#And hopefully we’ll have even more members to enjoy it next time!

[hellodarling1357]

#26 for the Cassian thing where reader is an IC member too and maybe them and Cassian have been seeing each other in secret for a while but Cass doesn't wanna tell anyone yet because he doesn't wanna mess up the dynamic or make things awkward for the rest of them but then all the stuff happens and Nesta comes along and reader's just sad and pissed because they're worried Cass is in love with Nesta now and secret plot twist oh no reader knows them and Cass are mates but it hasn't snapped for him yet so reader is losing it inside but obviously they can't tell any of their closest friends because Cassian still wants it to be a secret

even if you don't want to write this I hope you're having a great day/night ✩

Forever Tied - Cassian x Reader

Hello hello 🥰

The original prompt list I reblogged has disappeared for some reason so now I have no idea what #26 actually was but I did my best with the request you sent me so hopefully this still works, sorry Anon! I've made it extra long to make up for it!

Hope you enjoy!

Word Count: 9.3k

Rhys was trapped Under the Mountain and there was nothing you could do to help. You had crumbled upon hearing his voice in your mind that last time, having no idea what this meant for your friend, your court, or even for Prythian. You hadn’t even realised you had fallen to your knees until a familiar, warm body had knelt next to you and pulled you into their shaking arms.

Cassian had been in the city centre of Velaris when he had heard, all plans for the day disappearing as the realisation of what had happened hit him full blast. Without thinking, he flew back to the House of Wind, unable and unwilling to process this alone. Although, subconsciously, there was really only one person he wanted to be with in that moment. Azriel would have distanced himself upon hearing the news, Amren was at her apartment, and Mor was at the town house, leaving only you in the House of Wind.

He stumbled in his rush as he landed on the balcony and raced inside. His heart broke even further at the sounds of muffled sobs that echoed towards him. In a blind haze he followed the sounds and found you on the ground, as though your legs had completely given out, unable to bare the weight of what had occurred. Without thinking, Cassian was beside you, pulling you into his arms as he rubbed soothing circles across your back, despite the way his own hands shook as tears threatened to burn at his eyes.

Your breathing eventually evened out, the only trace of your tears were the tracks along your cheeks and the redness of your eyes. Turning in his arms, you looked up at Cassian as though only just properly noticing that he was the comforting, warm presence that brought you back from your distressed state.

“We have to do something,” Your voice was a croaked whisper, “I know he said he put up a shield, but there has to be something we can do to help.”

The shaky inhale of Cassian’s breath told you enough. He didn’t think there was anything that could be done. Truthfully, you didn’t either.

You looked at your friend in awe as a singular tear streaked down his face, followed by another, and another. In all the centuries you had been friends, the sight of the male in front of you crying was one you had very rarely witnessed.

“Cass,” You lifted a hand to his face, gently brushing away his tears. Cassian was always the one who held everyone and everything together, and if this was the one time he openly showed he needed someone else to keep from falling apart, you would more than willingly be that person for him. “It’s going to be okay, alright? We’ll figure something out. And Rhys… well, it’s Rhys. He’s going to be just fine.”

The watery smile you gave him didn’t quite meet your eyes, the expression quickly replaced with alarm as Cassian’s breathing quickened, eyes screwed shut as though trying to compose himself. This you had never seen. Cassian completely losing control, his body shaking against yours as sobs escaped his throat.

“He’s gone,” The strangled sound that came from him had your heart splitting in two. “Amarantha, she will…she’s already…” He couldn’t seem to find the words, or couldn’t bear the thought of saying what was running through his head with Amarantha being involved.

“We’ll get him back.” You soothed, hands reaching up as you guided his head into the crook of your neck, fingers running through his dark wave of hair.

But he wasn’t calming, if anything, Cassian found himself spiralling further and further out of control, the emotions and the ‘what ifs’ sending him into a state of panic where even your comforting presence could do nothing to sooth his hyperventilating breaths, the tears, and the shaking that racked through him.

“Cass?” You pulled back, trying to force him to look at you. “Cassian? Hey, I need you to open your eyes, just focus on me, okay? There you go. Now just take in one deep breathe, alright? Just one, that’s all I need you to do. Okay, and again. You’re alright. We’re alright.”

Cassian’s hazel eyes stared into yours as you talked him through his breathing, your hands soothingly moving up and down his arms as you knelt in front of him and offered a comforting smile as you watched his panic slowly ebb away.

“Y/N, I­—" Cassian started, eyes wide as he gulped and continued staring at you. Before you could blink or react in anyway, he was surging forward; one hand coming up to rest at the back of your neck, the other was gently placed on your thigh, and then his lips were hurriedly pressed against yours. You stilled and tensed in his grasp, it was all too much after everything else that had happened, but still… Maybe a distraction is what you both needed. So instead of pulling away, you leant into him, wrapping your arms around his neck to bring him even closer, and kissing him back with such an urgency that a moan sounded in the back of his throat.

“Y/N,” he muttered against your lips, forehead resting against your own, his breath brushing across your face as it came out in heavy pants.

You just shushed him, also refusing to move too far away. “I know, it’s fine. Just a distraction.”

He looked at you for one more blink and then hungrily pressed against you, this time lowering you to the floor, his muscled body hovering over yours as you lost yourselves in the moment, desperate to forget what had happened and all that was yet to transpire.

*****

Afterwards, you lay on the floor next to one another in the, now dark, room. The combination of your heavy breathes were the only sounds that broke through the silence.

Cassian let out a sigh followed by a chuckle, “Well that was one hell of a distraction.”

You turned your head to look at him and let out a quiet, breathless laugh. Yes, it had been a momentary distraction but now what had happened to Rhys, to Prythian, hung heavy in the room. Cassian turned on his side, leaning up on one arm as he faced you, taking in your still flushed, blissed out expression that now had something akin to pain creeping across it.

“Hey,” He gently grabbed your hand and soothed his thumb across the back of it. “Like you said, we’re alright. And we will get him back.”

You nodded at him then pulled yourself up, tugging your shirt back on before throwing Cassian his discarded clothes.

“Come on, we should find the others. Try to figure something out.”

*****

And that was that.

There was no mention of what had happened between the two of you. No comment on the fact that it had been, without a doubt, and despite the current situation you found yourselves in, the best sex either of you had ever had.

No, even when it happened again three weeks later, and then one week after that, and four days after that, again, and again, and again, it remained an unspoken agreement between the two of you. That momentary distraction where you could lose yourselves in the pleasure of one another and forget about the mess you were left to deal with.

That was how it worked for the next few years. You and Cassian falling into a routine of comfort that you were unable, unwilling, to get from anyone else. You had no idea if the rest of the Inner Circle were aware of what was going on; in terms of your friendship, nothing had changed, there were just additional benefits that came with it now. It didn’t mean anything more.

That is, of course, until your routine had morphed into something that felt like it was on the precipice of something else.

The sex was just as mind-blowingly passionate, however, there were now some instances where it was a bit slower and less frantic, more whispered words and lingering touches. Where the two of you used to chat afterwards, an arm’s worth of distance between you as you slipped back into your normal friendship until the other one left to return to their own room, you now found yourselves wrapped up in each other’s arms, hands softly caressing skin until you both drifted into a restful sleep.

Which is where you now found yourself; wrapped up in Cassian’s arms as he softly snored against you, hand tightly holding onto yours and legs tangled together. You eased out of his grasp, careful not to disturb him and lent against the headboard with a sigh. Usually, you would wake the next morning, offer a small smile, then get on with your day, Rhys’ absence still a clear focus for you all. However, lately you had found yourself letting your mind drift more and more, especially in moments like these where Cassian was still beside you and the bubble you lost yourselves in was yet to be broken.

Each and every time you hated yourself for it, guilt taking over until you forcefully pushed the thoughts away, but you couldn’t help but think that, at some point, you all needed to continue your lives and break away from the standstill existence you had been in since Amarantha took over.

You would never say it out loud, but as the years went on, you had lost all hope of ever getting Rhys back. And if that were the case, and as much as you wished it weren’t, at some point you had to start living for yourselves again. Deep down, in the dark and quiet moments when you awoke and the house was fast asleep, you knew exactly what you wanted that life to look like.

You let out another sigh and looked at Cassian, softly brushing some stray hair away from his face and taking the time to really study his sleep-softened features. You hadn’t meant for it to get this far, but after centuries of friendship, and now the years of intimacy you had shared, the love you felt for Cassian had grown and taken form into a whole different avenue of affection. You were in love with him. You loved him and your heart ached at the thought of it because if you allowed yourself this one bit of happiness into your life, the solidarity and support that Cassian provided, then you couldn’t help but think of it as forgetting about Rhys and the torture he had been enduring whilst you were slowly and deeply falling head over heels with one of your best friends.

The worst part of it was that you were certain Cassian felt the same way about you. The way he held you and touched you, the words he whispered into your ear as you were both tangled, panting messes and then the dazed murmurings that were uttered into the silence afterwards, the longing glances he would give you when the others weren’t looking…

What had started as a desperate distraction and pure, physical need had grown into something so much more meaningful and intimate. And yet you both refused to acknowledge that it was anything other than sex as a means to cope with the instability in your lives.

“Hey,” You hadn’t realised Cassian had stirred, his gruff, sleep-filled voice tearing you away from your thoughts.

“Y/N?” Your expression pulled in confusion at the sudden worry in his voice as he sat up and grasped your hand. “Y/N, what’s wrong?”

It wasn’t until his fingers were reaching up to brush away the tears on your cheeks that you realised you had been silently crying.

“I… I don’t know.” You said with a slight sniffle.

“Oh, sweetheart,” Cassian pulled you into his lap, your head resting on his chest as he pressed kisses to the top of your head and rubbed soothing patterns across your back. The unfairness of the situation had you stifling a small sob, Cassian’s embrace reminding you of exactly what you were missing.

“Want to talk about it?” He murmured into your hair, followed by another kiss.

Whether it was the build-up of emotions or your complete and utter exhaustion, you didn’t know and didn’t care. You sat up in Cassian’s arms, desperately looking for any form of confirmation that what you were about to say wouldn’t ruin everything, then took a deep breath.

“This…whatever this is between us, I can’t keep doing it. Not how it is now,” You were too caught up to notice the heartbroken expression that flashed across his face.

Cassian had willingly fallen into this arrangement and would happily continue to do so if it meant he could pretend, even for just a few hours a day, that you were his, and he was yours. There had always been a part of him that had been completely and utterly in love with you. And then when he found out Rhys had been trapped by Amarantha, his emotions had been a surging mess, so he acted on instinct and a selfish need for the upmost form of comfort and risked it all by kissing you. Now the thought that this one bit of joy he allowed himself was being ripped away, another thing he would be losing, sent his heart racing as he waited for the final blow of your words.

“It hurts too much.” You continued, looking down at your intertwined hands before pulling away.

Cassian looked up at you in confusion, “What hurts too much?”

“This. Us,” A shaky laugh escaped you as you gestured to the empty space between you, throwing all caution to the wind as you said, “I can’t keep pretending that this isn’t anything more than a distraction. Not when I have fallen so deeply in love with you that the thought of never…”

You were cut off by Cassian all but picking you up and kissing you with such passion that you couldn’t stop your toes from curling or the small whimper that escaped your throat.

“You love me?” His voice was breathless and gravelly, barely above a whisper. You opened your eyes, his forehead rested against yours, eyes squeezed shut as though trying to hold onto the moment.

“Yes.”

A joyful laugh sounded from him and reverberated through you as his lips found yours again, tongue trailing along your bottom lip before you parted them for him.

Your mind was racing yet you couldn’t form a coherent thought, pulling away in a desperate attempt to catch your breath.

“Good.”

“Cass?”

“Good. Because I have loved you since we first met and I can’t lose you, not now.”

You grinned at him before pulling his face down to meet yours and slamming your lips to his. You had thought that maybe, just maybe, he had been starting to feel something that was more than friendship too. But the idea of him loving you for that long made your heart skip a beat and had butterflies fluttering up a storm in your stomach.

“I feel horrible,” You admitted, quick to clarify at the affronted look Cassian gave you. “It just feels wrong, like we’re betraying Rhys. We don’t…we don’t even know if he is alive, Cass. I want this, with you, more than anything. But it doesn’t feel right while everything is so…” You trailed off, unable to meet his gaze as Cassian watched you with a look of contemplation.

“So we don’t say anything. We can keep it between us, at least for now. We’ve gotten this far without the others asking questions. I love you, so much, and as much as I want everyone to know, I get what you mean. So we don’t say anything until we get him back. And we will get him back, I know we will. Alright?" You nodded; eyes wide as you grasped his calloused hands in yours.

“Besides, I basically sleep here every night anyway. Nothing will really change between us, just that I can now tell you and show you that I love you, instead of having to force the words down every time you so much as look at me.” A blush spread across your cheeks at his words and the wink that followed, but you didn’t care to hide it, instead simply giving him a dazzling smile that sent his heart racing.

He pulled you in for another kiss, murmuring “I love you” as he guided you back down onto the mattress.

“I love you too—" But a loud yawn escaped your mouth, cutting off the rest of your words and sending you into a small fit of giggles.

“Alright, we’ll continue this tomorrow,” Cassian now laughed with you. “Come on, it’s late. Get some sleep.”

You wrapped your arms around him, nuzzling your face into his chest, the comforting and familiar scent had you drifting off in a matter of minutes.

*****

Cassian had been right, not a lot in your dynamic had changed over the years after that night, other than the giddying comfort of knowing that he was yours, and you were his. You weren’t foolish enough to think that the others hadn’t picked up on the slight shift, especially when Cassian had waltzed out of your room one morning only to come face to face with Azriel. You just assumed that they thought you were sleeping together, nothing more.

Then when Rhys returned, you had been, obviously, overjoyed. Not wanting to bombard him with too much on his first night back, you and Cassian had decided later that night once you were back in your room, to hold off on saying anything about your relationship until Rhys had settled back in.

Then everything else had happened.

The arrival of Feyre and her sisters. Hybern and the cauldron. The war and near fatal injuries spread throughout your tight-knit group. It was all too much.

You and Cassian had been discussing back and forth for months: do you tell them or keep hiding it. Ultimately, keeping your relationship secret is what you always landed on. Honestly, you weren’t sure if you were just finding excuses at this point to keep yourselves in your happy little bubble when so much threated to burst it.

Initially, you hadn’t wanted to rub your relationship in Rhys’ face when he was so clearly pining after Feyre who wanted nothing to do with him. Then their mating bond clicked, and you didn’t want to take away or overshadow their happiness with your own. The threat from Hybern felt like you would be playing with fire; if the King of Hybern found out… it was too great a risk when your enemies could use it against you.

Between it all, you still found time to be together; not once did the love you felt for one another falter. But with each excuse, and with each passing month, the decision wore on you more and more.

And then Rhys asked Cassian to take on Nesta.

You felt for her, you really did, but the time and energy Cassian put into helping her had a pit forming in your stomach. At the end of each day, when you were tucked tightly into his chest and his sweet nothings were whispered across your bare skin, you felt silly for ever thinking that he was losing interest in you. Yet, that feeling lingered just that little bit longer with each passing day and with each moment spent away from him when he was, instead, occupied with her.

*****

You had been away in the Summer Court the night that Nesta had hallucinated about being back in the cauldron. After you finished reporting to Rhys upon your return the following night, he had told you what had happened with her silver flames and how Cassian had managed to bring her out of it. With worry for all of them, you got back to the House of Wind as soon as you could but couldn’t find Cassian, Azriel, or Nesta anywhere. It wasn’t until later when you were getting ready for bed that there was a knock on your bedroom door. What you didn’t expect was to find Cassian on the other side of it, you weren’t sure why he suddenly decided to start knocking on the door to the room you had shared for the past 50 years.

With a quizzical look you pulled him inside the room and lent up on your toes to press a soft kiss to his lips that had him instantly wrapping his arms around your frame to pull you in tighter against him.

“I missed you,” he murmured against your skin, trailing lingering kisses down your neck that had a soft moan escaping you.

“I missed you. Rhys told me what happened here, are you alright? Is Nesta?”

Cassian pulled back, pressing another kiss to your lips then the tip of your nose before grabbing your hands and leading you to the couch by the fireplace.

“That’s what I wanted to talk to you about,” You remained silent, your doubt erupting in you as you waited for him to continue with bated breath. “We moved her to a closer room, next door to our, your, room, so that if something like that happens again one of us will know straight away.”

Cassian pulled back slightly, studying your features as though waiting for a reaction. You expression remained impassive; you could feel the other shoe about to drop and wanted him to tell you without beating around the bush.

“But,” He sighed, lifting your hand up and pressing a kiss to it, “I think, just for now, at least until things calm down a bit, I should go back to sleeping in my old room.”

“No.”

“Y/N – “

“No, Cassian,” You were shaking your head at him, not caring if you sounded needy or whiny or any of it. “This is the only time we can just be us. It’s already hard enough with keeping it a secret from everyone, I can’t lose this.”

“We decided, together, to keep this between us, there’s too much going on. And I don’t think Nesta will appreciate hearing us through the walls…” You cut him off with a scoff.

“Are you fucking serious, Cass? Are you worried about everyone finding out, or are you worried about Nesta finding out?”

“What are you talking about?”

“I never get to see you because you’re always with her. And now, because of her again, everything that our relationship is needs to go on hold? It’s not fair that after 50 years all I get is a few hours at the end of the day and to be kept your secret from everyone we care about.” You spat the word, all your emotions and fears finally bubbling over, however irrational they may be, but you had had enough.

“Sweetheart, we agreed that it’s for the best that we keep this between ourselves – “

“Well, I don’t agree anymore, Cass. I don’t want it like this. And don’t condescend me.” Your voice had a sharp snap to it. You needed something. Needed something other than the heartbreak that you could feel fast approaching; and a fight sounded like the next best thing.

“I’m not being condescending,” You could sense Cassian’s temper rising. “You can’t suddenly be angry because you’ve changed your mind without saying anything to me. And Nesta has nothing to do with this, it’s for...”

But the rest of his words became a blur at the sudden, incessant tug that pulled at your chest; that pulled you towards the male in front of you.

He was your mate.

Cassian was your mate.

You couldn’t do this, not now when you were in the middle of a fight. Not when Cassian didn’t even seem to be aware – or seem to care, a small voice taunted – of what had just happened. You needed to get away from him, to calm down and think before it could get even more out of hand.

“Cassian, just… Whatever, it’s fine. I’m tired, so just go back to your room, okay? We’ll figure the rest out later. I’m just…tired.” You finished lamely, voice cracking slightly as you watched him look you over, his frustration still evident, before walking out and loudly shutting the door behind him.

You slumped down, holding your knees to your chest as the sobs began. You had thought, had hoped, that Cassian was your mate. But this wasn’t how it was meant to go. Not mid-fight, with him having no idea of the bond’s existence while telling you he no longer wants to share your bed.

Having been so caught up in your thoughts and the overflooding emotions, you missed the flickering of shadows that darted around you. Moments later there was another knock on your door. Wiping your eyes, you called out in a chocked voice, “come in,” assuming it was Cassian.

Instead, Azriel quickly opened the door, closing it just as fast, before taking in the sight before him and making his way over to you.

“Y/N?” You could only sniffle in response, gratefully leaning against his side when his arm wrapped around you. “You alright?”

You remained silent for a few minutes, focusing on Azriel’s comforting hand brushing up and down your arm as you worked to control your breathing and halt your tears.

“I’m fine.” Your voice was hoarse and not at all convincing.

“Want to try that again?” You sent your elbow into his ribs, making the Shadowsinger chuckle before pressing a chaste kiss to the top of your head.

With a sigh he asked, “This has nothing to do with the fact that Cassian is suddenly sleeping in his room for the first time in, what? 50 years?”

You gaped up at your friend in shock and at a loss for words.

“You knew?

“Of course I knew. I live here too, remember? As subtle as you might think you’re being, I’ve got these,” His shadows danced around, reminding you that it was stupid to even entertain the idea that Azriel wouldn’t know.

“Oh,” A fresh set of tears filled your eyes and you stared intently into the flickering fire.

“Can you please take me to the town house? I don’t… I can’t be here.” Despite the late hour, you knew he would do anything for you in a heartbeat. While you and Cassian had been friends for decades before anything more had happened, you and Az had been close from the start, instant friends as soon as you had met.

“Of course.”

He waited for you by your bedroom door as you pulled together a small bag of your belongings, not knowing when you would be back.

“Ready?”

“Ready.”

You didn’t turn to give the room that held so many memories a final glance as you shut the door behind you and followed Azriel out onto the balcony.

*****

Thankfully, the town house was dark and empty when you arrived, giving you the space and silence to process your thoughts and feelings. You had thanked Azriel for flying you over and had said a quick goodnight before you walked inside and headed upstairs.

Sitting on your bed, you vacantly stared at the wall, lost in thought as the minutes ticked by. You jumped at the sudden dip of the mattress beside you, only to find Azriel sitting there fixing you with a look of concern, a steaming cup of tea extended towards you.

“Thanks,” You murmured, taking a sip and revelling in the slight burn as the liquid went down your throat. “I thought you went home.”

“Not yet. Didn’t want to leave you alone like this.” There was a beat of silence before, “Do you want to talk about it?”

“No,”

You let out a weary sigh, content on sitting in silence but your thoughts quickly became too much, and you found yourself blurting out, “He’s my mate.”

Azriel whipped around to face you, shock coating his features.

“What? They didn���t tell you?” You gestured to the shadows that skittered around him with a sad smile.

“For how long? I thought you were just sleeping together.” He trailed off, giving you an uncharacteristically sheepish expression as you let out a somewhat bitter laugh.

“It started that way, when Rhys…left,” You whispered, revelling in finally telling someone even though it may well be over. “It was a distraction from the shit show that was going on, but then it just kept happening.” Azriel remained silent, letting you talk.

“A few years in, I realised I had fallen in love with him,” you voice cracked but you kept going, “Then he told me he loved me too. Said he had for a while.”

Azriel chuckled lightly, “That’s an understatement. He was infatuated with you from the moment you met. I knew something was going on or something had at least happened when he suddenly stopped talking to me about you whenever you weren’t there.”

Tears rolled down your cheeks at his words, but with a look and a comforting squeeze of his hand, you let out a shuddering breath and continued, “That was five years into Rhys being gone, and we’ve been together ever since.”

“Five years into… But Y/N, how? That means for over 45 years, the two of you have been…” You sniffed as he put the math together and watched as his eyes widened at the realisation. “How come you never told us?”

“We felt guilty that we found some type of happiness together when Rhys was trapped – “

“He wouldn’t have cared. He would have been happy for you; for both of you” Azriel interjected.

“I know,” You smiled sadly, “But it just didn’t feel right. And then he got back, and everything with Feyre and Hybern happened – it was never the right time.”

You could tell he was still confused, hurt even, about the two of you keeping your relationship private for so long, but he didn’t push you.

“I don’t know how I missed it.” He said, seemingly to himself.

“You only half missed it,” You joked, nudging his arm to try to ease the tension in the room. “We tried to act the same, things were just different when we were alone.”

“When did you realise you were mates?” You inhaled sharply, your earlier fight rushing back to you.

“Tonight. We were arguing and I just felt this tug and knew. He doesn’t know – at least I don’t think he knows.” You voiced your doubts, the weight of them getting the better of you.

“If he knew, he would refuse to leave your side. It just hasn’t snapped into place for him yet.” You gave your friend an appreciative smile and lent your head on his shoulder.

“I’m so tired.”

“Go to sleep. I’ll come back in the morning to check on you. You’re alright here?”

“Thanks Az.” He pressed a kiss to the top of your head before leaving the room; leaving you alone to finally mull over the fight, your emotions, and the fact that Cassian was your mate.

*****

“What’s up with you?” Mor plopped into the seat beside you, handing you a glass of wine that you gratefully took.

“Nothing,” You quickly murmured as the others traipsed into the dining room. You were aware of Cassian edging towards you and held in a sigh of relief when Azriel suddenly appeared in the seat on your other side.

It had been a week since you left the House of Wind to stay at the town house. A week since your fight with Cassian when you realised exactly what he was to you. Yet you couldn’t bring yourself to meet his eye. Despite his best efforts to get you alone over the past few days, you conveniently managed to slip away every time. Tonight’s family dinner was the closest you had been to him all week, the realisation only making your longing for him even more dire – especially now that you were aware of that insistent tug that pulled you towards him.

Dinner was no different to how it usually went, except for the fact that you hardly said a word, opting to keep your eyes focused on the food in front of you. You were so caught up in your own thoughts that you didn’t notice that Cassian also didn’t utter a single word throughout the meal, the only difference between you both was that his eyes were fixed on you, not his plate.

You jumped up as soon as everyone had finished eating, wanting to help clear the plates so you could get out and go home as soon as possible, not wanting to prolong the night for any longer than it needed to be. Too bad for you, Cassian was acutely attuned to your movements and jumped out of his seat seconds after to help in a desperate attempt to have at least one moment to talk to you.

Filling the sink with hot, soapy water, you sensed, rather than saw, Cassian follow you into the kitchen, body tensing up as he silently walked to your side. You worked in silence, scrapping dishes, washing plates, drying, and putting away. Cassian’s eyes were fixed on you, brows furrowing further with every passing moment you continued to ignore him.

“Y/N,” His voice was quiet, unsure. So different to his usual tone that it had you involuntarily turning to face him. Your heart stammered in your chest, the longing and hurt and confusion that had been tearing you apart in your time away from him threatened to burst as you finally met his hazel stare. “Are you… Are we okay? You just left and I had to find out from Az that you’re staying at the town house and now you can barely even look at me.”

His words came out hurried, frantic, as though if he spoke any slower you would disappear. Guilt flooded you at the hurt you found in his eyes, but your anger was still very much present, the lingering fear of him choosing Nesta over you held too strong for you to succumb to those feelings of guilt.

“I just need some time.” Voice barely above a whisper, you inwardly cursed as your vision blurred over with tears.

“Time for what? Y/N I don’t know what’s going on–”

“You both okay?”

Neither you nor Cassian heard Azriel approach, both turning to gape at your friend who hesitantly stood in the doorway.

“Fine. Just fine.” You pushed past him on your way out, not giving Cassian a second glance as you entered the spacious loungeroom to say goodnight to everyone. A few moments later the pair walked in after you, you missed the loaded glances they shared, not privy to the hurried conversation they had after you left the kitchen where Cassian had all but begged Azriel to intervene, to allow him the chance to finally talk to you.

“Hey, Y/N?” You turned to look expectantly at Azriel. “Did you still need me to fly you up to the House of Wind for that book?”

“Oh. Yeah, if that’s alright?” In your rush to get away the night you left you had forgotten to pack the next book you had been planning to read.

“Does tonight work? If you’re just about to head off…”

“Sure, I was just going to go…home.” Your voice trailed at the end, willing the blush away as you kept your head held high. You felt as though you didn’t know what home was anymore.

“Great, Cassian was just about to leave as well. He’ll take you up there.” With a clap to Cassian’s shoulder, Azriel sauntered over to where Rhys and Amren were talking, brushing off their questioning glances as he pointedly ignored you, allowing no room for dispute.

“Oh…”

“Is that alright?” You tensed at Cassian’s voice, glancing over your shoulder to find his wary eyes on you. It wasn’t like you could say no, it was not alright, without making a scene. You would be having words with Azriel the next time you saw him; judging by the slight smirk he was wearing, he seemed to assume just as much.

“Erm, yes. If that’s okay?” Cassian simply nodded before gesturing to the front door and, after another quick goodbye to everyone, you found yourselves outside. Another fumbled moment, then you were held tightly in Cassian’s arms with the rush of the crisp night air and an uncomfortable silence engulfing you both as he flew you towards the House of Wind.

You couldn’t stand the awkwardness. It had never been like this between the two of you and you hated that this is what it had come to. The relationship you shared, whether that be friendship or more, it had always come so naturally. Now you were faced with a stilted, tense atmosphere, not quite knowing what to say or where you stood. Then there had been the fight. Sure, you had argued before, after decades of knowing each other, you were bound to come into some disagreements along the way. But you had never had a fight like this, where you had both been so riled up, fuming at the other to the point where you had both stormed away and then not spoken for days. You hated it.

So caught up in your thoughts, you missed the slight detour Cassian was taking you on, only noticing once you were placed back on your feet and found yourself in the middle of the training ring, rather than the usual balcony that led into the house itself.

“What…”

“We’re hashing this out. Right now.”

“You want to…fight?”

“What?” Cassian did a double take, as if just connecting the location with why you would think that. “No, I don’t want to fight. That’s the problem, we are fighting. This just seemed like the most private place to work things out.”

You eyed him hesitantly, not knowing what you wanted your next step to be, especially when the urge to wrap your arms around him and inhale the scent that was so him, the scent that had become home, was so strong.

“So, words or swords?” Your eyes snapped to Cassian as he fiddled with the one of the discarded swords you usually sparred with.

Words

You wanted words. To talk this all out and be done with it, whichever way that turned out to be. But then an image flashed across your mind; an image of Cassian standing up here with Nesta, hands guiding her into the correct form, fingers shifting along her own to straighten her hold on the blade…

Without a single word, you walked to where Cassian was and hauled your own blade up.

“Okay then.” There was a slight smirk on Cassian’s face as he followed behind you into the centre of the training ring. The quirk of his eyebrow was all you needed before you were moving towards him, swords meeting with a clash that pierced the night.

You didn’t think about the moves you were making, giving way to centuries of refined and well-practiced instinct. Cassian was stronger, you knew he would hold out for longer, but you were well matched for now. Both of your foreheads started to sheen in sweat, pants of exertion echoed alongside the clank and clash of swords, and as you moved around and against one another, you finally let out all of your pent-up emotions until you had nothing left.

“I can’t…I can’t do this anymore.” You gasped before dropping the sword and falling to your knees, tears streamed down your face at the sudden emotional outlet. Cassian was by your side in an instant, his sword dropped to the ground in a ricochetting crash.

“Y/N,” His voice was alert, on-edge, eyes dancing over you as he tried to work out what was wrong. “Are you hurt?” The frantic tone now had sobs racking from your chest, shaking your head you surged forward, wrapping your arms around his neck as you cried and cried and cried. Without a second thought, Cassian had his arms around you, pulling you into his lap as he softly caressed your back and whispered soothing words into your ear.

He stayed silent, giving you the time and space to calm down and filter through your thoughts. Not once rushing you or demanding answers after a week of uncertainty.

“I’m sorry, Cass. I’m so fucking sorry, for everything. I just…” At least you managed to get a few words out before you were overcome with tears once again. You weren’t sure what they were for at this point with so many thoughts and scenarios racing through your head: the fight, Cassian being your mate, Cassian getting close with Nesta, Cassian leaving you, Cassian leaving you for Nesta, and then you being forced to watch them be together, knowing you couldn’t stand the thought of him not being in your life, in whatever capacity you were granted.

“Shhh,” He soothed, pressing a kiss to the top of your head as he softly rocked you back and forth. “It’s okay, it’s okay.”

With a deep breath, you nodded against his chest in an attempt to compose yourself. Noting in the position you were in, you could have laughed if you weren’t feeling so empty and deflated; this is how you had both gotten into this in the first place, all those years ago when you thought you would never see Rhys again – both of you with your arms around each other, crying and saying everything was going to be okay. Only this time, you weren’t so sure if the strength of your relationship would hold.

“Please, talk to me, Y/N. What’s going through that head of yours.”

You couldn’t take not knowing what was going to happen any longer. So with a final sniffle, you leant back, sitting on the ground beside him and pulling your knees up to your chest as you held your arms tightly around yourself.

“I don’t know where to start…”

“What about when you decided you wanted the others to know?” There was no malice in his voice, only gentle concern that prodded you to continue.

“I’ve always wanted the others to know,” You ignored Cassian’s slight indignation, “But it was never the right time, what with everything that was happening then, and everything that’s happened since. It felt like the right decision at the time, it felt safe. It was nice knowing that this was just for us when so much was going wrong. But I want to be with you outside of our room. I want to be able to hold your hand and walk through Velaris, kiss you in front of our friends, not pretend that you don’t mean the world to me, because you do Cassian.”

He remained quiet, letting you talk and giving you the space to get everything off your chest but the lingering presence of his hand drawing soothing circles across your back had you feeling grounded. “I love you and the thought of losing you has been tearing me apart.” You winced at the tremor in your voice, gaze fixed on the ground in front of you.

You didn’t dare mention the fact that you were mates. Not yet. He deserved the chance to properly say what needed to be said, without the cauldron’s interference tying him down if he did, in fact, want to leave.

“Why do you think you’re losing me?” Cassian’s voice was quiet and contemplative, as though processing everything you had said but not quite connecting the dots. The kiss to the side of your head had you inhaling a shaky breath and you forced yourself to will away the tears that threatened to spill.

“We’ve been so distant lately; we never get to see each other. And, look, I know it’s for Rhys, but I’m away all the time, and you’re always with Nesta. Then the other night when you said you didn’t want to share our room anymore, and that you were afraid she would find out… I don’t know, I guess it all just became too much.” You could feel his eyes on you but the blush burning your cheeks had you refusing to meet his gaze.

A moment later, Cassian softly said, “I never said I didn’t want to share a room with you, believe me, I want to spend every moment I can with you–” You made a noise of protest, but Cassian gently shushed you before continuing. “But Rhys and Feyre need Nesta to be okay and he’s given that job to me. I should’ve spoken to you about it first or explained it better when I said I was going to sleep in my old room. But you saw what Nesta was like before we got her up here, I didn’t think her seeing, or hearing, us together would be all that helpful – especially when she was using sex as a way to cope with everything.”

“Oh…” You felt stupid. Stupid and selfish and completely undeserving of the amazing, considerate male beside you.

“And,” Cassan continued with a playful nudge of his shoulder, “You have no idea how much I want everyone to know about us. No idea how hard it has been to not tell everyone that this amazing, brilliant, strong, kind female is mine. And just how hard it has been seeing other males so much as look at you without being able to say anything to them.”

You still couldn’t tear your eyes from the ground in front of you, but Cassian noticed the soft smile tugging at your lips.

“Cauldron, if you want, I can fly us back to the River House right now. We can tell everyone exactly what’s been going on, you can kiss me in front of all of our friends then we can go into Velaris, I’ll even let you hold my hand as we walk around.” Another playful nudge had you softly chuckling, eyes finally darting over to look at Cassian. Your heart faltered at the expression on his face, the complete love and adoration that laced his features as he watched you, his own mouth pulling into a smile at the laugh he managed to pull from you.

“Yeah?” Your voice was still slightly hoarse from your previous tears, but it was a touch lighter. You felt lighter.

“Yeah.” Cassian stretched his legs out in front of him, wrapping one arm around your waist as he pulled you closer to him, leaning back on the other.

Still, some doubt lingered. It couldn’t be this easy. Things were never this easy.

“So, you’re not going to leave me?” You couldn’t remember the last time you felt shy in front of him, and you hated yourself for asking, hated that he might think you weak, needy, pathetic – the words raced around, threatening to send you into a panic.

“Never,” That one word had you relaxing immediately. “You would have to force me to leave you, and even then… I’m not going aware, Sweetheart.”

You could have melted at his words. You swore you did as you leant against him, letting out a small sigh of relief, a breath you had been holding for days, weeks, months.

“Y/N?” His voice sent a shiver down your spine, the words whispered into your ear as his breath fanned across your skin. “Can I please kiss you now?”

You tilted your head up to face him, a small smile gracing your features as he slanted his lips over your own and you immediately felt as though you had returned home.

Pulling away all too quickly, your lips desperately chased his, only to receive a playful peck in response before Cassian was helping you to your feet.

“Come on,”

“Cass?” You laugh was laced with confusion, yet you followed him anyway, watching as he picked up the discarded sparring swords and placing them back alongside the others.

“What? We’ve got some news to share,” He stole another quick kiss as he laced your hands together.

“Now?”

“Yes now,” He mocked with a playful grin, “I don’t want to waste another moment, especially when it has you feeling as though–”

The abrupt stop to Cassian’s words had the smile slipping from your face as you took in his wide eyes and startled expression.

“Cassian, what’s wrong?”

“Y/N… You’re…” He let out a disbelieving laugh as he continued to stare at you, drinking in every feature, every miniscule detail and expression that crossed your face. Turning your head, you tried to look around for the cause of his sudden change in demeanour, only to be met with gentle, yet calloused, hands cupping your face, urging you to meet his gaze before his lips were pressed over yours again.

Despite the confusion, you gratefully accepted and leant into the kiss, relaxing as his arms draped around your waist and as you let your fingers travel up his neck before tangling into his hair. Cassian was breathing heavily when he pulled away, you could hear the pounding of his heart as he pressed his forehead against yours. His eyes remained tightly shut, the feel of his lashes fluttering across your skin sent your own heart fluttering in response.

Then he mumbled something incoherently; too quiet and smothered for you to even begin to comprehend.

“Hmm?” You asked, pressing a lingering kiss to the corner of his mouth as you ran your fingers through his hair.

Another murmur had you pulling away, eyebrows furrowing as you took in his dumbfounded expression and the way his eyes were still tightly shut. But there was now a smile tugging at his lips.

“Cass?”

“Mate. You’re my mate.” His eyes snapped open, revealing complete, utter joy as he stared at you with wonder and bewilderment.

Oh. Right.

“And you’re my mate.” At least you didn’t have to keep this to yourself any longer.

Cassian tilted his head as he processed your reaction and the way your lips spread into a soft, loving smile.

“You knew. You already knew.” Although his voice was laced with exasperation, his face held nothing but love and giddy excitement, eyes bright as he met yours. You sent a wave of affirmation down the newly linked bond, watching with joy as Cassian’s eyes lit up even further at the sensation. You knew you were grinning just as stupidly back at him when you felt a tug of your own filled with nothing but love.

The two of you stood there grinning and staring at one another as though seeing the other in a new light. Then you were both moving, arms a flurry as they desperately wrapped around the other, lips meeting in a loving and passionate kiss that only intensified with each tug that raced down the bond, igniting the need for more, so much more.

A gentle tap from Cassian and you were quick to jump up, wrapping your legs around his waist as his arms held you tightly against him. Through the kisses and moans and soft sighs, somehow Cassian found himself moving, walking the two of you to the door that would lead you inside and to your room.

“Wait,” You pulled back, gasping for air as you leant your forehead against his, legs still tightly wrapped around his middle. Cassian was panting just as heavily, waiting on your every move and word. “Kitchen.”

The suggestive grin he shot you went straight to your core, the feeling only amplified as he attached his lips to your neck. “I think I like where this is heading,” A soft moan sounded in the back of your throat as he tugged on your earlobe, then he was walking again, albeit very quickly, towards the kitchen, his lips back on yours.

“No, idiot,” Another moan had your breathless words halting immediately. “Food.”

Now Cassian pulled away, looking at you through the haze of love and lust, now tainted by a hint of confusion.

“Food,” You continued, pressing a kiss to his lips before trailing along his jaw and returning the favour with a tug on his earlobe. “For the mating bond.”

You felt Cassian’s body tense against you, “You’re going to accept it?”

“Yes…” you said tentatively, not quite understanding the need for his question because what other answer was there?

The intensity in which he kissed you had him stumbling back a few steps, arms wrapping even tighter around you to keep you in his arms.

“Did you think I wouldn’t?” Your gaze softened as you took in his uncertain expression, as you felt it through the bond.

“No, I don’t know. I just thought… I mean, you’re… Do you really want to be tied to a bastard-born Illy…” You cut his words off with a sharp look and a deep kiss that conveyed exactly what you thought of what he had just implied. Then you were sending every ounce of love and affection that you could muster towards him, heart melting as his expression changed and with the way he looked at you whilst processing the raw, vulnerability of the emotions surging down the bond.

You pressed a soft kiss to his lips, barely more than a lingering peck before saying, “Please can you let me give you some food now? I’ve been keeping this in all week.”

“All week? You’ve known about this since…”

“It snapped during our fight,” You shrugged, not wanting to relive it now that you had finally reached this point.

It was Cassian’s turn to pull you into a tender kiss before you found yourself overwhelmed by the new sensation of his emotions landing right above your heart.

“I think we can hold off on telling the others for just a little bit longer.”

“I think you’re absolutely right,” You tapped his arm gently and he placed you back onto your feet. Lacing your fingers with his, you pulled him into the kitchen and made him take a seat while you went about putting a plate of food together.

“Besides,” You continued, suddenly remembering Azriel’s involvement, “Az already knows. So I’m sure the others have put the pieces together by now and will steer clear for a few days.”

“A few weeks more like.” You grinned at the slight growl in his voice and the hunger in his eyes as his gaze remained fixed on you.

“Here,” Your voice was almost breathless, stomach fluttering with excitement and nerves as you pushed the plate towards him. Cassian briefly glanced down at it then, with a look of well-honed restraint, he slowly stood and walked over to you, pulling you in for a kiss as he murmured, “I love you.”

“I love you too.”

Without tearing his eyes away from you, Cassian reached across the table for the plate, eating everything on it as you remained transfixed on one another, basking in the feeling of the bond you shared growing stronger and stronger until, at last, everything felt as though it had finally fallen into place.

***** Thanks for reading 🥰

[lvcky-g1rl-syndr0me]

⋆୨♡୧⋆bitchless era ending soon⋆୨♡୧⋆

walking into the meeting room y/n couldn’t help but internally scream. what the hell was he doing here? why didn’t her manager tell her about this? especially since she was just in practice and didn’t have time to dress up and hopefully look not a hot mess. her mouth dropped open in shock, resisting the urge to yell “what the fuck” in front of everyone. after a moment of awkward silence her manager spoke up. “y/n meet riki, riki meet y/n. you guys will be working together from now on. we set up this time for you to meet and talk and get to know each other.” she gestured to riki’s manager, “we’ll be going so you two can talk freely. have fun!” the two left and left riki and y/n alone. while y/n was having her internal panic, little did she know, so was he. the moment he saw her he knew he was fucked. after heeseung gave him no help, he had no idea what to say to her. “soo…” he said “your debut was really good!”. y/n didn’t know what to do. her celebrity crush of 3 years, just complimented her music. all that she could muster was “uh- thanks you too”. thanks you too???? why the hell would she say that? he laughs slightly, not being able to help but think about how cute she was. “um are you excited to start mcing?” she asks, nervousness clear in her voice. he smiled, “yeah i am, what about you?” she tried her absolute hardest to not say something stupid again and said “yeah! just a little nervous though. i’ve never done anything like this before.” riki saw his opportunity, he knew he had to take it. even though he had absolutely no idea what he was doing. “we should hang out sometime. i’ve done it a couple times before, i could give you some tips to make it easier!” no. fucking. way. too many thoughts were running through y/ns head. did nishimura riki really just ask her to hang out? there’s no way this is real. never did she think that this would happen “uhhhh- yeah! yeah sure that would be fun!” whatthefuckwhatthefuckwhatthefuck “okay nice! how about tomorrow?” whatshappeningwhatshappeningwhatshappening “yeah sure. that sounds perfect” holy. shit. cha y/n is hanging out with nishimura riki. “okay, ill see you then” riki had never been more nervous in his whole life. he couldn’t wait to shove this in all of his members faces. “im sure you have to get back to practice, right?” there was no shock as to why he knew that, she looked like a sweaty mess. “yeah, actually. i do. so i’ll see you then!” she overthought her every word, and move. how could she not when she’s around him. to her, he was perfect. “see you around!” riki left the room and practically ran back to his dorm. that couldn’t have gone better. y/n however, was freaking the ever living hell out. “did nishimura riki just ask me out? no that’s not possible we just met eachother! it’s friendly! that’s all!” after what felt like hours of contemplating she decided to go back to the dorm, tweet about it, and tell taesan and jaehyun. i mean, how was she supposed to go back to practice after something like this?

masterlist | next | previous

luckys note!: i’m sorry this took so long guys!! schools getting crazy since it’s almost the end of the year. but i hope you enjoyed the first written chapter! this is my first time like, actually writing so i hope it turned out good!

© lvcky-g1rl-syndr0me, 2024. do not copy, translate or upload any of my works without my permission.

(📍) PERM TAGLIST IS OPEN!

(🩷) MIDNIGHT FICTION TAGLIST! @nctislifue @akuspic @pkjay @siya-bean @eun-chaez @wavetosunoo @gweoriz @luminouskalopsia @soobiary @ivyannemarie @rikikiynikilcykiki @emma2black @enh4ht @wooziswife @jjunie-0 @yumilovesloona @wth121 @riksaes @isaxshin @allforhee @rikisgeef @chxrlvspp @sunghoonsarmpit @autumn583 @tzuyusluv

(dm me/comment under the midnight fiction masterlist to be added!)

[msschemmenti]

Are You Jealous?

Chessy x Reader

prompt: jealous chessy :)

a/n: i rewatched parent trap recently and the craziest plotline in that movie was martin and chessy being lovers. both of them were clearly gay.

a/n: sorry this took so long lol unedited and probably pretty bad

“I’d love to see you tonight.” Y/n smiled down the phone. It’d been about a week since she and Chessy had seen each other and with the house to herself, Chessy was going to take advantage.

“Well Nick and the girls are going camping for the weekend, if you’re up for a drive out to the vineyard?” Chessy asked hopefully.

“I think I can swing that. What time should I be there?”

“Everyone should be gone by 5. So anytime after should be good.” Chessy grinned.

“I’ll be there by 5:30. SHould I bring anything?” 

“Just yourself. I’ll make us some dinner and we can crack open something from the cellar to go with.”

“Sounds divine. I’ll call before I head out. See you soon.” Y/n smiled down the phone and waited for Chessy’s reply.

“Can’t wait.”

-

“Dinner was great Chess. Thank you so much.” Y/n smiled around her glass as she sat at the kitchen island watching Chessy move around the kitchen. They’d been dating for about four months and were as smitten as a couple could be. After Meredith, Nick started renting out the vineyard as a wedding venue as a bit of passive income. Y/n’s company had been one of the first to host a ceremony on the grounds. she’d been lost and had somehow driven up the Parker’s driveway and was met with a very beautiful woman waving her hands to stop her. from there their romance only flourished. 

“anything for you honey. after i finish these dishes we can go sit under the stars for a bit?” 

“i’d love to. why don’t i dry do we can start relaxing sooner? i need as much relaxation as i can get with this current bride.” 

“well get your cute butt over here and get to work. the stars won’t wait forever.” chessy grinned, reaching to pull the woman close by the waist. The couple washed in tandem, giggling and stealing kisses as they went. really just enjoying each other's company. Just as they put the last dish away, voices floated through the open floorplan startling the couple apart.

“Chessy, who’s car is that?” Hallie called being the first to enter the house. It wasn’t long before more footsteps were heard and before they knew it they were no longer alone. Now standing face to face with a very intimately domestic scene.

“Uh. Hi guys. What are you doing back so early?” Chessy asked, stepping toward the small family.

“Rain at the campsite so we decided to try again next weekend.” nick shrugged eyeing the guest placing the last of the dried dishes in the cabinet.

“Bummer. I’m sure next weekend will be better. We’ll just be going then.” Chessy answered quickly grabbing Y/n’s elbow in an effort to leave the kitchen. Before she could even move around the island all four members grinned mischievously at the nanny and moved in.

“Wait Chessy, aren’t you going to introduce us to your friend?” Annie asked looking past Chessy and toward Y/n. Chessy fixed them with a withering glare but sighed pulling Y/n forward as she prepared for the embarrassment. 

“Everyone this is Y/n, my friend,” she smiled toward the twins in censorship.

“Y/n, this is Nick Parker. He owns the vineyard. Elizabeth James, and their daughters Annie and Hallie.” 

Y/n smiled, politely extending her hand to shake each member of the family’s hand before stopping briefly at Elizabeth’s. “I know this is a long-shot but you wouldn’t happen to be the Elizabeth James? Like the wedding dress designer Elizabeth James, would you?”

“Guilty,” Elizabeth smiled.

“Oh I love your work. I’m a wedding planner and all the best dresses I’ve seen in the last 12 years have come from you.” Y/n gushed causing Elizabeth’s cheeks to glow in a blush. 

“How sweet, I’m so glad my dresses seem to rank so well.”

“Oh most definitely, I hope you’re still designing by the time I finally have a wedding of my own. I’ve always imagined I’d be in an Elizabeth James original for my special day.”

“I would love that, have you already got ideas? I could roughly sketch you something since we’re all here for the evening.” ELizabeth offered. Y/n took a step around Chessy to follow ELizabeth before turning back to her girlfriend.

“Do you mind Chess?” Y/n asked quietly, knowing that if Chessy said she did, she’d politely decline and hope she got the chance another day.

“No, go ahead, knock yourself out. Just come find me when you’re done.” Chessy smiled, pushing the woman over toward Elizabeth with a smile.

“Great, I can even show you some recent stuff I’ve been thinking about.” Elizabeth grinned, pulling Y/n through the hall toward her work room. As soon as the women disappeared Chessy could feel three pairs of eyes on her.

“Your friend, hm?” Hallie grinned rounding the counter to one side of the nanny.

“How come we’ve never met this friend before?” Annie asked rounding to the other side, effectively caging Chessy between them.

“That’s none of your business. And rain at the campsite? When’d you all become such babies?” Chessy chided, poking the girls in their ribs. They giggled helplessly as the older woman tickled them. “Wanna watch a movie?”

-

The movie had been on for half an hour and the other women had yet to return. Chessy’s attention had been divided the moment they pressed play. During the quieter parts of the movie, she could hear giggles floating through the halls. Chessy’s eyes wandered from the screen in hopes of catching a glimpse of her girlfriend returning, but she wasn’t rewarded. Both Annie and Hallie had anchored themselves on either side of Chessy, legs stretched to each end of the couch. They’d both been commenting on the film and asking questions and Chessy tried to keep up but after noticing her gaze shift to the hallway for what felt like the 100th time they took to giggling and quietly talking to each other. 

As the credits rolled across the screen, Chessy was finally granted some reprieve from her torture. Elizabeth and Y/n came around the corner arms linked, quietly giggling over a sketchbook. 

“Oh Y/n, you’re just delightful. I can’t believe you’ve done four weddings here and I’m only just meeting you.” Elizabeth shook her head in disbelief.

“My brides are always extremely high maintenance. They make it a bit hard to socialize at all!”

“Well, I’ll have to have you come by my local studio sometime. We just have to get together again.”

“Oh Elizabeth, that’d be great. I’ll have Chessy give you my info and we can connect sometime soon.” Y/n smiled as she placed her hands on Chessy’s head affectionately over the back of the couch.

“I’ll be sure to share that.” Chessy mumbled gazing up at the two of you. Both of their eyes still on the sketchbook. 

“Perfect! Girls, it's getting rather late. Say goodnight.” Elizabeth smiled down at the twins while rubbing her hand over Y/n’s shoulder. The girls obediently wished their goodnights before leaving the room. As they left Y/n caught sight of the time herself. 

“It is a bit late, I should head home. I’ve got a few early meetings. It was lovely meeting you all. Chess, will you walk me out?” Y/n asked, finally meeting the older woman’s gaze. The older woman followed behind Y/n closely and as soon as they were out of sight of the family her hands were resting on her waist. 

They came to a stop outside of Y/n’s car and the younger woman turned to face Chessy, “Well that was fun.” Y/n smiled as Chessy backed her into the car. 

“Well I’m glad someone had fun.” Chessy mumbled wrapping her arms around Y/n’s waist with a pout.

“And what’s that supposed to mean? Did you not have fun tonight?” Y/n frowned as Chessy sighed and dodged her eyes.

“I barely saw you tonight.” Chessy huffed. 

Y/n looked over the nanny’s face with a smile. Seeing the jealousy simmering in her mind. With a grin Y/n splayed her hands across Chessy’s chest and pulled on the collar of her shirt. “Wait a minute. Are you jealous?” 

“What? Pshh, No.” Chessy rolled her eyes. 

“Oh I don’t think that’s true at all.” 

“Well, I think you spent the whole evening with the Elizabeth James.” 

“Chess…” Y/n dragged out, pulling the older woman closer to her.The older woman grumbled but ultimately sighed as the younger woman pinched her cheek. “You know I would’ve stayed if you asked.”

“You seemed so excited. Listen I’m just grumpy the evening didn’t go as planned. I don’t particularly like sharing you.” 

“Well next time, we’ll aim for no interruptions hm?” Y/n smiled sweetly.

“I like the sound of that.” 

“Now give me a kiss so we can say goodnight.”

taglist: @theonefairygodmother , @sleep-deprived-athlete

[jasontoddsmommyissues]

Let’s Give ‘Em Something to Talk About

Pairing: Eddie Munson x Femme!Henderson!Reader

Summary: Y/N Henderson’s relationship with Eddie puts her at odds with Jason Carver and co.

Warnings: Reader uses she/her pronouns, bullying/harassment, slut shaming, allusions to sexual content (nothing sexual actually happens), Jason being a prick, swearing, Reader is Dustin’s sister but no physical descriptions are used and you can read it as an adopted sibling if you want, I think that’s it but let me know if I missed something

A/N: Alright, this is the first Fic I’ve ever posted on here. I’m honestly a little nervous, but hopefully you enjoy. I’ll probably end up posting this on my Ao3 too so I’ll link that at some point.

My Master List | Ao3

—

“I’m gonna miss you”, Eddie whines as he leans against the locker next to yours.

“It’s one class”, you reply as you swap out your English textbook for history, “that’s, what, an hour?”

“Actually I have Davis’s class next so it feels more like three hours”, Eddie says.

You snort. Mr. Davis has probably been around since the dinosaur era, and if there were to be a competition for most boring teacher at Hawkins High, he would win it hands down.

“It’s not funny”, Eddie teasingly pouts, “I might actually die of boredom.”

“As much as I would hate for that to happen, I’ve got my own class to get to, so unfortunately you’re on your own for now,” you reply.

“Alright well, please tell the rest of Hellfire I’m going to miss them”, he tells you, “and feel free to wear that black skirt of yours to the funeral. The tight one. It’s what I would’ve wanted.”

You roll your eyes affectionately before pressing a quick kiss to his lips.

“You’re so dramatic”, you say, “I’ll see you later.”

“If I survive that long”, he calls. You shake your head before turning the corner and heading into your history classroom.

“Okay, class”, your teacher, Mr. Price announces once the bell rings, “I’ve written some questions on the board. You’ll find the answers in Chapter 5 of your textbook. Write them down and turn them in by the end of class. You may work with a partner if you’d like.”

You pull your textbook out of your bag and flip to a clean sheet in your notebook. You don’t have any friends in this class, so you figure you may as well just do it yourself and get it over with. That is, until a voice startles you as you’re about to start reading the first page of the chapter.

“Hey, Y/N. Do you wanna work together?”

You blink up at the source of the voice and are pretty sure you must be hallucinating. That’s the only explanation you can think of as to why Jason Carver would be asking you to be his partner.

The two of you have been in the same grade since Kindergarten and you can't think of a single time in all those years that he’s directly acknowledged your existence. The closest thing you have to a connection with him is that your little brother is friends with one of his new Basketball recruits, but you kind of doubt he even knows or cares about that. There’s a few members of his little posse he could be asking to work with him, so you have no clue why he’d be asking you of all people. But, you don’t have anyone else, so you shrug.

“Sure, I guess”, you say.

“Great”, he smiles, moving to sit down next to you.

“I’ll get started on number 1”, you suggest, “maybe you can do number 2 and we’ll compare?”

“Sure”, he says sweetly. You’re honestly getting a little freaked out by how friendly he’s being.

You both do your agreed upon work, and then switch off to show each other your answers.

“So?” you ask when he’s finished reading yours, “does that seem right?”

“Yeah”, he replies, “you’re good at this. You ever thought about being a tutor?”

“Oh, no, not really”, you say.

“See, I just ask because our youth group has this program where some of us older members help the younger kids out after school and stuff.”

“Oh, that’s cool”, you tell him, not really engaged the conversation. It all sounds well and good, but you really aren’t interested in being a tutor at the moment.

“You know, the church has a lot of great programs”, Jason continues, and you’re not sure what any of this has to do with the Byzantine empire, which is what you’re supposed to be discussing.

“Okay”, you say.

“They do a lot of outreach, a lot of stuff to help people who have lost their way.”

“Lost their way?” you inquire, a small part of you beginning to understand what’s actually going on.

“Yeah. You know. Made bad choices, got mixed up with the wrong people.”

“Um, I think we should just get back to the assignment”, you suggest, uncomfortable with the discussion and not wanting it to go any further.

“Look”, Jason sighs, “what I’m trying to say is, I don’t know you very well, but you seem like a nice girl. I’d hate to see you go down a bad path.”

Okay. You get it now, and it’s starting to piss you off.

“Thank you, but I’m doing just fine”, you insist.

“You’ve been hanging around with Eddie Munson”, Jason says, as if it’s some scandalous secret and not just you spending time with your boyfriend, “you really shouldn’t do that, you know…”

You stare at him, a little dumbfounded he would just up and say such a thing to you.

“You can’t be serious…”, you say.

Jason leans in to you, a deadly serious expression on his face.

“I’ve heard about guys like him before”, he tells you, “I know the stuff they’re into.”

Yeah, so do you. It’s tabletop role playing games, which is about the least nefarious activity you could possibly think of. Jason clearly doesn’t see it that way, though, because he’s still going on.

“And I know they like to lure innocent people like you into their little organizations. I’m telling you, Munson is bad news. You should stay away before you get hurt.”

You seriously have to hold yourself back from laughing right in Jason’s face. You’re not sure what reality he’s living in, but it clearly isn’t the same one you are. Last weekend, you and Eddie had watched Terms of Endearment and he’d started to cry (well started tearing up at least, even sniffled a little, though he vehemently denied it). There’s not a single situation in which you can ever imagine him causing you intentional harm.

“Okay, you know what”, you say, “I think I’m gonna finish the rest of the assignment alone, thanks.”

Jason grabs your arm gently but firmly. “I’m serious, Y/N. He’s dangerous. Stay away from him before you end up hurt or killed.”

You’re really not sure what the most offensive part of all this is. It’s either that Jason thinks that somehow Eddie Munson, your lovable dork of a boyfriend,is secretly an evil Satanist cult leader, or that you’re apparently too stupid or naive to make that kind of judgment for yourself. Maybe it’s that he volunteered to work with you on an assignment and acted all friendly with you just so he could get this opportunity to preach to you about your supposedly “dangerous” lifestyle. He’s never given you the time of day before, after all.

“I don’t know what it is you think you see in him, but I promise you it’s not going to end well.”

You snort. Is he, what, jealous or something? He’s got a girlfriend, after all, and plenty of other girls who’d be willing to take her place if she were to leave him. It’s kind of sad that he’s apparently so insecure that the mere thought of Eddie Munson getting female attention is enough to have him losing his shit like this.

“Whatever”, you spit, “just leave me alone.”

He glares at you, but ultimately turns his attention to his textbook and doesn’t speak to you for the rest of the class.

-

You happily shove the encounter out of your mind once the bell rings. You’re perfectly content with the social circle you keep, and you’re not going to let some jock with an inflated sense of self importance change that.

Jason apparently doesn’t do the same because he spends lunch glaring at you from his table. Granted, him shooting disgusted looks in the general direction of the Hellfire Club is a regular occurance, but today he’s making it obvious his ire is directed specifically at you.

“What the fuck is his problem?” Eddie asks.

“I dunno”, you shrug, “he’s just an asshole.”

Eddie peers at him for a moment and you can see a familiar glint of mischief twinkle in his eye. Before you can comment, he’s dramatically pushing himself to his feet and sauntering over to Jason and company.

“What do you want?” Jason demands.

“Couldn’t help but notice you staring”, Eddie says, “just wanted to let you know that I’m flattered, but unfortunately you aren’t really my type. Sorry.”

“Fuck off”, Jason barks, “disgusting freak.”

“Don’t take it too hard”, Eddie says, giving him a joking pat on the shoulder before making his way back over to you. You stifle a laugh at the indignant look plastered on Jason’s face. Eddie shoots you a proud grin and you shake your head affectionately. Jason clearly doesn’t know shit about “guys like Eddie.”

-

The next few days pass by uneventfully. Jason doesn’t try talking to you again, which you’re thankful for. Wednesday starts out normally, you go to history, and Jason roundly ignores your presence. Then you have to go to your next class, which is gym.

Definitely not a favorite of yours, and you don’t even have Eddie in your class to ease the pain. You make it through your warm ups, and then the coach has you split up to practice your volleyball serves. Everything’s going well until Andy, one of Jason’s buddies, approaches you out of nowhere.

“Hey, Henderson”, he says, a smirk on his face, “you think you could score me some weed?”

You look at him, confused. You don’t get involved in Eddie’s side hustle, so you’re not sure why he’d ask you.

“What?”

“Oh, I just figured you probably get a good discount”, he goes on, “I mean, that’s why you let Munson fuck you, right?”

You freeze in shock, your cheeks starting to grow hot. You can’t say you’re used to people making comments about your sex life, especially not to your face.

“I mean, I gotta say”, Andy continues, a cruel glint in his eye, “I didn’t take you for a slut. But come on. Spreading your legs for that freak? Jesus, that’s sad. You know, I’d be happy to show you a good time, since you’re so desperate for it.”

You can only stand there, mouth agape. Sure, you’ve gotten a gross comment or two from a male classmate before, but nothing like this. You certainly have never been called a slut before. You try to formulate a response, but you can’t come up with one. It doesn’t matter anyway, because the coach’s whistle rings out, signaling for you all to hit the changing rooms. You dash out of the gym, more than pleased to be away from Andy.

You hop in the shower in the locker room, take a few moments to shake off the discomfort of the interaction. You’re not entirely successful in that endeavor, because it keeps playing in your mind even after you’re dressed and making your way back into the hallways.

You have no idea where the hell Andy came up with all of that. At this point, it’s common knowledge that you and Eddie are dating, but you don’t know where this idea that you’re sleeping with him for drugs came from. It couldn’t be further from the truth.

“Hey, Beautiful”, you’re distracted from your thoughts by Eddie, who comes happily bounding over to you. His face falls when he sees the look on your face though.

“You okay?” he asks.

“I’m fine”, you say. Something about the idea of telling Eddie about what happened leaves a bad taste in your mouth. It’s embarrassing, and you definitely don’t want him to feel like it’s somehow his fault that Jason and Andy are giving you a hard time.

Besides, it doesn’t matter. Once again, nothing they say about you or Eddie is true. You can’t let some stupid jocks get to you.

-

Honestly, you probably could’ve been okay, if that was the end of it. Unfortunately, things only get worse the next day.

As you make your way to your seat in history, you catch sight of Amber and Samantha, two cheerleaders who like to hang around Jason and the others, whispering as you walk by.

You ignore them, figuring you’re being paranoid and they probably aren’t even talking about you, but when you sit down, Amber turns and looks you right in the eye.

She raises her voice then, clearly intending for you to hear what she’s saying.

“I hope she’s gotten tested”, she tells Samantha, “I can’t imagine what nasty shit the Freak is passing on to her.”

You take a deep breath, turning away from her.

It doesn’t matter, you tell yourself, it’s not true.

“I hope the drugs are worth it,” Samantha says.

You clench your jaw as you slip into your seat. It shouldn’t bother you so much. It's not true, and even if it were, who cares what Amber and Samantha have to say about it?

You’re dating Eddie because you like him. You like the way he’s always joking around and making you laugh, you like that he makes a point of looking out for Dustin and his friends, you like the way he looks at you with those big puppy dog eyes and flashes that mischievous grin. Cheap access to his drugs has never even crossed your mind.

You shouldn’t concern yourself with what they say, you know that, but hearing your name in connection with “slut” grinds at you.

-

During gym class, you do your best to avoid Andy, because everytime he notices you looking at him, he’s making some suggestive gesture at you. You don’t bother telling anyone about it, since Andy’s on the basketball team and the coach would probably take his side.

In the hallway, you accidentally bump into Patrick from the basketball team. You mutter an apology, which he accepts, but his girlfriend gives you the dirtiest look you’ve ever seen.

“Don’t talk to her”, you hear her tell him as you walk away, “she’s a slut.”

-

All of the gossip has put you in a foul mood by the time you get to your second to last period of the day, which happens to be study hall.

Like always, it’s in the cafeteria, with you and a bunch of other students of varying grade levels all sitting around doing your homework. Technically, you’re not supposed to talk, but the teacher in charge is way too underpaid to worry about enforcing that, so you can usually get away with conversation as long as things don’t get too rowdy.

You’re not taking advantage of that today, rather trying your best to distract yourself by actually doing your homework. You’re halfway through summarizing Act 3 of Hamlet when you hear someone say your name.

“Hey, Y/N…”

You’re confused when you look up to find Lucas standing there. Technically, you’ve known him for years, but it’s not like you’ve ever associated with him outside the time he spends with Dustin.

“What?” you ask, a little meaner than you mean to.

“I just thought you should know that…well, I think Jason has been going around saying things about you.”

Of course. You should’ve known Jason was behind this. Jason fucking Carver. Captain of the Basketball Team. Active member of the local church. Son of one of the most respected families in Hawkins. He’s clearly used to people listening to whatever he has to say. Apparently, his ego couldn’t handle you dismissing his comments about your relationship with Eddie.

Jesus, you’d always known he was a bit of an asshole, but this is a level of pettiness you’d never expected, even from him.

“Don’t tell him I told you”, Lucas adds, “but I just thought you should know.”

“Thank you”, you say. You’re definitely glad to have that piece of information.

-

The next day, you storm into Mr. Price’s classroom with righteous fury coursing through your veins. You bypass your desk and instead march straight up to Jason.

He pauses his conversation with Andy and Samantha when he sees you approach.

“What the hell is wrong with you?” You demand.

“Excuse me?” Jason asks.

“I know you’ve been starting rumors about me”, you tell him, “what exactly is your problem, Jason?”

“Me? I don’t have a problem”, Jason insists, “I just think it’s fair the men of Hawkins High get a warning about your ‘extracurricular’ activities.”

You can feel heat flood your cheeks.

“You’re a dick, Jason!” you hiss.

“You know, Y/N”, Jason retorts, “I actually feel bad for you. I mean, no decent man is ever going to want you when they find out you’ve been giving it up to some trailer trash freak.”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about”, you snap.

“Believe me, I know exactly what happens to girls who hang around with filthy, Satan-worshiping scumbags”, he says, “and you know what? I’m not going to feel sorry for you when they’re finding your body dumped in the woods.”

“Get over yourself!”

“Whatever”, Jason shakes his head, “I’m not gonna take the attitude from some little slut.”

You’re not fully in control of yourself during what happens next. One second you’re standing there listening to Jason degrade you, the next your fist is connecting with his face.

He stands there, stunned for a moment, before opening his mouth to say something. He doesn’t get the chance though, because Mr. Price gets to it first.

“Ms. Henderson”, he gasps, “Mr. Carver, what on earth is going on here?”

“She punched me in the face”, Jason spits accusingly.

“I-I…I’m sorry I…”

“Enough”, Mr. Price sighs, “I want both of you going to the principal’s office right now!”

-

You’re in deep shit. That much is immediately clear. You punched Jason Carver in the face. It’s not like you even claim it was self defense, since he didn’t do anything physical to you.

“So”, Principal Higgins sighs, “tell me what happened again?”

“She punched me in the face”, Jason hisses.

“Is that true?”

“Yes”, you sigh, “but he called me a slut.”

Principal Higgins rubs his temple, processing the information. Meanwhile, Jason’s gaze is fixed firmly on you, his eyes full of hatred.

“Mr. Carver”, Higgins says finally, “that is not appropriate language to use in regards to another student. You may go back to class, but I better not hear about something like this again.”

Jason stands and marches out of the office, as if he has a right to be pissed about Higgins’ scolding. You suppress the urge to roll your eyes. Of course he gets a slap on the wrist. Nobody wants to punish the star basketball player. You’re certain that if it were anyone else, Eddie or Dustin or one of the other Hellfire Club members, they definitely wouldn’t be getting off so easily.

“Now, as for you Ms. Henderson”, Higgins says, “we do not allow for any sort of violence in this school. However, in all your years at this school, you have never had to receive any form of discipline. So I’m willing to be flexible here. Normally, something like this could be grounds for suspension, but since this is your first time, I say it’s two weeks detention after school starting next Monday. Does that sound fair to you?”

Not really, no, but you can’t say that.

“Yes”, you reply instead.

“Alright. Good. Now go back to class. And Ms. Henderson, I sincerely hope I won’t have to see you in my office again.”

-

You’re in a bad mood when Mr. Price’s class finally ends. You’ve gone your entire high school career without getting a detention and now you’ve ruined that over some pompous dick bag. Speaking of, Jason has been staring daggers at you since you returned to class, and is continuing to do so even now as you’re leaving.

There’s a tense, awkward moment where you both stand there in the hallway, glaring at each other, but it’s broken when the force of a body colliding with your back almost takes you off your feet. Jason is forgotten when a pair of arms wrap around your waist from behind.

“Eddie”, you huff playfully.

“How’d you know it was me?” he asks as you turn around to face him.

“Cause you can’t keep your hands to yourself, Munson”, you reply.

“Don’t blame me”, he replies, “you know I’m powerless to resist your charms.”

Before you can reply he’s pulling you close and beginning to press kisses to your cheek. You know the two of you are making a scene, and on any other day you might be a little self conscious about it, but today you’re just glad to have him around.

His kisses stop suddenly and you realize he’s stopped because he’s finally noticed Jason’s hateful glaring. Unfazed as always, he just flashes a cocky smile and gives Jason a mocking impression of a friendly wave. Jason makes a face like he’s wishing for both you and Eddie’s violent deaths.

“Geez”, Eddie comments, “he looks pissed.”

“Um, yeah, probably because I punched him in the face”, you mutter.

Eddie’s eyes widen in obvious surprise.

“He had it coming”, you add, “he was being a Dick.”

You know you don’t have to defend yourself to Eddie. He knows better than anyone how nasty Jason can be.

“My, my, Fair Lady Henderson”, he smiles, “I dare say that was very Metal of you.”

“Yeah, well, Higgins didn’t think so”, you reply, “I got two weeks detention for it.”

“Ol’ Higgins never did have a sense of humor”, Eddie says, “but from where I’m standing, you’re basically a hero.”

“Really?”

“Hell yeah”, Eddie tells you, “Jason and his goons have been making our lives miserable for years.”

You can’t help but smile at that. You’re definitely not happy with the day’s events, but knowing Eddie’s on your side makes it a little more bearable.

-

On Monday you begrudgingly make your way to Mrs. Cline’s room for your first day of detention.

“Ms. Henderson?” she asks when you walk in.

“Yeah”, you say, a little embarrassed.

“Wonderful”, she says, checking your name off of a list in front of her, “please take a seat.”

There’s only two other people in there with you, so you just pick a seat as far from them as possible and sit down.

“Alright”, Mrs. Cline says, “looks like everyone’s here except…”

“I’m here.”

You look up in surprise to see Eddie come walking into the room.

“Ah, yes, Mr. Munson”, Mrs. Cline says dryly, “what a surprise. Please take a seat.”

You know that Eddie isn’t a stranger to detention, but it’s weird that he didn’t mention anything to you when you’d told him about it. He walks over to the desk next to yours, looking way too pleased for someone who’s about to serve a stint in detention.

“What are you doing here?” you ask.

“Oh, you know, got caught vandalizing the boy’s locker room during free period”, he tells you.

“What? When?”

“Friday”, he says with a satisfied smirk.

You frown. This must’ve happened after the whole Jason thing on Friday which means…

Which means Eddie did it knowing that you were also going to be in detention.

“Eddie”, you say, “did you get detention just because I did?”

“I couldn’t let you have all the fun, could I?” he grins.

You can’t help but smile along with him.

“Mr. Munson, Ms. Henderson”, Mrs. Cline calls from her desk, “no talking during detention.”

Eddie mimes zipping his lips and waits until Mrs. Cline looks away before giving you a playful wink. You stifle a giggle.

You don’t know Jason all that well, but you’re pretty sure he would never dream of landing himself in detention just to keep his girlfriend company. You’ve never seen him make a scene in the middle of the hallways to get her to smile. That’s the thing about this that really gets under your skin. Jason and the others don’t know shit. They think that just because Eddie doesn’t fall into their narrow definition of “acceptable”, he must be scary and dangerous. They think that just because you’re not afraid of him, you must be dirty and corrupted. They’re too close-minded to look closer and see that Eddie is the sweetest boyfriend you could ever imagine, that you spend time with him because he makes you happy. They’d rather write him off as a freak and you off as a slut than accept that maybe their perception is wrong.

You’re far from being a violent person, but you can’t say you regret what you did. Jason deserved to be put in his place, and it’s not like you did any serious damage to him anyway. You’re glad you stood up for yourself, for Eddie. You’ve probably tacked “psycho bitch” onto your already unflattering “whore” reputation, but at this point, you’re not sure you care. If being a freak means you get to spend your days with the love of your life, you will gladly accept that label.

-

After the designated two hours are up, Mrs. Cline dismisses you all.

“Well, that wasn’t so bad”, you say as you and Eddie start making your way through the hall.

“Nah”, he replies, “I mean it’s boring but it’s not bad.”

“Don’t get me wrong, I’m definitely not planning on having to do this again”, you continue, “but it’s bearable.”

Eddie nods.

“I’m sorry, by the way”, he adds.

“For what?”

“Jason and the others. They’ve been giving you a hard time, right?”

“Yeah”, you shrug, “it is what it is. Not your fault.”

“I mean it kind of is”, Eddie replies, “they’re only doing it because you’re dating me.”

“Eddie”, you say, “Jason’s an asshole, okay? That’s not on you. If he can’t handle our relationship, then fuck him.”

That gets a grin out of Eddie.

“You know, you’re getting to be quite a rabble rouser, Henderson”, he jokes.

“I’m learning from the best”, you tease back.

Eddie’s smile widens. He follows you out to your car and then presses a soft kiss to your lips.

“See you tomorrow, Sweetheart”, he says and then heads off to his van. You watch him go, butterflies still lingering in your tummy from the contact.

If you’d actually had any doubts about Eddie, they would’ve disappeared in that moment. That feeling, it’s a one of a kind thing. No one’s ever managed to give it to you before, and you’re not sure anyone else ever will. You love Eddie. He loves you. He’s sweet, and silly and he treats you right. If your peers want to believe a bunch of bullshit about you two, then let them. You know what you have, and you’re not going to let them ruin it for you.

Grinning to yourself, you hop in your car, put the Black Sabbath tape you borrowed from Eddie into the player and head home.

[bitchsister]

the curt x bucky x gale spanking drabble was amazing but now i’m thinking of curt being spanked with his plug in 😅

Curt’s voice was getting louder, his already reddened cheeks growing pinker as his frustration settled deeper into his belly that growled.

“Curt, watch it.” Gale warned, sucking his teeth as he shook his head. “Why don’t you get a snack, hm?” He watched as Bucky pulled his hand away from Curt’s thigh, his eyes rolled as he rubbed his temples. “We’ll be ready for dinner sooner, if you let us finish.”

This is before Curt manages his “outbursts” better with Gale help. I’m also shortening these a smidge, so I can write more, faster!!!! And share more of these with you, without so much of a wait 🫶🏼🩷

This ask was also paired up with this one, since Galey is a little more comfortable! I got a couple requests after this one too for more dommy Gale, so enjoy!

This is a LCAU drabble 🩷

There wasn’t so much a tension as there was a race to the finish line. Gale was stressing, and so was Bucky. Curt, of course, was focused on anything other than his paper due at midnight. “I want — mm,” Curt splayed his palms over the desk, his back arched as he leaned himself into it. “I want Italian, I think.”

“You got the session claims over there?” Bucky looked over at Gale, his hand slowly reaching over to pat Curt’s knee and hopefully keep him at bay, but everyone in that very room knew good and well they had very little time left ticking before he became insufferable.

“Yeah. Got ‘em.”

The sound of pages flipping filled the room, and the fountain trickling from the open window leading out to the garden where Curt had been spending most of his day, writing his paper on his laptop with sunglasses perched over his freckled nose, his bare ass begging to be looked at, even if by a neighbor.

“You ‘member that mushroom pasta? The one from—“

“Curt,” Gale spoke, unable to focus on the color coded and alphabetized tabs separating each section of Bucky’s case file. The stress of the days nearing closer and closer had been hammering him down, too. Not to mention, this could be their last partnered case for quite awhile — he was taking advantage of working with Bucky and picking his brain for as long as he possibly could. “We don’t have time to talk about dinner just yet.”

“You’ve got a paper due.” Bucky patted his knee again, turning his watch toward Curt who shoved it away with a scrunched nose.

“He’ll extend it for me.” He flashed a grin. “M’his favorite.”

Bucky glanced at Gale, and Gale back at him.

“Like the time I did a whole bunch’a acid and forgot I had a presentation due the next morning.” Curt hopped up on the desk, his lip caught between his teeth when he landed right on the plug that nestled itself perfectly into him. His first and favorite — no app included, no pulsating or vibrating. Just a pretty blue, like your eyes, Bucky had once told him.

“Didn’t know you were skating by, Curt.” Gale tilted his head and Bucky chimed in, “Here I thought you were doing the work all on your own.”

“Oh, come on.” Curt rolled his eyes, “You know I ain’t skating by. My eye is twitchin’. I’m stressed just as much as the two of you.”

Bucky’s own eye twitched at that, “Didn’t know batting your lashes and asking for an extension was the same as working a high profile murder case.” In that moment, he was rudely reminded that he’d be on television again. “That the whole world is criticizing.”

“Ah, how hard it must be to have a nation call you the Courtroom Casanova, for god fuckin’ sake.” Curt recalled all the tweets he’d seen from the girls all over the world absolutely fawning over the man he knew the taste of, knew the smell of, the way his tongue felt on his neck.

He knew the sounds he made in his sleep, and his favorite type of toothpaste.

He knew what made his cock hard, what made his mouth water.

I’m just gonna say Bucky is Daddy material. #CourtroomCasanova

I’d let Mr. Egan yell in my face about how I’m guilty for hours and still say thank u. #CourtroomCasanova

I’m fucking droooooling. How am I supposed to listen to the evidence when he looks like THAT? #CourtroomCasanova

#CourtroomCasanova trended nationwide for a week straight.

“Do you think that diminishes the work I’ve put in?”

“Well, do ya think one extension diminishes all of mine?”

Curt’s voice was getting louder, his already reddened cheeks growing pinker as his frustration settled deeper into his belly that growled.

“Curt, watch it.” Gale warned, sucking his teeth as he shook his head. “Why don’t you get a snack, hm?” He watched as Bucky pulled his hand away from Curt’s thigh, his eyes rolled as he rubbed his temples. “We’ll be ready for dinner sooner, if you let us finish.”

Curtis stood and threw his arms up, clearly not willing to back down from whatever this was. “You both been sayin’ that for three hours now — since fuckin’ lunch! Don’t you people get hungry?”

“Not as hungry as growing boys.” Gale teased, and it only made Curt angrier.

“I’m full-grown.” A retort that hardly sounded sure, but even despite Gale saying it, he knew as much was the truth. Curt was well beyond his growth spurt days, but it felt like the right time to remind him of his stature. Small. Throwing a fit. Acting like a child. “Goin’ for physicalities is a cop out. And below the belt. Ain’t they teach you that in whatever school you went to?”

“How about your grammar, then?”

“Fuck you.” Curt turned to storm off but Gale quickly caught him by the wrist from where he sat, his neck craned slightly to take him in head to toe.

Curt had since dressed himself since his lounging in the garden, his ankle socks crisp white with bloodstains around the tops from skinning his knees while skating, his shirt a borrowed Fleetwood Mac tee that hung to his mid thighs, a relic from Bucky’s time in college — it hung so low, it was impossible to tell if he’d even bothered to put a pair of shorts on or not.

One of Gale’s brows had risen, “What was that?”

“I said fuck. You.”

He stood then, grabbing both of Curt’s wrists and holding them with a now-practiced precision behind his back with one hand, hips shoved into his backside to force his chest onto the desk. “Well, maybe we’ll talk about that foul mouth of yours, then.”

The tshirt had ridden up just slightly in that position, risen just above the curve of his ass and revealing a pair of Adidas shorts that he’d most certainly stolen from a drunken sleepover with one of his girlfriends on campus, the particular cut of them riding too far up on his thighs to be anything else.

“What about it?”

Curt certainly had not been expecting for Gale to be the one to rise from his seat, but it had come as a pleasant surprise, one Curt would later shower him with praise for.

His shorts were shucked down to his ankles, shirt pushed to the middle of his back to reveal a pair of spread thighs and a beautifuly plump ass, a little blue plug nestled between its cheeks visible once he parted his feet far enough. “You always got something in there, don’t you?”

Bucky had found himself entranced, glancing up from his phone that he answered emails on every so often to catch a glimpse of his boys, learning to play all on their own.

“Gotta, since the two of you hardly look my fuckin’ way.”

A loud crack reverberated through the room, the sound bouncing off of the bookshelves filled to the brim with literature shared by the three of them — Navigating the Therapeutic Alliance, Landmark Cases in Constitutional Law, and Hypersonic Aerodynamics: Pushing the Boundaries of Flight.

“Now, you know that’s a lie if you’ve ever told one.”

Curt had risen on his tiptoes, his back arched at the bottom of his spine. “Mm, no.” His eyes had turned into the ones he would wear whenever he was getting what he wanted — soft little slits. So feline. So serpentine.

He looked right at Bucky with them. “I ain’t ever told a lie.”

And his fangs were sunk right into him.

Gale’s thumb pressed against the baby blue plug nestled between his cheeks, begging for attention but so natural in its spot there where Curt hardly ever walked around without anything stuffing him up, whether it be his own fingers or something Gale or Bucky bought for him.

Slowly, Gale’s lips parted to dribble a trail of saliva on the sweet, pink little path beneath it, the spot right below the plug and just above his balls, so tight and tan, sprinkled deliciously with soft hues of pink and red.

“And that makes you a liar.”

Again, the sound echoed from the opposite cheek, it’s redness quickly mirroring the other while Curtis moaned softly against the sturdy oak beneath him, not even a creak heard beneath his weight.

With curious eyes and an even more inquisitive touch, Gale found himself spreading Curt to get a good look, watching as he showed off and tightened himself around the plug that wiggled each time he did.

Even with his hands still grasped securely behind his back, Curtis found a way to fuck himself.

It was, at times, astonishingly impressive

[pokemon-dungeon-masters]

Progress Update!

I know it’s been a while since I posted an update on here so here’s just a big update dump!

Last time I really talked on here, I was about to run a few beta test sessions. Which did happen but too much happened during the two sessions and I ultimately had to cancel the rest. Which was a bummer but its ok! I got a lot of good data on what did and did not work. So I took a few weeks as a break and got back to work. Most of said work has been reworking the Move dex to be clearer and more consistent. Which brings me to…

The Move Dex is now at version 6!

@bdigfreakingwooper and I, as well as a few others from the discord server, have gone through the entire move dex (again) and its hopefully in the last stages of development! Combat still needs overhauled somewhat so the move dex might need to be updated again afterwards but other than that, I don’t foresee any other big issues so I’m happy with where its at.

It now includes all moves (excluding z-moves & dynamax/ gigantamax moves), a few custom moves (still being added to), Key words, and move range descriptions/examples. I will be posting it here in the near future, once combat has been reworked and a few more custom moves have been added. Here’s a few notable moves that I just want to show off:

I’m sure parts of this won’t make much sense yet so if there’s anything you’re curious about, let me know!

Current Focus

What we’re currently working on is creating an Ability dex, with every ability being adapted to this system. We’ve started work on it and it hopefully won’t take nearly as long as the Move dex to finish (or finished enough). Other than a few annoying ones (looking at Transform) its not too bad! My personal favorite so far is Ball Fetch, the signature ability of Yamper, which in this system has a D6 Chance to regain an Orb after a party member uses it, if User has free pouch slot. Just the thought of little Yamper running to retrieve Orbs is so cute I couldn’t help myself lol.

As for what comes after the Ability dex, I have an ever growing To-Do list that’s slowly being worked through, starting with overhauling the combat system. Then there’s going through all the status effects, weather, terrain, items, Dojo effects, and a bunch of other stuff. Once that’s done I’ll be going back to working on the Player’s Guide, which will be a simple introductory guide to the system, character creation, and a few other important things. After that? No clue. We’ll see what happens!

Other Stuff

The server has reached over 30 members! Its been an absolute blast to hang out in with everyone. I definitely wouldn’t have gotten as much work as I have without those in the server, most notably Nines (@bdigfreakingwooper) who is now the Co-Creator of PDM! She has done a lot work independently as well, like creating a version of the character sheet that automatically fills in stuff like move information and a treasure bag sheet that does the same with items! Its absolutely insane, biggest thanks to her for being here through so much of the development.

Also about the server, I’ve been streaming a playthrough of Explorers of Sky, following the adventures of Team Soy Bois, and it’s been a huge blast. A few of us have even been doing voices for all the characters and some others enjoy just joining muted and chiming in using the text chat. We also have been doing movie nights, going through all the Pokémon movies, which has been on hiatus but will be starting back up next week! Its overall a very chill place and I would encourage anyone following the blog to consider checking it out!

As always, I appreciate the support and interactions from everyone and I will try my best to update more regularly! If you have any questions or comments or anything, my asks and DMs are open!

[ssahopelessly]

Fluorescent Feelings

Sequel to Crystal Clear

Synopsis: When reader wakes up, Spencer feels like the luckiest guy alive. This is the story of the hours after, and maybe a glimpse into their forever.

A/N: I guess I’m in my “this was supposed to be shorter” era but here you are. This is the Part II piece to Crystal Clear. Where that one is more angsty, this is hopefully more fluffy for you guys. I hadn’t originally planned a part II but there was always room for it. Enjoy!

Warnings: hospitals, questions about the accident, Spencer lying (for good reason), couple dynamics, mentions of the cost of the job (profiling), talks of losing a loved one, medical staff, eating, workplace gossip, walks in the park {let me know any I missed}

Word Count: 5k

Masterlist / Crystal Clear

Spencer had been in hospital rooms before. It was more than familiar in his line of work. But they were rarely the room of a team member. Or worse, they were even more rarely the room of (Y/N). But hospital rooms were still hospital rooms. They were almost always overly white, overly sanitised, and almost sometimes too bright for Spencer’s preference. When he entered her room though, none of that mattered. All that mattered in the moment was the fact that despite what his most recent memories were, her eyes were once again staring back at him. A small smile formed to her lips as he found his spot next to her bedside.

“Hi.”

“Hi.” A small smile was starting to push at the corners of her lips, but she didn’t have the energy to sustain it. Maybe that was why her voice was also in a whisper.

“Do you know who you are?” A small nod of her head. “Do you know who I am?”

“You’re Spencer Reid.” Even in her low whisper, he loved the way his name sounded as it rolled from her lips. This time he loved it even more, because the fact that she knew it, that she could say it, was just proof that she was alive.

“Do you know what’s happened to you?” Eyes averting his stare now, she nodded her head with a focus toward her feet but concentration in the distance. “We don’t have to talk about it now. Okay? You need to rest.” With slight hesitation, he reached his hand towards her. Slowly, she rotated her wrist for him, holding an open hand toward him. Their fingers slipped into place with the other, and while it was meant to be the one normal moment, Spencer again noticed how cold she was. Maybe it was the cold air of the hospital, but the lacking warmth of her hand reminded him ever presently why they were here. Looking back up to her face, her eyes had slipped closed. Standing from his seat, he leaned over her, placing a kiss to her forehead. Running a hand over her hair, her eyes opened once more, staring up at him. The smile returned as her vision focused on him. “I’m going to go update the team. Let them know you’re okay.” She gently nodded, closing her eyes once more in a content fashion. “We’ll be back in the morning. Okay?”

“Stay with me?” She said it all at once in an exhale.

“What?”

“Spencer, please?” He wouldn’t make her beg. It was a simple request, and who was he to deny her of that? They would surely let him stay right? And if they didn’t, surely he could think of some technicality.

“Okay. I’ll be right back then. But you should sleep if you need to.”

“I’ll wait for you.” Spencer pressed one more kiss to her forehead, pulling back to see she had closed her eyes again. It all caused him to smile. Because he had gotten her back. She was frail but she was alive. That’s all that mattered in the moment.

“I love you.”

“I love you too.” He had to leave her side before his heart combusted. Spencer was getting what he wanted, but the road of recovery was still in front of them.

When he re-entered the waiting area, Emily was out of her seat, crossing to him. “How is she?” Her hands were holding the other and if he looked closely, he would notice how she had been picking at her cuticles again.

“She’s awake.” A smile of fond admiration grew on his lips as he met her eyes. “She’s tired and needs her rest, but she’s awake.” Hotch was soon walking up to them, a few layers of stress having lifted from his shoulders. Emily was beaming, relieved their friend was once again breathing and with them.

“That’s great!” She put her hand on his shoulder, wanting to pull him into a hug but also wanting to give him his space. “I’ll go tell the others.” As she walked away, Hotch moved to stand more in front of Spencer.

“I’m going to stay with her for the night.” Spencer finally verbalised. He could feel his low energy start to hit him, making him crave for a few hours the potential of sleeping.

“Okay. I’ll come by in the morning and we can look at paperwork then.”

“No, you have a case to close.” He also didn’t want paperwork already being thrown at her while she was just entering recovery. “I can watch her. I’ll talk to her doctor tomorrow and call you after.”

“Alright.” There was a smile lingering on his face as he looked at Spencer. “I’m really… happy for you, Spencer.”

“Happy?”

“Yeah. Happy you found her, happy this is a better ending for you both.” Spencer pressed his lips together in a smile, looking behind Hotch to see how the team reacted to the news Emily was just telling them. JJ was hugging onto Emily while Derek was holding Penelope under his arm, kissing the top of her head. He had never thought much about the word. If anything, ‘happy’ only brought with it thoughts of ‘unattainable’ but, maybe this is the exception. Maybe happiness was within his reach.

-

Spencer re entered her room at the end of the hall after saying bye to the team. It was already dark and several hours into the night as he started to get settled on the couch provided in her room, a singular lamp in the corner illuminating the space besides the light that flooded in from the hall. Derek had handed Spencer his messenger bag from the lobby before they left, having hope that the book he was reading before the events of the day was still inside. But just as he got settled, book in his hands, crisp pages of text under his fingers, there was a knock at the door frame. “Hello?” He called out to them, another nurse in scrubs entering the room.

“Hello sir. I do have to inform you that visitor hours are up for the evening.”

“Oh-“ he looked to her in the bed, then the Patient Communication Board towards the foot of her bed, in view of everyone in the room. He was looking to see if there was any indication that the medical staff knew she was an agent, seeing what he had to work with in making his excuse. But there wasn’t anything on the board that would signify she was an SSA, it was only her basic medical information. So this gave him a blank canvas to create his answer. “I’m SSA Dr. Reid. I work with (Y/N) in the FBI and it’s protocol that another agent stays with a hospitalised agent during an ongoing investigation.” He watched how her eyes squinted as she then checked the board, looking at him and a sleeping (Y/N) in bed, then back at him.

“Okay. Just… don’t be a problem for us, alright?”

With a nod of his head, he tried to suppress the laugh that was catching in his throat. “I’ll try my best.”

“I’m just checking her vitals and then I will be on my way.” Spencer tried to return to reading his book while she did that. But he watched as she picked up an in room tablet, logging into their database and started entering the values she found on the monitors at her bedside. After several minutes, she locked the device, putting it back on the wall where it was before. “Everything looks good. I’ll see you in a few hours.” This time on her way out, Spencer heard the door click to a close in the door frame, silence falling over the room. Turning the page over in his book, he tried his best to stay as quiet as possible, wanting to allow her to rest at all costs.

“Spencer?” Looking up from the pages, he watched the only source it could’ve come from. “Spencer.” She continued to call out. Getting up from the sofa, he quickly placed his hand into hers, sitting at her bedside now.

“I’m right here.” A smile pulled at her lips as she relaxed into the bed. Slowly her eyes opened, looking him over before the smile affected the corner of her eyes.

“So… you’re lying to medical staff now?” Squeezing her hand, he brought his other hand up to envelope hers between his.

“You heard that?”

“I’m hoping God didn’t hear that. What would Hotch say?”

“I think he would understand.”

“No. Remember when Jordan lied to a victim’s family.”

“Technicalities.”

“What did Hotch say? When you left?”

“He wants to come by in the morning but I told him we’ll speak to your doctor then and call him after. But we won’t be able to keep the whole team away.”

“You’re right.” Her head dipped further into the pillow, fingers squeezing him just a bit tighter.

“But have any doctors come by at all?”

“Of course. They keep wanting to talk about my miracle but…” There was nothing to indicate she was pulling away from him. She was very much there, present and in front of him. But there in her eyes was a flash of something, and for once Spencer didn’t know how to read it. In the silence, he waited for her to finish her sentence but there was nothing that followed.

“What is it?” More silence. His eyes stayed focused on her, if not looking for a moment where his hands held hers and then back to her eyes.

“I just… I guess I don’t feel like a miracle.”

“What do you mean?”

“I heard them say something about warm and dead. As in, they couldn’t call time of death until my body was at the average human temperature and I had no pulse.” It was like his lungs were a balloon, his throat the opening in which air is pushed through to inflate. But this time, the opening had been twisted shut, a once involuntary muscle movement now requiring thought. “I don’t know what happened to me.”

“What do you remember?”

“I remember you, and I remember the dock. I remember gunshots. I remember the water and thinking ‘it’s just water. You can swim, you love to swim,’ and then I remember how cold it was, how heavy the kevlar felt. And then I remember you again.”

“Again?”

“I thought I would see my life flash in my mind but… all I could think about was the life with you I wouldn’t get.” Instinctively he reached a hand to her cheekbone, catching a tear on the back of his finger, brushing it into the bed linens.

“We already have a life.”

“Spencer, we have this life. But I want a life with you.” There was not a singular sentence Spencer could string together in the moment. They had spent many nights, sneaking into each other's hotel rooms while on cases, just to have a few hours together to take a break from the case they were on. And in those moments, the time away from the team, just the two of them, they would talk without thought. And often recently, what they would want from their lives outside of the BAU. Surprisingly, they were both keen to keep the other in the picture. The ideals of the future seemed to shift every time they had this conversation, but it was always them against the world. So he decided to speak without thinking this time because he had at least some concept of what he wanted to tell her.

“With this job, you become accustomed to almost accepting that you will lose the people you care about. It happens almost too often but, I thought I knew how I would react.” He was trying to catch the break in his voice before it became audible. “I- I never prepared myself to lose you.” The pain he had felt earlier in the day started to rise to the surface and this time, without her hand between his, he was almost certain it would take him down this time. But she was there, his anchor in every sense of the word, and he remembered what Hotch had said. He too was happy now, happy that this was the ending to this moment. “When we pulled you from the water… and-“ quickly looking at her eyes, Spencer tried to gauge if this was at all becoming too much for her. But her eyes stared back into his, intent to encourage him so he may continue. “And you didn’t have a pulse, I wanted to trade places with you.” There were tears now, present in both of their eyes, lining the bottom of her eyes as they moved down the sides of his face, his voice finally breaking. “I would’ve given them the breath in my lungs to bring you back. I mean- I tried. I tried mouth resuscitation but studies actually show that mouth resuscitation isn’t as vital as chest compressions are in times of medical emergencies and-“

“Spencer.” Her other hand that hadn’t been part of the original hold was now on top of his hand, the softest smile on her lips.

“Right. Sorry.” Breaking the eye contact, he swallowed down the rest of the explanation that had formed in his head, trying to find the train of thought carrying the words he wanted to say to her now. “I love you. And I was so afraid we wouldn’t get you back. But we did- I did. And for that you are a miracle. Please, don’t ever think otherwise.” Their heads drifted together, resting their foreheads against the other as they took in one another's presence. After everything that happened to them in the last 24 hours, Spencer and Aaron were right. This was the better ending. Considerably so, everything could only go up from here.

-

Spencer wasn’t sure what woke him up that morning. Maybe it was the nurse checking vitals again (to which he thought they seriously don’t have a way to remote check her vitals and if not, maybe this was something he could get Penelope to help him work on) or maybe it was the way left side of his neck hurt (he had never moved back to the couch which would’ve offered better cushioning and actually had a pillow and blanket on), or maybe… it was the smell of breakfast being served next to him. “Good morning Dr. Reid,” the original nurse from the waiting room yesterday greeted him. He was happy to see another familiar face and he made a mental note to send her a note later on, thanking her for being so patient with him during the time (Y/N) was in the O.R. “Her doctors ordered her breakfast to check the digestive tract and bowel movements, all things considered. Can I place an order for you?” Trying to blink the sleep from his eyes, he involuntarily stretched his legs in front of him, almost slipping out of the chair.

“Uhm, I’ll go to the cafeteria on my own later. Thank you though.”

“It’s no problem. Please let me know if there is anything I can get the two of you at any time at all.”

“Actually, have you heard when her doctor will be by?”

“She’s on the list of rounds to be completed later in the morning. I’ll see if I can find you a more precise time though.”

“Thank you again.” They shared one more quick smile before she dipped out into the hall. Looking at the tray set beside her bed, his interest was piqued by what they would’ve considered a better breakfast for her. Through the steam that had gathered along the plastic lid, he was not very surprised to see what looked like pancakes and scrambled eggs, paired with some fruit and a small bottle of milk.

“Breakfast?” She murmured out, trying to sit up with her elbows.

“Hey hey hey, stop. Let me lift the bed for you.” Blinking the sleep away, she then kept her eyes closed as Spencer pressed the button on the side of her bed that brought the top half of her bed up for her. He then pushed the dining tray over her bed, starting to remove the plastic ware from its sleeve. “But good morning to you too.”

“Good morning.” He should’ve known better as she immediately reached for the bottle of milk. With all the mornings spent together in consideration, Spencer knew she would often skip out on actual food in the morning. “Did you order this?”

“No. Your care team.” Fingers dancing along the rim of the plastic container holding the pancakes, he tried to ignore how with the smell of the pancakes, he was starting to grow hungry. “Given the accident, they want to make sure you can handle food properly.”

“Did you tell them I don’t like scrambled eggs?”

“If they had asked I would.” Setting the bottle on the tray, Spencer shook his head as he noticed she had finished nearly half of the milk by now. “Do you want me to cut your pancakes for you?”

“Why would you do that?”

“Because I didn’t know if you would want that or to eat them with your hands like you eat slices of bread.” Her lips twisted to the side as she stared down the flat circles, almost like she was biting her cheeks from the inside with her nose scrunched. “What is it?”

“If you cut them,” her eyes found his, eyebrows raised. Her pleading doe eyed look. “Will you feed them to me?” Head falling back, he laughed with her now.

“Let me call the neurologists.”

“Why?”

“Because you’re clearly delusional!” There was a certain blush rising to her cheeks now as her head lowered. “But yes, I would be happy to.” At the foot of the bed, her feet wiggled under the blankets, a sign she was happy to be getting her way. Laying back in the bed, she opened her mouth, giddy while she waited for the first serving of pancakes. “Only because I love you.” Feeding the fork into her mouth, her lips sealed around the plastic. He drew the prongs back, giving her space to chew. He wanted to roll his eyes, it was such a ridiculous thing. But he loved her. And seeing her this happy this early in the morning for something so simple made him almost nearly forget what had just happened to them. That was until his phone started ringing from his chair. Setting the fork on the pancake dish, he looked to the caller id. ‘Derek Morgan’ it read to him. “It’s Derek. Is it okay if I take this?”

“Please do. I don’t need the team conspiring about us.”

“They will anyway. That’s what they always do.” Her hand moved out from under the blankets, reaching for the fork. “Are you okay to serve yourself?”

“Yes Spencer. It’s not as much fun as getting you to do it but I can still do this.” He didn’t fight the smile of fondness that moved his lips. A hand on her shoulder, he placed a kiss to her head before going into the hall with his phone in hand.

“Hey Morgan.”

“Hey lover boy. What room is (Y/N)?”

“Why?” Looking at the watch on his left wrist, he tried to think of how much sleep Derek could’ve gotten last night if they didn’t leave until nearly midnight and it was now close to 7am. And Derek Morgan was not a morning person, by any means, ever.

“Because Hotch sent Penelope and I to check on you two while they start the closing paperwork.” Glancing over at the room number posted outside of her room, Spencer actually debated giving him the wrong room number. ‘212? Oh, I meant 454.’ “Hello?” Derek’s voice grabbed his attention once more.

“How far out are you?” If they were less than ten minutes, wrong room number method. More than ten minutes, correct room number.

There was a conversation in the background of the phone call before Derek’s voice rose back to the surface. “We’re parking.” Shit.

“She’s room 1816.” Spencer knew too well once Derek had entered the building, he would quickly see through his lies. The floors stopped at 7. So maybe he would misconstrue the number for the first floor. It would still give (Y/N) enough time to finish her breakfast.

“Okay. See you two in a bit.” ‘Yeah, a bit’ Spencer thought to himself. The line soon went silent and his steps back into her room more like strides.

“What did he want?”

“Hotch sent him and Penelope to check on us.” Under her stare, he noticed how her eyes squinted.

“And?” She asked, hoping he would elaborate further.

“And?”

“I know your tell.” She defended. Spencer had nearly forgotten how perceptive she was. “What else?”

“I told them the wrong room number.”

Her eyebrows raised again, this time just at the gull he has to lie to of all people Derek Morgan. “Spencer!”

“I wanted to make sure you were able to eat all of your breakfast!” The defense could’ve arguably been better but it was true. She was recovering and Spencer wanted to do everything in his power to ensure she was able to do so.

“Well I’m almost done anyway.” Motioning to her tray, he noticed how she had even started stacking some of the dishes inside the other. “Derek and Penelope? You realise you’re only fanning the fire!”

“What fire?”

“The gossip fire. You know those two are always gossiping back and forth.”

“Honestly, I don’t think I care.” He was sitting now, taking her hand back into his.

“What?”

“I- if they know about us… I don’t think I care anymore.” His body couldn’t help but relax into the chair, hoping time could pause and maybe they could get more sleep without the previous wake up call.

“What are you saying?” Her lower lip had found its way back into her mouth, staring at him through her lashes.

“I’m nearly tired of hiding what we are.” An exhale was released as goosebumps ran over her spine. “And besides, I think they know after yesterday.” She was quiet now, mouth twisted once again in the way it did when she was thinking.

“I don’t think you realise how much paperwork and protocol you’re going to get us into.” Squeezing his hand in a reassuring manner, the twisted lips were now replaced with a content smile, one of his favourite looks on her.

-

Derek and Penelope could only afford to visit for maybe an hour, Hotch calling them back to the local station so they could finish filling out their part of the paperwork. Spencer and (Y/N) made sure to keep their tender lingering touches and stares to a minimum, if only not to fan the flame as she had said earlier. By the time they left though, the doctor came by to speak with (Y/N) about her recovery and what to expect. It was the whole team of doctors, each a head of their own department that had stepped in to offer advice on her case, that she would be discharged sometime this afternoon into the early evening. Spencer held her hand the whole time that time, leaving the doctor confused if they were actually together or just really close coworkers. Before he could leave, they had asked about the possibility of being able to take her out in a wheelchair to the park on the side of the hospital, just so she could get some fresh air. Arrangements were made and with a monitor attached to the back of the wheelchair, she and Spencer were soon in the elevator traveling to the ground floor.

There were many things different in the last 24 hours, but they were things she was happy to see. The once cloudy sky was now a crystal clear blue. There was a gentle breeze in the air, rustling the branches of the trees as Spencer pushed her chair along the path they covered. For a hospital park there were more families than she expected, parents letting their kids run some energy off, kids who probably didn’t know the other chasing each other in games of tag. The air was laced with a certain musk that seemed to be coming from the mulch around them. “Why don’t we ever go on walks?” She finally asked out to Spencer, looking up at him from where she sat in front of him.

“Because I’m allergic to something in the air in the parks near my apartment, and you hate the park near your apartment.” It was such a matter of fact statement she didn’t even question it. Because it was true. Any time they had tried to walk the park near his apartment, they always came back to his apartment looking for a decongestant. And the few times they had tried to walk the park near her apartment, something set her off and they quickly made their way back to her place. “Also, we’re never home. By the time we can think of leaving our apartments, there’s a case.”

“We could go find a park though.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, somewhere where you won’t get all stuffy and a place that’s as tranquil as this is now.” His grip tightened on the handles that traveled up the back of her chair. He wanted so much to have these moments with her and now that he was finally getting them it felt almost unreal, like this park had been its own dream. Surely the park was a dreamscape. The way the light filtered through the trees and illuminated the ground below them defied some level of logic and science. And the families around them were almost too at ease for the tragedies that waited for them back inside the hospital walls. “Spencer, can you pull over to the bench up there.” Another dream element. The bench in reference was currently shrouded in sunlight, and for a moment he wanted to refuse, simply for just how hot it may be to sit in such direct sun exposure. But was Spencer ready to deny her request? Pulling her chair off to the side of the pavement, he parked it to the left so he could sit on her right. Her hand, which had no wires wrapping around it now, immediately held out for him to take once he was seated next to her. Holding onto each other, they settled into the peace of the moment, trying to forget the circumstances that brought them here.

“How are you feeling?” It was a low whisper, as if any louder may disturb the peaceful atmosphere and make the dream retreat in on itself. Looking over to her, he saw how her eyes were focused on the space ahead of her, sitting nearly as still as a statue. “(Y/N)?” With a shake of her head, she looked back over to him, smiling once more. A small hum carried out from her sealed lips but she squeezed his hand once again. “I asked, how are you feeling?” Her eyes fixated on a piece of the sidewalk near the other end of the bench, lips pursed in a way like she was thinking.

“Calm, at peace.” Their eyes met once more. “In love,” there was playfulness to her words, a smile pulling at the corners of her lips now.

“In love?” All she offered was a simple nod of her head as she squeezed his hand again, bringing their hold up to her lips to kiss the surface of his hand.

“I love you, Spencer Reid.”

“I love you (Y/N) (Y/L/N).” With a quick kiss to the others lips, she rested her head on his shoulder, staring at the serene scene in front of them.

“Thank you for finding me.” His body stiffened for a moment at the memory of yesterday. He hadn’t found her. Spencer had noticed she was missing but he didn’t find her.

“Wait, I didn’t-“ His mind was racing to correct the narrative, a perfect recall of yesterday’s events rising to the surface.

“You did. Not yesterday, but months ago.” He was mentally rolling through the collective memories in which she could’ve been referring to.

“What are you- what are you talking about?”

“I never told you, or anyone for that matter, but it was after one of the many cases where the team went out after.” That narrowed it down slightly in his mind. While he often went to those outings, he almost always was behind, sticking to the wall in those scenarios, mingling at a minimum with those who were not part of the team. “And… I just remember sitting there, wondering if that was all my life was turning into? Saving people at a cost to others and then returning home as we left tragedy behind in those towns. I almost quit that week.” This was the first time Spencer had heard any of this. But the more she revealed, the more he recognised when she had been referring to. “But you were there, checking on me. And somehow it all became bearable.”

“I don’t see how I could’ve made it any easier.”

“You were you. You somehow knew when I needed to talk and exactly how to help me. And the rest just happened from there.” There was a silence that found its way over them now, but they were still holding onto the other now.

“Thank you for telling me that.”

“Thank you for being there for me.” The calm feeling she had felt earlier was settling over them now. The last 24 hours had been a true test for the both of them, but this was the happier ending. It was brighter and calmer in every sense, and if this was how they got to continue on, it would be enough. Lost in their own moment, dreaming of forevers, hand in hand in a peaceful park.

Tell me what you think here!

[jenniferdiazisatransgirl]

Mental Health Update

So as my boost in activity the past day might suggest, I am starting to feel a lil better mental health wise.

Can’t remember if I went into it and the reasons why my mental health took such a downturn, but at the beginning of this month I had a falling out with a friend. Someone I considered a close friend. And like it hurt quite a bit, brought up a lot of insecurities and past traumas and I guess caused a lot of introspection. I mean the introspection definitely led to the realisation that I’m straight, lol.

The beginning of this month I had started to feel like I was like back at square one with my sense of community though. Which when I really look at it I’m not.

I have a roommate I get on with really well, I have my best friend @cryptidwrangler and like I am in the midst of starting a new career where I have the opportunity to build a new sense of community.

I was actually meant to go to the LGBT+ Staff Network’s drinking social on Friday, but sadly there were train strikes. Hopefully I can go next month instead. And maybe in time I can get over my shy nature and start attending other stuff.

Like I work at a university now and there is a lot going on and a lot you can get involved in. I’ll be honest, even though I’m now there as a member of staff, there is definitely this feeling of being back at university. Like there’s loads of staff networks and activities, activities that are for both staff and students, a HUGE gym - this gym puts the gym facilities at my former university to shame, a staff counselling service, loads of leisure facilities. It is kinda awesome and if I hadn’t been so depressed the past few weeks I would have probably been enjoying it more.

I’m kinda realising it has been like nearly 4 weeks since my mental health got bad. That’s not good.

I am starting to feel better though.

I should say work is taking up a lot of my energy though and I am using the weekends to replenish that. In time I should start getting a bit more balance like being able to work from home some days. For now I am working on campus every day of the week though. I’m leaving home at like 5:45am and not getting back till 6:30pm and that has been this past few weeks where I was in a department letting me work 8am to 4pm. Next week, I’m helping my manager till she can find another department to place me in and she wants me in 8:30am to 4:30pm. I plan to ask her depending on what I’m doing if I can do 8am to 4pm, as it is better for me getting home. But we’ll see. I might not be getting home til 7:30pm for the next few weeks though.

I kinda have a bit of a weird job right now though. I’m part of this training academy and we spend 3 weeks training and then we get put into these placements while our manager finds us a permanent role. I just did a placement in Student Funding and my manager has lined me up another placement while she finds me a permanent deployment. She has said that placement is going to take a few days to a few weeks to get the details hammered out though, so I’m just going to be helping her with some stuff while she gets that sorted, lol.

But this is kinda leading into an update on the blog. I don’t think I’m gonna have the energy to watch Season 2 of Marvel’s Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur right now. I do have the Thursday through till the Tuesday of Easter Weekend off though at the end of this month. So 6 days. I’m having my hair done on Good Friday and trying to possibly meet up with @cryptidwrangler, as I haven’t seen him since April.

During that 6 day break though, I will start watching through Season 2 of Marvel’s Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur and posting my thoughts though.

And in the meantime, I’ll likely be a bit more present giving my random thoughts on other stuff. But hey, if you want to spoil Moon Girl S2 for me feel free if there is anything you think I might find interesting ahead of time. I’ll try and post my thoughts with the very limited information I have right now, lol.

But anyway, I am feeling a bit better and should start being a bit more present 😊

[jujumin-translates]

Event | the Rad Red | Chapter 8

*Clapping*

Rento: Banger job!

Banri: That was a nice finishing touch.

Juza: This should be no problem for the real thing.

Azami: Yeah.

Taichi: Even though our rehearsals are good, I’m sure I’m still gonna be nervous once the audience gets here…

*Door opens*

Director: Pardon us.

Omi: Good work.

Sakyo: Already done with rehearsals?

Rento: You’re a second too late. You’ll have to wait until the show to hear the performance.

Director: Tsuzuru-kun said he wanted to use the performance as reference for the script, so he’ll be here for the show.

Rento: RadRe is some top-tier stuff, so I’m sure he’ll be able to use it for all it’s worth.

Juza: RadRe stands for…Rad Red, right?

Director: Taichi-kun, you’re the one who decided on the name for the band. Is there a reason for it?

Taichi: I took “Rad Red” from “Radical Red” which means like, “intense red”!

Taichi: I originally got the idea from my trademark red hair.

Taichi: I’ve been thinking about for a while now how long I can keep this red hair, and how if I stop having my red hair, I’ll give up something that’s important to me and become an adult…

Taichi: I kept thinking about it, and I realized that I have no clue what the future holds, but I know I don’t want to let go of my red, which is what’s important to me no~w.

Taichi: I’ve come to believe that I’m gonna wanna keep dying my hair bright red, no matter how old I get.

Taichi: I also thought that maybe it’s possible to become an adult by letting go of something, but…

Taichi: Since we’ve met, all of the older members have always been proud to say, “I don’t want to lose on stage”.

Taichi: That’s why I’m also holding onto my favorite color that I found during my teenage years within some da~rk memories!

Director: Not wanting to change the parts of you that are important to you… The lyrics and the band’s name are filled with that wish.

Omi: It’s a great name.

Taichi: Ehehe, I know I put a lot of my personal feelings into this, but…

Juza: It’s your song, Taichi, so you were free to put whatever you wanted into it.

Omi: I’m glad you were able to put that into words into something that can be left behind.

Azami: That reminds me, the other day Taichi-san said that the person he associates with being an adult the most is Shitty Sakyo…

Azami: And to think he’s the one who’s still dyeing his hair blond at this age.

Sakyo: Hah?

Taichi: Ahaha! So how long are you going to be keeping your hair blond, Sakyo-nii?

Sakyo: Haah… Fine, I’ll be a blond, old man until the day I die.

Taichi: Yeah! Then I’ll have my red hair even when I’m an old man too!

Taichi: I knew you were always the “adult” I wanted to be, Sakyo-nii!

· • —– ٠ ✤ ٠ —– • ·

Sakyo: …Almost time.

Director: Tsuzuru-kun isn’t here yet, so I hope he’s okay…

Audience Member A: I wonder if Banri-kun and the others will be doing more music-related stuff in the future.

Audience Member B: Seems like it’s only a one-time thing.

Audience Member A: Maybe it’s advertising for the next play~.

Omi: Looks like some Autumn Troupe fans came here too.

Director: Hopefully this will put Taichi-kun at ease more.

*Door opens*

Tsuzuru: Just in time!

Manager: Barely made it~!

Director: Ah, I’m glad you did!

Tsuzuru: Haah, haah… The train… Was a little late and I was wondering if we’d even make it in time…

Omi: Are you okay? Do you need to get a drink?

Tsuzuru: Ah, I got a drink ticket but… How do I use it?

Manager: This kinda system takes some getting used to~.

Director: --Ah, here they come.

Taichi: Hya! Now I’m nervous because there’s so many audience members!

Omi: He seems surprisingly relaxed.

Banri: Taichi, thought you were gonna introduce us.

Taichi: Ah! We’re the Rad Red!

Taichi: Usually, we’re theater actors, so we’ll be playing one song as the opening act and then getting off stage right after, but…

Taichi: We’ve been practicing this song with all our hearts and souls so, please enjoy!

Azami: Hope you enjoy it.

Juza: Yea.

Taichi: The song is an original composition, composed by Ban-chan, who’s standing next to me, arranged by the manager of our theater troupe, and with lyrics written by me for the first time in my life.

Taichi: The reason I wrote this song was to leave something big behind in my last year of being a teenager…

Taichi: I wrote this song in the hopes that when I listen to it as an adult, I’ll be able to vividly remember who I am now.

Taichi: I looked back on my teenage years, when I went through a lot of tough times, did a lot of things I shouldn’t have, and lost myself in tons of different ways to be able to write the lyrics.

Taichi: But even so, I put all my thoughts about the incredible bond with my friends and my identity into this so I don’t lose sight of them anymore!

Taichi: I wanna sing with Ban-chan, who is next to me right now. He’s one of my greatest supporters and my friend and also both the leader and rival of Autumn Troupe.

Taichi: So listen up! This is “Dawn of the Red”...!

*Dawn of the Red stars playing*

Director: !!

Director: (Wow, the sound is resonating through my whole body. I didn’t know live house music could sound like this.)

Director: (It’s like the power of a storm hitting a punching bag… This is what Autumn Troupe is all about…!)

Sakyo: It ain’t a bad song.

Omi: …I agree.

Tsuzuru: …

Manager: Yeah!

· • —– ٠ ✤ ٠ —– • ·

*Applause*

Taichi --.

Taichi: Thank you so much!

Taichi: We’re also performing during our play on Veludo Way, so definitely come to see it!

· • —– ٠ ✤ ٠ —– • ·

*Door opens*

Taichi: We’re back~!

Banri: ‘Sup.

Director: Welcome back. Did you have fun with the opening?

Taichi: It was super fun! Everyone loved the song!

Banri: There were people from the music industry and whatnot, and it was interesting to hear what they had to say.

Juza: The atmosphere was a lil’ different from the usual company-related openings.

Azami: Yeah, didn’t seem like it was ending anytime soon, so we just decided to head back.

Director: Good job, everyone.

Tsuzuru: Taichi, can I talk to you for a sec?

Taichi: ?

Tsuzuru: When I was watching you perform today, I got an idea for the Autumn Troupe script.

Tsuzuru: I wanna write a story about a band called “Rad Red” with that song at the end of it.

Taichi: Eh!?

Tsuzuru: I don’t want it to be just a success story, I want it to be a bitter coming-of-age story like what I felt from the song today.

Taichi: Uwaah, really!? That’s crazy that a script can be written from just a song…!

Tsuzuru: If you have any other requests, lemme know.

Taichi: Any other…? Hmm, well…

Taichi: I want the main character to be a guy who yearns for an intense red, but thinks it doesn’t suit him.

Taichi: I want it to be a story where he can finally sing that song with confidence at the end.

Tsuzuru: …Got it.

Tsuzuru: I feel like I’ve got the whole plot of the story figured out all at once. I’ll definitely make sure the story will be an important one for you, Taichi.

Taichi: Thank you so much!

[ ⇠ Previous Part ] • [ Next Part ⇢ ]

[beaufale]

Okay, three episodes in, I feel I really need to compile my thoughts on Willow 2022.

As a huge fan of the original, I was cautiously optimistic, and I feel a little let down. My problem now is most of the criticism are calling the show “woke propaganda” and is “forcing more LGBT characters” and blah blah blah. Which I heartily disagree with.

But on Tumblr, I’ve really only seen praises (which is great! If you love it I’m happy for you). So, no one is sharing my specific criticisms, which leaves me to vent like this. Spoilers below:

However, I’ll start with my own praises.

I am here for these two. I love Jade, love her strength emotionally and physically, love her ladyknight role and how she stands up to Kit within reason as she is socially below her (and I enjoy shows with stringent social classes, it fascinates me). It makes sense that, despite being her friend, she’d let the princess beat her in fights. No one wants to be the one to best royalty, there’d be so much stigma around it! And the ending of episode 3 got to me. I feel for her and I want her to succeed in everything she does.

And Boorman. A mysterious guy who acts like the comic relief. I love it. He’s interesting and fun and I want to know more about him. His weapon of choice is also great because of its difference to normal weapons in this setting, allowing for interesting choreography. I do wish his dialog didn’t feel so anachronistic, but that’s an issue I’ll go into later.

(Sorry for the bad screenshot, but hopefully you get what I mean)

The villains look awesome! The make-up and costumes are phenomenal and the sound design for them is creepy, the way the move and behave, I’m here for it. We don’t know much about them or their goals beyond the obvious, but that’s fine at this point, I’m just enjoying seeing them on screen.

(Again, sorry, my screenshots are not great)

Practical effects!!! This is the kind of charm and fun I was hoping for, love these gross little guys. Only wish there was more use of things like this. Fingers crossed for the next episodes.

I’m not even going to try and screenshot it, but I adored the Nelwyn village. The way it was designed and the glowing mushrooms, I just loved it. I wish it wasn’t undergrown because that’s such a strange stereotype to be fulfilling to me, but as I’m not a member of the little community, I don’t want to say much here as it’s not my place.

There’s also a shot of Jade’s blade in the rain with a great musical underscoring at the end-ish of the third episode that just looks so good. I would share a screen recording but I can barely screenshot, so just trust me or watch it for yourself if you want to see how good it is

There are also some costumes I love (and many I hate) but if I go into the costuming, I won’t have space to talk about anything else. I might make a post just about the costumes, we’ll see.

Onto my criticisms, starting with the show as its own thing with no ties to the original. I will do my absolute best not to nit-pick, because then we’d be here for hours.

Firstly, like many shows, its just so dark at times. This is a widespread issue, so I’m not blaming just this show. Still, it’s a bit annoying.

However, the most egregious thing to me is a part of the plot, which is hard to get over. Why, after having one child kidnapped, would Sorsha, the Queen, allow her only other heir to be the one to go with such a tiny retinue, including a knight-to-be, someone who has been imprisoned for who knows how long, a foreign prince with little to no battle skill, and only one trained knight who is very old?

She sends better equipped soldiers after Elora than her own son, which, fine, Elora is very important, but no one knows who Elora is, how would that look to her subjects? The Queen cares more about a kitchen worker than her own son. It’s ridiculous and a key part of the plot so I can’t overlook it. What happens if her daughter dies as well as her son? Not even looking at who she was in the original, what kind of mother, what kind of queen would do this?

Moreover, from what I understand Grayson was the foreign king’s only remaining heir as well. What is his goal sending his son off without soldiers of his own? I’m just floored by this narrative choice and it leaves a bad taste on everything that happens afterwards to me.

If they (Kit and Grayson) were sent with many soldiers under a united banner, that I could get behind. But there’s five of them intended to go. Why?

Moreover, I really disliked that we didn’t see Airk being taken ourselves. It’s probably budgetary, but its still disappointing. It also makes what Grayson said suspicious. I feel like we are supposed to believe him wholeheartedly, but the language of cinema is “if we don’t see it ourselves, don’t believe what we are told” thus, I’m left feeling torn.

On Grayson, I am hesitant to root for any sort of romance between him and Elora, because I’m sure he only cares about her being Elora. He paid little to no attention to her before the reveal accept to ask what she can cook (fair enough) but he immediately shows interest after which was off-putting to me. He acts a little like a fangirl, but I’m open to character evolution, so we’ll see how it goes.

Additionally, what is Elora’s plan? She still thinks she just Brunhild/Dove here, but she’s abandoned her horse, has a small bag of supplies and doesn’t actually know where she’s going. If she didn’t come across the others again, she’d have died very quickly. I get we are playing up the naïve chosen one trope, but if she’s supposed to be 20 according to the timeline, she’s getting too old to be this stupid. I think she’s sweet and brave but she’s characterised like a 14/15 year-old and it’s not endearing, its tedious.

Also, this part made me feel like I had lost my mind. Where are we? What is the setting? The time frame? Why are they wearing denim? And before any says “Well actually denim was invented in the 17th century…” Technically, yes, but not used like this, it wasn’t until the 19th century that it began to be fashioned like this, when the rest of the clothing feels vaguely 10th-12th century give or take a little. And clothing carries connotations. We see denim used this way and ask ourselves, why do they feel like they’ve wandered in from a western? What show am I watching? What is the coherency?

Now, I’ll discuss the criticisms I have in relation to the original.

The dialog is painfully modern and anachronistic in the tv series. I rewatched the movie just to make sure I wasn’t misremembering how everyone spoke, but it’s not. Yes, it can be goofy and a bit silly at times, but it’s retains a classic, charming feel. It doesn’t feel like the era it was made in (late 80s) has much influence over the dialog. And yet the tv show uses phrases like “kick some ass” and “Like hell!” drawing me right out. The music ending each episode definitely makes this worse.

Despite the Nelwyn village being fantastically made, where are all the Nelwyns? It was a thriving community but there are so few of them in the tv series, did two-thirds of the village die in the move underground? Maybe it seems like a nitpick, but it degrades the previous world building and makes the world seem so empty.

Kit has been boxed into the trope of the princess that doesn’t want to be a princess. Which should be fine enough, when tied to the original. Look at Sorsha. She was a very non-traditional princess and I’m sure she became a non-traditional queen too. And yet, it’s being handled very poorly. She’s not been given enough charming traits to balance her bratty behaviour, which I’m sure she’ll grow out of (royal exposed to the real-world style). But this could have been avoided two-fold. On one hand, keep everything the same, but give her some comedic moments that aren’t mean, and let her have gentle moments with more people than Jade. And maybe this will happen, but by episode 3, a lot of people will tap out. On the other hand, why couldn’t Kit be in training to be a general? It’s not out of place in this world, and it would have made more sense for her to be the one to go after her brother with her own band of soldiers under her command. The arranged marriage plot could still be used, and she could still oppose it, but she could state how it would get in the way of her military plans, etc., as well finding it unfair that her parents married for love while she doesn’t get to. I just feel they’ve start Kit in a shit place they didn’t need to and have made it hard to sympathise with her which is frustrating because I want to.

Sorsha is a bad mother. The scene in which Airk has stepped up and is trying to smooth things over with the foreign royalty and other nobility and Sorsha berates him for it, telling him he’s only good for flirting with girls is the most egregious example but as aforementioned, if she had of helped Kit find a comfortable role to fill maybe Kit wouldn't be so difficult. Not to mention leaving her children at the mercy of god knows what with so few soldiers, etc., but I’ve harped on that point enough. And then there’s Elora. But I’ll get into that in a bit. Maybe this is to be expected, her own mother was the WorstTM so her example isn’t great. But between her treatment of her children and her treatment of Willow in the flashback, Sorsha is a difficult character to like. All the work done to build her up in the original is painfully undercut.

There’s a lot to say about Willow himself, but I found someone already making a lot of good points about that which I’ll link here:

https://nelwynp.tumblr.com/post/703174979106242560/i-have-a-lot-of-feelings-about-the-new-willow 

(if you want me to remove this @nelwynp I will, just let me know)

I agree with a lot of it but I’m mainly focusing on the part they say about Willow himself. And the scene where he berates Grayson for knowing something about sorcery and the like by saying “Who’s the High Aldwin here?” was needlessly mean.

Everyone is so goddam mean to each other in this show. Yeah, Willow and Madmartigan started with an antagonistic relationship, but they had no reason to like each other for quite a while. Nearly everyone in our core group is there for the same reason, so why are they such a bitch to each other. I mean, Elora tells Boorman to shut up when he was siding with her. Why? Is it supposed to be funny?  He’s on your side girl! Why are you telling him to shut up?

Now to how Elora’s been handled. I already mention her above, but this is in relation to the original movie.

“A good king and queen will look after her”- Cherlindrea (Willow, 1988)

Yeah, but they sure as hell won’t raise her.

So after all that, they leave Elora to be raised by a scullery maid? After goddam everything? And Sorsha claims to care about her? She, like Grayson, only seems to care about what Elora is, not who she is as a person? I cannot believe Madmartigan would give her up to be raised by someone else (who wasn’t Willow at least). After rewatching the movie, seeing the interactions and easy love he had for her, combined with his want to be better than he was, it feels wrong. According to what I can put together of the timeline, Elora was 5 in the flashback according to imdb and already being raised by the scullery woman. Madmartigan had gone missing a few months prior I believe. So, the changeover happened while he was still around. Which, yeah, I’m mad about. I liked Kit’s theory so much better than the reality.

Hiding her away was a terrible idea, feels out of character and is a shitty, boring plot device, done to death, with no new spin on this so far. I hate this choice more than most things in this show, more so after rewatching the original. It feels like a betrayal.

This show lacks heart overall, and definitely doesn’t carry the charm of the original. I hope it’ll improve, I really do and I’m going to keep watching for now, but I’m not holding my breath.

[madamemedic]

Summer Camp of Love (Prologue)

(Hello, mind you, this is an AU, so the dates are not canonical apart from the age Jason died and how old Pamela was when she had Jason. However, these are important dates for this story and the characters' ages. BTW this was also so I could do everybody's ages. So I checked, and Jason could talk at 11. 13th May 1960 - Jason is born 13th July 1971 - Jason almost dies at 11; Pamela is 27 13th July 1984 - Jason starts his job at summer camp at 24; Pamela is 40 20th March 1944 - Pamela was born and had Jason at 16. You are implied to be just shy of a year younger than Jason. Other than that, enjoy. Also, TW: Parental abuse and slight mentions of bullying.)

4th July 1968

Being the daughter of the owners of Camp Crystal Lake was less fun than you would think. You were spending time with other kids only there because their parents didn't want them all Summer. It was exhausting; even when the other children were mean, you couldn't stand up for your self or it 'will drive away the business'. Your Father would claim. Whatever that meant. Not even your Mother allowed you the freedom to be you. 'It will look bad on us, and then we'll lose business and be poor, and then we'll be homeless, and we'll be ALLL your fault, so try not to embarrass us.'

Today was the 4th of July, and as good as the fireworks and food were, the other guests always ruined it for you. They were screaming because of the sugar rush and disobeyed the counsellors because of the exciting environment. However, you couldn't skip the event because, as your Father diligently put it, 'How would it look that OUR daughter doesn't show up? Why must you try to embarrass us all the time?'

So you showed up not to the celebration to see your Father on the stage, microphone in hand.

"Hello, my fellow Americans. Today, we all come together and celebrate the biggest event in America's history. Independence Day". The crowd in front of your Dad explodes into claps and cheers of 'hell yeahs' and 'your damn rights'.

"Please enjoy the fireworks, the food and the carnival games" Your Mother knew how to stir up a crowd. It was the same thing every year. Throw a massive party, promote sending your brats here and show off how much you love America.

"And remember, HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!" Both of your parents say into their mics. That was enough for you. Time to enjoy the event; hopefully, your parents won't drag you into convincing them to send their kids here because you enjoy spending time here.

The only thing you liked when they did this event was that you didn't have to pay for the food. Despite being an unofficial member of the camp counsellor team, you didn't even get pocket money, so this was a treat for you. One that was well deserved, in your opinion, at least.

Once you had your hands on your treats, you left to enjoy them in a random cabin. You did this because the people at the event were often rude and noisy. So you'd instead enjoy this time alone. Then, slinking into an empty cabin, you turned on the heating. It was pretty cold outside, even for Summer. Then, just as you were about to turn on the lights, you heard footsteps behind you.

"Who's there? The campsite is off limits to visitors." You heard more footsteps. This time you could tell where they were coming from, the large table.

The said large table had a large white tablecloth covering it, but you could still see somebody hiding under the table. So you knew that you would be in trouble if you left them and your parents found out that somebody wasn't spending their money.

Kneeling, you lifted the tablecloth to show a boy a little older than you; his hands covered his face. Who was this? Either way, he looked scared, so you crawled next to him and offered him some cotton candy.

"I'm sorry that I made you hide. It gets it can be loud, and you want somewhere to hide. I didn't want to be there either." You look over at the boy, his hands still covering his face or what he could cover. From what you could see, you could tell he had some deformities. "What's your name? Mine is (y/n)" Maybe this would make him feel at ease.

"Jason" This surprised you because you believed he wouldn't talk to you. After all, he was acting shy. But, wait for a second, Jason, as in Jason Voorhees. He was the son of one of the chefs in the camp. You had heard rumours that Jason was an ugly child and had a face only a Mother could love. You didn't pay attention to those anyway.

"I like your name, Jason. It sounds cool, like Jason from the Greek stories I read. Like Jason and the Golden Fleece." You could sense that Jason was calming down next to you.

"There's a hero called Jason?"

"Oh yeah, he's really cool. Like you, Jason" You faced him; his face was uncovered. Without blinking, you held a piece of cotton candy to him. Jason looked mildly shocked but took the cotton candy from you and started to eat it in small nibbles. You smile at Jason as you begin to also eat some cotton candy.

It was like this until you heard the door slam open and footsteps hurry around. Jason tensed up next to you.

"I'll tell them to go away, Jason and come back, OK?" Jason nodded slowly back at you. You gave him the rest of your cotton candy. You rose from under the table to find Pamela looking around the cabin, most likely looking for Jason. You didn't blame her; most kids who visited Crystal Camp bullied Jason.

"JASON, JASON, WHERE ARE YOU, BABY?"

"Miss Voorhees, Jason is under the table." Pamela stopped when she looked at you; the look of panic was replaced with annoyance.

Jason must have heard his Mother's voice and decided to come out from the table.

"JASON! There you are, baby; I was looking everywhere for you. You made Mama worried sick" Pamela placed gentle kisses all over Jason's face. A feeling of jealousy that Jason's Mother showed love to him, unlike your own.

"I'm sorry, Mamma, I only wanted to see the fireworks. I got scared and hid"

"If you wanted to see the fireworks, I would have taken you myself" Pamela's hands cupped Jason's face. Is this what parents did? Love their child? Comfort their child? That's different from what yours did. Not even when you were younger. They were cold and distant to you, but they loved each other. That even you could see.

"I'm sorry, Mama, but I made a friend; she gave me some sweets." They both turned to you. At least Jason looked happy, and Pamela calmed down. She was less annoyed but was now guarded.

"That's a good sweetie, but it's past your bedtime. You can play together tomorrow. Now say thank you and goodnight, Jason" Pamela takes Jason's hand.

"Thank you, and good night, new friend."

"Goodnight, Jason, maybe tomorrow we can hang out, and I can show you my books" Jason's eyes lit up as he looked up at his Mother. Pamela looked conflicted. Sure she wanted Jason to have friends, but at the same time, she tried to protect him from the mean kids.

"Fine, but at my cabin and bring no one else; goodnight (y/n)" Jason left with his Mother. True to your word, you came to Pamela's house alone and spent the whole day with Jason. Reading him the book, that was until you had to leave. Only after saying you would visit the next day. In fact, you and Jason spent almost every day together. Even Pamela was warming up to you being Jason's best friend. Everything was going so well. That was until that day that Jason almost died.

(Howdy. It's the end; please like and reblog; more content will come soon. Also, thanks again to Grammarly for helping me. Goodbye)

[elsternwick-rp]

New Arrivals + Updates! (03-19-23)

Good evening and hello, members or visitors of Elsternwick! So terribly sorry to keep you waiting with these updates, the mod team’s been busy working on various things, but first, let’s open with our new arrivals!

Please Note: If your muse isn’t on this list, don’t worry! We had to make a cut-off for this current run due to a surprising number of apps that took us off guard, we’ll add them to the list starting next week!

New Arrivals

The train has pulled into station, bringing with it many fresh new faces to Elsternwick, we hope you enjoy your stay here!

Satori Komeiji (Touhou Project) - Liv

Naib Subedar (Identity V Canon Divergent) - Leo (2)

 Karen Sanchez (Original Character) - Blue

Vanta Von Vonaccio (Original Character) - Jupiter

 Count Angelus Salvador (Hollow Knight Fan Character) - Sorrow

Curly Brace (Cave Story) - Kyle

Mizuki Date (AI: The Somnium Files) - Bee

Simon Jarrett (SOMA) - Box

 Winchester (Original Character) - Box

 Nero (Devil May Cry) - Carmine

 Suletta Mercury (Gundam: The Witch from Mercury) - Khaos

Miorine Rembrane (Gundam: The Witch from Mercury) - Bee

Zelgius (Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance/Radiant Dawn) - Lia

Dao Mei "Jane Doe" Cui (Cyberpunk 2020 FC) - Bibi

Gabriel (ULTRAKILL) - Xeno

Frederica Bernkastel (Umineko: When They Cry) - Kaname

Reserved

We also have a  few reserves, hopefully soon, we’ll be seeing them, and look forward to whatever plots you may do with them!

Reinhardt (Overwatch) - Pact

Cecil Harvey (Final Fantasy IV) - Eden

 V1 (ULTRAKILL) - Kira

Franziska Von Karma (Ace Attorney) - Mae

Zoe (Monster Prom) - Bee

 Dropped

Lastly, we have some drops, sad to see them go, but we hope you had a good time in Elsternwick while they were here!

Popoi (Secret of Mana) - Kyle

 Gwenpool (Marvel) - Bee

 Mash (Fate/Grand Order) - Bee

Jeanne D'arc Alter (Fate/Grand Order) - Bee

And that does it for character updates!

For this update, we’d like to announce that we have reworded our stance on “Characters from upcoming games”, as well as our spoiler window!

Before, it was that any character from a game that was “Unfinished” would have to wait until the game was finished for you to apply them, but upon further discussion with members, we concluded that this was a bit too much, so, now

You are allowed to apply characters from games that are in “Early Access” (As much as you could if a show’s season isn’t over!), so long as they have a characterization or plot that is set in stone and is unlikely to change! Basically, if the character has enough to work with, you’re good!

Though, if a character is mysterious with a backstory that is largely made up by headcanons or fan interpretation, we ask that you wait until there is much more to work with! (An example of this would be Kris and Ralsei from Deltarune, there’s quite a lot about them that we don’t know...)

And in the case of a character taking a shocking left turn, please look into updating them, or making them canon divergent! <:

And secondly, we would like to revise our stance on “Spoiler characters”, essentially, from now on, a month wait is enough for most characters that are considered spoilers (Minor to Moderate), after a month has passed since a game’s release or a spoiler episode, you should be good...

Unless they are considered a “Walking Spoiler”, a massive spoiler of a character that can change the flow of a story and who’s mere existence is a spoiler in itself. For that, you’ll likely be waiting 2 months or more, and the mod team will review if it’s ok for that character to be played, given how they may spoil something for people joining!

Over all, it’s much more of a case-by-case basis now, we may even shorten the wait time to apply characters from a new IP to two weeks! But, for now, we hope this results in many new and interesting characters joining us!

For other updates, we’re hoping to have posts up about some of the changes we’ve made to Elsternwick, including the Job System (Pretty simple!), an update to our wording on the ban list, and a few other fun surprises, and we hope you’ll look forward to reading about them!

We hope you have a lovely evening and look forward to seeing you again, wether you’re already in Elsternwick, or just visiting and thinking about joining!

[glapplebloom]

This Saturday we get to see the Real Version.

The Royal Rumble is my favorite Wrestling Event. 30 men and/or women compete to be the last person standing after all 30 have entered. A Kayfabe test of luck and skill. While the later you come in is normally the best, those who drew early saw victory. It even inspired me to make an OC Tournament style of it. So why exactly is the Royal Rumble an event I enjoy so much I recreated it in Sprite Comic Form?

1 - The Surprises

While the WWE have plenty of Roster Members, one of the fun moments is seeing who gets in. Will it be a returning Wrestler coming back from an injury? An old wrestler making a one night return? Someone from NXT (their Development Brand) making their Main Roster Debut? Will the Forbidden Door be open and we see a Champion from a different organization make a rare appearance? The surprises are endless until those final countdowns happen. Last year, while weak, saw Impact Knockouts Champion Mickie James make an appearance (and thank goodness with Hardcore Country and not her stalker theme). With Triple H back in control, who knows what kind of surprises we’ll get. I’m kind of hoping we’ll be going TO THE MOON!!!

2 - The Interactions

Sometimes things happen that prevent an interaction from happening. Those on the lower card may never get to interact with the higher. There are few people who will get the chance to share a Ring with Brock Lesnar after all. But with the Royal Rumble, those moments could happen. John Cena teaming up with Hornswoggle, Hulk Hogan and Mr. Perfect facing each other as equals. Keith Lee being impressive against Brock Lesnar. Reunions of old teams. Returns of old rivalries. Two wrestlers who use socks for their finishers clash with them together. That’s just fun.

3 - The Ironman

There’s usually one wrestler in an event that lasts a long time. Sometimes they’re the winners. Other times, they’re this close. But to be the Ironman, WWE wanted that person to stay in the ring the longest. Bret Hart, Ted DiBiase, Kane, even winners like Rey Mysterio, Rick Flair and Shawn Micheals are considered Ironmen of the Rumbles. Most of them are considered Legends in Wrestling, with Hall of Fame spots well earned or likely to be given to them. If they last a long time, they’re destined for great things.

4 - The Stories

While the Royal Rumble can see old rivalries return, some of the cool stuff is seeing the stories to come out of it. A memorable example is Shawn Micheals’ quest to face the Undertaker once more. At the time, he was a World Champion and didn’t want to face Shawn again at Wrestlemania. So for Shawn to get his shot, he entered the Rumble to get that shot. Sadly, Batista took his chance when he got eliminated. This later had Shawn interfere in Taker’s match on the next PPV to lose the title and the eventual Streak Vs Career Match. Seeing if you can figure out the stories that would lead to Wrestlemania is fun to see.

5 - Guessing who wins

And finally, the fun is figuring out who is going to win. Who would make the most sense to main event a Wrestlemania. With Roman Reigns, Charlotte Flair (somehow) and Bianca Belair as our World champs (and NXT being included in the possible choices), the fun is figuring out who is going to be our winners and face one of these champions? Seth Vs Roman at Wrestlemania? Maybe Cody if he returns? Will Becky Lynch win the Rumble again to face her old rivals? Is Shayna Baszler going to betray Ronda Rowsey and take out Flair? Or maybe bring it back to the NXT days and face Bianca. Maybe someone we didn’t expect. Maybe someone we do. The fun is figuring out and hopefully avoid having the audience boo when their choice wins.

The Royal Rumble is this Saturday. So if you have the PeacockTV, you can see this live. And maybe you’ll see me do another Sprite Royal Rumble.

[myavatarismoretrashthanyours]

Pax Asura’s first Guild Event!

Last night, Pax Asura hosted our very first guild event! The event itself was a hunting event where the participants had to kill a selected miniboss to collect a rare material. We then had Baltiboo story time in guild bar, and went to our beloved FoxMage’s house bar for an after party!

I thank all who participated in the event! It was a lot of fun and special shout-out to FoxMage for providing the prizes and suggesting we host an event. I hope to host more events like that too!

Who are we, Pax Asura?

We’re a medium sized active guild. Our players are mostly from the Eng and Int 1 channels, and the majority of our members are online in the evening (EST). For being around about a year, Pax Asura is no new guild, but we aren’t the biggest either. All our members try their best to help each other and are very kind people. I strive to find more players like us in hopes to expand the guild more. We plan to host more guild activities in the future, such as weekly guild maze runs and hide and seek games. Level does not matter to us, if your low leveled with little equipment, we’ll get you gear to start with and help you level. Anyone is welcome in Pax Asura!

Want to join us? Contact me! My discord is Baltiboo#6583 or you can direct message me through the blog too!

With all that being said, enjoy the rest of your day (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧

[violettelueur]

— JUJUTSU KAISEN EPISODE EIGHTEEN || SAGE

↳ featuring : basically everyone at this point from jujutsu kaisen

↳ warnings : mention of blood + mention of killing + EXTREME grammar issues

↳ form : story

↳ published : 10 april

↳ pronouns : she/her

↳ word count : 3.8k

↳ synopsis : within the jujutsu world, there were three famous clans to be aware of, the Kamo clan, Zenin clan and the Gojo clan. However, unknown to many sorcerers there was one last family that was known to be apart of the three, only for them to disappear after the golden era leading some to speculate that they had died in battle after the sealing of ryomen sukuna, but....

↳ previous episode : kyoto sister school exchange event - group battle 3

↳ next episode : black flash

↳ barista’s notes : let me admit, i did cringe a bit writing this episode for some reason ʕ´•ᴥ•`ʔ but also i have been getting a lot of asks in my inbox asking me if you can add me on genshin impact, and i am not opposed to that! just tell me in advance  ╲ʕ·ᴥ·　╲ʔ also volume one of komi can’t communicate came in today! also...the idea i have is coming in soon...so beware.....BUT thank you so much for being so patient with the series and hope you enjoy this special cup of classic black coffee ʕ•ᴥ•ʔﾉ♡

BEFORE READING, I NEED YOU TO BE AWARE OF THIS:

1. the whole story belongs to Gege Akutami and the credits go to them and them only.

2. the spell curses used belong to Tite Kubo due to them being the ‘Kidos’ being used on the manga and anime ‘Bleach’ - but none is mentioned in this chapter.

2.5. for the ‘cursed spells’/kidos (bleach) i will link this video here and tell you the time stamp to check out what i am intending to show - remember i add a few twist here and there by adding the katana to link with Y/N’s cursed technique : hopefully this video is slightly better...

Destructive Curse Spell Number Fifty-Four : Haien : 6:08-6:12 (but like it’s more emphasised to look like this : 1:55-2:05)

3. if you are confused on anything, please don’t hesitate to message me since i know this whole thing is so confusing.

“Where the hell is Fushiguro, right now?” you muttered under your breath as you swiftly ran around the extremely large building you were currently in right now after trying to run away from Kyoto student: Kamo Noritoshi, who seemed too adamant to catch you for some odd reason.

At this current moment in time, you were desperately trying to find your partner after instantly splitting up with him when you both had entered the building causing you to become concerned for the shikigami user since his opponent didn’t seem to be holding back. Even though in the back of your mind, this was your one and only opportunity to go and find the curse you needed to exorcise for your school team to win the first day of the Exchange Event, you knew that the second that Kamo could sense your curse energy leave the premises, he would turn away from his battle and chase you down leaving Fushiguro the role of trying to locate you - which was going to be difficult for him.

Digging into your skirt pocket, you quickly pulled out a fist that had a few pink petals that you had kept after you had used some of them to attack Kamo earlier before gradually transferring some of your cursed energy within them. Slowly, you processed to open your palm letting the same blush coloured petals begin to glide into the air allowing them to travel down the hall you were running through right now causing specks of your cursed energy to be located everywhere they moved to lead your opponents to be somewhat confused about where you really were right now.

                                              ꕥ

“Your team partner seemed to be the smart type,” Kamo mentioned as he turned his head to look behind him since he slowly began to sense the chaotic flow of cursed energy that was beginning to vastly surround the building right now as he was quickly struggling to locate the original source of the cursed energy that he needed to find, which was you.

“She’s always been the smart type, it’s quite scary in my opinion,” Fushiguro commented before raising his tonfas in a defensive position before taking the time given to him to try to locate where you were before giving up the second he tried once his discovered how immense your cursed energy was flowing in the building right now.

‘What the hell? How does she do that?’

Hastily, Fushiguro lunged himself forward as he attempted to attack Kamo leading his opponent to block his hit before suddenly retaliating, only for Fushiguro to defend himself quickly as well. However, it seemed as if both sorcerers were not going to give up as easily as a continuous row of attacks commenced between the two causing them to travel backwards and forwards along the hallway they were in right now.

Suddenly, there was a violent contact with the backs of their wrists leading Kamo to proceed to swiftly turn his body to the side of the opposition as he forcibly thrust his palm out towards the shikigami user causing Fushiguro to use his remaining tonfa to block his attack causing his weapon to snap in half as well as him being pushed back to the other side of the hallway where he first stood.

Staring down at the now tattered wooden weapon, Fushiguro casually threw it to the side leading Kamo to begin to spew out with what was currently running through his mind.

“Shikigami users who can fight this well in close combat are precious, you’ve improved. I’m happy,” Kamo expressed with an impressed tone, leading Fushiguro to unexpectedly cringe at the amount of time you had beaten him up during the past two months of training you both had together.

“What is this sense of fellowship you keep throwing out?” Fushiguro asked in an irritated tone since he wasn’t in the mood to converse about anything to do with the clans at this moment in time.

“I’m sympathising, someday you’ll be one of those supporting the major clans, well maybe the four major clans if the L/N remained after the Heian Era,” Kamo suggested, causing the erratic-haired sorcerer to look at the opposition with a deadpan expression painted on his face.

“Gojo doesn’t even support the clans even though she is in the Gojo clan,” Fushiguro reminded Kamo leading to the sorcerer in front of him to shift slightly as if the news to him was surprising at all since it seemed as if you and the strongest sorcerer was ‘close’ despite the joking tension between you both.

“I intend to kill Itadori Yuji,” Kamo suddenly announced, as if that was not known to everyone within the Tokyo team right now.

“On Principal Gakuganji’s orders? So why chase after Gojo?” Fushiguro questioned, as he was still perplexed on why the blood manipulation sorcerer would go after you if his main priority was to eliminate his friend and classmate.

“No, it’s my personal decision. As a member of the Kamo clan, one of the three major clans, I believe that’s the right call,” Kamo answered before going silent, as if he had something in mind currently before he began to voice his opinion once again, “you should be able to understand that, too,”.

“Sorry, but I really don’t get it at all”

Suddenly, Kamo unexpectedly left something lightly slice his cheek slightly causing him to turn to view what was behind him to notice that you were standing there with your armed raised up, leading him to turn back forward to discover your katana piercing the wall that was behind Fushiguro (who looked at you with widened eyes) as your teammate managed to move his head to the side in time before your weapon pierced him instead.

“Oh, I missed,” you commented as you noticed a hint of blood escaping from his small wound, before using your other hand to violently pull the invisible chain of your katana back like a boomerang leading Kamo to swiftly dodge the weapon this time, while being surprised on how you had managed to retrieve your sword back without moving an inch towards it.

“What do you mean? You, me and Fushiguro are the same,” Kamo then declared, causing you to give him an extremely offended look from behind before turning to the side as if to convey to the sorcerer that you weren’t going to listen to him anymore.

“No, we’re not,” Fushiguro replied with an annoyed as well as fed-up expression on his face, as he didn’t expect his opponent to say something as weird as he did right now.

‘He’s spouting some scary stuff all of a sudden...and couldn’t Gojo warn me about this little attack of hers?’

“We are,” Kamo responded, only for Fushiguro to retaliate back leading you to turn your head back to the conversation with a slightly vexed look since you didn’t want such a stupid discussion between two descendants of the three major clans to go on forever like this.

“We’re not, please save those discussions for Maki-san. I no longer have any connection with the Zenin clan,” Fushiguro informed his opponent causing Kamo to turn to you as if you would try to have an understanding of what he was trying to carry out.

“Remember, I don’t actually have any connections to the Gojo clan, I’m not related to them by blood and even if Gojo-sensei adopted me out of the blue,” you explained to Kamo while raising your hands up like you were surrendering when really you were trying to avoid any topic to do with the clans overall.

“Besides, I don’t believe I’m ‘right’. No, sorry. That’s not right, I don’t care if I’m right or wrong,” Fushiguro commented as he looked down towards his raised hand with a softened expression to which caused Kamo to turn back to the shikigami user.

“I just...have faith in my own good conscience, I save people according to my own conscience. If you would reject that, then...we’ll just have to curse each other,” Fushiguro suddenly declared, as a wave of cursed energy began to surround him causing you to sudden be on guard since you didn’t know what your classmate had prepared.

Unexpectedly, a shikigami frog appeared from the side causing you to prepare yourself in an attack stance in case Kamo decided to move towards you, to which he did turn to face you only for the same shikigami to dissolve into the shadow it had come from leading Kamo to open his eyes in shock at the common but smart strategy that the younger sorcerer had come up with.

“This one burns through cursed energy, so I can only use it by itself. I only recently tamed it,” Fushiguro explained before positioning his hands in front of him as he prepared the next shikigami that he was going to summon.

“Max elephant,” the shikigami user announced before the shadow below him began to merge into the shape of a pink elephant leading you to look at the animal with widened eyes as you didn’t expect such a large shikigami to appear right in front of you.

‘What the hell?’ you thought, as the elephant’s cheeks began to swell up while Kamo began to position himself into an attack position. However, it seemed the elephant was going to attack first as a suddenly sprouted out a massive wave of water that could fill up the ocean, causing you to yell out in shock before quickly deciding to stab your katana deeply into the ground to have something to hold on to as Kamo quickly swept into the mass of water leading to the wall behind to break.

“Maybe tell me when you are going to attack, you drag!” you yelled out to your classmate in anger as he rushed next to you causing your partner to look at you weirdly since you were kind of being hypocritical at this current moment in time.

“Just jump across to attack him while I use Nue to corner him!” Fushiguro stated to you in a serious tone, leading you to nod at him before launching yourself forward towards the sorcerer with your katana blade facing the opposite direction it was supposed to since you didn’t want to critically damage your opponent.

Behind you, Fushiguro interlocked his thumbs before fanning out the rest of his finger to represent wings as he swiftly summoned Nue into the battle leading the bird-like creature to strike him with lightning, paralysing Kamo for a second before he suddenly reached into his uniform to slowly reveal a bag of blood to which he then proceeded to throw the object in your direction, causing Nue to bump into you as if to move you away from the item as the blood bag quickly exploded causing the shikigami to be trapped within what seemed to be a rope of blood.

However, you could not let the sudden event faze you as you proceeded to place your foot to the side of the building you were pushed against before thrusting yourself downwards with extreme force to attack Kamo while Fushiguro dashed towards the same opponent to do the same thing.

“I can’t afford to lose!” Kamo screamed as he began to lung forward towards Fushiguro.

Suddenly, a large explosion destructively echoed behind you leading you to reach to the ground with one hand before riskily twisting the same hand to make your body spin before you quickly landed of your feet to the ground causing Fushiguro to look at you with a worried expression before all three of you peered up above to see a vast structure of what seemed to be wood, growing ever to rapidly in the air.

“What is this?” Kamo questioned in a panic before Fushiguro noticed someone running along the tiles rooftop from above.

“Inumaki-senpai?!” Fushguro yelled out in an alarmed tone causing you to look to the side to see your senior classmate running in what seemed to be incomplete adrenaline and fear.

“Run-away!” Inumaki spoke, causing his voice to ring out to everyone as they realised that it was his cursed technique that was occurring right now, causing your bodies to instantly run away from the mass destruction that was occurring right now.

                                              ꕥ

“Huh?” Utahime muttered as she stared at the how red flamed paper talisman while everyone in the room with her peered at them with the same surprised expression.

“The game’s over? And they all burned red?” Utahime questioned as the flames quickly extinguished themselves leading to a large volume of smoke remaining.

“That’s odd, my crows didn’t see anything,” MeiMei commented.

“I’d love to say Great Teacher Gojo’s students exorcised them all, but…” Gojo mentioned as he placed his hands together as if to tell everyone in the room that he was thinking of another solution that might have caused this issue as all the screens in front of them now became static.

“The charms will burn red for unregistered cursed energy,” Principal Yaga informed everyone.

“You think it’s an outsider? Some invader?” Utahime queried, as she turned to her colleague with a concerned expression on her face.

“Does this mean Tengen-sama’s barrier isn’t functioning?” MeiMei then asked, but it wasn’t answered as Principal Gakuganji made a comment. 

“Whether it’s an outsider or not, something unexpected is happening all the same,” he mentioned before wondering how this intruder was able to exorcise the semi-first-grade he had planted in order to assassinate Itadori Yuji.

“I’m going to Tengen-sama, Satoru and Principal Gakuganji, please protect the students. Mei, you stay here and identify the locations of the students, stay in constant contact with the other two,” Principal Yaga instructed everyone.

“Fully understood, I look forward to the bonus,” MeiMei mentioned, as she turned her head towards the sorcerer trying to convey that she was willing to follow his instruction with a price to pay.

“Come on, Gramps! Time for a walk! You just finished your lunch, didn’t you? I don’t want my daughter injured with you being slow!” Gojo stated in a light but playful tone as he clapped his hands twice to get the elder’s attention, leading the mentioned sorcerer to become silent and annoyed at the Six-Eye shaman.

“Let’s hurry!” Utahime mentioned as she was becoming worried about the time they were spending on talking in the room they were in rather than going out right now to help the students that were in trouble.

                                               ꕥ

Running forward, you couldn’t help but notice how the branch that was behind you was still extending leading you to quicken your pace as everyone turned to the right, only for the same branch to twist itself in the same directions causing you to come to the conclusion that it was either a skilled curse user or special-grade curse that was the cause of it.

‘Did the mole tell whoever is doing this the location of the event?’

Although, before you could come to another conclusion on who was the mole within the group of Kyoto students, you suddenly heard Fushiguro gasp leading you to snap out of your thinking daze to see a large number of branches breaking through the wooden door that was in front of you leading to a vast volume of debris to rushingly come towards you to which caused you to over your face, allowing the veil that was processing to drip down above you to engulf every student at this current moment in time.

Once the huge mass of debris cleared itself, you noticed the change in colour around you before you turned your head towards the mass of branches in front of you with what seemed to be a curse standing on top of its masterpiece as if to showcase its sudden appearance.

“Why is there a cursed spirit at Jujutsu Tech? Who does this veil belong to?” Kamo asked rapidly, as his head was tilted up to view the intruder in front of him.

“Probably the curse user working with the cursed spirit,” Fushiguro answered, as he too was looking at the curse in front of him leading Kamo to question his knowledge about the situation in hand, while Inumaki let out a cough, causing you to worry about his condition right now since you didn’t have a single clue on how much he had used his voice in the current situation.

“There are a few unregistered special-grade cursed spirits roaming around Japan right now, probably this one was the one that attacked Gojo-sensei before,” you informed the sorcerers in front of you as you slowly began to remember the silly little drawing your adoptive father had given you when you first met with the Kyoto side’s principal.

“Tuna with mayo,” Inumaki commented as he waved a hand to signal a phone leading Fushiguro to agree with his upperclassmen as he proceeded to pull out his phone to contact Gojo, while Kamo commented on how Fushiguro could understand his classmate at all since he was still perplexed on how the Toyko students could even convey with him as well.

‘Why does it only look at me…?’

Yet, it seems as if you weren’t concentrating on their little conversation as you kept an eye on the curse since it seemed to be staring at you for some odd reason, leading you to tightly grip the hilt of your katana, as you now shifted your eyes down to make sure your fellow sorcerers (who were in front of you right now) were safe for the time being.

“That doesn’t matter right now,” Fushiguro mentioned, as he placed his phone to his ear. “Maintain our distance and retreat to Gojo-sensei- '' Fushiguro then explained, but before he could finish his sentence, the curse swiftly moved behind Kamo before proceeding to break Fushiguro’s device from his hand.

“Don’t move!” Inumaki yelled out, leading to the curse freezing in its position before attacking Kamo, leading everyone to keep a distance away from the special-grade curse.

Suddenly, Kamo grabbed another bag of blood that he kept hidden within his uniform before letting it explode once again as he began to maintain control of the red substance. “Blood Manipulation: Slicing Exorcism!” Kamo yelled out before swinging the blood shaped shuriken towards your opponent, only for the curse to be left unscathed leaving the sorcerer to be surprised at the outcome.

Before the curse could even react, Nue suddenly appeared above you before flying downwards towards the special-grade curse with the same purple lightning you have gotten used to before Fushiguro suddenly swept in close to slash the curse with a sword he was hiding within his shadow like you had taught him to within the first week of training. However, it seemed that the katana’s dent that was made only healed as quickly as it appeared causing Fushiguro to tut in complete annoyance.

“.nerdlihc hsiloof, ti potS,”

“Stop it, foolish children,” the curse suddenly said, causing you to grab your head in surprise as you didn’t expect the curse that was in front of you right now to communicate to you at all since you didn’t have a clue on what it was saying but you somehow could understand it.

“I merely wish to protect this planet, that’s all,” the curse then explained, causing you to prepare your cursed energy to flow from your hand to your katana since you now knew that you needed to use your cursed technique to keep the others safe - yet you didn’t know how you could conceal the risk of being discovered.

“It’s a curse spouting nonsense! Don’t listen!” Kamo exclaimed intensely.

“This is on a whole different level than lower-grade cursed spirits,” Fushiguro then commented to Kamo as if it was obvious enough to everyone that was around that opponent at this current moment in time.

“The forests, the oceans, and the sky, all weep so vehemently that I can no longer stand it. It’s impossible to coexist with humans any longer. They know there are some humans who are kind to the planet, but how much does their affection even help?” the curse declared as it raised its head up to the sky as if it was speaking to a whole nation.

‘It somehow established its own language system...and somehow manages to communicate with us…’

“All they desire is time. This planet can shine blue once more, given a bit of time,” the curse spoke again before a sudden twist of branches appeared right behind the curse leading everyone that was in front of it to be on guard as the sudden impact that caused the ground to shake was evident enough on how dangerous this opponent was.

“Gojo Y/N...You can’t run, the veil is designed to keep you trapped within here...We need you for what is going to commence,” the curse suddenly declared causing you to look at it with wide eyes while all the boys turned to you with panicked expression painted on their faces since they were now concerned with your safety more right now than theirs.

‘I don’t know how long this curse spell will last, but I need to make sure it is enough to let everyone run before it can reach them’

“Is that so? Ah..what a drag,” you then asked, as you raised your katana up in the air with one hand as you gradually began to transfer a large amount of cursed energy within the blade. “You see, I began to notice that you seem to be a plant type of curse, I assume...something like wood right?” you rhetorically asked, before using your other hand to cover your mouth with the back of it to conceal the next few words that were going to come out of your mouth.

“Destructive Curse Spell number fifty-four: Haien,” you whispered before a sudden flame began to engulf the metal blade leading the boy to look at your weapon in astonishment at how wild the flames seemed to be due to the amount of cursed energy you had placed within the same blade. “So...why don’t you just burn to death them, would you?” you threatened in a low tone causing the boys to dash behind you before you swung your katana downwards to allow the flames to wildly and uncontrollably burst out in front of the special-grade curse leading to the building behind it to begin slowly extinguishing with the massive flames.

Turning around, you grabbed the fabric of Fushiguro’s and Inuamki’s uniforms (while yelling at Kamo to run) before using your strength as well as a hint of your cursed energy to violently push them forward away from the flames before running towards the same direction with them since this was the perfect opportunity to make a dash for it without any of the boys getting injured or harm in the process.

‘Whoever is responsible for the veil...is going to die..’

© violettelueur 2021 : written and published by violettelueur - do not steal or repost

[eponymous-rose]

Talks Machina Highlights - Critical Role C2E129 (March 16, 2021)

Tonight’s guests are Matt Mercer and Taliesin Jaffe!

Matt, on DMing Luc’s Revivify: “That was weird. It’s one thing when it happens because of player action and circumstances and the choices they make. When it’s entirely on me, unintentional, and just realizing different chess pieces you’ve set up, that’s rough.” It was especially rough since this was a child NPC related to a PC. “I was hoping somebody had a spell slot left.” He kept in mind that there are two clerics in the room and that they could resurrect the next day even if the Revivify went poorly. “A good chance, since it’s his first time. Okay, okay, okay, okay, I think we’ll be okay, we’ll see how this goes. It was really stressful in the moment! I did not set out to have that happen, but when I realized what was going to happen, I tried to see it through.” He wouldn’t have prevented a chance to bring him back. “There may have been an offshoot short-run series of games to find a way to bring him back. I would have found some way to correct the circumstance so the players could feel good about moving forward with the story and there was no undue punishment beyond their control.”

Taliesin on Cad’s response: “This is a big thing if you’re a cleric. It was very much coming in like an EMT. Everything should be fine... hopefully. Just focused in and got it done. The minute things started to go south it was like, okay, that’s the next problem.”

On Yeza’s feelings: “It is a very complicated situation. I think he, much like how Veth is trying to figure out what it is that she wants, I think he’s trying to help her find that while also figuring it out for himself. I think Yeza’s also noticing that because Veth’s the more active of the two of them she also takes the weight of the responsibility and the blame for things when they go wrong, unnecessarily. Especially when he himself acknowledges that he’s partially at fault for even dragging everyone in with the Conclave. As much as he’s appreciative for them coming back for him, there’s a lot of back and forth. He’s filled with a lot of regret, too, but he’s very much trying to convince Veth that it’s a burden that she doesn’t have to keep to herself, that they can share it and work through it together.” Matt mentions that, as an actor, he really loves exploring interactions between characters first and foremost. “Especially when you don’t know where it’s going to go.” He also praises Sam as a scene partner - “I really cherish that.”

How does Caduceus feel about Revivify and Speak with Dead? “Speak with Dead is an interesting middle ground, because he knows that it’s not actually speaking with the dead. It’s really just-- it’s almost medical, really. This is just reactivating a brain at a certain point. It’s practically just a muscle twitch at this point. That doesn’t really prod him in that direction. Revivify is interesting, because it had never really come up. At first I thought of it as bending the rules, but it’s not bending the rules. You knock over a plant, you replant it, you don’t stare at it and go ‘Well, that’s over.’ This is just doing the work. No, we can bring this thing back to health. This is all part of the circle of life, that sometimes we can save something. Especially given the stress that he’s put himself through over the past year of being with these people. He’s started to think of himself a bit as a battlefield medic, and triage is just part of the deal, and it’s completely acceptable.”

Did Trent really just want to talk? “Yeah, that circumstance, as it came together, Trent would never have arrived if there wasn’t an indication that there was some kind of infiltration or attack. Even beyond that, it was Jester breaking the concentration on her charm on that one guard when she created her duplicate.” The guards’ job is to inform a member of the Cerberus Assembly, and Trent lived the closest. “He didn’t know who it was, didn’t have any expectation necessarily. The minute he saw the illusion, he knew a powerful magic user was involved.” Seeing Caleb was an unexpected surprise. “I don’t think he wanted to throw down necessarily. He was more interested in figuring out exactly what the nature of this was.” Matt had multiple battlemaps that didn’t get used. “They managed to cleverly out-maneuver him in his surprise of seeing them.” The Nein rocketed up his priority list after that very quickly. Taliesin: “We’re so fucked.”

On Cad being “Uncle Caduceus” to Luc: “It’s the thing he misses most about home, is being a juvenile shit. It’s nice to be able to express that part of him again, as opposed to the serious, life-threatening, constant intensity. I’m very at home just being a little difficult.”

Cosplay of the Week: an amazing Beau! (_rumor_king, photography by kourtyardproductions on Instagram)

On Marion: “Like a lot of people in this whole narrative from the beginning, getting swept up in things larger than her and trying to adapt. This is a circumstance she’s avoided for a long time. She’s having a rough time in some ways, but simultaneously, she’s enduring. Like a mother would. She’s adapting, she’s making it work. Without much of a choice, you just kind of do the best you can and lean on the people around you to help you where they can. Luckily she has a daughter there. She’s probably surprising herself at how well she’s doing given the circumstances.” Matt talks about how weird it is to feel proud of character he’s created. “Of the many things Marion is incredible at, she’s a studier of the human condition. She’s seen and heard the stories of so many. That gives her a very special perspective. She can see elements of that fractured individual within Caleb, and knowing the good that he’s brought to his friends, and knowing he’s possibly saved her life from bad circumstances, she couldn’t not speak up. She very easily falls into that role of maternal comforter, because it’s one of the many things she’s really good at, she enjoys it, and she can see well when people need it.” He’s been enjoying having Marion along for this (despite the difficult circumstances) because he was always a little sad that they only got to see her for short periods of time.

On the Blooming Grove’s safety: “He’s afraid that it’s a premonition. He’s not pinned it down, but he’s happy to let his imagination wander. He at the very least feels like there’s a reason he’s having these thoughts, and that there’s a reason to go there. He’s a big believer that these things don’t just happen. He’s more likely to think that there’s a good reason to go versus a danger to go. He’s had a couple of ominous warnings lately, and he’s not used to them and not a fan. He’s more likely to read something like that as, there is something there waiting for you that you have to discover. There is something that is going to be helpful to you, even if it hurts.”

On Astrid: “While maybe not as readable in overall personality as Trent is, I still want to be careful to not discuss things that are still being discussed within the game and tossed around as possibilities. Astrid is another complicated character, as anyone would be who’s been through the life she has. I can’t say too much. I can say she’s definitely legitimately happy to see Bren/Caleb after all this time.” His reemergence definitely caught her off guard. “We’ll have to see where it goes from there.”

On Cad’s successful Divine Intervention: “He’s definitely hit the ‘on a mission from god’ stage. He’s been that way for the entire campaign of, this, this is what I’ve been waiting for. Even when it sucks a lot, it’s been nice that those things have popped up to remind him, no, no, you’re doing it right, everything’s good. Probably not going to survive the next week, but you’re doing good! Not quite 1 in a 100 chance, but I forget so often to make that roll, and it’s such a great roleplaying roll. I don’t know how at level 20 you could deal with the fact that you can do that every day.” 

On Zeenoth getting his comeuppance: the kidnapping was a concept Marisha brought up for Beau’s backstory, and Matt went with it even though it was opposed to the Cobalt Soul’s philosophy because he knew rooting it out would make for an interesting story. “I felt it was an important beat to bring to her, because it was something that she was wronged by. And to show that there are still some good people out there who are trying to make things right.” After the tentative peace, dealing with this became Dairon’s next focus. “I was glad we finally got to it. So many people don’t have the opportunity in their lives to get that sort of justice and vindication, so if I can bring elements of that justice into our world, even for our own hope, I’m going to do that. Especially for my wife’s character, especially for a character that deserves that.” Taliesin points out that if it had come too early, Beau wouldn’t have believed it.

Cad’s thoughts on the Tomb Taker betrayal? “He knew it was gonna come at some point. There was no way that was gonna last. He was hoping it was gonna last a little longer. He was really hoping they had a vested interest in getting them all the way to the end. Nope, this is apparently as far as we go, and he was not prepared for that.” He was expecting the potential for de-escalation. “Caduceus is the only character in there that doesn’t have a history with Lucien. I think he sees him a little more clearly than everybody else does. They’re all looking for this person that Clay, at least, is of the opinion that he’s just not there. This is a very manipulative, very dangerous infernal human. Just smarter than all of them. Really aware that there is no calculating what the hell is going to happen. Conversation is the only way you can deal with someone like that.”

Fan Art of the Week: An amazing Caleb closeup! (rynn_birb on Twitter)

Taliesin on Lucien: “I’m excited he’s the one that’s going to kill us all. Poetic that this is how the game ends.” Matt was delighted when Taliesin handed him carte blanche to do what he wanted with Molly’s past. “I was like ‘shit... oh, wait!’ The character of Lucien was always intended to be an antagonist so that it would have been Molly being chased by the person who wanted their body back. But then it happened that he got his body back.” Taliesin: “He’s so much worse than I ever hoped.”

Matt, on the Holy Avenger: “I hadn’t thought to initially even give that sword.” The good roll was the only reason Kima handed that over. “Well, sure, you get the sword. It was very reactionary, it wasn’t my intent originally. I was like, well, I mean, there’s two avenues she can take with this.” Multiclass into Paladin, or lean into the fact that her subclass is essentially a barbarian paladin. “This really works out in a uniquely beautiful way. Let me see if I can lay out a path for her to earn it.”

On Cad’s attempt at lying blowing up in his face: “He was like that kid that had a really bad day in high school and was like, you know what? I’m going to let loose. This is it. I’m gonna dye a streak in my hair. And then tries to give himself a haircut and ends up with half bangs. Well, okay, obviously I’m not that person. I was feeling a little distraught and I didn’t handle it well. Maybe I’m going dark... no, I’m not going dark. Nope.” Matt mentions how much he relates to Caduceus.

Matt, on the Eyes: “What can I tell you? I’m enjoying the hell out of it. The moment they began to really push to read that book, I was like, okay, this is on you. I’m excited for the point in the narrative where the march continues back to Eiselcross. I am almost impatient - not really - because we’re on the cusp of getting to more of the meat. There’s so much to learn, so much to see, so much to explore. I love instilling my players with absolute terror.”

Thoughts on Jester’s Tarot reading? Taliesin cackles. “Molly made the cards, so. Did it to himself, he did, he did.” Matt: “Once again, another example of things working out unexpectedly and too perfectly for an improvised moment. Fuck.” Taliesin: “Bless the wisdom of chaos.” Matt: “I love that even at this point in the campaign, Molly continues to fuck with people. I’m just so proud. That deeply shook Lucien, for reasons.” Taliesin: “It’s the everlasting gobstopper smoke bomb.”