#Congrats on dying twice

[canetteto]

Martyr (Redraw)

[tongue-like-a-razor]

For the celebration (congrats btw!!) could we see the first time that it came up in conversation that Jake had a crush on a mystery girl? However you pictured it happening! Unless it’s too early to reveal it or if you have other plans for it! You can completely ignore this!!

I love your work!!

Aww thank you so much, darling! I love love love this request! I imagine this conversation happening between part 6 and 7 :D Hope you like it!

5k Weekend Bash Drabbles

Brother's Best Friend - Off Limits

Jake Seresin x Reader

“What’s the matter with you?”

Jake looks up from his drink, a little dazed. “What do you mean?”

Bradley gives him a pointed look. “Well, you didn’t even notice the two chicks we passed on the patio on our way in. Twins. You let me crush you at Mortal Kombat. Twice. You’ve barely touched your beer. And I’m pretty sure you weren’t listening to my rant about the pickles.”

“The pickles?” Jake cocks his head in confusion.

Bradley nods. “Mm-hm, the pickles that are supposed to be on this burger.” He gestures at his half-eaten meal.

Jake stares at Bradley for a moment. “Can’t believe I almost missed that.”

Bradley purses his lips sourly and returns his attention to his food. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you’re distracted.”

Jake looks down at his own plate and mutely picks up a fry.

Bradley, who’s about to take a bite, slowly lowers his burger, watching Jake zone out again as he chews. Bradley smirks, setting his burger down. “Spill,” he demands.

Jake cringes. “There’s nothing to spill.”

Bradley starts chortling. “Who is she?”

Jake sighs uneasily and finally meets Bradley’s gaze. “Uh, you don’t know her.”

“You bang her yet?”

Jake tries not to wince. “No. She… doesn’t know.”

“Doesn’t know what?” But after two seconds of contemplation, Bradley leans into the table excitedly. “Are you telling me you’re hung up on a chick who has no clue that you’re into her?”

Jake swallows uncomfortably. “Looks like it,” he responds miserably.

“Why haven’t you asked her out?”

Jake glances up at his friend, doing his best not to appear overly guilty. “She’s bad news.”

Bradley’s grin broadens. “I like the sound of that.”

Jake suppresses a groan. “No, it’s not what you think.”

“What do I think?”

Jake grimaces, staring into his fizzing beer. “I just mean… she’s not an option.”

“Because?” Bradley raises his eyebrows expectantly.

Jake shifts in his seat and looks back up warily. The truth is, he wouldn’t mind talking about you at all. In fact, he’s dying to tell his best friend about the emotional turmoil he’s been contending with since he realized he had feelings for you. But, as luck would have it, Bradley is actually the root of the problem, and consequently the last person Jake should be sharing with. Still, Jake really can’t resist talking about you, given how much he’s lately been keeping to himself. “Because she’s” – off limits – “taken.”

Bradley nods sympathetically. “Been there.”

Jake grips his beer stein and lifts it off the table. “Her boyfriend is a real piece of work, too.”

“So, show her that you’re better. Easy.”

Jake sets his beer back down without taking a drink. “Am I?”

Bradley leans back in his seat with a chuckle. “Oh no,” he says.

“What?”

“You fucking like her, dude.”

“I told you, I like her.”

“No.” Bradley shakes his head. “No, no. You don’t just like her, man. You like her.”

Jake is watching Bradley impassively. “Are you fucking glitching?”

Bradley laughs. “Admit it!”

Jake opens his mouth to protest that he already has, but then closes it again because obviously Bradley is right. “Yes, I fucking like her, Bradshaw. I like her enough to know that she shouldn’t be with me.”

Bradley’s obnoxious cackle has fizzled to a merry chuckle now and he shakes his head with a loud, theatrical sigh. “My boy is growing up!”

“Shut the fuck up.”

“I’m so proud of you, man.”

“I said, shut the fuck up, Bradshaw.”

Bradley raises his hands in surrender. “Okay,” he says giddily. “So, tell me about her.”

5k Celly

[fettuccin-e]

Congrats on your 3k followers! 🎉🎉🎉

I would like ro request ❝  well,  honestly i’ve never really had sex before and was kinda hoping you would teach me.  ❞ with my baby boy Steven 💞

AHHH THANK YOU BESTIE if theres anything i will love and always love, it is nervous, sweet, attentive Steven okay he is the love of my LIFE so thank you for requesting!!!

Tags: Steven Grant x Reader, afab!reader, very short and sweet but descriptions of oral (f and m recieving), piv, virgin!steven, steven being a sweet little cutiepie (w/c: 634)

Find the prompts for the 3K Celebration here!

He has no clue, no fucking clue, how intoxicating he is. How much you want him.

He’s always so nervous around you, unsure of what to do with himself as you reach to hold his hand, kiss his cheek. Hell, it took him weeks to finally kiss you goodnight at your front door, and you could feel the pounding of his heart as you licked gently into his mouth.

So really, you should have known. You should have known that he was nervous to ask you to have sex with him. Because Steven has so much trouble asking for things for himself, and he has absolutely no idea how gone you are for him.

He blurts it out, awkward as he is, when you’re both in the privacy of his flat, David Attenborough droning on from the television, absolutely ignored by you and your boyfriend as you straddle his hips and moan into his mouth.

He’s gotten more confident about kissing you, pulling you into him with his broad hands on your back. He barely breaks away to breathe, lost in the feel of you, the taste.

You shift your hips down into his, and smile against his mouth when you feel the thickness of his cock through his pants. He whimpers softly into your mouth.

“Love, I-” he breathes, his eyebrows furrowing and mouth dropping open against yours as you grind against him again, relishing in the feeling of his thick cock pulsing against your cunt through your clothes. “I would- I would love to, oh Christ, darling, but I-” he grinds his teeth together, moaning softly as you stop your movements over him.

“What, Steven?” you whisper. “We don’t have to-”

“No,” his hips jerk up into yours as he meets your eyes, apprehension mixed with pure, unadulterated lust swimming inside them, “fuck, darling, of course I want to.” He pecks you gently, once, twice. “I just- well, honestly I’ve never had sex before, and-” he clenches his eyes shut, his cheeks burning red. You lean your forehead against his, brushing your noses together. “I was kind of hoping you could teach me,” he breathes, and he opens his eyes to your soft smile.

“Steven,” you murmur, and you kiss him again, so deep that he moans softly into your mouth. “All you had to do was ask.”

He doesn’t waste any time, pulling you into him again in a kiss filthier than you thought him capable of. As you undress him, you murmur everything to him, how fucking gorgeous he is, everything you want to do to him, everything you want to teach him.

He’s ravenous for it, aching for anything you’ll give him. He whines beneath you when you put your mouth on his aching cock, sucking at him until his hips buck. He begs to taste you in return, pulling your clothes off like a man possessed. He listens, ever the student, when you tell him how to lick your pussy just right, and God, the way he sucks and licks and moans into your cunt is a revelation.

When you finally sink onto him, letting his cock break you apart in a way that has you struggling to breathe, he moans into your mouth like he’s dying, whispering your name like a prayer and praises about how “you’re so perfect, feels- feels so fucking good, darling, my God, how will I ever think about anything else?”

You grin, rocking your hips to work him deeper, deeper, and you gasp as he brushes up against that perfect little spot deep inside. He’s gorgeous, perfect, trembling underneath you as you teach him to fuck you.

“If you learn how to think about something else, let me know, Steven,” you murmur, kissing him as he stretches you apart. “Because I have trouble thinking about anything but you, too.”

[allgremlinart]

hai good friend,, tell me about mai. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of her before… look what we are doing to our beautiful queens 😔

YIPEE I love when me going insane about a character for a day makes you curious about them... especially cus atp I can kind of predict what is going to pique ur interest

ok ok: so, Mai. She's 1/3 of Azula's Evil Girl Group, colloquially known as Ozai's Angels, and thats the context you see her in for most of the show which is why it's important to know. You know how all cartoons in the 2000s HAD to have ONE morose goth chic? Well she is atla's quota. She's a noble, she's an only child (THEE only child. The first only child they made at the only child factory <33), she fights with 🔪KNIVES 🔪!!! she's Zuko's canonical comphet love interest and she has a very understated but underrated arc..

Her role/arc in the show:

I mentioned Ozai's Angels because her interactions with Azula and Ty Lee are the real meat and potatoes of her character. They're like... baby's first toxic yuri love triangle <3333 REALLY can't overstate how toxic yuri love triangle they are. Mai and Ty Lee end up betraying Azula in season 3 which is both the climax (imo) of Mai's arc and the inciting action for Azula's descent (but we're not getting into Azula never ask me to get into Azula please). A lot of people reduce Mai going turncoat to JUST being about saving Zuko - and like partially it IS. She saves Zuko from dying because she loves/cares about him and that's a big part of it.

But it's ALSO about her finding her voice ?? Like throughout the show we NEVER see her voice opinions about something unless it's to say that she's bored, or jaded, or what have you. She never seems to have strong feelings about anything; her stated reasoning for joining Azula's Imperialism Girl Band is because she's bored living with her parents 💀 but it's like. It becomes clear to the audience later in the show that she was raised to never speak unless spoken to, to mask emotions, etc etc LIEKKK SHE'S SOOO REPRESSED ONLY CHILD SHE'S SO WOMAN TM... So her telling Azula "I love Zuko more than I fear you" was THEE cuntiest moment EVER because it's like oh shit ?? this is something pretty unexpected from this character ?? Waow so crazy so cunt ??

A lot of people point out that she and Ty Lee never really got a "ohhhh Imperialism is bad" arc like Zuko did but. imo there wasn't a whole lot of room in the show for it lol. Would have been something interesting to explore in the comics for sure !! but uhmmm I'd rather walk into the ocean than watch Gene Luen Yang try and write about imperialism and colonialism again so maybe its better we never got that.. (no offense to him he's just... not that great at doing it in the atla comics...not his strength..)

Her reception in fandom:

She's usually only ever talked about in the context of being Zuko's love interest (either positively OR negatively) hence my post that you saw. Like. Victim Numero Uno of zutara/kataang shipping wars cus at least a bunch of people LIKE Aang whereas people either ignore or actively dislike her.

There's often discourse about like. Who's the "toxic" one in the Mai/Zuko pairing and it's annoying when she gets flak for it cus like newsflash: they both are. My GOD they both are. They've canonically broken up twice. They're the emo boy/goth girl pairing. They're cute together. They're miserable together. They're both homosexual. You get it.

Also a lot of times people just call her boring or emotionless and it's like congrats !! you have fallen for her facade... in conclusion... sorry this is so long uhm.. your fault for asking me though... how long is it going to take until I've just told you the entire plot of this cartoon piecemeal ask by ask...

[coffeeandbatboys]

This is Carol (@clonethirstingisreal)

Congrats on your 300 followers!!! Thanks for the tag! <3

I'd like to request Wolffe and the song "Kiss An Angel Good Morning" by Charley Pride.

I was just listening to it the other day, and I always really enjoy the "Kiss an angel good morning and love her like the devil when you get back home" part. <3 (It actually gives me chills.)

Thanks again!

Thank you!!! It gives me chills too! I was raised on classic country so Charley is a staple for me 😅

I acknowledge that the song is happy but does that stop the angsties? no.

Warnings: angsty, clingy Wolffe with a dash of hot sauce. Mention of the reader dying but its just a nightmare.

Kiss an Angel Good Morning (Wolffe x Reader)

He really doesn't want to leave you. But the 104th's shore leave is up and there's nothing he can do about it. You watch as he straps on his kit, checking the clips at least twice to stall for time.

You don't want him to go either. The two of you have had less and less time together as the war goes on.

His gaze lands on you. Mismatched, but still one of the most beautiful things you've ever seen.

"Kark, cyare." He mutters, kneeling next to the bed to touch your foreheads together. You shush him and press your lips to his. A groan resonates from his chest and his shoulders slump. Now he really doesn't want to go.

You gently push him by the chestplate. "Go, before the General gets suspicious and starts asking around." you giggle.

His lips twitch in a humorless smile for a brief second. "I love you."

You return the grin, albeit much happier than his. "I love you too. Come back safely."

You give him a couple more kisses 'for good luck' and watch as he bolts out the door.

Weeks pass before your apartment door is opened by his key. Happiness wells up inside you as you stir the pot on the stove and peek towards the entrance.

But the sight only makes you frown. He's haphazardly stacking his kit next to the door. He's never treated his armor like that, so you know that something must be wrong.

"Wolffe?" You ask, keeping your voice calm.

He says nothing, only looking at you and striding over to take you in his arms.

With the way he's holding you, something must have scared him. You reach behind you to turn the stove off and return the hug.

"What's wrong?" You ask, pressing a little so that you'll figure out what to do with him.

He shakes his head against your shoulder.

"Force osik and nightmares. I just want to feel you."

You nod, even though he probably doesn't see it and gently guide the two of you to the couch in the living area.

He presses his lips to yours. The kiss starts out slow, and as it goes on it deepens. It's desperate, but you lean into his hold. You won't deny him your affection on any day.

His tongue runs lightly over the edge of your bottom lip before his kisses trail down your jaw, moving to your neck where he gives the gentlest of nips. Your fingers curl into his hair as his kisses find their way to the collar of your shirt. You can't help but blush and giggle as he grabs the soft material with his teeth and pulls it aside to make room for more kisses.

His hand wanders beneath the hem of your shirt and caresses your torso.

"Wolffe," You murmur, bringing a hand to his cheek. "You have to tell me what happened."

His eyes squeeze shut.

"We came in contact with a sith artifact." He groans. "Gave us all our worst nightmares for a week."

You quirk a brow, knowing where this is going. "And?"

He sighs against your chest. "Mine was losing you. Kriff, Mesh'la. I watched you die every night after that."

Your hand cards through his dark curls again. "I'm right here, Wolffe."

He resumes his trail of kisses, nudging the crook of your neck with his nose. His hand slips further beneath your shirt, asking permission to go further.

You kiss his forehead in response as you let him feel you and make sure he knows you’re alive.

[noaltbruh]

um, 🍭 and 🍰 for anasui and weather report? congrats on 200 follows btw ^^

One of them is among my favorites in part 6, I would gladly burn alive the other.

Guess who's who.

On a more serious note- Of course! And thanks for the request :)

~~~~~

🍭 How easy is it to fluster them?

When it comes to Anasui, it really won't take much to fluster him. This dude doesn't just love you, he's obsessed with you, which means that literally anything you might say to him will get him to turn all red and bashful.

To be honest, maybe you weren't even trying to flirt with him, he just interpreted your words in his own way and now he's all flustered even if it wasn't your intention in the first place.

It is pretty funny though, and also cute in a way. He'll probably go "awww stawwp" despite the fact that he'd dying to receive any sort of attention from you, especially this kind.

So if you're not very confident in your flirting skills, don't worry, you'll never have to worry about them not being good enough for him.

~~~~~~

Is...Is it even possible to fluster Weather?

To be completely honest with you, trying to affectionately tease him won't get much of a result most of the time. He doesn't really understand how flirting works, and is either confused or unfazed by most of your attempts.

Let's say, for examples, you were to compliment him more than usual. I can see him mostly just smiling and thanking you rather than blushing and such. He doesn't mean to be so detached, he can't help it. He thinks you're just being affectionate and nice, you are his partner, after all.

I could potentially see him getting flustered, but only on very specific and rare circumstances. When that does happen, Weather doesn't really...Understand what's going on? He just feels his cheeks getting warm and all of a sudden he's struggling to even look at you.

He'll probably try to go back to his usual composure as soon as he can, but he'll spend the rest of the day thinking about how... Interesting that felt.

🍰 How teasing are they? Do they often flirt with their S/O?

Anasui is a flirting bomb fr. Dude's teasing and complimenting you literally all the time you two are together, he's incapable of spending more than 3 minutes without praising or remarking something about you.

Now, quantity doesn't equal quality, and he's the living proof of that. With this man it's kind of a fifty fifty situation, he'll either come up with the smoothest compliment and flirting style humanity has ever witnessed, or the cringest pick up line ever that will probably make you burst out laughing.

When the latter happens, it's quite entertaining to watch, because your reaction will actually make him blush instead.

He's not afraid to get close either, and physical contact is actually one of his favorite ways of flirting with you, whether that'd be neck kisses or grabbing your waist.

~~~~

Weather IS good at flirting, but like, accidentally lol.

The thought of getting you bashful doesn't even cross his mind because, like I said, he doesn't understand nor know what it is or how it works.

I can see Anasui trying to give him some advice on how to flirt with you, but he wouldn't follow them because he doesn't trust his judgment in this sort of thing or at all

With that being said, this man will turn you red without even trying. He'll get very touchy and compliment you with no filters whatsoever. If he has something nice to say about you, he'll say it without thinking twice. Adding in to this, the calmness and and composure in his voice will make everything sound way smoother than he intended to be.

[erule]

congratulations on 2.3K!! you absolutely deserve it!

I'd request for a steve harrington fluff fic with prompt 7 and fake dating au from trope list. cheers and once again, congrats!!🥳🥳 xx

Call me | s.h.

Pairing: Steve Harrington x reader

Summary: you ask Steve to go to prom with you, so you can make somebody jealous. He doesn’t know that he’s the person, actually. 

Warnings: fluff, fake dating au, love confession, best friends to lovers, jealous Steve

Word count: 1K

A/N: hi! This story participates to my 2.3K followers celebration party. Feedback is always appreciated by a writer! Hope y’all like it. Enjoy! X Thanks for the request!! You’ll find the prompt written in bold: “It’s not a bad day, if I get to talk to you”.

“This is not gonna happen,” Steve says categorically, legs crossed, sat on the chair in your kitchen. 

“Please, I’m begging you,” you say, kneeling in front of him. You see him blushing, but you pretend you didn’t notice it. You blink twice, pouting like a child, hoping he’ll accept your request.

“Y/N, I said no,” he repeats and you shake your head.

“You do everything for your kids, why can’t you do something for me?”

“First of all, they’re not my kids and anyway they don’t ask me to be their fake boyfriend for the prom!” He replies.

“You’re acting like this bothers you”.

“Yes, it does!”

“Why?” You scream.

He shuts down as a machine. Your relationship with Steve has always been like this, playful and sweet, because he cares about you and you care about him. Plain and simple. But you'd be lying if I said that things haven't changed lately. You have begun to rest your gaze on his figure for longer. Kisses on his cheek have become little moments where you can show him how much you care without having to use words. You linger on his cheekbones, then give him a caress and finally withdraw his hand, as if burned, because you have to stop crossing the friendship line. You always hoped he didn't notice, but there is a part of you that wants to be discovered, that wants to be confronted with the truth: you like Steve Harrington, your best friend and that's a big deal.

He glances at you, then replies: "I can't". He seems almost in pain and if you didn't know him well, you would say that this situation has put him in serious trouble. He then he throws out the air. "Coming to prom with you, pretending to be your boyfriend just to make someone else jealous is too much for me. I'm sorry."

He gets up from his chair. You watch him leave the room without saying a word, when in reality you are dying to know the reason for this choice of him.

So that’s why right now you’re at prom, completely alone. You’re looking for Steve everywhere, but he’s not here. It feels so lonely to be in a place in which you were supposed to be with somebody else. Maybe you should have been honest with him. You should have told him you wanted to be here with him, but you didn't have the courage to tell him, because you should have told him your true feelings, so you made up the jealousy story to make your plan believable, a lie. And now you don't even have your best friend's shoulder left to rest your head on at the end of the night, laughing as you eat French fries sitting on the school stairs.

"Y/N".

You turn in the direction of the voice that has just said your name and as in a dream, you see him: he is beautiful, his hair in place and the tuxedo that makes his figure stand out. You have never seen anything more beautiful.

"Steve! I didn't think you were coming."

"I couldn't miss the dance and then you cared a lot. Come on, give me your hand, I've thought about it: we make someone jealous."

So you find yourself twirling around the room with Steve, who strangely knows how to dance and you wonder how this is possible. His hands are warm and his eyes are as deep as the hole into which Alice falls. Maybe you are falling too.

"Where did you learn to dance so well?"

"I watched a couple of movies yesterday afternoon at Family Video," Steve replies and you giggle.

"You are incredible, Steve Harrington."

"And you are beautiful, Y/N".

You look him in the face, then your gaze flashes on your shoes, embarrassed. He only said it so that the others would hear, to believe this stupid farce that you set up so as not to have to tell him the truth. But with the music so loud, who is really listening to you?

"Steve, I have to tell you something ..."

"Me first," he says, then shakes your hand and leads you into a corridor, away from the mess. You stare at him motionless, your hands now folded as if in prayer as you wait for him to finally speak.

"I should have told you Y/N first, but I was scared. I know you like someone else and that I will ruin our friendship now, but I realized there is no point in hiding from you how I feel when I am with you. How I feel, when you unwind my day, even just when you call me on the phone, because you see, it’s not a bad day, if I get to talk to you”.

You shake your head, confused, but your heart is pounding in your chest, as if it already understood everything. Maybe you just want me to say it out loud, to confess what you've always only dared to dream of.

"Steve, what are you trying to tell me?"

He takes a deep breath, then touches the fingers of one hand and smiles at you.

"That I'm in love with you," he says and your heart falls into your stomach. "That's why it hurts me to be here to make someone else jealous. I am jealous already”.

Your face softens, then you smile at him, cupping his cheek.

“There’s no reason,” you say and he looks at you confused, then you kiss him on the lips and  everything becomes clear. “You’re the only one I want to be jealous. I made up this plan because I didn’t know how to tell you, but you did it for the both of us”.

He burst into laughing, a relieved laugh actually. 

“You’re evil, Y/N”.

“No, no, I’m not. I’m just in love,” you say, hugging him. 

“With me?” He asks you, with a sweet look on his face and you kiss the tip og his nose.

“Absolutely”.

[bby-deerling]

Im soooo happy for you!!! Congrats on the 600 you deserve each one my lovely🩷🩷🥺😭🫶🏼 so proud of you 👏

Ahhh also so excited you’re doing this I’ve been dying for someone to do a matchup event!!! You’re the bomb.commmmmm

Im not good at describing myself so I asked my honey lol and he said I’m almost like Nami in a sense lol 😂 instead of being obsessed with money (im actually super frugal) I’m literally obsessed with chocolate 🍫 I act tough but I’m really a softy who’s just scared to get stepped on so I bark instead of bite 😂 (I almost smacked him upside the head after hearing that part lol)

I’d like to add though that I’m super talkative when I’m comfy but quiet and observant when I’m somewhere new/with new ppl. I love to cook and bake. Writing, reading and drawing smut are my life outside of my daughter lol 😂 I’m always horny and love to eat!!!! Lol I’m a physical touch and words person idk if that matters but I’m a clingy gal lol 😂 also as you know …I sleep allllll the time so find me a honey who won’t mind lol 😂 you can pick both male and female I don’t mind 🩷🫶🏼

* if this is way to much please ignore my antics @honeysworld-offanfiction *

honey my loveeeee <3 having more material to work with is never too much!!! cracking up at the description your husband gave LOL

i think the right person to handle you despite only having one hand is...

shanks!

you're intense, sweet, and loving, and able to match the energy shanks brings to the table! i think shanks would love that you're tough on the outside and soft and gooey on the inside and take his time savoring every bit of it ;)

both of you would probably be going at it like rabbits whenever you're not sleeping; he just can't get enough of you, whether it's in bed or simply having you close by for some company and good conversation!

while on the topic, he would also probably sleep quite a lot due to either being hungover, tired, or him just wanting to crawl in bed and hold you for a while! he finds it endearing that you're never one to rush him or try to pull him out of a deep slumber.

despite his strength, being on a yonko crew comes with its dangers and challenges. that being said, he would appreciate your cautiousness in strange and unfamiliar situations; it keeps you out of trouble, and he admires your self-preservation skills.

get ready to cook twice as much and have to deal with him eating your creations nearly as soon as you finish them! the way he loops his arm around your waist and kisses the top of your head nearly makes up for it... and the god tier backshots he gives you in the kitchen definitely make up for it!

both of you are big on physical touch, and he's definitely not afraid to get handsy with you no matter where you are or who's around! a huge snuggler as well; he will give you all the physical validation you could ever dream of and more!

<3

[nehswritesstuffs]

to be a captain is to be brave, to care, to love

Congrats--I’m the dumbass who posts fic for the wrong Straw Hat on another crewmate’s birthday lolol

9320 words; this hit me hard recently because, well, it just did (as in: I wrote most of this within the past few days); I have complicated emotions about Deadbeat Dad Yasopp and I guess this is my brain working through it; this does not take place in a continuity that contains Uta, mainly because I don’t really want to write her being a bratty little bully bc you know that’s what would happen; not an entire rewrite but does shift things a little bit to the left

to be a captain is to be brave, to care, to love; something very different happened on the day Banchina passed away: her son told the truth. [Usopp-centric slight AU]

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

She is dying.

That was the only thing that the doctor wrote on the paper before stuffing it in an envelope and sending it with a News Coo. That had been the week prior, and now it seemed as though the message was going to be for naught. He was sitting at the sick woman’s bedside, changing the compress on her forehead for a cool, fresh one.

“Where is Usopp?” she asked. The doctor shook his head.

“He ran off soon as I got here,” he replied, tone hiding the fact he’d told her twice already. “He’ll be back.”

“He’s such a silly boy.” She tilted her head and looked out the window at the clouds, bright and fluffy. “He has his father’s spirit.”

“Banchina…”

“No, he does; he’s going to become a wonderful person.”

The doctor sighed heavily. “I wrote to him.”

“Why…?” Her attention went back to the doctor, her eyes now sharp, all of her strength put behind them. “He was not supposed to know.”

“It doesn’t matter; he hasn’t come.”

“So you’d rather ignore the wishes of someone on their deathbed than let a free man enjoy the last moments he has at peace?” There was fire and venom in her voice, not heard by the doctor since they were young children. “It’s bad enough Usopp has had to watch me…”

“He deserves to know.”

“He deserves to be free.”

“He’s your husband; he should be here.”

“So you can torture him more?!”

“That’s not what this is and we both know it! It’s…!”

“Mom! Mom! Mom!” Usopp shouted from outside. Banchina gave one last glare before softening her face, not wanting a scowl to be how her son remembered her. “Pirates are coming! Pirates are coming up the slope!” The boy burst into the house and barreled towards his mother, tears streaming down his face. “Pirates are coming! That means that Dad’s back!”

“Usopp, sweetie, I need you to listen to me,” she said. “You’re going to have to be a good kid for me, alright? Make sure you grow into a good man, a good person, and never let them look down on you. Do you understand?”

“…but Mom…”

“I know your dad’s not there—please, don’t hate him for that. He’s very far away and can’t come back safely. It was my choice to stay here with you, and I’d do it over and over again…”

“Banchina, please…”

“I am talking to my son.” The doctor stepped towards the other side of the room at that, keeping his distance. “Please, Usopp, promise me you’re going to be brave, alright?”

“Mom…” Usopp’s tiny frame shook as he tried not to cry. “Just a little bit! Please!”

“I know what you’re doing, darling; don’t make this harder than it has to be.”

“…’China…?”

Banchina froze as her eyes went towards the door, seeing Yasopp standing in the threshold, body frozen in shock. All at once he stumbled into the house, nearly tripping over himself as he went to sit on the edge of the mattress at his wife’s side. Tears began to escape his eyes as he brought her limp, cold hand in both of his.

“I told them not to tell you,” she said, looking away in pain. “I didn’t want your last memory of me to be like this.”

“No, I’m glad I could come… I’ll take seeing you one last time while sick than never see you again at all.” His voice cracked and squeaked in pain—this was never what he had planned on when he left those years ago. “I’m so sorry… you were the only one who made this place worth it for so long…”

Banchina simply hushed him and offered the strongest smile she could. Yasopp bent down and pressed their foreheads together before kissing her gently. A sob escaped him as he pulled away, confirming to the little boy in the corner precisely what he had feared.

Banchina of Syrup Village was no more.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

“So, how old are you, lad?”

“Uh… six…?”

“Oh… well, that’s a fucking bummer.”

Usopp stared at the red-haired man sitting at the table in the town’s only restaurant, who was currently involved in taking a large swig of beer. He didn’t want to be around his house at the moment, since his father and the village doctor were currently having a shouting match. The boy escaped the row by heading into town, where he saw the rest of the pirates his dad had come in with.

This one was apparently the captain.

“Everyone in town says that you’re the one that stole Dad from Mom and me,” Usopp said. The captain shrugged noncommittally—couldn’t refute that.

“What did your mom always say?”

“She said that ‘Dad left following his dream, the sea, his freedom’.”

“Then I think you should listen to your mom, kid.” The man adjusted the straw hat perched atop his head and took another drink. “You know, soon as your dad got news about your mom, we came straight here. I wouldn’t keep him from what he needs for anything.”

“Why’s that?”

“It’s my obligation, as the captain.” He paused as the waitress returned with food for the table, which he encouraged Usopp to sit and eat. “See, when you’re a captain, you need to figure out what it is that people need and how that’s different from what they want, and make it happen. Your dad always wants to travel the seas and very often needs to, but right now, what he needs is to be here.”

“You have a big crew—did they need to be here too?”

“No, but they wanted to come along, to support your dad, and it wasn’t anything that put a damper on their needs, so we all came along.” He watched as the boy’s face scrunched in thought. “It’s a lot to think about, I know. Don’t worry—you’re just a kid. You got time to figure it out.”

“What we don’t have time for is figuring out how this pit stop is going to impact our making it to the Grand Line without attracting too much attention,” said a tall, severe-faced man with dark hair. He took the smoldering cigarette from his lips and stubbed it out before beginning to eat. “We had a route, a plan, and none of it involved Yasopp’s hometown.”

“You can’t be so serious, Beck,” the captain chuckled. “We were planning on docking someplace for about a year anyhow… why not make it here?”

“…because I remember part of why it was so easy for him to leave to begin with.” He looked at the child currently nibbling on a fried chicken tender and sighed. “He really should have come here on his own and met up with us at the rendezvous point.”

“…and become a widow by himself…?”

“Minimize the impact on the locals—you know that.”

“Fuck…” It was then that Yasopp barged in the front door, looking fresh from a fight with a split lip and an impressive shiner. He found where his son was and blanched, going to his side immediately.

“You know better than to wander off on your own,” Yasopp gently chided. He removed the child from his seat and sat down, keeping his son in his lap. “We’re leaving soon as the captain is able to, okay?”

“Leaving…?” Usopp almost dropped the rest of his chicken tender. “Why…?”

“There are bad memories here,” Yasopp replied gravely. “I’m not going to make more by staying.”

“We can leave by nightfall,” the captain shrugged. He looked at the kid and raised his eyebrow. “Are you sure this is a good idea…?”

“If you grew up on a pirate ship, then I see no problem.” Yasopp picked up one of the neglected glasses of ice water and pressed the side against his black eye. “I’ll make sure to grab some things before we leave…”

“I’ll meet you at the house then, bye!” Usopp said. He wriggled out of his father’s grasp and ran out the door before any of the crew could snag him. Yasopp started to go after him, but was stopped by the captain.

“No,” the red-haired man said firmly. “He just learned he’s leaving. Let him make his peace with this place. Just because you never could doesn’t mean he can’t.”

Yasopp grumbled as he concentrated on the glass of water to his eye and grabbing a beer to occupy his other hand—captain’s orders sure were a bitch sometimes.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

Usopp ran as fast as his tiny legs could take him. He ran through Syrup Village, dodging other residents, until he found a hole in a stone wall just big enough for him to shimmy through. On the other side was the expansive grounds of a mansion, which he rushed up to in order to knock on a very specific window. The little girl inside jumped in fright before running to open the pane.

“I’m leaving,” was all Usopp could get out, gasping for breath. The girl stared at him.

“What do you mean…?”

“My dad came… I’m leaving… today…”

“He what?! No way?!”

“Kaya, I’m scared!” The little boy began to shake terribly. “Dad came back, Mom died, and now we’re leaving and I don’t know when I’ll be here again!”

“…but why tell me…?”

“...because you’re the only one who’s nice to me!” He couldn’t bear to look at his friend, so instead he glared at a bit of wall as he cried. “I’ll come back to visit someday… I promise!”

“You gotta shake on it!” Kaya insisted. She stuck her hand out the window and waited for Usopp to take it, making direct eye contact. “You’re always talking about becoming a great warrior of the sea! Come back before you get too great, okay?”

“I promise!”

“Kaya? Sweetie? What’s going on in there…?”

“Usopp, run!” Kaya whispered. Her eyes were wide in not only fear, but excitement as well. “I’ll see you later, okay?!”

“Okay!”

The child sprinted off before his friend’s mother could investigate the room.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

It had been an entire week and Yasopp wasn’t entirely sure what to do.

After making sure that his wife would get a proper burial and his son had everything he needed, he had returned to the ship with his six-year-old in-tow and the determination to do what Banchina would have wanted. Ever since they were young, she had encouraged him to find solace on the sea, to escape the glares and mumbled words of spite that came from the other villagers. She had always been too uneasy on the sea, and had insisted that she would be fine as he chased that freedom and acceptance he craved without her, and now… now she was gone and he had their kid, which was a bit more of an adjustment than he thought it was going to be.

Kids, for the most part, were messy creatures, and there wasn’t a lot of room for messes on a pirate ship. While Usopp didn’t have a lot of toys, he did have clutter that was liable to be underfoot, which wasn’t exactly a good idea. Limejuice had already fallen flat on his ass thanks to some marbles the boy was experimenting with, and Yasopp himself was already victim to a variety of mishaps involving the aforementioned marbles, a chemistry set that seemed to appear out of nowhere, and a slingshot armed with all sorts of things sticky and stinky.

“Thank fuck we’re almost at port,” the man grumbled. He watched as Usopp bounced around the galley in excitement at the prospect of somewhere new. Hongo nodded in commiseration, the pair both below deck due to particularly troublesome hangovers.

“Letting the kid run around on land would definitely be for the better,” Hongo said. “He needs to eat dirt.”

Yasopp turned slowly and stared at his crewmate. “What…?”

“You know—get dirty. Play with other kids.”

“I know you might have forgotten, but it’s not like the boy comes from a long line of kids everyone wants to play with. Banchina…”

“… was the only one to ever give you the time of day, I remember.” Hongo sipped at his water and grimaced at the sounds coming out of the kitchen. “Maybe some of her openness rubbed off on him?”

“If it did, then I hope the world is kinder to him for it,” Yasopp frowned. He was about to reach back into his memories when he heard Shanks’s voice from above, filled with both authority and excitement.

“LAND AHEAD! ALL HANDS ON DECK!”

“Oh! Did you hear that, Dad?! Land!” Usopp seemed to almost vibrate in anticipation. “An island!”

“I heard him, I heard him,” Yasopp grumbled. He and Hongo both knocked back the rest of their waters before depositing the mugs and heading above deck, with the small child all but dragging his father along.

A few minutes of the sea air rejuvenated Yasopp and soon he was helping out with the rigging, with Usopp standing by the prow in an effort to see where they were sailing. Shanks went up to the child and patted him on the head.

“That’s called Foosha,” he said. “We’re gonna stay there for a while, if the locals are amenable.”

“What’s that?”

“If they don’t mind that we’re pirates.” He saw that the boy’s eyes were still locked onto the small village at the island’s edge and smiled. “We need a place to operate out of—a base of sorts—in order to help build a name for ourselves.”

“Really…?”

“Yeah. Now get ready to go! You’re coming along on the first boat!”

The boy’s eyes went wide—he got to go! Important people got to go on the first boat! This was going to be great!

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

As it turned out, getting to go with the initial landing party was less exciting than Usopp imagined it would be—it was actually kind of boring. He had to stand there with his dad, Shanks, and Beckmann as the captain talked with this old man about terms of their stay and what the rules were and things like that. The boy fidgeted in place, which the village elder took notice.

“How very shrewd of you to bring him along,” the old man said. “I suppose you need a place for him to stay so he doesn’t see what you get up to?”

“Possibly, but I still take responsibility for my son,” Yasopp said, giving a short bow. “I can no longer leave him with his mother.”

“Ah.” The elder nodded knowingly. “We have a child like that here. Maybe your son will be a good influence.”

“Excuse my laughter,” Shanks snickered, “but that must be some rambunctious kid you got there if a pirate’s child is the better influence.”

“You’re just upset because Gramps didn’t take me!” shouted a tiny voice. The pirates saw a small child poking angrily around a woman’s skirt. “Maybe they’ll take me with them! Then I can finally get out of here!”

“Over my dead body, you little brat!” the elder snapped. The boy stuck his tongue out at him and the old man sighed. “The whole family is an odd bunch; it’s a long story.”

“We’re pirates—what do we care?” Shanks chuckled. He then put his hand on Usopp’s back and urged him forward. “Go play while us adults talk more boring stuff. How about it?”

The boy grinned at Usopp before coming out from behind the young woman. He launched himself at Usopp happily, wrapping him in a tight hug.

“Alright! A new friend!”

It might have been shrewd of Shanks, but it did work.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

“So, you don’t have parents?”

“Nope!”

“…and it’s just you and your grandpa?”

“Yup!”

“…and he leaves you here because he’s a Marine?”

“Pretty much!”

Usopp stared at Luffy as the other boy poked at a beetle. He had spent almost the entire day wandering around with the kid and was trying to wrap his head around him, yet couldn’t. They were almost the exact same age, and yet he was being left alone? It didn’t make sense. Even when his mom died, at least his dad was there…

“What do you think he’d do if he came to town while the crew’s docked here?”

“Probably laugh and have a drink,” Luffy shrugged. “Gramps is never working when he’s here, so he doesn’t really care who does what unless it’s really bad.”

“…but we’re pirates. We’re supposed to be bad.”

“You don’t seem that bad to me.”

“Luffy, we’re six.”

“Yeah? And?”

“You really don’t get it, do you?” Usopp frowned. He looked over his shoulder and saw that more of the crew was coming into port. Even Bonk Punch seemed small from this distance. “We’re brave warriors of the sea! We fight guys like the Marines!”

“You don’t.”

“Well, yeah, not yet… but I will!” Usopp stood atop a rock and pointed at the sky. “It’s my dream to be a proud and brave warrior of the sea one day! Just like my dad! I’ll even have a crew under my care!”

“Maybe.”

“What do you mean ‘maybe’?!”

“You might be part of my crew!”

“Your crew?!”

“Yeah! If you’re gonna be like your dad, you’re gonna need a captain. You’ll need a Shanks! I can do that!”

“Then you’d have to fight your grandpa!”

“Oh, that’s just what we always do.” Luffy grinned and held up the beetle. “Isn’t this cool?!”

“It is…” Usopp agreed. The boys marveled over the bug for a moment before Makino popped her head out the back of her bar, calling them in to wash up. “Is she, like, your sister? She’s not your mom.”

“I guess? I dunno. She feeds me and makes sure I’m okay. Is that what sisters do?”

“It’s what my mom did for me, but I guess a sister can too.”

The boys piled into the back kitchen and went directly to the sink. “Makino? Are you my mom or my sister?”

“Luffy!”

“He’s alright, Usopp,” the woman laughed. “Now, are your hands clean?” Both finished washing their hands quickly and showed her for inspection. “Good, now your dinner’s at the bar.”

“Alright!” Luffy cheered. He brought Usopp into the main of the bar, where the Red Hair Pirates were already beginning to settle in for an evening of partying. Two plates of food and glasses of milk sat on the bartop, where Luffy and Usopp both sat down and began eating.

“Wow! Miss Makino’s cooking is really good!” Usopp marveled. “It’s amazing!”

“Yeah!” Luffy agreed. “She’s the best!” He then chewed the food he already had stored in his cheeks thoughtfully. “That’s someone I’m going to need for my crew: a really good cook!”

“I can cook!”

“No you can’t—you’re six.”

“Yeah, and I cooked for my mom! She showed me how to make sandwiches and boil macaroni for cheese!”

“That’s not real cooking! Real cooking needs meat!”

“Boys, boys, relax,” Shanks said, coming up to the bar to grab a bottle of grog that had been left out for him. He tossed it over to Snake, who pulled the cork out with his teeth before he began drinking. “Let’s focus on the fact that you agree the lady’s cooking is superb.”

“Flattery will not get you very far here, I’m afraid,” Makino chuckled as she came out of the kitchen. She passed Shanks two plates of food, which he took with a suggestive wink. “I should rat you out to Woop Slap.”

“I do enjoy living dangerously,” he laughed, bringing the plates out to the crew. Luffy and Usopp simply stared at each other, confused.

“Don’t worry about it,” Makino chuckled. “Now finish your dinner and you can go play upstairs, okay?”

“Okay!”

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

The next morning, Usopp and Luffy went down the stairs to find the entirety of the Red Hair Pirates still passed out in the main area of the bar. Usopp even poked his dad, who kept on snoring—no luck.

“Come on, you,” Makino said, guiding the boy over to where she had set out food. “If you don’t eat, Luffy will finish your plate for you.”

“No! Don’t you dare!” The boy hopped onto the bar stool and began hoarking down his food, needing to smack Luffy away a couple of times in the process.

Yeah, Makino thought, this was right.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

Time passed.

The Red Hair Pirates would leave Usopp in the care of Makino, returning a few weeks later with all the treasure and tales of adventure the boy and his friend could want. He would practice with his slingshot, or his chemistry set, or anything else he could while they were gone, making his dad beam with joy and pride when he told and showed him everything he accomplished.

Time passed, and the year mark crept ever-closer.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

Makino let out a blood-curdling scream, the sound of which went directly into Usopp’s young bones. Both of them were standing on the edge of the harbor, watching as Shanks intimidated the Lord of the Coast with just a glare, but not after losing an arm as he went and rescued Luffy.

“Fuck! We need to get out there!” Yasopp cussed as he ran towards the pier.

“Everyone! Clean up the rest of the bandits!” Beckmann ordered. “We got this!”

“Aye, aye,” Roux said. He and the rest of the Red Hair Pirates charged at the last of Higuma’s gang, while Yasopp and Beckmann rowed out to where Shanks was treading water. This left Makino alone to sink to her knees, completely in shock, as Usopp trembled next to her.

“I told him not to make them mad…” the boy shivered. “Why didn’t he listen?!”

“I… I don’t think it would have mattered,” Makino said, her voice quiet. She looked at Usopp, her eyes glassy with tears, and held him by the shoulders. “This is not your fault.”

“…but Miss Makino, I…!”

“The only person who’s at fault is the bandit, and he’s now dead,” she insisted. She then brought him in close for a hug. “Don’t you ever think otherwise, you understand?”

“…but…!”

“I know you plan on being there for Luffy, and I need you to know that it’s not your fault, got it? Sometimes… things happen… and we can’t change it, but we can control how we act for them.”

“O… okay…”

It was then that Yasopp finished rowing back to shore, with Beckmann attempting to hold Shanks still while Luffy sobbed uncontrollably. Hongo appeared with his emergency kit, attempting to stop what was left of his captain’s arm from bleeding out right there on the dock. Yasopp threw Luffy over his shoulder and brought him to Makino, who grabbed onto him tightly.

“I thought… I thought he could…” she said unsteadily.

“He was so concentrated on saving this little guy that it was too late,” Yasopp replied. He stroked Luffy’s hair as the boy cried into Makino’s shoulder before turning his attention to his own son. Scooping up Usopp in a hug, he ignored the fact that he was currently sopping wet and covered in his captain’s blood—all he needed right now was his boy. “I’m so glad he didn’t get you too—the fact both of you are safe… it’s worth more than any treasure.”

Shanks bellowed in pain, causing all four of them to recoil. Usopp stared at the man as he writhed under Beckmann’s hold and Hongo’s attempts at treating him.

‘A captain has to know what his crew needs,’ he thought. ‘He needs to make it happen. Luffy needed to live… and he made that happen…’

There, on the little pier at the edge of the little village, the little boy in his father’s arms realized something very, very important: a captain was not a captain unless he had a crew, and once he had them, he should be prepared to do everything for them… even die for them… just like his mom died taking care of him.

A captain took care of his crew.

A crew is a captain’s greatest treasure.

The people one cared for are worth more than all the gold in the Grand Line.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

It took a few days until Shanks was able to be let out of bed. Hongo and Makino took turns watching him, waiting for the fever that set in to break, hoping he hadn’t lost too much blood. Once he was up and moving, Luffy seemed to completely forget that Usopp existed, instead clinging to the man who saved his life. It made sense to the other boy, but it still didn’t mean that he wasn’t at least a bit jealous.

It was a week since what the village was officially referring to as the “Bear Incident” and the Red Hair Pirates were enjoying themselves in Party’s Bar. Usopp was sulking in a booth while eating with his father, with Monster passed out on the opposite bench seat. Yasopp looked at the pouting lad and felt his nerves messing with his stomach. Fuck… why was this so difficult? He leaned in and lowered his voice so that only his son could hear.

“Usopp…?”

“Yeah, Dad?” He put down his fork as he saw that his father’s face was sad and full of worry. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing’s wrong. I just wanted to know if you like it here.”

“I do!” the boy replied, perking up. “Makino makes good food, and the people here are really nice, and Luffy’s, like, my best friend! After Kaya of course! Why?”

“Well… because…” Yasopp exhaled heavily, not enjoying his position. “Shanks wants to move on soon.”

“Move on…? To a different island…?”

“To the Grand Line.” He scratched his son’s scalp and watched as he grew quiet. There was something criminal about the boy having his hair and complexion, but his mother’s nose. “It’s very dangerous, you know, to be on the Grand Line. It’s more dangerous than fighting the Lord of the Coast. Even people who are born and raised there can’t survive.”

“I don’t think I want to go to the Grand Line.”

“…which is why I was talking with Miss Makino earlier, and her and I think it would be better if you stayed here, in Foosha.”

“What about you…?”

Yasopp bit his lower lip and breathed in deeply, trying to keep himself composed. “I can’t stay. I’m a sailor, and the sea calls to me. It’s why I never was around before—it’s too strong for me to resist.”

“Oh… is that why everyone but Mom said bad things about you back in Syrup? Because you can’t tell the sea no?”

“Yeah… something like that.” He then let out a slight chuckle. “Besides, not only am I a sailor, but a pirate. Mister Woop Slap says pirates can’t stay here for too long, or Luffy’s grandpa might come and beat them up.”

“Luffy says that’s just what his grandpa does like normal,” Usopp deadpanned. Well, it had been worth a shot. “It’s nice when you’re gone, but it’s better when you’re here.”

“Tell you what: I’m going to let you stay here with Miss Makino, where it’s safe and you have good people around you, and in the meantime you are going to do your best to become big and strong. When you do, come to the Grand Line and find me. How does that sound?”

Usopp broke into sobs, clinging to Yasopp’s shirt. The kid was unintelligible through his tears, but his father held him in his arms and pat him on the back, soothing him best he could.

“You’re one of the best things I’ve ever done, you know that?” he crooned. “I can’t bring you to the Grand Line and let you die. Then who will I have to live for?”

“I’ll miss you so much!”

“I know… and I’ll miss you too… but you have to be brave, Usopp. Be brave for me… and be brave for your mom. Please?” His son nodded into his chest. “There’s a good lad. I’ll always be proud of you… for everything that’s happened to us in the past year, you’ve been taking it very well.”

“When are you going to leave…?”

“Tomorrow.” He offered Usopp a smile and pat his hair. “Just remember that you have to let whatever happens to you push you forward, not back.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. Different people get pushed differently by the same things, so don’t compare yourself or get too worried. You’re your mother’s son—nothing is going to keep you down for long. I know it.”

Usopp wiped his nose on his arm and laughed weakly. Yeah… he guessed so.

“Until then,” Yasopp said, “let’s party! Go get some cake from Lucky Roux! Big slices! Go on!” He shoved his son from the booth and watched as he scurried across the dining area to where their large crewmate was lording over an even larger cake.

What was harder? Leaving his kind and understanding wife and a baby who didn’t know him or his son just as they were just becoming acquainted? He didn’t think he had the answer, nor did he want one.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

Dawn was just beginning to break and wash Foosha Village with a lovely golden glow. The Red Hair Pirates all were asleep where they had been partying in the bar; even Usopp was curled up in his father’s side… that was… until Luffy began to shake him awake.

“Hey, Usopp! Get up!”

“What is it?” the boy asked groggily.

“I’m hungry, and no one else is awake to cook.”

“What about Miss Makino?”

“Her door’s locked.”

Usopp groaned and tried to shake his father awake—nothing. So, instead, he found a lockpick set on one of the other pirates and went up the stairs with Luffy. He worked patiently, eventually getting the door to give way. The pair went into the dark room and tugged at the blankets, rousing the sleeping adult.

“Miss Makino!” Luffy whined. “We’re hungry!”

“Oh fuck…” was the reply, except it wasn’t Makino…

“Captain…?” Usopp frowned. “What are you doing here?”

“I… uh… fell asleep talking to Miss Makino. She’ll be down in a minute.”

“…but Shanks! You’re naked!”

“I know Luffy, just… fuck… go play until Miss Makino calls for you, alright?”

The boys left the room disheartened, but also very confused. Why was the Captain in Miss Makino’s room? It took until they were outside watching the bugs hum to life in the sunrise before Usopp realized what had happened, hitting him like a ton of bricks.

Luckily for him, the scream he let out was the same he made when a bug took him by surprise, so no one awake in Foosha paid him any mind.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

After a tearful goodbye at the docks, the Red Hair Pirates sailed off without their youngest member. The boy and his friend watched until the ship could no longer be seen on the horizon, heading off to the forest afterwards to go play with bugs. They did that for a couple months, playing during the day and pretending to be pirates up in their rooms at night, until one morning, Usopp came down the stairs and saw that Luffy was not there.

“He’s gone?!”

“Yes; his grandpa came this morning and took him to the mountains,” Makino said. “We can go visit him in a couple weeks, if you’d like.”

“A couple weeks?!”

“We’re supposed to take food up to the Dadan Family around then—that’s who he’s staying with.”

“Th-th-the D-d-d-dadan Family?! Is Luffy going to be okay?!”

“Pretty sure; his grandpa wouldn’t take him there unless the thought it would be for the best.” She watched as Usopp sat down at his usual bar stool while seeming very conflicted. “I told him about you, by the way.”

“You did…?”

“I did. He likes that Luffy has a friend in you. For the meantime, it’s probably better you stay here, with me, in a place that’s not a bandit-infested forest.”

“True, true,” Usopp nodded. A plate of food was then placed before him, brightening his expression considerably.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

Kaya,

It’s me, Usopp! I know we haven’t spoken in a long time, but I thought I’d write to you now that I know where I’m staying! There was enough left over in my allowance to get some paper and Coo fee, so here I am!

How are you doing? My dad left me in a different village, where people are nicer than the ones in Syrup. It’s called Foosha, and it’s in Goa Kingdom. I live with a lady named Makino—she’s really nice! You’d like her! She owns a bar and I help out sometimes. It’s the only one in town, so lots of people come by. Pirates, Marines, bounty hunters, bandits—we see them all! I’m saving the money I make so Luffy and I can sail to the Grand Line when we’re older! Maybe you can come along too?

Oh, yeah, that’s right: you’re my first best friend, but Luffy’s my second best friend. He used to live with Makino too, but now he lives in the mountains with his brothers Ace and Sabo. Luffy ate a Devil Fruit! He can stretch! It’s pretty cool, but not as cool as my shooting skills! I’m getting really good and some day, I’ll be better than my dad!

Okay, it’s time to wrap up now. It’s almost time for bed. I’ll send this in the morning.

Usopp

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

“Luffy! Luffy, where are you?!”

Usopp looked around the treehouse, trying to find his friend. While it wasn’t unusual for him to not be there, at the same time it felt as though something was off. The boy shuffled around in an attempt to find any of the hideout’s usual suspects and got nothing.

Huh.

Shifting his backpack, Usopp cautiously wandered the forest in search of his friend. It wasn’t really like Luffy to not be around during Supply Day, when he and Makino brought food and drinks and other things up to Curly Dadan and her bandit crew. He was getting pretty good at dodging the dangerous parts of the forest—the things that Luffy’s grandpa said would make him stronger—and was actually beginning to like the place.

Except, when he finally found Luffy, he and Ace were standing near a cliff, the younger sobbing as they watched the Grey Terminal smolder in the distance. A couple sticks tied together into a cross had been stabbed into the ground and something sickeningly familiar coiled in the pit of Usopp’s stomach.

“Luffy? Ace? Where is Sabo?”

Ace was the one to turn around first, his face more dour and serious than the other boy had ever seen. “The Celestial Dragons murdered him. They didn’t care that he was just a kid.”

“I hate them!” Luffy hissed. “I want Sabo back! We made a promise…!”

“That’s not gonna help!” Usopp snapped. He then gasped, shocked at his own outburst, and softened his tone. “Wanting a dead person to come back isn’t going to do anything, like when my mom died. You have to be brave…” He then looked down at his hands—chapped from experiments with his chemistry set and wiping tables at the bar—and began picking at his fingers. “You have to let it push you forward.”

“Smart,” Ace nodded. He watched as Usopp pulled some food from his backpack and offer it consolingly to Luffy. “You sure you don’t want to stay here with us? There’s an opening now and… well… Sabo did like you. He’d like you being our third.”

“I can’t replace him,” Usopp said, shaking his head. “Besides, I learn a lot in the village! I don’t want to stop learning because I’m out here fighting to survive!”

“Fair,” Ace chuckled. The smile on his face was genuine, which made Usopp feel better.

“Then you and I can go!” Luffy insisted. “Ace and Sabo were already going to leave me behind! I can be co-captains with Usopp!”

“Luffy, that’s a lot of responsibility,” Ace warned.

“Well, yeah, but I’m gonna get stronger! And stronger! And stronger! And Usopp’s gonna get smarter, and we won’t let anything beat us! We won’t let anything like what happened to Sabo happen again!”

“We’ll do our best,” Usopp agreed. “Because that’s what friends do, right?!”

“Shishishi—right!” Luffy grinned through the remainder of his tears and snack. He and Usopp clapped their hands together, sealing the deal.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

It was a busy afternoon in Foosha Village, with many ships at the port on their usual trade stops. In Party’s Bar, the young teenaged busboy hurried to clear tables and wipe down surfaces, moving quickly as he worked.

“I’m gonna go wash some dishes, Miss Makino,” Usopp said, presenting her with the full tub. His boss was mid-pour of some beer and nodded as she finished it off.

“Let me know when you’re done, alright?”

“Yes, ma’am!” He carried everything into the kitchen and found that the water from when he did glasses a few moments earlier was still hot. Taking advantage of that, he got right into washing dishes, not even noticing that someone else had slipped into the kitchen behind him.

“Usopp, I’m bored!” The teen nearly dropped the plate in his hands at the sound of his friend’s voice. Turning around, he saw that it was definitely his best friend and co-captain, having snuck his way in without a problem.

“Luffy, I’m working.” He put his hands on his hips and scowled. “Don’t you know what a job is?”

“Jobs are boring—let’s go have fun!”

Usopp stuck his head out the kitchen door with a scowl. “Miss Makino! Luffy’s being a bad influence!” The woman in question simply smiled as she dried a glass with an expert hand.

“You’ve been working very hard, Usopp,” she said. “I think you’ve earned a bit of time with Luffy being a bad influence. Go on.”

“…but…!”

“Go! Go!” She shooed them both out through the back, insisting she had things covered until dinner. The teens then found themselves wandering around, with Luffy eventually bringing them to sit on the cliff overlooking the harbor.

“What do you think they’re doing?” Luffy wondered, his gaze unfocused over the ocean. Usopp shrugged.

“Ace might have made it to Logue Town by now… and my dad’s in the Grand Line, so I dunno…” He looked at his friend and wondered. “Are you sure you want me to sail with you?”

“Well, yeah, of course I do,” Luffy insisted. “You’re my friend and co-captain! Like how Ace and Sabo were gonna be co-captains!”

“…except, Ace and Sabo were brothers—your brothers—and I’m just a kid who lives in town.”

“That doesn’t make it different.” Luffy then laid down, turning his face to the sky. “We’re gonna do great things once we get to the Grand Line!”

“The two of us?”

“Well, yeah, but of course we’ll have a crew first. I’m sure Shanks and your dad will laugh at us if it’s just us two in a dinghy.”

“Ha, yeah…” Usopp hugged his knees and frowned at the ocean waves. “Doesn’t mean it’s not scary.”

“Shishishi—of course it’s scary!” Luffy laughed. “That’s the whole point of adventure, isn’t it? Doing things and seeing places other people are too scared of? Being more free than anyone else out there?”

“I guess, but…”

“You worry too much, Usopp.”

“Maybe that’s because you don’t worry enough.”

“Mmm… probably. But that’s okay. We’re still the captains, and that means we’ll take care of the crew and each other. That’s what counts, right?”

“Yeah… I guess it does.”

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

Usopp admittedly wasn’t entirely prepared for when he set out from Foosha Village with Luffy, but he didn’t think that things would be as crazy as they became.

Making a new friend while surviving a mace-wielding nutcase? Check.

Recruiting a bounty hunter to the crew so powerful he was referred to as Pirate Hunter? Check.

Letting their new friend go off to do something as insane as join the Marines?! Check.

Team up with a girl to fight against a murderous clown that could slice himself into tiny bits? There was not enough insanity Usopp could conjure to have predicted that one.

However, when the young woman said that she was a navigator, there was a single request he had for where they would go next.

“So, this is where you’re from?” Nami asked. She raised an eyebrow at the sleepy little town. Their small boats were moored by the harbor and they were now walking along the path that led into the village. “There’s not a lot to it, is there?”

“No, but it’s still important to me,” Usopp said. “Let’s go see what’s going on these days!”

“Are we going to visit Kaya?” Luffy asked. Zoro and Nami looked at each other, then Usopp.

“Who’s Kaya?” Zoro wondered.

“Oh, that’s just Usopp’s super-best friend when he lived here!” Luffy explained. Usopp began to blush, which made the other two smirk. “He only talked about her, like, all the time when we were growing up!”

“We wrote a lot after I left, so we’ve been keeping in touch.”

“Well then, let’s go meet her,” Nami grinned.

Usopp swallowed hard—that was the look of a woman on a mission, and he wasn’t entirely certain he liked said mission. The crew meeting Kaya was sort of the last thing he wanted to do at the moment. He knew it was inevitable, however, and continued to lead them into the village, where everyone stared at them with some form of curiosity or disdain.

“Some welcome wagon this is,” Zoro noted as someone closed some window shutters at the sight of them. “I’ve gotten better receptions in dive bars in my bounty hunter days.”

“Well, Dad wasn’t too popular with the village, and Mom defended him, so she wasn’t liked a lot either,” Usopp shrugged. “Before I met Luffy, I only ever had one friend…”

“…and that’s this Kaya…?” Nami finished. He shrugged—well, yeah. “Do you think she’d like to come along?”

“Probably not—she’s been sick since her parents died a couple years ago. Even if she wanted to go, she’d likely need a doctor to come along too, and I don’t think any of us are good enough at medicine for that.”

“No, I guess not,” Nami said. She then noticed that they had walked past the last house, continuing on the path. “Uh… Usopp? Where does your friend live?”

“Right outside the village,” he said. “It’s how we became friends—we both didn’t live in the main part of the village, so we were practically neighbors!”

Except the crew didn’t expect his “neighbor” to live in a literal mansion, where the door was answered by a tall butler with slicked-back black hair and eyeglasses.

“Miss Kaya is too ill to visit with the likes of you; now go away.”

“Who the hell are you, telling me Kaya’s not doing well?!” Usopp fired back. He glared at the man standing in the doorway to Kaya’s house, unsure of the aura he was giving off. “I’m the Dread Captain Usopp, and I’ve been Kaya’s best friend since we were kids!”

“I’ve never seen you before,” the man sneered. He looked over Usopp’s shoulder at the rest of the crew, who were standing a few paces back. “Now you hooligans better leave before I call the police!”

“Klahadore! Don’t!” It was then that Kaya appeared at his side, looking rather cross. She also looked extremely frail, which was a distinct change from the girl who Usopp used to climb trees and play tag with. “This is the friend I’m always writing to! It’s him!”

“Miss Kaya! You should not be up!”

“My friend is back! That’s reason enough!”

“This is a charlatan, not your friend; besides, you are in no state to receive visitors.”

“Huh…” Nami muttered. “This is more interesting than I thought.”

“I’ll say,” Zoro agreed. He glanced over at Luffy, seeing that the captain’s fist was clenched. “Oi. Let Usopp fight his own battles.”

“This guy pisses me off,” Luffy said. “Usopp lies, but not about important stuff. Kaya’s one of his most important people.”

“I don’t know if that’s up for us to determine,” Nami added.

“We’ve been writing to each other to years! I’m her friend!”

“Miss Kaya has been corresponding with a young man from the city with prospects and standing,” the butler sneered. “You look like someone with neither.”

“That’s what Mother and Father told you so that you wouldn’t worry!” Kaya said. “We knew your ship was sunk by pirates, and that’s what Usopp’s dad is, but he’s a good guy!”

“Pirates are nothing but cowards and scoundrels.”

“Mother always said that his father was unjustly blamed and his mother brave for loving him! She hated having to stand by and watch, but she remembered! They were brave and loving people!”

Usopp sucked in a breath—he never heard anyone describe his parents in such a way. If that was what Kaya was always told, then maybe… was his dad wrong about this place?

“I cannot let us waste more time with these degenerates,” the butler said.

“Klahadore, that is enough! I command you—!”

Everyone went quiet as the butler slapped Kaya across the cheek. She stared at him, eyes wide and mouth ajar. Usopp froze in shock, unable to move. Luffy made a motion to hit the guy back, but Zoro put a hand on his shoulder. Not yet.

“Now look at what you made me do,” the butler hissed. “Your parents left your care to me, and now…” He looked at his own hand in irritation, which he then turned to Usopp. “You four are not welcome here. Do not attempt to contact Miss Kaya any further. Good day.”

The door closed in Usopp’s face and the teen—still in shock—could only gape.

“What the fuck…?” he breathed. “Kaya…?” He pounded both fists on the door and screamed her name at the top of his lungs.

“Come on,” Nami said, gently pulling him from the door. “We’ll figure something out.”

“…but…!”

“She’s right; let’s go,” Luffy frowned.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

It was the dead of night as Usopp snuck onto the grounds of Kaya’s mansion, heading directly over to where he remembered her room was. He knocked gently on the windowpane and stepped back, waiting for her to get out of bed. Soon as she opened the window, he hugged her tightly, an act which she returned.

“I can’t believe he did that,” he whispered. He then held her at arm’s length and tried not to gasp at the sight of her in the moonlight. “Has he ever done that before?”

“No… and he’s been apologizing since,” she replied. “I… I should have told you sooner…”

“Come with us,” Usopp blurted out. “We can get you out of here, see the world…”

“You know I can’t…!”

“We’ll just get a doctor on the way; it’s a priority anyhow,” he said. Seas… had Kaya always been this pretty? “Please…”

“I’m too fragile…”

“…from staying in this room! Come with us! Let me take care of you! Don’t tell me after all you wrote that you don’t want to see what’s out there?”

“Usopp, you know I do, but…!” She was cut off by the sound of someone else in the house, just outside her door. “Quick! Hide!” Usopp was just out of sight when the butler entered the room. “Oh! Klahadore! You didn’t need to come in!”

“You didn’t answer and I was worried,” he said. “Why is the window open?”

“I was a bit warm,” she lied. “Besides, I’m a bit restless.”

“Are you thinking about that boy again?”

“My friend, even if you don’t believe me.”

“Your parents left you in my care—it would be a great dishonor to their memory if I didn’t question the boy and his intentions regarding you.”

“His intentions…? Klahadore, his intentions involve going out to sea and becoming a proud warrior. He made a promise to visit me before he did, and he tried, and you ruined it.”

“A pirate’s child turning pirate is worse than both those things put together. His blood is poisoned…”

“…only because you don’t know him. Goodnight, Klahadore. I’ll see you in the morning.”

Despondent, the butler left the room and closed the door behind him, his charge waiting to hear his footsteps down the corridor before she flung herself back at the window, seeing Usopp hugging the wall in terror.

“Give me three days,” she said. “That’s when I’ll have the opportunity to get out of here.”

The grins they shared were brighter than the moon and stars combined.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

“I still don’t know why we’ve got to wait,” Zoro grumbled. He and the others were sitting up inside Usopp’s house he used to share with his mom, the night after he talked to Kaya. The co-captain poked his head out the window, checking to make sure no one else was around.

“That asshole butler of hers takes a weekly trip to the next town over to get certain groceries,” he said. “We’ll help her sneak out then and leave notes with another butler and the village leader to kick Klahadore out while she’s gone. Then the five of us can head to the Grand Line.”

“No offense, Usopp,” Nami said, “but what can she do other than weigh us down?”

“She won’t!”

“The witch has a point,” Zoro grunted. “She’s practically an invalid; you can’t take someone like that to the Grand Line and expect everything to turn out okay. Maybe if we already had a doctor…”

“Luffy, can you back me on this?” Usopp groaned. He looked over at the other teen, who had his nose in a book. “Luff, come on…”

“I was just looking at this book—it’s got pictures from before we met!” he said. Luffy brought the book over to the table and set it down, showing a photo of Yasopp, Banchina, and a baby Usopp. “That’s your mom, right?”

“Yeah,” Usopp nodded. Something tugged at his heart—it was the first time he’d seen a photo of his mom in a long while. He turned the page and found one of him and her together, from right before she got sick. “You know, I never thought about her being the brave one until Kaya said it earlier.”

“She risked begin shunned by the village by being with your dad, from what it sounded like,” Zoro shrugged. “That, if anything, takes guts.”

“It really does,” Usopp agreed. He tensed up and stared at the door—someone was coming. The four all readied themselves, only for three kids to burst into the house.

“Pirates!” they cried.

“Uh… yeah…” Nami grimaced. This was going to be tedious, wasn’t it? “We’re pirates.”

“No, not you pirates!” the kid with the glasses panicked. “You’ve not done pirate stuff!”

“Well, we’re gonna do pirate stuff if I’m gonna be King of the Pirates,” Luffy said plainly.

“No, you don’t get it: there’s pirates at the slopes!” the one with the green hat explained. “And they’re talking about killing Miss Kaya!”

“Her creepy butler is with them, and he says he wants to kill her himself!” Glasses said.

“We think they want to blame you for it!” the third boy said. “You’re pirates too, but you’re not mean! Doesn’t Miss Kaya like you?!”

“She does,” Nami said. She looked over at Usopp, who seemed absolutely terrified. “So, Co-Captain, what do you plan on doing?”

“We’re going to save Kaya!” he said, entire body shaking in nerves. Luffy and Zoro both grinned, as they knew that this meant they were going to be able to finally pick a fight.

It was on.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

When all was said and done, Usopp was sure he didn’t like cats to begin with anyhow. Adding the fact that Kaya’s asshole butler was a famous pirate captain that supposedly had been captured and executed years earlier and planned on killing her in order to get her money and retire? Definitely not one of the things he had expected when he set off from Foosha.

The butler crumpled to the ground unconscious, knocked out cold from Usopp’s Ten Ton Hammer. Kaya had been underneath him, making it so she had to avoid him falling on her. She looked up at her best friend and nearly cried.

“Usopp, I…!” Kaya gasped as he lifted her up to her feet. They looked at each other and giggled awkwardly. “Thank you.”

“A captain takes care of his crew,” he said. He then swallowed hard at the realization of what he just implied. “I mean, a pirate’s crew is their friends, and… you’ve always been my friend, and…”

With a smile, Kaya placed her finger on Usopp’s lips, silencing him. They then both leaned in and kissed one another, chastely yet by no means less exhilarating. The only thing that stopped them was hearing gagging noises—the Pintsized Pirate Patrol had found them.

“Oh, and what are you three going on about?” Usopp frowned. “Wait until you see someone so pretty you have no choice but to kiss them!”

“Adults are so gross!” Green Hat scowled.

“Uh-huh, sure,” Usopp deadpanned. He felt Kaya’s arms warp around his middle and he sighed, his arm going around her waist. “Now where’s the rope? We need to tie this creep up before he wakes up and tries to kill us all again!”

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

“Are you sure you can’t come along?” Usopp asked. He was sitting with Kaya on the beach, watching as Luffy, Zoro, and Nami got a tour of the Going Merry. They were getting the caravel as a gift for saving the town from the Black Cat Pirates, which honestly took the entire village by surprise. The only reason they even believed the teens was the fact that Merry backed them at all, so it was his honor to present them with their reward.

“I’ve got to get better first, but I think I’m going to do something else,” she said. “I want to be a doctor.”

“That’s… very different from sailing with us,” he acknowledged. “I’m just curious… why?”

“…because one day you’re going to be dragging yourself back here and someone is going to need to patch you up,” she giggled.

“Ouch, okay, fair.” They both laughed before he leaned in and pressed a kiss to her lips. “As long as you’re going forward.”

“Yeah.” She saw how much fun the others were having with Merry and she nodded to gesture in their direction. “Come on—a captain needs to take care of his crew, right?”

“Right.”

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

“Miss Kaya, the newspaper.”

Months had gone by in Syrup Village, with Kaya making considerable improvement with both her condition and her studies. She was reading a chapter on phlebotomy over breakfast when Merry brought in the paper.

“Oh, thank you!” She took it from him appreciatively. “There’s so much happening that it’s difficult to keep up, isn’t it?”

“It can be,” he agreed. Merry watched as her brow furrowed at the front page. “What is it?”

“Usopp…” She went to the bounty poster inserts and pulled out a small pile dedicated to the Straw Hat Pirates. There was Luffy, Zoro, Nami… ah… wait… Sogeking?! “They all have bounties now.”

“Well, would you look at that; you’re right!” Merry laughed. “Declaring war on the World Government? Oh, he is going to need to get patched up next time you see him!”

Declaring war on the World Government in order to save his crewmate… he really was a brave captain after all.

[iamdyeing]

POKÉMON EGGS

I made some plush eggs as gifts for some of my friends this past Christmas and completely forgot to post about it, but here’s the post now!

I will go over my personal plush process below the cut, but I wonder if you can guess who these pokemon are before you reach the end of the post?

First, I bought some minky-like polyester fabric, along with some RIT dye-more synthetic dyes to get specific colors I might not have found at my local store. I cut egg shells and some rough blocks for the patterned bits and dyed a lot of it.

Once things were dyed, I began to cut out the pattern parts: spots, stripes, rings, etc. I used basic paper for special stencils and free-handed the designs, traced them on the back or wrong side of the fabric with a pen. Then, very carefully, I cut just barely outside the lines with some sharp scissors.

Once this was done, I began to pin the parts to the shells where I wanted them and then top-stitched them onto the shells, about 1/8th-1/4th of an inch or as close as I comfortably felt like getting to the edge of each piece without risking my machine eating the whole thing (it tried to twice because I was rushing).

I sewed the shells together, snipped up to the seams on each side of the shell up to but not on the seams, so as to keep the eggs round as possible, then flipped them inside out. Here they are all folded neat and nice together.

Finally, I stuffed them until they were nice and firm with polyfil, and hand sewed them shut with my best attempts at an invisible stitch. Then I had a handful of pokemon eggs ready to be loved and cared for by some new trainers!

When I wrapped them up, I made some tags with card stock and ribbon and wrote some dex entries and care tips for them!

When the actual time came, they were all so thrilled, and that in turn made my heart soar. I have made many crafts but this project really pushed me out of my comfort zone and I had quite a lot of fun making them. I hope that this project inspires you to go and make your own pokemon inspired crafts!

If you made it this far bc you’re interested in these, I have made some other pokemon egg plushies before, a Basic 2km GO styled egg, a Cleffa egg and Pichu and Skorupi eggs.

And if you were stumped by any of the pokemon eggs, from left to right starting from the top row in picture one, they are Eevee, Alolan Vulpix, Gothita, Corphish, Pumpkaboo, Paldean Wooper and Caterpie. If you managed to guess them all correctly then congrats! The only prize for that is satisfaction on your knowledge of pokemon :)

I do plan on making some more in the future, namely another Alolan Vulpix and Eevee egg for me, because those two were my favorites of the batch, but also a Happiny and a Togepi egg like from the anime. What were your favorite eggs that I made and what would you like to see in the future? Lemme know in the comments!

[slytherinshua]

omg zanna!!!

firstly omg babe congrats on 1.5k!!!! youre growing so fast :( secondly the fics you rec-d had me dying (ftom cuteness ofc) amd just omg :( ty and thirdly youre really adorable!!! ofc i look up to you have you seen your blog???? babe your writing has me crying into my pillow at (exactly) 4:02 am. But genuinely the way you write is just so <3!!!! Its really really comforting. Im really envious because anything i write sounds like a first grader write it (in a happy im proud of you way!!) and ofc dw abt it that was def my fault shouldve thought that through but yeah ofc you can call me sprout!!! Also again omg zanna 1.5k!!!! and for the event how many groups do you like (this includes casually stanning too) and omg tws!!!! ( My children :( ](so idk but whenever i stan a new group automatically four positions form in my head: (idk im weird) of theres the two basic, bias and bias wrecker/s and then theres emotionally closest to and special place in my heart so ig my question is for like all or any of your fav kpop groups whod you put where?) Happy valentines day!! Happy carat day!!

-🌱!!!

SPROUT!! i get so happy when i see you in my inbox eskdjks

omg i'm glad you enjoyed them 🥹 i wish i could've gotten some more but my tumblr is always dry except for moot fics and i don't read much nowadays 💔 except for real books damn...

WHAT NO WAY MY WRITING MADE YOU CRY??? 🤨🤨🤨🤨 but thank you :(

i'm sure its much better than you think sprout :( and believe it or not, everyone starts out writing like a first grader, but the more you practice the better you become!!! and you can also put in effort to try to learn techniques and stuff but i'm too lazy for that tho i do def want to improve my writing style so we'll see :D

aww it's okay tho we're on good terms now!!! so don't worry abt that <33

okay how many groups do i like?

okay so txt, verivery, onf, victon, seventeen, astro, skz, the rose, enhypen, mcnd, newjeans, lucy, billlie, sf9, &team, red velvet, ive, bts, the boyz, viviz, n.flying, xdinary heroes, xg, boynextdoor, le sserafim, mamamoo, p1harmony, riize, wei are kinda the groups i can say i stan

got7, ateez, shinee, pentagon, nct (all units), are groups i casually enjoy and know the first 3 esp pretty well for members as well!!

im enjoy a lot of soloists and i would love to get into some other groups that i listen to occasionally as well (cix, oneus, cravity, ace, e'last etc)

i'm also familiar w gidle, itzy, twice, oh my girl, akmu, blackpink, monsta x, aespa, nmixx, exo, zerobaseone, and some more but don't consider them to be on my stanlist yet

so i think i stan 29 groups, 15(ish) soloists, and know 16ish other groups rly well !!

who would you put in the positions bias, bias wrecker, emotionally closest to, and special place in your heart?

ooo that's a rly interesting question!! i'm gonna do it just for my ult groups i think... and maybe svt too skdjks since they were ults

so for txt

bias - taehyun bias wrecker - hueningkai emotionally closest to - soobin or taehyun special place - taehyun... KSJDKS

for onf

bias - yuto, minkyun bias wrecker - seungjun emotionally closest to - minkyun (he rly likes cats what can i say) special place - etion :( i love him so much

for verivery

bias - gyehyeon bias wrecker - yongseung emotionally closest to - hoyoung maybe? special place - minchan

and for svt bonus yayayay

bias - joshua, dk bias wrecker - wonwoo emotionally closest to - woozi special place - jun

happy valentines and carat day to you as well <33 sry i didn't get to answering this yesterday cause i was BUSY WITHOUT DEVICES RIP BUT WE'RE HERE NOW <33

[danidoesathing]

Can you list some of your favorite horror movies facts you know? :0

oh anon you have opened up pandoras box

-In Midsommar, the images of Dani's dead family is overlaid multiple times throughout the film despite her never seeing their bodies like the audience did

-X and Pearl were filmed at the same time!

-Miles Fischer, who plays Peter in Film Destination 5, is also a musician and made a music video with the cast of FD5 which was a parody of said movie and sitcoms like Save By the Bell. It's called New Romance and can be watched here

-Speaking of Final Destination, Mary Elizabeth Winstead (the star of three) actually produced a that single tear in the final scene all naturally. She had to do it twice because the first take was ruined.

-The Roller Coaster scene in 3 was also the last filmed!

-Tony Todd appears in every Final Destination movie except for 4 (In three he voiced the ominous devil statue in front of the Coaster). His character is named William Bludsworth (yes really).

-Scream had originally Dewy dying at the end, but the director made a decision (I mean literally while filming that scene last second) to change his fate

-You can tell who is Ghostface at any point in time by the way they hold the knife. Stu uses two hands with the knife, while Billy only holds it with his right hand. Billy also tends to strangle people for whatever reason.

-Wes Craven did not know about line about all the Nightmare on Elm Street's sequels sucking so he had no part in that.

-None of the Cloverfield movies were written to be in a connected universe, and two of the three were actually made under different titles that had both those and their scripts altered to fit the "connected universe" thing. So if you ever felt like those movies felt weirdly disconnected, congrats! you're right

-John Goodman actually makes an appearance in The Cloverfield Paradox in a brief news interview. Once again, he plays a character whose theories are 100% correct but sounds insane, but they are confirmed not to be the same character

-The first Cloverfield Movie actually had an ARG. Really. like a whole ass ARG for promotion. wild

-In the Hellbound Heart book, Pinhead and the rest of the Cenobites are written as gender neutral leaning towards feminine. Diversity win! the torture bondage demons are nonbinary!

-Hereditary was originally planned to take place during winter, but Ari Aster changed his mind once arriving on set

-The set of Hereditary was constructed in a way that had the walls and ceiling able to be moved/removed which allows for the more creative camera angles seen in the film.

-Tony Todd has played Candyman/Daniel Robitaille in every Candyman movie. Yes even in the sequels

-Prey is the first full lengthen film to have a full Comanche dub (which was all recorded by the originally actors!)

-The translator in Prey, Raphael, appears in the Predator comics (specifically, Predator: 1718) and is referenced in Predator 2

-Cabin in the Woods was obviously heavily inspired by Evil Dead. But the infamous betting board actually names Deadites as a monster. This implies that Ash's unfortunate adventures in the cabin was a successful ritual and the only reason he was allowed to live was because he played the role of the Virgin (this is obviously not canon, but its a neat idea)

-It also makes reference to the "Angry Molesting Tree" from Evil Dead. "Snowman" may be a reference to Jack Frost (killer snowman movie) and the Reanimated may be a reference to The Reaminator

-The dog in The Thing, Jed, was not trained to a lot of the odd behavior the Thing actually shows. For example, the brief moment where he looks into the camera and then looks away, which creates a very uneasy feeling of being seen in the audience. There are also moments where he dead still. He was not trained to do either of these things. He was just a very talented actor and I love him.

-The first victim of The Thing's shadow is not done by any of the actors of the movie. Its actually the director's, as it creates more ambiguity as to his identity

-Joe Hill is Stephen King's son. He is also a writer, and wrote the original source material for things like The Black Phone, Horns, Locke and Key, and NOS4A2. They both wrote In the Tall Grass

and now for facts about one of my favorite horror movies

-Nope originally ended with the deaths of both OJ and Angel. Even after OJ's fate was changed, they only changed Angel's fate after Brandon Perea (his actor) convinced Jorden Peele to change his fact. Angel's plot armor ascends even reality fr

-The track that plays during OJ's final scene is called "A Hero Falls" likely because it was written for his death. The song also has parallels to a track that played in the beginning of the movie during OJ and Em's car ride to the ranch

-OJ's actor, Daniel Kaluuya, mentioned having suffered an injury years ago due to a horse riding accident and developed a fear of horse riding from that. He had to work through that for the role.

-Ricky is referred to as "Jupe" through almost the entirety of the film, even in the subtitles. This has no meaning or symbolism for his character whatsoever im sure.

-Jean Jacket and it's alternate form was inspired by sea creatures like Jellyfish and Octopus, but it was also inspired by the angels in Neon Genesis Evangelion. Specifically Sahaquiel, the tenth angel

-Em performs the Akira slide during the climax of the movie

-There's a few alternate dialogue for scenes that can be seen in the deleted scenes. it doesn't make that much a difference in terms of themes/story/characterization/etc but we did learn that OJ had a thing for Oprah when he was younger which explains some of Em's jabs at him

-There's a deleted scene that has an alternate introduced to Em that revealed the reason she was late was because she hitting on a group of girls. cant say im surprised tbh but I find it funny the longest deleted scene is just another confirmation that Emerald gets the most pussy in the state of California

-Antlers wears a skirt for the entirety of the film

-While OJ was going after Ghost and sees the power going out during Ricky's practice for the Star Lasso Expereince, you can see the power line's lights going off which shows JJ's path back to the farm

-Brandon Perea was the one that insisted on expanding Angel's character during development past Peele's original baseline idea

-Michael Abels scored this film as well as Get Out and Us

and I probably have more but. christ this post is long

[seeingivy]

Hi Ronnie 👋🏻

Wanted to pop in and say two things. First- congrats on passing your exam! I’ve been in a downer mood as of late, and when I saw your post I was reminded that things can change and work out for the better- so that gave me some hope. Just wanted to thank you for that 💕 and encourage you to keep kicking some booty at school!

Second- as a Taylor/Gojo Girlie- I was wondering if you had anything in the works 👉🏻👈🏻?

I’ve been dying to see an update, but know how busy you are with your other two fics.

HI SWEETIE ANON PIE!

thank you so much! to be honest, i know it sounds really cheesy, but i do think that things work n the best of ways sometimes. the fact that i took the class twice has honestly made me so competent in my skills and taught me all of the material so much more in depth. mind you, this class was for me to become an emergency medical technician - and now i feel so much more competent in my skills and at my job feel so much more comfortable interacting with patients on my own. keep kicking your booty at school!! you'll learn to roll with the punches and come out of it better.

second! honestly, i was having a little bit of a taylor as gojo drought, and just hadn't listened to her music in a while, though there are some old ideas that are floating around in the good old head to be honest. it's not something i necessarily gravitate towards writing, just because honestly i don't get many interactions on them, but this ask does remind me that people are interested in it and that i should bring it back!!

[wheremermaidsdwell]

Chapter 9 of 19

After almost dying in Eddie Munson's trailer Chrissy decided something in her life had to change. If she was going to recover from her eating disorder before it killed her, then she needed to fix her life of enablers, and trashing her reputation seemed like the way to go. If Eddie Munson and the Hellfire club was the fastest way to ruin her popularity, then all the better. Eddie had helped her once, maybe he'd do it again.

Chrissy was flushed and excited and a little nervous just thinking about it. What if it was bad? She didn't find sex particularly amazing or anything, but it was usually nice, and her imaginings of Eddie flared so hot she felt as though it had to be good. 

Still, what did she know, she'd only ever slept with one guy. 

She watched his lips as they ate and yeah, she didn't know when the switch had flipped in her head to find him attractive, she surely hadn't paid him enough attention before all this. After last night she found him even more utterly distracting.

Congrats guys we made it to the porn 🎉 Halfway through the fic (19 is a short epilogue) I'm tired but the fic is already finished so hey, it's fine. Why did I decide to post twice a week lol

[noficbyhalves]

I was scrolling the Altaïr tag when I came across your wip snippet with Malik and the magic cell phone and im so curious and also just really love the way you wrote him and I'm dying to see more <3

Congrats friend on activating my single remaining spoon in order to mostly finish this scene (it would've been real nice if it did that for something useful, like cleaning the bathroom, but here we are). Have some more Malik al-Sayf, Disaster Wizard (and Altair not-yet-ibn-La'Ahad, being a Completely Different kind of disaster):

It was muscle memory more than anything that dragged Altair out of the dungeons and up the stairs. He didn't know what would have happened if he encountered anyone on the way there. By the time he got to the room, his heart was pounding so loud he could barely hear his own footsteps.

Malik's repeated trials had shown that the room only worked if it could make your thoughts into a place, but the only thought in Altair's head was MalikMalikMalik. A door appeared anyway. It occurred to him, when his hand was already on the handle, that there might have been something specific he was supposed to have asked for that he had forgotten entirely. With no other options and his heart rabbiting wildly, he pushed the door open.

The room inside was surprisingly large, and gave the impression of being half hideout, half library. There was a cot in the corner, and a long low table off to one side, positively covered in open tomes and piles of notes and diagrams. In the middle of it all was Malik, wand tucked behind his ear, scowling at a book heavy enough to be a weapon. His face was doing that twitching thing it sometimes did when he was focusing very intently. He looked gaunt, Altair realized, haggard and tired, the bags under his eyes large enough to swallow the sun. How had he not noticed earlier? The thought sunk like a stone.

[...]

Altair shoved back the hood of the cloak, trying to form a barely-adequate apology for the days-long delay. When he glanced back at Malik, the smile creeping across his face made Altair's chest ache. It softened the harsh lines of his brow and made his eyes crinkle at the corners. Not a brilliant, bright-eyed, look-at-this-shit grin, but a quiet, gentle smile. The kind of smile he associated with late nights and starry skies, the feeling that they were the only two people in the world.

Altair pulled Malik into a crushing hug, making him squawk in mild surprise, mostly to prevent himself from doing anything stupid (like kissing him on the mouth). The solid, grounding pressure of Malik's arm curling around his back was an added bonus. If Altair was struggling not to cling to him the feeling was at least mutual.

"Altair?" Malik said. Altair didn't even know how to answer. He clutched Malik tighter, hoping to communicate the tangled nest of emotions churning in his chest. Malik let him – always let him – hugging him back just as fiercely and waited for him to untangle his thoughts. 

"My summer was horrible," he finally mumbled into Malik's shoulder, when the silence became unbearable.

Malik made a noise that sounded halfway between a laugh and a sob. "Really? I couldn't tell."

All of Altair's words seemed caught in his throat. I miss you. I need you. I lo- "I should've gone back with you," he croaked.

"We're not doing should'ves," Malik said, squeezing him once more before slowly pulling back. "Only way out is through, and all that rot."

The only way out had – up until that point – looked like painful, horrible death, but Altair chose not to mention that.

"Speaking of," Malik said, gesturing to the portion of the room behind Altair, "we should probably get started."

When he turned, he startled at the giant sprawling runic design taking up the other half of the space. He had no idea how he had missed it. (He knew exactly how he had missed it.) The whole thing could easily have spanned his grandfather's gilded dining table twice over, made up of swirls and eddies of finger-length runes that even creeped up the walls a good few feet. Altair had no earthly idea what most of the individual symbols meant, much less why some were chalked and some were painted and some were carved into the stone. Suddenly the exhaustion on Malik's face made a horrifying amount of sense.

"What? I- what is that?"

"Somewhere between my magnum opus and my sleep paralysis demon," Malik commented dryly. "I'm calling it a Sanctumancy Rig."

[heliads]

congrats on 7k lisa 🫶🫶 may i request 🌎 with nikolai lantsov?

thank you! ok i did my random world generation and nikolai is doing a crossover with knives out. similar to the one i did with charles leclerc, this basicallly just means nikolai murder mystery :))

Aleksander Morozova turns up dead one sunny midmorning, and although no one is entirely convinced that this is a bad thing, it is, lawfully, a crime, and thus someone must be punished for it. Zoya Nazyalensky is appointed chief investigator because she’s pretty good at pretty much everything, so surely she of all people should be able to turn something up.

There are, of course, a myriad of suspects, countless individuals with lingering resentment towards the deceased. For some reason, the name ‘Nikolai Lantsov’ keeps popping up, and no one can quite explain why. The public thinks it’s outrageous. Sure, he’s got friends who were wronged by Aleksander, but at the end of the day, he’s Nikolai Lantsov– you think he would murder someone like that? Ridiculous.

And they’re right, actually. Nikolai Lantsov did not kill anybody. Sturmhond did, though, and no one thought twice to ask about that. Nikolai had the perfect alibi of being at yet another one of a thousand functions necessary for his role in the government. Witnesses said they saw Nikolai there, so that word was as good as gold.

Sturmhond, however, left the party under the cover of midnight. He changed his clothes so he wouldn’t be recognized– no one looked past the lurid shade of that teal coat to the man who was beneath it. He even dyed his hair with a temporary color, turned the blond locks a more muted copper. The remnants were still there the next day, but by then it didn’t really matter anymore; he could wash it out, cover the rest up with the crown of his superior reputation, and no one would look twice.

The only problem was that Aleksander fought back. Sturmhond had tried to sneak up on him, almost got the sick job over then and there, but Aleksander stabbed him in the chest with the closest object as the deed was carried out. Pens can’t actually kill someone, especially when you’re thrashing about in the throes of death as Aleksander was, but they can still leave a mark, the ink black as shadow across a killer’s flesh.

If you look, he’s still got the stain of it right over his heart. No one asks to see it, though, and so another secret goes buried. Or, it should have, but Zoya went looking for clues. Any detective worth their salt can put the pieces together, and she did. Who knows what might have happened were she not convinced that it would be best if the public thought Nikolai was alive and well, that Aleksander was dead and there was nothing more to it.

Perhaps this story might be much different. Perhaps neither of them would have survived. Perhaps the ending would be far, far worse, and that is exactly why Zoya kept her mouth shut.

thank you for taking part in my 7k celebration!