#I like living on my own in a tiny town in the middle of nowhere; I wouldn't want someone right next to me | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

georgiapeach30513 · 9 months

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Much Too Fast, Part 1

Summary: Spotting Curtis Everett broke down on the side of the road, you just had to pick him up. Didn’t you?

Pairings: Curtis Everett X Reader

Rating: explicit

Warnings: explicit language, explicit sexual content, hitchhiking, drinking, PIV sex, dry humping, fingering, squirting, mentions of oral sex, early indications of a D/s relationship, cheating (?), 18+ ONLY

Word Count: 5K

Series Masterlist

A/N: this is 100% one of @tis-thedamn-season brain. Not going to lie...I love it!

*dividers created by @firefly-graphics

Looking at the clock in your car you sigh. Getting closer to your destination every mile. Putting more and more space between you and the place you used to call home. This was the perfect opportunity to start a new life. You weren’t even running from anything, you just wanted to see more. Wanted to do more. Moving to a new state, a bigger city, and to a possible beautiful home.

There were still so many doubts. So many what if’s, but you were young. Your parents told you that you needed to take the chances you were given. Live life, and experience new things. More than the little podunk town on the opposite side of the United States. The east coast was going to give you more opportunities that is something you were sure of. That you were positive.

The current hope you had was to make it to your last hotel before the rain started. And then the last couple of hours to Boston. One more sleep, and you would be there. You needed to stay awake. Stay alert, and hope for the best.

Curtis on the other hand is annoyed. No service, and broke down on the side of the road. The rumble of thunder makes him even more irritated. He had just a few more hours on his mini road trip, and he would be home. And then this stupid old car broke down. He should have known better. A mechanic taking a stupid dumb car. Out in the middle of nowhere, with no fucking cell service.

He couldn’t even remember why he needed to take this trip every year. And in the predicament he’s in currently it just pisses him off. He leans on the hood of the car, hoping that someone will see him stranded. The chances were low. He knew he was probably going to be staying the night in the backseat. He was tired. He was agitated.

You squint your eyes in the distance, seeing a figure leaning onto a car. This is just like how every horror movie starts. But you feel the need to pull over. Slowing your Mini Cooper down, but staying on the road. It was a small two lane road, and you hadn’t seen a car on here for miles.

“Hey, uh…woah,” the man that approaches your car backs up quickly. “Sorry, I know this is going to sound lame and dumb, but you’re a young girl out here alone, and I don’t want you to feel that I’m trying to take advantage of you or chop you up for…this isn’t making you feel better is it?”

“No. Not at all,” what he was saying didn’t make you feel better, but how he was saying it did. “Are you having car trouble or do you normally just lean against your car hoping for someone to chop up?”

“Ah, you caught me,” he leans over, trying to get a good view of you, but still standing far enough away. “Although, my getaway car’s transmission went out. There’s no cell service here. Can’t even call my partner to come tow this damn car.”

“Your partner?” Curtis watches as your arm starts to relax a bit more. The grip on your steering wheel loosens up.

“Yeah, we own a garage together.”

“Imagine that, a mechanic with car trouble,” Curtis gives you a chuckle, stepping closer to your car. “Not much of a mechanic are you?” His arms rest on your open window, and against your better judgment, you still don’t tense up. “What are you doing out here?”

“I go on a road trip for about two weeks every year. I was almost home. Heading to Newton.”

“Me, too,” Curtis’ eyes drift up and down your front. He tries to make himself not look too much like a predator who had found its next prey, but you seriously were a gem. Out here all alone, in your tiny little car, loaded up with piles of shit. This car was too small for how much you had in here.

“Newton’s a few hours away, and it’s getting late.”

“Oh, I’ve got a hotel about twenty minutes up the road. Um…do you need a ride? I’m sure that they have a phone there. Seeing how there’s no service.”

“Uh, did your daddy not teach you not to pick up strangers?” Of course he did, but somehow this handsome stranger was making you feel comfortable.

“Should I be scared?”

“Of me? No, but isn’t that what a killer would tell you? I seriously mean you no harm, but I am questioning your judgment here. You got pepper spray or anything?” Nodding your head, you dig around in your cup holder holding it up. “Are you sure you’re comfortable with this?”

“You’re not making me feel better about this now. But the GPS does say the hotel is just up the road, less than an hour to go. Hand me your keys,” Curtis freely hands the car keys to you, and you stuff them in your doors pocket, unlocking the car, and letting Curtis clumsily get in.

Finally putting into perspective how long his legs are. Cramping them up, and sitting uncomfortably beside you. An adorable little giggle escapes your mouth, and he turns to glare at you, “You think this is funny? Why in the world do you have this tiny little car?”

“It’s adorable,” him squished up in the passenger seat was really adorable.

“It is useless for more than one person. Where are you driving from? Oh my god, how was this even comfortable? This is terrible. Please tell me this isn’t your only car. If my daughter ever asks for one of these it’s not just a no, it’s a hell no,” the fact he was already talking about a future daughter oddly makes you tremble. “What is the purpose of these cars?”

“Some of us don’t have legs that go on for days. You know, I didn’t even get your name?”

“It’s Curtis. And you are?” You quickly give him your name, and he shakes his head no, “You should be called Grace.”

“Why is that?”

“Because, you and this tiny little car are my saving Grace. Does she even get over fifty?”

“Yes. The bags of clothes in the back aren’t helping your space. Your seat isn’t as far back as it could be. Beggars can’t be choosers though. I’m from Washington state by the way. Why do you go on a road trip every year?”

Curtis is constantly adjusting his seating. Knees up higher than was normal, and pressing up against the dash of the car. Twenty minutes wasn’t a long drive. He could do this. “Uh, just to get away. Life can come at you fast. Mine didn’t exactly turn out the way I wanted it to. Without getting too into anything, I helped a friend out. We got ourselves stuck, drifted, and somehow remained friends, and we make it work. We have to.”

“I’m not going to ask.”

“Please don’t,” Curtis looks out his window, appearing as if something was bothering him, but you didn’t want to pry. If he wanted to tell you more he could. But you know he won’t. “So New England?” Finally he looks towards you, and you gulp. Gripping tighter to the steering wheel. Oddly trying to rub your thighs together. He was handsome. Too attractive.

“Yeah, sometimes you get tired of the same thing.”

“What’s a pretty girl like you, driving all the way out here for? I’m assuming you’ve got something lined up?” His deep blue eyes coast up and down your body, noticing every tiny movement in you make with a smirk. “Is there something wrong?”

“No. No, I uh — yeah, I’ve got something. Gotta meet with them, and would uh have a place to um…to live.”

“Hmm, you’re just breaking all kinds of rules, huh?” You glance back over to Curtis, and he was still eyeing you like his prey. His legs spread as much as they could, but in this tiny car, he couldn’t get the effect he was wanting. He didn’t have to try to make you want him. You wanted him.

“What?”

Curtis chuckles, wiping his thumb and middle fingers on the sides of his beard. You reach towards the air conditioner, turning it up. “You picked me up, and the way you’re talking…are they putting you up in a house?”

“Yeah. What…what do you do in Newton?” Something had to change. The topics had to go to something else besides you. It was getting more difficult to drive and pay attention.

“I told you, I’m a mechanic. Gotta garage with my buddy, Jax. We stay busy. Blue collar work. Beats the traveling bullshit. I don’t get it. Traveling for work. Traveling because you want a vacation. On your own.”

“Did you just get off a two week road trip?”

He turns to look at you, that devilish grin still there, “I like you.”

“Why?”

“Called me out on my own bullshit quickly. A lot of people won’t do that. They say I’m too argumentative. I’m not. I’m blunt, there’s a difference. Isn’t that the damn hotel?”

“Yeah,” you respond. Turning into the hotel and the gravel crunches under your tires, and you hate that this is it. Curtis was about to make a call, and get something worked out, and this would be it. You grab your backpack, and walk in with Curtis.

He allows you to check in before stepping up to the counter, “I need a room for the night.”

“I’m sorry, sir, we have no more vacancies.”

“There’s…can I just — I guess hang out in your lobby then. I gotta call someone in the morning to help with my car, and…”

“I’m sorry, sir, no loitering. Have a good evening,” she walks off, and goes back to her seat. Picking up her phone, and letting Curtis know that the conversation was over.

“Just my luck. Damn. Thanks, here let me get you some money. I’ll…hell, I don’t know, start walking.”

“It’s two in the morning,” biting at your lip, you know this is the most bizarre and ridiculous thing you have ever done. He was nice. He was hot as fuck. And you were terrified. Not of him, but of moving here. Moving away from what you knew and into the unknown. All the warnings you push back in your mind. You had made it this far, and he hadn’t killed you.

“I know, darling. I’ve been in worse places.”

“No, I mean…I’ve got a second bed,” Curtis cocks his brow up at you, and you slowly exhale. It was okay. You needed something random and fun tonight. Needed to get out of your head, and Curtis looked like just the man. And the worst he could say was no, and you would never see him again.

“Hey, it’s fine. You’ve done plenty for me, and I can’t thank you enough.”

“Then let me rephrase it; would you like to come up to my room for a drink? There’s a mini bar.”

“You’re testing fate?”

“I see a sexy man with nowhere else to go tonight. And I want a drink with him. There’s two beds,” he gives you a bow, and you start walking towards the elevators. Everything's in slow motion. Down to the roaming eyes of Curtis. Licking his lips as he stares at you, and you are quaking.

“C’mere,” he whispers when the elevator door closes, and you walk over to him. His thumb brushes over your cheek gently. Looking into your eyes as he traces your pouting lips, “You’re shaking. I won’t hurt you, and I won’t do anything you don’t want to do. There’s two beds, remember?”

“I want to use one.”

“Then breathe,” the ding of the elevator has his hand drifting down your front, and grabbing your hand. Starting to lead the way to the room. “Key?” You hand him the key, and take your final breath. You invited him.

The second the door closes, your hand glides up his chest, settling behind his neck, “No mini bar?”

“Oh, that’s right,” he sighs when you step away from him, going to the bar to get two small bottles of liquor, “Tito’s or Jack Daniels?”

“I’ll take my chances with Jack. Join me on the bed?” He plops down, and taps on the bed. Waiting on you to join him before lifting up his bottle, “To new beginnings.”

“To new beginnings,” you copy, drinking the vodka in one sip. The little bit of alcohol was giving you a bit more of a confidence boost. Looking up at him as you listen to him start to tell some story.

You lean more into him, trying to listen to his words, but it is just static. Curtis looks down at his lap, and his raspy voice moans. You check to see what he was staring at, and your hand is palming him over his jeans on it’s own accord, “Is this okay?” You ask him with a pout. Had you read all the signs wrong? He knew what you were talking about, right?

“I knew exactly where this was going when you asked me for a drink.”

“Oh,” you start to move your hand, but Curtis grabs yours with his own mitt sized hand. Placing it back over his swollen jeans, and starts your motions again. “I don’t normally do this.”

“Me neither. So lets for tonight, toss aside those pesky feelings telling us not to give into our primal needs as humans. We’ve both been checking each other out tonight, so let’s act on those needs. Okay?” You nod your head at him, adding a bit more pressure to your movement, “Why now?” He asks, groaning as he leans back on the bed. Watching you enjoy his hardening member.

“I don’t want to be the person I was in Washington. I want to have fun. Be spontaneous.”

“Mmm,” his hips start rocking into the air with your movements. When you start to undo his zippe, he tugs at your leg, guiding you to straddle him. His giant sized hands rub up your thighs and to your ass, coaxing you to start grinding on him.

“So picking up men on the side of the road isn’t a normal thing?”

“Nuh-uh,” you shake your head with a smirk. Getting more into the movements, and you pull off your shirt. Reaching behind you to undo your bra, you let it fall to the floor as Curtis starts groping your tits.

“Well isn’t today my lucky day?” Sitting up in bed, he pulls you closer to him. Peppering kisses along your jaw, and creating a trail all the way to your mouth, and you whimper into him. His length was right at your core, and he was throbbing. Just as needy as you. “You know what you’re doing.”

“Curtis,” you whine as your hips gyrate over him. Making a mess of his pants already. It had been awhile since you had sex. He had his thick fingers gripping the spears of your ass, and pressing you harder on him. “Do…do you…” you can hardly speak from the kisses he was continuing to assault you with.

“I always carry protection, don’t worry.”

“Curtis, you’re hard.”

“And you’re wet. What are you going to do about it?” He gives both your nipples a quick pinch, and your movements pick up. Riding on top of him like your life depended on it.

“I wanna come.”

“Just like this, little lady?”

“Uh huh,” biting at your lip, you pout at him as you move.

“Then make yourself come. Enjoy yourself. I’m not a little boy, I can hold off,” he lets out a guttural moan when you circle your hips over him. Guiding his hands to your tits, wanting him to play with you while you get off.

You are soaked, and so close. Right there. Hands on his shoulders as your desperately rub one out over him. Fire courses through your veins, and your movement stutters as the sweetest pleasure races through your veins.

“Thatta, girl,” reaching into his pocket, he pulls a packet out, and reads the expiration date, “Still good,” you crash your lips into his. Hands rubbing over him before pushing off his jacket, while he yanks your jeans open.

He flips you over onto the bed, and stands up. Watching as you struggle to tug your jeans off, but Curtis reaches towards them, yanking both the jeans and panties off at once, hissing when you spread your legs apart.

“Good fucking, girl,” he walks out of his jeans, his cock making his boxer briefs look uncomfortably crowded. He gives you a wink when he pulls his underwear down. A thick and heavy cock springs up, and you yip, your legs starting to close.

“You changing your mind already?”

“No,” you wanted him. Wanted this. But that cock was thick. Almost able to envision the severe stretch he was going to give you.

“You can take it. And if not, I can make it fit. We can stop any time, okay?” You nod your head, trying to steady your breathing, “I need your words. I need to know that you can stop me if you want to stop.”

“Yes. We can stop at any time,” Curtis pops the packet in his mouth, giving the foil a tear. His lithe fingers place the rubber on his tip, and he starts to roll it on. Pressing his knee on the bed, he gives your leg a jerk down the bed, before his wide body kneels between your thighs.

Spitting on his Hanford before roaming his fingers through your folds, “You are drenched. When did you first get wet?”

“Well…”

“It wouldn’t have been in the car, would it? I saw you moving your legs,” he pushes two fingers into your weeping cunt while his palm stimulates your clit, “Oh my god. What a tight little pussy we have here. You hear that?” He pumps his fingers into you more vigorously. Your wet heat was making the most vulgar and loud squelching sounds.

“You are a sloppy, little one. Did I make you that wet? Oh god, you need to be fucked good and hard, don’t you?”

“Yes, please,” you beg. It had been too long. Almost two years. One bad breakup had turned you away from men, but now he had you turning into a big slut. His cock forgotten as he tries to ruin you. Sex before was all about your boyfriend. Curtis wanted your pleasure first. “Please, Curtis.”

“She’s polite, too. Oh, fuck, she’s a juicy one. Mmm, I already feel you squeezing me. Come on. Uhh, come on,” his fingers curl, and he sets off at an earth shattering speed. You try to close your thighs when you can’t take anymore, but Curtis shoves them back apart. “Come on. Give it to me. When you come, I’ll fuck you. You can do it. Come for me. You're so close.”

Your hands grab onto the comforter, and you grit your teeth, not wanting to be too loud. And when you squirt onto his thighs, he keeps pumping. “There ya go! There’s a good fucking girl. Just like that.”

“Oh fuck.’

“That’s what I’m going to do,” getting closer to you, he slaps his cock over your clit, “You still want this?”

“Yes, please.”

“She is well behaved,” your mouth goes slack as Curtis pushes through your entrance. Slowly splitting you open as you whimper. “Holy shit. My god, you’re a tight little thing.”

“Don’t stop,” you plead as he slows his motion. “All the way, please,” Curtis continues his journey into your body. Not stopping until he slides all the way in. You lift off the bed, staring at where the two of you connect. “What are you doing?”

“I’m giving your cunt a moment to stretch, little lady. You okay?” You furrow your brows, biting your lip as you nod. “You never had a big dick like this?”

“It’s like a fucking traffic cone,” Curtis’ eyes close as he chuckles at you.

“A traffic cone?”

“It’s so much bigger at the base. How…how did you get it in there?”

“And looka here,” his hand rubs over a bump on your stomach, “You feel me all the way in your belly, huh? That right there is where I’m at. So you want this traffic cone to fuck you?”

“My god, yes!”

“Mmm,” his hands rub up and down your thighs. Giving the tops of your legs the sweetest little tickles before sliding to the backside of your knees. Lifting your legs before slamming them on the bed beside your body. Keeping you good and spread so he can watch himself spear into you.

His thrusts are slow and deliberate. Drawing himself all the way out before plunging back in. Your hands hold onto his wrists, and you make the most beautiful desperate sounds. Scratching down his forearms when he picks up his speed. It felt as if he was pounding his entire weight into you. Bouncing you further up the bed.

He would love to see you riding his cock, but your pitiful little whimpers and whines of his name have him addicted. You are reactive. He gets to see your tits rock with the pounds into you. He didn’t do this shit. And after the year he had, it was what he needed. He needed this warmth. He hadn’t felt more alone and all while he was with someone, and you were just what he needed.

He hadn’t felt this wanted in a while. Sex was treated as more of a chore. Not this desperate need to get off. It hadn’t been exciting. It was predictable. It was when she needed it. But you are receiving every bit of him. With the way you are pouting at him, and keeping your eyes only on him, he knows he could have you doing whatever he wanted you to.

Completely into a submissive role, and you didn’t even know him. “Curtis!” Your whispered screams are giving him life. The walls of your cunt flutter around him making him completely weak. He wanted to keep you around. Newton wasn’t too big. But just one night was never going to be enough.

“Curtis!” Whining out his name as your head tilts back.

“You keep…keep squeezing me like that, and I’m not — not going to last,” he pants out. He had never felt someone react like this. “Let go, little darling. Let go for me.”

Your pussy quivers, and legs tremble as the hardest orgasm he has ever witnessed from a woman flows through your body. You clench around him, and his forehead collapses on your shoulder. Letting your pussy milk him dry. Hugging every part of him perfect, convulsing around him so hard that he didn’t have to fuck you. Your walls make sure every drip of his spend fills up the condom, and he can only deeply breathe on you.

“That. Was. Incredible. You breathing?”

“Barely,” you choke out. “How many condoms do you have?”

“Sorry. I just got the one. Whew,” he sits back up in the bed, and slowly pulls out of you. Your cream coated his length so thickly. “My god. Oh my god. I didn’t want to leave you.”

Leaving your legs spread, your eyes start to drift closed. He figures you have been driving for a long time. You look so peaceful, comfortable. Letting your gaping hole be fully visible for him to gaze at. When he starts to lay on the other bed, you jolt up, “Sleep in this bed.”

“There’s two beds.”

“Then we’ll sleep in that one. This one is messy,” Curtis shakes his head with a smile. Pulling the blankets down in the other bed before picking you up bridal style.

“Fine, you twisted my arm. I need you to have at least panties on. Where’s a clean pair?”

“Backpack,” he pulls on his own underwear before bringing your backpack over to you. “Where are you going?”

“You need water. Panties. Then sleep.”

“Okay,” you even shimmy your shoulders. It didn’t take much to make you happy. He definitely wanted to see you again. Maybe start from the beginning and take you out on a date. Spend some time together before he tells you about his complicated life. But for tonight, he was just going to lay down beside you.

Sending a text to Jax, he crawls in the bed with you. He didn’t know why you are so comfortable, but holding a soft woman for the night isn’t something he was going to complain about. He was just going to let you sleep. Rest. Tomorrow was a new day.

Pulling into the beautiful home, you crumple up that piece of paper, and toss it into the floorboard. You knew it was too good to be true, and are slightly annoyed for getting your hopes up. He was a man that you picked up on the side of the road, and had the best sex of your life. Curtis was generous enough to leave his number on the pad of paper at the hotel, but you woke up alone. Nothing was stolen, so you are thankful for that, and that you are still alive.

And now it was back to the reason why you were here. A ridiculously large house, and what waits inside. They had to be rich. A well dressed woman, holding a baby, swings the door open wide. Her arm flails around as she waves to you, “Oh my gosh! I was so scared that you wouldn’t come, and you are early. Come on, please. Hey,” she gives you a strong handshake, and then makes her baby wave to you.

“Ah!! I’m so glad to finally meet you. I’m Tati, and this sweet, beautiful, perfect, and angelic little thing is Poet. But she will also go by Poe. Poe, can you say hey,” the baby babbles a bit, but a hey does come out. “So, I know this kind of a last minute thing. We gotta wait on my…husband. I’m having to fly out unexpectedly. Oh, but don’t think that you have to definitely take the job. My parents said they can help. He’s taking the day off. Uh, so first things first, if you say yes, you will have the pool house. It’s a fully functioning house. I don’t travel too often, but a fair amount. The times that I do, at night, her daddy will have her.”

“Dada,” Poet whispers. She giggles a bit before hiding her face on her mom’s shoulder. Slowly peeking over at you grinning, and you give her a sweet smile.

“Obviously the whole house you will have access to. Poet’s room is downstairs. Your background check is impeccable, you’re up to date with your immunizations, speak French. Honestly on paper you’re perfect, so I’m expecting you to have some flaws somewhere. Anyways, ahh! Sweet girl, guess who is here?” She looks out the window, smiling down at her adorable baby.

“Dada! Aye!”

“Yay!! Daddy is going to be with you all day today. How exciting!”

“Aye!” She claps her hands. Her mouth moving with no words. She was a daddy’s girl.

You turn towards the door with Tati, and your heart drops. In walks the sexiest man that you have ever met. The man that you could still feel all over you. The man that had left you early in the morning, leaving you alone. The man who was your possible employer’s husband.

“Curtis, I hate to do this. But I got called out at the last minute. You know. Anyways, thank you for taking the day off. I’ll be back in two days. If you decide you want the job, Curtis can give you all the lock codes. I left a list of Poe’s medicine’s and allergies on the fridge. Emergency numbers on the hall calendar. There’s a book with all the main contact numbers on it, but Curtis can show you everything else. Eeee!! I hope you decide to stay. Poe can’t quit looking at you. I think that she likes you. Anyways, bye my sweet angel. Ah, you’re such a saving grace. Thank you so much. Bye.”

She gives Curtis a kiss to his cheek before grabbing her suitcase by the door. Continuing to blow kisses to her baby as she walks out, and you and Curtis are left staring awkwardly at one another.

“Dadadadada.”

“I’m her daddy.”

“Mhmmm,” that much was obvious. What wasn’t obvious was that he was married as he was fucking into you last night. You even gave him in the middle of the night head, and he fingered you back to sleep.

“Oh, so we’re going to be like that now? I had you saying please all night last night.”

“Ugh,” this was a bad idea. Everything that could go wrong, did go wrong. Nothing was going to be different here. It was always going to be the same.

“Can you at least let me explain? You gotta. Look at this beautiful girl. Poet Isabella, can you tell Grace, please?”

“Peas,” she whispers, her chunky little legs kicking around.

“You can’t say no to that. When you said please, didn’t I listen?” He might have listened, but he left out that he was married. He was fucking married to your maybe employer. He was married, and he was inside of you.

“This…this is very different and you know,” he shrugs his shoulders. Walking over to a fenced in area, and he sits his daughter down. His eyes looking at her, completely ignoring you. “Fine. Explain.”

“What happened to those manners?” Oh, he was an asshole. You didn’t have to listen to this. Didn’t have to put up with this, and then he purposefully places his left hand where you can see it, and you sit down on the couch.

“Please, explain.”

“Thatta girl.”

Masterlist

Taglist: @tis-thedamn-season @marveloustaylortot @pono-pura-vida @sstan-hoe @missusbarnes-rogers @peaches1958 @seitmai @smile1318 @andydrysdalerogers @cjand10 @midnightramyeoncravings @donutloverxo @whiskeytangofoxtrot555 @bambamwolf87

#much too fast #mechanic au #mechanic!curtis everett #curtis everett #curtis everett x reader #curtis everett x fem!reader #curtis everett x y/n #curtis everett x you #curtis everett smut #curtis everett fic #curtis everett fics #curtis everett fanfiction #chris evans #chris evans characters #snowpiercer

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tuiccim · 1 year

Text

Though I Have Never Read It (Part 7)

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x Female!Reader

Word Count: 2985

Warnings: Angst, Family dynamics/drama, Discussion of controlling/abusive relationship.

A/N: Special thanks to my hype princess & beta reader @whisperlullaby.

Though I Have Never Read It Masterlist

Sitting in your car at the compound, you lean your head back against the seat and close your eyes. You take a few deep breaths and give yourself a mental pep talk before finally getting out. The butterflies in your stomach seem to increase with each step you take closer to Bucky's door. You were scared of what this conversation may bring. Would Bucky be angry? He hadn’t seemed so earlier. Would he think it meant something more than it did?

You lift your hand to knock and stop short. Closing your eyes, you bite your lip and consider running. You could pack your things and be gone in a blink. You’d done it before. But before, there wasn’t Eva and no matter what happened, you couldn’t leave her. Besides, dealing with Bucky was nothing like what had driven you to Estonia. Your real fear here was your own feelings. So, before you could let that cowardice take hold, you allowed your hand to fall and rapped on his door. It opened more quickly than you expected and you took a step back.

“Hi,” Bucky says, his face full of expectation and… fear? He looked like that lost, scared shell of a person that he had been when you first met him and it made you want to comfort him more than anything.

“Hi. Is now good?” You ask softly.

“Yes. Where, uh-” Bucky makes a vague gesture.

“Here is fine. Unless you’d rather go somewhere else,” you try to give him some room.

“Are you sure you’d be comfortable in my room with me?” He can’t seem to quite meet your eye.

“Are you comfortable with me being in your room?” you ask instead.

“Uh, sure, sure. Come in,” he steps back to allow you entry.

“Thanks,” you look around as you walk in and see mostly stark furniture with only a few personal touches. The one thing that is nearly full is his bookshelf. You let your eyes browse over the titles momentarily. A corner of your mouth quirks as you realize there was a little bit of geek in the quiet supersoldier but you smooth your expression when you turn back to him. He gestures towards the two chairs that flank the bookshelf and you take one.

“How is Eva? …and Mark?” Bucky asks.

“They’re great. She was happy to see her dad,” you chose your words with care to reinforce your earlier assertions of Eva’s paternity.

“Good, that’s good. How, uh, how are you?” Bucky fidgets with his hands.

“I’m okay. I can see you’re as nervous about this conversation as I am,” you try to lighten the mood.

Bucky cracks a small smile but still hasn’t looked you in the eye yet, “Yeah?”

“Bucky…” you wait for him to look up and when he finally does, you ask shakily, “Are you angry with me?”

“What?!” Bucky’s eyes widen in surprise.

“You won’t even look at me.”

“No! No, I’m not angry with you. How could I be? You’re the one who should be angry with me. After what I did. I terrified you,” Bucky’s voice nearly breaks.

“No, I mean, I was scared at first but you didn’t terrify me,” you assert. “Do you remember all of it? What do you remember?”

“I… God! I’m not even sure what I remember. I… did… did I-” Bucky groans in frustration and puts his head in his hands.

“Hey, hey, it’s okay,” you reassure him. When he looks at you a few moments later there is a tinge of red around his eyes that tears at your heart. “Why don’t I tell you what I remember? And then we can work out the details.”

“Please,” Bucky whispers.

“I was living in a cabin in the middle of nowhere. No electricity, rainwater plumbing that was frozen half the time, a tiny kitchen, a bed, and an armchair to read in. It was 4 miles to the nearest neighbor and several more to the nearest town. One evening I was bringing in firewood. There was a snow storm coming in and I wanted to be sure there was enough in the house for the next day. I had just taken off my jacket and was about to relock the door when it flew open and you came through it. I was scared for a minute. I thought you were there to kill me but when I asked you, you simply said shelter. You were even less talkative then,“ you give him a smile to reassure him as his face still betrayed some torment. “What you did manage to tell me was that you were running away from something, too. So, I decided that being scared wasn’t going to change anything. I fed you some soup and whiskey to warm you up, convinced you to get out of the wet clothes you were in since you were shivering, and managed to get you to lay in the bed to rest. You looked so lost at times. While we ate, you were able to remember the name James so that’s what I called you. I settled into my chair to read and you asked me to read to you. I had been reading The-”

“Princess Bride,” Bucky interrupts.

“Yeah,” you smile at him, “you remember that?”

“I, I overheard you reading it to Eva last night. It’s what triggered the memories. I think,” Bucky says.

“I thought someone was there last night.”

“I’m sorry. I just heard you and stopped to listen for a minute.”

“It’s fine, Bucky. Anyway, I read to you for a while until I thought you had fallen asleep. When I tried to settle down in the armchair to sleep, you were trying to get out of the bed, grunting no at me. You had so many bruises and scars. I insisted you needed the bed more than I did. I touched your shoulder to stop you from getting out and you gasped. I thought I had hurt you but then you just looked at me and said please. So, I ran my hands through your hair and you calmed down. I sat on the side of the bed and kept doing it until I thought you fell asleep again but the moment I pulled my hand away, you were awake again. You asked me to stay, so I just got in the bed with you and kept running my hand through your hair until we were both asleep. The next morning, um…” you falter, unsure how to explain the next part. Embarrassment and fear wrapping together to still your tongue.

“I hurt you,” Bucky says grimly.

“No,” you stare at him, unsure if he meant because of the blood or something else. “No, you didn’t hurt me, James, Bucky,” you shake your head at your own confusion.

“Don’t. Don’t spare me. Tell me the truth. I remember. I remember forcing myself on you,” Bucky stands up to pace, clearly torturing himself.

“Bucky,” you start but he cuts you off.

“Tell me the truth. Please,” he says while pacing, staring at the floor.

You get up and stand in his path. Grabbing handfuls of his shirt, you force him to look at you, “You didn’t force me,” you say vehemently. Leaving any of your own feelings in the dust, you barrel forward with only the thought of giving him the reassurance and comfort he desperately needed. “You didn’t force anything. I woke up and you were rubbing against me. Pure instinct, you were still asleep. As soon as you woke, you stopped and stared at me with the most terrified expression. I pulled you closer. I pressed myself against you. And then you kissed me and it was intense and I wanted it. You whispered please and I knew what you wanted. I knew what you were asking for,” you pull him closer to you as you speak, ensuring he is hanging on your every word, “I pushed my pants down and you helped me get them lower. You didn’t. You didn’t force me. You didn’t force anything. You were soft and slow and gentle with me. I wanted that. I wanted you.”

“But… the blood?” Bucky asks incredulously. “Were you a virgin?”

“Ye-yeah. It was my first time but that doesn’t change how I feel about it. I wanted you,” you say sincerely. You stared up at him as you emphasized the words of reassurance. Your heart was beating wildly and with your hands curled in his shirt, you could feel his was too. Your faces were so close and you felt a yearning that frightened you.

“But I took that from you,” Bucky looks at you sadly.

You scoff, you can’t help yourself. Letting go of him, you walk back to the chair and sit, relieved he had given you the perfect out to separate yourself from him physically. Sighing deeply, you shake your head, “No, Buck. The 1940s called, they want their misogyny back. If anything, I gave it. It wasn’t anything special and, truthfully, I was glad to be rid of it. It doesn’t matter. You didn’t hurt me. Understand?”

“Yeah,” Bucky sits looking calmer, “What happened after that?”

“I was going to start breakfast when you heard something. You told me to get in the bathroom and stay there. You said, um, you said thank you. It was quiet for a few minutes and then it sounded like a tornado came through. Smashing and glass shattering and then smoke. The cabin was set on fire and you were gone.”

“They found me. I…” Bucky looks away as if things are falling into place in his mind, “I was commanded to destroy the cabin. I told them no one was there, that I’d gotten lost in the storm. It was the only way I could keep you safe. I had to make them think no one was there. I tried to make sure you could get out, that the fire stayed far enough away to let you get out of the kitchen window.”

“That’s exactly how I got out,” you say.

“I’m sorry,” Bucky says.

“For making sure I could escape?” You raise an eyebrow playfully.

“For ruining your life there.”

“You didn’t ruin anything. It wasn’t much of a life. It forced me to come back here. To face up to my problems. It wasn’t easy but I’m glad. If you hadn’t, I wouldn’t have been here to see Eva born or have that time with her mom. I’m grateful for that night. I don’t have any regrets about it,” you smile while trying to gauge his feelings.

“Why were you in Estonia?” Bucky asks the question you weren’t sure you wanted to answer.

“It’s a long story.”

“I’ve got all night, doll.”

“I’m not kidding. It’s complicated,” You demure, unsure you wanted to share that much. Then again, maybe you should. Maybe there should be one person here who knows the whole story and it seemed right that it would be Bucky. After all, he was a part of it.

“It’s up to you. I’d like to know but only if you want to tell it,” Bucky tilts his head as he looks at you.

“Settle in,” you laugh lightly as you reposition yourself in the chair. “My dad was a businessman. He owned a mid-size company that was contracted by Stark Industries. My,” you sigh deeply before continuing flatly, “mother had some connections and helped him get in with Obadiah Stane. He was the CFO of Stark.”

“I've heard of him,” Bucky nods.

“She kept close tabs on business dealings and even closer tabs on me. She insisted I become a woman of high society. She wanted me to be a social climber, like her. It wasn’t me but I went along with it to make her happy. My father died suddenly when I was in college, the company was thrown into chaos and my mother begged Stane for his help. He agreed but insisted on controlling interest in the company. It was around this time that they started an affair, I think. Suddenly, Stane and his son, Zeke, were coming around often. Zeke was a few years older than me and he paid a lot of attention to me. At first, I was flattered. My mother started throwing us together as much as she could but then he started getting possessive. He acted like I was a belonging rather than a person. He started policing my clothes, my phone, my friends, everything. He was not happy that I was getting a degree in mechanical engineering. He said it was a man’s field but he knew it was one of my dad’s last wishes that I finish college. He was downright pissed, as was my mother, when I told them I’d been accepted into the Master’s program. That’s when Zeke finally threw in my mother’s face that he was done waiting for his part of the bargain. Apparently, she had struck a deal with Obadiah for me to marry Zeke in exchange for some other business dealings. I never really understood all of it but he lost his shit and started insisting that he was done waiting, the deal was for me to finish my degree and then he’d own me. That’s the word he used, 'own'.”

“Your mother sold you?” Bucky asks in shock, realizing now why you had given her such a cold reception on the phone call he had overheard.

Your eyebrows lift in realization of the accuracy of the wording, “Yeah. She sold me. Zeke, he, uh, knew I was a virgin and he wanted me. He wanted to have that. He wanted complete ownership over me. I was terrified of him. I hated who I was with him. I was weak and scared. I cowered under him. He had nearly complete control of me. They started planning the wedding. It had to be a grand event. A status symbol. God, I hated it. I hated everything. I hated myself. I hated who I had become. It was my best friend that came up with the plan to get me out. She had watched my light go out and she couldn’t stand it. She convinced me to escape and with the help of a few other friends, I did. I left to go to a dentist appointment with a small purse and the clothes on my back. Thirty-six hours later, I was in a tiny cabin in the middle of nowhere. I was free. And I was so happy… for a while.” You look away reliving the joy and sadness of that time for a moment.

“A while?” Bucky prompts.

“The loneliness started to get to me. I wanted a life. A real one. I was trapped the same in that cabin as I had been under my mother’s thumb. Living in constant fear of being found. Then you showed up. You were my catalyst. You forced me to go back and face it all. I met Tony and Pepper and Happy. We found out the Stane’s were doing a lot more shady dealing than anyone ever imagined. When I confronted Zeke, he went insane. He, uh, he tried to kill me. Zeke had built himself a suit similar to Tony’s. Luckily, Happy was there and managed to keep Zeke at bay until Tony showed up.”

“Tell me he’s dead,” Bucky growls.

“He’s… incapacitated. That’s what drove me to Estonia,” you pause for a moment, realizing you had to ask Bucky, “Did you tell anyone that we were in Estonia?”

“I told Steve and Sam about meeting you,” Bucky looks at you with furrowed brows.

“But did you tell them it was in Estonia?” You question.

“No. Why?”

“I need you to keep that part just between us. If anyone, like my mother, ever found out I was there, they’d know exactly who helped me. It could jeopardize their livelihood, their business, their life. Please-”

“I give you my word, doll. It stays between us,” Bucky promises.

“Thank you. Anyway, I came back here. Tony got me back in the Master’s program, gave me a job, and… you’re all caught up now,” you let out a little laugh.

Bucky studies you for a moment before asking, “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“At first, I was waiting to see if you remembered me. I knew you’d been through the brain blender a few times so I was gonna let you take the lead. Then, I don’t know, I didn’t want to bring you any pain. I thought maybe you wouldn’t want to go back there. When I thought about telling you, it was for it to be easier on me and I didn’t want to be selfish in that way. I thought maybe it was better to protect you,” you explain.

“You don’t need to protect me, doll. That was the best night I had had in those years. Thank you for that,” Bucky smiles and you can see the emotions in his eyes.

“You’re welcome. Well, um, it’s getting late,” you say lamely. A tension had formed in the air and it was unnerving you. You found yourself wanting to fling yourself into Bucky’s arms, wanting to find that release he had once provided. You stand swiftly, reminding yourself that one night didn’t mean anything. At least, not romantically. It was just two people seeking comfort in each other. Survivors finding solace together and you couldn’t get wrapped up in it. Because, the truth was, you wanted to fall for the man in front of you and you didn’t trust yourself to. “Good night, Bucky,” you say as you cross to the door.

“Uh, night, doll. Sleep well,” Bucky says quickly.

“You, too,” you say as you exit. You flee to your room, knowing that sleep wouldn’t come any time soon.

Part 8

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sleepyfan-blog · 4 days

Text

Sisterly Chat

Author’s note: A second fic for Nadesir! First. Next

Tagged: @egrets-not-regrets

Warnings: cursing

Summary: You have a chat with your younger sister.

"I'm sorry... You have a what living in your house?! Do you have any idea how dangerous they are?! Has living in that tiny fucking town in the middle of nowhere driven you insane?" Your younger sister hissed, staring at you in alarm. The two of you were talking via Discord, and she was scowling at you, her arms crossed over her chest as she glared at you. You and your sister never got along very well - and the physical distance between her and you was nothing short of a relief from her nagging and nonsense... Even so, you did miss her from time to time, which lead to you scheduling a time to speak with her. And yes, considering how busy both you and your sister were, scheduling these video-calls was necessary, in order to not play phone-tag for the next three months between conflicting schedules and... Other things.

"A Night Lord. And yes, I've read some of the horror stories on the 'net about what Night Lords can be like. I am well aware of the fact that these Space Marines can be dangerous, but Vanya has been kind to me! Sweet even, in his own way. He kind of reminds me of a very large semi-feral cat. He comes and goes whenever he pleases... And often goes on hunts for days, if not weeks at a time. He always has a freshly prepared animal meat... Usually elk or deer, given that they're plentiful, but sometimes he comes home with several rabbits, quail or a turkey, depending on the time of year. He's been living with me for several years, and he's not the only space marine who lives in and around my hometown. There's a group of Salamanders and several Ultramarines as well. I think I saw a Dark Angel lurking near the edge of the Astartes base last week, but I didn't get a good look at him, and I was on lunch break." You respond, a small smile lifting your lips at the mention of your housemate.

Currently Vanya was out on another hunt - ever since that Imposter Vanya had shown up a month or so ago, he'd been patrolling around yours - and his - (did he feel that your home was also his? He was free to stay as long as he wanted. You were pretty sure that he knew that, but it was a bit difficult to figure out what was going on inside of his head, though he'd been a permanent fixture in your life for the past several years) home much more frequently. His hunts had been more frequent, but he wasn't gone for more than two or three days, rather than the weeks he could have been gone for, before. He also spent more time with his fellow Astartes - which you hoped was a good thing. Most of what you read on the internet about Night Lords said that they tended to be more solitary or stick to small groups, rather than the larger chapters that many other kinds of Astartes seemed to prefer. You'd also noticed that the rest of the space marines who lived in and near the small town you'd long since called your home had begun to patrol much more frequently and in greater numbers.

Not that any of them would say why they were doing this, though you suspected it had to do with the handful of teal interlopers who'd been chased off by Vanya and a handful of Salamanders... They also patrolled like this when there were reports of Feral Space Marine warbands traveling through the area - perhaps those teal marines had been a sneaky kind of feral space marine? But ferals tended to avoid humans and human settlements, except to try and acquire resources from them, if they didn't feel like making whatever they wanted themselves... Or they tried to kill the humans closest to the space marines who lived with humans for reasons that you didn't want to speculate on.

"-another thing! Do you really think that you're safe? Considering that they are so unpredictable and dangerous... If you need help moving out and getting away from him, I'd be happy to help you get out of there. You're a talented doctor, sis." Your younger sister huffed, having clearly been in mid-rant while you'd reflected on the strangeness of Vanya and the other space marines who lived around town. "You could get a good job wherever you wanted to live. I still don't get why you decided to work in a tiny-ass hospital in the middle of fuck-all Nowhere."

A low, frustrated growl left you "As I told you when I moved away from our parents' place eight years ago I have several reasons why I'm working here, rather than at some huge hospital in a big city; the first reason why I moved here was because the hospital I work at offered to pay half of my student loans down, in exchange I would work for them for five years. They also paid for the house I'm living in. The second reason is that while yes, the pay is a lot less than I could get elsewhere, rural towns and areas are vastly underserved medically speaking - among other services they are in desperate need of and justly deserve to get! The third reason is that I like being able to walk around without being hounded with questions about that all the fucking time!" You growl, glaring at your younger sister.

She flinched a little and shifted, looking away from the screen. Away from you. "... Yeah, okay. I get it. But there are like. So many podu-rural towns who need good doctors all over the world! Do you really want to live with a giant spooky murderous bastard for the rest of your life? Or at least for a really long time? I've heard that renegade types like him tend to chase off the partner or partners of the humans they've decided are theirs. What if you find someone you want to live with - a human person, and he doesn't like them? What'd you do then? And that's not getting into how weird they can get around children! I've heard that space marines can and often do steal children and refuse to let them go! And that there are stories on the internet of the partner or partners of a human with a space marine being replaced as a primary care giver and chased off by the space marine online! There's several websites dedicated to collecting these stories, so people know the dangers."

You blink a little in surprise, before raising an eyebrow at your younger sisters "Really? You're going to believe internet rumors and bullshit as truth? Even if some space marines do chase off a human they care for's spouse, that doesn't mean that all of them - nor all renegade space marines do that. Besides, I'm too busy with work and my hobbies to find a date, much less a partner. Besides, I trust Vanya. If he found something objectionable about my partner, I'd either try to find out a way to get the two of them to eventually get along with one another - he's... Pretty prickly and aloof, but he can be affectionate when the mood strikes. I've been able to talk him into using the communication board I bought for both of us to know roughly where the other is and how long one of us intends to be out. And the only children I'm ever likely to want - if I ever do decide to have children - will be adopted. You know the reasons why."

You remember the first time you'd pulled a double-double shift after Vanya had moved in with you. Several of your fellow staff members had been very surprised and startled to find the crabby night lord once again in the hospital, and he'd refused to let your sleep-deprived self go, having tucked you against his chest and purred aggressively until you fell asleep in his arms, the sneaky bastard. Allegedly he'd stared the head of the hospital down before stalking off back to your home. You know he'd brought you home as he'd tucked you into your bed, as you'd woken up in bed hours later, still tired from the extra-long shift and a grumpy Vanya hovering over you, and several dozen missed phone calls on your cell.

Your younger sister again shifts uncomfortably, looking down and away from her laptop, shoulders hunching "I... I know. It's just... We really don't have any idea where these big bastards come from... And more keep appearing what feels like every day. And I've heard stories that they've been affecting politics - both local and across the world! What if they're trying to take over the world? What if they've already succeeded and they just let us puny mortals believe that we have control over our own home world, and are secretly running things from the shadows?! What if-"

"... Have. Have you been watching conspiracy theories on Youtube again? Or going down Reddit rabbit holes? You know that's a bad idea, right? How many other batshit conspiracy theories do you believe in now?" You demand, trying to suppress a groan of frustration. You knew that your younger sister could get drawn into this sort of bullshit when she went into a researching-binge, without someone to pull her out and remind her to touch grass and think critically about what she was reading and watching.

"I know that the common conspiracy theories bandied about online not pertaining to the space marines are bullshit, okay? It's just... Given what we've been through as kids, do you really think that some of the warning stories about astartes -" your younger sister started.

You cut her off before she could broach that subject "Don't! Just... Don't go there. You were much younger than me when... When everything went down. You've got a lot fewer memories of what happened then, than I do. No, I don't want to talk about it. The past is in the past, and there is where it will stay." You growl, shaking your head a little, as you fold your arms defensively over your chest and shake your head. You'd shielded your little sister from the worst of it, and she'd only been about six years old when you were able to escape that place with your little sister. "Please tell me you haven't been poking around about them, again? Because if you have, do you really want to be ripped from your life? Be dragged back into that bullshit? I know you don't remember much, but it was really bad."

"I... No, no. I still have nightmares about what I do remember. It's just... I wish you'd explain more about where we were, before mom and dad found and adopted us." Your younger sister responds with a whine in her voice.

"I don't know any more than you did! Just that... I knew that we needed to escape, before things got worse for us, like it did with the older girls. I think that place did get shut down after I talked to that social worker friend of our mom's... But those people might still be out there or some of them were. And they... They clearly had plans of some kind, though I couldn't begin to guess what." You huff, rubbing your eyes with the back of your palms. You hear large footsteps moving through the house, causing you to smile. Vanya could move silently, but chose to move in a way where you knew when he'd first come home, so as to not startle you. "Want to meet Vanya? He just came home. I can hear him moving around."

"Nnnnope! You can keep your scary-ass space marine! Talk to you later!" Your little sister answered, shaking her head and ending the call.

You snort a little to yourself as you shut down and close your laptop before standing up with a yawn. Time to go see what Vanya had brought back from his hunt and be suitably impressed by whatever kill he'd gotten, you think with a small smile on your face.

#reader insert #fem reader #oc: Nadesir #space marine husbandry #space marine husbandry sentience #my writing #warhammer 40k #Reader is So Normal I Promise

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blaithnne · 4 months

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I was looking at some Hilda stuff and saw some maps of trolberg/tofoten/the wilderness (huldrawood???) and I was reminded of I think what was one of your notes on Plenism where you were taking about naming stuff and I was very curious on where you'd place the places you came up with in reference to this stuff. (Also Plenism is so good).

OKAY first of all thank u sm i’m glad ur enjoying Plenism! Second of all oh boy anon you have just opened the BIGGEST can of worms, prepare yourself, i’m about to get real neurodivergent

So one of the things that has always confused and slightly annoyed me in Hilda is the inconsistent scale of it all. Trolberg, for example, is described as being this massive sprawling city, so far out and separate from the wilderness that it’s a completely new world for Hilda, and has it’s own unique holidays and celebrations.

But, if you look at a map of Trolberg it really doesn’t look that big, and the more ou learn about it the smaller it seems?? In the show, driving from Trolberg to the wilderness seems to take no time at all, and like the second you leave the wall it’s immediately greenery and wilderness lol. The city itself is crawling with nature! And it only gets more confusing when you read tie-in material, especially Hilda’s World.

The maps in this book are beautifully illustrated and contain almost all of the important locations seen in the show, but they make Trolberg seem tiny! And, according to this book, Trolberg has only one school, and one sparrow scout troop. Now I live in the absolute middle of nowhere, tiny island 4 hours away from the mainland. I went to school in a little town on the mainland, so small it was like barely a town, and it had 4 schools and a college just within the town (i.e. not counting the neighbourin villages and more rural schools), and 4-5 scout troops. This place was TINY, cities have WAY more, but Trolberg apparently only has one of each! Also, according to this book, Tofoten is so close to Trolberg that it’s considered an attraction for Trolberg visitors. What.

There’s a pretty simple explanation for this - there’s just no point in making more. From a creative perspective, Trolberg doesn’t need multiple schools or sparrow scout troops when the story only requires on each, it would be pointless! And when it comes to tie in bokos like Hilda’s World, 90% of people don’t actually want an extensive guide to the innerworkings of a fictional town, they just wanna see the places they got to know in the show. Same logic applies to the distance between Trolberg and The Wilderness, no one wants to watch Johanna and Hilda driving for 5 hours lmao, it’s just easier to skip that and make the journey seem shorter. Having locations be nearer eachother makes it easier for characters to quickly move around.

But. I’m deranged. I NEED detailed world building I REQUIRE detailed descriptions of how this place works I NEED to understand these character’s lives and what their day to day is like, sooo for Plenism and my general Laurenverse I have taken some creative liberties. I haven’t gotten rid of anything from the show, just sort of went “Yes, and—”

First things first I don’t consider Hilda’s World canon lol. In the sense that I don’t consider it to be the in universe guide to Trolberg and beyond it presents itself as, it’s just a fun lil silly book with gorgeous artwork !! I’ve kinda ragged on this book a bit but, i genuinely do love it it’s so pretty.

SO, I’ve upped the scale of Trolberg quite considerably. Hilda’s school is just one of many (Glasgow, the biggest city in Scotland, at a glance seems to have over 100 primary schools, so yeah), as is her Sparrow Scout Troop. It’s big enough that Hilda hasn’t even come close to seeing the whole city, and the area she and her family move into is pretty much brand new to Johanna and Lauren, who previously lived in a totally different side of the city.

Hilda’s old cabin, which I’ll call “Folke Cottage”, is approximately a 4-5 hour drive from Trolberg. This is to help drive home the isolation the lil family has living out in the wilderness.

Speaking of The Wilderness, I gave it a name - Frihäf! In the context of the show, the wilderness doesn’t really need a name (despite how frustrating it can be sometimes when key characters remain nameless for entire seasons, or in some cases the entire show, i actually like the element of realism the show creates by leaving certain characters unnamed. People don’t always ask eachother their names lol, especially kids! Idk i think its neat), but for Plenism I felt it needed one. Frihäf isn’t really a specific place, it’s just the name for this general wilderness area that the family live in, probably encompassing about a…1 hour to 2 hour radius? I’m bad at geography.

The next important location, this one unique to Plenism, is Tågstad! This is a little village about an hour away from Folke Cottage, and 3-4 from Trolberg. It has a little post office and shop, where Johanna can obtain essentials, but in order to get a lot of supplies, they have to go shopping in Trolberg. So, to avoid having to take baby Hilda into Trolberg, Johanna drives Lauren to Tågstad, where she then takes the train into Trolberg, get’s the shopping, and then comes back where Johanna picks her up. From Folke Cottage, Tågstad is the nearest stop on the train to Trolberg, and the little town acts as a “gateway” to many different destinations, such as Toføten, which, from Tågstad, is about 4-5 hours in the opposite direction from Trolberg, I think.

This is all very boring and technical, hence why the actual show didn’t bother with it lol, but I enjoy thinking of these technicalities! Maybe one day I’ll whip up a lil map or something, but even then i’ll prolly run into the same problem the canon maps do where everything seems very small in scale lol.

Oh, btw, Gröttavux is another town name that gets mentioned in The Roundabout, but I don’t have anything about it lol, I just needed another place name or Johanna to say whilst rambling to add in a cheeky wee bit of realism. Umm the only other thing I know about my Trolberg world building so far is that there’s multiple train stations within the city, one of them spits you out nearby some sort of shopping street or market, so that Lauren can easily access it without having to go too deep into the city, effectively restricting her Trolberg exploration to just one street, therefore still maintaining her disconnect from the city, so it’s still a difficult transition come season 1.

THANK U FOR ASKING THIS and letting me ramble about this shit, makes my brain very happy :). I might expand upon this more in future chapters of Plenism, but it depend! I have to be very careful to avoid dumping exposition on ppl when writing Plenism bc god damnit i would if i could. I’d write a whole chapter thats just johanna talking about the geography of the world. Thank you and goodnight

#ty for the ask!#long post #textpost #ask #anon #plenism posting #hilda #hilda the series #netflix hilda #hilda netflix #trolberg #hilda (hilda)#johanna hilda #hilda johanna #lauren hilda #hilda lauren #hilda oc #oc #my oc

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morganofthewildfire · 1 year

Text

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The Other Side Of The Fence

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~2k words

CW: mentions of domestic abuse

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The sun was blazing down like it always was, burning Aelin’s skin where she laid in the crunchy brown grass. It was the middle of summer in the middle of fucking nowhere, and while the sun was technically setting soon, it refused to go easily.

She stared up at the puffy white clouds, picture perfect ones just like a damned kid’s drawing. With another drag of her cigarette, she exhaled and ruined those clouds with a hazy stream of gray.

Laying on the hill behind her sorry excuse for a house, clad in just her tiny cut off denim shorts and a faded bra, smoking a cigarette, no one would look at her and think she was going places. But she wasn’t offended, because it was true.

She’d been trapped in this hellhole of a town for the past twenty years of her sorry life. Her mom had tried to pretend it was better than it was, buying shit all the time like they weren’t living in what was practically a trailer, trying to be motherly in an avoidant way. Evalin Galathynius didn’t like to look things in the face; if they were anything less than perfect then she didn’t like to give it too much time to sit in her head and rot. Like Aelin.

Her dad was too busy fucking around with other women to even notice anything was wrong, and her only other relative, her cousin Aedion, was too damn high all the time.

Which was how she’d ended up here: married before she was even able to legally drink.

A clanging noise interrupted her self-pitying solitude, and she tilted her head on the grass to look down the hill. Her neighbor was fixing a gap in the chain link fence that lined his property, shirtless under the baking sun as he grappled with the metal.

Aelin lifted a hand to her eyes to block that sun, unable to stop herself from staring. How was she supposed to, when her neighbor was a godsdamned work of art?

His skin was rough and tanned, with some scars she didn’t feel like she had the right to ask about. His arms and his muscles were mouthwatering, offering more pleasure from just the sight than her husband had in their entire relationship. His hair was a unique shade, almost silvery in the light, and his eyes. His eyes. The dark green of them that reminded her of forests far away from here, or of glittering jewels she would never be able to afford, or of just safety that she’d never known.

He’d only moved in recently, a new member to the cesspool that was this town, and the first time they’d met she’d had the urge to tell him to run away. Because Rowan Whitethorn was too good for this place. He didn’t belong, he unsettled her, and she didn’t know what to do about it.

“How’s the view up there?” His voice rang out, and she had to blink to realize that he was talking to her. They’d hardly spoken, and his voice had the same effect on her every damn time.

At first Aelin thought he was calling her out for staring at him, but he seemed genuine, so she just leaned back down on the grass, taking another drag of her cigarette.

“Beautiful,” she said sarcastically as she stared back up at the clouds. “I don’t know any place prettier than my own backyard.” A rumble of a chuckle made her insides clench in an unfamiliar way, and she closed her eyes to distract herself, only opening them again when she felt him approach.

She snapped them open, watching him warily as he came up to her.

“Mind if I join you?” Rowan asked, running a hand through his short hair, and she just gestured loosely with the cigarette. He took the invitation, sitting down on the grass by her side. Maybe she should be embarrassed that she was only in her bra, but it was a free country, and like she'd said, she was in her own backyard.

If he had a problem with it, he could leave.

Her husband would have a problem with it, but he was still at work, and would undoubtedly stop and pick up a new six pack of beers he’d drain all in one evening before taking his subsequent drunkenness out on her. It was routine at this point.

“What’s the deal with the fence?” Aelin asked after a few minutes of silence, glancing over at him out of the corner of her eye.

Rowan shrugged, and accepted her cigarette when she offered it to him, looking far too sexy when he inhaled and exhaled like a practiced smoker.

“I’m thinking of getting a dog,” he said casually, “you need a good fence for a dog.”

She nodded her head at the logic, an almost wistful smile gracing her face. Not a true smile, she hadn’t had one of those in years, but something close to the sort.

“I always wanted a dog,” she admitted, unsure of why she was saying anything except for the fact that Rowan seemed to draw things out of her that no one else could.

“Why don’t you get one?” He asked, passing back the cigarette. She sighed heavily, staring straight at the sun and relishing in the ache it caused.

“Arobynn hates dogs,” she said, naming her absolutely wonderful husband. Aelin didn’t even try to hide the bruises anymore, it didn’t fucking matter. She’d made the decision, and if she was being honest, she would probably make the same decision again if she needed to. It was just how it was. “He had one when he was a kid and said he’d never do it again.”

“And when was that?” Rowan asked, with a bite of anger in his voice that had her snapping her eyes to him. “Forty godsdamned years ago?”

Ah. He was questioning the age gap. Even if he was exaggerating, he wasn’t far from the truth. Her husband was old enough to be her father; Aelin just wondered why he seemed to care?

No one else ever had, and wasn’t that the crux of every single one of her problems?

Aelin didn’t know if Rowan had ever actually interacted with Arobynn apart from the first time they introduced themselves to their new neighbor. It was always an act, always a puppet show. Maybe they owned one of the nicer houses in one of the nicer areas of town, but it was just as shitty as the rest of it, and the falling apart facade failed to hide the absolutely crumbled pieces inside.

Rowan seemed to harbor some sort of resentment toward him though, something more than could be caused by a couple of months of living next door. She had half a mind to ask him about it, but she didn’t want to have to answer any difficult questions. There were some things that she never spoke aloud, and she hated herself for how much she’d broken over the past few years, but she couldn’t let herself shatter completely. And admitting the truth just might do that.

Aelin shifted uncomfortably, frowning up at the sky instead of looking at him. A few moments passed before she opened her mouth to forcibly change the subject, not wanting to pry into the twisted secrets of her everyday life. But he beat her to it.

“What would you name your dog?” He asked, and she could feel his eyes on her body. Not gawking, he seemed to be more respectful than that. No, if anything he was assessing her, taking stock of every injury that her skin contained, trying to pierce through her skin to see what scars were buried even deeper.

Aelin had never felt more exposed, but strangely, she didn’t shy away.

“Fleetfoot,” she said quietly, her voice piercing the still air. All that was around them was the chirp of crickets, the rattling of an old industrial plant not too far away, the occasional pop that she could never be sure was a car backfiring or a gun taking down another not so innocent life.

The town was riddled with crime, and though Aelin tried to stay out of it, she was sure she’d get pulled in at some point. Everyone did. Her husband was probably involved, though she would never ask. She still valued her miserable life.

“Why Fleetfoot?” Rowan asked politely, his arms braced on his knees where he still so casually sat. She didn’t know what he did for work, but if he wanted her to know he would tell her. She had no desire to disrupt whatever stolen moment in time this was.

“A dog named Fleetfoot would have to be fast,” Aelin explained, uncaring if he would understand or not. “I would want a dog who would run the hell away from here with me.”

Out of the corner of her eye she saw Rowan nod in agreement, and she didn’t like what that did to her. He couldn’t possibly understand. Right?

She turned her head fully to watch him properly, her golden brows furrowed. He looked down at her, meeting her eyes, and her heart squeezed, like it always did when she saw that piercing green. She should look away, Aelin knew she should. She barely knew this man, and he barely knew her.

It didn’t matter how much he fascinated her, it didn’t matter how much she wanted to pry into him and learn all his secrets the way he seemed to want to learn hers. It wasn’t possible, and the attempt would just hurt them both.

But she couldn’t look away.

As if something was pulling her, Aelin sat up slightly, pushing onto her elbows until she was sitting up all the way, putting herself only inches away from a man who was not her husband. Aelin felt no loyalty to Arobynn, how could she? But it would make everything worse if she forgot herself and her situation.

Her breath stuttered as Rowan leaned in infinitesimally, his eyes dropping to her lips. Unconsciously she wet them with her tongue, unfamiliar warmth pooling in her. She’d never felt desire like she felt for him, she’d thought that part of her was broken.

But she wasn’t foolish.

And when the familiar sounds of Arobynn’s car pulling onto the driveway hit her ears, she jerked away in an instant, head turning toward the house. Her heart was racing, fear rushing through her veins. But she forced herself to take a deep breath, squeezing her hands into fists to fight the trembling. It’d been so long, she hated herself for still having this reaction to him.

She glanced at where Rowan was sitting, but he was already gone, back in his yard, toying with the fence like he’d never even left.

Aelin didn’t herself look at him again as she scrambled to a stand, putting out the cigarette in the dirt and heading toward the house. The tiny square footage of space, and the hill, was her whole world at this point. She rarely left. She had nothing to leave for. Her parents didn’t want to see her, her cousin was so out of it that she wasn’t sure he remembered she existed. The only other person she’d cared about was already gone.

But before she stepped through the screen door of the back porch, she chanced a glance over at Rowan’s house, wondering hopelessly what it would be like on his side of the fence.

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#rowaelin fanfiction #rowaelin au #rowaelin #throne of glass #throne of glass fanfiction #throne of glass au #the other side of the fence

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xzero01 · 19 days

Text

Story heavily inspired by Give and Jaws by Sleep Token and Particles by Nothing but Thieves.

English is not my first language, so if you find any grammatical errors, please notify me :)

Part II

Unattended Prey - Part I/II

I live in a small town.

I moved here with mom and dad when I was little, but they both passed in a drowning accident in the lake when I was 18. I've been on my own ever since.

I used to be very popular in school, but not for the right reasons. See, we lived in the woods, in a very distant area from the city, surround by the wild life; I'd normally eat a packed lunch with fruits and vegetables with some weird, yet delicious dip that mom invented and drink green tea regularly and I skipped classes every full moon to perform our family rituals to praise the gods and goddess and the skies and the rain and the earth.

So obviously I was the town freak.

Since my folks died I continued our rituals and made offerings on every full moon on their behalf in a way to keep me connected to them, but I created my own rituals as well as a way to keep me sane - if I'm allowed to say something like this.

My main income was from people that vocally hate me, that despise me in front of others, but called me in secret to book tarot reading sessions, chakra alignment and body crystal cleansing. But none should know about this, and for that, I charged extra.

I have the city in the palm of my hands.

Everywhere I went, people were always nervous around me, afraid I might reveal their secrets or cast a spell out of nowhere, I can't tell; but everyone was always side-eyeing me. It didn't bother me much, honestly, but sometimes being the outcast becomes too lonely.

One day I had to go to the town to buy supplies for my upcoming rituals and to the house, too. When I was leaving the house, I noticed strange marks on the porch, like something had been dragged over the dusty wood floor, leaving an uneven pattern that I couldn't figure out what that could be. It vanished when it hit the tiny stairs into the grass. My best guess was that some animal was trying to make its way to the woods and got lost.

But…

As I reached my car I saw blood. Just a few drops, but that was definitely blood. I looked around and saw no carcass, no fur, no bones, no nothing. That animal was hungry and I was a bit scared. I jumped in the car and made my way through town, mentally adding pepper spray to the shopping list and trying to convince myself that that dragging pattern belonged to a dragging animal, for sure.

But what or who did it?

As I passed the town welcoming arches I noticed that something was off. There was police cars up and down the roads, people talking very close to each other in front of the stores and Ms. Turner was there, collecting curious peasants in front of the flower shop - it was never a good sign when she was around.

I parked in a spot near to the group, that immediately turned their faces on me, and made my way to the grocery store, ignoring the rude faces, as I usually did.

"Hi Jim, good morning! How's everything?"

Jim, the store owner, used to be the few that treated me as a real person in that snake coven town, but that day he barely looked at me when I greeted him. That hurt a little.

"Jim, is everything ok?, I asked again, looking straight in his eyes.

"You're a very audacious woman, you know that?". Ms. Turner made her way into the store and got in the way of the answer Jim was about to give me. "Showing up in town after what you did! Wait until Chief Reid gets here. I already called him, he's on his way!"

"Hi Ms. Turner, good morning. Thank you for always being a ray of sunshine in my life. But what in the fuck are you talking about?". I delighted myself with the horror in her face after the curse I made.

Ms. Turner was the official town gossiper. She was a middle aged woman that looked so much older than she actually was; always putting her nose in everyone's business and not getting what she wanted because she was always wrong with her conclusions. And she hated my guts because she knew that I held a lot of secrets and wouldn't share with her. She even tried to befriend me once, but I saw right through her intentions, so of course, I was her nemesis. And now she was accusing me of something - again.

"Keef Johnson disappeared two days ago, dear. Some say they saw him last time around your property". Jim said, while Ms. Turner stared at me, nodding with her hands on her waist, as if that was making total sense to me.

"We all know about your unholy way of life, Miss Lives-In-The-Woods-And-Lights-Candles", Ms. Turner said.

I took a deep breath and made my way out of that conversation, focussing on my shopping list and trying to shake the memory of the trail of blood next to my house. That was something I didn't need to endure in this stage of life.

Did someone actually drag a body on my porch? Were people using my beloved parents' property as a place to dispose bodies?

I was starting to feel sick with that though when someone called my name, a strong and deep voice that belonged to Chief Reid.

"Dear, I need to ask you some questions, do you mind coming to the station with me?", he asked. Although he clearly didn't like me, he was polite.

"Not at all, Chief Reid, but may I ask what is this all about?".

"I guess you've heard that Keef went missing and we had an anonymous tip that said he was last seen next to your place". He said that and tried his best to give a discreet look to Ms. Turner, but I caught their exchanging glance.

"So you're accusing me", I stated.

"I just want to make sure you're not involved". Chief Reid sighted back at me.

"On what? Sounds like you've already made up your mind". I said, almost with no hope.

"You should not talk this way with the law enforcement", Ms. Turner picked my nerve, a devilish smirk on her face.

"Shut the fuck up, you bitch", was the best I could say to control myself. Ms. Turner started to quack like a duck but I ignored her and continued to talk with the police chief. "Can I at least pay for my groceries so I don't have to be back here after you release me of your unnecessary interrogatory?".

Chief Reid gave a positive nod while staring at his own feet, maybe realizing for the first time that I may have an alibi and not be a serial killer, as most of those crazy ass town lads liked to think I was. Ms. Turner was close to turning me into a pile of ashes with her eyes, she didn't blink once since I called her bitch. I sent her a flowing kiss as I made my way out of Jim's store. Worth it!

Chief Reid allowed me to follow him in my own car down to the station; he knew he held nothing against me. The "interrogation" was a joke. I told him everything I did for the past three days, showed him a receipt for a movie I rented online and the time I activated my electronic lockers. Despite being a woman of nature, I was a woman on my own, so I learned how to take care of myself - and that was very handy right now.

Not pleased with himself, but knowing he had no reasons to keep me there, Chief Reid let me go with a promise of a "wellness check up" in a week. I said I'll make sure to have a fresh baked pie for when the time arrives. I took my things and off I went, just thinking in cleaning and mopping and wherever on my porch the minute I got home.

---

I ran inside and took an old rag and cleaning products and started viciously cleaning the front of the house. If anything, the strong lime smell of the cleaning product would keep the animal away for a while. What I didn't know what to do about was the blood trail. If that was Keef's and an animal killed him, it was just unfortunate. But could I prove that to a person that never in his life made a single effort to hide his disgust for me, not even when investigating my parents death, taking their bodies out of the lake and looking at me like I was the one to blame?

Yeah… that's not gonna happen.

As I stood there next to the blood drops, I felt a shiver on my spine - but a different kind of when an animal is close - I can't explain exactly the sensation. It was… uncomfortable.

I quickly collected the drops of blood that mixed with the dirt, threw them away in the lake and prayed that they never bring dogs to my property. 'Luckily, a ritual was coming and that would be enough to send the scent away', I thought to myself as I locked myself inside the house, feeling the beats of my own heart.

---

A week went by and everything was normal. No marks on my porch nor next to the house. Chief Reid indeed showed up for his wellness check up two days after his pathetic interrogatory, thinking he was going to catch me out of guard, but again, I got nothing to hide. He looked at everything and couldn't find anything, so then and there, he dropped me as a suspect and hasn't bothered me since - which was a blessing!

I woke up on this particular morning and the sun was warm, the lake was shining and I decided it was a good day for a swim.

Before my parents died, people used to visit that lake. They spent the day, had picnics and swim until the sun settles, but not since the accident. Everything changed on that day…

I striped my clothes off and slowly entered the cold water, feeling the mud between my toes as I walked towards the center of the lake. The water was crushing my lungs with its coldness, but it was a wonderful sensation; it was a perfect way to start a birthday and a ritual day.

I stepped out of the water and laid naked under the sun, resting in a towel big enough for two people to lay comfortably, but it was only me. And it has been only me for too long…

The sun was touching my body in a gentle way, warming the right places. I felt that knowing knot forming in the lower part of my stomach and wished I had another pair of hands to touch my body just for once.

Everyone I ever been with was just a big disappointment. I was never satisfied, it was never enough. Most guys were just curious about how the crazy Lady of the Woods would behave while having sex; if she was just as wild as the wild she lived in, it turns out they couldn't handle what I wanted. I was a fire to a forest and I was craving a heavy rain.

Once searching for this became a frustration, I simply gave up. Instead, I learned how to please my body myself; knowing the right tempo, the right angles, no shame. And that was exactly what I was doing under that beautiful blue sky and glowing sun.

My pleasure reverberated through the lake's calm waters and a breeze filled the air with a musk scent of dirt. That was turning into a perfect day.

I went inside the house to bathe and eat and start the preparation for my annual ritual - that involves a sacrifice, so I needed to hunt.

I took my knife and calmly walked to the woods, carrying with me my supplies for the ritual itself, such as candles, matches, fruits, flowers and water from the lake. I'd leave everything in the offering site as I make my hunt viable.

I placed everything in order and took an apple with me; head west, knowing exactly where I had to go to find what I needed. I was excited, not only with the frenzy of the hunting, but the exploration of my own body left me wanting more. I was a dangerous.

I reached a valley that nested rabbits, lots of them. A poor curious one approached me as I handed it a slice of apple, it bit a piece and stared at me with wild big inquisitory eyes. It was its last day. I reached for it and it didn't move, if so, it moved close to my hand to enjoy another piece of the fruit and I gently put it on my arms, petting its grayish fur as I walked back to the altar. The little rabbit looked at me before laying its head in my palm and accommodating itself in sleep. I almost felt sorry for it.

I put the animal in a cage attached to a tree and everything became chaotic as it should be. The smell of blood and other animals started the alarm on that little one while I was busy lighting the candles and chanting the words I had created for that moment. Words that had been guiding me through years, making me believe that everything's gonna work out just fine if I keep doing this.

I undressed and reached for the rabbit as it tried to bite me; I was so used to this ritual that I knew exactly what was going to happen, so I managed to avoid the biting animal. I didn't laugh at it, I didn't hurt it; it was my offering to the Goddess and I had so much respect for it to treat it otherwise.

I placed the animal in front of me, on top of a cut tree that served me as a sacrificial table and raised my knife hight to gain force and ended it with just one blow, the chanting coming out of my mouth not louder than a whisper in my lips.

Then I heard something in the woods.

Crashing branches, dry leaves under moving feet.

I felt the same uncomfortable feeling that I felt the other day.

I was being watched.

My heartbeat synchronized with the rabbit.

Both of us were prey.

I held tighter on the knife and let loose on the rabbit, that took the opportunity to run away from my grip. Suddenly, the forest was quiet again. Deadly quiet.

"Who's there?", I asked, betrayed by my own voice. I couldn't move.

I heard something breathing in the darkness.

"Who the fuck is there?"

Nothing. Just silence.

But, whatever was watching me, it wasn't an animal.

"Will you hurt me?", I ask under a deep breath.

I wait too long for a response.

"No". It finally responded.

"Do you want to hurt me?". It was just a stupid question to ask. Just run!

It didn't answer back, so yes! The answer was yes! Shit!

"Were you the one hunting by my house?" by this time, I was trying to make small talk.

"Yes", the voice said.

A man of few words, I see.

"You cause me problems", I laughed, trying to reach for my clothes, but I froze in place when something moved in the shadows and I heard the cracks of leaves again. The knife was so tight in my hands that it was starting to hurt my palm.

"Are you afraid of me?", the voice asked. There wasn't a slight hint of emotion in its voice. I'll dare to say a bit of disappointment.

"I'm naked and I'm vulnerable talking to the void. You're leaving a lot to my imagination. Let me see you and I can properly answer your question". I backed at him, firmly. At least I'll see the face of my killer before I die.

After what seemed to be an eternity, something started to move on the right side of my back - it was behind me all the time and it didn't attack me. I turned to face a tall, skinny figure, messy blond hair shoulder length, using what looked to be a mask that covered only his mouth and nose; it was black and gold. He was barefoot, using black skinny jeans that gave him an even skinnier appearance and an open cardigan, leaving his chest exposed. As he approached me, the candle lights allowed me to see that he had blue eyes.

I couldn't stop looking at him as he kept getting closer and closer to me.

I was intimidated. I was aroused.

He stopped inches from my face and I could smell the dirt on his skin. I wanted to touch him.

"Who are you?", I asked.

"This is a question I ask myself everyday", he said back. I was hooked. "Who are you?" he asked me back.

"I'm a person trying to survive". I couldn't see his lips, but I could tell he smiled by the way his eyes crinkled.

He took a step closer and looked at me from above. I am a tall woman, but this man, he was towering me, forcing me to look up at him, pressing me against the cut tree stained with animal blood.

I was shivering and it wasn't because of the cold air. What was wrong with me?

I raise my free hand to touch his mask and he launched himself back, like an animal escaping from the mouth of its predator. I stood exactly where I was.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to scare you". I spoke in a soft voice.

He was studying me from afar. His eyes were very dark now.

"Why the mask?", I asked with the same soft tone, inviting him to come close to me again, but he didn't move.

"I don't want to be seen. It's ugly underneath". His eyes were fixated on mine. That felt so good.

"I'm sorry you feel this way. You look pretty to me", I said with sincerity.

He took a step in my direction, examining my face. I smiled at him and those black eyes that he was wearing vanished from his gaze. He took another step in my direction.

"You are beautiful", he said. "I saw you earlier today". His eyes couldn't stay on my face, he was facing another direction, the cage on the tree, I guess.

"By the lake?" I asked, knowing what he meant and realizing why he couldn't face me. He was shy.

He nodded positively, now eyeing my left knee. I let out all the air that was inside my lungs.

"Will you hurt me?", I asked him again.

"No". His tone was very firm now.

"Do you wanna touch me?". The way the visible part of his face changed to a crying pleading was delicious. But before he approached me, he glanced at the knife in my hand.

"I won't drop it. You'll have to trust me, too", I said.

He covered the distance between us looking deep in my eyes, trusting me, I guess, in the same blind way I was trusting him.

He touched my hair first and smelled it, I thought it was a bold move to start, so I giggled. He then put his whole face in my neck, forcing my head back when he reached my collarbone, smelling my skin with his eyes closed, holding both of my arms in a tight grip - so tight that it was almost too close to hurt me. His mask was rough against my skin.

He proceeded to my chest and breasts; he first felt the skin with his face too, but then used his hands; he massaged me, giving me a pleasure that he abruptly stopped. He followed the curve of my waist, downing one hand to my thighs and another to my butt. And then he stopped.

I was breathing heavily and he stopped.

He took a step back from me, rigidity in sight, kind of embarrassed with himself.

He was about to be my sacrifice for the night.

"Why did you stop?", I asked, very confused.

He rubbed his own leg, concentrating for the moment to pass. He shook his head no and I felt rejected.

"Oh! Ok", I felt my face burning with shame.

"No. No! I- I can't". That mysterious and dangerous figure was behaving like a boy now. Embarrassed, ashamed of himself.

"That's ok", I tried to reassure him with a smile. "You must have your reasons". I was burning inside.

I started to move to collect my clothes and put them on, he observed every move that I made. I blew all the candles, except for one that would help me find my way back home. Before I go, I turned to him to say my goodbyes.

"Hey, just please find another place to hunt. People in town already think I'm a freak and now there's this guy missing… I was a suspect not a week ago and I don't want those fuckers snooping around. But I really do hope to see you again. Goodnight, stranger". I laughed at the sentence, considering he was touching me not five minutes ago.

I turned and initiated my way back to the house, thinking about how different that night turned out to be.

#sleep token #sleep token fic #sleep token fanfiction #iii sleep token #sleep token give #sleep token jaws #iii

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broflovski-brah · 3 months

Note

I’ve come to offer my own rebuttal against Lame Nerd Buzzkill Virgin Kyle. I raise you…Chad Kyle and My Headcanons. This is Long, delete it if you want✌️

I’ve had a lot of guy friends throughout grade school and college. I’ve known guys like Kyle. Y’know, that dude that is indeed very smart and introspective but also insanely opinionated and always offering his moral input on every situation? They love to argue and can get reallll hot headed about it? Yeah I know those guys. Was very close with a few of them. And not once ever were they timid little nerds that were too uptight to indulge in teenage recklessness. Nah, these guys were on a sports team or other high rank extracurricular, and they knew how to party. I’m not saying Kyle would be like a sigma male frat bro or anything, but I do think he’s just a Normal Guy and would do the things we (me) all did in high school. He would go to parties, maybe get too drunk a couple of times after getting way too competitive in a drinking game against Cartman. He’d probably try weed, maybe smoke some credigree with Stan as an act of rebellion against Randy. I could see him and the guys getting into some trouble with Barbrady every now and then. He’d try to be the voice of reason but c’mon, he’d still be apart of Cartman’s schemes somehow. He’d be allowed to have a late curfew because his parents trust him to not do anything too stupid, he gets good grades and is probably on a varsity team so why shouldn’t they? He would not have some weird celibacy complex and would probably have a few girlfriends during high school. He would NOT do things like drive under the influence, pills and any of that shit, but he also wouldn’t be some lame fuckin stick in the mud. He would probably have a little bit of a superiority complex about certain things, because he’s Kyle. But really, he would just be a normal ass teenage boy living in a wacky small town.

I want Guys Being Dudes. In a tiny mountain town in the middle of nowhere. What else is there to do other than these classic teenage shenanigans? Like you, I cannot get behind Nerd Ass Kyle that can’t be fun like his friends because he has to STUDY!! Or his Devil Mom will disown him!! LET HIM BE FUN!! It’s just so lazy and feels forced. Forced into a boring little cliché box that does not at all feel like an accurate representation of boyhood.

That is all thank you for coming to my tedtalk.

THIS

Preach anon. Also drinking games are defo something he would do.

Anyway yall should listen to anon here.

#south park #skipper speaks #kyle broflovski #anon #answered #asks #smart anon #preach motherfucker

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poliodeuces · 1 year

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do you ever just think how gentaro's favourite food is watermelon, a large, expensive fruit, and one that is usually shared with someone else. do you ever think abt how, if scenario liar's lyrics have some sincerity in them, this is a luxury item when he was a child, but as an adult something he can buy as he pleases now w his own money. do you ever think abt how growing up he's never been truly alone bc he's got his brother to keep him company...eating watermelon in the short hokkaido summer...engaging in their favourite hobby of telling each other stories, making up ones abt the people they see...

more rambling abt the yumeno under the cut (it's long)

i'll get this out of the way first: it's a popular headcanon that gentaro's older brother is an identical twin, extrapolating from gentaro's novel summaries that we get a brief glimpse on in the first chapters of the fp+m manga, and last year, in the gendice duet, murder at the magic house. couple that with the ominous implication of him impersonating a known yumeno-sensei (who happens to be his brother), far removed from what gentaro used to be. i Love my possibly committing identity-theft, driven by vengeance blorbo. it would be very funny if kr pulls a fast one on us and theyre not identical at all, so let's enjoy the art and the speculation while nothing's confirmed yet wwww they already did that by revealing that gentaro's "friend in the hospital" is actually a family member

there's so little we know about gentaro's home life. there's tiny bits of it, like how much his clothes mean to him, how he would starve himself writing bc of deadlines, that there's a specific cafe he hangs out in, etc. but unlike rmd or dice, details abt his origins are p hazy...scenario liar is an entire backstory that gets shut down at the end by claiming it's all a lie. but who's believing this admission anyway

my headcanon is that the yumeno were born and lived in nowhere snowy mountain town, hokkaido (just to explain his birthdate being a wintry april 1st). they were orphaned and taken care of by their grandparents. theyre not well-off and p isolated. i like to think that w the aging of their grandparents, they depend more on eo as they get older. fast forward to some time in the future, their grandparents pass, and they both move out, maybe together, leaving behind their home mostly empty with nothing of sentimental value but the house itself. there's no one else known in line to keep or take care of the house, and it's left without the possibility of renovation. what's the point of that anyway?

i like to think this scenario of their childhood home, abandoned and dilapidated from years of neglect, having a sort of local legend surrounding it, that the house is haunted. someone goes in that house in indefinite times of the year. if you strain your ears enough you might hear faint footfalls from the inside, or a gentle voice carried by the wind. in reality it's just gentaro visiting for no particular reason. it's an empty childhood home.

last year i made a drawing w a similar lighting (and vague setting) to the one above, completely unintentional. he's all alone now....

i based it on one of the stuff gentaro said on hypradio: he likes to eat watermelon while sitting on the engawa, and he has spat so much watermelon seeds overtime that he's grown a garden of his own. he says it's a lie of course.

while there's no evidence to prove or disprove that gentaro now lives in a house with an engawa (in shibuya!), i get sad thinking abt him living in a space as large as that in the middle of a busy city, alone...

one of my favourite things abt gentaro is although he shares the then-nihilism of fp, that everything has no meaning or purpose, he's not Entirely self-destructive like ramuda or dice. gentaro doesn't seem to think he's disposable especially when he's got some avenging to do. in fact he tries so hard to be invulnerable.

the irony is that theres very little of his own personhood to destroy anyway. what's there to dispose? even confessing, although he says it's a lie, "i'm not yumeno gentaro." in a way he's done with the destruction, done with the death, and he's well in the middle of decay— and decaying is a process full of life, it is less about reducing the body into smaller and smaller pieces than it is about being nourishment...gentaro's desire is to keep telling stories that might bring joy, even if it meant he'll have to keep lying his whole life....

i feel that i have more to say abt gentaro and his brother but my grasp on the english language is getting slippery the more i type lol. he drives me insane <3

#hypmic #not an analysis it's really just....thoughts abt gentaro #imagine being so emotional abt a faceless character #this is an impulsive post i just need to get some words out #hypnosis mic #gentaro yumeno #france art

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hottubraccoon · 3 months

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Great Kettering; land of Artistry and Pride.

south-east corner of the continent, primarily orc citizens

Character SHORT List:

Dima Grimscale

Dragonrider 2.0

Erick Livan

Felix Enrel

Harry Enrel

Julia Violet

Lindsey Livan

Miss Seashell

Pent Enrel

Kent Darkwater

thomashetzler on Unsplash.

Geography:

Great Kettering is based on the UK islands physical geography*. Great Kettering has slight weather changes with the seasons, primarily an increase in humidity and less rainfall in the summer months. Mostly known to be cold and wet overall. Tsunamis can happen along the coast to the south, and south-east. Earthquakes are small distant shakes from the far west. Droughts are rare and only in very dire situations. Lots of coastal towns are on the coast cliffs rather than the coast, and therefore are generally safe from the usual tsunamis that occur. Boat living... isn't uncommon yet dangerous depending on the time of year (hence the phrase, sturdy like GK's fishers). Earthquakes aren't an issue just noticeable along the west border. Great winters are prepared for a lot like Solistal does.

*but only when I feel like it lol

Architecture:

GK is a mix of my personal headcanons for orcs and fantasy England. The most common form of landmark is the stone/moss circles, each with their own pattern, like a fingerprint. Generally, only those born in the area will be familiar with these landmarks without a map. Because of this, the moss circles are speculated to be linked to the orc-ish Aeons religion. Kelp forests are a special sight along GK coasts. The most well known location in GK is the sunken castle, and its bridges to nowhere. One explanation is that the coastal cliff was washed away and the castle was too heavy so it fell into the ocean to be forgotten, another blames the mythological 'Thorns' for putting it their during one of their tantrums. For a foreigner, the knight tourneys are a highly anticipated event due to the invitation of both the highest king and lowest servant. Most towns start with a safe drinking water source in the middle, market and community buildings around that, then common dwellings around those. For Kettering, the capital, there are 'districts' that citizens must get permits to build inside. These districts help with deliveries, city planning, guard patrols, and lock down procedures. Again, most towns are situated along the south coast, and it's either the direct coast or, if the cliffs are too severe, then it'll be as high on a hill they can get while still in viewing distance of the sea. On the north side of Great Kettering, it still follows the idea of the highest hills. Including Kettering, which itself has a 'natural moat' around it, although the city surrounding the castle has since expanded further around the lake as well. In smaller towns, people are clumped together, tiny and people live in each others pockets, whereas bigger towns are more spacious. That said, construction is trending towards taller rather than wider. Common structures are in the easy to acquire and transport materials, where the elegant marbles and quartz are left for Kettering or other religious sites in other large towns.

Trade/Commerce:

GK trade away seafood for different 'exotic' foods and their artisans are highly sorted after. They import from Solistal for specialty materials to craft with. Kamikita holds a chokehold on trading routes and this frustrates GK. They import from Birkina for island herbs and spices, as well as dyes for their crafts. Can be self-sufficient if trades were to be suddenly cut. The world trade is currency based but smaller store keepers accept barters... if you can talk them into it. Solistal's ores/minerals and their jewelcrafters are flaunted as expensive goods and a highly requested import. Whereas 'seals' or magical coins are the least sought after. GK's embroiders are the most asked for export.

sapegin on Unsplash.

Other Parts:

For Great Kettering. 1 / 2 / 3 / 4

For Solistal. 1 / 2 / 3 / 4

For Kamikita. 1 / 2 / 3 / 4

For Birkina. 1 / 2 / 3 / 4

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shadowbrightshine · 4 months

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I'm at an old closed Christmas shop. It's got a beautiful organ that's been in the shop since 1960 and it's only open for about a week of the year. Pictures and more will be at the end.

I made friends with a woman, asked them to sing happy birthday for a random stranger at request, met the Nora town cat, and more. Stories below

The town, or the town sign says population 5.

This is a tiny town seemingly that consists of only the people who live in this shop.

I think the shop itself is the town. The shop-town-place of Nora. Population 5+ the Nora cat.

And once for a week every year the shop opens and they play the organ. The building is under federal/government protection apparently. It's old and so cool.

It's beautiful. Here's a little bit of the organ playing. I'll be rebloging this with a video so it isn't hidden from me.

The man who plays the organ and owns the shop is very funny. He's been doing this yearly thing for 35 years. The shop closed down years ago. You can't buy any merchandise of the event either. Memories have to do.

And he holds this for free.

I love living in the small town area of my state. My own town is only about 10k people, but it's bigger than some.

This is a beautiful thing.

Thank you tiny towns.

I just sang the highest notes I ever have for "O Holy Night" and I didn't choke once. If I had a recording I would keep it forever because I haven't felt that proud of myself singing in a long time. This place feels like a dream.

Like the movies, when you're in a beautiful little town and surrounded by strangers but you leave as friends.

A little boy in a rainbow striped jacket spilled water all over my jacket and I just sent him to go get his mom because he also spilled it on his monkey plush that according to him has no name. I'm alright, it's fleece it doesn't really absorb water.

We ran out of chairs so families are standing by us at the snack table, I made friends with a mom whose two year old keeps kicking me and dropped his stuff on my feet. It's ok, he's just a toddler.

I gave my book of songs to the standing family. Most of the pages are falling out from years of use.

I've been using a big bell ringer and I love it.

I've never felt closer to God here with all these people singing to an old organ in the middle of nowhere, all crowded together in a tiny closed down store.

I made friends with the woman standing next to me. Her name is Kendal, and her son is 2 years old and loves tractors.

Kendal asked me to call out a request for happy birthday for a woman named Donna. I'm not sure how they were related but I loudly called out the request for her.

She told me I had a beautiful voice, and then the woman in front of us turned around and agreed! I added both to my list of kind things people have said to me.

We exchanged phone numbers. Now we're friends and she's told me we're going to exchange cat photos.

My mom in the car told me I kept good time on the bells and asked why I never went into percussion. The drums were too loud, but she said since I'll be heading to college soon, I might be able to play the bells there. I hope so. I adore Bella. I even collect them, old vintage dinner bells and normal bells and bells a ringing!

I gave what money was in my bag to the man running the event, I hope he can keep it open. I'll be wanting to come back every year I can from now on.

This is the cat, the store, the sign, and blurry pictures of some pretty Christmas lights I passed.

I love Christmas.

#shine post #Christmas songs #christmas songs #nora store #christmas #i love life #i love my town #i love Nora store town #i love christmas #i love this world and everyone #i love you

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starklyscifi · 7 months

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Cursed By The Blood

(a flash fiction story by EJ Stark, for @flashfictionfridayofficial's prompt "blood is thicker than water")

CN: death

Great Aunt Ida’s death was the best thing that ever happened to her. At the funeral, Emma made a long-winded speech about the best moments of her young life, sitting in great Aunt Ida’s living room, drinking bitter coffee, listening to Ida tell her stories.

Emma’s mother did not appreciate the “best moments of her life” line.

Emma did not care. It was a lie anyway.

Her best memories were the moments in between. Driving her 1991 blue Volvo down the highway with her fingers out the window. Stopping at the gas station and putting too many creamers into a cup of bad coffee. Sitting in the public park behind the old elementary school for five minutes of blissful freedom.

Ida left all $30,000 of her life savings to Emma.

And she was nice enough to die just after Emma had finished her online college degree. Her mother insisted she do a remote degree rather than moving away. So the day the bank transfer came through with her inheritance, Emma paid six months rent up front for an apartment in the mid-sized city two hours away, where everyone went to do their monthly Target run and packed a suitcase. Even her family’s methods couldn’t convince Target to come to a tiny town in the middle of nowhere.

She left. After burning everything else she used to own on the lawn, leaving a giant scorch mark for her mother to come home to.

The apartment was damp and dark. Emma stopped using the harsh overhead light. She bought a lamp at Goodwill that made a disturbing crackling noise every time she turned it on. She turned the lamp on early tonight as a storm rolled in.

She hunched over her laptop. The rain intensified, pounding on the window so hard she couldn’t hear the knocking until it let up.

The knocking didn’t go away.

Opening the door, she wished the rain had kept up.

Her mother was standing in the hallway, dripping water onto the stained carpeting. She stared at Emma. Emma stared back.

“Don’t you dare close that door in my face.”

The old woman down the hall, the one that Emma was sure had called the landlord and complained about Emma making too much noise, cracked her door open.

“Then I guess you’d better come in.”

They continued to stare at each other. Emma from the broken chair and her mother from the only couch cushion that didn’t have a mystery stain on it.

“I see you’re still running from your responsibilities.”

Emma folded her arms. “I don’t think I should have to pay for decisions made before I was born.”

“How is your abysmal minimum wage service job?” her mother asked, eyeing the Facebook Marketplace chair, missing a leg and currently propped up with the pile of books Emma had brought with her.

This is what happened when you came from this type of family. She knew what really lived in the woods, how to summon it, how to keep it out. But she was terrified of customer service. So she hunched herself over her computer, her spine rounding like a shrimp’s, desperate for a remote job. Punching keys and inputting numbers in exchange for her rent.

All she had to show was two months of rejection letters.

No.

She was convinced no one would ever say yes to her unless they were terrified of her family’s connection to “the land.” That was what the locals called it. She knew what they meant by “land” even if they didn’t.

She’d been down with her mother to the deep, dark place in the forest. She had looked long through the trees and seen what was really growing in the mountains so ancient they predated the seas.

“I won’t come back. I never wanted to stay in that town. So carry on with your shit and leave me to mine.”

“Being born into this family comes at a cost.”

The rain continued. Emma worried slightly that the window would break, shattering into a million pieces that would never come out of the carpet, no matter how much she vacuumed.

“Nothing bad is going to happen because I was a little independent.”

“The town will rot into what it was before us.”

Emma looked her mother straight in the eyes.

“Then let it rot.”

Her mother had realized twenty minutes ago that her daughter wasn’t going anywhere. Emma had realized that her mother would realize her daughter wasn’t going anywhere the moment she opened the door.

So when her mother tried to get off the couch and couldn’t, Emma smiled.

“Having trouble, Mother?”

“There is a price for this,” her mother hissed.

Emma leaned forward and whispered, “I know.”

Her mother continued to struggle, the hidden bundle under the couch sucking the life out of her. Emma knew her mother would only sit on the cushion without the stains.

The bundle had sat under that cushion for three weeks. Ever since the day Emma realized she would have to completely cut ties with her family and everything they were attached to.

She looked away as the skin on her mother’s hands flaked off and her eyes went glassy and still.

The rain disappeared. The Goodwill lamp flickered and died. Moonlight pooled on the carpet.

A shadowy figure existed on the other end of the couch. It had always existed in that spot. A tiny part of her brain tried to protest that fact, but it was wrong.

“We’re even now,” she said.

The figure smiled. “What a child you are.”

Emma sat up straighter, looking at the figure’s face, or where the face should have been. Her hands did not shake. “I know how to deal with things like you.”

“When you deal with ancient things, you put yourself at their mercy.”

“But the rules—”

The figure cackled and vanished.

#flash fiction #flash fiction friday #writers on tumblr #writeblr #writing #fiction #original fiction #horror #tw death

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realmackross · 7 months

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PARTIES: @fox--tales, @realmackross TIMING: Morning of July 13th SUMMARY: Llama goes for a cup of coffee, but runs into Miyeon in the process. The last thing she wanted. WARNINGS: None!

It was early. Way too early. The wait for her usual morning iced latte was taking forever. Miyeon was pretty sure she was going to get her second tail by the time it came out. If they didn’t hurry up, she was going to get a caffeine headache. Or maybe she just had a headache anyway, whatever. She just wanted her coffee and she was so close to whining about it.

She sighed and resigned herself to her tragic fate when she caught sight of someone from the corner of her eye. Hot damn, it was Mackenzie Ross herself. Miyeon had seen her at that party the other day but she kinda thought she was just passing through town or something. There was no way she was living here. Like sure she went off the grid or whatever but here, in Wicked’s Rest? In the middle of nowhere? No way. Maybe she had family here. Or maybe there was something else. Something more scandalous. It didn’t matter what it was, Miyeon was itching to find out the deets.

Suddenly she wasn’t pressed about how long it was going to take her to get her coffee. “Hey,” she said with a little wave to the girl as she walked over to wait for her order, too. “It’s good to see you again.” She offered a small smile. “You look like you’re doing better than at the party. I don’t know what happened but you’re okay, right?” There was genuine sympathy there, it wasn’t all bullshit. Miyeon didn’t want anyone to be upset, not at something that’s supposed to be a good time. “I mean you did get to miss seeing me embarrass myself with my dare. Fingers crossed there’s no video.”

—

Llama had been covered in a hoodie and sunglasses. Her goto for going out in public these days. Why she had chosen to come this early for something she couldn’t taste almost didn’t make sense. But the last time she went for a late night coffee run, things hadn’t gone so well. And there was a teeny-tiny part of her deep down that had wanted some normalcy in her life. In fact, the more it crossed her mind, the more she had started to long for it. And right now being out in public didn’t seem too bad. People had been minding their own business. She hadn’t been noticed…

Shit. She had been noticed, but it was by a familiar face and someone who had seemed nice enough. But if what she had seen on the internet was true, and Miyeon really did work in radio, then Llama was going to have to stay very tight-lipped on a lot of things, “It’s good to see you.” As long as you’re not here to pry. “Thanks, and yeah, I’m fine. Something came up, and I had to rush home. I hated to leave the party so soon.” She really had wanted to stay, but Nora had made that nearly impossible with her comments, “Oh? What was your dare?” She was curious. “Don’t you hate when that happens. People posting videos of you without your permission.” She had genuinely meant it, but had also hoped Miyeon would pick up what she was putting down in terms of just leaving her alone, when it came to private matters.

“Llama…Ross…Okay, who names their kid Llama?”

Llama rolled her eyes and sighed as she started to move forward to get her drink, “Well, it was nice talking to you. That’s me, and I hope to see you around town sometime.” She knew the conversation had just started, but poor Llama was trying to avoid being questioned by Wicked’s Rest’s own inquisition.

Snagging her drink from the barista, Llama quietly said ‘thank you’, before leaving the small shop. However, on her way out, she heard Miyeon’s name being called by the same barista. Shit. She was gonna have to pick up the pace a little bit.

—

“There’s always next time,” Miyeon said with a small shrug and a smile. “I’m just glad you’re doing alright.” As much as she wanted to dig into Mack for a story, something she could craft into the next big podcast to hit the net, it wasn’t going to be at the expense of her as a person. Miyeon wasn’t that desperate. And if she was invited to the party with the rest of the people there, she had to guess that Mack was a decent enough person.

She hoped regaling her own tale of embarrassment would lighten the mood a little. “Well, you know that wolf girl on tiktok? The one who jumps around and makes fun of those kids in elementary school who thought they were an animal or whatever?” Miyeon always had to laugh at them. They so wanted to be her but they just couldn’t. And they would never even know. She got in big trouble with her mom the one time she told kids she could turn into a fox. Which is why she was super careful that it never got back to her the one time she full-on transformed right in front of Jimmy Macintyre, the little shit. He nearly pissed his pants, too. “Anyway, some people didn’t know or acted like they didn’t know so I got dared to do the wolf girl jumps. It was a stellar performance, totally Oscar-worthy if I do say so myself. I mean it was no mime lessons reenactment, of course.”

Alright, that comment was pointed. Miyeon considered dropping it — she wanted to start off on the right foot, after all— but she simply couldn’t. Not when her integrity was in question.“Hey, if you’re accusing me of something, you can just come out and say it. It’s not like you’re on the record,” she said, her tone firm but not aggressive. She didn’t want to wage a war here, all she wanted to do was get the facts straight for all parties involved. “And, for that very record, I didn’t record any video.” Only some really terrible audio that she could barely hear over the other side conversations happening around her that night. “Even if I did, I have journalistic integrity. I get that that’s not really a thing in LA but you’re not there anymore.” She knew Mack had no good reason to believe her, not really, but she was sincere in her words and Miyeon was usually pretty confident that she was able to effectively communicate her thoughts and intentions.

Miyeon’s face scrunched up in confusion when she heard the barista shout out “Llama Ross.” An interesting choice for a pseudonym. She was going to have to ask about that. And it was her lucky day, her order was ready for her to swipe off the counter with a quick thanks and smile which meant she could stay right on Mack’s — or should she say Llama’s — heels. “Hey, where are you hurrying off to?” It couldn’t be a set or anything, not here. This town was weird but not the Hollywood kind of weird. Maybe the SyFy Channel kind of weird but even that was pushing it.

—

Llama had felt bad not really giving Miyeon the time of day, but she had been hounded like this one too many times. Cue many of the hideous paparazzi photos that were now floating around on the internet. Instead, she opted for the good old classic nod and haul ass plan, but with Miyeon hot on her heels, she really couldn’t escape. And instead of further being rude, she stopped walking, and turned to see exactly what the woman had wanted, “Look, you seem like a really nice person and all, but no offense, you work on the more journalistic/podcast side of things, and for me,” especially now when I stand a chance to be outed for everything that I am and have done, “it makes me nervous. Not to say that you’re like that, but I’ve been burned, one too many times, by people who I thought I could trust, but really just wanted the ‘scoop’.”

Maybe getting to the point was best. But she didn’t want to hurt Miyeon’s feelings. Llama was sure her podcast and morning show were great. It was just a matter of not getting too close only to be burned at the worst time of her life.

She looked at the ground sheepishly ashamed for trying to outrun the woman she had briefly met at the party. She didn’t know if she had taken video or what, but it was still only fair to give Miyeon a legit chance to prove herself. Llama would have wanted the same thing. Please don’t regret this. Please don’t regret this. “Can we start over? It’s not fair that I jumped to conclusions about you when I don’t even know you, and I’m sure those Wolf Girl Jumps were totes cute.” Sticking out her free hand that didn’t contain coffee, Llama looked to Miyeon with a soft smile.

—

Miyeon was pretty sure she was watching a window of opportunity close in front of her. Not that she knew what the opportunity was. She wasn’t sure if it was an opportunity for that interview or for maybe just something simpler – like friendship. Miyeon didn’t even know what she wanted anymore. Sure, when she first saw Mack Ross at the party, she could only see the stars in her eyes, thinking about the potential interview, the scoop, the deep dive, the exclusive. But she couldn’t bring herself to be that kind of slimy gross journalist who would tear someone apart just for a story.

Not to mention, that seemed like a terrible way to get a tail. Sure, okay, she didn’t really know how to earn one of those. Yet. But she figured it had to be good deeds and not like shitty manipulation tactics that would get her closer. Either way, it seemed like they were running in the same circles of people in town. It wouldn’t hurt to see if maybe she could find a friend there.

To say she was almost bowled over by what happened next would be an understatement. “I would love to start over,” Miyeon said with a smile and reaching out to shake Mack’s hand. She nearly jumped at how cold it was and had to make sure she kept the surprise off her face. It was probably just poor circulation or something like that. Did she have an iced drink or hot? Whatever, didn’t matter. “I hope so. Because I’m pretty sure for the most part they were just totally embarrassing.” The shop was busy, but mostly with people coming and going. The seats were pretty empty. “There’s a booth by the back there if you want to hang out?” She wasn’t sure if the other girl was going to take her up on it. “Totally cool if not. But you can interview me instead of the other way around. A nice little turn of the tables, yeah?”

—

The handshake confirmed things. Miyeon was willing to start over and that sent a wave of relief over Llama. She could just eat her later, if things didn’t exactly go according to plan. Okay, that was more of a twisted joke inside of her own head, and one she kept cued up at times, but she knew it wouldn’t make any kind of sense and would only be funny to her. She had to entertain herself and the shitty situation she was in somehow, “Good.”

Pulling her hand back, she glanced over to the booth that her new friend was referring to. It wasn’t like she had anywhere to be. And now that Miyeon wasn’t so much of a threat, Llama didn’t see why she couldn’t spend a little more time getting to know her, “How does one do a Wolf Girl Jump exactly?” She had totally been messing with Miyeon knowing there wasn’t a chance in Hell that the person standing in front of her was going to hop around like a dog and howl in the middle of the coffee shop, but she had to ask. After a brief pause though, Llama’s expression eased up, and she began to laugh, “I’m kidding, but yeah, let’s go find a seat. I’m sure I can figure out some more questions to ask you.”

Llama made her way back to the empty booth and slid in the seat with her back to the door. Normally, she had preferred to see who was coming and going, but at least they would get more privacy if people didn’t see a famous actress sitting in the back when they walked in. Taking a drink of her coffee, she sat it down on the table and crossed her arms, getting comfortable.

—

Miyeon shot the girl a look. There was no way she expected her to do full on wolf girl jumps in the middle of the coffee shop. Like sure, she’d consider it if she got something good out of it. But it would have to be really really good if she was going to completely humiliate herself in public. So she was relieved to see that it was all in gest. “You had me there for a second,” she said with a smile. “I hope you know I’m serious enough about a second chance that I was briefly considering it.” Still, she was glad to have an opportunity to actually chat.

She followed towards the empty booth and took a seat across from Mack. “Alright, hit me.” She went to take a sip of her coffee and paused. “I mean like, not literally. But, you know, with questions and stuff.” It was weird, being the one to get questioned and not the other way around. She wasn’t entirely used to that. She hadn’t been in this position often, especially not lately, and she was really not going to sit and introspect on why that was. There probably was one and she just wanted to enjoy her coffee and not think about her own flaws or failures or anything like that. Too much of a downer for morning coffee.

“Oh wait, can I ask one thing first?” she said, leaning forward eagerly. She got close, looked around to make sure the coast was clear and lowered her voice to a whisper, just in case. “Why are you going by Llama? Is it like a code name or something? Low profile? Sorry, I’m just curious since, you know.” Miyeon pointed at the name on Mack’s drink.

—

Llama had kind of wanted to see Wolf Girl Jumps, but she would save that for later in the evening when she’d probably be scrolling Tiktok endlessly, unable to sleep and trying to avoid thinking about life, errr…death. Still the fact that Miyeon was considering it did mean something to the young zombie. Instead, she was going to relish the opportunity to turn the tables and interview the interviewer, “This, like, never happens, so I’m pretty excited that someone else is in the hot seat for once.” She took another sip of her coffee, before sitting it back down.

Llama had spent years in the spotlight constantly being questioned about this and that. Some things she gladly talked about and others that she really just wanted to be left alone about. But since she had fled her apartment down south after the Brody incident, the idea of being questioned had made her incredibly nervous. Sure, she had been taught not to breach contracts with spoilers knowing there were consequences like fines or possibly being fired, but if she breached this contract by accident, she would likely be sent to prison or worse. It was a thought that had constantly lingered in the back of her mind.

Seeing Miyeon lean forward made Llama’s brow furrowed in confusion. What was this question going to be? If it was anything super personal, she’d get up and leave. Simple as that. But hearing it was just about her name and why she was going by Llama seemed to give her some relief, “I’m not gonna lie, I thought you were about to ask me something super personal, but yeah. Code name. I’ve always loved llamas, so I thought, why not?” In reality, she still couldn’t put her finger on it, and though she hardcore ground it into everyone’s mind who questioned her, the fact of the matter was that Llama couldn’t really understand why it felt so off. It just seemed to help that Miyeon had come up with an answer right there on the spot.

—

Miyeon smiled when she saw Mack’s shoulders drop just a little as she sunk into her seat when she mentioned she was excited to do the questioning for once. As much as Miyeon liked being the one to do the investigating, she knew there was value in sharing enough of herself to make others comfortable. Not to mention, she didn’t have a whole lot to hide. Well, other than the fact that she could turn into a fox and would live for centuries and her parents were ancient and sometimes she ate ghosts. Aside from that, totally normal.

Some part of the kitsune was hoping for some sort of crazy answer, something wild and exciting, but she would have to concede for now. “Why not, indeed,” she said with a smile. “Llamas are pretty cool, fair enough. That’s not a bad code name.” A thought struck her. “Wait, don’t they spit? Or, no, that’s camels. I think. Maybe? I don’t know. And hold on, are they the same as alpacas? I mean llamas, not camels. Like are all alpacas like squares or something and llamas are rectangles? Or are they completely different? Do they–” Miyeon caught herself midsentence. Oh yeah. Mack, or rather, Llama was supposed to be interviewing her. She wasn’t supposed to be asking twenty questions about llamas. “Sorry, I get carried away sometimes. You can always stop me.” She laughed before taking another sip of her coffee. “Or at least you can try to.”

—

Llama leaned back against the seat and settled back in. What she didn’t expect though, was a flurry of questions regarding llamas, camels, and alpacas. But instead of shying away from it, she welcomed it! “Considering Llamas are sort of my thing, you’ve come to the right person. So llamas, alpacas, and camels spit and do so out of feeling agitated or threatened. And while they do spit at humans sometimes, wouldn't you spit too, if you felt threatened and didn’t have arms to punch or push with? I mean we’re coming into their area and their comfort zone right? And they are all from the same family, but llamas are much larger than alpacas. And something good to remember…llamas may not look as cute with their longer snouts and taller ears, but they’re the puppies. Alpacas have squished snouts and shorter ears, look way cuter, but they’re like cats.” Llama caught herself. “I don’t think you’re the only one getting carried away.”

After taking another sip of coffee, she laughed, “I could talk about llamas all day, but I won’t.” It was hard coming up with questions on the spot, but she started with something easy, “Back to me interviewing you. So first question, what’s your favorite animal?” She took another sip, before sitting her cup back down. It was Miyeon’s turn to talk and explain herself. Llama was just along for the ride this time, which was nice.

—

Out of sheer instinct, Miyeon went to reach for a pen to take notes on the notepad that she didn’t have in front of her. There was no paper, there was no pen, of course there wasn’t. Whoops. She tried to act like she was brushing crumbs off from the table instead. “Sorry, whenever I get good answers to something, like really good info, I just want to jot it all down. Even though I’m not currently doing a story on llamas or anything,” she said, a small chuckle following. “I mean I could if I wanted to, I guess, considering I have Wicked’s Rest’s foremost llama expert sitting right here with me.”

It was impossible to keep the smile off her face. If she could see it, she might even call it sly, which would have only made her grin wider at the irony of it all. “Oh, foxes, definitely.” Miyeon nodded and took another drink of her latte. “The ears, the little snoot, the whiskers, that bushy tail!” Of course, she would love to have way more than just the one but that was so not the point at the moment. “You can’t beat them. They’re the best, hands down.” Sure, she was incredibly biased but what else was she supposed to say, guinea pigs? Ew, no. They were cute and all but like she was definitely cuter and she wouldn’t stand for anyone saying otherwise.

—

Llama watched as Miyeon went through the motions. It would have almost made her nervous, if it hadn’t been for the fact that Llama was the one doing the interviewing and the fact that the person sitting across from her didn’t actually have a pen or paper to write on. It was actually a relief, but Llama understood that old habits die hard. She still found herself preparing herself most days, when depression didn’t have a death grip on her, for life as a celebrity. Look presentable. Stay in shape. Eat healthy. Of course, some of that had been slipping lately. She had donned her hoodie more than anything, and it really didn’t matter what she ate now, considering she couldn’t gain weight, “I get it. I still live like I’m in Hollywood sometimes, when I’m really not.” She sighed and her eyes dropped for a minute.

She didn’t want to bring the mood down, so instead, she focused on Miyeon’s answer, “Okay, but foxes are a legit and pretty good answer. They’re not llamas, but I’ll take it. Plus, you’re right. They are pretty cute. I wonder if Fox Girl Jumps are a thing…” She had pondered about the Wolf Girl Jumps before shrugging it off, “Okay, next question. What brought you to Wicked’s Rest or have you always lived here?” It wasn’t like she was going after anything in particular. If they were going to possibly be friends, Llama had just wanted to get to know Miyeon better.

—

“Yeah you’re pretty far from Hollywood,” Miyeon said with a wink. “I hope you’re ready for fall and winter. If you don’t have a snow shovel and some salt, get it now. You’ll thank me later.” She couldn’t imagine living anywhere without four distinct seasons so she was sure this was going to be a big shock to Mack’s system once it got cold. “But, on the bright side, that means you get to buy a whole new seasonally appropriate wardrobe. And if you’re anything like me, that’s more than a perfect excuse for a shopping spree.”

Miyeon had to take another glug of her latte to keep herself from saying anything stupid. It was too easy to make quips and jokes about being a fox girl, especially when people had no clue. But given the vibe of the party the other night, she wasn’t sure if she should even toe the line of revealing that secret any more than she already had. “Born and raised here, unfortunately,” she answered with a shrug, her arms out to her sides. “I know the ins and outs and then some for better or for worse.”

—

Fall and winter. Llama’s experiences with other seasons had certainly been odd. Though she had been around snow and the cold before, it was usually for brief periods of time. Shooting a movie here or vacationing there. But that was something that hadn’t even crossed her mind since moving to Maine. She had been excited at the idea though. The changing of the leaves. Sweater weather. Hot chocolate (with lots of cinnamon). And possibly even building a snowman and having snowball fights. It all sounded fun - a word that Llama didn’t take lightly anymore, “Yeah, I don’t have either of those. Where do you get that stuff? And are you saying what I think you’re saying, because Shopping Spree is my middle name.”

The thought of the cold made Llama instinctively shiver just a little bit. Could she even get cold? Would snow cause frostbite on her already dead skin? Just more questions she’d have to wait and find out the answers too. But she knew one thing, her coffee was sitting in front of her, and she was going to enjoy that, “Wow! So you could essentially be my own personal tour guide with the dos and don’ts of Wicked’s Rest.” Now Llama knew who to go to if she had a question, “Next question. What made you want to become a DJ?”

—

“Bet.” Miyeon was already making plans, lists, outfits, and accessories, she was ready. “In a month or so we should be getting fall looks. Get your PSL ready and we’ll hit the shops.” There were few people who could keep up with her once she was on a shopping high and, fair enough, that was partially because few people could keep up with her normally. That and she didn’t have a whole lot of limitations on her wallet and as much as she could insist that it didn’t matter and she could help, things could get weird. She had a feeling that wouldn’t be an issue with Mack. At least she hoped not. Unless financial ruin was the reason she was in town. Well, that would be a scandal. So really this was going to be good for her either way.

“That I could,” she said with a nod. “I’m sure you already learned the one about avoiding the woods at night. Like the news and whatnot does a pretty good job of advising that one.” Did they say the real reasons why people should avoid the woods at night? No, of course not, but it was better than nothing. “Ah yeah, that one,” she paused to take another sip of her latte before continuing. “So I studied journalism and communications and I don’t know if you could tell this about me but I like to talk a lot. Crazy, I know. I hide it so well.” Hey if she couldn’t joke about herself, then who could? “Anyway, I did a project where I tried out hosting a few spots on Leticia’s station. You know, at Vinyl Countdown, she’s the owner. Amazing, I love her. Anyway, she sort of showed me the ropes and I learned I’m pretty good at it and so here I am.”

—

Llama’s closet was full. So full that she probably needed to rid herself of some clothes, but it was hard. She had memories tied with every piece and parting with any of it would prove to be nearly impossible. It’s okay. She’d just rent out a storage unit if need be. But the last thing she wanted to become was a hoarder - where her next starring role would be the Hoarders crew visiting after reports from her friends came in that she had a problem, only for everyone to find her trapped under a pile of clothes, just to later eat everyone when she was finally dug free after being starved from human brains for so long, “Count me in. PSL will be locked and loaded with extra spice.” Yep. Storage unit it was.

“I’ve heard that one and about everyone’s suspicions with mimes.” Of course, she was also a walking example, considering her name had been stolen, but to her, she was just Llama. “This town sure does have a lot of weird shit going on.” Maybe moving here hadn’t been the greatest idea…But then how would she have ever met people like Alex, and now Miyeon, who was explaining, in detail, how she started working as a DJ. It was nice, though, hearing about someone else with so much passion for what they did. Llama had loved her job as an actress. And not being able to do it was something that had been hurting her, so in this moment, she chose to live vicariously through Miyeon. “Okay, final question…If you’re going to be my friend, you’re not gonna try and use me as a story for your radio show right?” She took another sip of her drink, which she was pretty sure was cold by now, but it’s not like she knew that for sure.

—

“Alright, that settles it. It’s going in the planner.” Miyeon lived and died by her planners. She would never remember when anything was happening or what she was supposed to be doing otherwise. Even if no single other person on earth could interpret her organizational methods, it worked for her and that was enough.

“You can say that again,” she said, pulling a face as she set her cup down on the table. Strange was putting it nicely but there was no point in diving into that deep end. Not today, at least. She didn’t know what Mack knew and honestly, there was a lot that Miyeon didn’t know herself about the supernatural aspects of the town. Her parents had made sure of that. All she knew was where not to go and what not to do. And that only made those more appealing, to be honest.

The last question Mack asked was one that Miyeon should have seen coming a mile away. It was her job to anticipate responses and plan follow-ups to a certain extent. So she was disappointed that it surprised her at all. Ugh, it would be so convenient to just go for the story, get what she wanted and to use it to get ahead, but as sky-high as her ambitions were, Miyeon could never step on anyone else to get there. Sometimes she almost hated it about herself – she could only imagine how far she could go by now if she was willing to look out just for her own goals, but that wasn’t who she was. Tragically. So she held back the sigh she wanted to let out and instead held up her hand, fist closed and pinky raised. “Pinky promise,” she said, looking Mack dead in the eye. “Friends only guest on my show when or if they want to. And I don’t snitch on my friends.” And she meant it. As much as she desperately wanted an in, a story, a break, anything, she only wanted it if she earned it, if it was done with integrity. If Mack had a story to tell, she hoped that she got to hear it. And if she wanted to share it, she hoped she could earn enough trust to tell it. But those were some big ifs that she knew might never come to fruition. And she was okay with that so long as she got something out of it all in the end. Friendship was enough.

—

“I’ll have my people call your people to set it up.” Would Taylor still set this up for her? She was her assistant after all. But did Miyeon have people? Llama was so used to having to set up appointments and even schedule time with friends that she wasn’t sure, “Do you have people Taylor needs to call? You know what, I’ll just put it in my phone, right here, right now.” Pulling out her phone, she opened it up to the calendar and put it down for October. That’s when it got cold enough right? Miyeon would have to be the judge of that, since Llama always stayed cold.

Once she was finished, she shoved her phone back into her hoodie pocket only to see Miyeon holding up her pinky and making a promise. Promises…what had she heard about them? That you weren’t supposed to make them in this town? And though Miyeon was a reporter of sorts, she had been truthful the whole time they had been hanging out. If she was willing to make that promise, then Llama was going to take it.

Raising her own pinky up, she wrapped it around her new friend’s and shook on it, “I truly appreciate that, Miyeon. I’ll be honest. When I saw you earlier, I was hesitant to give you any kind of chance. People in the media looking for a photo or the scoop make me nervous, but I’m not in Hollywood anymore, so I’m glad I’m actually looking past that and giving you a chance. You seem like a pretty good person. Plus, I don’t snitch either. What’s the saying? Snitches get stitches?” Or your brain ripped out of your head? Letting go of Miyeon’s pinky, she lowered her hand and grabbed her cup, “And hey, I mean it about shopping. You’re gonna wish we never planned this.” With a wink, she got up from the table and tossed her cup in the trash, before walking out with a smile on her face.

#para: lattes & pinky promises #para: miyeon #{that's not my name; plot}#wickedswriting #fox--tales

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