblr being what it is i have no idea how to find it so! short list, some good cass-centric fics, most but not all set during or after s3:

strings by hemlock/pathygen - alt s3, complete, written while the season was airing. focused on cassandra’s journey back to corona with zhan tiri, strong lean into eldritch horror, fantastic imagery. labor by singing light is a follow up oneshot exploring rapunzel’s side of the story

destinies fulfilled by @daylightlucidity - another alt s3, also complete, also focused on cassandra’s journey back to corona with zhan tiri. a lot more canon flavor™ except it says the actual grievances out loud and zhan tiri gets to be a real character instead of a cattle prod

burn a broken effigy of me and you & the doomed knight by murphy @ancientriverbed (who also wrote some excellent fan songs which u should check out!) - the former is a trilogy of ‘missing episodes’ set in each season + a oneshot epilogue, with the third evolving into a whole canon divergent s3; the latter is a standalone winter holidayish oneshot. both are cassunzel endgame. very thinky character driven stories.

not all who wander are lost by @lemon-embalmer - post-canon cass-centric picks up from the end of s3. strikes a much more serious and grounded fantasy tone without losing the voices of any of the canon characters and also has a great cast of OCs.

@erazonpo3’s cassandra’s tangled adventure au is likewise post-canon cass-centric what happens to cass after she leaves corona. very canon-flavor. there’s a bunch of oneshots and a couple longer fics in addition to the art so that link’s just to the au tag.

bite the hand that feeds by @pancat-n-sausage is “tangled the series, but what if cass and rapunzel were both shapeshifters” and strikes a nice balance between canon flavor while also having a more serious feel and while the story itself has not gotten to the zhan tiri parts yet i am excited about her lore™

i don’t. read a lot of oneshots but here are a few that i like

...also i wrote the thing so reccing it feels like cheating LMAO but i really am fond of gloaming all i do is write variations on s3 and i think it’s my favorite to to date

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lumilasi · 4 years ago

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I saw this in my feed and since I was pretty bored and FINALLY free from the said boredom, figured I could do this one. I generally enjoy question based tags, especially if they relate to art/writing/fandom/are some general things about favorite colors, music, foods, things about your home country etc.

(basically, you can tag me in stuff similar to listed above things and I’ll probably do them if I see them/have time lmao)

Fic Writer Questions!

How many works do you have on AO3?

44 total. I used to have more but I’ve deleted an old Bleach one I knew I’d never continue to write, and two bnha ones for the same reason (those two were also at the very beginning stages so nobody missed a lot anyway)

What's your total AO3 wordcount?

4 269 068......wow. It’s even MORE than I even imagined. Over 4 million words.

....Someone take my writing tools away from me lmao

How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

Three. I started with MCU, moved on to Bleach and now I’ve done most ofr BNHA

What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Crossroads - 3069

Family Secrets - 3015

Reanimate - 1534

The neighbor - 809

Espada and Fraccion - 782

.....Admittedly this list surprised me. Not the first three but the last two. The fifth is an one shot for Bleach that I wrote AGES ago. I also for some reason expected this list to match the bookmark list more lmao

Do you respond to comments, why or why not?

I always try to respond to every comment I get, but often times when it’s just one word or a heart emoji I don’t really know what to say, so I might not reply to those. I do appreciate every comment I get, and read every single one, even if I don’t respond

What's the fic you've written with the angstiest ending?

I don’t do angst endings typically, but Family Secrets is probs the most obvious choice, given what happens at the end.

- and its not even the real end, because I couldn’t help myself and made two more stories for the AU that was like “hey! this character I made you all love so much actually DIDN’T die, he just had unfinished business back home” lmao

Do you write crossovers? If so what is the craziest one you've ever written?

Rarely, typically they’re between my own fics (the story that crosses the paths of Crossroads and Family Secrets AU’s, literally titled Crossover, creative name I know OTL I was out of ideas)

Or between me and other people’s fics. Currently there’s two, both with Crossroads: one with Theteapotofdoom’s fic Something Good, and another with leontheneon’s fic Here with you. Both stories are basically a two part series that is non canon to actual Crossroads. The first story is finished, second one has two chapters left...that...I uh...struggle to write it seems OTL

(not tagging either person into this because Tea is very busy IRL right now so I don’t want to bother her, and Leon hasn’t been around in ages, IDK if they even use tumblr anymore)

Have you ever received hate on a fic?

Not really no? I can only remember one time with somebody kind of demanding me to completely rewrite one fic in the past. It wasn’t really hate, more just...kinda unreasonable in my eyes? This was years ago by now.

While I did understand their side and the particular struggle they had (once they actually explained it, the first comment at the time came off pretty rude and demanding), I still feel them wanting me to re-write an entire multi-chapter fic just for them is a bit unreasonable, like said.

Like it wasn’t just couple of grammatical errors that was their issue, we’re talking weeks and even months long process of completely reworking multi-chapter story, because the grammar wasn’t tip top perfect. (I’m not a native speaker so there’s bound to be some mistakes; pointing out small occasional things is one thing - asking me to rewrite an entire multi-chapter story is another)

You can imagine that is not exactly high on my priorities list with IRL responsibilities and being more focused on the actual content of what I write, the ongoing stories I’m updating. This fic isn’t even finished yet either, so...yeah. Like after they explained their side of the story I was a bit more understanding, but its still....a bit ridiculous and unreasonable in my eyes to ask somebody to do such a massive overhaul when the story isn’t even finished yet?? Like maybe once its done and I have time I can go and edit it, but not when I haven’t even finished it lmao

Do you write smut? If so what kind?

Nah. I don’t care about smut a whole lot personally. I much more enjoy writing emotional scenes, character interactions and mystery. Plot over porn basically lmao

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

I don’t...do people actually do this? It feels like such a weird and pointless thing to do. It’s fanfic. stuff you write for fun and for free, for people to read for free. I’d also imagine its pretty easy to get caught given AO3 shows when you first posted your story.

Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes, a couple of times. In Russian and I think other one was Chinese?

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Writing the crossovers was kinda that? Like I asked feedback from Tea and Leon on how to write them. there was also actually third crossover story that was supposed to happen (only I wasn’t going to be the one to write it) but this project has been shelved as the other person had to drop majority of online activity due to some IRL health related things. (I’m just glad they recently contacted me to inform they were doing better)

What’s your all time favorite ship?

Right now it’s..probably pretty obvious its Shigadabi, but I can never really say any ship is my all time fave, as it always changes depending on the fandom lmao.

I guess my favorite character x proper sleep/emotional stability/happiness will always be the OTP

What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

Oof. I always try to finish every single one, and if I absolutely know I won’t, I tend to just delete them. Thankfully I’ve only done it thrice. Which I guess is still a lot, but compared to how much I write, in context not really?

What are your writing strengths?

From what I’ve gathered of feedback, its typically emotional moments/character dialogue and interaction/character arcs and so. Mystery plots too. Or maybe that last one is just me lmao

What are your writing weakness?

Personally, while I tend to get positive feedback on both, sometimes I feel like I struggle to choose a good pacing for a fic, and fight scenes are always a pain. Namely, I might struggle with making the pace too long-winded and slow sometimes. Ironically, my IRL update pacing is probs a bit too fast in turn. (To add another layer of irony, I got an update ready for Unravel that I’ll post after making this tag)

Also writing shorter stories. I’ve been trying to write one-shots more (like the Spinaraki series thing) to kinda try and get myself to pack up my stories better and not let them always spiral out of control haha

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

I did try to do that once with a fic I deleted, I had a native speaker help me with the canadian french bits. This person is no longer active on tumblr, and I deleted that fic because I realized I’d never finish it.

Technically tho, as a non-native English speaker, EVERY word is in other language to me lmao. I could only add Finnish as an extra one easily, and it rarely makes sense to do so anyway.

What was the first fandom you ever wrote for?

MCU. It’s what I originally made my AO3 for, as I felt brave enough to post things. I also can’t remember writing fandom related stuff before that, it was typically more oc related. Writing fics has helped me learn a lot about world-building, character consistency and all that stuff, without having to make everything from scratch (tho I do enjoy doing that as well of course). I feel like my original work writing has improved too thanks to my fic writing shenanigans in a way lmao. Tho that might just be me, IDK

What’s your favorite fic you’ve written?

Oooof. This changes a lot depending on the time. I can never really pick just one either: my current favorites are Stringmaster, The neighbor and Family Secrets

Stringmaster because I love building the Steampunk AU, and Tomura’s relationship with Dabi and his Sensei, The neighbor because I personally think the romance build up in that one is probably one of the best I’ve done so far (the character dialogue in that is among my favorites I’ve written as well) and FS, because it taught me a lot about character building through writing a character like Hisashi.

Plus I just really like Hisashi.

And baby Izuku and little Tenko are super adorable.

And Inko is the best mum.

Also the fact the whole story is so ironic in a sense its still kinda funny to me.

The only writer I know that might be around rn is @nightlilly0110 soo...I guess I’ll tag them if they want to do this! Anybody who’s a writer can snatch this too of course ;)

#tag game #writer tag #fic writing

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petork · 4 years ago

Note

-105 please

NB i am told this was meant to say 1-50

thanks queen <3 here we go

1. Who is your favourite ghost?

lately? it's been kitty. and i'm contractually obligated to love the captain

2. If you could see the ghosts like Alison, which one do you think would come the closest to making you want to leave the house?

the obvious answer is julian but probably actually robin, i HATE being spooked (as the asker can attest xx)

3. How would you feel if you couldn’t see the ghosts, but knew they were there, like Mike?

i'd feel mad jealous even though i'd actually have it pretty good. the other person would be trying so hard to tell me how much it sucks and i'd just be like 'but... goast.....'

4. Would you want to see ghosts like Alison, or would you rather be ignorant to their goings and doings?

again my immediate answer is I WANNA SEE THEM but i also know that might suck in many ways. at least for a while. i am not a patient person so i don't know if i could learn to live with them like alison could. but on the other hand... the chance to actually talk to people from the fucking actual past... thinking emoji!

5. If you were a ghost living in the house, would you rather be upstairs with the main nine ghosts, or downstairs with the plague ghosts?

upstairs for sure, sorry to the plague ghosts but i do not want to hang out in a basement for eternity

6. If you were someone who died in the house would you rather be “sucked off” immediately, or would you like to hang around a bit and get to know some of the other ghosts before getting “sucked off”?

i would probably just end up staying forever because i'm scared of the void of death.... <3

7. Which ghost would you miss the most if they were “sucked off” in the next series?

UNBELIEVABLE question? i'd miss ALL OF THEM. but see question 1 also

8. Which ghost do you think you’d get along with the best?

it's hard to say. i think they would all get on my nerves because as said i am not very patient. but the one who would irritate me LEAST... maybe pat?

9. Which ghost would you say you’re most like?

captain. not to be a cliche but i'm gay and repressed. and also irritable and grumpy

10. Which ghost would you say you’re least like?

JULIAN

11. What is a (popular or not) fan theory that you love?

(pasted from prev answer) i don’t actually like ship it because he’s definitely older than her, but a couple of people have said kitty sometimes acts like she has a crush on thomas. which is cute to me even if she does need to get better taste (love u kitty xxx)

12. What is a (popular or not) fan theory that you don’t quite agree with?

(pasted from prev answer) not so much a specific theory but i disagree with the general idea that anything of consequence went on with the captain and havers. i think it was meant to come across as just a snippet of the captain’s poor sad gay life and, as several brain geniuses have pointed out, due to the timing of germany invading france + the captain’s medals the flashback must have been from a good few years BEFORE he died. and i think the flashback was the last time they ever saw each other, so i don’t think that a) havers has any link to the captain’s eventual death or 2) anything romantic ever happened between them

13. Favourite ship and why?

captain x my cute oc boyfriend because i've tailored it to my exact needs. why ship retail when you can ship bespoke?

14. Least favourite ship and why? (Please be nice though!)

patcap as we all know. like YES i'm a contrary bitch so i don't like things that are popular and i do think i'm better than everyone else... but really idk why exactly i just don't gel with it at all. and when i've tried to read fic in the past it feels to me like their characters are kind of flattened. and i think the captain is too much of a bitch. and i think pat is serving us normie heterosexual. it's the 'cinnamon roll' ship of this fandom and i can't STAND (metaphorical) cinnamon rolls. AND ALSO pat is not the simple soft dad cinnamon roll fandom often makes him out to be! like he is a very nice person but he's also fucked up and insane like all of them. anyway my brain charges extremely low rents

15. If you could go back in time and live in the house/on the property at the same time as one of the ghosts when they were alive, who would you pick?

captain. need to know wtf's going on with him

16. Would you rather inherit the house (and its ghostly inhabitants), or just visit?

realistically... visit. i think i would lose my mind eventually if i lived there

17. Do you think we’ll ever know how every ghost died? Do you think there will be anyone whose death we’ll never learn about?

i hope we do, but i also appreciate that isn't the sole point of the series, otherwise it would be kinda boring and discovering how they died wouldn't be as impactful. if there's anyone's death we don't find out about, i think it would probably be robin? lol what if it was so long ago he just forgot

18. What is your favourite Ghosts fanfiction?

so i'm stupid and i never use bookmarks on ao3..... i've read a LOT of different fics i like but do you think i can revisit them? no! because i'm stupid! so i cannot fairly pick an absolute fave sorry

19. What is your favourite Ghosts fan art?

THIS <3

all the babies and children on here talk about horrible histories the show being 'their childhood'........ put some respect on terry deary's name. and this artist did!

20. Tag 5 favourite Ghosts fandom content creators!

honestly i'm not good with like. knowing people. but here are 5 fanfics i've enjoyed (based on the author's replies in my inbox because, again, i am too stupid to use bookmarks)

https://archiveofourown.org/works/28287567

https://archiveofourown.org/works/29868645

https://archiveofourown.org/works/28653192

https://archiveofourown.org/works/28067277/chapters/68761830

https://archiveofourown.org/works/26957662/chapters/65795407

21. Are there any historical periods you wish we’d have gotten to see a ghost/ghosts from but didn’t?

(pasted from other post) not to be predictable but i would have liked to see a 1960s ghost. like a mod who crashed his scooter or something. we have enough 20th century ghosts though but i believe the us remake has some kind of hippie ghost…

22. What is something you’re hoping to see in a future series?

flashback to the captain getting some. like implied or whatever. i can't cope with him dying a virgin. he needs this

23. What is something you’re hoping to see in a future series, but know we probably WON’T get to see?

(pasted from other post) alison meets someone else who can see ghosts, and we get to see the ghosts at THEIR house…. i always love it when we see extra ghosts but i know they probably won’t make any recurring because it would come off as running out of ideas. but i still think they should add a 90s teenager named roy

24. Which lesser-seen characters would you like to see more of in future series?

tbh there's none i can think of that i think we should SEE more of, they get a pretty good balance. there are some i definitely want to learn more about though

25. Are there any characters you wish we’d see less?

don't make me pick a least favourite child </3 but also i think thomas could probably tone it down a bit.

26. Favourite one-liner?

I'LL WAIT FOR YOU, MY COMELY NUG - me whenever i order chicken nuggets on just eat

27. Favourite episode?

DON'T EVEN... i like 2x06 and 3x05 a lot

28. Top 5 headcanons for [insert character name here]?

i'm going to do the captain because obviously i am

- he may or may not have been lavender married

- he may or may not have had a drinking problem

- public schoolboy with domineering father, clearly

- IF he had a lavender wife then she spent all her time in the company of her 'odd' female friend who wore men's clothes, smoked cigars and drove a motorbike. the captain was obviously clueless

that's 4 so a cheeky one for fanny:

- she did a lot of medicinal coke

29. Whose costume is your favourite?

kitty. gotta love an ott ballgown

30. Whose costume is your least favourite?

that's an offtopic question. you have been stopped.

31. If you could do a complete redesign of one of the ghosts’ costumes, whose would you change and how?

i would give thomas his double denim

32. If you could play any of the existing ghosts, which one would you want to play and why?

i think i'd be good at playing mary. meek weird girl who says things that don't make any sense? omg she is LITERALLY me

33. Which ghost would you least like to play and why?

julian, i'm not getting my pussy out

34. What one thing would you miss most if you became a ghost and had to live by the same rules as the Button House ghosts?

FOOD. food. eating and food.

35. How do you think one or more of the ghosts whose deaths we haven’t seen died? Or, if we know the cause of death but not the reason for the death (like Mary being burned as a witch or Humphrey being beheaded), why do you think they were killed?

i think mary's execution might have had something to do with her husband's death and her being unfairly accused or something. also like, she just acts kinda weird, and we know how that often played out for women back then...

and i think the captain died in some really boring mundane natural causes way (congenital heart attack or something) but he's stuck around because a) he's never come to terms with the whole h*mo thing and 2) he was just really mad that he died so boringly

36. Favourite [insert character name here] moment?

CAPTAIN GETTING KITTY TO SMILE

37. What do you think [insert character name here] was like when they were alive? Do you think they were exactly the same as they are now, or do you think there were any major or minor differences?

ok i'll do fanny for this one. i think she was less domineering when she was alive, in death she clearly thinks of herself as above the other ghosts and bosses them around, and when she talks shit about george it's not like he can get back at her in any way. but it would be interesting to see how they interacted when both were alive

38. It’s your turn to pick a movie for film club! What are you watching?

(from prev post) i haven’t seen any movies errr….. maybe austin powers because it’s so sad that julian died just a few years before it came out because he would love it and get really annoying about quoting it all the time and it would be really funny for the captain (who thought the movie was unironic) to have to deal with that. and fanny would NOT COPE.

39. Would you rather share a room with Thomas (constantly sighing and reciting bad poetry) or Fanny (falls out of the window screaming every night)?

fanny. men be quiet challenge

40. If you could do some kind of historical swap (i.e. place a ghost in a different period from their own), who would you choose and what period are they from now?

i would like to give kitty the chance to be a 20th or 21st century girl. maybe an era like the 60s or 80s that was known for daring fashions, i think she would luv it

41. Let’s settle this once and for all. Who’s the real leader, the Captain or Pat?

fanny

42. If the ghosts could eat, what is one food you would like to share with them that they might not have tried before?

doritos tangy cheese, mountain dew baja blast, 4loko. i would make thomas try a jalapeno. i would also make them try my cooking experiments because i do that to anyone i live with

43. You’ve heard rumours of a tenth upstairs ghost who doesn’t often venture out of their room to visit with the other residents of the house. Who are they? (i.e. make up a ghost OC. I know i’m putting you on the spot. I just want to see what you come up with.)

it's george button and his bitch ass is too scared of his wife to come down. his downfall comes when he finds out there's another gay ghost and simply has to clap them cheeks (he fails)

44. Tell me a song you think [insert character name here] would like, or a song that reminds you of them!

i think alison's probably already introduced him to them but thomas + anything by the smiths. i would also make the captain sit quietly and listen to a tracy chapman cd (for my lover...)

45. What song(s) do you think would annoy certain ghosts the most?

the smiths would annoy everyone except thomas. literally they'd all be trying to re-kill him

46. Who is one actor you’d love to see guest star? What kind of character would you like to see them play?

steve coogan as like. anyone. preferably a ghost. a roman centurion ghost if you wanna get cultural. but seriously i just want alan

47. If you could have one Horrible Histories song in Ghosts (either sung by a ghost/ghosts, or playing on the TV or computer for them to watch), which one would you want it to be and why?

that song about how no 'british' stuff is actually british. like tea. i want julian to melt down

48. What do you think the ghosts’ jobs would be in a modern living-human AU where they’re all just chaotic housemates?

captain & kitty: have their own wedding planning company

julian: still a politician but instead of an mp he's like a parish councillor. handforth antics

fanny: headteacher

robin: cool off the shits teacher at same school who undermines fanny wherever possible. deals weed to students

mary: runs a shop selling like healing crystals and incense and dreamcatchers

humphrey: customer service supervisor who actually likes his job because he takes no shit and just fucks with every single customer

thomas: unemployed podcaster

pat: dogwalker

49. What is one modern invention you think [insert character name here] would be surprised or confused by?

fanny would be so baffled by any Feminine Products. when she discovers tampons it's all she can talk about for a week. the mooncup made her go into a coma

50. Name an AU you haven’t seen someone create content for, but which you’d love to read a fic or see some art for.

not to be the way i am but i'd love if anyone ever drew art or something about my au which is a modern-day au where fanny and captain are alison and kitty's divorced parents, julian and robin are captain's brothers and alison's wack uncles, mary is their childhood nanny, thomas is a student lodger at button house, humphrey is a cat and pat is just some guy. but yeah in the past i've had a couple of anons on here mention it and i did melt into a puddle... i think if someone did art i'd explode and die. in a good way like

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pappydaddy · 5 years ago

Text

Ophelia (s.h.)

A/N: This is the first part (yay!) out of the I Wanna Be Yours series. If you notice, there is a theme to this: songs!! Pretty much this entire series is inspired by songs and music so I put together a playlist on Spotify (if you have Apple music, feel free to make a playlist on that but please inform me first!) and I might make one on youtube but idk.

Each part is going to have the songs I listened to while writing it, inspired it, or fit with the contents of the part. Please, if you’re going to listen to the playlist, don’t put it on shuffle while you read it because I worked really hard to get the order right!! I hope you guys enjoy this!! (Also enjoy my weird, wide range of music😂).

PLEASE TAKE A SECOND TO LOOK AT MY PINNED POST AND SIGN THE PETITION!!

Pairing: Steve Harrington x Fem!OC(named)

Warnings: Angst, violence in some parts, arguments, body image issues, feeling belittled/feeling weak, SPOILERS!!(for all seasons).

Fandom: Stranger Things

I Wanna Be Yours Playlist (Spotify)

This parts songs:

This parts songs: I Wanna Hold Your Hand - The Beatles | Ophelia - Lumineers | Poison - Rita Ora | Less I Know The Better - Tame Impala | Nothing's Gonna Hurt You Baby - Cigarettes After Sex

IF YOU WANT TO BE ADDED TO THE TAG LIST FOR THIS SERIES (TRYING THEM OUT) PLEASE DM ME OR JUST ASK!!

masterlist | taglist | wips | navigation

- not my gif -

Sitting in the driver's seat of her car, she listened to her brother ramble on and on about only two subjects: this new girlfriend named Suzie and Steve Harrington. Every time he brought the ramblings back to his fluffy-haired older friend, she found her mind wandering. Steve Harrington had proven himself to be much more different than she had first perceived. When she had moved to Hawkins, she had thought him to be an egotistical asshole who only cared about a title and he had proven her right through his actions until one day when he suddenly just wasn’t. Suddenly, Steve was the boy who was dating Nancy Wheeler and hanging around with Jonathan Byers. He no longer was ‘King Steve’ (the king title being passed to Billy Hargrove), he no longer had Tommy H. and Carol as his two annoying shadows. Ophelia wasn’t quite sure what happened between the three, but it must have been pretty big.

Despite the change in his ranking within the high school, she still didn’t fully trust him. His past actions went against everything she believed in. She believed in kindness and loyalty, not getting into fist-fights, bullying and ignoring people just because you perceive yourself as better than them. Maybe that’s why they never seemed to become friends for the majority of the time he went to high school.

“Ophelia,” Her brother’s call of her name snapped her from her thoughts of her history with her brother’s friend. “Are you even listening to me?” He asked her when she glanced at him quickly. She pressed on the brake of her car, getting ready to turn into the bustling mall parking lot.

“Yes, of course I’m listening!” She lied, looking back in front of her.

“Really? Then why haven’t you been answering me when I’ve asked how Steve’s been doing?” Dustin perked an eyebrow at his older sister. Sure, her and Steve Harrington were not friends through most of Steve’s high school career, but that had changed when Dustin had brought them together to help capture Dart, leading to Ophelia’s second go around with the Upside down. He had changed once again. With Nancy Wheeler dumping in at Tina’s Halloween party and then running off with Jonathan, she had seen Steve once again change his spots. After fighting the Upside Down alongside him, their friendship blossomed.

“Because, we’re about to see him so you can actually ask him for yourself, Dipwad.” She commented, trying to get Dustin off her case. All she needed was for him to know just how she felt about the dopey, hair-obsessed boy. Sure, their sudden and shocking friendship was not the last of Steve’s changing. Through their growing friendship, she had watched as he changed into the dorky, clumsy, parent of six. Sure, he lost his charm, but somehow, his lack of charm captured Ophelia’s heart. Maybe it was finally seeing the true Steve Harrington that made her heart skip a beat every time she so much as heard his name. Or maybe it was the way he developed a new charm that the girls of Hawkins have yet to fall for, but no matter how it happened, she definitely fell head over heels for him.

“I don’t want him to know I’m worried about him.” Dustin exclaimed, his eyes nearly bugging out of his head as he gripped his hat covered curls in frustration. Ophelia gave him a look as she pulled into a parking spot, turning the car off swiftly.

“He’s fine, Dusty,” She reassured him, pulling the keys from the ignition. “Why are you so worried about him anyway?” She posed the question. Sure, he had been a little bummed out since he hadn’t gotten into any schools he applied for, and he was a little upset about having to get a crappy part-time job, but it wasn’t anything to make Ophelia too concerned. Of course, it hurt her a little hearing him talking about himself the way he does, but what hurts her the most was the little game him and Robin were playing. Seeing him shamelessly (and horribly) flirting with girl after girl who ventured into Scoops Ahoy was poison to her heart. Each wink he gave the girls was like a needle injecting the next dose right into her valves, wanting to kill the beating organ.

“Between you and me, I think he’s lost his mojo a little, Leah,” Dustin whispered to her over the hood of her car as they climbed out. She gave him a look that told him that he was crazy, but he just challenged it with a knowing look. “He hasn’t had a date since Nancy left him and he doesn’t go to parties. He’s lost his confidence and, in turn, lost his mojo.” Dustin explained.

“He didn’t lose his mojo, Dustin. He’s changed, he’s grown and he’s trying to figure himself out and he hasn’t tried to get a date since Nancy left him.” She pointed out, trying to cease her brother’s worries. Sure, he’s flirted, but he hasn’t actually put himself out there. Ophelia knows the difference between flirting and actually wanting a relationship all too well. Her trusting nature had made her fall privy to people just wanting attention or sex, but on the flipside, her trusting nature had let her experience some of the most beautiful relationships - most of them which had turned sour towards the end, but none-the-less, were still a beautiful heart-break.

“I’m still going to worry about him.” Dustin remarked as they walked into the mall. Ophelia hummed, dropping her hand on top of his hat covered head, ruffling it slightly before falling to rest on the bookbag he wore on his back. She made him stop for a second as she dropped her keys in her purse, pulling her wallet out.

“Alright, you head over to Scoops, here’s some money,” She told Dustin, handing him a couple of bills. “Steve is going to try and give you free ice cream, tell him no and give him the money or put it in the tip jar. Trust me, it has been my entire summer.” She instructed him. Admittedly, her heart would soar like an eagle in the sky when Steve would push her hand full of money, insisting that it was on the house every time she wanted an ice cream, thinking that he might just actually feel the same way she did, her desperate heart filling her mind with hopes that would quickly cloud over with dark thunder clouds when he would send flirty statements over the counter at the next girl.

“Wait, you’re not coming with me?” Dustin furrowed his brows, taking the money.

“I will be there in a few, I’m heading over to work to check the schedule, and Brett said he needed to talk to me about something anyway.” She told him, stuffing her wallet back in her purse. Dustin narrowed his eyes at her at the name.

“Whose Brett?” He cocked his head to the side. He had heard the name before, most likely from one of Ophelia’s friends gushing about random guys while they were locked up in her room.

“He works with me, he’s also the captain of the hockey team - Melissa never shut up about him in grade nine,” She answered him, patting his shoulder. Dustin hummed at this, nodding. He looked at the bills she handed him, counting them to see how much she gave him. “I won’t be long, Brett usually writes my hours down for me anyway.” Told him before walking away from him and towards the escalators, heading towards Tower Records. Dustin didn’t pay the information any attention as he made his way towards Scoops.

His sneakers squeaked against the tiled floor as he looked around the mall in awe. He hadn’t seen it yet, only heard about it in Ophelia’s letters to him while he was at camp, but nothing she said could do the actual thing justice. The bright neon signs, the high-end stores. The sleek glass in the ceiling letting the sun provide natural light. The fountain, the hustle and bussle. It was great. Walking into the sailor themed ice cream parlor, he took in the blue and white striped wallpaper and the cheery sailor tone playing.

Steve was nowhere to be seen when he walked in, so he fell into line behind the two people standing at the counter. He waited patiently, gripping the now crumpled bills in his hands. He could see the girl behind the counter with short blonde hair what had the softest wave to it. Her blue eyes looked bored and unenthusiastic. “Have a nice day.” She drawled, her eyes vacant of joy as she handed the two people their ice cream cones.

“Thank you.” The girl smiled at the blonde before the pair of them left, happily licking their ice cream. Dustin smiled, knowing he was so close to seeing Steve again. The girl behind the counter pressed her hands into it, leaning on them as she turned her uninterested gaze on the beaming Dustin who showed off his toothless smile.

“Hi.” Dustin basically bounced in his spot from excitement.

“Hi.” She drawled, not nearly as excited as Dustin was. Silence passed between them as they looked at each other. Dustin’s smile never filtered and the blonde’s expression never changed. Dustin opened his mouth, gesturing towards himself awkwardly.

“I’m Dustin.” He introduced himself, thinking that Steve had told his co-worker all about him. He told almost anyone who would listen about how excited he was to get back home and see Steve so he expected nothing less from his older friend.

“I’m Robin.” The blonde replied, a forced smile on her lips. She really just wanted him to order his ice cream and move along so that maybe the day could go by faster.

“Pleasure to meet you, uh-” He told her politely. Much like she wanted him to hurry up, Dustin just wanted this to be done with so he could see his friend. “Is-is he here?” Dustin asked with a gesture of his hand, his bright eyes scanning over the space behind the counter.

“Is who here?” Robin asked, somewhat intrigued with this strange child. He was so happy and cheerful, his eyes bright. Just then, the swinging door leading to the backroom burst open making them snap their attention towards it. With a squeak of his sneaker, Steve was there, his eyes wide with excitement, just knowing that his friend was out in the parlor.

“Henderson,” He stepped away from the door, raising his arms in the air, a wide smile on his face at the sight of the curly haired teen. Dustin started to laugh, pointing towards the older boy as his smile grew, his eyes squinting from it. “Henderson! He’s back,” Steve jumped around as he rushed around the counter, trying to reach his best friend. “He’s back!” He basically yelled, pointing to Dustin. He glanced at Robin as if she was supposed to care. Robin clued into just who the strange child was at the last name. Ophelia’s little brother. Their cheery happiness was almost uncanny.

“I’m back! You got the job!” Dustin exclaimed.

“I got the job,” Steve matched Dustin’s enthusiasm, making a trumpet noise while pretending to play one. “Hey, oh!” He said as they performed an intricate handshake. Robin watched the two with raised eyebrows as they pretended to be fighting with lightsabers before Dustin pretended to stab Steve, prompting Steve to pretend his guts were falling out. They finished the handshake, looking at each other and laughing. Steve rested his arm on the cooler beside him, both of them sighing and coming down from their laughter.

“How many children are you friends with?” Robin asked, leaning forward on her hands more, eyeing Steve. He certainly wasn’t the same Steve she knew in high school. Steve looked at her, sighing before sniffling as his smile shrunk. Swiping his finger under his nose, he gestured towards Robin with his hand, giving Dustin a look.

“So, hey, uh,” Steve started, looking around the parlor, placing both his hands on his hips and kicking his foot out. The musical laughter of the girl he was almost positive he would see today was missing. “Where’s your sister? I thought she’d come in with you.” He asked, looking at Dustin. Dustin shrugged, looking around the parlor to take it all in.

“She said she’d be here soon, she had to stop by the store to check the schedule and apparently some guy wanted to talk to her about something there,” Dustin told him, once again not thinking much of it. “I think she said his name was like Brent or something, I don’t know - I wasn’t really listening.” Dustin admitted. Steve’s heart sunk slightly, floating slowly to the bottom of his feet like a paper falling to the floor.

“You mean Brett?” Robin spoke up, her eyebrow perked curiously. One thing about her not being in the popular crowd, she learned to observe and gather her information that way. She could clearly see how Steve felt about Ophelia. Whenever she came into the store on her break, his brown eyes would light up like a kid on Christmas. He would constantly bring her up. He could be scrubbing the staff toilet and find a way to bring Ophelia up. She was almost positive that Steve was head over heels for her.

“Yeah-yeah, that sounds right.” Dustin nodded, not paying much attention as he scanned over the ice cream tubs in the cooler.

“Oh man, that guy’s been hooked on her for like two years, I heard he took the job at Tower Records because he heard that she was going to be working there.” Robin informed them. Steve could have sworn he had died right then and there. He felt strangely possessive and protective over the eldest Henderson since she squared up against Billy and lasted pretty well until she ended up on the floor next to Steve, knocked out. The sight of her beat up face was the last thing Steve saw before he finally clocked out.

If he was being completely honest, he had developed a crush on her way before Nancy. He would always see her floating around the halls of the school with a bright smile, always saying hi to everyone. It was like she was friends with the entire school population. You’d be hard pressed to find someone who didn’t like Ophelia Henderson, but somehow, Steve hung out with the only two people who didn’t. They despised the girl. Thought she was too nice, too good even though everyone at school has seen her knocking shot after shot back at parties. When he had developed feelings for Nancy, he had thought his feelings for Ophelia were long gone, but seeing her taking no shit from Billy and fighting the Demodogs alongside him last year proved him semi-wrong, instead of a crush, he had a fierce need to protect her and keep her way from any guy who he deemed not right for her (which was pretty much all of them).

As if on cue, she floated into the parlor with a large smile on her face. “Hey everyone!” She cheered, walking up to her brother and Steve. Steve looked at her, his own smile stretching on his face. He could practically feel his face light up at the sight of her. She smiled brightly at him, rolling up onto the balls of her feet excitedly.

“Hey, Leah, Dustin said Brett wanted to talk to you, what’d he say?” Robin asked, curious to see what the development of the love triangle that was brewing. Only an idiot couldn’t see that Steve and Ophelia both liked each other and you would have to be living under a rock not to realize that Brett Morris also chased after the oblivious girl.

Ophelia smiled wider - if that was even possible - at the question, her eyes lightning up with excitement. Steve gazed at her expression, wishing he could have caused it. “He wants to hang out with me, as a date!” She exclaimed, walking between her brother and Steve to stand in front of the counter. Steve wanted to die at this news. Brett Morris was a loser - a scrawny, entitled loser who flew through girls like crazy. He had no place going on a date with someone as pure and sweet as Ophelia. He wouldn’t appreciate the beauty of her eyes, swirling with different colours and sparkling with light. Would he fully understand just how precious her laughter was?

“Really? That’s awesome.” Robin smiled at the excited girl.

“Yeah, I know! I have to go get a new outfit,” She gushed, whirling around to look at Dustin and Steve. “I’ll be back later to get him, do not hype him up on sugar, understand be Harrington?” She told him, not sticking around long enough to get an answer, instead rushing back out of the parlor. Steve pressed his lips into a fine line, his nose flared. Robin looked at him with an amused smile, ready for the chaos of a love triangle.

***

Ophelia sauntered back into Scoops, looking at the rush to see Robin manning the counter alone, Steve and her brother nowhere to be seen. “Hey, Robin, where did Steve take my brother?” She asked as Erica and her group of Erica clones walked out. Robin looked towards her, a stressed out look in her eyes.

“They’re in the back,” She told her, nudging her head towards the door as she walked towards it herself. Ophelia rushed around the counter, following Robin into the back room as she burst through the door. “All right, babysitting time is over, you need to get in there.” Robin told Steve walking into the room.

“Yeah, and it’s time for us to go Dustin.” Ophelia told her brother. The two girls stopped, looking at the two boys. Steve backed up to stand beside Dustin who was at the table, facing them. Their eyes were wide and scared, almost as if they were caught doing something they shouldn’t have been. Steve held a half-eaten banana in his hand, his cheeks pushed out with bits of banana in them, mid-chew. She looked at them oddly, knowing that nothing good could come of this.

“Hey! My board,” Robin exclaimed, whirling around to look at Steve and Dustin. Ophelia looked over at her to see her standing by a board on the wall that seemed to hold the Russian characters on it. “That was important data, Shitbirds!” Ophelia rolled her eyes at that. It wasn’t important data to her, in fact, maybe now that the board was erased, the game would stop and Ophelia could find the anecdote for the poison.

“I guarantee you, what we’re doing is way more important than your data.” Dustin told her, earning a glare from his sister. Steve nodded along, eating the rest of his banana and tossing the peel to the table in front of Dustin.

“Oh yeah, and how do you know these Russians are up to no good anyways?” She challenged, walking to stand in front of the table.

“What Russians?” Ophelia asked, suddenly very concerned. Steve and Dustin looked at each other with startled looks.

“Your brother intercepted a Russian transmission using some sort of radio and they plan to translate the transmission and become American Heroes.” Robin told her. Ophelia nodded slowly, taking the information in.

“How does she know about the Russians?” Dustin whispered to Steve.

“I don’t know.” Steve spoke through a mouth full of banana, shrugging his shoulders. His brown eyes were wide, his eyebrows shooting up into his hairline. Under other circumstances, Ophelia would think he looked cute, but not when they were trying to translate a Russian transmission.

“You told her about-”

“It wasn’t me!” Steve defended himself, cutting Dustin off.

“Hello! I can hear you, actually I can hear everything. You are both extremely loud,” Robin broke the news to them. “You think you have evil Russians plotting against our country, on tape, and you’re trying to translate it, but haven’t figured out a single word because you didn’t realize that Russian’s use a completely different alphabet than we do,” She rattled off. Dustin and Steve looked at each other in shock before looking back at Robin. “Is that about right?” She asked. Ophelia stepped up, standing beside her. If these two idiots were getting into something then so was she. They were pretty much a package deal at this point.

Robin lunged forward, trying to swipe the tape off the table, but Steve grabbed it before her. “Woah - Oh! What do you think you’re doing?” Steve asked her with a crazed look in his eyes. Ophelia raised her eyebrows at it.

“I wanna hear it!” Robin bounced slightly, showing more enthusiasm that she ever does when doing her job.

“I do too.” Ophelia told them, walking over and pulling out a chair from the table, sitting down in the spot in front of Steve. Steve shook his head at her.

“Why?” Both Dustin and Steve asked at the same time, mostly directed to Robin. They could see why Ophelia would want to, since she had been by Dustin’s side since Will’s disappearance.

“Cause maybe I can help,” Robin shrugged. “I am fluent in four languages, you know?” She disclosed to them proudly. Ophelia looked over at her, impressed.

“Russian?” Dustin asked, intrigued. Robin leaned closer to him.

“Ou-yay are-yay umb-day.” She told him. Steve and Dustin looked excited, making Ophelia shake her head, slapping her hand to her forehead.

“Oh-ho-ho!” Steve exclaimed.

“Holy shit!” Dustin smiled wide, thinking that she actually spoke Russian to them. Robin straightened up, her face blank while Ophelia was questioning her brother’s sanity.

“That was pig-latin, Digus,” She told him, making their smiles fall. Steve looked down at Dustin, slapping him with the banana peel that he had picked up for some reason, muttering ‘idiot’ under his breath, not wanting to admit that he also thought Robin was speaking Russian. Robin sat across the table from Ophelia. “But, I speak Spanish and French and Italian, and I’ve been in band for twelve years. My ears are little geniuses, trust me.” Robin argued her case.

“I also speak fluent French and a little latin and, don’t forget, I’ve saved you two before.” Ophelia reminded them, giving them a knowing look. Steve and Dustin looked at each other, unsure if they should let them help. Steve definitely didn’t want to let Ophelia help. It was too dangerous, it went against every fiber in his being telling him to protect her.

“Come on, it’s your turn to sling ice cream and my turn to translate - I don’t even want credit, I’m just bored!” Robin groaned to Steve, sliding the ice cream scoop across the table towards him. The bell from the counter dinged, the customer wanting service. Steve looked at her hand before looking at Dustin. The bell dinged again making him sigh and grab the scoop, placing the tape back on the table again. He glanced at Dustin again as the younger boy shrugged, not seeing how the two girls couldn’t help them since they have yet to figure out anything so far. Shifting his eyes to Robin, seeing her pleading with him, but what made him bend like a hot spoon was when he looked at Ophelia. Her big eyes looking at him hopefully but with just enough glare that dared him to try and say no to them.

“Fine, you two can help.” He grumbled, making his way out the door. Robin and Ophelia cheered, Robin scooping the tape recorder up. Steve huffed, defeated. He didn’t like the idea of her being involved with this. The past two years, he wasn’t able to stop her from getting involved with the Upside Down because she knew about it before him both times; this time, he knew about it before her so he had thought he could keep her out of it, but boy was he wrong.

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distant-rose · 5 years ago

Note

So this isn’t an ask, but I would’ve felt weird sending it as a DM, so I’m doing this instead. I’ve been scrolling through your Little Pirates tag a lot recently (because I’m a creep) and I keep seeing posts about how amazed you are every time someone says that they love your series and that you always feel like there’s only like 2 people that are invested in it, which amazes me because it’s so good. (1)

(2) I guess this is kinda like my way of reassuring you (not that you need it!) but also expressing my love for the series. I have absolutely loved the series since the beginning and followed it RELIGIOUSLY for a time. I wanted to know everything about the world and I asked a lot of question anonymously because I felt weird about how many I was asking. I was that invested, and still am, but I was never very loud about it.

(3) The way I think of it, is that there is always a quiet majority behind the loud minority. So whenever I see posts saying that there are only 2 people out there who like LP, I am sure that there are people out there who love it as much as I do that are just kinda reserved about it and that you have a much larger following a support than you realize.

(4) With that being said, I super respect your decision to take a step back from it for a while, because trust me, I know what it’s like to be super busy all the time and just needed a break from things. But if you do decide to continue writing, there are plenty of people who will be backing you, including me. Sorry if this came off as kind of a ramble, it’s like 1am and I’m feeling sentimental. I’m sure I’ll wake up in the morning feeling like an idiot, but I make my boldest choices at night

(5) Also, sorry if this comes off as rude or aggressive, I swear that’s not my intention! I just figured that now is the time to share my love for the series even though I’ve loved it for a long time. Also sorry that you read through 5 ask messages if you made it this far. I’m retrospect, I probably should’ve made this a DM, but I didn’t realized how long it was going to be when I started, so sorry!

Hi there,

This is incredibly nice and I totally wasn’t expecting it. I was kind of alarmed when I logged in and saw five new messages in my inbox. Anyway, I was incredibly touched by your words. Thank you for taking the time to write this.

I’m gonna put this under the cut because this is gonna be obnoxiously long because you touched on something that myself and other writers have been kinda discussing privately for a long time.

Honestly, I’m so glad that you like Little Pirates and you should never feel like you should be ashamed of asking me questions about the series. You’re welcome to and I wouldn’t bat an eyelash if you sent multiple. I enjoy sharing things about the series, especially what is shared online is really the tip of a very massive iceberg. Most of the stuff I’ve shared is the childhood portion, mainly because that’s where we see the most involvement of Emma and Killian, and really that’s the selling factor. No one wants to read about someone’s random OCs. They want to see their OTP happy and in love. So, it’s a happy medium for me sharing my characters and people getting domestic hijinks from their OTP. The truth is that I’ve plotted them more as adults than I have as children. They have very rich and detailed lives and I feel a little guilty for not sharing those lives.

As for the audience, the rational part of my brain agrees with what you’re saying while the more emotional part of my brain is like “I’m screaming into the void and the void is judging me.” It’s a difficult thing sometimes to produce work and get a very minimal response. Writing, especially fanfiction writing, has a tendency to be undervalued and consumed without regard to how much goes into the actual labor of creating such work. This isn’t a cut or a rebuke, but I sometimes wonder if fanfiction readers realize the amount of work that goes into the actual creation of work and why it can be a little dismaying to get such little response. This isn’t just me. This is a general feeling of the fanfiction writers I’ve communicated with. To quote a good friend of mine: “No one is requiring interaction or vocal support, but…fandom is exactly that. If a fan community is going to survive, then there needs to be communication.” Which is half of the reason why comments and messages like this are so important. It’s honestly lovely to feel appreciated and to get messages like this and I’m very grateful for it but sometimes its dismaying if only 10-50% of those who consume your work give feedback.

I did not intend to make this a preachy post, but honestly, authors really love and are starved for feedback and nothing would make us happier to get a response. Leaving messages to authors like this is good and I wish more readers like you would come out of the woodwork not to me, but to all writers who often feel like they’re shrieking into the void.

So don’t feel like you’re being annoying or aggressive. Writers like nothing more than to see people appreciate our work…it might actually lead to more work. I can’t promise that I’ll write for Little Pirates anytime soon because my plate is completely full with my final term of law school, the MPRE and the Bar Exam but honestly seeing stuff like this does make me itch a little bit to write again.

Because it’s really nice to know people like your stuff. So thank you very much for coming out of the woodwork. You have no idea what it means.

#asks #answered #katd2003 #ro speaks #little pirates #fandom #fanfic #fanfic writing #I didn't mean to use your message like this #but it really hit something that a lot of us feel #but thank you for the love and support

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vicunaburger · 5 years ago

Text

Admittedly, I’m Hard to See

Fandom: Beetlejuice the Musical Chapters: 9/? Pairing: Beetlejuice x OC (Holidae) The Players: Beetlejuice, Lydia Deetz, Holidae Bell Word Count: 1,604 Warnings: M for Language and Suggestive Content

Notes: ...you all knew going into this it was slow burn, yeah? ....right??

Chapter 9 - In Which Closeness is a Matter of Perspective

“Lyddy, when I said I would help you with the art show, I meant things like… carrying equipment. Or getting props. Maybe picking up extra film.” Holidae subtly tried to adjust the position of her foot, pins and needles already crawling along her skin. “Being a model is not on that list.”

Lydia walked over, kicking Holidae’s foot back into place, “You are helping. Hold still, you keep twitching and get all blurry.”

Infinitely thankful that they were quite alone in the cemetery that afternoon, Holidae muttered under breath, trying her best to hold the poses as Lydia commanded them. She was wrapped in several layers of sheer black organza, designed to mimic a sort of mourning gown with a bit of wedding charm thrown in for flavor. The result was surprisingly effective, but did nothing to stave off the cold autumn weather, and Holidae could already feel her extremities freezing over. She did promise Lydia she would help her a photo shoot, and she learned a valuable lesson about not trusting the small photographer as far as she could throw her.

“I think my fingers are frozen. They’re blue,” Holidae leaned against the nearby headstone for support.

“So are your lips, now hush.” Lydia maneuvered herself around the other girl, the camera shutter firing rapidly. “Lean back like you’re just overwhelmed with grief.”

“I’m overwhelmed with something,” Holidae tried to do as she was told, dipping her body backwards as far as she could. “This good?”

“More.” Another series of clicks.

Holidae wobbled, catching herself on the headstone, “I don’t bend that much.”

“Try,” Lydia came over and tried to balance her friend, who promptly caught her funny bone on the granite grave marker.

“Fuck you, you try!” Holidae hissed in pain, rubbing her elbow furiously. “Or you best pay a chiropractor.”

Lydia went back to her equipment, fiddling around with some different lenses, and giving Holidae a much needed break before they tried again. This wasn’t the first time she had roped her friend into posing for her photos, and it certainly wouldn’t be the last despite protests from the model. No matter what Lydia would try and get her to do, or how she would dress her up, Holidae would just go along with it. It was like having a doll to dress-up and torture in creative ways.

The only request Holidae ever made was that her face never be in full view, and Lydia always respected her wish. Whether it be a large hat brim, or in today’s case a veil, Holidae was kept away from curious eyes. The truth of the matter was Holidae was embarrassed of her looks, and always had been. Self-esteem was a rough, bumpy road to traverse; and there were good and bad days.

It was a touchy subject, and Lydia never pushed it.

Lydia tapped her fingernails on her camera bag, trying to think of a solution to the posing problem. After a few minutes, she let out an ah-ha, getting up and brushing some leaves off of her skirt. In one quick breath, she spoke her ghostly best friend’s name three times in a row, summoning him outside of the house for a change.

Beetlejuice looked happier than he’d been in a while, smiling ear to ear, and picking up the small girl with a twirl, “Lyds! We’re in a graveyard! What’s the special occasion? Someone die? Someone needing to die? Picking out a good plot? Don’t get one by a tree or the roots will get all gnarly and stick into your casket.”

Laughing as he set her down, she shook her head, “No, I need a favor, but nothing that major.”

He stuck his hands in his overcoat pockets, looking like a noir film detective, “Anything for you, babes.”

“I need you to bend Holidae over,” Lydia said pointing over to the woman desperately trying to warm herself up.

BJ did a double take so hard there was an audible crack of his neck, “…do what now?”

“Balance issues. If you go over there and help, I can get the pose I want and you won’t show up in the picture. It’ll look super cool, trust me. Just go over and she’ll explain what I want.” Lydia waved him away, unconcerned with her phrasing.

There was a moment of hesitation on Beetlejuice’s part; not really sure if this whole thing was a setup in some way that would get him banished forever, or something worse. Well, if Lydia wanted him to be a helpful little demon, who was he to argue with such an opportunity.

Humming to himself, he flourished his stroll over to Holidae with a spin, “Oh, what have we here? Getting all dressed up just for me, Holly-hock? I just adore the shade of blue on your skin.”

Holidae tried to straighten herself up, covering the more see-through parts of the draping with her arms, “W-what are you doing o-out h-here? Fuck it’s cold.”

Beej pulled her tight against him, “Body heat is the best solution of hypothermia, right?”

“Not when you’re an ice cube!” She shivered, torn between accepting his offer and freezing to death right then and there.

“Hey! Less flirting, more posing!” Lydia barked at the two of them. “Save that stuff for indoors, it’s gross. He’s there to hold you up so you don’t bash your head open on the rock.”

“Lydia, you say one more word and I’m throwing your camera off the bridge.” Holidae pried herself out of his arms, readjusting him so that he would support her back. “If you drop me, you’re dead.”

Beej snickered, giving her flesh a hard pinch, “Already dead, baby.”

“Smartass.” Holidae grit her teeth, but bent back with her arms splayed our behind her, “And I am fully aware that you’re getting a good view of my cleavage, so don’t even start with me.”

“I am getting Lyds the best birthday gift this year,” Beetlejuice made a very obvious show of studying Holidae’s chest.

Over the next hour, Lydia would move her two companions in different ways, getting the most out of the fact BJ wouldn’t show up in the film. It saved a lot of money on expensive photo editing programs; but it was also just a fun way to spend the afternoon together in a new environment. When things would get too serious, Beetlejuice would make some face at Holidae to get her laughing, ruining the next few shots Lydia took until they could compose themselves. Or, at least Lydia was claiming they were ruined.

She wasn’t about to tell them the truth: those candid shots were not being deleted off her camera.

During one of their breaks, Holidae sat herself down on a blanket Lydia had spread out her camera equipment on to keep it from getting dirty, holding her knees to her chest in efforts to keep warm. Without warning, something was dropped onto her head, mussing her hair as she pulled it down. It was a dirty, ratty grey coat. Stained and stitched together in odd places, carrying the heavy scent of tobacco and musty earth.

Strangely enough, it was warmer than she thought it would be, and she wrapped it around her body as best she could, “You might want to wash this once in a while. Maybe just spot clean.”

Beetlejuice flopped down next to her, digging a pack of smokes from the coat pocket, “If you don’t want it, I’ll take it back. Ungrateful.”

She shook her head, burying herself deeper into the oversized clothing, “No no, I want it. I was just offering a suggestion. Thank you for not letting me freeze, I mean it. Honest.”

He took a long drag, the smoke hanging in the air due to the weather, “Eh, dying is what it is. Done it twice, not that exciting.”

Holidae looked around at the tombstones surrounding them, “Do you think these people would have the same opinion? What if they died doing something exciting?”

“I really don’t feel like digging them up and asking,” He shrugged, holding the cigarette between his teeth. “So what’s Lydia gonna do with all these photos anyway? Seems weird.”

“She keeps telling me she has a theme, but doesn’t want to jinx it with discussion and negative thoughts. I swear, she takes after her stepmother more than she wants to admit.” She picked at the blades of grass by her feet, “I just put up the pictures when they’re done.”

“Well, since she can’t have me as a model, at least she has something decent to work with.” He flipped the edge of the coat up, peeking at her sheer dress. “You’re not as beautiful and sexy as I am, but then again, nobody is.”

Holidae scooted backwards, tucking the coat back tight around her, “Hey, you’ll let the heat out! And good on you for self-confidence, but calling yourself sexy all the time is weird.”

Beetlejuice grabbed her by the ankles, dragging her back toward him, “Are you saying I’m not sexy?”

She was getting tangled in the coat, looking like an unhappy caterpillar, “No, I said that calling yourself sexy is weird. I would really appreciate you listening when I talk to you, Juice. I don’t just say things to hear myself prattle on.”

With a truly maniacal laugh, Beetlejuice jumped up, picking up Holidae in a bridal-style carry, and spun her around with a flourish. “Youuuuu think I’m sexy. You think I’m seeeexy~”

He set her back on her feet, leaving her to balance herself after all the spinning, and ran over to find Lydia.

“Lyds! Lyds, listen listen listen~ you’re friend said I’m sexy. Now you have to take back all those times you said I was only referring to myself as a sexual being to hide the fact that I have a lack of positive self esteem from a childhood borne of neglect. HA! Wait. Why are you running from me? Lydia!”

Writing Tags: @mr-geuse @paxenera @leiasolo77 @go-commander-kim @ashemspirit

#beetlejuice broadway #beetlejuice fanfiction #beetlejuice musical #beetlejuice the musical #beetlejuice x self insert #writing time #beetlejuice x oc

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enchantedbride · 5 years ago

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Get to Know A Little About Joey’s Self-Ships!: Lucifer/Obey Me!Joey

So I’ve talked a little about my main ship (which I made do a little follow-up post for since have a Human!Joanna AU for Three Houses).

But! The next ship I’m going to talk about is my newest ship and the one I’m currently hyperfixating on at the time of writing this.

Tagging: @goldenworldsabound, @foreveryours-mouse

Lucifer/Joey Andrews (also known as Obey Me!Joey)

Note: Lucifer from Obey Me! does share his name and part of his backstory with the biblical/Christian figure Lucifer. I myself was raised in a Christian household, so my upbringing initially made me feel very weird and uncomfortable about my attraction to the Obey Me! character Lucifer. However, I eventually realized (thanks to support from my best friend and what I remembered learning growing up) that Obey Me!Lucifer and biblical Lucifer share little in common aside from those two major points. And eventually I became comfortable with it because to me, Obey Me!Lucifer (and the characters/world of Obey Me! in general) are kind of their own thing.

And honestly? This ship has turned out to be crazy therapeutic for me. But also, I just really loved some of the stuff I’ve come up with for it concept wise.

(Warning for a Death Mention and talk of demons and angels below the cut, but otherwise there are no major warnings I can think to put atm.)

So to start off with, while Obey Me! has a pre-built self-insert for the player in the form of the MC, I didn’t really like the backstory/lore and story arc associated with the MC as far as making my own self-insert was concerned. So, Obey Me!Joey is a separate character from the MC with her own backstory and character arc and interactions. The MC is still a character though, just an OC instead of self-insert (whom I named Katherine or ‘Kat’ for short). And I did wind up messing around somewhat with the plot too to make everything work.

ANYWAY

So, Joey is one of three human students sent to the Devildom (where demons live) as part of the Royal Academy of Diavolo’s exchange program with the human world and Celestial Realm (the academy to my understanding is supposed to resemble a college/university). The exchange program was pioneered by Diavolo, Prince of the Devildom and head of the academy’s student council, in hopes to build positive relationships and understanding between demons, humans and angels.

However, because she and Kat seem to be ordinary humans with no magic powers to protect themselves, rather than having them live with the third human exchange student and the three angelic exchange students from the Celestial Realm, Joey and Kat are instead assigned to live in the House of Lamentation. The house to the seven members of RAD’s student council (aside from Diavolo), including Prince Diavolo’s right hand man, Lucifer.

Lucifer and Joey are both people who tend to push themselves quite hard, often neglecting to take care of themselves in pursuit of their goals. But they can and will go out of their way for others. They both deal with a lot of shame and concerns about how they appear to others, but the way it manifests in each of them in completely different. It causes them to grate against each other in the beginning, especially when compounded with the ways in which they’re different. But, over time the both of them come to deeply affect one another, and not just because of developing romantic feelings, but because they force each other to reevaluate themselves and their own perspectives.

During the course of the year Joey is to spend at the academy, a terrible conflict breaks out between demons who support and oppose Diavolo’s exchange program. Joey attempts to protect Lucifer, Diavolo, and one of her fellow exchange students and loses her life in the process.

However, she returns to life as an angel, and not only does she cope with the trauma of death and coming back to life, but she has to cope with her new life changing in a lot of dramatic ways. And, instead of returning to the human world, she instead is to go with the angels to the Celestial Realm at the end of her stay in the Devildom.

And as for Lucifer, he worries about not only her well-being, but what what might become of their relationship once she leaves for the Celestial Realm.

How to best summarize their dynamic:

Lucifer doesn’t like to admit it, but Joey has him wrapped around her little finger. But even if he won’t admit it, it’s obvious from his behavior. He’d do just about anything for her. She not only challenges his perspective and changes him, but she gives him the sort of affection, validation, and space to be honest and vulnerable he has gotten from few others. He loves spoiling her when they have a chance to spend time alone together and when they’re not alone he enjoys keeping her close at hand if he can, as often as he can.

Joey’s perspective is also challenged in kind, and she receives from Lucifer a lot of care and affection that were sorely missing from her life. She is confronted with tempering her kindness and compassion with being able to think of herself and her own needs, and to develop a strength of heart to confront things she didn’t think she had the courage to face. She likes helping Lucifer step away from his work so he can rest once in a while, and to coax him to be honest, vulnerable and to treat other’s with more respect than he initially does.

They both care for each other, and are strongly affectionate and devoted to each other. They butt heads quite a bit, though. But, usually they are able to resolve their conflicts, even the longer-lived ones.

Some Lucifer/Joey Facts:

Part way through her stay in the Devildom, while she was still human, Lucifer and Joey made a pact as a guard against the possibility of those who opposed Diavolo and the exchange program gaining a hold magic that could allow them to control Lucifer and his brothers and turn them unwillingly against Diavolo. This pact dissolved when Joey died as a human and became an angel.

Joey doesn’t like Lucifer calling her ‘Master’ (a human who makes a pact with a demon is technically their ‘master’ for the duration of the pact). Lucifer sometimes refers to her as such in order to tease her, but only when the two of them are in private.

Lucifer initially doesn’t like video games, but he becomes somewhat interested in strategy games after Joey slowly introduces him to them, starting with virtual chess and working her way up to a Devildom game that’s similar to Fire Emblem but has a PVP component somewhat similar to Fates.

Lucifer winds up teaching Joey a bit about the plants that grow in the Devildom because of his interest in gardening. She can’t take care of all of his plants for him, but she can help out with a couple of them if he’s got a lot of work to do.

Cerberus (Lucifer’s dog) likes, trusts, and is very friendly towards Joey.

Lucifer also teaches her some of the basics of being an angel after she dies and comes back as one, revealing some pieces of his time in the Celestial Realm that he normally would be reluctant to share with others.

Joey considers herself a pretty good cook. Lucifer disagrees. In his opinion, she is an excellent cook.

I headcanon that Lucifer is actually fairly decent at mending clothing in a pinch and has fixed a couple articles of Joey’s clothing in the past.

Joey also encourages Lucifer to be more respectful of people’s boundaries and to ask for things more often rather than demand them. He’s gotten better about this with several folks (Joey being the person he’s best about it with), but it’s trickier when it comes to his brothers since they tend not to listen to him unless he’s being a dick. It’s a work in progress.

Simeon was Lucifer’s wingman and Diavolo was Joey’s wingman for Lucifer and Joey getting together.

Simeon’s The Seven Lords novels are based on Lucifer and his brothers, and he eventually added a character based on Joey (named Lady Fortitude) whose in a relationship with Lucifer’s stand in character in the series, the Lord of Corruption.

Joey becomes one of the few people besides Diavolo who can get through to Lucifer when he’s in a rage. Initially, she can only keep him talking long enough for Diavolo to come and calm him down, but as she and Lucifer get closer, she gains the ability to calm him down herself.

#devils and dead girls (lucey)#lucifer tag tbd #obey me!joey tag tbd #(need a new tag anyway since the first one doesn't really work for her anymore)

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neoneidolon · 5 years ago

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one year - 1/ 2/20

It’s been a year since I started this blog!

Most of you probably know that this blog holds the OC continuation of the story I started as a canon character on cubicscubedemon. The history hasn’t changed; Morpho uses what used to be their nickname back on the old blog, and they reference things that happened back when they were Amorphous Shape, so they are definitely still the same person, but they were such a tiny presence in their old canon that I feel comfortable calling them my OC now.

So! We’re basically in the epilogue, I think! After a series of huge pushes, they left their Boss and started a new life in hiding. They had a run-in with their homeworld, picked up a sibling by accident, reconnected with an old friend, made some new ones. The nature of their relationships is different now. They’ve come a long way. So what now?

Well, first of all I want to say I’m not planning on quitting yet. There are still things I want to do, or at least lay down the groundwork for happening later in the unwritten bits of Morpho’s life. Because I know how their story is going to end. I probably won’t write it here, because that’s at least a few decades in the future we’re talking about and this blog operates on sorta kinda real-ish time, but it’s a nice bittersweet ending I keep in mind. It was never going to end the way Morph *wants*, but they’ll be happy regardless, I promise.

More Things That Have Happened:

-- they started living on Earth! exactly what the version of me who ran the old blog swore up and down would never happen in the default “verse”/timeline. Past me is eating their words right now

-- on a semi-related note, wow, this blog has been running for a year and still hasn’t gained any alternate verse tags? that’s kind of impressive

-- so now when I read through the old blog archive it’s going to be an organization nightmare figuring out if the version of Morpho in a given post is the same one as in this blog or not

-- I straight up forgot that Morpho already knew their timeline’s version of their Boss was dead. In the kidnapping event, Bill told them that and they reacted like it was new information. It wasn’t. I’m just an idiot who doesn’t read the archive enough.

-- Morpho is now: 10-20% more honest! 40% more emotionally open! 4% more humble! 80% deeper into their destiny as the local eldritch witchy grandma/eccentric uncle who has seven dozen other dimensions on speed-dial!

-- they’re still working on letting go of their need to be the “better version” of their ex-Boss, but what happened in Hyperspaceland went a long, long way in proving to them that the Multiverse can have wildly unlikely good things happen in it, and that they can make a positive difference without having to do it the way they had impressed upon them for years.

-- plus, they now have friends and acquaintances who are “weird” like them, who have managed to make good lives for themselves without having to be subject to dimensional power struggles and other unwanted cosmic nonsense. They didn’t think being able to “retire”/live quietly was really possible for people like themself, so seeing otherwise is really good for them. They don’t think directly about this, though, it’s subconscious.

-- but they still have a long way to go and a lot of deep-seated issues to unravel, and now they have to raise their time-clone twin sibling and pray they don’t mess the kid up.

Things I’d Like to Happen, Either Written Here or Not:

-- Morph letting go of their instinct to manipulate situations to their favor, and also their tendency to make things more difficult by lying

-- Morpho letting go of the assumption that most people have ulterior motives, even if their history demonstrates that they have a good reason to believe that

-- Beta growing up, working out how they are and are not Morpho, simultaneously

-- Morpho reaching a point where they can be trusted to not (usually) try using people for their own personal gain, so they can finally go back to their real calling (teaching) properly this time

I worry a lot about whether I keep things consistent here, if Morpho’s still the same person they were two years ago or one year ago. They seem happier, anyway. I don’t think they would be as happy if I was just shearing off unpalatable parts of them out of misplaced fear. At the same time, they are always going to be a little bit awful!

And what about Beta? I keep saying we’re near the end, but just as Morpho’s coming in on the close of their development, Beta’s is just beginning, under totally different circumstances as her elder twin. Life as the soul of a magical alien spirit thing, in the body of an earthly creature, isn’t going to be easy for her. If I wanted, I could lean all the focus on her and get a whole new narrative out of it.

That brings me to something else I wanted to talk about. So if you’ve followed me for a while, you know this about me: for better or for worse, I always have a narrative arc in mind. There are good things and bad things about that approach, and it’s pretty easy to screw up, especially where other people are involved. And the problem with characters who develop is that it is totally possible to develop them too much, to extend their story so far that they become somebody who doesn’t resemble who they were originally. I’m worried about this happening with Morph. I’m also worried about this blog just becoming an endless series of me coming up with some arbitrary new conflict or danger or drama every time I get bored of describing their mundane life. I don’t want to bore anyone. (I know, the wisdom is to RP for yourself and your own fun, but it still involves other people and also, I need to entertain, otherwise what is the point of my story?)

This blog is... might end before this time this year. I say might, it’s not that I don’t enjoy anymore and want to quit. After that? I don’t know. Starting an art blog on Tumblr feels kind of pointless now since the platform is dying, and RP is one of the major reasons I stick around since I don’t really use my personal blog much anymore. If I don’t write here, I feel like I’m going to slip away from a lot of friends. I don’t want to lose you all. I could start a new muse, Beta or someone else, but...

I want to do something different, too.

And that brings me to the last (I think) thing, which is what form Morpho’s story might take next. Because if I DO end this blog before the beginning of next year, I wouldn’t be done with Morph by a long shot. I love them too much and there’s too much of me I sunk into them. So what would I do?

Well, I was hoping to spin a web thing with words and pictures. ...I think I’m just going to call it a web serial. No intention of ever formally publishing it. It would be the same basic arc again, but more polished and with all the Gravity Falls filed off a backstory and setting that is more original to me, plus additional new plot things and side characters. Definitely taking place in a Multiverse, though, how could it not?

coming up with a villain to replace Bill Cipher has been basically impossible but Morpho’s story can’t function without somebody in that role

Maybe this is misguided of me, maybe it will fail to launch, or launch and then fail, and attempting to run it alongside this blog is an almost guaranteed terrible idea, but I want to do it. Morpho is never going to get a book series or a TV show, so this is what I have for them. It could be pretty interesting if it works. They feel ready. And most importantly I know I can tell this long rambly story and finish it, because I’ve already done it, here with the help of a bunch of writers--friends-- that I admire. Morpho wouldn’t have made it this far without you.

When is it coming? I don’t really know. Work on the first installments is happening, but it’s slow, and there’s key things I don’t know yet. Most of it is going to be flying by the seat of my pants, making it up as I go (but y’know, making it up better, with slightly less improvisation than I usually employ here). I’m graduating from community college in mid March of this year, which is going to be a major life change that is probably going to turn my life completely upside down. Maybe I will suddenly not have any time for creating anything, be it an RP blog or a web serial, much less both! haha I’m terrified

But with luck, I’m hoping that what I am tentatively calling Amos vs. Everything will be out soon. Like, really soon. Some point between late January and when I graduate. (Now I just have to A. figure out where I’m hosting this thing and B. graduate. It would be really embarrassing if I flunked out of my last semester of school.)

I can see it now: somebody going “who the heck is ‘Amos’? The main character’s name is Morpho!” and I will smile and say ‘wait and see’ because they don’t know, but you. You all know.

And that’s about it! This is but a small and humble blog, and I like it that way. I appreciate every one of you who are here at time of writing. For the ones I don’t manage to interact with much-- I’m useless and shy. Poke me, reasonably. If you’re just here to spectate, that’s cool too. :D For the ones who come write here a lot, or did once-- you built this house.

Okay I should stop now or I’ll be sitting here forever! I can’t believe you read all this! Thank you all for everything and Happy New Year!

#ooc #one year blog retrospect #warning: very very very long and sentimental post #there is an announcement in there but I'm crazy nervous about it #i almost hope it gets overlooked even thought i want it to work out

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bastiodonz · 6 years ago

Note

Can any of your OCs cook? Where are they on the spectrum from “I’ve been cooking since I could walk and I’ve never made a bad dish” to “last tuesday I tried to make a microwave lasagna and my house burned down.”

oh wow ill kill for u hmmmmm

might have to limit these to just. major characters. bc yeah as i said before i have,,, a lot,,,,,, of ocs kasgjsadj ;w; so ill probs go thru this in order by works

(list under the cut!)

osas;

merope Definitely cooks. he makes the food he serves at his bar himself and he kinda had to learn after [redacted]. since merope can cook, he occasionally has bodil help him cook so she Also can cook. not as good at merope can, but its more than nothing.

iovita probably also helped people cook. namely his moms. he goes on to pick up on cooking later on (stress baking?) so he can also cook!! hes p good!!! daresay a lot better than merope bc the place where iovita is from has A LOT more variety in food than meelat does

sorin can maybe make a mean olive oil on bread. but thats Maybe It. hes really interested in cooking (mainly bc he couldnt rly cook fullblown meals in ruresi) so i can see him watching iovita cook?? just kinda lurking. iovita might drag sorin into helping him cook. wow thats a rly good and soft idea i came up w just now good job me.

aludra and conan just dump things into a pot and pray to the gods. aludra set her family kitchen on fire once trying to make rice. conan tries to get sorin help but sorin also doesnt know how to cook. they make the most bland food in history bc sorin still gets overwhelmed by spices and conan doesnt measure anything. he dumps in a whole cup of milk when the recipe asked for a quarter of a cup. its terrible. bodil iovita and merope are crying. iovita eats it anyway out of pity. he wants to be supportive of sorin.

red eyes (tag is yesterday it rained (today the sky fell));

literally calanthe is the only one out of the three of them who can cook. she picked it up sometime thru the series id think. saga probably pitched the idea to her as an alternative to smoking. bc i mean, cooking is technically a thing that cal herself can control? so. saga is so proud of cal despite the fact that saga herself cant cook.

seven literally existed to fill in a background role. he cant cook. BUT i can see after canon him asking calanthe to teach him, once he realizes he can be More than what he was created to do. god did ur ask make cooking a significant thing for red eyes? i think u did. omg

contact (tag is longness of semper);

burumu is the houses’ designated cook. he can actually make consistently good food. ivy can KINDA cook but its rly a toss of the coin with her. its either ok or its terrible. theres no inbetween. nebula can make mac and cheese. thats it.

blake can live off of those weird dried compressed ration things they sell in those sports stores. they cant cook. they CAN cut things p well though. but thats rly the extent of what theyre able to do i think.

landry throws whatever they can get their hands on into a blender and chugs that shit. they dont fear any god.

saccha is. odd. bc he can only bake. thats rly it. he ALSO stress bakes. which is to say, hes stressed a lot. hes good at baking though! but like if you asked him to make idk soup or something he gets so nervous that he freezes over the entire thing and you can Tell that it was just reheated in the microwave but you just give him a really tightlipped smile and nod.

reynold can make some food but like. not a lot. its mostly just like rly easy to make things that take rly fast like grilled cheese or ramen. hes doing his best.

molly cant cook for the sake that she would let landry chill with her in the kitchen and landry would yell for molly to turn up the heat and against all common sense (which no one in this godforsaken source) molly WOULD. they burn down an entire building. alex cant get too angry bc honestly if they were in the same position as molly, they would also listen to landry.

mx lux (tag is put out your beating heart);

surprisingly, all three of the main group can cook. anja can cook bc she wanted to be able to cook for maria so she SPEEDRAN cooking lessons. now she can cook. then sol was like :O holy shit u can cook can u cook for me??? and anja was like ‘no’ so she forced them to learn how to cook for themself. marty also knows how to cook bc he cooks for himself?? so.

nike and faustus cant be trusted to cook. for the point that nikes wings are Big so either he cant fit in the kitchen if its too small or he accidentally catches his wings on fire. faustus goes and is like “well if im gonna cook then i should try to figure out if i can Cheat The System by familiarizing myself to the cooking things” but then faustus zones out and just ends up sitting in the oven for like 3 hours. then faustus doesnt even end up cooking.

my warriors ocs are cats. they cant cook.

also im still not finished with the class for season 37. so i have no clue if they can cook for not.

#sagjasd wow this was fun #just gonna. put all the works tags #osas #yesterday it rained (today the sky fell)#longness of semper #put out your beating heart #wash speaks #sugarwithoutspice

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shadowsong26x · 6 years ago

Note

Lavinia for the character meme thing!

All righty then! Putting this behind a cut because somewhat spoilery (though, probably her Major Plot Points aren’t super hard to guess, between various other commentaries I’ve made/tropes I’ve mentioned liking/I think I’ve hinted at it/foreshadowed okay at least in bonus content?) and also Long.

favorite thing about them

Not necessarily my absolute favorite thing, but it has a nice Flipside so…

She thinks things through. She does her absolute best to gather appropriate information and make sure she’s prepared for the situations she’ll find herself in, including researching from as broad a collection of sources as she can. She considers all the consequences of her actions, and she never forgets that, because she is who she is and she has the abilities and position she does, her actions can have Consequences. And she learned how to do most of this processing fast. She is fast and she is well-informed, and at the end of the day she will do what is necessary, in service of the galaxy and her larger goals, but she will be sure it is necessary, and that the consequences are acceptable, given what she stands to gain.

least favorite thing about them

Of course, the flipside of this is that she overthinks everything. And I mean, e v e r y t h i n g. Like I said, she learned how to overthink very quickly, because her father wouldn’t tolerate her being paralyzed by those doubts, but that also means that she never really learned how to trust herself and her judgment and be confident in her decisions. This leads to some pretty epic screwups in her personal life, and also her shying away from certain things, particularly her own abilities with the Force beyond passive observation and occasionally assisting her more mundane manipulation with a Mind Trick or two (unless she’s desperate enough to completely unleash, which leads to her pulling off things like battle meditation; which might save her and her allies once or twice, but that kind of all-or-nothing/rigid but brittle control is Not Good in the long run.)

(Again, this is not necessarily my absolute least favorite/what I would consider her most negative trait, because a lot of that is situational, but, well, it’s situational. Her ability/habit of thinking things through and putting a lot of effort into her choices is both a good thing and a bad thing, and it’s the trait I could write up most clearly from both sides.)

favorite line

The problem with answering this question is most of the ones I can think of are somewhat spoilery Wham lines, and also require a fair amount of context to explain why they’re my favorites. And/or come from miscellaneous AUs that also require a fair amount of setup…

So, I’m going to go with one that’s from an AU of Masks!verse, in reference to Luke:

“Oh, you poor boy. Try not to let your excess of compassion get you killed. The universe needs more men like you.”

brOTP

Depending on the AU/context/point in time (and I am excluding non-fusion crossovers here), Luke, Kallus, Thrawn, Pellaeon (…who maybe shouldn’t count, because he’s more Dad, but he’s one of the most important people in her life and their relationship is 9000% platonic so), Mara, Leia, Ventress (…also kind of a weird example, because the main way it applies is Ventress as her mentor/teacher/etc. which may not be the best application of brOTP? But, again, v. important relationship and entirely platonic when it comes up).

OTP

Lando and/or Sabine.

Lando because they complement each other in some interesting ways–they’re both talented administrators and good at reading/managing people, though Lando’s a lot better at one-on-one People slash dealing with people when it’s not Work, so to speak. But he tends to be a master of Xanatos Speed Chess/a case study in “Well That Escalated Quickly,” and she is Hyperprepared/very rarely makes a move unless it’s certain. I.e., see my first two answers, lol. So they balance each other out in that way.

Sabine because they started kind of flirting in the Handler AU and then it got super cute. Might also be a thing in the Pellaeon AU? Or another Masks!Verse AU that has a similar breakpoint to the Handler AU…anyway, the two of them getting together depends on some specific changes and timeline things, so it only works in certain AUs. That being said, they’re pretty cute/sweet together. Because we have Useless Lesbian Sabine and Only Flirts In Professional Lavinia and yeah.

nOTP

Luke. Like. There is no incarnation whatsoever, even if I’m not reading Luke as aro (he’s definitely ace, but aro–I go back and forth on whether he’s aromantic or panromantic but that’s another conversation), where that works. Even in at least one AU where he’s the biological father of her child (in an IVF/sperm donor situation, she asked him because he’s someone she trusts completely and also someone who would be completely okay with not being the kid’s dad and things/their relationship wouldn’t get Weird).

random headcanon

Lavinia’s favorite color is blue. Specifically in the aqua/teal/slightly-green-tinged family. She’s always considered herself more Coruscanti than Naboo, but maybe something deep inside her feels a connection to that peaceful, watery, living color or something.

…or possibly she just likes it and there’s no Deeper Meaning behind it, heh.

unpopular opinion

…lord. Uh. This one’s hard, since she is my OC and I haven’t published/posted a whole heck of a lot about her? So it’s hard to know what the popular opinions are, let alone what the unpopular ones are…

I guess in the spirit of this, there’s the fact that, deep at her core, she’s kind of an idealist? She believes in things, and in certain people. And she believes that, not only should the galaxy be a better place, but that it can be.

(possibly in the spirit of this because she’s also, like, a spy and a professional politician so there’s a lot of cynicism on the surface/covering up that idealism…)

song i associate with them

Quite a few actually. Hm, what’s one I haven’t necessarily shared with you yet…

…ehh, I’ll go with these two:

youtube

I may have actually shared this one with you before, but it’s still one of my favorites for her. At the end of her life, looking back on her life/taking stock.

youtube

And this one I’m pretty sure I haven’t shared. From a somewhat younger perspective, and also kind of a nostalgia bomb for me.

favorite picture of them

Let’s see…::digs through #lavinia tag:: …and most of these are just fashion photosets that fit her aesthetic, but here’s a couple pictures of her:

This is probably something along the lines of what she looks like in her early/mid-teens. I believe this is the actress who plays Lucrezia in the not-Jeremy Irons Borgias show that came out around the same time. Which is particularly entertaining to me because…

Grown-up Lani is Lotte Verbeek, particularly as Giulia Farnese in the other Borgias series XD

Anyway, most of the other ones I have saved are gifs, so these two it is.

Also, I would be remiss if I didn’t link the commission I got of her a couple years ago!

#asked #answered #tigerkat24 #precipice #lavinia

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taz-writes · 7 years ago

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10 Questions Tag Game

@micastarsandmirrors tagged me on my main blog for this, but I’m posting it here because it seemed more appropriate. :>

1. Which author(s) inspires you the most?

Oof, hard question! Recently I’ve been really inspired by Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series--I love how he deconstructs fantasy as a genre. Guards! Guards! is one of the best books I’ve read in a very long time.

2. Someone from a different world asks you, “Show me the song of your people” which earth song would you play for them?

Madeon’s Pop Culture. It’s such a genius reimagining of SO many other songs, and it encapsulates modern pop musical culture in a way that’s really fantastic. I love it. It’s not actually my favorite song, but as an example to an alien of what Earth music is, it’s a pretty good case study.

3. How did you get the idea for your current WIP?

Feilan is drawn from the mythology of a recess game I used to play with my friends in elementary school. My friends and I would team up and LARP as our super cool powerful fairy avatars and fight the annoying boys from the classroom next door evil! As we grew up, the lore of Fairyland grew darker and more complicated, and I borrowed bits and pieces of dozens of other stories to glue them to my self insert and my friends’. We grew out of the game, but the paracosm we’d created stuck with me. Around sixth grade, I started putting those old recess games into writing!

4. Which of your characters is a lover not a fighter and which is a fighter not a lover?

Honestly, most of my characters are both! Feilan is an action story and the majority of the cast is prepared to throw down at any time. I think Lavender is the lover-not-a-fighter. She’s a healer, after all, and she prefers to avoid conflict. The fighter is definitely Amalie.

5. Do you listen to music while you write? If so, what do you listen to?

Sometimes! It depends on my mood, and what kind of scene I’m trying to write. Usually, I prefer instrumental music. I have a class at school where the homework is just listening to a few hours of classical music, so I’ll do that a lot while I write. Otherwise... video game music is the way to go. Undertale has a freaking amazing soundtrack. Also, I’m still quite fond of the Homestuck music albums.... They have a lot of great songs for setting a mood.

6. What’s the best way to piss off your main OC?

Tell her she’s not good enough to be worthy of something. Bonus points if you imply her opinions don’t matter, or bring up her birth status. That’ll get her riled up in half a second flat.

7. What inspired you to write your current WIP(S)?

Oh boy here we go, here’s the novel. Feilan’s backstory is long and very emotional.

When I was growing up, I could never find stories to read that actually gave me what I wanted. I was raised on that early-2000s strand of Girl Power(tm) that was really obsessed with characters who are girls fighting the patriarchy and everyone cares that they’re girls because there’s clearly nothing more important about their characters........ Either that or they were just straight up annoying. I adored Winx Club but every time the girls went shopping another piece of me died. I had a well-established Not Like Other Girls complex but at the same time reading characters who thought like that was really annoying? There were a lot of things I hated in the stories I read growing up: inescapable love interests, tiny sparkly boring fairies, the anti-sue genre of Plain Modest Protagonists who aren’t allowed to be powerful or even aware that they could be, female characters who can’t do anything without reminding us that they’re girls and girls can’t normally do this but I can and look how special that is!!, the inevitable Girl Media Shopping Montage... et cetera.

I didn’t want that. I wanted Lord of the Rings, but with girls, and maybe a cute boy!Galadriel. I wanted a story where girls being heroes wasn’t a big deal, or even worth questioning. I couldn’t find those things, so I decided I’d make my own, drawn out of my shameless childhood power fantasies. Feilan is an aggressive defiance of pretty much all the tropes in the last paragraph. I’ve stuck to it so doggedly because even now, I still have trouble finding stories with the kinds of characters I want to read about. I’ve always been super invested in stories about characters who are Like Me, who are girls with feminine and masculine interests, who have ADHD but are still smart anyways, who are short and built strong instead of slender. I used to refuse to watch cartoons unless there was at least one blonde girl that I could latch onto who wasn’t a stereotype Popular Girl. More recently, I want to see characters who are bi like me, where nobody makes a big deal out of it. I don’t even like romance stories, I don’t understand why it has to matter if X likes girls and boys! Just let her do that and get her girlfriend and get back to saving the world! And I fucking hate stories that pretend to be progressive by driving in over and over again how X character is a girl, X character is so gay--the ultimate result is just reminding me that I’m weird somehow. By... being a person, I guess. I hate those narratives so much but especially in mainstream YA, they’re practically inevitable?

So I wanted to write Feilan so I could have the story I wanted to read but never found, about characters who are like me and dealing with my problems and my strengths and my fears. And I’ve kept writing it because I still want that, and I want Feilan to be that story for other people too, because I don’t think I’m alone here. It’s also a major outlet for my emotions.

This is a long answer, but I think it’s pretty clear why. :)

8. What is the last book/series you finished reading?

The last book I read was an English translation of Ghost Opera by Mercedes Roffe, which I read for a class I’m taking right now in the art of translation. It’s very far away from my usual fantasy genre, but I really enjoyed it! If you like neat artsy poetry, give it a look sometime, especially if you speak Spanish and can experience it in the original language.

9. What finally made you say, “Wow! I really like writing, I’m gonna keep doing this”?

When I was in fourth grade I won a local writing contest with a cute little poem about nature, and I got to go to a book fair event and read it out loud in a fancy auditorium, and I was SO UNBELIEVABLY STOKED. My mom was really proud of me, too. A couple people complimented the poem to me afterwards and it made my year. I decided that I wanted to win again the next year, and started taking poetry more seriously.

10. What’s your favorite thing about writing?

Rereading my work. It’s so incredible to me sometimes, because I can and will cry over events in my own story, and I get so happy reading over the triumphs of my own OCs that I wrote out with my own hands and there’s something so beautiful and powerful about seeing these ideas that I created in my brain grow wings and fly. I cried a lot, when I printed out the first draft of Feilan’s book 1 and held it in my hands. That’s mine! I did that! I did all of that, and now I can hold it and see it and show people!

I’m now tagging @pumapauus @greenhousewriting @jaidynwrites @hklunethewriter and anyone else who’s interested to answer these 10 questions, then write your own and pass it on! Feel free to ignore if you don’t have the time :) Anyone else who sees this and is interested, you’re welcome to answer too and say I tagged you!

1. What does your workspace look like? Do you have a designated ‘writing area’?

2. Do you prefer to write solo heroes or ensemble casts?

3. Which of your characters reminds you the most of yourself?

4. What’s one trait your main OC has that you wish you had, too?

5. Have you changed or removed any major elements of your current WIP since its original draft/concept? What was the biggest change, and why did you make it?

6. If you had to give your main WIP a theme song, what would it be?

7. What’s your favorite non-writing-related hobby?

8. What are some of your favorite books?

9. What’s your favorite trope to read and/or write? What’s your least favorite?

10. What do you love most about your own work and why?

#taz talks #tag game #i got reasonably emotional over some of these answers lol

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feitanswife · 5 years ago

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So like how much can you butcher a character before they’re more of an oc than a preexistibg character?

Cause like in Pokémon it’s canonical that a ditto can transform into a human. We saw it in either sumo or usum I can’t remember which. Possibly both idk.

And like if we work on the theory that ditto are failed Mew clones then obviously if the failures can do it the successful clone should be able to manage it

And if we take the Pokémon Adventures Manga, in which Mewtwo was created by splicing human DNA with Mew’s, and add that tidbit with minor tweaks for lore

(specifically changing whose DNA it was because the project I’m working with is primarily anime canon with certain elements from other canons thrown in where I need them... mostly in Johto cause Manga Johto is FUCKIN WILD DUDE and I want to write about an 11 year old committing arson and killling an elderly man—who deserves it mind you!!!)

It would be incredibly feasible for Mewtwo to disguise itself as a human, considering it’s already half human to begin with and it’s Pokémon dna is built for using the move Transform anyway! So it would be able to not only keep up the transformation but talk and live fairly normally! That makes sense right???? Right???

So if it doesn’t look like Mewtwo, doesn’t act like Mewtwo (no accidental murder here, only intentional murder! And only when dad says it’s ok and we have adult supervision) and goes by a different name...

well A. Do I tag it as an oc and B. Is it weird to ship him with a human character.

Granted the shipping comes WAY WAY late in the story cause this project will theoretically be a COMPLETE REWRITE OF THE ENTIRE ANIME and this character doesn’t show up for a Good While. So like I guess if I’m going to be splitting each region arc into its own story for ease of organization I could just trust that by the time we get 8 years into this they’ll know who I’m talking about if I tag something with the name “Mayhem” (it’s edgy I know but there’s a good reason and it’s called Don’t Let a 10 Year Old And An Psychic Edgelord Baby Pick The Name)

Also I’m adding in chronological passage of time based on the concept that major Leagues are annual events and each of the two side-series took about 6 months each.

so for example, by the time the story hits Sinnoh, Ash will have aged from 10 to 15 (1 year for Kanto, 6 months for Orange Islands, 1 year for Johto and Babies First Assasination, 1 year for Hoenn, and 6 months for Kanto 2: electric boogaloo) and the story will adjust characterization and other character’s ages over time to suit that.

Certain regions do trainers differently and it’s going to be based mostly on the real world counterparts.

So the Japan based regions start at 10 but not every single trainer starts the moment they hit 10, it depends on the person, the culture, outside factors, and YES I’m making an age chart.

Unova, Kalos, and Galar all start at 16, A. Because that’s how old Ash will be at the beginning of the Unova arc, and B. That seems to be the magic number for age-related restrictions in the west. In the US that’s when you can drive, in certain places in Europe that’s when you can drink, etc.

Alola is less standardized since being a trainer works differently there, I decided to hit the somewhat middle ground and say nobody is going full tilt as a trainer before they’re 14, and even then they tend to take their time with it.

(Movies are also canon in this so yeah trauma out the wazoo AND Aura stuff!)

Anyway after like 8 years of living at least partially as a human and probably getting some therapy, I feel like having one purble boy get a crush wouldn’t be that weird yanno??? Like I’m gonna do all the proper buildup. It’s more like he’s a 18 year old boy with psychic powers who just so happens to turn into a large pink cat occasionally. No big deal!

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writingismyhappytime · 8 years ago

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Dauntless: Daddy Dearest (Part 5)

Eric x OC

Warnings: Language, parenting angst

A/N: I think the panicked expressions on Eric’s face are incredibly accurate for this series lol also, if you want to be tagged in any dauntless updates, let me know! I don’t always post consecutively, sometimes there might be a few weeks in between chapters, and I don’t want anyone to miss out! Don’t forget to check the masterlist for the rest of my Dauntless, and where all parts of this series are tagged.

I leaned over the crib, watching the infant sleeping in his blue blankets. Camille had him wrapped up like a burrito, still wearing his little blue hat, his face scrunched in his sleep. It was late, I'd just gotten in, but I'd wanted to check on him before I went to bed.

It felt... weird.

Really, my day wasn't any different --- I left early, came back late, the same time every day. Now instead of just Camille greeting me with a nasty look or a sweet kiss, there's also screaming.

So, not too different.

The baby didn't stir much, just moved his mouth occasionally, made some baby sounds. At that moment, my kid was just a screaming, pooping bundle. He's only a week old, so I guessed it would be a while before he had any personality, did anything other then lay there.

I sighed as I straightened, seeing a few strands of dark hair against his forehead, curling upwards against the hat. His hair looked black like Camille's, but I was kind of hoping he kept my blue eyes; someone had said baby's eyes change colors after they get so old, but I hoped his didn't.

Kai.

I'm a little surprised Camille so readily accepted the name, maybe she was just glad I picked something. We'd been fighting over that the last few months longer then we had anything else. I was just glad all that stress was over.

I stepped away from the crib, silently leaving the room and leaving the door only cracked. I hesitantly popped my head into the bedroom, seeing Camille was safely tucked beneath the covers, sleeping soundly. I felt bad about leaving her with the baby all day, but one of us had to be out there working.

New initiates would be coming in soon, maybe another month, and by then Kai should be old enough to go to the daycare in the Pit. I'd take him there myself every day if I had to, if it made Camille feel better about leaving him. I guessed it was a mother thing, being so attached to the thing she carried for nine months.

I shut the door, grimacing. I'd let her sleep, I'd hear the baby if he started wailing.

So far, there'd been a few congratulations for the baby, a snarky message from Melanie, and Max had clapped me awkwardly on the back before moving on. Tori had been over to see it, Camille said, and Zeke.

It's weird.

I felt like everything had shifted, that now that I had a kid, I... well, I was stupid as fuck. I shouldn't be worried about the fact having a kid would fuck up my reputation, but I was. Melanie was right, anyway, turning down leading the op was seriously going to fuck me over, and I knew she kept hoping I'd change my mind any minute now and take it, leave Camille and the baby to their own devices.

It was tempting.

I sat down on the couch, leaning forward to unlace my boots. I needed to get back out there, remind everyone that I wasn't going to take their shit, that having that kid in my life wasn't going to make me soft. It seemed stupid, even to me, but that's still how I felt. I knew Camille still wasn't feeling well, she was ill and pretty bitchy right now, but she was trapped in the apartment all day with the kid.

She needed some time off.

Hell, maybe I could send her to lead the op --- that would give her something to do and... no, I didn't want to be left alone with the baby. I'd only held it a few times, mostly when Camille begged me too because she was exhausted. It's been a week and I doubted she'd gotten eight hours of sleep yet.

The thing cried all the time!

I leaned up, running a hand along my stubbled jaw. I hadn't had time to shave in days, everything seemed so out of sorts lately. I hadn't felt the need to jump ship and run off yet, so I guessed that was a good sign.

Still, the thought of raising that kid --- I didn't want it to turn out like me. What if it turned out to be a big wimp though, defected to another faction?

Worse, what if it ended up becoming factionless? No kid of mine was gonna end up like one of those pathetic wastes of space! Hell, I didn't even want their to be factionless by the time he was old enough to choose!

Of course, he'd pick Dauntless, I'd make sure he grew up to be tough and a badass like me and his mother. We'd teach him all the tricks, show him the ropes --- he'd end up in leadership like us. He'd be the top of his class, I wouldn't accept any less!

No son of mine was going to end up a disgrace.

I'd chosen a strong name for him, now he better live up to it.

As if on cue, I heard him start to cry, at the top of his lungs just like every night.

Great.

I grimaced as I pushed to my feet, leaving my boots by the coffee table and hastily heading for the nursery. I nudged the door open, shutting it behind me so his cries wouldn't carry to Camille.

"Hey, kid," I muttered, stepping to his crib. "You hungry or somethin'?"

The baby's eyes opened for a few seconds at my voice before closing again, his face scrunching up as he let out another toothless scream. I sighed as I reached down, gingerly lifting the bundle into my arms, supporting his head like Camille showed me.

Where the fuck did she keep his milk, anyway? In the kitchen? I hoped it was already in the bottles and I could just shove it in the microwave or something.

It took me about five minutes longer then necessary to figure it out, especially with him wailing in my arms like he was dying. I ground my teeth together as I finally finagled the bottle into my hand, dripping the milk a few times on my arm to check the temperature like I'd seen Camille do.

Barely warm, that's how it's supposed to be right? I eyeballed the bottle a moment, hoped it was right, and popped the rubber thing between the kid's gums.

Almost immediately he began sucking on it, and I sighed in relief, my ears still ringing. Jeez, the kid had a set of lungs on him!

I gingerly sat back down, feeling awkward as I held the bottle up, his little arms too weak to do it yet. Feeding a baby definitely wasn't giving me any intimidation points, although at least it finally made him shut up.

I leaned my head back against the couch, staring up at the ceiling. The kid was so small in my arms, smelling like powder and detergent, warm. I could hear him eating, and I was relieved he didn't wake Camille up --- she needed her rest.

Fuck, I needed some rest and I wasn't even taking care of him!

I rolled my neck, hearing my joints crack before looking down at my son. Seemed strange thinking that.

His eyes opened for a moment again, still that same bright blue as mine before drifting back shut. It would be a bit before he could keep them open, before he could be out of the serious straight jacket his mother kept him in. She also kept weird little socks on his hands so he wouldn't scratch himself, and I didn't see how he didn't get too warm.

I frowned, pressing the tips of my fingers against his small forehead, but he felt fine. Not too hot, just the right temperature.

Oh, and he's done.

I tugged the bottle out of his lips, seeing him smack them a little bit; he'd about drunk the whole thing, hungry kid. I shuffled, leaning him up a little, hoping I didn't need to do the whole burping thing; I was afraid I'd tap him on the back too hard, I'd break one of his little bones --- I was terrified of injuring my own kid.

I liked Camille doing all that.

When he didn't immediately begin wailing, or throw up all over me, I took it as a good sign. He'd already ruined one of my t shirts, causing Camille to just laugh at me, as if she wasn't even phased.

Probably wasn't.

"Alright, kiddo, let's get you back to bed so I can get some sleep," I muttered, his eyes scrunching as my thumb ran along his soft cheek. My hands felt gawky, too big and cumbersome when I was touching him. I knew my skin was rough, scars decorated my hands, but I hoped it didn't bother him. "Why don't you sleep for the rest of the night, give mama a break, huh?"

I shuffled, reluctantly getting to my feet again, still muttering to him as I headed for the nursery.

"You gotta grow up, be a badass like we are," I said, tugging some of his blankets around in the crib, making sure they were sort of bunched on either side of him so he couldn't roll around and smother himself. Camille had given me a full ranting rundown all of the bad things that could happen to our kid if I didn't do everything right. "Get big and tough and kick the shit out of your peers. Show them that being my kid is a major advantage."

I gently laid him back into the crib, leaning on the railing for a few minutes. I wanted to make sure he was breathing okay, that I didn't still need to burp him or something.

"I don't know if you're gonna have any brothers or sisters, so you have a lot to live up too." I mumbled, propping my chin on my hand. "You're carrying on a pretty prestigious name, you know that?

"Mama is always gonna be here for you when I can't, but I'm gonna teach you everything I can when I am around. You're gonna be the best fighter, the best soldier Dauntless has ever seen. And when I'm leading this faction, you'll never have to worry about anything."

I gazed down at him, seeing he was already asleep, blowing little spit bubbles. I refused to acknowledge I found it sort of cute, and I hastily turned away. If he was conked out, it meant I could get a shower and crawl into bed before one a.m. tonight.

Nice.

~~~~~~

"I can't believe he slept all night," Camille mumbled as she stood in front of the coffee pot, still half asleep. "That's a first."

Ahuh.

"He didn't." I muttered, leaning down to lace my boots, my fingers fumbling with the black laces. "I got him."

"You did?" Camille sent me a surprised look over her shoulder, her eyes not looking quite as tired this morning.

"Yeah. You needed some rest," I stood, stretching my arms over my head. "He only cried twice, don't worry. I fed him and figured out the diaper thing."

After four tries.

Not that I was going to tell her that.

"You didn't have to do that, you're going to be exhausted," she sighed, slowly pouring a cup of coffee before offering it to me. "I'm home all day, I can take care of him."

"I don't mind," I pressed a kiss to her temple as I took the cup. "You're exhausted. Maybe putting him in daycare a little early wouldn't be a bad idea, give you a break some days."

"No," Camille shook her head instantly, looking disgruntled. "I don't want to out him in until we have too."

"Are you still worried someone will be mean to him?" I sipped my coffee, barely noticing the harsh burn. I gazed at her, seeing the troubled look on her face.

"Yes and no." She eventually said, turning away from me to pour her own coffee into a glass cup. "I just... I dunno, I'm not ready to let someone else take care of him yet. I mean, what if they don't feed him or forget him somewhere? What if ---?"

"Camille, he's barely a week old. Don't panic yet," I hooked my finger beneath her chin, tilting her head up. "You have plenty of time to spend with him."

"Only sixteen years," she corrected me, soft lips almost pouting. "What if he chooses another faction and leaves us? What if ---?"

"Too many what ifs this morning," I shook my head at her, pressing a quick kiss against her lips before stepping away, noticing the time. "Don't worry about any of that. He'll be the toughest soldier Dauntless has ever seen, he'll be running this faction by the time he's ten."

"That's some high expectations," she looked amused.

"He's my son, he has a lot to live up too," I shrugged my shoulders. "Now I gotta go. You gonna be good?"

"More or less, I've survived worse then a screaming baby."

I chuckled, seeing her hands on her hips as I strode for the door. "I'll see you tonight."

"Alright."

~~~~~~

"Is she fucking up already?" I asked in annoyance, standing across the table from Max; he'd summoned me up here a few minutes ago, apparently something important was going down.

"Erudite is less then pleased with her progress," Max responded in displeasure, pressing his hands against the table, a map of a city drawn into its top. "Her control over the movement of the factionless and the soldiers is less then acceptable."

"So she has no idea what she's doing." I ran my hands down my face, irritated. Couldn't Melanie do one goddamn thing right? I had enough on my plate to deal with her bullshit too! "She's fucking everything up."

"Essentially. She's managed to move most of the factionless out of the warehouses we need with few casualties, but production has seemed to stop at that point. She cleared these two buildings," he motioned at the map on the table before him, showing me the areas. "But the third is still crawling with them. If they're not gone by the end of the week, we'll be behind schedule."

"Why not just blow the place sky high?"

"It would draw too much attention."

Of course it would.

I rubbed at my scruffy jaw, in serious need of a shave. Maybe tonight I'd have time, if the baby didn't start screaming and Camille start crying because her nerves were frayed. I didn't mind getting up every now and then to soothe him, but I couldn't every night and work too.

"She needs to send in some units to clear it, have them armored and with enough weapons and ammo it's not a problem," I said after a moment. "Go through all the exits but one, leave the factionless with only one escape route so they funnel out into this abandoned part of the city with the rest of them." I drew my finger along the map. "Shouldn't take more then a few hours. Even she's capable of that."

"I wouldn't hold my breath," Max grumbled, and I glanced up at him; he wasn't one to bad mouth one of his soldiers, even lightly; she must seriously be getting under his skin with her fuck ups.

"Just send the order and she'll follow."

"I don't want to send another order, I want to send someone more capable." He shook his head, and I tensed at his words.

I ---.

"Eric, you need to lead this operation before it crumbles through our fingers," he finally said out right, dark eyes on mine. "I'm sending you to replace Melanie, there is no other choice."

Eh!

"I can't ---." I started instantly, curling my fingers into fists. "Camille ---."

"Camille is safe within the compound, her and your child. I need you to stop focusing on them, and focus on your duty to Dauntless." I straightened at the insulting words; did he really think I wasn't taking this seriously? "You need to lead this op to completion, or I'm going to find someone who can follow my orders to a T."

I narrowed my eyes at the hardly veiled threat. He wanted to replace me, did he? He thought he could find some other fucker to do the dirty work and not feel bad about it?

He'd fail, and we both knew it. I was going to call his bluff, I wanted too, especially to remind him how much he needed me.

However...

This might be a good opportunity for me.

"I'll lead the operation," I said thoughtfully, Max starting to smirk. "But not outright. I'll go for a few weeks, I'll train Melanie to get her head out of her ass, and I'll come back. If I think she's going to be shit at it, I'll say so, and we'll make something work. I'm not going to leave for three months at a time, I've got too much shit to handle now."

As I spoke, Max's face steadily soured, until he looked ready to shoot me outright. He ground his teeth as he looked at me, but I merely crossed my arms.

I wasn't changing my mind.

"Three weeks is what I'm giving you." I said flatly. "That's it."

In three weeks, Kai would be a month old, old enough for daycare. I wanted to take him on his first day, and I'd walk back to the compound if I had too. I wanted to make Camille feel better about being separated from him, and me taking him is the only thing I knew to do to set precedence.

You fuck with my baby, I'll kill you.

Pretty easy to remember.

"Fine. Only, however, the factionless are gone by the end of the week." Max said after a moment, deciding not to argue with me.

I smirked. "Done."

~~~~

"Three weeks?" Camille nearly shrieked at me, and I winced as the baby immediately began to scream in her arms.

"Oh! I'm sorry, baby, Mommy's sorry," she sighed immediately, starting to bounce and rock him slightly. She glowered at me over the top of his curly black hair. "Eric!"

"It's Max's orders!" I shrugged my shoulders, watching her grit her teeth as she tries to quiet Kai. "I don't have a choice. Melanie is fucking the op up pretty bad for Erudite and it's becoming a problem. I should never have agreed to let her go." I sighed.

"But --- Eric! You're going to leave me here all by myself with this thing!" Camille gasped, looking ready to cry herself; I could hardly hear what she was saying over the kid, I was having to read her lips. It was just a constant barrage of high pitched screams.

"You're more then capable, and it's only for a few weeks." I said gently, offering my arms. Maybe if I held him she wouldn't have a mental break down on me. She handed me the baby readily, and I cradled him in my arms, running my fingers across his snarled nose. "You're alone with him all day."

"Yeah, but you always come home at night," she sat down on the sofa, running her fingers through tangled black hair. "You give me a break."

"Not all the time. Camille, you can do this. We're soldiers, we can handle anything," I said, holding Kai up against my shoulder, letting him wail into my ear; I didn't need to be able to hear anyway. "He's sleeping better now, right?"

"No." She stressed the word, dark circles still beneath her eyes. "Eric, you can't leave me here by myself. I can't do this."

I knew it was coming.

"Baby," I sighed, shuffling Kai a little against my shoulder, relieved he was finally starting to hiccup instead of scream. I stepped to Camille, sitting down on the coffee table in front of her. "I have to do this, Max isn't giving me a choice. This is big for us and Erudite building trust, and Melanie is blowing all of it up. I love you." I reached forward, taking her hand and squeezing tightly. "I'll be back in three weeks to drop Kai off at daycare if I have to walk the distance myself."

Camille gazed at me with those dark eyes, and finally she nodded, frowning. "Max is the leader."

"Yeah, for the time being." I glanced down at the baby, grimacing as I saw the spit on my shirt. "I'll take control one day and it won't be like this."

Camille snorted, shaking her head. "You really think you'll get Dauntless one day?"

"I'll got you, didn't I?" I arched a brow at her. "I convinced you to fall in love with me and have my child, the hard part is already over."

She almost smiled at me.

"You're so fucking dumb." She finally muttered, but leaned forward to kiss me lightly; her kisses are basically the only affection I've had since she started ballooning outward, and I missed it. I missed the sex like crazy, I'd never gone so long without it before, and I missed her giggles, those coy looks she'd send over her shoulder at me.

The moment she'd gotten that baby bump, all of that stopped.

I was still going through withdrawals.

I wanted --- needed --- it now that I had it.

Being trapped with Mel for three weeks was going to be torture. I wouldn't be getting sweet kisses or halfway smiles, I'd get... Mel.

I wasn't looking forward to it.

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