#…but I can’t promise she looks too good irl

[dreamofbecoming]

y’all i literally never have omegaverse thoughts but here i am having omegaverse thoughts (i blame witcher fic, characters who can smell emotions are just too damn juicy *shakes fist* ineeeeex!)

omegaverse fics where characters can parse individual emotions from specific people in addition to a personal base scent are confusing for me, logistically. you know? like as a trope, they’re amazing and convenient and they lead to fascinating little complications in communication and i eat that shit up with a spoon, but like. how does it work??

so then i’m thinking, okay, obviously it’s something you pick up naturally using cues from your family as a child, and your friends and classmates as your social circle widens as you age. the way we pick up slang or body language irl, right? that could work. you know what happiness smells like because it’s what your mother smells like when your dad comes home with flowers. you know what sadness smells like when your friend at school is allergic to chocolate so they can’t have any of benji’s birthday cupcakes. that kind of thing. but it’s all semi-unconscious, and some people have gaps as they grow up because they’ve never been exposed to something before

my point being, where is my fic where steve is driving dustin to the snowball and he gives the kid a few last minute pieces of advice and promises to be there to pick him up later and dustin gives him that big bright gummy smile and the car fills up with…what the hell is that? i mean it smells good? but steve’s never smelled anything like it. maybe in passing, but never directed at him and definitely not so strong. the hell is this kid feeling?

and he doesn’t ask, doesn’t want to look stupid, so he just tells dustin not to do that weird growling thing again and boots him out of the car, but he keeps smelling it. on dustin, mostly, but also the other kids sometimes, once even on mrs. henderson when she had to work an overnight and he told her it was no trouble at all to stay on the couch and keep dusty company. and it’s so weird and he doesn’t understand it at all but it doesn’t seem bad, or dangerous, so it’s probably fine?

and then he asks robin out on a bathroom floor and gets shot down immediately, and he pivots on a dime and rearranges his whole worldview for her in about ten seconds, and he’s halfway through a chorus of total eclipse of the heart when that scent swells again, soured a little by the drugs but big enough to fill the whole bathroom. and he doesn’t ask until after, until all the dust is settled and things are calm even if they’re broken beyond repair, but he doesn’t mind looking stupid in front of robin, really, so it’s okay to ask.

and she gives him this look, like he just took his nailbat to her heart, and then she flings herself at him and hugs him tighter than anyone ever has in his life, and she explains. and then he’s crying too

where is my fic where steve doesn’t know what love smells like

(well, turns out the fic is here)

[fettuccin-e]

Forever Feels Good

A/N: So yeah. its more santi smut. I rewatched triple frontier recently and yknow how oscar and pedro look absolutely scrumpdiddlyumptious so i had to write some happy, domesticated santi because HE DESERVES SOMETHING GOOD

Description: Sometimes, Santi can't believe that he's actually yours, that you're his. And, as a good husband, he just wants to make his beautiful wife feel good. (w/c: 3.1K)

Tags: Santiago "Pope" Garcia x reader, afab!fem!reader, Santi really likes that she's his wife, pretty domestic, alcohol consumption, oral (r!recieving), unprotected piv (pls wrap it up irl fuck them kids), breeding kink like quite a bit of breeding kink i may have a problem

Santi sometimes forgets that he’s actually married to you. That it’s his ring on your finger, that he lives in a home that the both of you share. 

There’s a part of him, a big part, that looks at you and knows that you’re too beautiful to really be his. With your bright smile and glittering eyes, smoothing out his rough edges and giving something to live for again. It doesn’t feel real, even after years of being married, introducing you as his wife to all of his coworkers and friends, fixing up a house you bought together, living a perfect little white picket fence life that Santi had only thought was a fantasy while in Delta.

He watches you with rapt attention across the bar, grabbing your fruity drink from the bartender while you chat with Frankie at the pool table.

You’re laughing hard to a story that Frankie is telling, Santi’s beer clutched in one of your hands while you brace the other on Frankie’s shoulder. Your cheeks are flushed, your eyes are crinkling at the corners with your grin, and Santi can’t imagine anyone more perfect. 

As your laughter eventually dies down you gaze at Santi across the room, probably unaware that he was already staring, and the breath is nearly knocked out of his lungs as your eyes meet. Your wide smile melts into something softer, intimate even in a room full of people, and his already weak knees want to give out.

He forces himself to walk on shaky legs across the room, setting your drink on your table, fingers itching to touch your soft skin. He spins you around when he reaches you, pinning your back to his front and wrapping his strong arms around your waist while he tucks his face into the crook of your neck.

Your perfume is strongest there, the smell of you invading his senses and swimming through his desperate mind. He vaguely senses Frankie walking away to talk to Will, but he couldn't care less at the moment. Not when he has his wife in his arms, your hair tickling his nose and you giggle echoing in his ears.

Santi presses a kiss to your neck, unable to help himself. “Look so pretty tonight, princesa. Y’wanna let me take you home?” he murmurs quietly into your ear, hearing you suck in a soft breath.

“I don’t know how my husband would feel about that, handsome,” you giggle, and he tugs you just a little bit closer.

“C’mon, baby, I’m sure he won’t mind one bit,” he chuckles lowly. “Can’t let a pretty thing like you go without being taken care of like you deserve.”

“Hm,” you sigh, leaning back against his strong body, “you drive a hard bargain, don’t you?” You reach a hand back to wind your hand into his hair, tugging him up to meet your lips in a sticky kiss. “Promise to take care of me, baby? I’ve been told that I can be greedy. Gonna need you to make me cum as many times as I want.”

Santi feels lightheaded, his vision blurring at the edges. “Fuck, hermosa, anything. Anything you want, you’ll get it, promise I’ll-”

“Hey, lovebirds!” you hear Benny call from the pool table, stick clutched in his hand. He’s disarmingly loud even in a room full of people, your head snaps ahead from Santi’s lips, and you can feel the groan rumble in your husband’s chest at the loss. You smirk to yourself involuntarily, pride blooming in your chest at the fact that you’re the one that can bring Santiago Garcia, ex-military grump with a will of fucking steel, to his knees with a something as simple as a little kiss. 

“You guys gonna get a room or what? Think of the kids!” Benny continues, laughing. Frankie chuckles with him, Will smacks him on the back of the head.

“Turning a little green there, Miller!” you fire back, smiling all the while. “Been a while since you got any? Celibacy is not a good look on you, man.” Frankie laughs harder at that, and even Will chuckles, and it’s Benny’s turn to smack his brother on the back of his head.

You turn your head again to whisper up into Santi’s ear, “As much as I hate to admit it, he might be right.” You shift your hips back, just a little, pressing your ass tight against the bulge of his dick in those tight pants he always wears. Santi curses. 

“You wanna get out of here handsome?”

“Please,” Santi groans, and you laugh softly at his eagerness before you’re grabbing his hand and walking him to the door of the bar, nodding a goodbye at Frankie as you do.

He’s on you the moment you walk through the door of your shared home, pressing you hard against the door with a thick thigh between your legs, pressed tight against your hot cunt through the material of your panties under your skirt. He licks into your mouth like he’s starving for it, like he’ll never get to again, like it’s not the cold metal of his ring on your finger, pressed against his cheek as you cup his jaw.

“So, so fucking pretty for me hermosa, my god. Got everyone in that bar looking at you, but you’re mine, yeah? My wife, fuck-” Santi says into your mouth, choking on the last word, bucking up into you. 

“Bed, Santi, please,” you whine, head spinning with the taste, the smell, the feel of him under your fingertips. Six years of marriage, and you’re both still obsessed with each other the same way you were when you both first met. Clutching into each other like the other will disappear at any moment, like every second together has only been a wonderful dream. He grins into your mouth before taking your hand again, breaking into a jog through your little house and into your bedroom, the both of you giggling like teenagers.

You make him feel young, Santi thinks, laughing into your mouth as he lays you gently onto the mattress. Even with his creaky knees and graying hair, you manage to make him feel young. He presses himself against you, and you mewl, your hips moving in desperate little grinds against the bulge in his jeans. 

“Santi, please,” you choke, gasping softly as his zipper catches on your clit through your panties. You’re clenching around nothing, suddenly so unbearably empty that you could cry from it.

Santi shushes you gently, running his hands under your shirt, rucking it up over your chest. You raise your arms to help him along, and Santi wastes no time in divesting you of your shirt. He tosses it behind him carelessly before leaning down again to lick into your mouth, utterly addicted to the taste of you. 

There’s something about Santi that brings out this part of you, this desperate, needy part that you’d never felt before knowing him. He makes you feel ravenous, animalistic as he towers over you, kissing you like a man possessed.

You reach down to grab his shirt in a fist, shoving it up his stomach until he finally smiles against your mouth, breaking away from your kiss to yank his shirt off, tossing it in the same direction he threw yours. He moves down, trailing hot, sticky kisses and bites to your neck, your collarbone, right between the valley of your tits. 

His thick hands curl around your back, his calluses scratching along your soft skin, raising goosebumps in their wake as he unclasps your bra, dragging it down your arms and leaving you bared to him. It should feel vulnerable, exposed, but you hear Santi groan softly under his breath at the sight of you, and you feel anything but vulnerable. Fuck, you feel powerful, stunning under Santi’s burning gaze.

He sucks one of your nipples into his mouth, swirling his tongue over it feverishly while his other hand, warm and rough, tweaks the other harshly. You can’t help how your back shoots up, how a choked moan escapes your throat. Your hands tangle in his hair, a terribly sexy mess of grey and black, holding him to your chest.

“Fuck, oh God, Santi, Santi, need you so bad baby, please. Please,” you mumble, your mind already hazy as Santi switches nipples, his eyes closed and lost in you. He brings his free hand down, down, under your skirt, and presses a thumb harshly over your clit through your panties. The friction of the cotton is harsh against your throbbing clit, but Santi rubs quick little circles into you, reveling in the whines that escape unbidden from the back of your throat.

“So fucking pretty, princesa. Mi amor, god, mi vida. You’re my fucking life, you know that? So gorgeous, angel, and all mine. Fuck, can’t believe you’re mine, baby.” Santi mumbles against your skin, finally releasing your nipple from his mouth. He continues peppering tiny kisses down your stomach, staring up at you as he does. His mouth doesn’t leave your skin even as he brings his hand up from your clothed cunt, tugging your skirt and panties down your legs. You can feel how soaked you’ve gotten, the way your thighs are slick with your arousal.

“Fuck, hermosa, what’s got you this wet, huh?” He grunts, his voice gravelly and rough.

“You, Santi, it’s all- it’s all you. Since the bar, baby, since before the bar. Fuck, always want you, Santiago, ‘m ready for you all the time.” You tilt your hips up with your words, your entrance throbbing and so desperate for his touch.

“God, bebita,” Santi groans. “Such a fucking slut, huh? You would’ve let me fuck you right in that bar, yeah? Just let me tug you into the bathroom and fuck you as hard as I want. Would've done it too, sweet girl, you get me so fucking hot. In these,” he presses a hot, open-mouthed kiss to your inner thigh, and you twitch as you feel him breathe a warm gust of air right over your desperate pussy. “In these fucking little skirts you like to wear, god. Got the sexiest girl in the fucking world, yeah? Everyone wants you, but I’m the one who gets to have you. I get to have you for the rest of our lives, mi amor.” He’s so close, so fucking close to wear you need him most. “I get to fuck this sweet pussy for the rest of our lives, baby,” Santi breathes.

You nearly scream as he licks a long stripe up your cunt, lapping up some of the mess you’ve already made of yourself. He sucks your clit into his mouth, sucking at it hard and unrelenting. The sensation of it is almost too much, and your thighs clench around his head quickly, before Santi brings a hand up to grab at your inner thigh. He pulls you apart, keeping you spread for him as he licks and sucks and plays with you until you’re already shaking. He keeps you spread with only one of those strong hands, pressing his tongue harshly against your sensitive little clit, and you suddenly feel the thick presence of his other hand, a calloused digit sinking slowly, so slowly into your cunt.

“Santi, Santi, oh fuck, Jesus fucking Christ baby, it’s so- shit, it’s so,” you can hardly get the words out, especially as he crooks his finger up and presses it against your g-spot without any trouble. Santi groans against your clit, sinking yet another finger inside you along the first.

You should be used to it by now, after so long together, but every single time Santi fucks you, it’s like he’ll never get to do it again. He throws himself, his mind, body, his fucking soul, into only making you feel good. It’s nearly sacrilegious, how he worships you, praying with his tongue at the altar of your body.

But it’s not enough, not when you know how it feels when he’s inside, not when you’ve been thinking about his thick cock stretching you out until you feel like you’re about to break. You tangle a hand back into his hair, tugging him harshly away from your pussy. He keeps his fingers inside, spreading you apart as he looms over you, meeting your lips in a sticky kiss. His lips are sticky with your arousal, but you can’t bring yourself to care, gasping, “Please, baby, Santi fuck me, ‘m so empty, need to be filled up, need you to stuff me full.” 

Santi grins, smug against you as he presses a third finger into your tight cunt, relishing in how your body jerks hard in response. “Just a little longer, baby,” he mutters, “Gotta make you cum first, right? Wanna feel this pretty pussy clench around my fingers, fuck baby, you’re so sexy. Want you to cum, princesa. Cum like you fucking deserve.”

You choke on a gasp as he hammers hard into you, overwhelmed tears filling your eyes as he abuses your g-spot with a practiced hand. You can feel your orgasm building inside, threatening to drown you in it’s severity, as Santi leans down again, whispering harshly, like it’s a threat, “Be a good little wife for me, baby, and cum. Now.”

And you can’t do anything but that, whining high as your pussy clenches and gushes all over Santi’s hand, your hips jerking wildly. Santi is murmuring little praises into your ear, but you can hardly hear him over the ringing in your head, the effort it takes to breathe properly again. 

“You okay, mi amor? Need to stop?” Santi whispers, petting his hands across your thighs, calming, but your eyes snap open all the same. 

“Santiago Garcia, if you leave me here without getting fucked, I’m filing for divorce.”

Your statement shocks a quick laugh out of your husband, but he leans down to kiss you all the same. “So greedy, mi amor,” he murmurs into your mouth, and you giggle as he stands quickly, shucking his pants and boxers off before kneeling between your spread legs again.

You gasp softly as he notches the head of his cock against the entrance of your abused cunt, winding your arms around his neck to tug him close. He presses in slowly, agonizingly slow, and you gasp against his mouth. 

You’ve had Santi for years, but taking his cock always feels like the first time, all over again. He groans so lowly it almost sounds like a growl, holding your hips up to meet him as he finally bottoms out inside you. So deep he feels like he’s in your fucking stomach.

“Shit, baby, you’re so fucking wet,” he groans over you, his eyes clenched shut. He draws his hips out and shoves back in quickly, and you can’t do anything but gasp wetly, nails digging into his shoulders as he breaks you open around his cock. “So tight for me, always so fucking perfect.”

“So big, Santi,” you slur dazedly. “Stretching me out so good, it’s so fucking deep, baby.”

“You like me deep, bebita? So deep I’m in your fucking guts? Gonna fill you up, princesa, shit. Get through that fucking birth control, yeah? Get you,” he fucks into you again, hard, “get you fucking pregnant, sweetheart.”

“Oh God,” you whine, mind swimming with the overwhelming mixture of Santi over you, surrounding you, inside you. Fucking you full of him, enough to render your IUD useless, get you pregnant no matter what. “Fuck, Santi, please.” He works himself in and out of you, his thick hands holding onto your hips hard enough to bruise.

“You want it, baby? Want me to fuck a baby into this little pussy? Shit, you’re sucking me in baby, so fucking desperate for it.” He shifts closer, just a little, lifting your hips further into the air to throw you hard onto his cock, and he can’t miss your sweet spot like this. His perfect cockhead just jams into your g-spot at an angle like this, and Santi knows it. “My needy little wife, you wanna cum on this cock? C’mon, do it. Wanna see it baby.”

Tears are finally escaping, leaking slowly from your eyes as Santi fucks into you like only he can, practiced, harsh, unrelenting. You can faintly hear yourself babbling, a mixture of praises, and pleases, and Santi’s name. 

Santi brings a hand from your thigh to press a thick thumb to your over-sensitive clit, and you want to fucking scream. ��C’mon baby, show me how good I’m giving you this cock. Show me how good I fuck this pretty pussy.”

“Yes, yes, yes, it’s so good, it’s so fucking good, gonna cum, oh god, gonna give you a baby, Santi, oh god, oh my fucking god-” you gasp, unable to get a full breath into your lungs before you’re cumming again, nails digging hard enough into Santi’s back that there will be marks, marks that Santi will tease you about later when he looks in the mirror, but you can’t care. Not when it feels like your body is on a live wire, muscles and nerves strung taught and pulled apart.

“Just like that, sweet girl,” Santi groans above you, his hips stuttering into you. “Fuck, just like that, so fucking tight for me. Fuck, you’re mine,” he mutters, barely even speaking to you at this point. “Can’t believe you’re fucking mine, mine forever.” 

He’s lost in it, muttering to himself, and you tug him down, trying to ground him back to Earth against your lips as you whisper, “yours.”

Santi kisses you hard as he cums, emptying himself inside you. He wraps you in his strong arms, the both of you shaking softly against each other as you breathe through the aftershock of both your orgasms. He slips out of you at one point, and Santi takes the opportunity to roll you onto your sides. It’s quiet between the both of you for a few minutes as you brush a hand through Santi’s sweaty curls, and he brushes a thumb over your cheek, wiping any tears away.

“Love you so much, Santi,” you whisper after a while, and Santi smiles wide, wider than he ever had before he met you.

“I love you too, baby, more than I can describe.”

“Do you- do you think we could start trying? For a baby?” you whisper, tentative. There will be a bigger discussion tomorrow, about the future, especially if you throw children into the mix. But you need to know, for now.

“Mi amor, mi cielito,” Santi whispers, pecking you softly on the lips. “I would love nothing more.”

[storiesbyrhi]

Witch!Reader x Bat/Vampire!Eddie Munson Series Masterlist The Grimoire The Timeline

Warnings: canon typical violence, horror genre typical violence/some infrequent gore, swearing, animal death, no beta, death in childbirth (mentioned, not described), abusive parents, suicide, spiders/bugs, grief/mourning; light smut; warnings updated each chapter.

Synopsis: No witch has stepped foot in Hawkins since 1845, but when Vecna opens the ground and poisons the town, a voice begins to call to you. Have you been brought back to this cursed place to heal the townspeople’s wounds, to save a hexed bat that always finds its way to you, or to redefine your history with a reunion 150 years in the making?

Chapter Summary: The promise of snow in the shadow of a falling curtain. 2172 words.

Note: The scenes in this chapter starring Ev were co-written by her IRL counterpart @vintagehellfire.

1986

November came with a cold that promised snow soon. Still, the coven continued to build and grow. While magic shimmered outward, you, Eddie, and Ev spent hours poring over grimoires and speaking with the Witches Who Came Before. If you were going to empower Eddie with some sort of supernatural ability to see the worst in people, the work had to be sound.

Ev was the natural choice to help. She worked close to death and had an affinity for darkness and transformation. It felt so good and right to be practicing witchcraft with a sister again.

“Are we still thinking touch is the best trigger?” Ev posed.

“It has to be,” Eddie answered. “This cannot go wrong. We cannot be wrong.”

You slid off the armchair and kneeled in front of where Eddie was seated on the floor, piles of books and parchment around him. “You will always have the final say. You will always be able to ignore all this.”

So as not to curse Eddie with the sight 24/7, it was decided a charmed object would suffice.

“We could use a necklace?”

“What about one of his rings,” Ev suggested, pointing to the cross ring already adorning Eddie’s hand. “We could let it charge in potion,”

“Under the next full moon,”

“Yes,” Ev nodded at you.

“Okay, so now we need the potion… Black-eyed Susan for justice and gladiolus for moral integrity and a strong sense of character,”

“Horehound for revealing the truth,”

“You have horehound? Where did you get it?” you asked her.

“I cultivated it before we came to America. I’ve had some stashed since then,”

“That’s convenient… Okay, next… Splinted fir tree wood, also for truth, but determination and hope for the future too,” you said.

“I think this may need to be a bit viler. Something more substantial too,”

“I take it you have an idea for that?”

Ev looked from you to Eddie. He grinned as he saw the wicked smile spread across her face.

“Well… In my line of work, I have access to certain things others may not…”

You blinked hard at her. “You mean… dead bodies?”

“Yes,”

“What have you done?” you asked her seriously.

“Nothing a few simple cloaking spells and glamours can’t hide,” Ev said with a casual shrug. She smiled. “If we want this magic to work, we need offerings. I can offer the ground bones of evil men,”

“Of course you can,”

“You’re not judging me, are you?” Ev teased.

“No. Nobody is. But everyone judged me for what I did, but you’ve been skulking around with dead men’s bones and a wolf boyfriend for ages.”

She laughed. “Whatever. The point is, using the bones will call a stronger power. We need to be careful,”

“We will,” Eddie said.

“And we can add our blood. Offering witch blood will prove that our magic walks in the light. That we seek to do good,” you said.

Eddie and Ev nodded.

Next was workshopping the spell.

“By the bones and branches, I call to thee. Reveal the evil that lay beneath?” Ev proposed.

“Oh, okay, I like that. Let me write this down.”

When wordsmithing and potion brewing were done, you stored all the work away. The next full moon was on the sixteenth, so casting would be postponed until then.

You walked Ev back to her house, listening as she told you about how she met her wolf.

“It was organic. The first thing we talked about was music. He loves The Misfits. I love The Misfits. Danzig over Graves. Rollins era Black Flag. Even when we disagreed we agreed. Like about when our Iron Maiden cut-off is,”

“You know, Eddie is really getting into that kind of music. Maybe they would actually get along,”

“Well… Eddie’s mortal enemy was meant to be you, so I guess next in line might be exempt too,”

“Double date?”

Ev laughed. “Double date.”

…

Finding Max Mayfield and healing her had not left your mind since the Halloween party. When you set off on your mission, you left Eddie behind. He didn’t like that you were out beyond the limits of Hawkins alone, but he understood why it had to be that way.

When the sun went down, Eddie walked to Kelsey’s house. She welcomed him in and let him sit while she pottered around, doing things that seemed very sweet and domestic, even if Eddie wasn’t sure what the purpose was.

“Can I ask you something about the coven?”

“Of course,” she answered him.

“However… you cannot tell anyone that I asked.”

Kelsey turned and looked at Eddie. She narrowed her eyes. “Anyone?” Even her?

Eddie nodded. “Anyone,” he repeated. Even you. 

…

On the night of November the sixteenth, you, Ev, and Eddie took all you’d need through the woods and out the other side. Upon a small rise, you blended the Black-eyed Susan and gladiolus flowers with horehound and fir in a bowl made from oak. Ev sprinkled in her dead man bone ash.

“Blood,” you said, holding your hand out to Eddie.

Gently, he took it, biting just below your thumb. You felt his tongue swipe over the puncture, tasting you just a little before letting you go. As you let the blood drip into the potion, you glanced up at Ev, her pupils blown.

“Rude not to ask me to join in,” she quipped.

“Don’t tempt me with a good time, Ev,” Eddie replied just as quick.

“Gross. Stop it. Both of you… Eddie, give me your ring.”

You dropped Eddie’s ring into the bowl and nodded to them. Standing in a circle, holding hands, you all recited the spell. Eddie knew that his contribution to the incantation may not add any magical strength, he felt that it was the right thing to do.

“From Veritas, from Aletheia,

To Themis and her scale.

By bones and branches,

Reveal evil, let light prevail.

Under full moon,

By blood of coven,

Give this immortal power,

To morality govern.”

The wind picked up, the cold seeping in. You dropped hands and watched as the potion began to move, almost like it was alive. A bowl of sentient sludge. Writhing eels.

“What now?” Eddie asked.

“We leave it here. In the morning, the bowl will be empty save for the ring. It will be charmed, and you will have the sight,” you answered. You looked to Ev, she nodded.

“May I escort you ladies back home then, before the cold kills you?”

You let Eddie hook an arm through yours.

Ev hesitated. “I’ve actually got some other plans… I’ll see you tomorrow…”

“Plans on a full moon?” you teased.

Ev pulled a face and set off back into the woods in the direction opposite to the coven.

When you and Eddie got home, you disappeared into the apothecary. After making you tea and lighting the candles that helped you sleep, Eddie came searching for you.

“What more is there to do on this night?” he asked, leaning against the doorframe.

You turned to him. You loved him all of the time. You loved him when his eyes were wild and his lips stained with blood. You loved him when he was charming and wooing your coven sisters. You loved him when he was washing dishes and engaged in his on-going battle with figuring out the right settings on the iron. But like that, sweatpants low on his hips, scars and history on display… Hair with knotted curls and messy bangs… Doe eyes and gentle movements… You loved him most.

“Hi,” you whispered.

“Hi,” he whispered back, opening his arms in invitation.

You took a jar, the object of your search, and went to him. He held you safe while you explained.

“We never finished the spell. Your spell.”

Eddie thought back to the black hellebore and apple. How the night had melted into adoration and sex. How, come morning, Forest Hills Trailer Park suddenly didn’t seem like the type of place to cast a spell about the future. You had both decided to save it for when it felt right.

Eddie held the jar of powder and, with a blanket wrapped around you, you followed him outside. Sitting side by side on the front steps of the house grown with love and magic, you said nothing.

The night was quiet and bright, the moon gloriously round and high. Hawkins was peaceful and the coven were dreaming of new beginnings.

Eddie twisted the lid off the jar and poured half the dust into his palm. He closed his fist around it. He looked as if he were making a wish. It was a brief moment, then he uncurled his fingers and blew the dust into the fall air.

“Your turn.”

He tipped the rest of the dust into your hand and you copied what he had done. You watched the dust swirl in the breeze, twinkling with an unnatural glint.

“Thank you for the spell,” you said, your sentence punctuated with a yawn.

“Let’s get you to bed.”

…

Three things happened at the same time that night, on the eve of December. Max Mayfield returned to Hawkins, healed and full of questions for her friends. She vaguely remembered a visitor. Vaguely remembered a miracle. Vaguely remembered threatening her mother if she didn’t let her return to the small shitty town. She was different. Made both stronger and softer by what she’d been through. There was something else too, something not even Lucas could put his finger on.

It would take years for the magic to bloom in Max. When it did, your coven would be waiting.

A far more somber event was taking place just down the way from you. Steve Harrington’s ghost had begun to fade. Mel noticed it before he did. He was hardly there at all now. “This is a good thing,” she told him, but her sad eyes made him ache.

“I don’t want to go,”

“You’re meant to. There is more out there for you now,”

“But what about you?” he asked. Death had not changed Steve. He thought of others first.

She couldn’t put it into words. The feeling of being loved by Steve. The feeling of a soul ignoring death and instead, letting themselves be pulled to her.

As Steve moved on, a definitive moment, Mel crawled into bed and cried. She’d let herself grieve and she’d do it alone. Of course, you would notice her sorrow. You’d find her in the darkness and pull her back to the light of the coven. But not then. Not on that cold night.

In your house, you tried to distract yourself from Eddie’s absence by reading, then spell writing, and finally – television. MTV had a feature of new films being released soon. You made note of The Lost Boys, deciding it would be good for a cinema date night. Eventually, you retired to bed and waited up for Eddie. He’d be home from Chicago soon.

Eddie could smell it on them. Hear it in the spitting syllables of their words. And now, graced with his charmed ring, he could see their sins too.

One touch and he saw the entire span of human guilt. Not keeping off the grass. Gum stuck under desks. Fake IDs. White lies about going to the post office but actually going to eat a cheeseburger in peace. Unpaid fines, unreturned library books. A little weed in the back pocket. Teenage pranks, stolen stop signs, the accidents they caused. Running red lights. Running away from a crime scene. Running away from everything.

It was almost sweet, Eddie thought, what made some people feel shame.

Almost.

Unlicensed firearms. Running cons on elderly people. Animal cruelty. Methamphetamine cooking in a back shed. Dosages of medication that were not what the doctor prescribed. Setting fires. Hidden disks of child exploitation material. Manifestos by white men who knew how to build a bomb. Battery. Trafficking. Home invasion. Aggravated assault occasioning bodily harm. Sexual assault. Assault resulting in death.

It was easier than ever finding someone to drain. Eddie followed him out of a bar and towards the L. In a blur nobody would remember, the man was pulled into the darkness. As it happened, as the shock turned to paralysing fear, your skin broke out in goosebumps. All the way in Hawkins, you watched the hairs on your arms stand up straight.

Eddie’s teeth punctured skin and you yelped, a stab of pain coming from somewhere in you. Doubling over, you fought to breathe.

The man was tense, then limp, then dead.

Forcing deep gulps of air in, then out, you were more worried when the pain suddenly dissolved. Slowly, you got to your feet and blinked tears from your eyes.

If Eddie had felt your suffering, he’d mistaken it as the man’s.

Max’s homecoming, Steve’s final goodbye, and Eddie’s justice balanced by the price you’d always pay. Events that were determined long ago. Fated to coincidence. And would echo through time forever more.

End note: Shout out to @neonghostlights for helping to brainstorm types of sins.

THIS IS THE PENULTIMATE CHAPTER. Yep. Only one more chapter after this and it is not quite finished. So, any last requests or ideas need to be sent to me ASAP if you wanna find yourself in the story.

The Grimoire and timeline are updated. Reblogs and comments are highly appreciated, especially now in the final hour.

Fic Taglist:  @paranoidmunson  @idkidknemore @paprikaquinn @stardustworlds @loz-brooke @wyverntatty @vintagehellfire @dark-academia-slut @scarletwitchwhore @becks1002 @mrsdollardog @heyndrix @luceneraium @rosaline-black @devilinthepalemoonlite @goldencherriess @iamwhisperingstars @wiltedwonderland @blueywrites @breezybeesposts @jadehowlettthewolf @spikesvamp79 @foreveranexpatsposts @tortoiseshellspells @wingedpeachjudgegiant @stardustmunson @live-love-be-unique @fangirling-4-ever @reanimated-alice @b-irock @gh0stlybunnie @myown-worstenemy-2003 @woozzz @cyberxlust @hiscrimsonangel @buckysbarne @m00nlight101 @word-wytch @spicysix @briasnow-blog @goth-cowgirl-03  @pastel-pillows @moviefreak1205

All Eddie Taglist: @solomons-finest-rum @ruinedbythehobbit @sweetpeapod @thorfemmes  @corrodedhawkins @grungegrrrl @lilzabob  @averagemisfit03 @ches-86 @ilovecupcakesandtea @onehotgreasymechanic @hazydespair @mel-the-fangirl @eddies-hid3out @siren-lungs @aheadfullofsteverogers @hiscrimsonangel @dashingdeb16 @cultish-corner

[t0ta11y-n0t-cup1d]

Hello~ ʕっ˘ڡ˘ςʔ

I have a request for one-shot with Rise Leo x a crush fem reader were the reader is an actor for a movie as the maniac villan but she is very shy irl (maybe Leo finds a fan fiction about reader, would he read it? XD) Is ok if you don't want to do this 😅

(Not at All) Evil

꒰⑅ᵕ༚ᵕ꒱˖♡ ;; leo's meeting his celebrity crush, turns out she's not as villainous as portrayed

taglist ;; @apostlephobe

req ;; yes/no

fem reader - she/her prns

warnings ;; swearing

"Leo! Get a hurry on, we'll be late for the convention!" Raph groaned, Donnie tapping his foot impatiently alongside him as Mikey bounced about, chittering on about how excited he was.

Leonardo, on the other hand, was very, very nervous. He's been a long-time fan of Y/n ever since they starred in a movie as a villain. As soon as he heard the evil laughter spilling from her lips in one particular scene, he was smitten. And of course, his brothers being the good family they were, found and purchased tickets for a convention where Y/n would have a scheduled meet-and-greet.

The day before, he very carefully curated his outfit, picked out funny jokes and even made a script for anything that Y/n might say during the meet-and-greet. He had everything down to a T, to ensure he made a good impression on the idol he oh-so adored.

"Leo, if you don't get your fanboy butt out here, we're leavin' without ya!" Raph yells.

"... Fanboy ass." Mikey corrected quietly with a snicker.

The alligator snapping turtle turned on his heel towards Michelangelo with a scowl. "What. Did. You. Just. Say?"

"N-Nothin'!" Mikey squeaked, hiding behind Donnie.

“I’m coming, I’m coming!” Leo yelled back, giving one last glance in the mirror before grabbing a backpack to carry with him. Once everyone was all gathered up together, they made the long journey towards the convention center. The brothers promised to meet up together after, each going their separate ways. If he could remember correctly, Leonardo watched as Donnie headed towards a streamer’s (who was famous for building very questionable and dangerous things) meet-and-greet, Raph was off to see the booths and the cute things being sold, and Mikey was going to the food stalls, where there would be some prestigious chefs and food critics.

Simply vibrating in both anxiety and joy, Leo couldn’t stop the small chirrups that escaped him as he made his way upstairs, taking several rides up elevators to see his idol. The posters hung around, some boasting her presence, servined only to fuel the fire of his excitement.

Leonardo finally arrived at the designated area for Y/n’s meet-and-greet, velvet ropes set up to help designate where the fans should line up and patiently wait for their turn to have their photos taken and to chat with the actress. Only… It was strangely empty?

The red-eared slider looked around, confused. It was only 3pm, surely the meet-and-greet would be starting in some thirty minutes? He came early, but not that early. He opened up his phone to look at the tickets and then to look at the flyer for Y/n’s booth, only to crumble to the ground and hit the wall in agony.

‘Come and see the fabulous Y/n IRL! Booths and meet-and-greet open from 3:30-5pm!’

What he hadn’t read were the dates that she would be present. Alas, he had come a day too late.

Sulking and moping with his head hung low, Leonardo sought out Raph and clung to him sadly, weeping overdramatically as he perched atop his older brother’s shell. He whined and moaned about ‘injustice’ and the ‘absolute ruin’ his day had become as Raphael purchased new stuffed animals and even a small treat to cheer Leo up. Leo sobbed as he munched on a cupcake.

Eventually the whole group had gotten back together, the sun starting to set as they made their way towards a restaurant to order some food.

“I just don’t get it,” Leonardo wailed, leaning on Donnie (much to his twin’s disapproval). “I thought the meet-up was today… I was so, so excited, you guys can’t even IMAGINE the amount of, of- Donnie, what’s a big, genius word for feeling sad?”

“Bereaved? Sorrowful? Despondent? Woeful? Disconsolate? P-”

Leo made a loud shushing sound at the softshell as Raph ordered for the brothers. “Yes, yes, yes, I get it! I have such sadness in me, none of you could possibly understand!” (They all, in fact, understood, because Leonardo would simply not stop moaning and groaning over it since they all had regrouped.)

They all sat down in a booth, each having a burger, some fries and a soda. “But I’m just saying, I can’t believe I misread the flyer.” Leo sighed sadly, taking a sorrowful munch of his burger. “I was so looking forward to meeting her. I guess it just wasn’t meant to be.”

“Um, excuse me?” A small, feminine voice spoke up.

Leonardo turned towards her, a gloomy look on his face. The first thing that his eyes had landed on was his phone (a distinct, blue-decorated phone case, as well as a photocard of Y/n’s role as the villain behind the clear phone case, credits to Mikey) in her hand, offering it to the brothers.

“Is this one of yours?”

Then, Leo took the phone and opened his mouth to thank the kind young woman, only to gape his mouth at her in surprise. To his absolute, inexplicable glee, the girl who had given Leo his phone was none other than his idol. There stood Y/n, in all of her glory!

“Ah- uhm, you, uh, when- You, you, uhm-” Leonardo babbled, cheeks flushed in embarrassment as his tail thumped against the plasticy-fabric of the booth and his fingers tapped in a fast, rhythmic pattern on the table.

His brothers laughed, Donnie leaning over with a shit-eating grin. “Sorry about my brother, he’s very socially inept and stupid. He means to say thank you and that he’s a very big fan of your films and the roles that you play.”

“Oh! And he was real sad earlier ‘cause he missed your meet-and-greet today ‘cause he misread the flyer for it!” Mikey added, a bright smile on his face.

Y/n nodded softly, a gentle smile on her lips as she looked towards Leonardo. “Is that so? I’m very sorry. I’ll talk to my managers later about making sure the dates and times are clearer.” She responded in a sheepish, genuine tone. “Would you like a photo, then? I apologize that you had wasted your money in such a way.”

“I-you, uhhh, um, y-”

“Yes, he would!” Raph smiled, picking up Leo so that he stood beside you. Donnie took Leo’s phone, tapping away and inserting the password.

“Next time, don’t leave your phone on with fanfiction up, Leo. This writing is abysmal!” Don teased, giving a knowing nod towards Y/n as he pulled up the camera. “Alright! Leo, smile!”

Click!

As the brothers returned to their seats, Y/n stuck by for a few minutes to laugh and chat for a bit, writing her autograph onto a napkin, placing it in front of Leo before leaving.

It wasn’t until they were at home that Leonardo finally came to. “Oh my god. Oh. Oh my GOD!” He shrieked in the turtle tank as he swiped through his phone and clutched the napkin. “OHMYGO- Owwww!” He rubbed the back of his head, tossing a glare at Donnie, who had hit the back of his head.

He huffed and ran over to his room, taking some tape from Mikey’s and taping the autograph onto his wall. Leo chirped happily, clapping his hands in glee. “This! This is the best day ever!” He shouted in joy.

A/N ;; girl im so fuckin EEPY I SWEAR IVE NEVER BEEN SO EEPY IN MY LIFE </3 anyway TY FOR THE REQUEST GRACIAS!!!! mewmewmew THIS WAS SO MUCH FUN might make crumbs for it???? bc i scrapped. a LOT of scenes. anyway first week of school over and i already want to kword myself <33333

LUV FROM ;; CUPEZ

[jujitto]

▬▬ [ 𝗘𝗡𝗛𝗬𝗣𝗘𝗡 ] RIZZING THEM UP

LEE HEESEUNG [이희승] ; Now you and I both know Heeseung is a nerd so I feel like once you get to rizzing him up he’ll probably be quick to follow. NOW YOU CANT JUST RIZZ HIM UP ANY KIND OF WAY! YOU HAVE TO DO IT SPECIAL. You going all out to pretend to fall in front of him just to say the pickup line. “Do you have a bandaid? Because I just scraped my knee falling for you.” PLS- I JUST KNOW HE HAD A QUICK FOLLOW UP! “Do you believe in love at first sight, or should I walk by again?” PLS BECAUSE I CAN HONESTLY SEE THIS GOING ON FOREVER! THE RIZZLER WILL NOT BE GETTING RIZZED TODAY!

JAY PARK || PARK JONGSEONG [박종성]; Jay poor poor Jay was just going about his day as usual until you showed up. When you show up, nothing good can happen. HE SHOULD'VE KNOWN SOMETHING WAS UP WHEN YOU SHOWED UP RUBBING YOUR HANDS TOGETHER LIKE AN EVIL VILLAIN. PLS! Because the way he gave you a disgusted look when you pulled out that pimp walk. THE PIMP WALK AND THE LIP BITE HAD HE LOOKING LIKE YOU SLAPPED HIS MOM. He probably wouldn’t even let you get out your words before he leaves the room. Because I can see him ignoring you and not listening to the shit that comes out of your mouth. But of course, you being you had to stop him and try to rizz him up. “You want to know my favorite tea? I’m looking at him, shawTea!” PLS, HE WOULD PROBABLY LEAVE YOU STANDING THERE LOOKING STUPID. Give him some time to throw that memory away babes OK?

JAKE SIM || SIM JAEYUN [심재윤] ; Jake is going to be completely obvious to what you’re doing. So when you sat in his lap and pushed some of his hair behind his ear, he thought it was a normal thing until you leaned in, and whispered those words in his ear. “Can I borrow a kiss? I promise to give it back.” HONESTLY, I CAN SEE HIM BEING HELLA CONFUSED. Like why would you ask for a kiss like he's not your boyfriend? Gets to the point where you have to explain to him. CUE THE SPINNING LOADING SCREEN. Gets it after a while and once he does he automatically starts saying something to you. HONESTLY I CAN'T SEE HIM SAYING THOSE OLD-ASS DAD ONES! Yep! I said! 😝

PARK SUNGHOON [박성훈] ; I don’t know why, but I can see him not honestly giving a fuck and or cringing. But you can’t blame him because you came out of nowhere with that cringey ass fucking pick up line of yours. THE DICE ROLL WALK HAD HIM CRINGING FROM THE VERY BEGINNING! That stupid walk and the smirk on your face told him everything he needed to know. And it didn't make it any better when you said that stupid pick up line. “Do you like Star Wars? Cause Yoda only one for me.” HONESTLY PROBABLY WOULD'VE BROKEN UP WITH YOU IF YOU HADN’T WALKED AWAY DOING THAT STUPID WALK AGAIN! Sunghoon honestly deserves compensation 😭!

KIM SEON WOO [김선우] ; “If I could rearrange the alphabet, I'd put U and I together.” PLEASE BECAUSE I CAN SEE HIM PAUSING AND PRETENDING TO FREEZE. How can you freeze IRL?!?! Like please boy is not trying to put up with your bullcrap today. MANNEQUIN CHALLENGE 2.0?!? 😭 BABY REALLY SAID MAYBE IF I DON'T MOVE SHE WILL LEAVE. PLS because I can see him constantly putting up with this mess. This isn't the first time this has happened I can just tell. SUNOO BABES RUN FOR YOUR LIFE AND NEVER LOOK BACK! 😭

YANG JUNGWON [양정원] ; Now Jungwon I can see totally falling for it or getting flustered. Jungwon is just a baby who flusters easily. “Did we go to school together? I could have sworn we had chemistry.” NOW YOU CAN'T TELL ME JUNGWON WON'T BE BLUSHING! BLUSHING BABY JUNGWON! Jungwon is honestly going to be too flustered to say anything. Tries to come up with something to say but ends up failing because you just came out of nowhere with that pickup line and you expect him to say something back to you. BABY AT THIS POINT JUST LET HIM TAKE A MOMENT. HONESTLY ITS 3 to 4 BUSINESS DAYS BEFORE YOU GET A RESPONSE BACK FROM HIM. Yes he's just that flustered.

NISHIMURA RIKI [西村 力] ; Riki now Riki is not even going to give you the time of day. He avoids you at all costs because he knows what you are up to. PLS, HE’S AVOIDING YOU LIKE YOU HAVE THE FLU OR COCKROACH 19! One thing he didn’t expect for you to do was to text him. And of course he’s going to answer your text messages because he’s your boyfriend. But maybe it would’ve been better if he didn’t. “Are you anxiety? Because you make my heart race.” BEST BELIEVE THERE WILL BE NO RESPONSE AND YOU WILL POSSIBLY BE BLOCKED. PLS RIKI IS NOT GOING FOR IT!

[firstkanaphans]

SMASH or PASS: GMMTV 2024, Part 2

Ossan’s Love: Based on the trailer we were given, PASS. However, I will watch this one regardless because it’s EarthMix and I have hope that the actual show will be a bit less cringe because P’Au is directing it and we know from MSP that he can do romantic comedy well. Unfortunately, I have not seen the original and this particular trailer made me never want to.

Leap Day: PASS. Not even an autistic-coded Gun Attaphan could save this one for me. But good for Pond! This is a huge role for him.

The Heart Killers: Obviously, SMASH. I know people are saying this feels like SandRay 2.0, but I’m getting more YokGaipa vibes and I am living for it. You can read my full review here, but I just want to go on record once again and say how grateful I am that FK got an adult show with an adult plot and a queer director.

Friendshit Forever: SMASH. It’s giving me Cruel Intention vibes and if they let Mook and Pat make out at least once, I’ll send them a fruit basket.

Perfect10 Liners: PASS. If I never hear the words “Engineer Cute Boy page” again, it will be too soon. 

Us: SMASH. Both Bonnie AND Emi make my brain go brrr, so I can’t promise I’ll be able to produce any coherent content about it, but I will be eagerly watching.

Hide & Sis: SMASH. This looks amazing and I loved P.S. I Hate You, so I’m expecting great things. Plus, Lookjun and Pepper finally get to work together! I’m so happy for them.

Thame-Po: SMASH. I know nothing about LYKN, but I enjoyed the trailer and I think it’s a great way for GMMTV to market their musical artists. Don’t think it’s going to help with people IRL shipping Est and William, though.

Break-up Service: lol, PASS.

Revamp the Undead Story: I will watch it because it is Boun’s baby and I love him, but in general, vampire shows only interest me if they’re slutty and I’m not sure GMMTV is going to allow that. So…PASS?

Sweet Tooth, Good Dentist: Genuinely, I didn’t think there was anything that could make Mark Pakin unattractive to me, but they somehow managed it. That trailer was just weird. Ohm TPK is way too green to be leading a BL and I didn’t sense any chemistry between him and Mark. I hope the show's good for Mark’s sake, but my expectations are not high. PASS.

The Dark Dice: I think I might have to wait until the actual trailer for this one, but tentatively SMASH. The problem is that I’m not a huge fan of Prom or Prim, so I would be watching exclusively for Gemini.

The Ex-Morning: Y’all, I’m still drooling over Singto in that fucking trailer. I’m sorry, but he looks hot as fuck. I’d SMASH for him alone. This was by far my favorite plot of the night. I love me a good rom-com and since this one’s being written by P’Aof (and none of the characters are blind), I trust him.

Overall, I thought this was a much better line-up than Part 1 and I'm excited for what's coming!

EDIT: I forgot Scarlet Heart Thailand, which I guess makes my opinion obvious. It's a PASS. If I was a woman surrounded by that many men, I would run. That's a horror movie, not a love story. And even without knowing anything, I guarantee she's going to end up with Win. Because someone at GMMTV thinks he's hot or whatever.

[ptn-imagines]

as hcs, what are suspect r’s reactions to f!chief’s fashion? if possible, could you also include the upcoming cny event’s attire (f!chief looks so handsome, 10/10 cutie pie <3)?? no worries if not, i’m technically at ch11, and chief already has like five skins (tho rip me i’m at medium bfl + f2p only :/)

follow up on r’s reactions to chief (not sure if i could ask both together so i split it just in case <3): as hcs, what would f!chief’s thoughts be about her Wife’s- i mean suspect r’s attires? i know she technically already saw her in the prologue (and later in the iconic wet dream- i mean her surprise appearance in ch6) but lmao she just woke up, groggy and totally clueless and first thing she sees is a half revealed chest? and what about the dress and cute hat r wears in the trailer and the crimebrand? also do NOT ask me how long i stared at creation i’m gobbling up every suspect r crumb (oh ho ho hooo i spy expensive gloves and an even more expensive purse looks like a certain suspect is super rich but what peek? what experiment?? (ok that one is probably connected to paradeisos) whAT SECRET??? WHAT PROMISE???????) ALSO i’m sorry for rambling a bit more but before r woke her wife- i mean f!chief did r seriously change her dress to a shirt and unbuttoned the top five buttons and rolled up her sleeves and made sure her skirt shows her fine booty perfectly even if chief can’t even see or feel it fhsadhakjdhakj truly no one does it like suspect r pls never change ma’am

Hi anon! The deluge of Suspect R asks startled the shit out of me but it's okay because I love her. I decided to combine these two requests because otherwise the one about Chief reacting to Suspect R's fashion would've been reaaaaally short. I hope that we see more of Suspect R in act two of the story, I'm begging for crumbs... It's been over an in-game year since we saw her! And I'm pretty sure it's also been around that much time irl too. Aisno is edging us. I need to know what she knows about us! She acts way too much like our ex-wife! Clearly she knows us and she speaks of us fondly, who were we to her?!

Suspect R and F!Chief reacting to each other's fashion

The Bureau uniform is what Suspect R is used to, of course. She doesn't think much of it, beyond what she thinks of Chief herself: that she's absolutely stunning no matter what she wears. R longs to run her fingers through Chief's hair… and of course, she would've gotten Chief some clothes more to her taste if she'd managed to scoop her up and whisk her away. She also finds the jacket cute – and she has no room to talk about wearing your jacket properly. She thinks it's a way in which they match, which she likes.

The Stalker attire just adds a hood and cloak, but R thinks Chief wears it extremely well. If she could, she'd love to tease about how she looks like a “true Syndican” now.

R is more enamored by the story behind the Passage of Time attire than the outfit itself. She thinks the colors and patterns look nice on the Chief, but what truly makes it shine to her is Chief's interactions with OwO. She also thinks the braid looks very nice. Overall, it's a bit of a different look to what she's used to from the Chief, but she likes it anyway.

She thinks the Traveler attire is adorable. She honestly can't pick a favorite part about it because her eyes are too busy roaming everywhere, though she definitely appreciates the good view of Chief's legs. This is a strong competitor for her favorite outfit, because she thinks it brings out Chief's heroic spirit and kind heart by the vibes of it, which is by far her favorite aspect of the Chief.

Her reaction to Nightfall Soiree can be summarized as “lol cute.” She prefers seeing Chief in blue – not that she's biased or anything – but she admits the red is a good look on Chief. It's bolder than what is standard for the Chief, and she thinks her fluffy curls look adorable. It's an easy contender for her top three.

Her thoughts on the upcoming attire is that she wants to pull on Chief's ponyta– ahem. She's a big fan of the subtle touches of red against the black and white. While her bias is definitely Chief in dresses, she's a big fan of looks like these as well – she prefers it to Passage of Time, as far as celebrating the Chinese New Year goes. Once again, she feels like this outfit brings out her beloved Chief's heroic spirit.

As for Chief…

When you awaken with amnesia, you don't expect your first sight to be… anything at all, really. But if Chief did have expectations, Suspect R and her appearance would've been low on the list.

It actually took a moment for Chief to take note of R's fashion, held spellbound by the striking glow of her eyes – but when she did tear her gaze away, her heart did a flip in her chest and she had to swallow as her mouth suddenly felt drier than a desert.

R was stunning, simply stunning. Her blonde hair cascading over perfect shoulders, slender fingers tracing over Chief's cheek, breath hot on her face…

Oh, and it didn't help that her top, uh… left little to the imagination. A physical one was not the only awakening Chief went through in that moment; if Nightingale hadn't showed up, Suspect R would've probably succeeded in whisking her away.

When Chief finally gets to see R's alternate outfit, she'll be stunned as always. It's not something she'd ever imagine R wearing, but she can't deny that R looks amazing – and white has always been a good color on her.

Still, Chief prefers Rebecca's more casual outfit – if you can call it that. Her fancier outfit feels like it loses some of R's spirit, the spark that draws Chief to her in the first place – making her look like any other rich Eastside (or Paradeisos…?) lady.

[clumsiestgiantess]

So I’ve had a cool idea for a new story but it’s hella long and would probably span like three books so I’ve only ever written short snippets for prompts and stuff.  With promptober/inktober & nanowrimo coming up, I thought maybe y’all should have a synopsis of the story.  This is just so I can share more of my writing and you’ll actually understand what it’s about.

The story opens in a fantasy world that’s sort of medieval, sort of rural town-ish.  There’s known magic and monsters and legends and gods that live somewhere too high up to see, like a version of Mount Olympus.  The main character is your typical hero’s journey type hero.  He’s prophesied to become a great warrior after finding a powerful sword and goes out on a quest to save his village from a famine.  His sister doesn’t believe in magic and thinks it’s a wild goose chase.  She begs him not to go because he’ll probably die trying, but pressure by the rest of the village convinces him to leave.  There’s a legend of forest spirits who have magic that can help them; our hero must slay one and gain the core of its power.  The village elders can then use the core to get rid of what’s causing the blight.

After the typical heroic quest fighting monsters and such, he comes across the forest spirit’s rumored home.  It’s creepy and derelict, overgrown with strange plants.  The hero, while exploring the place, finds a living resident hiding in a collapsed house.  A fairy.  (fairies in this universe are small, but not crazily small.  Our hero is minigiant height compared to her)  She’s an eerie sight to be sure, with bug-like features and multiple limbs, but boy is she scared.  She knows the rumors about their kind — knows our hero is there to kill her.  She would fly away, but they're inside and he’s blocking the door. 

Thankfully, the hero realizes she’s no creepy monster, and can’t bring himself to kill her.  However, there’s a reason the fairy’s village is so decrepit.  Her kind had been infected with a plague of parasitic mushrooms like the ones that infect ants.  The mushrooms use the fairies’ cores like magic fertilizer.  Just like how the irl mushrooms use ants to carry their growths to a good spot then plant themselves there through the ant’s body, these mushrooms are using the fairies to bring them cores to continue growing itself, like a mind-controlled cult offering.  The hero (being the hero he is) uses his powerful sword to kill the giant hivemind mushroom, freeing everyone under its control.  

Of course, the fairies are thankful, but they still can’t offer him their power (because it’s in them.  They would legitimately have to die and tear the core from their chest.)  Our hero’s new fairy friend (& potential love interest) offers to come with him herself and use her magic to help the village.  Both he and her kind simultaneously tell her no.  People would kill her the moment she stepped into the village.  (That’s also the reason she and everyone else couldn’t go for help when the mushroom took over)  However, the village comes together to pool their magic and form a talisman of sorts that will keep plants from dying.  After a heartfelt goodbye, he leaves the fairies’ village and returns home with the promise to come back and visit.

His own village celebrates his return and everything is better than ever!  His sister is glad to have him back safe, but she’s really surprised by the magic.  There are good reasons she didn’t believe in it.  She’d been doing research while he was away.. she doesn’t believe the gods are, well, gods.  (Of course they are!  We’ve seen them!  They wander by once and a while!)  But things don’t add up.  It’s…  almost like the gods don’t know they exist.  They’re giant behemoths.  They walk right by looking right out over everything.  She’s done every blasphemous thing she can think of in secret; they’re supposed to come drag her off and smite her, but nothing’s happened.  Everyone prays for rain from them and expects it to come, but she can tell by patterns in the weather that it’s not going to happen.  She knows it’s a bunch of bullshit.  Our hero tells her to just keep it to herself, fearing she’ll be exiled for her beliefs, or worse, hung.  He doesn’t believe her.  She says she can prove it.

(That’s part one) Part two is in the sister’s perspective, happening at the same time as the first part.

After doing the things mentioned above (her trying to see if the gods even know about them), she decides to run off and find out where exactly the gods live.  She blames her leaving on trying to find her brother so the village doesn’t get suspicious.  After weeks of wandering, her supplies have almost run out and she’s lost.  Following the gigantic gods is so hard when they move with such large steps.  She’s beginning to fear the worst for herself when a goddess happens to stop nearby.  They’re searching for something in the grass.  She sneaks over to investigate and finds the goddess is capturing monsters with her bare hands, collecting them like little trinkets.  She’s so fascinated by how harmless the monsters appear to the goddess that she doesn’t realize she’s been spotted.  Next thing she knows, she’s captured just like the monsters.

As the world of the gods is more fully fleshed out to the reader, its revealed that the gods’ realm that’s too high and far for the people of the village to see is actually a house.  The entire fantasy world was nothing but the field in the back between it and the woods.  The ‘monsters’ are just more gruesome depictions of small animals and bugs.  The fairies.. yeah no the fairies are still real.  

The ‘goddess’ is actually just a woman who works on the farm where the ‘fantasy world’ is located.  She’d been collecting some new bugs for her pinboard collection with a bit of free time and unknowingly took our tiny main character too.  She’s suffocating the bugs one by one, attaching them to new spots on the board absentmindedly.  Meanwhile, our main character is scared to death because she’s going to be suffocated and impaled.  

Thankfully, the human realizes she’s not a bug and studies her with fascination.  At barely two centimeters tall, she can’t understand our mc, and the human’s voice had been so loud and dragged out over the outdoor space that everyone believed the gods spoke in their own language.  Through a long process of fear and angst, the two figure out how to communicate, and realize they aren’t that different.  Both bond over the fact that our mc was right!  She’s very intrigued by all the strange human technology.  She wants to go back and tell the village the truth, but realizes she can’t.  That would tear apart their entire religion and way of life!  And that’s if they believed her.  If they didn’t, they’d surely punish her with some sort of gruesome death sentence.

After staying with and befriending the human, she returns to the village because she’s been homesick.  Living with everything at such a massive scale can be stressful and tiring.  Plus, she wants to at least see her brother if he makes it back.  The human offers to bring her close (but not too close) to the village and they make plans on how to contact eachother again.  They’ll go on all sorts of small adventures together, searching for her brother and just getting to know and trust one another. When her brother does return, she tells him her theories, he doesn’t believe her, she says she can prove it, and the whole thing ties back together.

(part 3, the fanale)

Back to the ‘present’, our hero curiously follows his sister out on a little adventure, and when they get to the meeting spot, she sets up the message for the human to find.  A storm blows in while they wait for a reply and our hero and his sister get separated by rain. Just as he finds his way back to her, he sees she’s being taken away by the human.  The human is really just getting her out of harm’s way, unable to hear that she brought her brother along with the noise of the storm.  All our hero sees is his sister yelling at a goddess who — as per the stories of those who blasphemy the gods — is being dragged off to nowhere to die.

Our hero immediately seeks help from his fairy friend, the only one who might be powerful enough to bargain with a goddess.  When he tries to tell her about it, she just looks at him confused.  (What gods? / The giant ones that look like me but massive!  Haven’t you seen them before? / You mean the humans? / The what?)  Fairies know about humans, and know that they’re unpredictably dangerous.  Both mc and fairy are convinced that his sister’s in major trouble and come up with a plan to get her back.  Meanwhile, said sister has told the human about the mix up, and they go back to look for her brother but obviously he’s gone.

The two are soon confronted by a rescue party of one concerned brother and fairy duo.  The fairy threatens the human with magic, but soon everyone is confused by the sister herself defending the human.  Human’s confused because that’s a real actual magic fairy.  Fairy’s confused because the human has somehow been tamed.  Our hero’s confused because he thought his sister had been kidnapped.  His sister’s confused because why does her brother know a forest spirit?  (He’d kept that a secret for the fairies’ sake) 

After a long explanation from all sides, everyone calms down and hangs out at the human’s house, staying the day because that day was exhausting and no one really wants to go back home.  When they do, they come up with a plan: they’ll let the village know that the world isn’t as scary as it seemed.  The spirits in the woods are actually really friendly, and the towering gods are just them but bigger, no ethereal powers whatsoever.

They do try to get everyone to communicate, and things go pretty well.  It takes people some time to understand, but utopia is beginning to form as everyone shares technology and achievements.  The smaller people (They’re what’s called a cight, tiny humans that can see and predict the future to an extent) are far more inventive and ahead of the fairies’ time (though the fairies do have magic), and the human’s technology is ahead of both, though they could also learn quite a lot from the other civilizations.  

Things are going well until the brother/sister duo gets kidnapped.  It’s the original village elders who’d mysteriously disappeared before anyone could question them on why their ‘knowledge’ was wrong.  The truth is: they knew all along, and have reasons for keeping everyone apart.

Before their village was established, before they even knew humans existed, their kind forsaw the ‘end of the world’.  It would be caused by an event just like this, where all three beings would try to come together in peace.  In those old times, no one had even seen another being that looked different to them, but as humans expanded and territories moved closer together, they began to see eachother so the elder lineage decided to do something to stop the coming together of all beings.  They created the belief that fairies would use their magic to overtake them, and turned them into monsters to be slain for a reward.  They turned humans into uncaring sacrifice-demanding gods as an excuse to get rid of people who might find out the truth.

The elders of this day forsaw our hero’s sister finding out the truth about humans, but also saw that she wouldn’t reveal the truth unless she had her brother around to confide in.  Therefore, they made up the prophecy that he was meant to be a hero and sent him away on some silly quest to a place they thought he would never return from — the fairies’ village.  (Before the mushroom takeover, if someone found a fairy the collective would imprison them in their village to stop people from revealing where they live.  They’ve done this with both humans and cights. The elders knew where it was because they have foresight)  However, once our hero returned there wasn't enough time to prevent him from coming across the human.

Now in every single future they see, the humans eventually wipe everyone out.  The siblings argue that the human wouldn’t tell anyone, but it doesn’t matter according to the elders.  Apparently, either the others who know the human get suspicious of them and find the village, or the next humans who live there sell the farmland and everything gets plowed under to build more houses.  There are other less likely scenarios, but many of them end with someone getting too curious for their own good and accidentally trying to befriend a horrible human. It might not happen this generation, or the next, or the next, but the two siblings have sealed their fate by revealing the truth.  Inevitably their kind will go extinct by the human race.  Shortly followed by the fairies.

The story will end on a hopeful note after defeating/escaping the elders.  Everyone lives at peace and the human does their best to keep everything secret, only keeping the knowledge within the family line of trusted successors.  Though I guess I’d leave it up to the reader whether or not the ‘end of the world’ comes to pass or was avoided by everyone working together.

Thats it, that’s the thing. I told you it would be too long to write.

[theplatypusblue]

COMPILING ALL LEGENDS OF CHIMA SEASON 1 THOUGHTS BELOW THE READ MORE (super long post, written as I was watching)

(I can be a little mean but I promise I’m having fun lol)

Episodes 1 + 2:

Man this shits super boring.

Idk if I can get behind craggers plot line tbh. He’s too much of a dumbass for me to really root for him.

The lore seems really cool so far. I like the settings and the stuff about the legend beasts.

Like?? Forest full of trees that just fall down all the time? Epic.

Legend beasts are especially cool cuz it means this is how Chima characters react when seeing a regular ass lion for the first time:

Episode 3:

Man Laval really fucked everything up.

I have a feeling all of cragger’s dumbass-ness, like, transferred over to laval and now we’re gonna be seeing him making all the dumbass decisions

The only thing I really care about here is the b-plot about Gorzan and his flower. More engaging than the main plot

Episode 4:

Prediction about Laval replacing Cragger as the resident dumbass seems to be coming true

Gorzan is quickly becoming my favorite.

Oh hey look it’s the beavers!! I remember they show up in that one episode of ninjago. I had zero context for what they were all about then but now I know!!

Episode 5:

The gorilla tribe seems like the most chill out of everyone. Gorillas 👍

Can I just say I hate the fucking skunk. He sucks.

Honestly kind of a nothing episode

Episode 6:

Eagle spire does that cool thing where all the buildings are built on super scary precipices. There’s literally a post going around about this exact thing but I can’t find it rn

Oh so the eagles are just a bunch of nerds. A little weird I guess(?) I feel like eagles are usually symbols of strength n stuff so that’s different. It’s giving cloud kingdom.

“Wing girl” tf kinda nickname??

Apparently the ravens are double crossing everyone but I have not been paying close enough attention to what’s going on to really process that

Ok so it was all an extremely convoluted way for the crocs to get everyone to fight each other. And the ravens tried to profit but they’re kinda stupid so nothing really worked out for anyone

Episode 7:

Purble moon??? Epic

Man the bears are so epic just like me fr

Nooo don’t mess w the gorillas they’re so chill :(

I am entirely uninterested in the 100 year full moon skunk fart lore. Sorry.

It’s a little strange and maybe I’m hallucinating but I feel like the animation has has somehow gotten better?? Like the lighting or smthn…. Or the facial expressions???

Oh….. skunk fart lore is plot relevant………

Now that I’m thinking… is that the only skunk in chima?? Cuz rn it looks like just the one guy

Episode 8:

Oh it’s a big boy chi

There’s a fucking peacock?? Don’t know how to spell his name. So wait if he wins who does the chi go to?? He gets it all to himself?

Oh wait nvm it’s probably a cragger thing. Mr. Peacock comes back after retirement or w/ever in order to do some evil shit with the crocs I get it I get it

Gorzan I love you

WHO THE FUCK IS THAT GUY?? Is it a pig? A warthog??? It’s giving Mr. E vibes.

Man idk this episode is structured rlly weirdly. Nothing really fit together very well. It’s alright tho.

Episode 9:

GORILLA EPISODE?? Let’s go dude

It funny cuz I feel like gorillas aren’t actually this mellow irl

STOP FUCKING WITH THE GORILLAS CRAGGER I’LL KILL YOU

Oh hey it’s our mystery mans. Oh nevermind he left again.

There are balloon plants?? Oh yeah those are the things they were using in the other episode. Sorry I wasn’t paying attention to anything else that happened.

Episode 10:

Uhh I forgot to take notes while watching uhhh

The fox guy was cute. I like a little fox guy

This episode managed to make me feel a little bad for cragger!! He wants to do a good job but he kinda sucks at everything :(

It also made me confused abt cruller!!! What are you doing w ur life girl!!!!

Kinda messed up how the wolves had to serve the crocodiles tho… probly for the best she threw away that pledge

If Laval’s dad is right when he says they’re not gonna race for chi for a long time, I’m guessing they’re not gonna do any more racing episodes for some time. That’s fine honestly.

WAIT THAT RHINO GUY’S DYING. Oh nvm. This whole situation is cringe I hope it’s a one-off thing….

Also I forgot everyone thinks craggers parents are dead but really they’re just chilling in that canyon. Kinda funny actually

Episode 11:

Oh man the wolves are fucking everything up

“We all gotta stay here till the walls are fixed” bruh just call the beavers or smthn

Man what is the deal with this shadow wind dude.

If there’s one similarity I could point out with ninjago, it’s all this talk abt ~the balance~. I guess it makes sense since they take place in the same universe, technically

These bears are so cute lol napping does solve everything so true

Episode 12:

Jets travel super fast in the air. If they’re going through a storm Laval should totally be dead by now

Cragger is setting boundaries!! We love to see it. Cruller is acting pretty cringe. In her ~~girlfailure era~~

Is Laval gonna fall in this gorge?? Oh yeah he’s gonna fall in this gorge

Noooo Gorzans underwear is gonna tear

It’s a little sweet how Laval still wants to help out cragger

Episode 13:

I guess I’m still not super into cragger but I pity him a little. He’s trying his best but he’s just a bit stupid. And also his sister sucks ass

Okay. So she may be cringe but cruller is living her best(-ish) life.

That wolf is wearing a really cute apron

Man they were bringing up Shadow wind earlier and I thought they were gonna reveal their identity but now I’m a bit disappointed…

Laval is being peak dumbass rn I kinda like it. “The warm milk of oppression” lol

Episode 14:

“You bears think you’re so clever” bro they are literally asleep I don’t think they give a shit

I think the thing with Cragger is that I absolutely hate him when he’s under the influence of the flower thingy. He’s unlikable in a not-so-fun way, but he seems much more cute/compelling when he’s normal lol.

Oh my god they’re getting back-alley chi lmao

Oh is everyone gonna think Cragger did this on purpose. That’s sad.

This Reagle(?) guy is really silly I like his design a lot

Ohhhhh the wolves are gonna plug the fake chi and become chickens. It’s not a Cragger-might-be-evil thing. Gotchaaaa that’s cute

Seeing Cragger and Leval act like buddies again is genuinely nice they’re friends :)

Episode 15:

Eagles are based communists that live in the sky got it 👍

Cruller stop fucking with the gorillas istg.

Okay what the hell did burning the flower do. Is that like taking an inhalant

The ravens attempted to use the eagles’ based communist values against them. However, they didn’t realize that the eagles are boring as shit, and don’t “own” anything cool in the first place. Based communist eagles for the win.

Okay wait is Eris liking the rhino like. A brand new development or was it hinted at before?? It’s been a hot second since I watched the last couple episodes

Also I recognize that animation from the Ninjago season 5 finale lol

Episode 16:

Man I just hate this stupid skunk

This fog of destiny stuff is really goofy looking from the outside lmao it’s hard to take serious

So it’s like. Making them entirely delusional or something? Some of them are acting the opposite of how they usually do, but others are having like, delusions of grandeur. Idk how it works exactly

Laval there has got to be a smarter way to wake them up. You keep getting thrown into the lake…. Oh my god is the skunk gonna fart again. If that’s literally how they wake them up I’m gonna be so mad.

Oh okay thank god I was wrong.

Oh wait it randomly made cragger evil again. Man come on.

Cruller you stupid dumb idiot lmao get wrecked honestly

I hope the skunk dies like actually for real

Episode 17:

Oh shit Lavals dad also had a best friend that did shitty things and eventually grew apart from?? Damn.

Also Laval in exile time!!! Hopefully this will be cool

Eh. It’s not so cool with the skunk around

OH SHIT is the shadow wind the guy that was exiled before??? Ohhhhh

Ahhh okay Cruller backstory time. Damn girl was getting compared to her sibling straight out the egg. Didn’t even have a moment to spare there huh

Noooo Laval you just enslaved the wolves again by giving him the treaty. That was like the one cool thing cruller manages to do

Oh. I guess the exile thing literally didn’t matter at all lmao kinda underwhelming

Episode 18:

Lol so Cragger is such a dickhead now it’s even causing his stupid ominous dream to take notice

Okay so the floating mountain that gives everyone the chi also makes you on fire when you touch it. Chima world building really is epic man I gotta include random cool shit in my stories once I get around to writing stuff

This definitely feels like part of a finale lol maybe we’ll finally learn what the deal is w shadow wind

Andddddd the chi’s all fucked up now

Episode 19:

Tbh I would also be kinda mad at the lions like. They had no idea what they were doing or if it would have any negative consequences.

Man the whole thing with the wolves just kinda. Fizzled out huh? Like a few episodes ago they had ~all the chi in chima~ and now they’re all like “idk man why don’t we all just get along” lol

I love the attitude of just asking the beavers to fix the mountain. Like let’s just chuck a couple of construction workers at this malfunctioning holy site that’ll probably work

Episode 20:

I’m guessing this is the finale?? Let’s see

Laval looks so weird without his little crown thingy lol hes so square

He’s definitely not dead tho

CROCODILE LETS GOOO!!!!! EPIC!!!

OH UM. Okay well that complicates things. And there’s like a million other questions we still haven’t answered but ok. I guess all of that other stuff can wait until later????

I thought the eagle guy said chima only had 2 moons left before everything fell apart?? So they really gotta get the ball rolling on that one uhm. Oh well.

**EDIT** Last time I posted this I thought it stopped at episode 13 for some reason?? Tubi is stupid; thanks to the person who pointed out the actual episode number. I’ll probably stop here for a while, sorry it took so long to update this lol. My initial thoughts and feelings haven’t really changed all that much, so I’ll keep them as they were:

I definitely feel like it’s a show that doesn’t have super strong characters. I think it would better if the show leaned more into the world it’s created instead, if that makes sense. Maybe later the character writing will improve a little bit, and I’ll changed my tune. But!! Who knows. I’m having fun with it.

Idk when I’ll get to season 2, cuz I get super busy sometimes (I started this one a couple months ago but couldn’t finish it till now ugh) but I do want to continue watching!! Eventually!!!

[yakuzabrainrotlive]

Couldn't play Y4 today because I was studying and taking care of irl stuff, so I'll just write my Akiyama first impressions post now, as promised! I've played up to the first cutscene with "Lily".

This was supposed to be, like, a surface-level thing where I kinda guess stuff and do some basic observations, but according to Microsoft Word I got... around 1200+ words deep. So yeah. Good for you guys who like to read my rablings that I didn't take my meds today! But also... this IS my unmedicated self's ramblings, written at 10-11pm so... (attempt to) read at your own peril!

For those of you who want the short version, TL;DR is provided (and highly recommended) at the bottom!

So, Akiyama! What a guy.

-He's low-energy and has trouble taking care of himself, his work and his surroundings (laid-back or depressed? maybe it's a little bit of both - as a treat. Maybe executive dysfunction?). This is clear in how messy his office is, how Hana reminds him to eat and brought him lunch (implying he regularly forgets to, or just doesn't eat), and how it seems to be a common occurence that she has to encourage him to do his work. And yet, despite the chill vibes and slow pace he keeps, he manages to also be chaotic in the way that he's unpredictable to those around him, in terms of his business strategy, and in how he makes quick decisions on the spot – ones that don’t make sense to people around him, based on what they (think) they know about him.

-In front of most people, Akiyama pretends to be all laid-back and just this… guy who just does his own thing because he’s quirky and doesn’t care, but he's not fooling me at all; he cares, and he cares a lot. About many people. He's literally looking after the homeless in town - so much so that they feel safe enough to let him into their space to have a chat and drink with them, and ask him for things.

^This is probably no small feat, considering how the homeless are treated in Kamurocho (there's literally groups who hunt them for shits and giggles) and how uncertain things are for them in general in that area. They seemed genuinely happy to see Akiyama.

-Now, an argument could be made that he's doing it for his own benefit: having the homeless population on your side can be an advantage (for example: the Florist used them for discreet info gathering), but... I don't see it. I think it’s because he’s been there and he feels a great amount of empathy for them. Now. Why do I think he wants to have a mask of indifference in the first place? Well, to put it simply - shit’s dangerous. He has enemies in the money lending industry, which probably includes numerous Yakuza groups too. Can’t be caught caring, y’know. Both for his sake, and theirs.

-And so. We get to the neon yellow elephant in the room that has to be addressed; the way he handles his loans. I think Akiyama only takes on clients who he sees as either A: having the potential to make it big - the ones he can later maybe benefit from, or who he simply sees as benefitting from his loans the most, or B: - heavily speculating here - good? (decent?) people who are down on their luck. Ones who, he thinks, deserve a second chance, people who don't have anyone else to ask for help. If he was in the business for money and other benefits alone, he’d be charging interest out the ass like all the others, but he doesn’t. He merely tests people to make sure they don’t grab the money and leave the country, or waste it and never pay him back. He wants to see these people succeed – at least the ones he thinks will use the money to get back on their feet or to become successful, that is. People who could be more, who could FLOURISH, had they some extra help from outside. The tests including stuff like volunteering and caring for the elderly further point to a possible more altruistic side to his business.

He can't just go giving money out - he'd go out of business very fast. So he lends, with no interest. Just a test of trustworthiness, and terms that he finds will give him some benefit back, as well. He is running a business here, so him wanting to get something back from the customers instead of them paying interest is fair. Terms will also motivate the lendees keep themselves on the right track AND probably ward off the worst of the bunch, the ones looking for the easiest, quickest money they can get.

-People genuinely think Akiyama is weird - crazy, even - because of how he runs his business, and he seems totally fine with that. Which further makes me believe he’s purposefully built up this a mask of an uncaring and sort of ...unhinged man. He could explain himself and openly state the goals he has for the clients to dispel this negative, 'crazy person' image people have of him. But... that’d just be suicide; he’d openly admit to competitors/enemies that he has people he cares about and that he wants to see his lendees succeed. That’d be like ASKING for extortion and for terrible things to happen to the people who have visited his business in the past or who will do so in the future.

-He's good at keeping his cards close to his chest, too: in one cutscene people wonder why lendees don't ever lend from him twice. And what's the answer to the question that we hear? Something to the effect of "I don't know. They probably wanna avoid interacting with that nutjob ever again". People have NO idea why he does things the way he does. They know he lends money to people he sees as having potential to succeed in the future, but they don't even consider the possibility that some lendees he's simply helping get back on their feet.

-As for his goals? No clue! Besides keeping the business running, I don’t feel like I have enough information on him to parse any long-term goals out of this guy. Maybe keeping Kamurocho as chill as it can be? To prevent unnecessary bloodshed? He did go out out of his way to settle the dispute between the… the uhh… *has to google the name* the Kanemura peeps and Ueno to prevent escalation of the situation? But then again, Arai seems to have been a long-time friend, so maybe it was just to make things easier for him? As of now, he doesn’t feel particularly ambitious.

As for speculation on his background? Since my facial memory (even for fictional characters) is total garbage, I’m not 100 % sure, but I think maybe he was in the photograph that was in his drawer? He seemed quite well-off in that one. So how does he end up homeless? I feel like he either joined the yakuza and the family he joined disbanded, leaving him with nothing. OR he suffered a career- or family-related setback that landed him on the streets? Him being ex-yakuza would make sense since he seems to be quite informed on all the relevant lore and relations between families. But he also DOES work quite close to the... darker side of things with his business being what it is. But... he also fights very well. We’ll see! Maybe they explained it aready? If they did, am sorry! I was playing the game too late into the night so I was kinda eepy towards the end. Gonna re-watch the cutscenes from late chapter 1 and early chapter 2 when I keep playing.

Now, any relation to characters from previous games I wanna speculate on? I don’t see any real reason to think he knows Kiryu; he only referred to him with his DoD moniker and didn’t seem too interested or thoughtful about it. It was just him referring to a famous person. Majima? Don’t see it either. Anyone else? I don’t really have any reason to think he knows anyone from the past games as of now.

TL;DR:

According to my, at-times very faulty, sensors that are prone to overcooking:

Akiyama is a kind person trying to give others the second chance they deserve (as he himself got), while also trying to disguise himself as a chronic IDGAFer at the same time because he has enemies. He's a kind man living in a world that tears people like him apart.

Mans is probably depressed or at least suffers from executive dysfunction or like... low blood iron levels, based on how low-energy he is and how little he seems to look after himself and his office, and how he seems to have a tendency to… go at his own pace at work. Hana keeps (or at least tries to keep) him functional - or that’s what it seems like, at least.

He probably offers loans based on if he thinks lendees will get back on their feet, or if the loan will make them flourish business-wise.

Ended up homeless, maybe because he was ex-yakuza or because of a setback in a civilian career or family life.

Can’t say how he ties to characters from previous games, or if he even does at all. Besides Nishiki unknowingly acting as form of divine monetary intervention, that is.

[ryderdire]

so I promised my friends I posts these back in softmore year

This quote book features @orinmothwings @the-critic-god-of-books @unknown-box-boi @jasontheweirdsibling and @rats-in-a-trenchcoatt well as as alot of my irls Doc is in this book a lot because of circumstances of us having to spend a lot of time together and I assure you they say some wild shit

I present to you my quote book.

Are you okay?-irl 🌟

I’m gay - me

MURDER SHOES - Irl 📡

What if it was a child

I DONT CARE THROW THE CHILD OUT THE WINDOW - irl 🐸

I just don’t want to violence - Jason

I will hospitalize you SHIT WAIT MEAN

HOSPTAITLY U - me

This women looks could kill god but she is god -Box

Dem Chips - Jason

I’m not currently fit for human consumption-me again

doc:I need to tell you something

Ren: Oh gods what did you do

Doc: I DIDNT KILL ANY politicians

Ren :THAT SOUNDs incrediblely suspicious

KILL ALL LEAVES -doc

THEY STOLE IT FROM GOD”

“OH YOUR DRINKING POMEGRANATE JUICE you know what THAT MEANS YOUR GOING TO DIE”- Doc

ACat girls either have fur or hair they can’t have both-Doc

You know what I’m thinking about women <3 ren

I was thinking thinking about rats

-doc

Fuck later look first-doc

Doc: We always throw people out windows why don’t we throw people into windows

Ren:That’s how we break into places

Doc:YES THROWS REN INTO A WINDOW

Doc: BACK IN MY DAY MEN WHERE MEN AND WOMEN WHERE CARS

Ren: your gay

Box: no I’m hungry

I gotta call the murder lady - unkown person I forgot to label this

ME: WHERE ARE LESBAINS

DOC:I ate them

ME: NOOOOO

-He doesn’t have skin All hes got is nails and luck BOX about mr bones (I’m sorry box)

Your missing pretty women-irl 🌟

Who wants to help me kill god?

Entire table raises their hand

(This interaction is a running joke at this point I can’t in good conscious asgin it to one person)

How do you spell whore?????-doc

Box: I’m going to steal your heart in the least romantic way possible

I’m so jealous I wanna be a cryptid- ren

Are people who are attrated to cat boys furries-doc

HOW MUCH CAT IS This BOY— doc

Bitch why do you have this keyboard? - Jason when he stole your phone

Why the fuck is Ren so weird sometimes?- Jason also

If you drink enough, you’re gonna get drunk-

I’m dying, I’m dead, I’m in hell, Satan has given me an award forr the gayest person ever! I couldn’t do this without women- I hate you- Ren (printmaking)

Jason keeps stealing my phone and adding notes lol

Who would say that one ?

A bird -Jason

These rocks are either too pretty or too big. This rock is ugly enough

Ren:because I need to keep my gay best friend

Doc: 0;

Ren: me im the gay best friend

Doc: I’m my own gay best friend

Stop thirsting over god- doc

You don’t canoddle ren your the opposite of a canoddle I like you -the librarian on the loud speaker

WHAT

If they know theve Sinned -ren

Parental pegger -Ren

Jason :Special

Ren: COWARD L

Jason:SPEICAL

JASON: bad word English aSpecial

Jason : you don’t need to understand to see the cringe

I can lengthen my bones -irl 🐸

I don’t get bitches I make them- milo

My hair is very leggy -irl 🐸

My hair is feet - me making a typo

I’m tired of emotionally draining drama i just want to fight people

Box: bite?

Irl 🐸 and ren at the same Time: FIGHT

Me:omg gay people real

Box: of course their real have you seen yourself in the mirror

Doc: a Victorian women could pull a full ass chicken from their pocket

Doc: I’m not pregent

Irl 🙃: your pregent

Doc:IM NOT

Irl 🙃: what’s it gender what are going to name it???

BONK - headbutt from box

THE POWER OF FRIENDSHIP HOE-ren

Box slaps hand on Rens shoulders:FRIENSHIP

Ren screems

Offendedly: Whore - box to dogs with their balls

“Gay” - box

Irl 🌳:he looks Gay

Orin:HIS DAD JUST DIED

Orin: I like men who I could kill and women who could kill me im a switch

Ren: Doc. Tell my story

Doc:I’ll tell it in extradited voiceeeeee

Doc: I’m going to pick you and (no memory of what the rest of this was my bad)

Irl 🎃:NO DONT TOUCH THE LORD (referring to a rubber duck)

Pigs sure as hell can fly it’s called cops in a helicopter-me

Don’t foldle the lord in such a manner - irl 🎃 (still about that rubber duck)

you look like a gnome- doc about my mental breakdown haircut

Me: I was making fun of myself making fun of my self ):<

Rat:

Me: ):<

Rat: your mentally ill.

Doc: I wonder how someone discovered milk

Me:someone was probably horny

Me: congrats you where the last people to find out you where dating.

Orin: you know what I hate?

Ren: women

Orin:tonsil stones what the fuck

Be nice to yourself bitch (finger guns pointed at me) - Rat

Me: (in my villan ) sex….. kinda…mid ngl.

Orin:

Irl 🌕: NO don’t crusfiy the snail. ):<

Me: I don’t sleep I’m built differnt

Doc: Ren you are made of flesh bones and sadness that is 80% of the human population your not different.

Ren: that’s what a bumper sticker is

Doc:but you don’t have a girlfriend or a car

Ren: well actually

Doc: *gasp* you have a car??????

I turn down the temputre of every room I’m in

cuz ur not hot

Because I’m a ghost????? - I don’t remember who said this I promise I’m good at my job.

Orin: Is this a beautiful women or a very gay man

answer: it’s a bit in between

Doc:A large truck

Me:Correction two trucks fucking.

[sorryimananti-romantic]

hi!! it’s the anon who wrote the long ask on how to begin a story, and i’m sorry to say, but i’m back with another question. that question is : how do you come up with your story concepts? because aurora, be with you, guerrilla, sunrise, and where do i go are all conceptual masterpieces. like serial killer!yunho with a crime novelist? GENIUS! king’s right hand!seonghwa and an exiled former royal spy? BRILLIANT!! soldier!san and soldier!reader with suppressed feelings who are forced to confess because they might die? (in my opinion) ROMANTIC AS HELL!!! your mind is a goldmine for amazing ideas.

personally, ideas come from dreams, movies or shows, or just random bouts of inspiration. and sometimes those ideas aren’t even actual storylines. sometimes it’s dialogue or a specific scene. but then if i really like it, i have to come up with the rest of the story. also, thank you for your advice! i’ve been trying to just move past it because i’ve just been writing for myself, but i still can’t really get past like one and a half paragraphs. granted, i also get confused and stuck on if the punctuation is correct, but i’m trying.

anyways, congratulations on finally finishing your jongho story! i know you’ve been stressing about it for some time, and while i haven’t read it yet, i bet it’s awesome and i can’t wait to! good luck on whichever project you’re working on now!

ahaha omgg welcome back!

thank you i try 😭😭 you're right, most of the ideas come from dreams, movies/tv shows, or just a random inspo. and yes, sometimes it is a scene or a dialogue that i want to write and i shape the story accordingly. sometimes it's just that i know the roles of the characters and now have to come up with the plot.

for stories like aurora, i saw the yunho pic i used for the moodboard- the one from the limitless mv and i was like, i have to use this. it looks like a military uniform and originally i was going to make it a typical 'he's loyal and you're a spy' story but personally, to me, when it starts to look like a typical trope, i try adding a twist to make it unique! so for aurora, i came up with the 'he's forced to be loyal' and worked my way from there- why would he be forced to be loyal if he was originally a loyal soldier and strategist? what was big enough that he could risk betraying the system?

sometimes i just come up with a concept first and think of who in ateez could fit the role. like in be with you where i initially only had the king's right hand x exiled former spy who'll use the right hand to get to her revenge. or in sunrise- military agents, yes, but the thing that i wanted to write about was how military agents must live knowing that they could die any day, what they want to do the most, how they would be hesitant to love bc loving means losing too. similarly, with where do i go, i had the bodyguard x whatever reader but it was a result of being heavily inspired by the kdrama mr. sunshine!

so yes, the motive for writing each fic is very different! it doesn't always have to be very unique- like ice prince x fire princess (white love) is not new, i just have to make sure the plot is unique and make up a backstory to fit that. prince x princess arranged marriage (promise) is also a very commonly written trope. but i think whenever you're coming up with the basic details of your fics, you first have to decide what will make your fic unique. think out of the box (i know its hard to do it sometimes) but i'll let you in on what i do-

i like to talk about what i'm thinking about a fic. i only became friends with loren recently and she's been my go-to person to exchange ideas with, and she's been such a help. it's great when you have someone you can exchange ideas with, get wild, think of possibilities that seem impossible until you think 'wait, i could make this work'. but i've been a writer longer than i've had loren LOL and before that (i'm gonna sound like a loner but it's bc no one irl knows i write) i used to exchange ideas with...

myself. oops

i'd simply open boring old notepad and start a dialogue with myself (only when coming up with ideas for fics and i still do that sometimes when im stuck) bc it helps me take in every perspective. it's a series of what ifs and me contradicting my own what ifs, me roasting my own ideas in the middle of that LOL and finally having some outline which i can work with. and then we start writing and see how it goes from there

i'm happy to learn that you've been trying to write and i hope it gets better!! i kind of relate to you now bc cyberpunk has to be my first real challenge. i've never struggled as much with a fic as i did with cyberpunk and all bc i was hell bent on writing this concept (i did this to myself oops). it took me 8 months to finally finish it. i came up with the first concept 8 months ago, wrote like 3 pages, stressed over it bc i felt like it was too dark and heavy (it was) and then i scrapped it. i came up with another plot, wrote like 6 pages and i thought this time i had it, only to realise that it was going to be the most boring thing ive ever written. it had no oomph factor. left it to sit in the drafts and collect dust, visiting every once in a while, meanwhile writing and posting other oneshots. and when i finally came up with a new plot and all?

i got too busy with real life to write it 😭 like i swear i was buzzing i was on a roll i was writing like 2k words every day but then it stopped and it was hard to get back to writing but i finally, finally finished it. all i had was droid!jongho x programmer!reader and that's it. i'll admit i hate droids im never writing droids again but at least i overcame this challenge, and i know you will too! if you ever need someone to bounce ideas with, i'm here. i love doing that. good luck <3 hope my rant was meaningful LOL

[ladylooch]

40- Adrian Kempe

A/N: The people want Kempe. and I am the people pleaser of this story. Congrats to 🧃 IRL on 40! Can't wait for the playoffs.

Also, yes I had to mention Kevin, okay. I MISS HIM. But this is about Juice. Promise.

And can we please appreciate this GIF that literally made my heart skip when I saw it. Good GAWDDDDDDD.

Word Count: 967

Warnings: drinking, implied smut, fluffffffff, swearing (always with me)

40 goals, I think to myself as I wait with a few other girls for our boys to join us after their season closing win against the Anaheim Ducks. I smile against my straw, pausing from slurping up more of my margarita. 

What a year Adrian has had. I can’t wait for him to get here so I can squeeze him.

“They’re coming!” Ines Kopitar squeals, placing her drink back on the bar and rushing forward. I turn to watch, seeing her and the captain meet with a sloppy kiss. She’s a few drinks in and Anze has to catch her as she sways to the left. 

Adrian is right behind them. His eyes meet mine. We grin at each other, maneuvering around the people between us to come together. 

“Hi!” I squeal at him, wrapping my arms around his shoulders. He collapses me into him, strong hands pressing into my middle back.

“Hi.” He murmurs close to my ear, pressing his nose into my temple. 

“You are incredible. I’m so, so proud of you, baby.” I pull back so we can share a kiss. Our lips meld perfectly in sync. “Mmm. Been wanting to do that all night.” His beard tickles my face as he nuzzles our noses.

“Me too.” He reaches into the pocket of his dark jacket. “Brought you something.”

“Ah!” I squeal excitedly, grabbing the white, Kings bucket hat from his hands. “My hat!” I squeal, speaking of the Kings bucket hat I had bought in an emergency circumstance after forgetting a hat to lay out on Hermosa Beach. This fashionable hat lead to our meeting and our eventual friendship turning into love.

“I had to.” He insists, biting his bottom lip as I put it on. “Just as good as that first day.” He hooks his pointer finger under my chin, bringing our lips together again. This time, his tongue slides against mine in a hotter kiss.

“You deserve a drink.” I murmur against his lips as we peck at each other.

“I think so.” He chuckles, wrapping an arm around my neck to keep me close. I link my fingers loosely with his, gliding my thumbs across his rings. As we wait for the bartender to come back, Adrian presses his nose into my hair.

“Anyone give you trouble?” He wonders. The King were at Honda Center tonight and with the fierce, freeway rivalry, it can get a little tense sitting amongst opposing fans. 

“No.” I shrug. “We were surrounded by Kings fans. It was actually really fun.” 

“That’s good. I was a bit worried about you.”

“Is that why you kept looking at me?” I raise an eyebrow. His constant glances were uncharacteristic tonight.

“You noticed?”

“Yeah. The girls in front of me thought you were looking at them though.” I adjust my voice higher. “OhmyGOD. He looked at us AGAIN!” I squeal, stomping my feet excitedly. His laughter wraps round us, making my chest warm from where it settles.

“Did you break their hearts?”

“No. It was kinda cute.”

“She’s beautiful and sweet.” He whispers, leaning in for another smooch.

“Fuck, I am so single.” Quinton mutters from behind me.

“Keep your head up, QB.” Adrian murmurs, without looking away from me. “You’ll find this.”

“You’re so sappy now.” I laugh at him, flicking my tongue against his lips.

“I’m just having a great fucking night.” He unwraps himself from me as the bartender puts his shot down.

“Juice for juice is on the house tonight. Congrats!” 

“Thanks, man.” Adrian tosses the shot of tequila back, then sets the empty glass back on the bar. “That is good shit.” He moans as the Clase Azul slides down his throat. “You want one?”

“No.” 

Adrian motions to the bartender who gives a thumbs up in acknowledgement. The shots are flowing around the team, everyone taking an opportunity to cheers to Adrian and the Kings incredible year. We all acknowledge Kevin Fiala, who is tucked at home with his wife after an injury. By the time we get to the last shot, I’m pushing mine towards Ines, knowing I’m going to be the one driving us home. Adrian is loose, laughing with our friends, while his hands drift around my body like we are in private.

I pull away from him and he snaps his gaze to me in annoyance. 

“Why.”

“I have to pee.” I whine, holding him back from pulling me in again.

“Hurry.”

“Okay.” I roll my eyes and work my way to the back of the restaurant. 

It’s a quick in and out trip before my heels lead me back along the tiled floor to my superstar.

“Let’s get out of here.” Adrian intercepts me at the corner of the bar.

“Okay.” I shrug, not caring if we stick around. “I’m just going to say goodbye.”

“Nah. We’ll get caught up longer.” He steps forward, making me take a step back towards the exit.

“Kinda rude when everyone showed up for you.” I wrap my arms around his neck, giving him a look.

“The boys understand.” He drags his eyes down my body. “Half of them congratulated me on getting you in bed tonight.” I toss my head back. My hair swings down my jacket, brushing against his hands around me. He gathers it in his hand to hold me like that. He leans forward, pressing his lips against the front of my throat. I swallow in anticipation. He sucks my skin into his mouth making me whine.

“You’re the only one I want to keep celebrating with…. All… night… long.” He says between suckles. 

“Say less.” I breathe out to him, tugging him with me as I walk backwards. We stumble into someone, giggling an apology then fly out the door before we can be stopped.

[the-fiction-witch]

Movie Time?

Media IRL

Character Isaac Hempstead Wright

Couple Isaac X Reader

Rating Smut

I heard the door knock so I bolted to the door and opened it wide seeing Y/n stood in her little yellow sundress looking very cute and sweet,

“Hi,” she giggled,

“Hi,” I smiled giving her a little kiss and letting her in,

“Who was at the door?” My dad yelled from the sofa,

“Just Y/n, we'll be in my room!" I yelled grabbing her hand to tug her up the stairs,

"Leave your door open!"

"Dad!"

"Don't argue Isaac. Or you stay in here."

"Fine!" I complained keeping my door open as little as possible, "Ummmmmm so come on baby!" I pouted grabbing her ass, and kissing all over her

"Isaac your so excited can’t I at least sit down and we start a movie,” she teased,

"Noo come on, please! Please I will literally take anything at this point!"

"Anything?" She giggled,

"ANYTHING! But you can't leave me like this baby."

"Alright," she giggled, playfully laying on the bed on her stomach

"uhhhhhhh you mean it?"

"Yes go on, but then we watch a movie like you promise?."

"I uhhh I promise !" I bolted over giving her back a million kisses pushing up her cute little dress to reveal her ass to me "uMmm you look so good!" I groaned giving her ass a playful spank as I tugged off her little cotton daisy-printed panties, "Can I uhh really?"

"You're fine,"

"Ohh thank god!" I gasped immediately grabbing her hips I couldn't wait not a moment longer, I undid my jeans and kicked them off stroking myself a couple of times but not like I needed to I was completely ready for her, actually a little over ready for her, but after so long of desiring her I'm not surprised now I actually had the opportunity I went... a little crazy. The moment I slipped inside her I wanted to cum, she felt so so good! but I didn't have time to hesitate my hips worked on their own fueled by my hormones biting my lip hard as I didn't scream even if I loudly moaned into my mouth I was in my own world of utter pleasure, she grabbed a pillow and used it to muffle her own moans which only made me go faster knowing I was pleasing her as much as she was pleasing me, I dug my fingers into her ass while I got to a decent pace, and then I moved my hands up her dress and grabbed her breasts as my hips went crazy on her, slightly rubbing her nipples as I knew how close I was

"Isaac please" She gasped moving one of my hands to her clit, I smirked and rubbed her clit mercilessly as I thrusted hearing the sofa squeak under us until she tightened around me and screamed into the pillow feeling her hit her wave which was enough tip me over too burying myself as deep inside her as possible

"HOLY FUCK-" I groaned as the most intense orgasm I had ever had rushed through me almost making me faint

"Yeah... Holy fuck-" She gasped too, “Movie time?”

“Yeah you get cosy I’ll set the movie up,” I chuckled pulling out and giving her a sweet kiss, 

[cartoonfanaticmonsterrobotalien]

Solar Opposites: Mighty Solars Scene: Saving AISHA

Quasarblast, Mighton, Vil-Gil-An-T, Mighty Pupa and Starburst made it, only to see Fung-irl in tears as Lightspeed comforts her.

Terry/Mighton: Jesse! Monica! What happened?! How did you girls escape?! Where’s Pinball Brat?!

Jesse/Fung-irl: AISHA...she's...gone...

The Mighty Solars gasp in horror and distraught.

Korvo/Quasarblast: *silently* No…

Terry/Mighton: No. Not AISHA.

Yumyulack/Vil-Gil-An-T: Shit...

Phoebe/Starburst: That bastard…

Fung-irl starts breathing in and out in rage

Jesse/Fung-irl: PINBALL BRAT DID THIS! SHE KILLED AISHA!

Mighton gasps and runs up to comfort his daughter

Terry/Mighton: Oh honey… *gives Fung-irl a cooldown hug and consoles her* it’ll be okay.

Quasarblast cries

Korvo/Quasarblast: Oh my God… my best friend… *sniffles* She can’t be gone. She can’t! Oh poor AISHA. All she wanted to do is to be part of the family, and we have been treating her like she is just an a AI when she was really part of the family all this time.

Yumyulack/Vil-Gil-An-T: Korvo. It's okay...

Korvo/Quasarblast: NO *crying* IT'S NOT OKAY!

Quasarblast breaks down in tears over the loss of his best friend who was always there for him back on Shlorp for years before it got hit by the asteroid. Suddenly, digital sparks appear as AISHA’s systems starts rebooting thanks an unknown chip. Mighton gasps.

Terry/Mighton: Is that…

AISHA appears in the form of a Shlorpian?!

Mighty Solars: AISHA?!

AISHA: Ugh, what happened?

AISHA looks around her body grows surprised by this as she grins in joy and excitement.

AISHA: Whoa! I look good!

AISHA is suddenly hugged by Quasarblast who is still crying

Korvo/Quasarblast: *tears of joy* AISHA! You’re alive, good friend!

AISHA laughs. The rest of Mighty Solars gasp in tears of joy.

Mighty Solars: AISHA!

The rest of the Mighty Solars embrace AISHA in open arms as she grows surprised.

AISHA: Whoa ho ho! How long was I out?!

Jesse/Fung-irl: *crying in tears of joy* Oh we missed you so much!

AISHA: I missed you guys too. *looks at Quasarblast who is still hysterically crying* Hey, it's okay, buddy.

Korvo/Quasarblast: *crying hysterically* I thought we lost you for good!

AISHA: Puh-lease it would take more than a fucking crazy super villain to take this tough AI gal down!

Quasarblast wipes away his tears as Mighton holds him close

Korvo/Quasarblast: I know AISHA. But none of this would have happen if we just made you feel like you were always part of the family all the time.

Yumyulack/Vil-Gil-An-T: We’re really sorry AISHA. Back on Earth before it got shattered by the Silver Bullets, we take out our anger and problems on each other and put it on you to fix them instead of talking it out. We made you feel like you don’t matter to us and we ended up hurting each other.

AISHA: Aw, you guys.

Terry/Mighton: We’re really sorry AISHA. We acted like total jerkasses to you and to each other back on Earth when we get into stupid fights over things that don’t matter and thinks it’s always your responsibility to fix this when it’s supposed to be ours. We took you for granted all the time and we ended up hurting each other emotionally and verbally. We love you AISHA. We promise we’ll never take for granted and again.

AISHA smiles tearfully

AISHA: *sniffles in happiness* Oh you guys… I think I’m gonna cry. *wipes away her tears*

The Mighty Solars do a group hug with AISHA

Jesse/Fung-irl: Well don’t cry AISHA. The main point is that we’re all together again with you now and that things are gonna be okay, until we stop Pinball Brat.

Mighty Solars: YEAH!

AISHA: Mind if I come help?

Korvo/Quasarblast: Of course AISHA. *smiles* You are family after all! Now let’s do this!

AISHA smiles tearfully as she nods.

[autumnalwalker]

Empty Names - 1 - Hello World

Author's Note: I mentioned in an earlier post that I was starting an urban fantasy WIP called Empty Names. I've decided to go ahead and post the rough drafts for chapters as I go, and this is the first one. It's a bit different in tone and style from The Archivist's Journal, but I've enjoyed the experimentation and practice thus far. Word Count: 3,594 Content warnings: Brief mentions of violence, but nothing shown "on screen" in detail. Brief mention of blood. Misgendering. And with the warnings out of the way, let's get started...

Masterpost Next Chapter->

The fact that she’d given her address to a stranger on the internet is probably an even greater testament to Lacuna’s lack of sleep for the past three days than the dark rings around her eyes.  As it turns out, it’s hard to get much sleep with a demon growling out increasingly detailed descriptions of all the gory things it’s going to do to you once it escapes the computer-drawn summoning circle projected into the middle of your studio apartment.  A predictable enough causal link between death threats and sleep deprivation, but then again, Lacuna hadn’t even believed in magic until the ritual she’d attempted out of just the wrong mix of boredom and desperation actually worked.  

What’s your address?  I’ll be there in an hour.

She checks her phone.  It’s been forty seven minutes since she replied to that direct message on the forum.  May as well step outside and see if her would-be savior is actually going to make good on their promise.  A promise that should be near-impossible to keep unless they somehow already knew where she lived and happened to be in the same city.  Not completely out of the picture she supposes, what with IP address tracking being a thing and all.  But even without that, she’s more than willing to believe in the impossible right now.

As she makes her way to the door her unwanted captive launches into another tirade.

“FOOLISH CRINGING MORTAL!  FLEE ALL YOU LIKE!  IT WILL ONLY MAKE MY HUNT ALL THE MORE EXHILARATING!  ALL THE SWEETER WHEN I FINALLY FEAST ON YOUR -”

Lacuna shuts the door behind her and pulls up her black hoodie as she steps out into the hall.  She figured out around thirty hours in that it was best just to ignore the thing when it got going like this.  It’s a minor miracle none of the neighbors have lodged a noise complaint yet.

Down the stairs and across the lamplit parking lot to the apartment complex gate.  Should have brought an umbrella, but at least the locked front office has an awning to stand under while she waits.

Lightning flashes and she flinches at the all-too-soon-to-follow thunderclap.  Normally she loves a good storm, but this wouldn’t be the first time one had knocked out the power here.  And if the power goes out no more binding circle.  And if the binding circle goes out…  Well, best not to think about that.

She checks her phone again.  Fifty one minutes.

“Hey!  Are you Lacuna?” a voice shouts over the rain.

She looks up to see a figure in a purple-and-green jacket walking toward her, umbrella in one hand, dufflebag in the other.  Where had he come from?  She?  Lacuna can’t quite tell.  Maybe they’re nonbinary?  Would it be rude to ask?  No, wait, asking for pronouns is supposed to be polite, right?  She chides herself.  She really should know this sort of thing.

“I said, you’re Lacuna, right?” The stranger repeats, as they join her under the awning.

“Oh, right!  Sorry!  Yeah, that’s me.”  She rubs the back of her neck under her hoodie, not quite making eye contact.  “No one’s ever called me that IRL before.  But yes, that’s me.”

The stranger cocks their head.  “Eye are el?”

“In real life?” Lacuna drags out the acronym.  Seriously?  How does someone not know what that means?

“Oh, is that one of those leet speak things?  Sorry, I’m not great with computers.”

“Uh, yeah, I guess you could call it that?” Was this one of those magic-and-technology-don’t-mix things?

“I’ll need to remember that one.  Anyway, you can call me Road.  I’d shake your hand, but…”  they trail off as they shrug to indicate their full hands.  “Anyway, down to business.  Where’s this demon of yours?”

Lacuna blinks.  For a moment the strangeness of the meeting had displaced the fear-inducing reason for it.  “Oh, yeah.  That.  This way.”

As they cross the parking lot, Lacuna notices a change in the pattern of the rain pelting her and realizes Road’s held the umbrella out to cover her.

“Thanks.”

“Don’t mention it.  By the way, is there something else you’d prefer I call you?”

“What?  No, no, Lacuna’s fine.”  Better than fine, really.  Better than expected even.

Back up the stairs and at the door, Lacuna pauses with the key half turned in the lock.  “Oh, before we go in, I apologize ahead of time for the mess.  It’s been a rough few weeks and I wasn’t expecting company.”

The disclaimer is met with a reassuring smile and a soft shake of the head.  “Trust me, I’ve seen worse.” 

“Right.  Right.  Of course.”  The key completes its turn along with the knob and the door cracks open.  “And heads up, this thing can be a bit -”

“AND THE FLESHY MORSEL COMES CRAWLING BACK TO ME, RESIGNED TO HIS PITIFUL FATE IN HOPES FOR A QUICK DEATH BEFORE MY MEAL AS A REWARD FOR HIS COMPLIANCE!”

“Loud…”

What little furniture there is in the apartment has been pushed toward the walls to make room for the jerry-rigged setup in the center of the room.  A cable runs from a computer rig more expensive than the rest of the apartment’s contents combined to a projector once used to convert the unadorned white walls to large screens.  Now the projector is strapped to the center of a ceiling fan fixture and pointed straight down at the floor to cover the fake dark wood with a complex pattern of overlaid concentric geometries and runes.  The source of all the screeching crouches in the center of this golden circle of light; an overgrown monkey the size of a man with taloned fingers and far too many pointed teeth.  The creature’s barbed tail sways, sending up sparks with a sound of scratched glass as it brushes the otherwise invisible walls of its confines.  Noticing Road leaning their umbrella against the corner by the door it launches into another bout of taunts.  

“WHAT’S THIS?  A HUNTER?  AN EXORCIST?  SPICE FOR THE MEAL!  HOW I SHALL SAVOR THE VAIN STRUGGLE!”

Road steps past Lacuna, stopping at the edge of the binding circle and tilting their head down to look the demon in the eye.  “Well, you’re a talkative one, aren’t you?”

“ARROGANT FOOL!  WE SHALL SEE HOW YOU SMIRK AT ME ONCE I PEEL YOUR -”

“From whence comes the starlight in the Dark Forest?”  Road’s voice goes hard and cold as they speak the question.  The demon goes silent and still mid-sentence, glaring at the newcomer through narrowed eyes.  It occurs to Lacuna that her guest/savior is surprisingly dry after the walk through the rain.  

“What was that?” Lacuna asks.  “Some kind of spell or incantation or something?”

Road turns back to Lacuna, repeating the smile and head shake from earlier.  It’s harder to fear the thing in the circle when the one here to deal with it looks so at ease, even eager.  “Just a fair warning that he’d better shut up and start taking me seriously if he wants to come out of this on top.  Now then, let’s see what I’m working with here.”

Setting down the duffel bag, Road begins walking around the binding circle, mumbling to themself and occasionally leaning in to inspect the finer details whilst taking care not to get in the way of the projection.  The demon shuffles around in sync, remaining silent and keeping its slitted eyes trained on the newcomer.  

Meanwhile, Lacuna takes a place leaning against the wall by her air mattress, fidgeting uncomfortably.  On the one hand she feels like she should be doing something to help, but on the other hand she worries she’d just get in the way.  And she’s just so tired.  Here’s a life changing - possibly life-or-death - event that upends everything she knows coming to a head right in front of her eyes and she’s too exhausted and numb to feel anything other than irritation with herself for not feeling excited or terrified or anything appropriately dramatic.  When the sound of Road asking her a question startles her out of her thought spiral, she realizes with embarrassment that she missed what they said.

“Sorry, what was that?”

“The circle doesn’t have the same flaws that I found in the last few victims’ setups.  How did you know to fix it?”  If they feel any annoyance at repeating themself, they’re not showing it.  

“I…I didn’t, really.  When I was vectorizing the image from the forum to make it look better for the projector, I saw a few spots that were asymmetric or had weird angles or uneven edges, and the messiness bugged me.  Like when you open the silverware drawer and see a long fork in the short fork stack so you stop whatever you were doing to organize it properly.  So I cleaned it up until it stopped distracting me.”

“And why the projector?”

“I didn’t want to scratch up the floor or leave a stain.  Why?  Is it a problem?”

“Well, it’s not a professional setup, but you just skipped over millennia of tradition and went straight to the most recent innovations in summoning while undoing intentional sabotage that would have let your guest break free the moment it materialized.  And even then the circle’s inherently flawed enough that a traditional medium wouldn’t have held him this long, even with the corrections.  So you’ve either got good instincts, incredible luck, or a lot more experience than I realized.  Congratulations on that, it’s the reason you’re still alive right now.”

“Thanks?”

“You’re welcome.  Anyway,” Road continues as they unzip the duffel bag on the floor and begin rifling through it, “I think I’ve seen enough to get a handle on the situation.” They stand back up and turn to face the demon again; now with an intricately embossed knife in one hand and a black candle in the other.  “This can go one of two ways.  The first way,” they hold up the candle, “you tell me what I need to know about who’s been telling untrained novices how to summon you and in return I perform a little light exorcism and send you back to whatever hell-type dimension you were plucked from as painlessly as possible.  The second way,” they hold up the knife, showing off the miniature binding circles inscribed along the blade, “I stab you with this, discorporate you, bind your essence to the blade, use you as a divination focus to track this guy down, and then banish you.  Your choice.  Even a demon deserves that much.”

“Such is barely a choice at all.  Lean in closer and will tell you what I know.”

“Oh, your inside voice!  So civil, how could I refuse?”  Road leans down, now eye level with the crouching demon.  

“Closer, so that I may whisper .  We know not who may be listening.”

Road leans closer still, turning their head to present an ear to whisper into.  

“THIS PRISON OF LIGHT WILL NOT HOLD ME DARKNESS WILL ENVELOPE US ALL I WILL REND YOUR ARMS FROM THEIR SOCKETS IN FRONT OF THE WEAKLING ENCHANTER I WILL SLURP HIS STILL PULSATING GUTS WHILE HE YET LIVES I WILL MAKE THE TWO OF YOU WATCH ONE ANOTHER HELPLESS AS YOU DIE!”

The demon throws itself against the barrier as it screeches, thrashing and scratching.  Flashes and sparks from the collision nearly blind Lacuna, who’s halfway to the door and suddenly feeling very awake before she realizes that despite the terrible creaking noise, the binding circle’s still holding strong.  

Road straightens to their full height, unperturbed.  

“Really?  That was your plan?  Scream in my face and hope that I’ll flinch and disrupt the circle?  I’m disappointed.”  They sigh.  “Well don’t say I didn’t warn you.  

“Lacuna,” they call back over their shoulder, “I suggest you stay back for this next part.  Maybe cover your eyes if you’re squeamish.  It could get -”

Whatever they were about to say gets drowned out by a crack of thunder that seems to be near-simultaneous with its progenitor lightning flash.  In the wake of the flash the room is plunged into darkness.  In the wake of the thunder the demon howls.  Before the howl even ends, Lacuna hears the sounds of her air mattress popping and her bedside table toppling.  Before she even reaches the door she hears a wordless shout from Road.  She’s still trying to find the doorknob in the dark when a green glow appears somewhere behind her.  She’s still trying to get her trembling hands to cooperate in undoing the deadbolts when the glow fades with a pained shriek she hopes is from the demon.  The door finally begins to open as everything goes quiet.  

Lacuna pauses.  Some part of her mind is screaming at her for being an idiot and not running.  She knows she should probably listen to that, but hope and curiosity are outweighing it.  Just like every horror character destined to die.  

“Got it!” Road’s voice rings out.  Lacuna thinks it’s their voice anyway, and not a trick by the demon.  

“Hey, you still here?” Road asks.  Probably Road.  

Is that something demons can do, imitating people?  Now that the thought has crossed her mind Lacuna can’t bring herself to answer.  But she can’t bring herself to finish opening the door either.  

Footsteps come closer.  That voice in her head is louder than ever, berating her for freezing up.  

The lights come back on and there’s Road, only feet away.  The sleeves of their jacket are shredded, revealing bloody bite and claw marks.  They give that reassuring smile once more, soft and warm.  

“It’s over now.  You’re safe.  Everything’s going to be alright.”

Lacuna slumps to the floor, still shaking.  She distantly registers the sound of the door clicking back shut as she leans against it.  She wants to cry.  Or sob.  Or cheer.  Feels like she should be doing something, but nothing comes out.  Instead she just focuses on not breathing too fast.  Softly drums her fingers on her arms.

“I know this has all been a lot.  What you’re feeling right now?  That’s normal.  It’s going to take some time for your body to process it all and accept that the danger’s passed, and that’s okay.  I can wait here with you as long as you need me to.”

Minutes pass.  Thoughts stabilize.  The loop breaks.  Lacuna becomes aware of Road sitting on the floor next to her, leaning against the wall, one leg outstretched while the other makes an arch to rest arm on knee.  The damage to the jacket is gone.  Was it ever there or did she just imagine it?

“Feeling better?”

Lacuna nods.  

“Glad to hear it.  You did great.  I really mean that.”

“But I didn’t…” No, not the time for self-deprecation.  “Thanks.”

“You’re welcome.” Road pauses for a beat before going on.  “So, not to make this awkward, but this is the part where I’m supposed to make you forget what just happened so that the past few days of all this supernatural stuff just feels like a bad dream.”

“Oh…” Lacuna’s gaze drifts back down to her hands.  “That… that is how these stories go, isn’t it?  The government agent or normalcy enforcer or whatever wipes the hapless civvy’s memory so they go back to their normal, boring life, blissfully unaware.  Right?”

“Eh, it’s more like accepted best practice than law, and I’m definitely not government.” Road let’s out a chuckle.  “I like to think of myself as an ‘independent adventurer.’ And messing with people’s memories has always rubbed me the wrong way.  So, since I get the impression that you’re not too keen on the idea either, if you’d like I can explain what’s what, and then give you a choice: take the amnestic and go back to how things were, or find out what new paths your life can take you down.”

Lacuna looks back up, the trace of a smile creeping in.  “Blue pill or red pill, huh?”

“Why does everyone keep saying that when I give this speech?  There’s only one pill and it’s kind of a grey-ish color.”

“It’s a movie reference.  Similar situation.  Iconic scene.”

“Ah, that’ll do it.  I really should watch more of those.”

Lacuna’s turn to laugh.

“What?  I mean it.  Anyhow, real talk time.  Or at least an abridged version of it.

“This world,” Road begins, “is what we call an ‘anchor world,’ as in it’s stable and steady enough to anchor other nearby worlds in place so that they don’t go crashing into one another or drifting off into conceptual void or collapse in on themselves.  You see, reality is largely set by perception and belief, to a small degree by individuals, sure, but mostly by collective consciousness.  And the belief of an entire world’s worth of people - more or less - that on some level their reality operates on a set of fixed, unchanging, unalterable rules regardless of whether or not those rules are known or understood not only makes it true - more or less - for that world, it lends that constancy to surrounding worlds to let them get away with keeping things more… fluid.”

“Magic.”

“That’s the usual word for it, yeah.  Although sometimes it manifests more like superpowers or slightly different physics or tech that wouldn’t work here.”

“And so you have to keep all that secret on anchor worlds because if everyone knew then it would stop being an anchor world.”

“You got it.  The Veil, the Masquerade, everyone’s got their own name for it, but the end goal is the same.  Keeping anchor worlds in the dark for the sake of everyone’s continued existence.” Road’s gaze drifts up and off to some unseen distance.  “Of course, there’s some leeway.  People are beautifully imaginative and there’s always going to be some small portion of the population that’s going to go against the grain, evidence or no.” They return their gaze to Lacuna.  They’re wearing a different smile this time, touched by mischief.  “That’s why I can get away with letting someone Backstage every now and then.”

“And that’s it?”

“It’s the short version.  Forget about all this and keep doing your part in keeping worlds anchored or come Backstage and join the show for weal or woe.  And there will be both.  I won’t lie to you, if you choose to remember, then even if you otherwise keep going about your life as before, you’ll start noticing, encountering, and remembering more things of this nature.  Some of it may be wonderful, but some of it may be like your last few days.”

“And if… if I remember… if I ‘go Backstage’… could… could I…” Lacuna’s face grows strained.  Why is it still so hard to get the words out?  After everything that’s happened?  To someone that only knows her by this name?

“Could you what?”

“Could I…” she breaks eye contact as her voice drops to a whisper, “find… what I was hoping to get… from that demon?”

“I was meaning to ask about that actually.  Why did you summon that thing?”

“I hoped I could make a deal with it to -” the rest of her sentence comes out as an unintelligible mumble.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t quite catch that last bit.”

“I wanted it to give me a new body!” Lacuna’s own shout surprises her with its intensity.  The long-expected tears finally attempt to make their appearance.  She fights them down.  

Road blinks once.  “Oh.  Yeah, that makes sense,” they say, more to themself than to Lacuna.  “It’s doable,” they answer.  “My friend’s the same way.  Well, opposite direction some might say, but same fundamental situation that he went through.  Dramatic, instantaneous, full body transmutation is difficult and almost never worth the price that the rare individual who can perform it will ask of you, but if you’re patient, you can get the same end result from smaller changes compounding over time.”

“But… it can be done.”

Road nods.  “It can.”

“Then I’m doing it.”

“That’s the kind of resolve I love to hear.”

Road grins, stands up, and puts out a hand.  Lacuna takes it.  They pull her to her feet.  Steady her as she wobbles.  Pat her on the back.  

“That said, you need some sleep and I need to finish tracking down whoever it is that’s distributing faulty summoning rituals.  I’ll patch up your mattress before I leave - sorry about that by the way - and I’ll be back in a few days.  Take some time to recover and think on things.  When I get back we’ll go over it all again in more detail when you’re not sleep deprived, and if you’re still sure you don’t want the amnestic I’ll help you get set up with a doctor and a therapist my friend recommends.  Sound good?”

“Sounds great.”

A handshake to seal the deal follows.  

“Welcome to the world.”

*******

Lacuna’s just taken her meds for the evening and is just sticking her fork into her dinner when the phone rings.  A glance at a caller ID she hasn’t heard from in years sends her in a scramble to answer that nearly knocks the plate off the kitchen table.  

“Road?!”

“Hey, you remember me.  Glad to hear it,” the voice on the other end of the line answers.  

“Remember you?  How could I ever forget?”

“It has been quite some time, and I hear you’ve been pretty busy since then.  That said, I’m sorry if this feels out of the blue, but a mutual friend tells me you’re looking for work…”

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