#Estimated play time: ten minutes :+)

[hollowtones]

MY SPOILER FREE REVIEW OF MyHouse.wad:

Holy Fuck, Dude

[txttletale]

Saw a tweet that said something around:

"cannot emphasize enough how horrid chatgpt is, y'all. it's depleting our global power & water supply, stopping us from thinking or writing critically, plagiarizing human artists. today's students are worried they won't have jobs because of AI tools. this isn't a world we deserve"

I've seen some of your AI posts and they seem nuanced, but how would you respond do this? Cause it seems fairly-on point and like the crux of most worries. Sorry if this is a troublesome ask, just trying to learn so any input would be appreciated.

i would simply respond that almost none of that is true.

'depleting the global power and water supply'

something i've seen making the roudns on tumblr is that chatgpt queries use 3 watt-hours per query. wow, that sounds like a lot, especially with all the articles emphasizing that this is ten times as much as google search. let's check some other very common power uses:

running a microwave for ten minutes is 133 watt-hours

gaming on your ps5 for an hour is 200 watt-hours

watching an hour of netflix is 800 watt-hours

and those are just domestic consumer electricty uses!

a single streetlight's typical operation 1.2 kilowatt-hours a day (or 1200 watt-hours)

a digital billboard being on for an hour is 4.7 kilowatt-hours (or 4700 watt-hours)

i think i've proved my point, so let's move on to the bigger picture: there are estimates that AI is going to cause datacenters to double or even triple in power consumption in the next year or two! damn that sounds scary. hey, how significant as a percentage of global power consumption are datecenters?

1-1.5%.

ah. well. nevertheless!

what about that water? yeah, datacenters use a lot of water for cooling. 1.7 billion gallons (microsoft's usage figure for 2021) is a lot of water! of course, when you look at those huge and scary numbers, there's some important context missing. it's not like that water is shipped to venus: some of it is evaporated and the rest is generally recycled in cooling towers. also, not all of the water used is potable--some datacenters cool themselves with filtered wastewater.

most importantly, this number is for all data centers. there's no good way to separate the 'AI' out for that, except to make educated guesses based on power consumption and percentage changes. that water figure isn't all attributable to AI, plenty of it is necessary to simply run regular web servers.

but sure, just taking that number in isolation, i think we can all broadly agree that it's bad that, for example, people are being asked to reduce their household water usage while google waltzes in and takes billions of gallons from those same public reservoirs.

but again, let's put this in perspective: in 2017, coca cola used 289 billion liters of water--that's 7 billion gallons! bayer (formerly monsanto) in 2018 used 124 million cubic meters--that's 32 billion gallons!

so, like. yeah, AI uses electricity, and water, to do a bunch of stuff that is basically silly and frivolous, and that is broadly speaking, as someone who likes living on a planet that is less than 30% on fire, bad. but if you look at the overall numbers involved it is a miniscule drop in the ocean! it is a functional irrelevance! it is not in any way 'depleting' anything!

'stopping us from thinking or writing critically'

this is the same old reactionary canard we hear over and over again in different forms. when was this mythic golden age when everyone was thinking and writing critically? surely we have all heard these same complaints about tiktok, about phones, about the internet itself? if we had been around a few hundred years earlier, we could have heard that "The free access which many young people have to romances, novels, and plays has poisoned the mind and corrupted the morals of many a promising youth."

it is a reactionary narrative of societal degeneration with no basis in anything. yes, it is very funny that laywers have lost the bar for trusting chatgpt to cite cases for them. but if you think that chatgpt somehow prevented them from thinking critically about its output, you're accusing the tail of wagging the dog.

nobody who says shit like "oh wow chatgpt can write every novel and movie now. yiou can just ask chatgpt to give you opinions and ideas and then use them its so great" was, like, sitting in the symposium debating the nature of the sublime before chatgpt released. there is no 'decay', there is no 'decline'. you should be suspicious of those narratives wherever you see them, especially if you are inclined to agree!

plagiarizing human artists

nah. i've been over this ad infinitum--nothing 'AI art' does could be considered plagiarism without a definition so preposterously expansive that it would curtail huge swathes of human creative expression.

AI art models do not contain or reproduce any images. the result of them being trained on images is a very very complex statistical model that contains a lot of large-scale statistical data about all those images put together (and no data about any of those individual images).

to draw a very tortured comparison, imagine you had a great idea for how to make the next Great American Painting. you loaded up a big file of every norman rockwell painting, and you made a gigantic excel spreadsheet. in this spreadsheet you noticed how regularly elements recurred: in each cell you would have something like "naturalistic lighting" or "sexually unawakened farmers" and the % of times it appears in his paintings. from this, you then drew links between these cells--what % of paintings containing sexually unawakened farmers also contained naturalistic lighting? what % also contained a white guy?

then, if you told someone else with moderately competent skill at painting to use your excel spreadsheet to generate a Great American Painting, you would likely end up with something that is recognizably similar to a Norman Rockwell painting: but any charge of 'plagiarism' would be absolutely fucking absurd!

this is a gross oversimplification, of course, but it is much closer to how AI art works than the 'collage machine' description most people who are all het up about plagiarism talk about--and if it were a collage machine, it would still not be plagiarising because collages aren't plagiarism.

(for a better and smarter explanation of the process from soneone who actually understands it check out this great twitter thread by @reachartwork)

today's students are worried they won't have jobs because of AI tools

i mean, this is true! AI tools are definitely going to destroy livelihoods. they will increase productivty for skilled writers and artists who learn to use them, which will immiserate those jobs--they will outright replace a lot of artists and writers for whom quality is not actually important to the work they do (this has already essentially happened to the SEO slop website industry and is in the process of happening to stock images).

jobs in, for example, product support are being cut for chatgpt. and that sucks for everyone involved. but this isn't some unique evil of chatgpt or machine learning, this is just the effect that technological innovation has on industries under capitalism!

there are plenty of innovations that wiped out other job sectors overnight. the camera was disastrous for portrait artists. the spinning jenny was famously disastrous for the hand-textile workers from which the luddites drew their ranks. retail work was hit hard by self-checkout machines. this is the shape of every single innovation that can increase productivity, as marx explains in wage labour and capital:

“The greater division of labour enables one labourer to accomplish the work of five, 10, or 20 labourers; it therefore increases competition among the labourers fivefold, tenfold, or twentyfold. The labourers compete not only by selling themselves one cheaper than the other, but also by one doing the work of five, 10, or 20; and they are forced to compete in this manner by the division of labour, which is introduced and steadily improved by capital. Furthermore, to the same degree in which the division of labour increases, is the labour simplified. The special skill of the labourer becomes worthless. He becomes transformed into a simple monotonous force of production, with neither physical nor mental elasticity. His work becomes accessible to all; therefore competitors press upon him from all sides. Moreover, it must be remembered that the more simple, the more easily learned the work is, so much the less is its cost to production, the expense of its acquisition, and so much the lower must the wages sink – for, like the price of any other commodity, they are determined by the cost of production. Therefore, in the same manner in which labour becomes more unsatisfactory, more repulsive, do competition increase and wages decrease”

this is the process by which every technological advancement is used to increase the domination of the owning class over the working class. not due to some inherent flaw or malice of the technology itself, but due to the material realtions of production.

so again the overarching point is that none of this is uniquely symptomatic of AI art or whatever ever most recent technological innovation. it is symptomatic of capitalism. we remember the luddites primarily for failing and not accomplishing anything of meaning.

if you think it's bad that this new technology is being used with no consideration for the planet, for social good, for the flourishing of human beings, then i agree with you! but then your problem shouldn't be with the technology--it should be with the economic system under which its use is controlled and dictated by the bourgeoisie.

[writingquestionsanswered]

Tips for writers with ADHD that get major writers block/burnout

Writers with ADHD and Writer's Block/Burnout

Tip #1 - Troubleshoot the Problem - I want to start here, in the most obvious place, because even for writers with ADHD, writer's block is often the result of a specific issue that can be surmounted once identified. My post 5 Reasons You Lost Interest in Your WIP, Plus Fixes! addresses some of the most common ones. It's worth checking to see if something on there resonates with you as a potential obstacle to progress.

Tip #2 - De-Stress Your Writing Time - Human brains are wired to respond in specific ways to perceived threats... fight, flight, or freeze. Quite often, what we call "writer's block" is actually your brain having a freeze response to writing because it's causing you stress and is therefore perceived as a threat.

So, anything you can do to de-stress your writing time can help. Troubleshooting the problem as in #1 is a good start. Set reasonable goals and deadlines... you can estimate your available writing time and calculate that with your estimated WPM to see if it's even possible for you to hit your word count goal. Go easy on yourself when you don't reach goals... celebrate even the smallest of wins, because negative thinking makes writing more stressful. Do what you can to set up an inviting writing space, light a candle (safely), play soft music, use ambient lighting, have your favorite beverage and snack at hand.

Tip #3 - "Gamify" Your Writing - Turning your writing goals into game achievements can make writing fun, which is another great way to de-stress it. You can usually find free game board templates online, or you can create your own. I like to set mine up like this:

You can set as many tasks as you want (within reason) for each goal, and your prizes can be anything from a handful of candy to buying something you really want, or doing something you really want to do. Whatever works for your budget that motivates you to get the tasks done.

Tip #4 - Do an Immersive Writing Sprint Session - YouTube is a wonderland of helpful videos for writers... not just easily digestible writing advice and research information, but also writing music, ambience rooms, and one of my favorites, immersive writing sessions. These are themed ambience rooms with ambient video, music, and sound effects, but they also have a writing sprint timer on the screen, so you are encouraged to write for however long (usually 10 to 20 minutes), then you get a five or ten-minute break before the next sprint starts. These can be a really great way to get into the zone if you're struggling otherwise.

Tip #5 - Eliminate Distractions - When you have ADHD, pretty much anything can be a distraction. If my desk is messy, I'll pause mid-sentence to clean it rather than write. If there's something on my desk I can fidget with or play with, I'll do that. If my phone is handy, I'll pick it up and start scrolling through social media. If I'm listening to music with words, I'll go look up the lyrics and fall down some weird tangentially related rabbit hole. If I'm hungry or thirsty, I'll get up fifty times to get a small snack or drink. So, I clean my desk ahead of time and remove anything I might be tempted to fiddle with. I only play instrumental music (usually an ambience room). I put my phone on silent or leave it in another room.

Literally anything I can do to head my usual distractions off at the pass. For me, it actually makes a big difference. Try keeping a running list of things that distract you while writing during a week of writing sessions. Then, go through the list and write solutions. This helps you build a pre-writing session distraction elimination routine.

I hope something here will work for you! I may do a part two to this soon, so keep an eye out!

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

I’ve been writing seriously for over 30 years and love to share what I’ve learned. Have a writing question? My inbox is always open!

♦ Questions that violate my ask policies will be deleted! ♦ Please see my master list of top posts before asking ♦ Learn more about WQA here

[creamhoodie]

˖⁺‧₊˚♡˚₊ Bro Code ˖⁺‧₊˚♡˚₊

synopsis: You and Reo are planning a surprise party for Nagi's birthday but he mistakenly thinks there is something going on between Reo and you and gets jealous. Warnings: 3,048 words, established friendship, angst, no overt smut but innuendos. Not rushed but finished and edited today because I got into it.

“Hey, I brought the snacks,” you said walking into Nagi’s dorm room. You had come over to spend time with him and Reo and it had been your turn to bring over refreshments.

“Hey,” Nagi said, turning around from where he sat on the couch playing his PS4 and shooting you a grin. “Nice, you got the cheese ruffles I wanted.”

You sat next to him and opened the bag  and promptly began to feed him chip by chip in the way you always did since you know he hated getting his fingers dirty while gaming.

“Where’s Reo?” You asked not having spotted your other best friend when you had entered.

“He should be here soon,” Nagi said, biting the next chip but instead, this time he accidentally over estimated and ended up with your fingers in his mouth as well. 

You blushed as your fingers lingered there for a second before removing them while he mumbled a “sorry” while chewing. 

Okay so maybe you were crushing on Nagi and had been for a while now and as a result Reo who of course knew this had started arriving later to your hang outs in order to give you alone time; but it’s not like Nagi needed to know that. Just like he didn’t need to know about the birthday party you and Reo were planning for him and had been planning for a few weeks now. 

“Hey sorry I’m late,” Reo said entering the room and holding a pack of donuts. 

“Reo I told you it wasn’t your turn for snacks,” You said as he plopped down alongside you on the couch. 

“Hey I’m not complaining,” Nagi said, placing his controller down now to grab a donut. You hoped it wasn’t due to the awkwardness caused by having your fingers in his mouth. 

“Hey you forgot this at my place yesterday,” Reo said to you handing you your scrunchie as he took it out of his hair undoing his ponytail and placed it on your lap. 

You felt Nagi stiffen beside you at his words. 

“Oh thanks Reo,” you replied. You wished he hadn’t said that because you were at his place yesterday planning the decorations for Nagi’s surprise birthday party and the last thing you needed was any suspicion. 

“You two hung out yesterday?” Nagi asked, his voice tight as he placed the donut down on the coffee table in front of the couch and continued to play his game. 

“Um yeah Reo just-“

“She just came over to get some of my mom’s unwanted things I let her have,” Reo finished for you with a perfectly believable excuse. He was rich and his mom surely would have branded items you’d want if she rejected.

“Oh. Cool,” Nagi said in a monotone voice. 

You exchanged a look with Reo who mouthed “sorry.”

Luckily the moment didn’t last long as Reo noticed Nagi was playing a new game that had recently come out and he asked if he could play too. 

The rest of the night was spent with the three of you playing games and you occasionally watching videos on your phone. When it was time to go Reo said he was dipping out early because he had a few errands to run on his way home, some of which you knew included the surprise party. 

“You’ll be okay going home on the sub this late?” Nagi asked as he walked you to his front door. 

“I can manage,” you replied though when he was this close the height difference between the two of you always made you blush. He ran a hand through his hair. 

“Really because I don’t like the idea of you being alone out there,” he said leaning against the door frame. 

“It’s okay it’s really not that far at all, it's like a ten minute ride,” you said.

“Alright but take this,” he said, taking off his cream colored hoodie, his white shirt underneath riding up to show a little of his abs, as he handed it to you. “I don’t want you to be cold. I know subs feel colder at night.” 

You took it from him and put it on, breathing in his ocean breeze scent. 

“Thanks Sei,” you said. 

“Goodnight,” he said, eyes lingering on you.

“Goodnight Sei.” 

˖⁺‧₊˚♡˚₊

“Sorry again about yesterday,” Reo said. 

The two of you were sitting on his bed, iPads in hand coordinating the finishing touches to Nagi’s birthday party that would be happening this weekend on a shared google doc. 

“It’s fine I’m just glad Sei bought the excuse,” you said as you overlooked the details for catering. “We have sushi, pizza, and an ice cream truck. You think we’ll have enough food?” you joked. 

“We’ll have more than enough but I’m starting to think we should get a pretzel truck too,” Reo answered.

“You spoil him so much,” you said laughing.

“Says the one who feeds him,” Reo retorted, making you both laugh. 

This is how the past few weeks had been spent with Reo bonding over your shared love of the white haired striker. The two of you had to be strategic about it though so Nagi wouldn’t get suspicious. As a result the two of you tended to meet late on school nights when Nagi could be found at his dorm gaming. 

“You really like him don’t you?” Reo asked, bringing your attention back on him. You felt your face heat up.

“I don’t know how you picked up on it. I thought I hid it well,” you said. That made him laugh.

“The two of you are so obvious to everyone but each other I mean you’re always flirting!” He said. 

You shook your head.

“I can’t tell with Sei. Either way I love being his friend so it doesn’t matter,” you said trying to console yourself.

“You should tell him how you feel,” Reo said. You shook your head.

“Wouldn’t wanna make it awkward and ruin our friendship if anything.” 

You went back to the iPad and went over to the  guest invitation list. Reo was rich enough to want to invite the whole school but you were pragmatic enough to reel him in and say that Nagi would prefer just the soccer team as those were the only people he got along with. You laid down on your stomach resting your chin on Reo’s lap from where he was still sitting on the bed with his legs outstretched. 

“Are you sure we should keep the guests to only the soccer team?” Reo asked, starting again with the same debate. 

You looked up at him. 

“You just want an excuse to spend more money,” you said, rolling your eyes at his wealth. 

“True but it is a celebration after all,” Reo replied. 

You rolled your eyes again and opened your mouth to remind him of your reasoning for the guest lists when his bedroom door opened and there stood Nagi. 

“Hey Reo. You never responded to my text. I came over to borrow your mouse. Mine is being stupid and I’m playing comp-“ his words fell off as he saw the way the two of you were with your chin in Reo’s lap and faces like the two of you got caught.

You and Reo both jumped off the bed as  straightened yourselves up, each making sure to turn off the iPads. 

“Yeah you can use my mouse,” Reo said walking over to his desk and starting to unhook it from his set up. 

Nagi’s eyes went back and forth between the two of you. 

“What’s going on between the two of you?” He asked his tone the same monotone you were used to but with an edge.

“What do you mean? Nothing, man. Here,” Reo said, handing him the mouse but that seemed long forgotten by now. 

“Bullshit. You two have been hanging out a lot lately without me and without me knowing. I know something is going on,” Nagi said, sounding more overtly upset now. 

“Nagi you’re being ridiculous-“ Reo said but Nagi shoved him a little causing the mouse to clatter to the floor and making you jump.

“No you’re being ridiculous. I told you I like her. Does ‘bro code’ not mean anything to you?” Nagi said, his voice increasingly rising in volume. 

“Sei stop it’s okay it’s not like that,” you protested, too stunned to even relish in his confession. 

He turned to look at you now, towering over you. 

“I thought you liked me. You’re always flirting with me and touching me and come to find out you’re just messing around with my best friend,” he said, his voice only full of hurt now and not anger.

“Sei I do like you it’s just a misunderstanding,” you said but you couldn’t think of an excuse to come up with without revealing the surprise.

“Save it. I’m gonna go. I don’t wanna intrude on the two of you,” Nagi said and promptly left. You tried to chase after him but his strides were too fast and what could you even say? 

You stood there at the entrance of Reo’s bedroom stunned.

“Is that confirmation enough that he likes you?” Reo said wryly with concerned eyes. 

˖⁺‧₊˚♡˚₊

Neither you nor Reo had heard from Nagi for a few days which was unusual to say the least. Reo said Nagi wasn’t going to his soccer practice and his online status was set to offline. 

The both of you had sent him text messages but it was a futile attempt as he didn’t answer and read receipts were turned off so there was no way to confirm delivery.

Luckily most of the preparations for the surprise party were in order but now there was the problem of whether there’d even be a party given Nagi being a no show.

The days were bleak and mixed together and at night you kept thinking of Nagi’s words of how he liked you and had even told Reo. You felt bad that he thought something was going on between you and Reo. Sure, Reo was handsome and okay maybe you had fantasized about what it would be like to have them both at the same time but that was only once when you had first met them and been in awe of how attractive they both were. 

Your heart soon settled on Nagi because your personalities complemented each other and as a result you saw no one else romantically besides him. 

You were currently walking around the campus thinking of ways to speak to Nagi. Reo had advised that it would be best if you spoke to him because he would be less mad and that if you simply told him your feelings everything would be cleared up. 

That was easier said than done, you thought.

 As you walked past the soccer stadium you saw Nagi running laps in his uniform alone, a lone soccer ball nearby as well. Before you could chicken out you called his name “Sei!” and when he spotted you he sighed and stopped, heading back to the hallway where the locker rooms would be. Despite your better judgment you made your way into the stadium and down the stairs to follow him. 

It was Seishiro after all, even though he was mad you knew he couldn’t ignore you if you confronted him in person and you didn’t know when you’d next get the chance to see him in person again since he wouldn’t answer his phone. 

“You can’t be in here!” Nagi said, stunned as he turned around, shirt off as he had been caught mid changing and looked down  at you in front of him. 

“Is anyone else here?” you asked, glancing around but the locker room seemed empty. It wasn’t the day they’d typically practice anyways. 

“Reo isn’t here if that’s what you were wondering,” he said sarcastically. 

“Sei stop with that. I already told you it’s just a misunderstanding. I don’t like Reo like that. I like you,” you said trying to ignore how your face flushed at having said the words to him outloud. You were also shy about the fact that he was shirtless, his lean muscle and abs in full view. 

“Funny way of showing it, sneaking around with Reo and all,” he said. 

“We weren’t sneaking around,” you said exasperated that he didn’t believe you.

“Right. So why were you leaving your things at his house and having your face in his lap?” Nagi asked, his voice tight. He was so close to you already but as he interrogated you he moved closer and you stumbled placing your hands on his chest to stabilize yourself. 

The two of you were staring at each other and before you knew it his lips came down on yours and your mouth opened underneath his in response letting his tongue intertwine with yours. On their own your legs went around his waist and his hands went down to cup your ass holding you as he turned you around so your back would be pressing against the lockers as the two of you kept kissing.

His hands felt cold against the flesh of your bare ass that he had easy access to thanks to the mini skirt you wore and it caused you to moan into his mouth. 

Your own hands went to his hair, gripping his soft white locks as you felt his clothed erection press against you. 

When you came up for air his lips just moved to your neck placing white hot kisses there and you moaned his name: “Sei…”

You felt like you were seeing stars and a part of you wanted him to take you then and there but his water bottle knocking over made the two of you jump in fear of another person having come into the room. The two of you remained positioned like that with your legs around him, propped up by him and your back against the locker room. 

“Can Reo do that?” Nagi teased darkly, his gray eyes predatory in a way you hadn’t ever seen except on the field. 

“I wouldn’t know. I’m telling you the truth there’s nothing between us,” you said, still catching your breath. 

“It doesn’t matter. With the way you respond to me I’d reckon you’re mine now,” he said before kissing you again slowly. All too soon he pulled away again and you whined wanting more. “Why have you been spending so much time with him then?” 

Breathless, you didn’t care anymore about keeping the party secret, you just wanted to be able to relish in his touch and embrace you had been yearning for for so long.

“Reo and I have been planning a surprise birthday party for you,” you confessed. You watched as his eyes seemed to gain a sort of clarity, the dark clouds of gray settling and returning to their usual clear level headed self.

“Oh. I guess that makes sense. I forgot about my birthday actually,” he said shrugging.  He pressed his forehead against yours and his cool mint breath was on your face. “I really like you, you know.”

“Really? I couldn’t tell,” you joked stroking his hair. 

“Shut up. How could I not like you? You’re funny and gorgeous and you’re always looking at me with those eyes,” he said emphasizing the last two words. 

“What eyes?” You asked curiously. 

“Those eyes,” he said, “the ones that made me makeout with what I thought was my best friend’s girlfriend in the locker room. You’re always looking at me like you’re begging for me to ruin you.” 

His words sent a jolt of heat in between your legs.

“Sei,” you said with a cautionary tone to remind him that there was still the possibility of being walked in on. 

“What? It’s true. You’re so fucking hot, Reo thinks so too but I called dibs on you. You’re mine,” he said, giving you a quick peck on the lips before adding shyly, “that is if you wanna be with me.” 

“I wanna be yours Sei,” you said without hesitation and his lips came down on yours again. 

˖⁺‧₊˚♡˚₊

“So this is what the two of you were planning?” Nagi asked as you held his hand and directed him to the soccer stadium where all his teammates were to cheer “happy birthday!” The food trucks that Reo had rented were there too, including all of the food options the two of you had discussed: pizza, sushi, ice cream, and enough pretzels to feed a village. The decorations of balloons and signs were plastered onto the bleachers. 

“Yeah you see we told you, man,” Reo said. 

The two of them had made peace in typical guy fashion with Nagi stating a simple apology and that he had gotten the facts wrong and Reo telling him to not worry about it after which the two had gone on about their business and fell into their old habit of playing video games together as if nothing had happened. 

“Oh and we can’t forget about the cake either,” you said motioning to it on the table that you and Reo had set up earlier. 

You and Reo and the guests sang happy birthday to him and all the while his eyes were on you.

Afterwards when the cake was served Nagi asked that you feed it to him and of course you obliged except this time when your fingers lingered in his mouth he held them there and kissed the tips licking the frosting off. 

“I still can’t believe the two of you are an actual couple now. I was thinking it was never gonna happen,” Reo said. 

“Well I guess it’s a good thing the whole misunderstanding happened,” you replied. 

“Still does that mean you guys are gonna be making out and doing couple things?” Reo groaned as Nagi again licked your fingers.

“Don’t act like you wouldn’t wanna watch,” Nagi teased but Reo was quiet and his face flushed red in a way you knew all too well. Nagi leaned in to kiss you again but before he did he added to Reo “maybe if you’re good we’ll let you,” causing another jolt of heat in between your legs, shamefully liking the idea.

[xxiiam]

Seven minutes in heaven

Ghostface! Choso , Halloween party , shy! Choso , soft dom! Choso , fem! bodied reader , fem receiving oral , munch! Choso , fem receiving fingering , riding , cream pie . Choso calls reader , “Angel” and “good girl”

Note : tyvm for all the love on my fic all mine love you all sm 🫶

1.4K words

You sat down with the crowd of other people in the living room , satoru called everyone into the living room for a game of seven minutes in heaven . You couldn’t believe that as college students you would still be playing a game where you make out with someone for seven minutes, it was almost laughable .

Satoru Gojo stood whilst everyone else sat in a circle , “okay so guys I’m kinda tipsy- kinda horny- so let’s play seven minutes in heaven . You cannot back out of it no matter what” he said laughing to himself while holding a half empty beer bottle, Satoru was dressed in a devil costume , or lack there of a costume .He was shirtless wearing black bottoms and devil horns, Kento rolled his eyes , “what are the people who are waiting supposed to do? Sit here holding our dicks?” Kento Nanami was dressed up as one of the characters from men in black whilst his best friend Yu Haibara was dressed up as an alien.

Satoru scrunched his face up and scratched his ear , “I didn’t really think about that if I’m honest- uhhhh play truth or dare spin the bottle?” . He shrugged and sat down , he nominated himself as going first since it’s his party. He made the empty bottle spin around the circle , he stuck his tongue out to help him concentrate on estimating where the bottle would land.

The bottle landed on someone you didn’t recognise in the slightest , in all fairness you didn’t know any of these people . You only knew satoru since he was in one of your classes and would not stop hounding you and other people to attend this party since it would be the “best Halloween party of the year” currently it was subpar at best. You were dressed as an Angel , you did not plan to match with satoru but he was more than pleased you practically were.

The game continued for a long time , this seven minutes in heaven was way longer than seven minutes each couple of people took at least ten minutes? Were you drunk already that must be why your perception of time is off because what else could they be doing? You nudged utahime , “why is everyone taking so long if they’re only making out?” . She snorted , “y/n they’re not making out they’re having sex” she started laughing.

It was now your turn to spin the bottle and make out? Have sex? With a complete stranger? Your hands gripped the brown bottle and you spun it on the cold hardwood floor , the bottle spun out and eventually landed on the person wearing the ghost face mask and whole getup. You smiled at them softly , you actually had no idea if they could even see you smiling at them .

You stood up and began to lead them to the location - it was literally just Satoru’s guest bedroom. You locked the door behind you , “so do you have a name? A face?” . He laughed awkwardly, “yeah- my name is Choso” you sat down on the bed next to him , “well I’m Y/N - so can I?” You asked pointing to his mask , a part of you was kinda really scared that this choso guy would look like a troglodyte. You didn’t intend on lifting the mask up all the way , but you lifted just enough so you could see his well chiseled jawline and his soft lips that he was currently biting down on anxiously.

You leaned forward , unintentionally knocking off his mask as you began to kiss him but the shy persona you had just been speaking to suddenly disappeared, choso kissed you back roughly . He was surprisingly such a good kisser , you broke the kiss to get a good look at him but he began pressing open mouthed kisses along your collarbone and down your neck .

Once you had a good look at him you weren’t sure why he was covering up his face , he was GORGEOUS. That would be an understatement, he had long black hair , dark loving eyes that had dark circles around them . He had a strip of black paint across his face, he began to get shy again once he noticed you staring for so long , “do I have something on my face?” He asked nervously with his silver tongue piercing making an appearance every-time he flicked his tongue whilst speaking .

You shook your head , “no it’s just- you’re very pretty” you said almost in awe , surprised by his great kisses and immense beauty . His cheeks began to flush , “can I have a taste of you now?” You nodded expecting him to start kissing you again but he quickly accommodated himself between your legs , he looked up at you seeing if you were comfortable with it and you nodded . His index and middle fingers hooked around the band of your panties and he pulled them down desperately before plunging his tongue into your folds .

The metal ball on his tongue circled your clit , coating it in more of your own juices and his saliva . Your thighs clamped around his head due to reflexes , his muscular forearms pried your legs open before he moved his right arm and inserted two fingers inside your now sloppy cunt. You couldn’t help but mewl out his name and chant it like a prayer when his fingers stretched you out nicely and began to bully your g-spot. “mn- choso- feels s’good” . He smiled against your pussy , he removed his mouth from you but kept fingering you , “yeah? Tell me how good it feels Angel”

Your back was arching and he was already ripping pornographic level moans from your mouth , “ ‘s good soososo good choso” you whimpered and tried to cover your mouth to muffle some of your moans . He tutted , “I wanna hear you Angel” he said making your slutty hole squelch and wet his hands . You quickly moved your hands from your mouth to the bedsheets to grip on to them to try to pace yourself to not finish so quickly .

“Good girl” he said softly , “are you gonna cum around my fingers Angel?” . You nodded hoping you’d be able to reach your high . But he removed his fingers? You furrowed your eyebrows , “you’re gonna have to earn it” he said calmly , undoing his belt , pulling down his pants and boxers . His large dick sprung up against his stomach .

Choso sat down on the bed leaning against the headboard , he motioned you to sit down on it . You had your legs on either side of choso , you began inching down on his dick . If he hadn’t eaten you out previously , riding choso probably would’ve taken some time to adjust to. You fully bottomed out , a soft moan escaped from both you and choso as you did . You moved your body up and down his shaft , your ass bouncing off of his body every time you reached the base of his cock .

Your hips began to ache and you collapsed forward onto choso’s torso , he smiled against your ear , “you tired Angel?” You nodded , “mhm help please” you whined , he hummed , “I think you earned it” his large hands grabbed your plush hips and he began to fuck into you, his tip kept pushing and pressing against all your gummy spots , abusing your cervix , you moaned out and bit into his shoulder to stop you from moaning so loud. The room was loud with the slick sounds of choso thrusting into you , soft sounds of his praises and your muffled moans as your eyes rolled into the back of your head .

At this point you were more than desperate to cum and you could tell he was getting extremely close too. You squeezed down on him extra hard , his breathing began to sound rugged and the soft moans sounded more and more desperate as they fell from his bitten lips. He threw his head back , “fuck- Angel ‘m gonna cum, do you want me to cum inside you? Fill you up like the cute slut you are?” He asked his thrusts becoming more sloppy. You nodded and began practically begging for him . He whispered more praises , “cum on my cock Angel- I wanna cum inside you ‘nd you’re gonna take it like a good girl mhm?” your pussy began to spasm on his cock , tightening around him , he bit down on his bottom lip as thick ropes of his clear cum seeped into you.

You both panted and kissed slowly as choso redressed you , he even fixed your hair so you looked presentable. You both sat down with the group of people , utahime asked you why you took so long and you shrugged , she whispered in your ear , “I wasn’t being serious about people having sex by the way” .

[jejuboo-s]

JUST A SIP.

PAIRING: Vampire!J. Wonwoo x F. Reader

W. COUNT: 1.4K

GENRE: Complete smut, nothing much else

SUMMARY: While shaving your legs up to your thighs in the shower, you accidentally wound yourself, blood spilling out of the small cut. In a hurry, you contemplate on going outside and asking Wonwoo to help. But you really couldn’t. Why? Because your boyfriend was a vampire.

EXPLICIT WARNINGS UNDER THE CUT MINORS DNI.

WARNINGS: Name calling (pretty, whore, etc.), mention of razor (for shaving), obvious mention of blood, Wonwoo is kinddaaa mean, slapping (face), Wonwoo gets cockier as reader gets needier, consent is sexy, cum-play, reader puts up with Wonwoo’s shit easily, she/her + female genitalia used/referenced

A/N: long.. long overdue. i haven’t done a work over 1k since my mingyu “stop kissing me please” and that was like two months ago, if i remember correctly. please do let me know what i could make better and if you have any suggestion for me in the near future, thank you. >3<

You hissed, looking at your thigh, you noticed a large cut from your razor. Feeling hot water fall from your shower head back onto your thigh just made the situation even more uncomfortable, so you decided to finish up your shower and head to your bedroom quickly.

Wrapping a towel around your exposed and wet body, you slowly realized that you really weren’t supposed to be going out of the bathroom with blood dripping from your thigh. Especially with Wonwoo home. You see, your boyfriend was a vampire. Although some things were harder to do with your irregular boyfriend, it didn’t stop you from acknowledging how kind, smart, caring, and handsome he was.

But really, you didn’t know how to really… approach this situation. You had two options, one seemed better than the other, yet the so-called “better” one would end up having more cons.

Option A: Turn off the shower, try grabbing a paper towel and wetting it to pat on the cut. Wait until all the blood has been patted off (estimated around ten minutes).

Cons? It would sting like hell, well, sure it’d sting even more if you got Wonwoo to do it with rubbing alcohol (if he could even withstand just looking at the wound), but it was always better for another person to do it. Plus, all the bacteria you’d imagine could contaminate the cut.. just. gross.

Option B: Walk outside with your towel, disturbing Wonwoo in whatever activity he’s doing inside of the living room. Also, interrupting whatever craving he had before and substituting it with your blood.

There technically weren’t many cons, but the last time he’d had your blood was when you two began dating, and let’s just say; it didn’t end so painlessly.

“Baby? Wonwoo?” You called out from inside the bathroom, loud enough for him to hear, quiet enough to not disturb him.

“Hm? Pretty, why don’t you get out of the bathroom to talk to me? You know I like face-to-face conversation better than ones in between walls.”

“Well uhm, do.. Do you still have that rubbing alcohol? And an uhm, a bandage?” You asked meekly.

“Why, are you.. are you bleeding?..” He paused in between his words, and you could tell he did because of the lack of noise coming from whatever activity he’d been doing before.

“Yeah, I just accidentally cut myself while shaving,” you bit your lip. “And there’s nothing really in the cabinets to help. So.. I assumed that asking you would be best.”

“Baby, you do know I don’t wanna hurt you. I haven’t tasted your blood, that rich blood for two years..” His mouth almost watered thinking about it. “I could go overboard and I want to put you over anything else.”

“You know, I wouldn’t mind if you took a small sip.. It’s fine, really, you always do so much for me. It’s unfair for you to give me everything I want but not vice-versa.”

Silence filled the air.

“Come out here.”

Although so bold with your words, inside you were quite the nervous wreck. You opened the door knob with caution, your attention turning to Wonwoo, who had some cheap Netflix show paused.

“Where’s the cut?” you pointed to your inner thigh while your boyfriends’ undivided attention went to the tempting bloody wound.

“So, what you’re basically telling me is that you want me to suck an intimate part of your body free of blood,” that same blood rushed to your cheeks and down to an even more intimate part of your body. “How naughty.”

You sat down on the couch, manspreading. “May I?” Wonwoo asked. It was obvious he wouldn’t take no as an answer by the way his mouth hovered over the cut. But either way, you’d still utter the words.

“Yes.”

Wonwoo sunk his tongue onto the cut, making sure not to waste any last drop, since he knew he’d probably never have this chance again in a while.

On the other hand, you, with your hand trembling scratching at his head, it felt—somewhat pleasurable. Way more pleasurable than it did when he first fed off of you.

“Oh, ‘Woo.. Fuck,” you moaned feeling his warm tongue on the cool patch of body. “Didn’t expect it to be this good..”

He looked up at you after ridding of all the blood dripping down your thigh, with bloody lips, he hovered over your neck and left kiss marks all over.

“M gonna bite you, please, stand still.”

Your neck fell back, providing more space for him to do his thing. Wonwoo let his sharp canines graze over your neck to find a place where he wouldn’t puncture a vein. Before sinking his teeth in, he paused.

“I beg, stand still, you’re shaking subconsciously baby. I promise ‘m not gonna hurt you.”

You tried your hardest but still, it wasn’t enough to ensure that Wonwoo wouldn’t accidentally sink his teeth into the wrong part of your neck. So he just kept a grip on your neck and shoulders.

And then he sank his teeth in.

First: it hurt, it hurt like a bitch. You swore you wouldn’t get used to it, but you still let Wonwoo drink from you like the good girlfriend you were. You just kept an insane clutch on his back, probably breaking skin in the process of doing so.

After a minute or so, your body felt lighter, like a feather, almost. You felt dizzy, not the nauseous type of dizzy; but really, just a feel good type of dizzy. The more he drank, the less pain there was. It was getting substituted with pleasure, it seemed.

“Wonwoo…” You croaked out, hands traveling from his hair and back and hair again. You didn’t know what to do, really, you were in a situation overwhelmed with pleasure.

Your hips bucked and grinded on his pelvis, in response to this, he loosened his grip on your shoulder, bringing it down to your hips, making sure to keep them still while he feeds.

“Woo, babe, hurry. ‘Wan you in my mouth, pretty please..”

Feeling a shadow tower over you, you opened your eyes to see your boyfriend no longer all over your neck, but with bloody teeth and an even bloodier mouth. You brought up your hand to wipe it off, only to just smear blood on his cheek.

God was he hot.

“Good girls wait patiently, don’t they? Fuckin’ whore. You know I haven't tasted your blood in a while, you could’ve been at least a little patient but no, you want to warm up ‘Woos fat cock don’t ya?”

His words hurt, but they also made you all the more horny. You wasted no time in getting off of the couch and letting yourself fall to your knees, your pretty little tongue peeking, waiting for him to take off his briefs.

Although having seen Wonwoo’s cock for the umpteenth time this year, you’d never get over how pretty it looked, hard and covered in precum. Just imagining how far inside he’d be with his dick covered in your spit was complete heaven.

“Open a little more, baby.” He held your chin down, watching as it fell slack with one simple command.

He slid inside, moaning, feeling your cheeks hollow out onto the sides of his dick. It took you a second to stop gagging, sure he wasn’t the longest you’d ever had, but he sure was veiny and thick.

“Oh my fuck,” he kept one hand tangled in your hair and the other to comb his hair back. “You look so damn pretty sucking dick, my dick and only mine.”

You let go with a pop, spit dribbling down your chin and down to your cleavage, his cum filling your mouth. Caressing your rosy pink cheek, he then landed a harsh slap on the flesh.

“C’mere.” Wonwoo held your chin, lifting yourself by your hands, he pressed a long and open-mouthed kiss on your lips, liquid seeping through eachothers’ mouths.

The sturdy towel that’d been holding on for life onto your body finally fell, your boobs pressing onto his shirt whilst deep into the kiss.

Pulling away, a string of saliva and the heavy cloud of lust was the only thing that connected you two, and, well, that bite mark of yours he’d left on your neck.

“God, I love you Wonie.” You gasped, trying to catch and steady your breath. He grinned back, now staring at unbroken skin on your neck.

“Right. So, round two?”

[writing-with-olive]

ADHD task completing tip

okay so growing up i was usually told "do the hard thing first and then you get to do the fun thing." and generally that's reasonable.... if you've got decent executive function. but for those of us who don't, this is a thing i've been using to get through school/work/general human functioning. It's still using hard thing/fun thing, but it interweaves them WAY more

first step: find something that sparks some dopamine quickly. i usually use short-timer online chess or mobile games. if you pick scrolling social media or something that doesn't have a clear endpoint, make sure you have an easy way to set a timer. On apple phones, there's a timer setting that says "stop playing" instead of playing a sound. I love this because it'll take you to your lock screen so you can't accidentally dismiss the timer and keep going. Do NOT make this movement or taking care of bodily functions; eating/hydrating/going to the bathroom/moving around are things you can and should do when your body tells you. take care of ya self

second step: look at your task and break it up TINY. If you have to write a paper, don't break it up by paragraph. break it up into something like fifty words. Cleaning a room: ten items put away. Close reading: 1 page. Really you want something that if your executive functioning was playing nice you could do in 1-4 minutes. I recommend NOT saying "work for x minutes" however, since that's a really quick way to sit there watching the clock. You wanna tie progress to completion not time spent.

third step: estimate how many levels/games/etc of your dopamine source it takes to last 1-5 minutes. Ideally you will already have a sense of this. I'd advise not "testing it out right now" and procrastinating that way.

fourth step: get to work. every time you complete a tiny task, you can do one unit of the dopamine thing. If you get some momentum, you can stack rewards, so if your tiny task was 50 words for one mobile game level, 150 words straight would be three levels. If you are having a really hard time getting going, you can start with 1-3 units of your dopamine thing to kinda jumpstart the process, just decide how many you're doing first so you don't lose hours to it.

note that this ONLY WORKS if you don't ignore your timer/level cutoff. The idea is to get dopamine levels up and use that to power through the next tiny task.

[saturdaysky]

First Lines

I was tagged by @mithrilwren to post the first lines of my last ten fics! What a fun trip down memory lane this was.

1) fray (Ludinus/Essek; feelbad manipulation + an intentional gap between wants and needs)

"Such a fanciful tradition," he chides, watching the light play on Thelyss' bright braids. The candlelight of his bedchambers paints them fetchingly gold. Thelyss sits with a prim tiredness on the bed, holding still while Ludinus slips the buttons of his high collar back into place. They have begun to take all of their meetings here, in recent months.

2) discretion, written with @mllekurtz (Caleb/Essek; power dynamics and clothing)

“You wore this to the court today.” The words do not feel quite real coming out of his mouth.

3) growing sunlight (Caleb/Essek; a post-canon homecoming)

Caleb shuts the door against the afternoon sun, sealing them into comfortable privacy. The curtains on his windows are likewise shut, but light seeps through them anyway, casting the room in a warm, muted glow. Dimmed daylight will gather here for hours; like a little bubble of sunset just for us, supplies his mind. He is too glad to resist whimsy. Essek's visits always make him so.

4) if only for a moment (Caleb/Essek; time travel, grief, love, a leave-taking)

It was supposed to be five minutes into the future, but Caleb is pretty sure he fucked that one up. The lurch in his stomach tells him so, as does the treacle-like quality of his perception, and the way the spell writhes in his mind.

5) the end; to hold the sun (Caleb/Essek; a Calamity AU set minutes before the city falls from the sky)

It is done. It is done.

6) brothers (Beau & Essek talk about their estranged brothers; canon-with-a-twist AU)

Essek's shoulders are tense in a way that's gonna ache later, his frame drawn tight against the endless blue sky above the bay. He leans on the salt-crusted railing and stares out at the armada gathered for the peace talks. "I am still a Thelyss," he whispers in Undercommon. "They cannot take that from us." To Beau's ears, it sounds like a prayer.

7) sanctuary, a claiming (Caleb/Essek; werewolf/witch dark fairytale AU)

The night is red. Above the Wildwood, Catha’s gentle silver eye has waned into sleep at the end of its long cycle, leaving only the ruddy gaze of its sister to light the forest. Tomorrow, Catha will wax anew into wakefulness, but tonight, when magic is strong and bloody in the air, Ruidus’ dark creatures come out to play.

8) a shape made by our hands (Caleb/Essek; in a decaying timeline, Caleb meets Essek as a child.)

The spell is almost up. He’s gotten what he came to this timeline for, and when he returns to his own, this reality will decay into nothingness like an echo. The clock ticks unrelentingly in Caleb’s head; he estimates he has at least an hour. Maybe two, maybe less; time magic is an inexact science, as it turns out.

9) fulcrum (Caleb & Trent review proper torture techniques)

He is deep in the bowels of the sanatorium and has been for three days. Caleb is doing his best not to let that fact peel him out of his head.

10) poisoning the well (Caleb character study, ft. Trent's incessant, inescapable praises)

There is the splish-splash-splash as the Nein travel through the drenched Aeorian tunnel, and then Ikithon’s voice slithers into his head, parting the layers of Caleb's privacy with ease and blotting out all other sound.

I tag @mllekurtz @ariadne-mouse @chronurgy @burningdarkfire @annundriel and anyone else who wants to do it! Tag me in, I'd love to see your first lines.

[nickfowlerrr]

Fandom Leap -

Chapter 1

Fandom Leap Masterlist

prologue / chapter two

universe: MCU

(chapter specific) pairing: bucky barnes x reader

words: 2.5k

notes: i’m so excited to be able to kick off the first chapter of this collaboration! thank you so much to @supraveng - not only for letting me participate but also for reading this over for me! i can’t wait to see how this story progresses with the other universes and writers. and i will be writing an epilogue for the end of the series, too! 🥰

thank you in advance for reading! as always reblogs and comments are welcome and so appreciated. be sure to check out the rest of the series as it’s updated! 🩵

You hadn’t realized how tired you’d been until you felt yourself dozing while you laid on the couch. Your plans weren’t to fall asleep so early, in fact, quite the opposite. You were having a movie night!

You had gotten home not too long ago, getting some chores done before plopping down on the sofa to get the first movie of the lineup started.

It was maybe ten minutes into Iron Man that you felt yourself getting sleepy. You needed to nip that in the bud quickly if you wanted to get through the first couple movies tonight. You stood from where you were laying and sighed to yourself. 

This would probably be a bit more fun if you had people to watch them with…

Alas, you were alone. 

Your stomach grumbling caught you off guard and pulled you from your thoughts. You’d skipped lunch, and you were so caught up in your head on your way home, you hadn’t even thought to stop to grab something. 

You let the movie play on as you walked into the kitchen. Pulling the cabinets open, you found them near empty and grimaced to yourself at the sight. You hadn’t had time to go to the store lately, and you weren’t feeling up for it tonight either. 

Puffing, you decided to just order some take out.

You looked up your favorite Chinese place to put in an online order for delivery, but upon checking out, found that they were doing pick-up orders only. 

You considered ordering food from somewhere else for a second, not wanting to have to leave the comfort of home again today, but once you had your meal picked out - you were suddenly craving that and that alone.

So, you sucked it up and placed the order, pausing the movie on screen and trudging to grab your shoes. You were at least happy you had decided to wait on showering and changing into pjs until later.

It would take you fifteen minutes to get to the restaurant and your estimated pick-up time was right in line with that, so you didn’t waste time as you slipped on your shoes and grabbed your keys and bag before heading out.

—

It wasn’t busy at all as you pulled into the nearly empty parking lot, only a few cars around. You parked in an empty spot in front of the place and shut your engine off before grabbing your bag off the passenger seat and got out.

A weird chill passed over you as you walked toward the door, but you didn’t pay it much of any mind.

As you pulled the entrance door open, you felt something… change. You couldn’t explain it, but it just felt different. You shook it off as you walked in, though you only grew more confused as you entered.

You had been here just last week, but somehow the interior was completely different. You weren’t sure how they’d remodeled and redecorated the place so quickly, but it was impressive.

You were also thrown off by how many people were inside as compared to the empty parking lot. 

As you walked up to the counter, a woman you’d never seen before greeted you. You were once more surprised, because you always had one of the same two people working every single time you’d been here.. But of course, you didn’t say anything about it. You just smiled as she walked over to help you.

“Hi, I placed an online order,” you told her.

“Great, name?” she asked.

You gave her your name and watched as she walked away to check the bags along the pickup order table, her brows furrowing as she went. You felt nervous as you watched her double back to where she started and began looking through all of the tags once more.

The bell on the door rang but you didn’t turn around at the noise, only felt someone step up behind you as you started a line. You were playing with your hands, shifting on your feet as the woman returned to you.

“I’m sorry, I’m not seeing that order here. Do you have the confirmation?”

“Oh, uhm, yes, I do. Give me one second,” you reached for your phone in your pocket, “and I’ll pull it up. Sorry,” you offered out of habit.

“It’s no problem. Do you mind if I help the customer behind you?” she asked kindly.

“Oh gosh, yeah, of  course,” you said, stepping to the side as you looked behind you.

Your breath caught in your throat for a second as your eyes went a little wide. You nearly dropped your phone as you instantly recognized the man who stood behind you.

He met your eye, offering the tiniest of smiles as he stepped up to the counter. You quickly flit your eyes away, your mind racing. Was that.. Was that really him?

You chanced a glance over to him from the corner of your eye and near instantly confirmed your suspicions. Yeah, you thought, that’s definitely him.

Should you say something? Or just let him be?.. Really though, what were the odds of you ever seeing him in person again. This was like a time only thing…

God, you used to swear you’d never go up to a celebrity if you saw them in person, but as you stood there, no one else seeming to pay him any mind, you decided just saying hello wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world. He was a person, too, right? A small greeting between two people was normal. Also it was him. And you weren’t sure you’d ever forgive yourself if you didn’t take this chance to say a simple hello.

You’d been so caught up, you hadn’t heard any of the conversation he’d had with the woman, but now as she went to go find his order, he stood there at the counter alone, waiting.

You tried to speak, but no noise would come out. You managed to clear your throat, though, and at the sound, he glanced over to you once again. 

Another small tilt of his lips as he seemed to eye you up from where he stood before he cleared his own throat and looked away again, his hands shoved into his pockets. 

“Hi,” you offered after a second, mustering up all the courage you could to get your lips to move.

He looked at you fully then, clearly a little surprised. It took him a second but he finally responded with a lopsided smile, “Hi.”

“Sorry, I don’t mean to bother you, I just uhm, just wanted to say, I’m, I’m a big fan,” you told him, trying not to let your anxiousness be heard so obviously.

He narrowed his eyes at your words, brows furrowing as he looked at you, “A fan?”

As you’re about to clarify, confused as to why he was confused, the woman returned.

“Here you go, Sergeant Barnes,” she handed him his bag, not a hint of jest in her voice, nor his as he thanked her.

You looked from her back to him, letting out a nervous titter as somewhere in the back of your mind, you recognized the sound of the bell ringing again.

“Uhm,-” you started before another familiar voice interrupted you.

“Man, will you hurry up? How long does it take you to grab food?”

You looked to the door that was being held open and again, found yourself dumb, your mouth still parted but no words coming out. The recognition in your eyes must have been obvious as Bucky looked from you to Sam quizzically. 

“Did you find the confirmation,” the woman asks, pulling your attention back to her. You’re sure you looked beyond flustered and confused - you absolutely were. As you turned to face her again, Bucky slowly walked away, heading over to where Sam was by the entrance.

“Yes, uh,” you handed her your phone before glancing behind you again, the bright lights coming from just beyond the door causing your brows to furrow before it closed - both men still inside. They spoke as they stood there, glancing over to you once, twice before you turned back to the counter. What the hell?

“I see the problem,” the woman tells you, “it’s the wrong restaurant. Sorry about that,” she offers, though it’s no fault of hers. 

You stand there, perplexed. And the more confused you find yourself, the more anxious you are. 

How could you possibly be at the wrong place? You come here all of the time. You know exactly where you are. At least you thought you did. 

“I’m sorry,” you apologize, with a shake of your head, “that’s my bad. Long week, I guess,” you force a breathy laugh and fake a smile as you turn to leave.

You see both men still by the door, watching you closely as you approach. You nod at them as you keep straight on, in a bit of a stupor now. 

As you push the door open, you feel like a rug has been pulled from beneath your feet. The wind seemingly knocked out of you. You blink once. Twice. A shake of your head and a humorless scoff as you glance around briefly - you don’t even know what to think.

What the hell is going on?

Where are you? 

Where is your car?!

Instead of being met with the same empty parking lot you’d parked in, you find yourself on a busy sidewalk along a busy city street. No parking lot, no emptiness, and no car. 

“Are you alright?” 

You turn and are met with the bright blue eyes that’d caught you earlier.

“Where am I?” you ask, growing frantic at the unknown.

“Hey, it’s alright, take a breath,” he instructs gently. “Sam,” he calls over.

“Sam?” you ask in disbelief.

“Sam Wilson, that’s my name,” he greets as you huff a dry laugh.

“Okay, Sam, and so - should I call you Bucky?” you ask sarcastically. “What’s going on? Am I being pranked or something? Is this a show?” you ask, eyes darting all around,waiting for cameras to make themselves known. “Or are you guys filming and just staying in character or what?”

“Allllright,” Bucky drags out, looking in your eyes as he tries to assess you, “I’m gonna take that as a sign that you are not okay.”

“Yeah, I’m not. This isn’t funny, I’m - I just- where am I?” you ask again.

“New York.”

“Yeah right. Where am I really?”

“New York,” he insists again. “Where do you think you are?”

“Not New York. I was just - I just went to pick up my dinner and now - what the hell is happening? What is going on?”

“Bucky, I’m gonna call them, just keep an eye on her,” Sam instructs before he walks a little ways down the sidewalk.

“Seriously, why is he calling you Bucky?” you ask.

“Because that’s my name,” he answers matter-of-factly. 

“You’re Bucky Barnes?”

“That’s me,” he confirms, a little uncomfortably. 

You stare at him blankly for a second. Your brain is playing catch up. Wrong restaurant. No parking lot. Car’s gone. These guys are acting like they’re their characters. You’re in New York? He’s still insisting he’s Bucky.

“Oh…” you breathe, mostly to yourself. Relaxing a bit at the realization you’ve come to. “I’m dreaming,” you laugh.

He looks at you with even more real concern as you lean with your back against the wall of the building. He thinks for a second before deciding to speak.

“I don’t want to freak you out, but no. You’re not. We are both very much awake.”

“No, we’re not,” you deny easily. “I was watching Iron Man and I fell asleep and now I’m dreaming of Bucky Barnes because I’ve been wanting to watch The Winter Soldier all day. And I will wake up..anytime now,” you muse and gesticulate vaguely.

“You were watching Iron Man?” he asks, sounding just as confused as he’d been earlier.

“Yeah. Started watching the MCU movies over in timeline order because I have nothing better to do on a Friday night.”

“MCU movies?”

“Yep.”

He shakes his head, “I’m lost.”

“Ha!” you laugh out before sighing, letting your head hit the wall lightly. “Ahh,” you sigh, rubbing your eyes, “I just gotta wake up.”

“Look, sweetheart, really, you’re awake.”

“I’m not. I’m not because if I am, then either you’re a scarily good actor who enjoys fucking with innocent people for the hell of it, or… you’re crazy and really believe you’re a fictional superhero, or I like, randomly jumped into a different universe where you’re really real or something,” you sputter a laugh. “So, I’m dreaming. That’s the only explanation.”

“Hey,” Sam calls to you both, “come on. Strange is expecting us.”

You laugh again, you can’t help it. Well, what the hell, you think. As long as I’m dreaming, might as well live it up.

—

“So you felt a change, walked into the restaurant, and found yourself somewhere else..”

“Yeah, I guess so.”

“Huh.”

“After all that, all those tests and questions, that’s all you got for me? ‘Huh’,” you question the man.

“I don’t think the door had anything to do with it. I thought maybe it was a portal of some kind, but that wouldn’t account for the changes in this reality as opposed to yours - from what you’ve told me. Half the events that have happened in your universe haven’t happened here and vice versa. And of course, there’s the whole,”

“Superheroes not being real thing,” you finish for him.

“Right. Superheroes.”

“But she, herself, she’s okay, right?” Bucky asks as he stands off to the side, out of Strange’s way, with his arms crossed. He’d been oddly protective over you the whole walk over, standing close to you as you explained the night’s events over again to him and Sam - and he only left your side once you’d gotten here at Strange’s request. Not that you minded at all, in fact, you definitely enjoyed it, but it was still unexpected. As you went through endless questions from Strange regarding you and life and everything in between, Bucky’s eyes seemingly never left you. 

“She’s fine. Physically, there’s nothing wrong. I’m just not sure what exactly sent her here. She’s definitely out of her universe.”

“She’s definitely still sitting right here in front of you,” you point out, causing him to turn back to you from where he was looking at Bucky.

“I’m sure there’s some way we can get you home, I just might need some time to figure it out, ensure that it’s safe.”

“Okay, uhm-,” as you spoke, an odd chill came over you again, freezing you as your eyes went wide.

“What is it?” Bucky asks, instantly at attention, concern clear in his words. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing, just.. That chill again..”

“You’re jumping,” Strange says, eyes a little wide as his gaze shoots over to you, as if he’s made a sudden connection, the epiphany of something still unknown to you coming over him.

“What the hell does that mean?” Bucky asks the question that was on the tip of your tongue.

“It means she’s-” another chill, another strange feeling of something being shifted, and then you can’t hear him anymore. You can’t see him, or Bucky. You’re alone? Possibly? You aren’t sure because all of a sudden you’re… where were you? 

“What the hell?” you breathed to yourself. 

“Where am I now?”

[mymoodwriting]

Request for @hydroyaksha (Alien!NCT) 5.7k, yandere, royalty, lost princess, space travel, manipulation, paranoia, kidnapping, restraints, abuse, choking, implied non-con, prophecy (@starillusion13)

“Where are you…”

You jolted awake, quickly sitting up and looking around. There was no one else in the room, as it should be. This was a private room in the library that housed some very important and very old books. Only those with authorization could be here, and only two at a time max. Since you needed access to some books you had reserved the room for yourself for at least three hours. You figured you must have been dreaming or something. Which was cause for scolding. You had a research paper to work on for your final and you dozed off. When you checked the time you were grateful to see you had only taken a ten minute nap, and hadn’t slept on top of anything but your arm.

“Y/n…”

You quickly turned around upon hearing your name being whispered, but you were alone. Now you were starting to get this uneasy feeling that maybe you weren’t. The room wasn’t that big, but there would be places to hide here. You cautiously got up, carefully walking along the aisles and seeing if anyone else was there. After a sweep of the room you could further confirm that you were alone.

“Y/n…”

Now you were starting to think someone was playing a prank on you. Maybe no one else was in the room with you, but they could have left behind some kind of device. You sighed and started looking around for the source. Your name continued to be whispered and it grew louder as you went into one of the aisles. It was still a soft whisper but at least now you knew the source was close. You ended up scanning the books on a shelf, thinking this noise device was in one of them. Which if it was the case you’d need to report it. Nothing should be interfering or stored with such books that require delicate care. Every book on the shelf was labeled, except for one.

“Gotcha.”

You grabbed the book off the shelf, carefully opening the book up. It wasn’t surprising to find the pages blank, but there was nothing inside it. You waited a moment, realizing the whispering had stopped. Maybe the book itself was the device, but either way you weren’t gonna leave it here. You took it back over to your table and set it down looking back over your notes. Eventually your eyes returned to the book, starting to get a weird feeling. It looked like an old book, but it didn’t have a label on it anywhere. You picked it up again, opening up to inspect the pages to get an estimate of its age, and to your surprise there were now words.

You immediately let go of the book, looking back on your memory. You had flipped through it before, and it had been blank, you swear it was blank. Once you let your mind settle down you carefully grabbed the book, flipping through the pages. There was no index, but you could see chapters labeled by number on occasion. Although when you got to the first page there was a weird symbol, and the next page had your name on it. You screamed and dropped the book again. Now you were really starting to freak out. There was this ancient book with your name on it and it made no sense. You were also being incredibly disrespectful to something so old. You were lucky no one else was here to witness any of this.

You took a deep breath, knowing you had to muster up the courage to figure out what was going on, and that meant looking at the book. It was on the floor with a random page opened, so you decided to walk over and crouch down. You read something about a young girl celebrating her fourteenth birthday. Apparently after she had blown out the candles a smaller cake was smashed in her face. It was a first for them and was quite shocking, but they found the whole idea to be fun. After that she had to be weary of cake on her birthday, but it was a welcomed challenge. Reading all that made you giggle, as you had gone through the same thing as well. Your friends had purposely gotten a second smaller cake to throw in your face, and did so going forward.

You carefully skipped ahead a couple more pages, thinking this must be some kind of memoir or collection of stories. Then you remembered this was an old book and moved your hand away. The fact the book was written in a language you understood was something of note, but to talk about something so similar to your life. You had so easily forgotten your name was written in the book. You looked down at the pages that were now open, reading them to see that they talked about a girl celebrating her university acceptance. She had gotten into her first choice and had managed to get a full ride. For a moment you thought you could delude yourself into thinking this was someone else, but then you saw your university’s name written in the pages.

“This… what is this…”

You flipped forward a few pages, reading about the girl pursuing her studies and the type of classes she was taking, all the ones you had done so your freshman year. A few more pages ahead and they mentioned the girl dating for the first time, and the name given was your first boyfriend. You skimmed the next few pages, finding something you didn’t want to. At the start of your junior year you went to a homecoming party with friends, which was a big mistake. You caught your boyfriend sucking face with another girl, completely sober, and later that night a group of drunk frat boys nearly took you back to their frat house. Just the idea of what would have happened if they succeeded made you sick.

You never told anyone about that incident, just said you stepped out for air, and then decided to leave the party. So seeing that written down in this book started to ground you in reality. Whatever this was, it was about your life. All the important stuff was here like a memoir you had yet to write. You were careful as you looked over the next couple pages coming up to your present. As you suspected it mentioned working on your final research paper in a private room in the library, and finding an ancient book with your life written out, both past, present, and future. That meant that the new few pages were things yet to come. You hesitated for a moment before reading ahead.

You’d get a good grade on your paper and graduate with honors. Your friends were going to make such a big show when your name was called, and the next day you’d receive confirmation about a job you had been anxious to hear from. Even if this was all scary, reading all that brought a smile to your face. Maybe this wasn’t a curse but some mystic form of reassurance. You should have stopped reading, but you kept going, reading about your life in your dream job, how well everything was going for you. The fear you originally felt started to melt away, that is until you read about a group of men finding you.

The scenario came out of nowhere. Your life interrupted as they appeared and kidnapped you. From there the story spoke of space traveling, and the girl discovering she was a long lost princess being returned to her home planet. Reading all that confused you that you skimmed back over older pages. That was so absurd. Everything so far had seemed real, but this whole idea about being kidnaped, and space, and some other home planet. As much as you wanted to tell yourself it was a lie everything else in the book had been truthful so far, which made this extra creepy. This was your supposed future, but you couldn’t just believe it.

You were startled out of your thoughts as your phone alarm went off. You got up to turn it off, seeing the reminder that your time was running out in the room. It was time to pack up your things, and once that was done you glanced back down at the book on the floor. You weren’t really sure what to think of it, but you didn’t like it. You carefully picked it up and put it back where you found it on the shelf. You wanted nothing to do with it, so you left, hoping to put the whole thing behind you. Of course with exams and final papers it was easy to forget about it, that is until graduation. As the day went on you remembered the book, and were watching the events it had foretold play out. 

It was weird, feeling like deja vu, but this was also a big day. Of course your friends would go all out for you and vice versa. It wasn’t until after the party that you got worried. You had passed out at your friends place, waking up at noon and seeing you had an email from your dream job. It was your letter of acceptance and you jumped for joy. You wound up waking up your friend and the two of you celebrated, deciding to go out. When you had a moment alone you looked back at the message, remembering what the book had said. Things were gonna go well until those strangers came and took you away.

As your life moved forward you couldn’t shake this uneasy feeling. If you just followed what the book said you felt like the kidnapping would happen. So you looked for a way to change your future. You found a position in the company that would cause you to travel a lot, with all of it practically paid too. It wasn’t what you had originally planned for yourself, but it wouldn’t keep you in one place too long, so you applied for the position. You were fortunate enough to get it, and thus began your life as a nomad. It was a bit difficult, as you could never really place down any roots, but you weren’t the only one bouncing around the globe. You made friends with those at your side and found joy in life.

For three years you lived that way, and you stopped looking over your shoulder for these ghosts. This may not have been your original plan but you were living your best life. Whenever you had personal time you always found yourself in such incredible places, and could truly enjoy yourself. If not for the job you wouldn’t have such amazing experiences. After a celebratory night of drinks, you only had a few, you were making your way back to your hotel. You checked your phone for a moment and accidentally bumped into someone. You nearly lost your footing but they grabbed your arms and made sure you didn’t fall.

“Oh my gosh… I’m so sorry, thank you though.”

The person who had saved you was quite beautiful that you were starstruck, although the fact they hadn’t let you go snapped you out of it. You reached up to move their arms away but they held on tighter.

“Uh… you can-”

“… found you…”

“Thank you again.”

Your panic gave you strength and you pulled away from the other. Before they could say anything more you ran off. You didn’t look back, wanting to get as far away as possible. The bright side of being put up in fancy hotels was they had good security. You made it to your place and showed your keycard to get to the elevators, finally able to take a breath. It was possible you overreacted but you weren’t gonna risk it. When you got to your room you collapsed onto the bed, glad to finally get off your feet after a long day. As you were about to get up to shower you heard a knock at your door. 

You thought it was house keeping and got up to go check, although you saw no one. It was probably some mistake so you stepped away. A second later though you heard the door unlock. You were about to tell the worker that you were in when you saw a handful of boys walk through the front door. Their sudden presence startled you, it wasn’t until the door shut that you snapped out of it. You ran to your phone, but for some reason it wasn’t working. You tried the phone by the nightstand, but the line was dead. When you looked back you realized they had you surrounded, but kept their distance.

“Get out! Or… or…”

You didn’t know what to say, and all your words left you when the boys bowed. For a moment you thought to run but then they all stood up at once, and one of them spoke.

“It’s an honor.”

“Please just get out.”

“I’m afraid we can’t do that.”

They all took a step towards you, two of them grabbing you and pinning you down on the bed. You struggled beneath them but another held you down. You were about to scream when a hand was placed over your mouth. Next thing you knew you felt something cold against your head and the world cut to black.

🖤

When you woke up later you felt so out of it, barely able to keep your eyes open. From what you could see through blurry vision it didn’t look like the hotel you were staying at. After a while of struggling you managed to sit up, feeling a bit better, and getting confirmation that you were somewhere else. You needed to get out of here. You struggled to move your body so you could get out of bed, ending up on your hands and knees on the floor. This headache wasn’t going away so you laid down. You put your hand to your head and wound up feeling something cold and small on it.

You tried to grab it but it seemed stuck to the side of your head, and it hurt when you tugged on it. Eventually you stopped trying, feeling like you were only making things worse. You worked up the courage to get on your hands and knees, pulling yourself up onto the bed to sit down. You looked around and saw the door, a few, and you knew one of them had to be an exit. Now you just needed the strength to move. You tried to stand up straight but wound up falling back on the bed. A moment later you heard a door open and looked over to see an unfamiliar face walk in.

“What are you doing? You should be resting.” The boy came over and helped you lay back down. “We’re not home yet.”

“Just let me go…”

“I can’t do that, nor will I.”

The boy pressed his hand against the wall, and you saw a glow, but you weren’t sure what he was doing. Then you noticed the lighting in the room changing and you looked over for the source. Your eyes went wide as the color of the wall faded away, revealing glass and an endless black sky of stars.

“I… this…”

“It’s a long journey back home. Besides, your body isn’t used to being in space. It’ll still take time before you can properly stand and walk around.”

“Space… is this really a spaceship?”

“You’re safe here.”

“You’re taking me from my home…”

“Earth was never your home.” The boy explained. “You were sent away as a child for your own safety. Now it is safe for you to return.”

“There… there was a book… it said I was a lost princess…”

“Yes. It’s a book of prophecy that foretold your future. Your family sent you off knowing you’d be safe in the end.”

“I should have read more of it… like the beginning… or after you show up… maybe I could have avoided you for longer…”

“Maybe. Sleep, you’ll be better in no time.”

You definitely weren’t in any condition to be up on your feet, and having the other tuck you in was really pulling you under. Still you reached to grab their arm.

“… what’s… what’s your name…”

“Me? My name is Johnny, now get some sleep.”

He grabbed your hand and placed it on your chest, giving you a smile as you drifted off to sleep. When you woke up again you found yourself somewhere different yet again, but you felt better. You didn’t struggle out of bed, and as you were going towards the door you felt a gust of wind. It made you realize you weren’t in space anymore, and there was a window open. You looked back and saw the curtain moving, making your way over. It wasn’t just a window, but a balcony. You stepped out and used your hand to block the sunlight, your eyes needing a moment to adjust. As you looked out into the world you saw yourself above some type of garden. Some plants looked familiar, and yet others were brand new.

The breeze was nice, and off in the distance you could see some walls. You couldn’t see much beyond them besides the tops of trees, but you were certain this place wasn’t Earth. You stepped back inside the room, seeing how luxurious it really was. You found a mirror and stood in front of it. Nothing seemed different about you, but you got a good look at this small metal disk on the side of your head. You tried to remove it, but it was still stuck on you. It wasn’t gonna stop you though, so you began to try the doors. You found a walk-in closet, with a lot of clothes, and the bathroom, but you figured the door that was locked was your way out. You tried it a few times then heard it unlock and stepped back.

“Princess, you’re up already?”

“… who are you…”

“Ah, I should introduce myself.” The boy bowed. “I’m Ten, a member of NCT, and I’m at your service.”

“This isn’t Earth… is it?”

“No. This is your home planet. Everyone is eager to meet you after all this, so we should prepare you.”

“What?”

“Your welcome home party is tonight, and we have much to do.”

A second later more people entered and you were ushered over to the mirror. They sat you down at a vanity, getting things out and looking you over. All these others consulted Ten about what to do for you, and many were whispering under their breath how excited they were to work with you. While your makeup and hair was done, Ten was talking with others about your outfit and going through your closet. You couldn’t really say anything, not wanting to break the flow everyone had going on.

The dress that was picked out for you was incredible, but you wouldn’t be putting it on just yet. Your hair had been mostly done, and a light coat of makeup, just to get started, you still needed to eat. You were worried about going out of the room, but you didn’t have to as someone brought over a cart of food. Everything smelled delicious, although you were nervous about eating it. One of the others in the room tried things before you and assured you the food was safe. They were really treating you like royalty. 

After that you felt a bit bad if you didn’t eat, so you tried something that looked familiar. It was actually really good and gave you the confidence to try the other things. You had your fill and were given a while to let the food go down and rest, then it was back for preparations. Soon enough you were dressed and properly prepared. It was still early for a party, and you realized that you weren’t actually done. Ten had you walk around the room so you’d be comfortable in the new shoes, as well to make sure you were okay with what you were wearing. You found yourself staring in the mirror, amazed by your own beauty.

“Princess? Are you alright?”

“Princess… am I really one?”

“I understand it might be difficult to accept. Doesn’t every young girl wish to discover she’s a real princess? A dream come true can be hard to believe.”

“Being a princess wasn’t really my dream… but it still feels surreal.”

“Tonight should help you see this is very real.”

You had a lighter lunch, not wanting to mess up anything before the party. It was certainly a choice to keep you in your room all day. Ten wanted to let you experience it all bit by bit. He disappeared for a while, returning dressed in an elegant suit. When the time came he escorted you out. The halls alone were quite beautiful. There was so much art around, both paintings and sculptures. It distracted you a bit that you nearly lost your footing, but everything was alright. As you ascended the stairs that’s when your new reality truly began to settle in.

So many people were gathered on the floor below, dressed for a gala, and here for you apparently. You heard more whispers, people questioning if it was you, the long lost princess. You looked to Ten but he merely gave you a reassuring nod. Another gentleman made an announcement for you, introducing you as a princess, and there was an eruption of joy. You made it to the bottom of the steps, being approached by many who bowed and told you it was such an honor to be in your presence. They welcomed you home, and looked forward to seeing you thrive. All you could really do was smile and thank them. This was all still so new to you.

Quite a few asked you about your life on Earth, but all you could really say was that it was good. Although bringing it up made you more and more homesick. For the most part Ten answered questions, telling guests this wasn’t the time for such things. Throughout the night you were also introduced to the rest of NCT, learning that they would all be around the palace to help you adjust. Even if you didn’t do much throughout the night you were tired by the time the last guest left. It was quite obvious so Johnny wound up picking you up in his arms, and carrying you upstairs to your bedroom.

“Did you have fun?”

“It was weird… feels like a dream…”

“This is very real.”

“I’m still trying to believe that…”

“Let’s just get you to bed now. You’ve had a long night.”

“Hm…”

You dreamt you were back at that party, feeling so alone. There was nowhere you could run to, and no one around you was familiar. Everyone around you had smiles on their faces, happy to see you when you didn’t even know what they expected of you. When you woke in the morning your heart was racing, and it didn’t help to be someplace so unfamiliar. You wanted to go home more than anything, but that wasn’t an option. You got out of bed and went to shower, grateful that it still worked the same. Afterwards you browsed the closet with a towel wrapped around you, trying to figure out what to wear. It was all your size, which was weird, but you just wanted some clothes.

“Good morning, Princess.”

You screamed and grabbed the towel tightly, turning around to see Taeyong at the door. He smiled at you.

“Apologies. I didn’t mean to startle you. I’ll give you a moment to dress yourself.”

Taeyong turned away and you picked something out in a hurry. You used the towel to dry your hair and stepped out to meet Taeyong.

“Good morning…”

“Good morning. I came to escort you to the dining hall for breakfast.”

“Alright.”

“Afterwards I’ll provide you with a tour of the palace, and then we can discuss your coronation.”

“My what? Coronation?”

“You may be a princess by name, but you have returned to the throne. Your welcome home party was last night and many are waiting for you to take your rightful place.”

“Uh… but I…”

“We need to discuss preparations, as well as double check your measurements, figure out the menu and guest list. Much to do.”

You were ushered out of the room and led down to the dining hall. There was so much food on the table you felt bad as you knew you wouldn’t be able to eat it all. You offered Taeyong some but he said he had already eaten. So you ate your fill, and then Taeyong escorted you around the palace. There was a library and pool, a beautiful garden, and so much more than you had imagined. The place was huge, and you met some of the other staff members around. You wanted to explore, but Taeyong told you there were other things that required your attention at the moment. So you went to the throne room at the end of the tour, seeing for the first time.

On an elevated platform there were four seats, the two in the center bigger than the other two, each with a crown symbol above them. It was the throne for the previous king and queen, as well as a prince and princess. Without thinking you walked over to the throne for the princess, your hand touching the arm rest. From what you had been told you were sent away when you were little. All the memories you held were of Earth and your adopted parents, nothing about the beginning of your life. You looked to the other thrones, and seeing the one for a prince tugged at your heart.

“I had a brother?”

“Yes.”

“He passed away?”

“Yes. You’re the only one left with royal blood, so you must ascend the throne.”

“The sooner the better I guess…”

“Indeed. You may sit down if you’d like. The others should be here shortly.”

“I’m not really a princess… so I’ll stand.”

“As you wish.”

The rest of NCT soon gathered, and they began talking about your coronation. They spoke of the guest list, as well as how to prepare the palace for the event. Many were looking forward to it, but they couldn’t accommodate everyone. They’d have to choose wisely. Although it seemed the event would be broadcast later on. You weren’t really listening, and eventually someone took notice.

“Princess.” Renjun said. “Are you alright?”

“Huh? Sorry… this all still feels like a dream…” You looked over at the thrones again. “What happened… why am I the only one left…”

“There was a war.” Johnny explained. “Many were dragged into it and you needed to be protected.”

“But what of my brother? He could have-”

“The Prince was the first one slain.” Jeno added. “I’m sorry.”

“Oh… when’s the coronation…”

“In three days.” Kun began. “It’s an all day event where you will be properly reinstated as a Princess before ascending the throne to be Queen. Both are rather long ceremonies, but they are traditions.”

“We’ll take care of the finer details.” Taeyong said. “And we’ll guide you through the ceremonies. It’ll be best to have rehearsals.”

“Okay.”

There was a lot to prepare for the big night, so you were nervous but you weren’t alone. You got to know NCT better over the coming days. None of them ever left you alone, and were always making sure to take in your opinions.

“Do you like this little cake?” Jisung asked.

“It’s really delicious.”

“We should find your top three and have those present at your coronation.”

“Am I even going to be allowed to eat? Don’t I need to keep a good image?”

“Of course you can eat. It’s your party.”

They made you feel comfortable with your new reality. Being gentle as they eased you into all these things. Even if they were meant to help you out with everything, they felt like friends above all else.

“How does it feel?”

“Uh… a little tight on the waist…”

“Loosen the lace.” Doyoung ordered. “Is there anything else?”

“No… the dress is just… unique…”

“Not to your liking?”

“Not really.”

“Apologies, but this is the traditional garment to be worn.”

“I know. I can manage it for one night.”

“Thank you.”

Even though everything was still so foreign, you were quite excited the night of your coronation. The morning was a bit hectic as everything had to be put into place, but by noon, as your reinstatement ceremony took place, things were going to plan.

“You look beautiful.” Jungwoo commented. “Truly a Princess.”

“But not for long.”

“Then let us make the most of this moment.”

This whole night was also a big gala, and Jungwoo was the first to take you onto the dance floor. Your first dance as a Princess. He led you through the steps, and thankfully they were very simple. You traded dance partners a few times, finding yourself with Xiaojun when there was a sudden commotion. The sound of glass breaking and people screaming. Hendery and YangYang rushed over to you as well, all three boys standing in front of you like a shield. You looked over their shoulders to see what was going on. A group of people dressed in gray tones, and they seemed to have weapons. You thought there was peace in the world now, that’s why you were brought home, but this didn’t look like it.

“Princess!” One yelled. “You are surrounded by liars!”

“… what…”

“You’ve only just returned and are taking up such responsibilities. Do you even know who stands besides you?”

If you were to really take responsibility, you couldn’t cower in fear. You pushed past your human shield, standing proud.

“What are you talking about!”

Of course Hendery and Xiaojun immediately pulled you back despite your struggles. Now that you had spoken the intruders knew where you were, even if the three were trying to hide you.

“You can’t trust NCT. They’re monsters who’ve taken over and are using you for power.”

You wanted to ask for more information, but others of NCT stepped forward, and it seemed that security reinforcements had arrived. There was a bit of a scuffle, but the intruders were ultimately dragged away.

“What will happen to them?”

“Execution.” Yuta stated. “After interrogation.”

“We also need to figure out who failed to do their job.” Sicheng added. “For now let’s just assure everyone that everything is under control.”

“Agreed.” Taeyong said. “You three take the Princess to recollect herself. Tonight won’t be cut short.”

You had many questions, and doubts, but you knew there was a lot going on this night, and you probably wouldn’t get answers until the end. So you waited, tried to keep a smile on your face and go through the coronation process. All the guests were happy to witness a historic moment. It was followed by many congratulations and good wishes. You pulled through the rest of the night, and then finally got to retire to bed. Most of NCT made sure to get cleaning preparations underway, while others went with you to your room. You should have undressed and cleaned up first but you plopped down on bed, letting out an exasperated sigh.

“Can one of you get me history books?”

“What for, my Queen?” Shotaro asked. “It’s quite late, shouldn’t you unwind to get some sleep? It’s been a long day.”

“No. If I’m gonna run a kingdom I need to know about its history.”

“There’s no need for that.” Haechan assured. “You have all of us.”

“And what if I want to set foot out of the palace? I need to know how to survive.”

“We’ll let you know about anything you need.” Chenle added. “There’s no need for you to worry about these things otherwise.”

“No. That’s not how this is gonna work.”

“It is.” Taeyong entered the room, stepping towards you. “We are in charge here, and you’re going to do as we tell you.”

“What?’

“You don’t really think all the people here tonight have any expectation of you running the kingdom, do you?”

“But… I’m their Queen now, I-”

“You are a Queen by name only. Solely because you are the last one left with royal blood. If not for us, you would have died on that awful planet.”

“I didn’t ask to be here! You dragged me here against my will and-”

“Gave you what any little girl would want. So be grateful.”

“Get out.”

Taeyong chuckled. “I’m afraid that’s not gonna happen. You see, you belong to us, your majesty.”

You stood up, unhappy with the way things were going. Although Taeyong didn’t hesitate to step forward and wrap a hand around your throat.

“It was written long ago that you would be a puppet Queen to the ruling class of this kingdom. I am merely fulfilling that prophecy.”

“… what…”

“That ancient book with your life written out, it was sent off with you when you left this planet, and when we went to search for you we hunted it down since it would lead us to you, no matter what you did. I did read a bit of it when you were young, so it was nice to finally read out the rest of your life. You probably should have read more if you really wanted to change your fate, but alas here we are.”

“… let… go…”

Taeyong granted your wish and threw you on the bed, quickly climbing on top of you and pinning you down. You tried to struggle beneath him but his grip was firm.

“Truth is, no matter what you did, you’d end up here. Under me.” Taeyong smirked. “A Queen needs her King, and I assure you, I’ll be good to you.”

“Get off me!”

“We can announce our engagement next week. Along with your pregnancy.”

“… what…”

“I need an heir too. We’ll have a few children together.” Taeyong reached down to touch your belly. “And our first born will be a son, isn’t that great?”

“Let go! Let go! Let go!”

“Just relax, my Queen, I’ll be gentle.”

“Please… please don’t do this…”

“This was always your fate, our fate. I don’t think I’d have it any other way.”

[kewpie-aisle]

𝕨𝕒𝕝𝕜𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕤𝕒𝕞𝕖 𝕡𝕒𝕥𝕙 𝕗𝕣𝕠𝕞 𝕥𝕨𝕠 𝕨𝕠𝕣𝕝𝕕𝕤

Moving to Japan to start a new career is never an easy step. But it's a once in a lifetime opportunity, and somewhere along the way you find a spark like no other

pairing: Iwaizumi Hajime x PhysicalTherapist!Reader

notes: suggestive language, professional f!reader, formerathlete!reader, took a lot of creative liberties with the reader character, OCs included. Words in bold are inner thoughts

wc: 6288 words

I potentially may make this a series - let me know!

dividers made by cafekitsune

The soft sound of your alarm starts shifting and growing louder, as you fumble in the dark to hit the stop button. Opening one eye to see the sun’s rays lighting up the room in a low orange glow. The light breeze through the curtains and the light is enough to get you up and begin your morning stretches with a groan. The morning routine becomes a blur as you navigate through the usual of showering, getting dressed, and eating a quick breakfast before heading out to work. Most people dread the morning commute, but it’s your personal solace to tune out the world and enjoy an hour of time to yourself. Headphones on, music blasting, daydreams carrying you through Osaka as the subway zips through the city. A buzzing sensation from your pocket interrupting your peace, but you already have a guess on who’s trying to get your attention this morning. Glancing at your phone screen, you catch the message banner before your phone goes back to sleep. Exactly on time.

Coach Foster: What’s your arrival? Y/N: Take a guess Coach Foster:...Y/N. Y/N: You’re messaging me at 6:45AM, come on now. Entertain me. Coach Foster: Knowing you, you’re probably already on the train. So, about ten minutes away? Checking your map estimate, you huff out a quiet chuckle. Damn, he’s good. After a brisk jog to your destination, you’re pushing through the doors of the athletics facility Coach gave you directions for, to see the man already waiting by the inside entrance for you. 

“Are you finally going to admit that you’re my assigned FBI agent? You have to be tracking me, how else are you still this good at knowing my whereabouts Fossy” you tease as you’re pulled into a hug from the older gentleman. Samson Foster, the head coach for the MSBY Black Jackals, in his black tracksuit pulls away and looks down at you with a warm smile on his face. It’s been quite a few years since you’ve seen him, but the few greys peppered through his normally blond hair is the only telltale sign of time passing. “Let’s keep the nicknames at bay in front of the team please? I don’t need mutiny in this team too.” He shakes his head with a grimace, as he steers you inside to give you a tour of the facilities. “We can play catch up at your welcome party tonight, but for now let’s get you started on your first day.” Coach Foster begins running through the itinerary, you both make quick work of getting through the necessary formalities with onboarding. As you make your way to the medical team offices, you hear the distant shuffles of sneakers and a whistle blowing. Making a note that the courts must be closeby, Coach opens a door leading you into a room that reminds you so much of the principal’s office. Standing to the side are two individuals quietly discussing over a clipboard before looking up at you.

“There they are. You were right Foster, she’s exactly on time.” An older gentleman in a white coat looks at his watch, breathing out a laugh before bowing for introductions. “Pleasure to finally meet you, Y/N. We’ve heard only wonderful things about you from Coach Foster. I’m Dr. Preston Burke, the team physician for the MSBY Black Jackals. This here is my colleague, Iwaizumi Hajime.” You shake the doctor’s hand as you look over to the other man to his side. As you reach your hand out, the other man bows quickly before taking your hand in a firm shake. “Iwaizumi Hajime, last name comes first in many Japanese introductions as it’s standard to go by last names here. I’m the athletic trainer for the team, it’s nice to meet you.” Handshake firm, your eyes follow the hand up a strong tanned arm, to the face of a god. Ok girl, reel it in. Yes he’s good looking. The man in front of you quirks an eyebrow in reaction to a small chuckle escaping your mouth, shaking off your inner thoughts, you smile. “Thank you Iwaizumi-san, for the cultural explanation. I’ve done some prep, wouldn’t want to come into another country and disrespect anyone. Please correct me at any time if I’ve done something wrong. It’s nice to officially meet you. I’ve gotten a lot of notes from Coach Foster.” Letting go of each other’s hands, both your attention is turned to Dr. Burke’s mention of the day’s itinerary. Although the majority of the day consists of introductions, the medical staff team has some blocks to discuss structure and strategy to help you get adjusted. Thankfully a lot of the material had been shared ahead of time, so you’re able to hit the ground running today. But the introductions aren’t until later in the day, but you have a small break before the staff meetings. So you head off to your desk with Dr. Burke, to get set up. “Iwaizumi please come with me, I need your eyes on some gameplay strategies that Meian put together. He’s waiting for us on the court.” Coach Foster pats the young man’s shoulder as he nods to agree. “I promise to keep it quick so he’s back to join you both.” Coach and Dr. Burke share a quick nod before the group says their goodbyes and splits up. 

The walk is quick and short down the hall to your shared office as Dr. Burke talks more about their background. You seamlessly go through the motions, bonding over the struggles of university, family back home, tips and tricks for learning the Japanese language, all the similar snags that come with international careers. It wasn’t an easy decision to just pick up your entire life and move to Japan, but the physical therapist role was one you couldn’t pass up. Dr. Burke’s reputation precedes him, the D-1 volleyball team is one of the best, and with your prior playing experience, you would be a perfect fit. Change wasn’t something you were ever afraid of, but after all the suffering through grad school and license tests you would be a sucker to not accept the perfect job. “I’m sure you had a similar experience Dr. Burke, but Coach has the charismatic skills of a car salesman who's low on his quota. After his pitch, there was no way I could refuse.” Dr. Burke’s solemn expression with a hand on his chin in a contemplative pose has you giggling. Birds of a feather, seems he was roped in just like you. It takes a few minutes to get your desk and laptop set up, before you’re given the tour. The shared office houses two desks in the front and a recessed second office for the primary physician. The room was primarily for administrative work, but the team’s main course of work would be in the medical office. Dr. Burke brings you down the hallway where you again hear the shuffles and faint shouts from the main courts. “The main gymnasium is just around the corner. The medical rooms are situated a stone’s throw away, for obvious reasons. You have a fully furnished space further down the hall, in between the medical offices and the locker room. For added privacy for your conversations, however thanks to your added experience, you’ll find yourself here or on the court with Iwaizumi-kun.” The doctor takes you around the pristine and sterile facilities, noting the rehabilitation and care equipment set up alongside private beds. Clearly the team has been doing well, and are supported financially. It’s good to see proper facilities set up to care for the players. Majority of the work falls within the Athletic Trainer role, since you’re fully licensed for psychological evaluations you can provide an added service. But essentially Iwaizumi-san and you would be a tag team pair. The doctor runs through the standard care protocol and shares where primary care on premise ends so that serious care is provided at approved medical facilities. Your hands are already full with the players’ files as he guides you back to the shared office space. “Iwaizumi-kun took all the careful notes in those files. His attention to detail has been a gift to me, honestly. Actually he used to play volleyball throughout his childhood as well. Quit playing after high school to study abroad for college, you should talk to him about that. Something for the two of you to bond over” he gestures to the files that you’re reading through at your desk. You hum in response, taking in carefully jotted notes in the margins of player statistics. Comments on postures, dietary restrictions, even tracked personal exercise routines to know where to adjust in facility workouts. Iwaizumi-san had begun to research cryotherapy equipment for budgeting pitches to the finance department it seemed like. 

“If it’s cryotherapy, I know a guy who can help us cut some of these estimates down. In fact one of the player’s is also close with him. We’re friends from -” cut off by a knock on the door, you both turn to see Iwaizumi-san walk in with a wave. 

“Sorry about my delay, I got caught up with Meian. What have I missed?” He notices the files in your hand and nods. “Catching up on the files? I hope my handwriting isn’t difficult to read, sometimes I can’t find my notebook in time and jot down what I can wherever I can.” Rubbing the back of his neck, he strides over to your side. You breathe out a laugh, assuring him his handwriting is neat and easy to read. You’re sharing some insight on cryotherapy research you’ve done, pulling out your phone to show him a presentation deck you had put together. Ducking his head down closer to get a look at your screen, he’s amazed by the amount of detail. Even noting slides that go into the benefits per muscular function of whole-body cryotherapy. It’s not often he meets someone who’s as passionate about the science behind the body. Glancing up at a ping on your phone, he can’t help but notice your wallpaper as it flashes by while you switch apps. “Was that…Talita Antunes as your wallpaper?” He peers over at you to see your eyes widen in surprise before you flash him the world’s biggest smile. A pang hits his heart, and the hand he’s resting on your desk to prop himself up slips a bit. Not fully catching your excited explanation about how she’s your favorite player. The room around him goes silent except for the thundering of his heart as you place your hand on his arm to show him some highlight clips of hers, impressed by the fact that you know her. Internally, Iwaizumi is making a note to buy Hinata lunch as a thank you, for drilling basic Brazilian beach volleyball facts into his head. Especially if it meant getting to see your amazing smile. A dimple popping up on one side, or the way your eyes fully crinkle to show that when you smile, your whole being exudes it. The sounds of the room slowly come back to his senses as he feels you gently pushing his shoulder. “Earth to Iwaizumi-san? Have I bored you to another dimension? Come on now, she’s too cool for you to zone out on me” You shake the man one last time, although shake should be used lightly. The trainer stood solidly, a body of muscle, needing a lot more force to cause movement. You couldn’t help but admire the sturdy feeling of muscle under your touch, shaking off the unexpected thought immediately. Taking your hand off him quickly to ensure you didn’t cross any boundaries, knowing the Japanese culture is a bit more conservative about physical touch. Hearing a soft apology, the trainer quirks an eyebrow at you, a silent ask for why. When you explain your thought on potentially making him uncomfortable, you’re met with a chuckle. “I told you he studied abroad right Y/N, he’s not bothered by that. Iwaizumi-kun lived in California for quite some time for his studies and clinical practices. Not as traditional as you think.” Dr. Burke calls out, after observing you both engrossed in your own world. It’s not often he sees his younger colleague be so carefree. Iwaizumi-kun has carried a lot of responsibility on his shoulders, especially in the early days prior to the doctor accepting the full time offer. He remembers watching Iwaizumi-kun work late night after night, taking on his own load of work so that he could go back to the hospital. Despite being the age of many of the players, he’s watched the young man carry himself with a maturity beyond his years. Although the two are close, he’s unsure if that’s his natural disposition or one he was made to mold into for personal reasons. But seeing him now, geek out about sports medicine knowledge, beach volleyball, and instinctually soften around you, warmed the older gentleman’s heart. There was clearly a natural chemistry between you two, whatever direction it goes in, all he could hope for is a happy one for the trainer. He had a soft spot in his heart for the young man, and knows that the Coach cared for the new recruit. Humming to himself, he brings his attention back to you both.

“We should be continuing her itinerary for the day, you know Iwaizumi-kun.” “Oh what? You haven’t given her the 360 degree luxury tour of our state of the art office? Well who am I to deprive her of that!” The trainer looks down at you and motions his finger in a circle; telling you to take a spin. “Luxury tour done.” A smirk plays on his lips watching you seriously take a spin in mock wonder, turning into a grin as you bite down on your bottom lip to stifle a laugh. He glances at the doctor with a raised eyebrow and a hand on the hip, silently asking what’s next on the itinerary. The three burst out into a fit of laughter from an exchange of looks, the sounds bouncing off the walls to surround the three. The moment is interrupted with a knock on the door, one of the assistant coaches peeking into the room. “Sounds like you guys are having fun, hate to interrupt that, but it’s time to meet the Jackals! Iwaizumi, can you please bring her when you’re both ready? We’ll see you in the main gymnasium” and just like he’s gone as fast as he was in the doorway. You gather yourself, turning to ask the doctor if you look nice. He flashes you a sincere thumbs up before making his way over to you. The doc gives you a gentle pat on the shoulder and a whisper of good luck as you’re pushed out the door to meet the players. 

“Why are you giving me that look?” You’re able to ask over your shoulder only to hear a soft “match their energy if you can” and a laugh before the door closes.

Iwaizumi-san has a stone cold grimace etched into his face. “Do I need to be worried? You both are absolutely not setting me up for success here” you poke at the man’s shoulder to try and get more information. “You’d think I’m being sent out to war with how solemn you guys are being. Is the team rowdy or something?” This gets a chuckle out of the man as he pushes open two large double doors into the court. “Or something” he replies quickly with a small smirk that vanishes in a second. The loud sounds of sneakers squeaking and players shouting take over your entire senses. A practice match is going on, the ball is rapidly being passed back and forth across the net. A player jumps to the side before jumping up to smash down a high set. 

For a player of that stature, a jumping height like that isn’t common. As if Apollo himself graced the court and grew wings to fly up to his perch in the sky. The whistle blows and the orange haired player lands on his feet with a heavy thump. Strong thighs easily absorb the shock of the jump to allow the player to gracefully stand up. Excited high fives with a blond setter are shared, cheers for a successful play. Hinata Shoyou. Gods, the matches on tv never do it enough justice. He’s always better in person. You can’t help a low whistle, coming out your mouth as you make your way to Coach’s side, unaware of the pair of watchful eyes from your side.

Iwaizumi looks down at you to gauge your reaction to the play. He’s used to dropped jaws or people stopped in their tracks when watching Shoyo play. He still remembers his first time watching him play like it was yesterday, and not more than a decade ago. Especially for a non-Japanese native who may not be familiar with all the players, the wing spiker’s jump must’ve been astonishing. But there you are, surprising him instead. Not an ounce of shock on your face but instead a giant grin and a fire in your eyes that he often sees in the players’ eye. 

“Someone has secrets to spill later” he nudges you with an elbow before taking his spot on the other side of Coach Foster. Before you can respond to the insinuation, Coach is whistling the team over. In front of you stood all the players, with the starting 9 rotation in the front. A handful of them grab their towels to wipe sweat off their bodies, and take a much needed water break. Thank you Coach for allowing me this opportunity to enjoy this eye candy. You praise the gods above for boys teams being able to play shirts vs skins practices, before a hand comes down on your shoulder. “Say hello to our new physical therapist, Dr. F/N L/N. I hope everyone read the introductory email that was sent out. A lot more of her background details are shared there. She will be working with Dr. Burke and Iwaizumi on the medical team. Make her feel welcome, she’s traveled a long way to officially join our team.” He pushes you out a bit in front of the group. “Don’t know what more I can add after that introduction. Especially if you’ve already gotten my full government records shared via email, from the sounds of it. But if anyone hasn’t gotten a chance to read it, feel free to come ask any questions. I am an open book. I’m practicing my Japanese, so any guidance is deeply appreciated if I make any mistakes. I’m in your care, I look forward to getting along with all of you.” You smile and bow to the team. 

The team runs through introductions and begins breaking out into groups to get back into practice. A few players linger back to chat with you excited for a new face in the group.

“Finally, a friendly and pretty addition to the team. Amen!” says the blonde setter you watched earlier. “We welcome your much needed presence on the otherwise stoic and unappealing sidelines. Miya Atsumu at your service.” He reaches his hand out with a wink. You shake his hand with a chortle “Whaaat? You’re telling me you don’t enjoy Coach Foster’s dashing looks and heart stopping smile? Come on now. Or is it that you haven’t earned his infamous dimples yet?” You quirk an eyebrow at the setter who’s looking between you and Coach Foster in shock. “DIMPLES??!” He’s immediately trying to force eye contact with Coach, who’s rapidly walking away with a grumble. Snaps his head back at you “You must tell me more. The beast of the ice land giving out smiles? What is this preferential treatment and how do we enjoy this Y/N-san?” “That’s Dr. L/N to you. Some of us are just born with it” teasingly you huff on your fingers, buffing them out on your shoulder “but I can try to teach you my ways, Atsumu-san.”  “Sticking it to you on her first day. I like her” Sakusa Kiyoomi flashes you a thumbs up, while Atsumu crosses his arms pouting on the side. “I’m Sakusa Kiyoomi, nice to meet you Doctor. Good luck fixing the mental psyche that is this kid trapped in a man’s body.” He gestures to Atsumu, and before you can break up the fight to say that’s not how sports therapy works, a boisterous laugh erupts behind you. The laugh bounces off the walls, the sound registering itself in a secure corner of your brain, holding tight so you don’t forget the sound. Scratching all the right parts. Everyone turns around to see Iwaizumi with his head back laughing before calming down to a chuckle. “I like her too, especially if she can wrangle some of you idiots this quickly. Dr. L/N is well equipped to be helping with training materials and guidance as well. She’s an athletic trainer first before you have to knock on her office door. We’ll be working together on a lot, make sure to pay attention to her and don’t give her grief…” he pauses for a second to look over at you, who’s got a strong grip on the back of Atsumu’s jersey to hold him back from Sakusa who’s found himself behind Bokuto. “Or give her all the grief. She can handle it” he finishes with a smirk and a pat on your head before walking off to assist the players on court. “....are we all going to ignore THE Iwaizumi Hajime belly laughing and teasing the new girl? Like we’re all going to scream about this at the welcome party right?” The large player protecting Sakusa, points back at the retreating trainer with his thumb questioning the group. Shocked nods from the whole group before returning their attention to you. You let go of your hold on Atsumu’s jersey with a huff.

“You guys keep mentioning a party but I haven’t gotten a proper invite. Who are you welcoming if I’m not there?” you chuckle looking at the boys. 

The large player steps forward with a hand outstretched “Bokuto Koutaro, feel free to call me Koutaro! I should be surprised that you didn’t receive your invite, but considering we left that to Inu-san, it all makes sense.” The libero raises his hands in the defensive “I mixed up the order of names in the email. I forgot the first name last name thing.” Bokuto shakes his head with a chuckle “We’ll be heading out together after practice, feel free to join us. Can’t have the guest of honor not join.” “It’s time to get back to practice, boys. You can interrogate the doc later” Hinata Shoyo pipes up. He’s got a playful smirk as he rallies the boys away from you. “Take the time you need to collect yourself doctor” he sing songs while walking away. You can begin to feel the prickles of heat at the tips of your ears after the boys leave. Iwaizumi’s head pat had left you stunned, the warmth of the gesture gave you butterflies. You were not sure what to make of any of it, but wanted to make sure you didn’t give anything away on your face. You thought you got away with it, but Shoyo always notices everything. I’ll deal with him later.

It’s not often that you get flustered, let alone from someone you just met. But Iwaizumi-san’s playfulness caught you off guard. From most of the reports from Coach Foster, the trainer was described as reliable, diligent, and stern. But the man in front of you was charming, attentive, respectful, and expressive. And extremely easy on the eyes. 

Despite being surrounded by all the players, you often found your eyes peering over at your colleague. Half the fun of watching the rest of practice was watching Iwaizumi-san in action. You observed as Iwaizumi walked around the sidelines of the court observing each practice group. Helping correct posture mid play to ensure safety. Check in on stretching sessions, to help players with new stretches that would better help pains they were dealing with. Eyes drinking in the sight of the trainer showing new stretches, bending down as each muscle in his legs flex. His shorts riding up slightly from the stretch of his thick thighs having you gulping a ghost of a frog stuck in your throat. Thoughts of your hands running across the expanse of his back before wrapping around his shoulders. Pausing your court observation to physically wave away inappropriate thoughts. Crushes aren’t a new concept but this was something you hadn’t felt since you were in middle school being hit with puberty’s wrath. 

It’s not that he wasn’t all the characteristics Coach had shared, he was all that and more. Often stopping by your spot on the sidelines to point out other players and their common concerns and where additional consulting later would be beneficial. Each time, Iwaizumi-san would make some type of contact with you, that would send you into a mental frenzy. Hand on the edge of your seat, fingers barely grazing your knee as he peered over your notebook. His shoulder bumping against yours as he pointed out certain players to you. Hands grabbing both your shoulders to turn you to bring your attention to a play happening across the court, grateful for your long sleeve shirt covering the goosebumps on your arms. Stand up girl, you are a grown woman!! You’re granted a respite from the internal chaos when Coach sends Iwaizumi to the captain to talk about player rotations.

Albeit your teenage heart palpitations, the rest of practice went smoothly. Iwaizumi-san and you had fallen into an effortless rhythm. After observing group dynamics and game play, you had taken notes on a few of the players. On your way over to the trainer to get his thoughts on some workout routine adjustments, your attention is brought to the court.

The team had been caught up in serve practices which was beginning to frustrate some of the players. Coach Foster had always advocated for every player running really difficult plays or shots, repetitively. Not only to build up a repertoire of skills, but he believed that the difficulty and frustration brings out a truth in how a player handles a challenge. Today he was keen on having everyone run hybrid serves, not knowing which serve he would call out mid jump. The purpose of the hybrid serve is psyching out the opposing team, and control of the court mid air. It always starts as a jump serve, but he would then call out other styles to see how well the players can control their wrist movements. It’s an exhausting drill, especially because Coach has upped the ante and placed a water bottle along the attack lines and boundary lines of the court. He was now calling out locations for the players to aim to hit. Although there were some successes, the majority of the players were missing the targets with incomplete serves from not knowing which command the Coach would call out.

At the moment of another missed target, a loud cry rang through the court. Everyone peered over to see that the usually calm Sakusa-san was bent over muttering to himself before turning to shout. “It’s not enough time! You’re not maintaining any pattern in the serve switches and the locations. No one can serve these ridiculous plays.” He was huffing with clenched fists, wild eyes scanning the Coach’s face for any reaction. Sakusa-san had been playing calmly the entire day, but you had noticed he often went to the side for individual practice. He’d often repeat the same plays for a long time before being called for a group practice. “You’re analyzing the serve too much Sakusa-san. Listen for the location, your grip will adjust to the serve style that matches the location.” The advice had slipped out of your mouth while taking notes. You hadn’t meant to say anything and look up to the group staring at you. Coach had a small smile on his face and a glint in his eyes. Realization dawning on you on the reason he was relentless with this specific drill for the team. But before either of you could express anything Sakusa-san interrupted with a short laugh. “And what would you know about this? This isn’t a matter of an injury messing with my psyche or some childhood trauma rearing its head. This is a matter of game play. I don’t need advice from someone who doesn’t know what they’re talking about” he sneered. You could see a flash of regret on his face after the outburst. He was at a peak of burnout from the intense practice, but Coach Foster steps in between you both. He tosses you a ball and points to the service line. “On my whistle” he demands. Years later and you still know better than to question him when that tone comes out. With a sigh you hand your notes to Iwaizumi-san who’s failing at controlling his face, a mix of concern and confusion. “It’s been a long time you old fart…if I embarrass myself…” he hears you grumble to yourself as you get in position. Iwaizumi carefully watches as the boys on the court make way and you stand a few feet behind the serve line. Gathering your hair up in a ponytail, you stretch your arms before picking back up the ball. Your entire demeanor has changed from the contemplative and playful person he’s been watching throughout the day. He doesn’t know why, but he hasn’t been able to take his eyes off you since you walked into the office. Everything about you intrigues him, makes him want to know every detail about the person before him who’s full of surprises. Every time he thinks he understands, you shock him. 

Just like now, as he watches you crouch and nod to Coach. Launching the ball high, taking two long strides before jumping on the third step. And jump you did, pulling all the air around you, right out of his lungs, bringing the court to a still as you went up. Coach’s command for a float serve follows before the whistle shrill has fully faded. Then comes the location, left corner of the attack line. Your grip adjusts on instinct, waiting for the height to fall a bit before making contact with your palm evenly. Your eyes don’t leave the targeted water bottle as you drop down. The ball makes clean contact to topple the bottle with a reverberating smack. You land on your feet harshly, forgetting about the worn out shoes you were wearing. Losing your balance from the lack of traction, you feel yourself slip, but you feel broad hands slide under your arms catching you from the back. Back thumping into someone’s chest, you tilt your head back to see Iwaizumi-san flashing you the largest grin, lit up from the back by the overhead lights causing a light halo around him. Pretty. You can hear your heart beating in your ears from the sudden physical activity, but it picks up speed. A blush spreads across your cheeks as you slip a little and lean back into his chest for support. “Easy there tiger, I got you” he says, easily straightening you up. The casual petname sending you into an embarrassing spiral. Immediately turning your face out of his vision, you’re trying to regain composure. He’s checking to make sure you aren’t injured as you remember now’s not the time to be simping for your hot colleague. But it’s time to be pissed at a pompous old man who’s always got you marching to his tune. You scan the court finding the target for your death stare chucking on the sidelines. “A float serve you demonic maniac?! And if Iwaizumi-san here hadn’t been my knight in shining armor to catch me, and I busted my ass in front of everyone? Then what?” You’re shaking your fist at Coach, who’s chuckle has grown to a full laugh as he walks over. Despite his laughs, he makes sure to check your ok, chastising your shoe choice before turning to the shocked group of players. “Let me reintroduce her, Dr. Y/N L/N, former setter and a 2x Women’s World Championships winner. Now the Physical Therapist for the MSBY Black Jackals. My former player.” He proudly announced to Sakusa who’s gone pale. Arms crossed waiting for the shock to subside. Kissing your teeth you politely step in front of Coach to end the embarrassment, keeping at bay a swell of warmth over the pride he has in you. “Please don’t brag about me to literal Olympians and Pro players. I’m retired, rusty, not on their level and not here to teach them a lesson. But Sakusa-san, my advice was purely in reference to your exhaustion. You were overthinking. I apologize for overstepping.” You shoot him a reassuring smile and reach out with your fist as an extension of friendship. He bows and reaches out to fist bump sheepishly. “But next time you want to cut me to the core, pick something more truthful and scathing. I like a challenge.” You tease with a wink drawing a small groan from the player as he covers his face with his free hand. 

The court erupts with a thousand questions and comments all at once. A swarm of giant bodies covering you before you can step out of the danger zone. A bronzed hand wraps around your wrist, pulling you out and into a familiar chest, thumping into Iwaizumi-san with a small huff. His other hand finds your waist to balance you; eyes look up into his olive ones that flash with an expression you can’t read. Clearing your throat, you glance at both his hands holding you, before he releases you with a quick apology. Hands up in defense, but his lips curling up into a smirk as the flush on your face grows. The lingering heat from his hand on your waist has every nerve ending in your brain going off. You mutter a thank you, shy now that the object of your disturbance was back to being front and center. No longer able to stop yourself from looking at him from top to bottom. Tall, dark, and handsome to a tee. Everything about him was broad and strong. Brain short circuiting just thinking of those same hands and body fully wrapped around yours, had you not had a modicum of dignity. Dignity be damned right now, may as well shoot my shot later. Brought out of your thoughts with a small cough from the trainer. “We can look at each other all we want tonight, but it’d be nice to talk properly and learn more about you. Especially so you can share any other secrets you’re holding on to Dr. Extraordinaire” he ruffles your hair lightly with a soft smile. Whatever witty retort on its way out your lips, caught in your throat, when he leans down to whisper in your ear “Can’t say I haven’t been enjoying checking you out the whole day too”. He relishes in the deep flush across your face and the tingle on his lips from grazing your ear. But when he sees your eyebrows furrow he panics a bit. Did he cross a line while caught up in the new feeling of butterflies in his stomach? Maybe he had read the situation completely wrong and you hadn’t been checking him out. Trying to gauge from your expression if he’s about to deal with a gnarly HR complaint, he sees your bottom lip stick out in a pout.

“You’re telling me I’ve been working hard taking notes all throughout practice to share with you when I could have been checking you out openly?” You swat at his chest before turning away from the man. “Coach definitely put my information in that intro email so not really a secret to spill if it was blasted out. Can’t fault me for no one reading it.” Your shrug met with Iwaizumi gaping at you. Rubbing the back of his neck before mumbling something about skimming the email, unaware how cute the whole moment is to you. Happy to know it’s not just you feeling nervous around the man, you throw caution to the wind. “Besides, I have way more fun secrets to learn than that, Iwa-chan~” you glance over your shoulder, looking up at the man through your lashes. Lips curling up into a coy smile as a light flush blooms across the man’s face from the choice of nickname sung out teasingly. The group of players snapping you both out of your bubble with the announcement of the end of practice and hitting the showers to get ready for the welcome party. You start to walk back to the office to grab your things when his voice calls out to you. “Hajime” You turn around to look at him. “Call me Hajime.” 

He catches up with you and gently places a hand on the small of your back to guide you to the shared office. “We can walk together, don’t want to waste another minute not learning.” He glances down with a smile hearing you giggle, a sound he pockets in a corner of his brain to hold on to forever. 

But definitely one he plans to hear throughout the night if he can help it.

[heartsofminds]

at least i let the light in - sneak peek

“Natasha was mistaken, and letting him tag along tonight was an incredibly bad idea.” or Bradley is on a downward spiral and Natasha can’t help but feel like a terrible friend. 

A/N: soooooo if y’all know anything about me it’s the fact that i love angst and it’s what i write best! so enjoy this little snippet of therapy bradley and be prepared for the finished piece to drop sometime soon (...i’m thinking this weekend but who really knows?!) i am so so SO  excited to let you all inside the little corner of my brain that’s been harboring this character study for months! happy reading and can’t wait to share more of this story with you guys soon! 

This is really bad. This is super bad. This is fucking horrible.  

In hindsight, Bradley had a little bit of a problem. In hindsight, letting him have as much as he did was a stupid idea. And in hindsight, it was downright imbecilic to let him get that wasted, play a game of pool with Jake (who loves to engage in smack talk), and not tell Jake about the breakup which resulted in Bradley leaping over the table and trying to beat the absolute shit out of him for making a joke about his girlfriend whom everyone else had yet to establish was now his ex-girlfriend. 

Maverick, who watched the entire thing go down from the bar stools, practically begged Penny on his hands and knees not to throw them out and she obliged but only after tasking Mickey and Bob with taking Bradley to the bathroom and letting him calm down in there before he was ready to come back out. 

And Nat knew that they all should probably head home and that Penny had every right to kick them out for the evening (and probably should), but she remained quiet while trying to ignore the sinking feeling in her stomach. Her careful eyes caught wind of Bradley’s incapacitated disposition as he stood slumped between Mickey and Bob as if he was an anchor ready to sink to the bottom of the ocean. 

Their gentle arms held him steady while their faces wore desperation. The chunky wet spot of acid on Bob’s pant leg told Natasha everything she needed to know and from the way Bradley’s head hung, he was down for the count.

If she was being truthful, Bradley had been down for the count for a long time; much longer than anyone had ever really taken notice of, and the seed of anxiousness planted in her torso only bloomed with each assisted step he had taken toward her. 

Natasha was mistaken, and letting him tag along tonight was an incredibly bad idea. 

“Hi, Nat,” he slurs with reddened cheeks and a boyish grin on his face. Part of him looks like the boy she had gotten to love like a brother all those years ago in flight school; way before the stupid mustache and the muscles and the “slight” drinking problem he’d developed over the past nine weeks. 

“Hey, dumbass,” she snides back. She’s so overwhelmed that irritation is the only feeling coursing through her veins. 

“We had a bit of an. . .” Mickey looks toward Bob who looks as if he’s about two seconds away from passing out, “incident in the bathroom. He really needs to get home, Nix.” 

She sighs deeply; the likeness of a sleepless night and a massive headache in the morning a premonition burning bright behind the heavy blinks of her eyelids. Her hands hold her hips and her shoulders slump. She and Bradley had ridden with Jake to Hard Deck tonight, and she’s sure that the debit card saved to her Uber account would not appreciate a twenty-five dollar fee for an eight-minute straight shot up the road. 

But asking Jake for a ride home after he’d been sat icing his left eye with a Heineken bottle isn’t ideal either. 

Her eyes dart to the watch on her left arm; an old Cartier with a white face and hands that were always ten minutes off the hour. If she remembers right, multiplying the drive time by two would get her an estimate of the walking time, and if they jay-walk on Jasper and Kinnecky, they could shave off four minutes and be at her front door in about- 

“Twelve minutes?” she looks up at the triad of men and flashes a sympathetic smile to her WSO in the process, “Do you think he could make that long of a walk?” 

Bradley tries to straighten his legs to stand on his own, but his knees buckle before he can even put his full weight forward. He giggles to himself; the sound childish and carefree. He attempts to lean his head on Bob’s shoulder but slams his forehead down too enthusiastically and knocks heads with the sheepish brunette instead. 

“I’m gonna be so honest with you, I don’t think he can even tell you what color shirt he has on. It’s a miracle he’s even standing right now.”  

Natasha groans and puts her face in her hands.

Fucking hell, Bradley. 

“Don’t be mad at me. Please don’t be mad. Don’t be mad,” Bradley speaks up. His voice is whinier than usual and it’s one of the few phrases he’s bothered to utter tonight. His weight still remains supported by his two friends and for a moment, she feels guilty for even being frustrated with him at all. 

The warm hazel of his eyes peer into hers and she can almost feel his sadness and solitude. Bradley always liked to operate like he was angry, but anyone who dared to get close enough to him knew that the anger was how he felt about himself; a mirage of explosives made up of pure loneliness and hurt. 

[artsekey]

I'm not super into Lackadaisy, but I am super into animation, and...

How are they planning to finance an entire season with just 1,000,000?

(Everything below assumes that they're aiming for episodes that are comparable to the pilot & that they plan on fully financing the season with solely the donations on Backerkit. It's likely they have additional financing through merchandising, the pilot, and/or Iron Circus's other projects, but since that information is not available, I'll go off of what I know. Additionally, production management and budgeting are extremely project dependent, so the "averages" listed below may be far off what the PM on Lackadaisy's got quoted.)

[EDIT: It’s been brought to my attention that the episodes are 10-12 minutes long, which means it’s MUCH more doable than I was expecting! They budgeted for a lean (but doable!!!) production. Thank you to those who clarified! I’ll leave this post as-is for those interested, but read it knowing they’re considering roughly half the time I used to calculate everything below!]

Quick preface as to why I wanted to talk about this and Why I Feel I May Have Valuable Things To Say: I'm an indie filmmaker and professor of animation, production management, and VFX. I'm not trying to call out the company or the production because-- and I cannot say this enough-- I truly do not know what's happening on the back end. Every production is wildly different. Their original goal was 125,000, with 45% going to animation-- that includes rough, cleanup, & color. That means that for a ~27 minute animated episode, they've got $56,250. If we collect all facets of production together-- story, layout, animation, compositing, and editing-- we wind up with a grand total of $82,500. Even if we estimate at the lowest average production cost of $8,000 a minute, this budget would account for ~11 minutes of animation.

An animator's average hourly rate is ~$36. With the outlined budget, the Lackadaisy production would be able to afford ~1562 hours of animator manpower. Let's assume (for the sake of this discussion) they'll split that over at least four animators, leaving us with about 10 weeks of full-time work (~390 hrs per person) for four people.

Now this may seem like a lot of time, but as far as I can tell, the pilot was largely animated frame-by-frame without the use of 2D rigging. This means every frame needs to go through roughs, then cleanup, then color, then composite. Every frame you see on-screen has been worked over at least four times-- six if you count layout and story. Ten weeks is simply not enough time to finish 27 minutes of 2D animation.

Now, I know what you might be thinking; Artsekey, they never said their production period was ten weeks! And you're right! However, that's how much production time they can afford. Whether it's split over 20 weeks or a year, they only have enough money to pay their animators for 1562 hours of labor.... if they're paying them a competitive hourly wage. To be completely clear, I am not insinuating that they're low-balling their animators; there're a dozen unknown factors that play into this, such as:

The level of animator they're hiring (an apprentice animator may make ~$17-$23 an hour whereas an experienced pro may make ~$43-$45.)

Whether they're actually hiring animators as opposed to contracting animators (I assume their model is likely relying on the latter based on the fact that I'm seeing a lot of animators that worked on 1-3 shots). They may be doing single-sum deliverable based contracts rather than hourly.

The use of tools like EBsynth (which is listed among the programs they're using) and smart frame management (which they're definitely doing!). This can, if used properly, cut down on the number of in-betweens animators need to get done.

The amount of money the studio is planning to re-invest on their end. The goal on backerkit may just account for the additional funds the studio needs to enter production, meaning their budget may be far larger than what's listed. However, if this were the case, I'd hope they'd disclose it! If I were considering backing the project, knowing that the studio was going to be buying in would increase my faith in the fundraiser.

Obviously, the team loves animation. It shows through in the pilot, and I think that it's clear in their mission statement that they stand against the exploitation of animators. But... I also know that indie production is like trying to wring water out of a log. I'd personally like a more comprehensive breakdown of their expenditures not because I think there's anything suspicious happening behind the scenes, but because as someone who teaches production management for animation and who has an interest in indie production specifically, I'm wondering what choices they're making to stretch their funds.

And what about sound?

While I'm not an expert in audio design, I do live with a professional voice actress/audio engineer, and she had a few thoughts I'd like to share.

At their original goal, roughly ~12500 was set aside for:

Sound Design

Music Composition

Voice Acting

Now, I can only refer to my own experiences as an indie filmmaker regarding price, but the rate I received-- from friends-- for sound design was roughly ~325 per minute, and this was a very, very good deal for what I personally needed. The audio engineer can be responsible for collecting and/or recording foley, or the sound effects you hear in film. This can be expensive and time consuming. They're also responsible for editing all the foley, music, and voice acting together in a way that feels seamless. If we were going off the rate I was given (which was very reasonable given the amount of work that needed to be done), ~27 minutes of full foley, complex sound design, and mixing would run about ~8,000. This number could fluctuate significantly depending on whether they need the sound designers to create the foley, get some ADR in, or just mix the audio, but let's assume that Lackadaisy has a pre-existing foley library and that the price falls in a lower range of ~5,000.

Music's a complete wild-card. In my experience, most composers charge per-minute, and most of the indie composers I've worked with were at a rate of ~$100 per minute of music. That'll land at a nice $2,700.

Now where my friend got particularly heated was the rate for the voice actors. As a voice actress herself, she was floored that the budget for voice was so low-- particularly because the project's pilot pulled industry voices like ProZD. Obviously, the price for voice can vary wildly based on how many lines an actor has, their experience as a voice actor, their personal terms, ect. The cast for the pilot included 11 credited actors. I can't assume their rates or whether they charge a fee to even get in the booth (my roomate charges $100 flat at the start of a session), but if my other estimates are in the right ballpark, their goal budget accounts for roughly ~500 per VA (and it's extremely unlikely that it's divided equally for obvious (and logical) reasons). Honestly, for a full episode of animation, that's... about average. But average in the voice-acting community doesn't necessarily mean good. Voice actors are notoriously underpaid, and-- as previously mentioned-- bigger names with more lines are going to be taking in more of that pay-pool.

And, of course, the Production Managers.

I'm not going to speak on this for too long, but the original budget held 8750 for the admin team. I assume admin includes their PMs, director, and leads (if they have enough specialization to need leads). Assuming it's just one PM and one director, they're pulling in ~4375 a person. For the duration of the project. There's no way that prepro, production, and post would take less than 8 months. Of everyone involved in a production, these roles are on-board from start to end, and it's simply not enough! PM's are absolutely critical to success!

Not to mention the editor!

In animation, the editor is the director's right-hand man, and is working to edit the storyboards, reels, scratch music, and the final cut. This role is also on the production from pre-to-post, and their original budget allows for.... $2,500. What? If I go extremely low on the hourly for the editor, you maybe get one part-time weeks' worth of work for several edits of a 27 minute episode. With most everything else I've talked about, I've mentioned there's a lot of wiggle room because of all the factors I simply don't know, but in no universe is $2,500 enough for this editing job. (Even at the current budget of 1,000,000, $4,000 an episode is super low.)

But, hey! They've got more money now!

Of course, all of these concerns go out the window when you consider that the team's already raised a whopping $953,000 (as of 7/31/23) with the fundraiser only up for five days... right?

Well... It certainly alleviates some of the strain, but their stretch goals were scope increases! This means that once they reach their 1,000,000 stretch goal, they're adding on four additional ~27 minute episodes. This increases the budget-per-episode to 200,000 (yay!), but that still leaves the project with about $7,400 to spend per-minute... which, in the world of animation, isn't much!

All in all, I think that the original goal of 125,000 -- if there was going to be minimal investment from the company-- was completely insufficient, and it would have been irresponsible to try to produce a 27 minute long pilot with that budget. At the same time, I imagine the PM/Admin team could reasonably expect a strong outpouring of support from the fans based on past success and low-balled the original goal. Now that they're near 1,000,000, I think- and hope - they'll be able to swing it.

If anyone has any insight into the production of the pilot (either because you worked on it or know someone who does), please feel free to add context to this post! Again, I am not trying to call out Iron Circus. I'm fascinated by indie production and have been following the successes and failures of crowdfunded animation since it started picking up, and while the goal for Lackadaisy raised some concerns for me up-front, I think they're making strategic choices based on hard data (that we the public are not privvy to). They've already done it once, so they should be able to do it again!

[hakugreenfinch]

Iggy the Stray Dog - ch1

Author: Otsuichi

Original concept: Araki Hirohiko

Originally published: JOJO Magazine 2022 Spring

*** This is a fan translation made purely for entertainment. Please do not repost/reuse/etc without my permission and credit! ***

The plane lands at John F. Kennedy International Airport. In the air, a haze like light yellow smoke drifts, one could not see anything too far away.

I show my passport to pass immigration inspection at the airport. I collect my check-in baggage and catch a yellow taxi. My destination is the Speedwagon Foundation headquarters, located in Midtown Manhattan. I estimate it would take about thirty minutes from the airport by car.

On the way there, the driver keeps wiping the sand gathering on the car’s windshield. Wait, sand? Taking a closer look, even the back seat window is covered in what looks like light yellow sand. I speculate the hazy sight I saw from the airplane must have been the fault of the sand dancing in the air.

„Does sand usually pass over New York this time of the year?” I ask the driver. It wouldn’t be odd for tiny specs of sand to get caught up in the desert wind and travel tens of thousands of kilometers to faraway countries. The driver throws a glimpse at me from the rearview mirror.

„It’s been like this for half a year now, it happens every now and then. I wonder where on earth it came from... Sir, can I ask where you’re from?”

„From Egypt.”

„Thought so! I was sure based on your clothes. This song called „Walk like an Egyptian” is very popular recently in this country, do you know it?”

„No, I haven’t heard it.”

„Well, it’s everywhere. I’m sure some radio station is playing it this very moment!” The driver turns on the radio as he speaks, and music starts playing. It isn’t the song we just discussed but it is a lively music filled with energy, very much like this country. „Welcome to the United States, Sir! Are you here to sightsee?”

„No. I must do some work at the request of my American friend.”

„Wow, good luck with that!”

The taxi drives up on the highway and before soon I can see a bridge before us. Crossing East River, the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge is lying across from the Wards Islands and finally reaching Manhattan Island. I bet my driver wouldn’t even imagine that I of all people would visit this country to capture a stray dog.

***

According to the Speedwagon Foundation’s reports, it was first observed at a New York corner store. One morning as the owner pulled up the shutters of his store, he found that some of the shelves were vandalized. As he evaluated the damage, it seemed like someone had been inside.

In the dark, he heard a noise resembling chewing.

The owner grabbed a mop that happened to be at hand and stepped closer, ready to attack with the handle. Then, he realized what was hiding in the shadows – a small dog of roughly 30 cm height. It was a Boston Terrier. The middle of its head, its nose and mouth were white as well as around its neck, while its eyes, ears and torso were black. Drool was dripping from the skin hanging over on both sides of its muzzle.

The Boston Terrier stopped chewing and stared straight up at the store owner. It was eating coffee flavoured chewing gum.

The store owner swung the mop at it in an attempt to chase it outside, but the dog clung to his head with an astonishing jump, rampaging as if it was trying to tear his hair out, and finally farted before his face and ran away. The store owner testified that it smelled like rotten eggs. Apparently it is quite common among dog breeds like Boston Terriers to breathe through the mouth and fart a lot but thanks to it doing so in front of the man’s face, its private parts flashed before his eyes and he could tell the dog was a male.

Only one thing remains a mystery about this incident – until the store owner opened the shutters in the morning, it should have been impossible for anyone to enter the store. There was no other entrance and the windows had been closed shut. How did the Boston Terrier get inside then?

Upon closer inspection, the Speedwagon Foundation found that a ceiling tile had come off, that’s where he could supposedly enter. But was that even possible for such a small dog? A dog normally couldn’t even have gotten above the ceiling.

Since then, multiple incidents have taken place in various areas of Manhattan of a stray dog stealing chewing gum. One time it was a newspaper stand in the office district, another time it was a store in the harbour from where the Statue of Liberty could be seen where the candy shelves were raided and robbed completely of coffee flavoured chewing gum. If tourists decided to chew some, a stray dog would jump in from outside of their field of vision and run away with the strip of gum. The culprit was always a Boston Terrier. Even if people ran after him, they never managed to capture him.

Countless complaints have been sent to New York City Hall and as a result, pest control was set to work. There is a number of small private pest exterminators in Manhattan, taking care of rats and bats at the request of citizens, but stray cats and dogs also aren’t unusual for them to take care of. The animals they capture are sent off to shelters and put down.

The city commissioned several of these contractors. The „stray dog hunters” collect information on the Boston Terrier’s sightings and jump in their cars carrying huge nets, just like in “Ghostbusters”. However, not even they succeed.

When they chase him down and attempt to corner him, grains of sand start flying around out of nowhere. The sand clings to the men’s faces and get in their eyes, robbing them of their vision while the Boston Terrier runs somewhere far away. The inexplicable sand phenomenon has been reported in other cases as well.

In the nothern parts of Manhattan, on street corners that tourists should never get anywhere near, a fight broke out between rival mafia gangs. At first, it was just an exchange of insults but it soon escalated into guns being pointed at each other. At the sound of the first gunshot, a nearby restaurant’s windows shattered, but no further shots echoed after that.

As the gangsters tried to pull the triggers of their guns, for some reason they just didn’t move. Upon taking a closer look, they saw that they were completely clogged with sand. Thanks to the sand that got inside the machines, they simply couldn’t move properly or shoot bullets.

Could it have been the work of some natural phenomenon? No, that wasn’t it. A Boston Terrier was spotted not far away, sunbathing as he took his noon nap. The sand clogging the guns was his work. He thought that the noise of gunshots was disturbing his nap and thus, who knows how, he made sure that the gangsters’ guns malfunctioned.

He has some sort of power that allows him to manipulate sand.

The Speedwagon Foundation and I hold the same opinion.

I read through the reports concerning the Boston Terrier in a room of the Foundation’s headquarters. On the outside, it seems to be an old-style stone building, however on the inside it is a modern office building. It appears that my face and name are already familiar here since no security guard stops me at the entrance.

Outside my window, the many buildings of Midtown fill my sight, their silhouettes line up across the scenery obscured by sand as if they were ruins in the desert.

„Does this dog have any friends? Dogs usually gather into packs.”

A staff member of the Speedwagon Foundation answers my question.

„It appears he only moves around by himself. However, several reports state that stray bitches had served him. It looks like other dogs have also noted his oddness. For instance, in front of a certain downtown shop there are big dogs that bark all day but whenever this Boston Terrier passes by, they pull in their ears and tails and hide away. He’s not even one third of their sizes and yet those huge dogs are terrified of him! Some even call him the king of stray dogs.”

I pick up another report. This one is summarizing the tales the „stray dog hunters” told.

One day, a vermin exterminator received a request from the city to capture some wild dogs. It happened when the man had locked the dogs up onto the tray of his truck and took a cigarette break in the driver’s seat. He heard a rustling sound, as if sand had been falling down. Taking a closer look, sand had piled up under his seat. It reached up to the man’s ankle, and no matter how much he struggled, it soon reached up to his waist. He tried to open the door and escape but by then the sand has already reached the height of his shoulders, rendering him unable to move. At last, the driver’s seat had been covered in sand up to his neck.

With a thump, the car began to shake and he saw the dogs that were supposed to be locked up on the tray fleeing the truck, one after the other. He later checked the tray and found that although he had locked it up, the door seemed to be damaged.

Through the car’s windscreen, the man covered in sand caught a glimpse of a Boston Terrier. The dog crossed in front of the car calmly, just as if he was looking down at humans, mocking them.

„Was he looking for friends?”

„He might have simply been acting on a whim. Here is some additional material.”

The Speedwagon Foundation staff member shows me another several pages long document. It seems to be a pedigree paper, a registration certificate with a thread diagram and the owner’s name.

„We have confirmed that he ran away from somewhere. It looks like he belonged to a wealthy man in a kuxurious mansion.”

„How do you know?”

„We asked around about a Boston Terrier that loves coffee flavour chewing gum. It wasn’t easy, though...”

According to this man’s story, the time a wealthy household’s pet dog ran away and disappeared and the time this Boston Terrier was first seen in Manhattan line up. The house’s butler confirmed that without a doubt, this dog had a bizarre obsession with coffee flavoured chewing gum.

„At this house, they used to call him Iggy.”

„Iggy, huh...”

Iggy, the odd dog with the power to manipulate sand.

He must be hiding somewhere around Manhattan even now.

„We, the Speedwagon Foundation also took part in the stray dog hunt to help capture him but it was all in vain. It would be a problem if nobody manages to catch him...”

„He probably wants to avoid falling back into that man’s hands.”

Fear confuses the mind. Just a couple of months ago I met a certain man. That man wasn’t human, he wasn’t something that was supposed to be real, something that was supposed to exist. He showed up and called out to me in an intoxicating, beautiful voice.

With a disgraceful shriek, I ran away.

I haven’t returned to my hometown since then.

I shove a bunch of reports inside my suitcase and stand up.

  I leave the Speedwagon Foundation’s building. Midtown is a prosperous area even on the island of Manhattan. Skyscrapers are towering on each side of the main street, their highest floors disappearing into the clouds. All kinds of people dressed in all sorts of clothes are crowding the streets and a variety of languages can be heard. I even see quite a number of Arabs just like myself.

I stop a taxi passing by and sit in the back. I give my hotel’s name to the driver, apparently it is right around Central Park. It’s a top notch hotel booked by the Speedwagon Foundation. The driver, a fat white man, takes a look at me from the rear-view mirror and, without saying a word, steps on the gas pedal.

The Speedwagon Foundation was established by a man named Robert E. O. Speedwagon. They are dedicated to studying medicine, pharmacology, archeology and ecology among others, working for the sake of people’s livelihood and welfare. The founder, Mr Speedwagon has already passed away but by means of his will, my American friend and his family get to enjoy the Foundation’s support.

After just a while, the taxi arrives before my hotel. The driver stops the taxi’s fare meter and sticks his hand out to me.

„Seventy-five dollars.” An arrogant attitude rings from his voice.

„Seventy-five dollars? There must be a mistake.”

Just now, I took a taxi from the airport to Manhattan but this price was higher than the fare I paid that time.

„No, it’s seventy-five dollars. Look at the meter, it says seventy-five, doesn’t it?”

The white driver points at the price shown by the liquid crystal screen on the instrument panel with a thick finger. It is the meter displaying the fare. Certainly, it says seventy-five dollars. It is probably overcharging to rip off tourists. I’ve heard of a trick that, by modifying the meter, made it show an unfairly high fare.

„I’m afraid your meter is broken. That’s why it is displaying such an odd number.”

The driver taps it as if to test it and clicks his tongue.

„This is the latest model, I just got it recently. There’s no way it’s broken. If you’ve got that, pay those seventy-five dollars.”

„No, I’m certain it is broken. There, take a look at the screen. Isn’t the display a bit odd?”

„...the hell, what’s up with this?” The driver sounds puzzled. The liquid crystal screen is flickering. He starts sweating – the temperature inside the car is rising. It is me, using my powers just a little bit.

A charred smell begins to waft in the air. The meter is burning up from the heat on the inside until nothing shows up on its screen anymore.

„It’s smoking!”

From the gaps of the machine, white smoke is leaking. The driver lets out a scream as he sees it and tears the door open, getting out of the car. I take my bags and step outside as well.

„How on earth...?! It was brand new,” the driver yells, checking the meter inside the car through a window. The heat melted the screen and the surrounding devices look charred as well. I take out some banknotes and offer what I think to be an appropriate amount to him.

„From Midtown to here the fare should be this much. Your meter was broken, that’s why it was showing an odd number.”

„Aah, yeah... I guess that’s what it was.”

Frankly, the driver doesn’t really look like he cares, he is rather disheartened. Even now, he seems to be on the brink of crying. He is a bad person and he deserves no sympathy. Have I not heated the meter up just enough to damage it, he would have scammed other tourists. The Old Testament’s Exodus said so – an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.

The driver puts a cigarette in his mouth, he probably needs a smoke to calm down. I hold out my hand in the cigarette’s direction, pinching its end between my thumb and index finger. The man looks up at me, tensing up. I am taller even than most Americans.

„Your job should come first. That’s what they say in my hometown. From now on, live an earnest life!”

Heat arises between my fingers. The end of the cigarette lits up in red, smoke rising up. Making sure it did, I let go of it. The driver stares at the light, dumbfounded.

„Are you a magician?”

He must think that because I lit a fire without a match or a lighter.

„No, I’m a fortune teller.”

Picking up my baggage, I walk away.

The hotel is a building with a feeling of historical importance and dignity. Stepping through the front entrance, I get overwhelmed by a magnificent lobby. Each and every lighting fixture is like a piece of jewelry. At the reception desk, I make arrangements regarding my accomodation. I put down my name and passport number on a form. The receptionist takes a look at it, and calls out my name with a smile.

„Mr. Mohammed Avdol! We’ve been expecting you.”

[all-pacas]

Got any widobrave in you? Been thinking about them lately.

You know, I don’t — but I also have a fic I never finished or posted anywhere! Actually I have a couple of them!

crooked kind

She expects it to feel different. Stepping onto a ship, now, after everything. And it does, kinda. The ship is darker, more shadowy. Quieter. The gunpowder smells different, less sharp, until she puts her nose up to it, enough that she gets a bit up her nose when she sniffs and then sneezes and then looks around to make sure no one is watching. Tugs at her hair anxiously. Back above decks.

She still doesn’t like the way the ship moves, rocking around, the water tossing it and pushing it and letting it know who is boss — the water, the ocean going hey now I can sink you any time I want — and she’d thought, for a second, about leaving her ring with Yeza since Luc insists on going swimming for some insane reason, but she twists it around her finger now and is glad she didn’t. Didn’t give it up. Didn’t think about it for long.

Fjord and Beau are running around yelling things about getting the ship ready to sail, Fjord yelling first and then Beau repeating him louder a second later. Caleb is over with Orly and Yasha, looking at a map or something, and she goes over to them. Weird looks from Marius and the crew as she passes. Not the same kind of weird looks as she used to get: a goblin! ahh! Something duller, more familiar: what are you doing here? I don’t know you. You don’t belong.

“An’ then we’ll be h… headin’ west, ‘round these, ah, shoals here,” Orly is saying as she approaches the little table they have set up on deck, near the ship’s wheel, a map held down with red weights. She picks one up, just to feel the heft of it. Orly clears his throat as the map curls. She puts it back.

“Veth,” says Caleb. He hesitates before he says her name. “Have you settled in?”

They haven’t even left port yet, the gangplank is still out: a few of the crew are rushing back and forth, loading last second supplies.

“Mm,” she says. “It’s basically the same as we left it.”

She thinks. It’s a lot harder to see in dark corners now.

Caleb smiles at her, and she puts her arms and chin up on the edge of the table as Orly resumes explaining their route, and Yasha nods along solemnly, tracing the path with her finger.

Yasha spends the first couple of days following everyone around. She’s not subtle about it, and also she’s gigantic. First she tries to build barrels and do carpenter things with Jester, but she’s unexpectedly clumsy with her hands. She follows Beau and Fjord around for a bit, which, because Beau also just follows Fjord around, ends up making him look like he has two bodyguards who are a lot tougher than he is. Next is Caduceus, and last is Caleb.

Veth also spends a lot of her free time around Caleb. So she watches Yasha try to learn to read maps, and watches Yasha and Caleb have quiet moments talking, and watches Yasha get really annoyed at the way Caleb will, whenever Yasha estimates a direction, immediately correct her with “actually it’s west-south-west” or whatever bullshit.

She loves Caleb. But he’s so full of it sometimes.

That’s what she says, out-loud, after Caleb spends ten minutes trying to explain to Yasha that actually she can tell that north is over behind his left shoulder, but two inches left of that, because he just knows, basically. She says: “Caleb, I love you, but you are so full of shit.” She turns to Yasha. “Want to play with explosives instead?”

And that’s how Yasha becomes junior assistant powder monkey.

It’s only until later she thinks about the way Caleb cut himself off, his startled expression, when she’d said that to him. Not hurt. It was something else. Surprise. Something different.

Here’s the problem.

The thing is, there’s lots of problems. The thing is, when she thinks about herself she thinks me, but she also thinks Nott more than she thinks Veth, and when the others all kind of decided on their own to call her Veth, she was glad but — she doesn’t know. Fjord yells Veth, you’re not supposed to play with explosives we’re on a ship, and she turns her head but her first thought is how does he know about Veth? and then she remembers that’s her now. The problem is that things taste different and look different and feel different. Some of it she remembers, from the last time, when she’d woken up to mud and jeering laughter and rope burns, to shadows being too bright and smells being too sharp and her mouth bleeding from the inside, from dozens of tiny tooth cuts. Some of it she’d forgotten. The way her fingers seem to just — feel more. The way she hears less. How her teeth feel in her mouth, how her ears don’t turn and swivel when she wants to listen. She’s a little taller now. She weighs more, she has tits and an ass and is frankly just incredibly hot. She’s still quick but it feels different, to run, to crouch. She gets an eyelash caught in one of her eyes and once she’s done rubbing it out she thinks: holy shit, I have eyelashes again, and runs to bum some mascara off of Beau. Her skin is softer and bruises easier. She doesn’t feel as hungry all the time. She’d never noticed how warm she always was when she was a goblin until she starts feeling chilly sometimes, out on the deck of the ship.

Here’s the other problem.

She feels things more. Not emotionally. If anything she feels it less, a little… slower, maybe calmer, like things aren’t always jumping up and starling her to death. It’s not emotions. Not exactly. It’s just — more.

She’d joked about it. Sunbreaker? Wow was he hot. But she hadn’t really… felt anything. Not like that. Yeza had never tried anything more than a chaste kiss or hug now and then, and she’d felt a guilty relief. How would it even work? Would it work? Or would it be painful and scraping and difficult? She might have tried if he really wanted to, but he didn’t and she was glad. And that was weird, because she had always thought of herself as really into that kind of thing. They’d been going at it since they were sixteen, you know?

So it’s Yeza’s fault, really.

She turns back into her true, hot self, and she feels things again, her body, you know, works again, and they fuck like gnomes for days, and then she goes onto a ship and the first night snuggles in with Caleb the way she always has, except he holds himself really stiff and she doesn’t notice at first until he accidentally brushes her boob and moves away and she thinks oh shit yeah I have tits now and starts thinking about other things, because Caleb is not bad looking now that he bathes sometimes and keeps his hair out of his face, and so the next day she talks loudly and often about her wonderful cannons belowdecks —

(“Veth, you are absolutely fucking forbidden from ever firing the cannons without express orders from me or—“ and Fjord had hesitated, looking over at a slightly-too-eager Beau, failing to stamp out her excitement in time, “Me. Just me. No explosives. Nada.”)

— and sets up a hammock there that evening.

And then three days later, she helps Yasha set up her own hammock, after giving a long speech to her about how half the job of the gunner or powder monkey was to, like, really understand your cannons, and how this was the best way. It’s a lot harder to set a hammock up for Yasha since she’s a giant, but they figure it out eventually, even if her butt ends up landing only an inch or two above the floor.

Here’s the problem.

After they figure out how to move shit around to set up Yasha’s hammock, they go to the galley for dinner with everyone. Night one, Veth jumped up on a table and gave the I used to be a goblin speech to everyone, so she gets less weird “why is there a smokin’ hot halfling hanging out with these idiots” looks now, and dinner is nice. She can actually eat Caduceus’s tofu without getting cramps now, which helps a lot. She jokes around with the others and sits next to Caleb, as always, because they’re not avoiding one another. They talk about the peace conference and have debate #582 about if Essek (codename: Kevin) is okay or not, if Kevin can be trusted. They talk about Yasha’s hammock. Invite Jester and Beau to join the girl’s only super cool cannon slumber party.

“I thought you two,” Beau says, gesturing at Veth and Caleb, “were like, joined at the hip or whatever.” And then she gives Veth a smirk that probably means Yeah I see you, and it takes Veth all she has to keep from turning to Jester and saying something awful like The Traveller is actually kinda hot, right? back. But she doesn’t, because she’s a good fucking friend.

“What are you talking about?” Veth says instead. “‘Lebby, are you mad because I want to sleep with my cannons?” She doesn’t look anywhere near him when she asks.

“Maybe this isn’t dinnertime conversation?” Fjord says.

“Of course not,” says Caleb, and she hopes he meant her thing and not Fjord’s.

And then they all start talking about Travelercon instead.

So now she has two options. Talk to Caleb, or never talk to him again.

No. Now she has three options. Those two, or…

She and Yeza weren’t, like, swingers. Not yet. They were too young for it, generally speaking: you were supposed to wait until your kids were out of the house and all that, focus on raising your family, and Luc was only five and that was assuming they didn’t have more kids. Once you get married, that’s supposed to be it until your kids were grown: it was supposed to be good for the family to turn insular like that. Nowadays some people Veth’s age did talk about open marriages like they should be part of the vows, but it’s not like she and Yeza ever really talked about it back in Felderwin. They both wanted kids. It made sense that they should focus on their family, and anyway, Yeza was the love of her life so it’s not like she really wanted to fuck anyone else.

Was the love of her life.

Still is.

Really.

But things are so weird now, and so after they’d fucked for the third to last time in Nicodranis, when they were talking about buying a house and investing in the timeshare market, Veth had added, as casual as she could: “And if you wanted to like, date around a little, as long as you don’t knock anyone up and go all family values on me…”

“Are you serious?” Yeza asked, and then sat up and pulled his glasses on from the side of the bed.

“What are you doing?”

“This is a conversation that I need to be able to see for. What are you saying?”

Veth had been briefly distracted, but then Yeza pulled the sheet back up. “I mean… are you mad?”

“No…” he’d let the word kinda trail there.

“I mean, you can knock someone up, I guess, it’s just no second families, so overall I’d prefer you didn’t,” she’d said, using this old-fashioned Halfling term that meant ‘the insular family,’ like they were supposed to be raising back home.

“I’m not going to knock anyone up.” Yeza hesitated, pushing his glasses up. “I didn’t think we’d have this conversation for another like, twenty years.”

“I didn’t think I’d be alive in twenty years, up until a couple of days ago,” she mentioned, and then winced when he’d looked hurt. “I mean, I’m okay with it. I keep running off on you and abandoning you and, and leaving, and dy — almost dying —“ because she hadn’t yet told him about that box, or even really about drowning, and planned to never, “and — and I mean, I know it can’t be fun, I would be like, what a selfish bitch, and so if you want to—“

“Veth,” he started saying, about halfway through. “Veth. I don’t think you’re a selfish anything.” He’d taken her hands.

Well, I do, she’d thought. Looking at their hands. The fine hairs on her arms that Nott had lacked. Weird, how even shit like body hair was somehow amazing now.

“I’m happy just — knowing you’re happy, and waiting for you.”

“But I’m not! I can’t just — look, I’m going to leave you money, so buy a house and get Luc into a really great school and then go party, or, or buy the _really fancy_ alchemy ingredients, or just… don’t just sit around waiting for me, because I don’t know when I’ll be back. I want you to fuck other people! Fuck everyone in Nicodranis! Fuck Jester’s mom!”

“I am pretty sure I can’t afford her.”

“I will leave you so much money.”

They both laughed, and Veth felt herself relaxing. A little.

“Okay,” he’d said. “I don’t know if I will or not, but—“ she’d been about to tell him to do it, and he’d raised a hand then, to shush her, “but if I meet someone I like, I’ll think about it very seriously. Okay?”

“Like, or find hot.”

“Like, or find hot,” he’d agreed. He’d hesitated, and then he’d smiled. “But… you too, okay? What’s an adventure on the high seas without a sexy sailor or two?” She’d smiled. He’d hesitated again, and then added: “Or… if there’s anyone else you have in mind. Whatever. It’s fine with me, okay? Screw insular families.”

And then they’d gone ahead and fucked for the second-to-last time.

And kind of, not in an asshole way, but she’d been thinking about that last thing he said as they did. Anyone else you have in mind. Just hanging out there. Unremarked on.

Look. Here’s the thing. Caleb is hot. In a disgusting, takes a bath but doesn’t do laundry kind of way. In a forgets to shave past the point where his stubble is attractive kind of way. In a too many ribs kind of way.

In a long fingers and very nice eyes and a handsome jawline kind of way.

And when she was Nott she knew it but it never really — she didn’t feel it, so it was pretty easy. He was both hot and completely unfuckable, even in her fantasies, and she was disgusting and a goblin and that made it all very neutral and safe. When she’d curl up next to him, sometimes he’d put an arm over her if it was cold out, and it would feel nice and comforting and she’d feel this warm tingling love all over, but there was never sexual tension, even in her head, even in her infrequent attempts at daydreaming.

Because there couldn’t be. She was ugly and disgusting even if he was kind and handsome. It was wonderful of him to even willingly touch her.

And then she and Yeza fucked for three days straight, and it was like, fuck, this is what that feeling is. Like a switch went off in her head: remember how great this is? How good it feels? How hot all your friends are?

And she’s pretty fine now herself. Curves for days. But —

It’s not like she’s a different person. Whoever she is. Even if she also is.

And it isn’t like just because she got laid, she’s not horny on main all the time, just looking for people to jump. It really isn’t. She’s not crazy, or Beau flirting with some temporary member of the party. Jester braids her hair up for her one morning and it’s all nice and Jessie’s hands in her hair, on her scalp, are very soothing but Veth doesn’t feel horny at all. She and Fjord fight over going swimming, and it’s not sexual tension.

“I love you, but you are so full of shit,” she says to Caleb, and he kind of half freezes, and she hears him say it to her with different ears and eyes and she is not stupid, okay? She’s not. She knows he did not mean it like that and will never mean it like that and that they are best friends and he probably thought she was dying, in a way she did die, and it was very sweet and does not mean—

She’s not in love with him. Not like that. She’s just…

Well, she isn’t. There’s no just.

She has a couple of ideas for spells in her head. They’re not fancy ones since she’s not great at magic, but she’s seen Caleb noodling around enough with his spells that she thinks it’s probably possible. If he does all the technical stuff for her. So she mentions it kind of in passing, and he gets really excited and she chickens out.

She’s not sure why. Only because immediately he looked so happy and she got scared, and because last time they’d done this she was different and — and it’s weird. The first time she’d used magic, just a little nugget of it, she’d figured it was probably him tricking her, the way he would sometimes use his light spell to make it seem like she was glowing, back when they were begging for coin. But he’d grabbed her and hugged her hard enough that she’d lost her breath, exclaiming, I’m so proud of you! You’ve done it!

And she’d been — well, at first she hadn’t believed him, obviously. But then she had and she’d felt herself smile and then laugh, from relief or fear or both, and he’d squeezed her hands and said, _now, we will work on a spell_.

And it was pretty stupid but it felt like it mattered. Like it was some big important moment. Not using magic, although that was cool. But the way he’d hugged her and her nose had squashed into him and he’d smelled like wet wool and she’d been happy. Really happy. For probably the first time since she’d died, you know?

So he gets excited when she says she wants to invent her own spell, and she’s not thinking about that until he demands they start practicing now, and then she is thinking about it and she gets scared.

So it’s avoid Caleb forever, talk to him, or knock on his door and say can you help me with magic?

And she wants so fucking bad to get drunk first, but she chooses the third option.

She knocks on his door. Which is super weird, because it used to be her door, and also she has basically never once knocked before going in to see Caleb, ever. There’s no reply, but she knows he’s in there — she _might_ have followed him and then spent half an hour getting up her nerve — so she thinks about leaving and instead just opens the door. “If you’re masturbating this is your two second warning!” she calls as she does.

Caleb is sitting on the bed, reading. He starts, kind of dropping the book, and even though he isn’t jacking it she kind of feels like she walked in on him anyway.

She tugs at her braid. “Hey! What’s up? What’s goin’ on?”

--

[dotster001]

Tricking Him into Self Care: Marius

Summary: Your boyfriend is not great at taking care of himself. Some trickery should be forgiven if it's for his health, right?

Other Parts: Vyn Luke Artem

Marius had a habit of setting a timer and taking ten minute naps when he was tired, instead of getting sleep at night. When you were just a lawyer helping him out with cases, there was little you could do, aside from try to help ease his workload and give him a speech about proper self care.

But now….

"Baby, I'm sick," you groaned into the phone, adding in a fake cough for good measure.

"Aw, I'm sorry," you could feel his pout over the phone. "I'll send Vincent over with some soup and blankets."

"No!" You shouted, before remembering you were "sick", "I mean no…" 

You gave a weak cough, before continuing, "I want my boyfriend to come cuddle me."

Was it mean that you were exploiting Marius' puppy dog attachment to you, and his inability to say no to cuddles (in sickness and health)? Maybe.  But he had been throwing himself into his work non stop recently. And as his partner, you had to look out for him, just like he thought he was about to look out for you.

"I'll be over as soon as I get someone to fill in for me. Hang in there," he said, making a kissy noise before hanging up.

Now for the hard part. You estimated you had about an hour before he got here, meaning you had to figure out how to look sick by the time he got here. It really only had to last long enough for you to get him in your arms, and pick pocket his phone. Then he would be unable to resist the sleep he was lacking.

Apparently your performance had been very convincing, because a very sweaty Marius appeared at your door in 25 minutes. Noticing it was him, you threw some water on your face and hoped he'd believe it was sweat. 

You opened the door and gave him a weak smile, before quietly asking, "Why are you all sweaty?"

"Your elevator was broken, so I ran up the stairs," he said, grinning. But his eyes were very concerned for you. You had to remind yourself that this was for him, so that you wouldn't break down and confess.

"Oh, I'm sorry Marius," you said, then pressed a hand to your forehead as though you were experiencing a dizzy spell.

He scooped you up in his arms, and began carrying you up to your room.

"Don't worry about it, baby. It's my job to take care of you."

He laid you down in your bed, then rearranged your pillows and blankets. You made grabby hands at him, before he playfully rolled his eyes and joined you in the bed.

You nuzzled into him, and began subtly looking for his phone. However….

"It's not on my pocket.  I left it with Vincent," He hummed, not looking at you.

"What are you talking about?" 

"My phone," he turned over and grinned at you. "I know what you're doing. You can't out trick me." 

You flicked his forehead, and he laughed.

"But I appreciate the effort. It means a lot that you'd go this far for me."

It was easy to forget that he was a genius when he was such a puppy dog. Of course he'd figured out what you were up to! At least he was playing along.

"Wait," you said with a smug grin, "If you knew that I was faking, why did you run up the stairs?" 

He blanched, and rolled over so he wasn't facing you anymore. 

"You're phone call was very convincing," he muttered. "Now go to sleep." He said firmly.

"But…"

"No, this is what you wanted. Go to sleep," he said, pout evident in his voice, but that was quickly offset by his big yawn. 

You pressed a kiss to his cheek, before nuzzling further into him and closing your eyes. He gently threaded his fingers through yours, and both of you fell asleep in time to one another's heartbeat.