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helterskelterhazel · 5 months

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𝒀𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒔𝒐 𝑷𝒓𝒆𝒕𝒕𝒚 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑰’𝒎 𝒔𝒐 𝑺𝒉𝒚

Summary: fetus!Alex and you hate each other, but not that much.

Warnings: sub!alex, dom!reader, oral(m receiving), p in v, crying?, grinding?

Word count: 4.7k

a/n: the fandom is so dead right now so I took matters into my own hands… enjoy!

︵‿︵‿୨♡୧‿︵‿︵

You and Alex had an interesting living situation. You met through a mutual friend, and the mutual need for cheaper rent. The both of you hated paying ridiculous prices for the smallest flats ever, especially without the help of parents' money. Unfortunately, you both also hated each other. The night you met was at a noisy, packed club, and after a long day of university, you both needed to let loose. Your mutual friend invited the both of you along with a few other friends. He hadn’t been seen by your friend all night, but you saw him. As you had unsqueezed yourself from the mass of bodies dancing to the music to go to the bar, you felt a person knock into you. You turned to the side to tell him off, but your voice was caught in your throat as you looked at the boy in front of you. He was a fairly small boy, with thick hair that stuck up in the back. He wore a polo, with the color popped up, and baggy jeans. But what really stood out was his eyes, big and round and confused looking. The confused look quickly went away as he studied you.

“You y/n?” He asked loudly, attempting to strain over the loud music. His voice was higher pitched than you’d expect.

“Yes, I am, and you must be Alex, you fit the description I was told about. You also just ran into me, if you didn’t notice,” you respond, annoyed at his casual tone.

He smirked slightly, “I noticed.” What a dick.

You and him proceeded to have a strained conversation. He was clearly gone, sloshing his cheap beer around in his hand, accidentally splashing you with it at one point. At least he got you a napkin. You disagreed on almost every level, your personalities clashed in a frustrating way. Eventually, you got to the topic of university. He was an English major, surprising, considering his slurred speech and odd wording. Unsurprisingly, he couldn’t afford university combined with rent. That was the one thing you could agree on. You're not sure how, but In your drunken haze, you ended the conversation disgruntled but with a plan to room together in a new apartment. You managed to follow through with minimal talking, and moved into an apartment in the next few weeks. The circumstances weren’t the greatest, but it was the easiest option for everyone.

He put posters of the strokes, oasis and the libertines up on his side of the bedroom, and had his records stored next to his record player. Your records sat opposite to his. The first days were filled with arguments about things like who can take a shower, what type of coffee to make, and who can control the tv. He called you pretentious, you called him annoying. You’d complain about his habits of staying out late, and how he didn’t even try to be quiet when getting ready for bed. The yelling turned into grumbling, and the grumbling turned into silence as the both of you fell into some sort of routine.

you wake up hours before he does, and take a shower first thing. Typically getting dressed in outfits that consist of tights, sweaters, flats and denim or leather jackets. You pour yourself a cup of black coffee, and head to your first class of the day. By the time you got back from your early morning class, he was usually awake in his bed, sipping on an iced coffee. Iced, vanilla, coffee. You made him keep it in the fridge. There was always the lingering smell of the cigarette he had enjoyed on the balcony. You ate whatever pastry you had purchased from the bakery close by campus while he took an obnoxiously long shower. You would leave as he finished for the rest of your classes, just missing him stepping out of the shower wet and disheveled. Luckily your days didn’t overlap until late at night as Alex liked to go out, and he also liked to play in his band. He would clamber into bed after stripping to his boxers, and you would resist the urge to turn over to his side of the room and look. Then you would wake up and do it all over again.

One Sunday night, as Alex walked in the door earlier than usual, the routine changed. It was 9, and you both were puttering around the small kitchen trying to prepare separate microwaveable meals. Seemingly out of nowhere, Alex cleared his throat and asked,

“Do you wanna watch a movie, together I mean.”

Not knowing what to say, you kept your back facing him and nodded. You couldn’t see it, but his cheeks heated up to a bright pink, and he smiled softly to himself while continuing to prepare his noodles. The two of you settled down onto your beds, and you tossed the remote over to Alex.

“You can pick,” you told him quietly.

“I actually have some dvds that I brought from home, Al Pacino movies and stuff if you're into that,” he replied softly. The cocky boy you thought you knew seemed gone.

“Yeah that sounds good.”

He nodded, and slid off his bed to grab a big leather case from under it. After popping it open, you saw there must have been at least 80 dvds.

“Big into movies?” You asked, genuinely curious. His plush lips parted into a small smile at the question.

“Yeah, big time.”

He selected one and popped it into the dvd player beneath the tv before settling back into his flannel sheets. The two of you sat eating your food and watching “Donnie Brasco” through the rest of the night. The movie was dotted with Alex’s little interjections about the actors or cinematic qualities. You slowly drifted off to sleep with your bowl at your side, on top of your sheets. When you woke up the next morning, you were tucked into your bed, and your dishes had disappeared.

From then on, it seemed like you two had an unstated agreement. On the nights the both of you are in the flat, you would share a film. There was more talking as well. He asked you about your day and you asked about his. Sometimes he’d even prepare your meal, and make you a drink. You found out that you both actually were quite similar. When you had rented a French dvd, Alex responded excitedly, watching intently through the whole thing. Turns out he liked them as much as you did. You also found out little things about him that didn’t really matter, but meant a great deal to you. For example, he ruffles his hair on purpose, (he wants to look like Julian Casablancas.) He also began to get more comfortable engaging in small touches with you, touching your hip as he passed by you, light pats on the shoulder when you told him about a paper you did well on, and once tucking your hair behind your ear before scurrying away nervously. You didn’t mind it.

At the beginning of one normal movie night, Alex proposed that you sit in his bed.

“Y’know I just figured, it-it would be easier to see for you I didn’t mean anything by it,” he stuttered, blushing furiously. You laughed softly at his nervous behavior and moved over to his bed, settling onto the soft comforter. He tensed up as your shoulder touched his, but relaxed quickly after. He turned his head to you and said,

“If you want to get under the covers, I don’t mind, it’s pretty cold anyways,” he trailed off, eyes casting downwards, making the shadow of his lashes more prominent. You nodded in response, slipping your legs under the sheets.

As the movie progressed, you noticed his eyes starting to flutter closed, and his small frame slumped against yours. Slowly, you leaned back further, easing him to lay with his head in the crook of your neck. He didn’t say anything, allowing it to happen. You could tell he was still awake from his hitching breaths and pounding heart beat against you. Testing the waters, you took your hand up to rake through his soft hair. You got in response a shiver from him and a small hum, but no protests. You played with the hair at the nape of his neck, scratching lightly. You could feel him smile against you. This Alex was not the Alex from the bar the night you met. This Alex was soft and vulnerable, and absolutely sweet. You allowed yourself to drift to sleep, him in your arms.

The night after was filled with nerves creeping up on you. You spend the whole day thinking about Alex wrapping himself tightly around you, not able to focus on any work at all. You know Alex wasn’t going to be home early that night, he had a late shift at the bar to cover. You wished he was here with you, watching films, listening to records, or just simply talking, but you know it was best to have a bit of space. The two of you hadn’t exchanged any talk in the morning, both far too timid to share any feelings. So there you sat In the darkness of your shared room, unable to fall asleep or think of anything other than Alex. Your thoughts of Alex were interrupted not a moment later by the sounds of the boy himself. You keep your body turned over so he can’t see your face, just listening to his breathing and sounds of him putting down his keys.

When you hear him settle onto his bed, the last this you expected to hear was him softly crying. It was quiet, but the sound was unmistakable. Without thinking, you sat up and turned around, in which Alex responded by lifting his head quickly. His hair was hanging over his eyes, which are red and puffy. His doe eyes are soft, and his lashes are slick with tears. Responding on instinct, you immediately jumped off your bed and hurried over to his, wrapping one arm around him. He responds by leaning into you, burying his face into the crook of your neck. You pet his hair lightly while he sniffles, trying to distract him from whatever was happening. Eventually he lifts his head up and averts his eyes away from yours. He takes a deep breath and then suddenly all of his words come pouring out at once.

“I’m so sorry for being weird all day y/n, I was worried I made you uncomfortable last night because I really like you and I don’t want to mess up us being friends, because you're like, one of the best people I’ve ever met. And I’m sorry for crying all over you and you can leave I understa-”

You shut up his rambling by leaning into his bitten lips. He made a noise of shock into your mouth, before he began to kiss back enthusiastically. He was one of the most eager kissers you’d ever encountered. His kisses were filled with an urgency you hadn’t felt before. He tasted like cigarettes and cheap beer. Unable to resist yourself, you reach a hand up and rake it through his hair, before tugging softly. In response he whines into the kiss, before pulling back and looking at you in shock. His lips are red and swollen, and his cheeks are flushed pink.

“I didn’t think you liked me like that,” he says quietly. You didn’t respond, just continuing to look at his perfect face.

“I guess I just overthink things too much,” he replies to himself. This you respond to.

“I can make your mind go quiet, if that’s what you want.”

Even you were shocked by your boldness. He couldn’t form words, just nodding furiously, shaking his hair around. You lean back from him, sitting against your pillows and opening your legs. He looks confused at what you were doing. You pat the spot between your legs and say,

“sit.”

His eyes got impossibly wider as they flicked between the space between your legs and your face. “You mean like how girls normally do?” He asks, looking insecure.

“I guess so, but really it’s just so I can take proper care of you,” you respond, smirking at his innocent expression. “We don’t have to do it like that if you don’t want to.” You didn’t want to make him uncomfortable.

“No,” he responds quickly, voice straining a bit. “I want to.”

“Then come here.”

He lifts himself up off the ledge of his bed and settles his back against your chest. You instantly wrap your arms up to cradle his little waist. His body shivers a bit against yours. You push your hands under his shirt and feel his soft skin, while beginning to lean down to kiss his neck. His body is shaking a bit, so you pull back slightly and say softly in his ear,

“Are you okay? You're shaking honey.” He blushes deeply at the nickname, before shaking his head and responding, “Yeah, I’m-I’m just not used to this.”

You nod in response before continuing. As you begin to kiss down his neck, you decide to take a risk.

“Can I leave marks?” He whimpers lightly before hurriedly nodding.

You lick over his pulse point before sucking a small love bite into his pale skin. He tilts his head back further, exposing more of his neck to you. Between bites and kisses you whisper in his ear.

“No ones ever properly taken care of you, sweetie.” He looks embarrassed at the words, letting out little whimpers and deep breaths as well. You continue to run your hands over his stomach under his shirt. Your hands drop lower, caressing his defined hip bones. At this, he lets out a quiet whine and squirms a bit.

“Need more.” he says while looking up at you with wide, pleading eyes. His fists are curled at his side, and his chest is heaving with need.

“if it’s what you need sweetie.”

You take the edge of his shirt and pull it over his head, ruffling his hair even more in the process. You trail your hands down to his jeans, feeling the edge of them before asking, “Can I take these off?”

“Yes, please.” he breathes desperately. You unzip them and let him do the rest, unable to reach from your position. Now here you were, with Alex Turner between your legs in nothing but his boxers, looking delicate as ever. Deciding to be bold, you take your hand and palm over his crotch. The fabric feels wet with precum, and you can almost feel him pulse under your touch. His response is immediate, bucking up into your touch and desperately pawing at your other hand that was resting on his tummy. You trace one finger around his cock, feeling the surprisingly long length of it. He silently hopes you can’t feel his heart beating out of his chest, but of course you can. You decided to surprise him by reaching your hand down to wrap around the base of his cock. The sound he made was something out of a porno. A broken, high pitched moan that seemed like it resembled an “oh god.” The sound went straight to your core and you felt wetness start to pool in your panties. You begin to move your hand along his raging erection, eventually getting to the tip, just lightly swiping your fingers over it to tease. You would think he’d never even jacked off before from his reaction. All he could do is squirm and push himself into your touch desperately.

You remove your grip on him to just lightly take your finger and run it up and down his cock, moving the precum leaking out of him along it. As you teased him, you couldn’t help but lean down to suck a hickey into his collarbone. The need to see him as disheveled and marked up was unbearable. You couldn’t help but trail your other hand further up his stomach to his chest to his nipples, lightly ghosting over one to see if it was okay.

“Please, please I want it.” The boy who was nervous about being submissive was definitely gone.

You take his nipple between your fingers, rolling it before pinching lightly. He looks overwhelmed at the action between his legs and chest. You switch between the two of his nipples, almost overstimulating him. His chest and cheeks are flushed, and you're honestly interested in seeing if anything else is.

You take your hand off his cock, leaving him whining in disagreement.

“Why’d you stop?” He chokes out, pouting like a kid who dropped his ice cream.

“Because I wanna taste you.” you smirk in his ear.

You can hear his voice catch in his throat, and before he knows it you're releasing your hold on him and crawling between his legs. From this angle, he looks downright sinful. His puppy eyes are trained on you, watery from being on edge. His lips are bitten and his hair is messy and covering his face making him look somehow innocent despite the current situation. Trailing your hands up his legs, which were just as delicate and pale as the rest of him, you settle on where his v-line meets his boxers.

“Can I suck you off.” You ask bluntly, trying to get that pretty blush to rise up to his cheeks. It works.

“Yes-yes please do whatever please.” He begs hands fisting the sheets by his side, frustrated by the lack of stimulation on his painfully hard cock.

You take this as an opportunity to pull down his boxers to reveal his dick. You almost gasp at the sight of it, big, flushed a deep red almost purple, leaking a steady stream of precum against his tummy, with a vein going up the side. He looks embarrassed at the sight of you between his legs, staring at his cock.

“Can you please touch me, please?” He whimpers quietly, averting his eyes from yours.

“I don’t know, do you think you deserve it?” You tease, rubbing the milky skin of his bare thighs.

“Yes! Yes I do please, I need you so bad.” He whines in desperation, the pressure getting far too much for him to take.

“I guess you have been good for me. Is that what you wanna be? My good boy?” You didn’t think he would react as strongly as he did, it was really just to tease him even further, but he replies by gasping softly and saying “I’m your good boy I promise, just touch me, ple-”

You interrupt his pleas by taking the head of his cock into your mouth. In response he lets out a high pitch whine. The neighbors probably hate us right now. you take the entirety of what you can in your mouth, trying not to gag as the tip hits the back of your throat. He shudders and starts to let out a continuous stream of “fucks” and “yes’s” and whimpers. you take whatever you can't fit in your mouth and pump the base of him. You hollow out your cheeks to make the sensation even better for him. In response he bucks up his hips uncontrollably and takes one hand and tangles it in your hair. He doesn’t try to pull or control your movements, it’s just an attempt to keep his body under control. It’s clear it isn’t really working, as his back arches off the bed like a cat, and he has to raise the hand that’s not in your hair to his mouth to attempt to quiet his noises. You reach your hand up and swat him away from his mouth. “I wanna hear your pretty noises honey.”

“Oh-okay.” He whispers shyly in response, giving you a little smile.

the smile quickly drops as you attach your mouth back to the swollen head of his cock, licking into the slit at the top. His unrestrained mewls are the prettiest sounds you’ve heard. You continue to massage his thighs, occasionally reaching a hand up to ghost over one of his nipples, leaving him an overwhelmed mess. His trembling legs and increasingly louder whines are a clear sign of him getting closer. He was desperately trying not to cum so quickly, but he couldn’t stop his shaky thrusts of his hips.

“oh god, you feel so-so good.” He whines desperately, sounding on the verge of pleasure induced tears. You look up to admire his sweet face, and you're met with a surprise. He doesn’t just sound like he’s crying, he is crying. Lip quivering slightly, and his eyes are rolling back to his head, as tears run down his cheeks. The sight of him so ruined has your cunt clenching around nothing, suddenly unbearably empty.

“I’m not gonna last, please plea-.” You cut off his begging by promptly pulling him out of your mouth and removing any stimulation he was getting. The cry he lets out sounds almost pained, even more tears stream from his eyes.

“Why’d you stop, I was almost there.” He pouts at you, disheveled hair paired with red cheeks and teary eyes making him look angelic.

“Because I want you inside me,” You reply, leaning your face against his thigh, “do you want that?” You finish.

“Yeah, yes I want it. I want it so bad please.” He gasps out desperate to get some form of stimulation back in his aching cock.

As you slip off the shorts and panties you were wearing to bed, you can practically feel Alex’s eyes staring at your puffy folds. He gulps as you climb over his lap, hovering over his dick. You lower yourself to grind your pussy against his cock, feeling it slip between your wet folds, nudging just right at your clit. As you begin to move up and down along his dick, his hands grasp desperately at your waist, mewling at the feeling of your plush folds sliding along his dick.

“I swear you're gonna kill me.” He chokes out, eyes focused on your soaked pussy spreading your wetness around his cock.

“Do you like this baby, you like feeling me.” You say, leaning down to his ear, before attaching your mouth to the spot under his jaw.

“Love it, love it so much, I need more.” He moans, hands trailing from your waist to squeeze the flesh of your ass.

“More? Don’t you think that’s a little greedy?” You tease, licking and biting along his collar bone. He whimpers and shakes his head, burying it in your shoulder, shuddering softly. His fingers are toying with the edge of your shirt, too nervous to ask to take it off. Luckily you get the hint.

You pull the shirt over your head, allowing him a moment to look at your bra, before promptly pulling that off as well. His big, brown eyes dilate at the sight of your tits.

“Can I touch them, please?” He says, looking up at you hopefully. You nod into his neck. He immediately reaches his hands up and gropes at your tits, squeezing them in his delicate hands. You continue to grind against him to make him more desperate as he suddenly leans forward and captures one of your nipples in his mouth, sucking desperately. You gasp softly and begin petting his hair, scratching lightly at his scalp.

“You like having your mouth full sweetie?” You ask, a rhetorical question of course. All he can do is let out a muffled whine. His tongue swipes along the bud, nipping gently in an attempt to get you as desperate as he is. Suddenly he releases you from his mouth and stops the movement of your hips against him with his hands.

“I can’t anymore, I need to be inside you. I’ll be good for you, I promise I swear love!” He whines finally, breaking under the teasing.

“Okay honey, you’ve been a good boy.” You reply while lifting up to your knees and grabbing hold of his cock. He’s been hard for so long he swears he’s going to bust any second now. You line up the fat head of his cock to your leaking cunt, before slowly pushing him inside. You groan low in your throat as you feel his thick cock stretch you out just right, the tip brushing your g-spot. You almost don’t notice the way he throws his head back in euphoria, sounds caught in his throat from the way your plush walls squeeze him perfectly, and the way he can feel your cunt gush around him. You grab hold of his face, admiring his lust blown eyes for a moment, before leaning in to connect your mouth with his. It’s rough and messy as his tongue slides along yours, his mouth sweet and soft. You begin to slowly move your hips, the first few movements have him shaking again. You let him sink into the bed, so overwhelmed that he was pawing at anything he could get his hands on. Your tits, your ass, your waist, anything to keep him grounded.

But he just couldn’t. He couldn’t keep his eyes off the way your tits bounced with every thrust. He couldn’t stop hearing the wet noises coming from your pussy every time you bottomed out of his dick. He couldn’t stop looking at how your pussy enveloped him, leaving his dick wet and glistening.

“God you're so good!” He cried out, tears trailing down his face again.

you were right there with him, trailing a hand down to your clit to circle the puffy bud, but he was there before you were, desperate not to embarrass himself by coming too early. It only took a few swipes of his calluses fingertips on your clit to have you coming around his length. You gripped your hands on his slender shoulders as your orgasm shook through your body, unknowingly breaking him enough to have his own orgasm suddenly coaxed out. You feel his hot release hit your walls, and watch his hips jerk uncontrollably as the tears shed more than ever before. His fingers don’t let up until you collapse on top of him, sweaty bodies melded together.

It takes a moment for you to realize his crying and shaking hasn’t stopped. You lift off of him, still straddling him, his cum starting to leak out of you.

“Are you ok al?” You ask.

He doesn’t respond, a fuzzed over look on his face, trying his hardest to give you a little nod. You grab his fragile body in your arms and slowly lift him out of bed, walking him to the bathroom slowly. You take a damp cloth and wipe him down softly as possible. You wipe yourself down as well, still cradling him in your arms. Grabbing his hand, you lead him over to your bed, wanting to lay him in clean sheets. You help him into the bed and slide in beside him. He buries his head in your chest, still shaking but not crying anymore. You pet his hair, hoping to calm him down. After a few moments he slowly lifts his head up, making eye contact shyly.

“I’m sorry for all that.” He says softly. “I sometimes get a little unresponsive when I get a little too into it.” He looks nervous, anticipating your reaction.

“That’s okay Al, it’s kinda sweet.” You reply, watching his cheeks flush lightly. You lean down and kiss him lightly on the cheek.

“I had a really good time.” You say, smiling at him.

“Me too.” He gave a long pause before asking, “do you maybe wanna go out sometime.”

You almost giggle at his shy demeanor. Still so nervous.

“Of course I do honey.”

The both of you lay In comfortable silence for a while, arms wrapped around each other. You noticed his eyes fluttering in an attempt to stay awake.

“Go to sleep Alex, I’ve got you.” You whisper, stroking the side of his face. He hums in agreement nuzzling into your neck further. You stroke his hair and face until you feel his breathing stabilize. The both of you fall asleep entangled together, your lips pressed against the crown of his head

#alex turner smut #sub alex turner #Alex turner fanfic

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ladykailitha · 1 month

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Well Met By Moonlight Part 20

When I first started this story a year ago the only goal in mind was to get a sexy blood drinking scene between Steve and Eddie. Which yay! I achieved TWICE!

But then the story began to grow and twist and things kept getting more and more interesting. Plot deepened, twists turned sharper and characters began to take shape.

I'm grateful to everyone who held on this one even as interest for it waned. I'm happy that it started to gain more interest again at the end, because that's what kept me going all the way to the end.

I'm currently having someone read it (not in the ST fandom) to see if they think it has the potential to be an original fiction that could be published. I know she loved the story, but I have gotten back all her notes yet. So we'll see.

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9 Part 10 Part 11 Part 12 Part 13 Part 14 Part 15 Part 16 Part 17 Part 18 Part 19

“It’s good thing that worked,” Brian said scratching the back his neck sheepishly. “I wasn’t sure my song worked on werewolves.”

“It doesn’t work on selkies?” Nancy asked.

Brian just shrugged.

“We were under water,” Barb explained, “we didn’t hear the song.”

Nancy eyed her suspiciously, but wisely said nothing to her friend.

“So now that everyone’s lives are no longer in danger,” Wayne said dryly. “You want to explain the whole ‘they don’t belong here’ statement?”

Nancy jumped at suddenly be addressed. “Oh, right! I knew there had to be more to the story than what the newspaper and the VHS report said.”

“Video Home System?” Jeff asked in confusion.

Wayne snorted and Eddie badly hid his grin.

“That’s what I said!” Eddie crowed.

Nancy rolled her eyes and decided to ignore the idiot vampires. “Van Helsing Society. They’re a secret police force that investigates these types of things.”

Alexei slowly inched out of the boathouse and everyone kept their eye on him.

“Dr. Brenner was doing a lot of experiments and not just on werewolves. He was looking into other dimensions as well.”

“What was the point of it all?” Steve asked.

Chrissy landed on the beach and said, “He was trying to create the perfect supernatural being. One without any limitations at all. But he didn’t want keep using people from our world to do it because it would raise too many questions. So he was opening worlds and pulling out test subjects. But always werewolves.”

“That’s insane!” Steve cried. “You have to see how insane that is, right?”

Chrissy nodded. “When the cat sìth arrived at the Creel House to tell us of our Dominus’s death, I started looking into the previous Dominus’s experiments thinking it had answers to what was going on in this town. I was right and disgusted.”

Nancy nodded. “They,” she jutted her chin at Alexei and Murray, “are the ones that survived because at the same time they were brought over, Dr. Brenner was being investigated by VHS and had to stop temporarily, so they slipped into the wide world accidentally. This world’s Dr. Oborin killed those kids because they were teasing this world’s Mr. Bauman’s baldness. But when they saw the two that looked exactly them, they hatched a plan to use them as scapegoats and are currently on the run in Mexico.”

“Who told you all this?” Jonathan asked, speaking for the first time.

“I did,” and final person emerged from the tree line.

“Sam...” Wayne said warningly. “What the fuck are you doing here?”

“That’s actually a funny story,” Sam said sheepishly. “So apparently our investigations did overlap?”

“Sam...”

“Right,” Sam said with a grimace. “Do you mind if I take over the story from here?” he asked Nancy.

She waved her hand at him. “Go ahead. I’m interested to hear what more you may have gleaned.”

“So my original investigation was whether or not there was a descendant of the original Karl Van Helsing from the female line was in the Harrington pack,” he said with a wince.

Steve frowned. “What does ‘female line’ mean?”

“There is the male line,” Sam explained, “where you keep the last name. Harrington for example. You are a descendant of the original pack leader, Clarence Harrington. That is the male line. The female line is when, let’s continue using Harrington as an example, say Clarence had two sons and a daughter. The daughter marries and has children. Those children are still related to Clarence but their last name has changed.”

“You think Greta had children?” Wayne asked incredulously. “Because like hell she did.”

Sam shook his head. “No, not Greta. Her aunt Vanessa, who married Peter Kincade.”

Dread pooled in Wayne’s stomach. He knew that name because he had been trying to find out why Murray would murder a non-werewolf. Not that he knew it was Murray at the time. Peter Kincade was Allison Harrington’s great, great, great, great, great however many it was grandfather.

“When Benjamin Kincade was murdered and subsequently his daughter and husband,” Sam continued, “the blood was sent to our lab by an anonymous source, a source we now believe to Dr. Alexei Oborin.”

The assembled turned to the doctor who was now cradling his mate to his chest. He stroked Murray’s head. “I didn’t like all the murder. I found a neater way to get Harrington out of the pack. Show the VHS that he was their missing link and he’d be whisked away and have experiments done on him so they can strengthen their ranks. Then you’d be alpha, my love.”

Murray whimpered.

“I’m sorry,” Alexei whispered back. “They didn’t move fast enough.”

“So that’s how it intersects,” Eddie said. “If Murray hadn’t killed the Harringtons and Mr. Kincade, you’d never had been in town looking for Steve.”

“It would have been easier,” Sam agreed, “but there is some really power magic on Steve that prevents VHS agents from being able to detect him. And it is absolutely due to his Van Helsing blood. They were purported to have all sorts of abilities and immunities that made them perfect watchmen of the supernatural communities. The blood magic used to create the spells that will protect an agent makes it impossible to mate with supernatural creatures.” Wayne bristled, but Sam held up his hand. “Note I said mate, not couple. It’s the act of producing a child that is disastrous.”

“Why’s that?” Barb asked from the dock, still the only part of her that was human was her head. “Supernatural creatures mate with humans all the time. I mean some times it can have some pretty strange results, but no one would call them disastrous.”

“It’s the anti-magic of the spells used and the innate magic of the supernatural being mixing and slowly driving the poor child insane,” Sam said, looking side-long at Steve. “We actually had long suspected Steve might have some connection to the Helsings because–”

“Because he should have gone crazy twice!” Eddie said with a gasp. “The first time was when he changed for the first time at age eighteen. The Franklins were banking on him going off the rails so they could paint him some rabid beast that needed to be put down. But he was lucid.”

“And then again when the Hunters tried to kill him,” Nancy finished. “He should have gone mad from the amount of silver he had on him. Even for that short a time. Being alpha would have only protected him so much.”

Steve pointed to himself in shock. “What? Me? There’s no way, there has to be another explanation.”

Wayne shook his head. “Nope. You’re the descendant of two very powerful lines, Steve.”

“Back to the problem of Murray and Alexei,” Brian said, raising his hand. “Because Steve is cool and all, but all this new information doesn’t really change that. It just confirms what smart people have known for years.”

Steve blushed.

“They can’t be in this world anymore,” Sam said, sadly. “Their very presence is what’s causing the sharp increase in supernatural suspicion in the normal populous. The whole being just out of step is sending out shock waves across the world that they’re dangerous.”

“I understand,” Alexei said, “I always knew there was no place for us anywhere.” He leaned over to kiss Murray.

“Maybe we can–” Nancy began when two gunshots went off in quick succession.

Then Alexei slumped over Murray’s body. There was no doubt what had happened. Alexei must have picked up the gun when Chrissy landed. Then he shot Murray, finishing the job that Robin had started then turned the gun on himself.

BA-DUM! BA! DUM!

“Oh,” Robin said softly. “Now that they’re dead you can actually feel the difference.”

Nancy let out a frustrated whine and stomped her foot. “I was going to suggest finding a way to send them home. Not for them to die.”

Sam came over and put his hand on her shoulder. “This is was the best. Even though they were innocent of the original crime of killing the kids, Dr. Alexei Oborin killed the Hunters in his own universe and then all the deaths on Murray Bauman’s hands are far too many. To merely send them back would be a grave miscarriage of justice.”

Her lip quivered, but she nodded. It galled her. If they hadn’t been pulled here by Dr. Brenner than they would be lauded as heroes in their home world, only to be branded villains in this one. But they had caused so much harm.

Sam turned to Steve. “So about that linage...you are wasted here as a mere alpha. You could head the entire Van Helsing Society. You would be incandescent there.”

Steve shook his head. “No. This is where I want to be.”

Eddie let out a little whine of relief and even the golden wolf that was Robin looked relieved.

“I am making Robin Buckley my female alpha,” he continued. Nancy let out a breath of relief of her own. “I’m changing the name of the pack to the Roane County pack. No more Harrington crap. I am the last and it will end with me. Same goes with the Van Helsing line.”

Sam’s eyes nearly burst out of his head with that. “You can’t mean that, surely!”

Steve shook his head. “I can. I will donate a single vial of my blood to the Society and allow you to test the limits of my abilities for one week a year, but the rest of the time I will be here. Taking care of the people who matter most to me. On one condition.”

Sam’s hands were clenched in rage. “You dare to make even more demands?!”

“Yes,” Steve said coolly. “The Society will come out of the shadows. You lot being a secret society is precisely why there is rise in Hunters. If people knew there was an actual policing body that would bring rogue cryptids to heel, they would be less likely to want to take matters into their own hands.”

Wayne and Sam shared a look of shock between them.

“Oh.” Sam gulped heavily. “Deal.”

Steve shook his hand, then he turned to Chrissy. “I’m assuming you’re the new Dominus.”

Chrissy blinked. “Oh shit. I guess I am.”

“Good,” he said primly. “We’ll meet later in the week to find you a new home and to lay out a new treaty between the Coven and Pack.”

She nodded gravely. “It will be done, Alpha.” She turned to Jeff. “Come, we need to find places for our Coven in the mean time.”

Jeff nodded and they both transformed and flew off into the air.

“Robin,” Steve said, turning to his new alpha female. “Take the rest of the pack back to the compound and explain everything that has gone on. Let them know I will be back shortly to reassure them. I will mete out Tommy’s punishment when I get there.”

The golden wolf nodded solemnly. Nancy and Hopper changed back into wolves. Tommy climbed back on Hopper’s back and then looked behind him at Steve. He had misjudged everything and no he must pay the price. Then they followed her back to the compound, Jonathan bringing up the rear.

Steve walked up to Barb and Brian. “The Roane County Pack owes the sirens and selkies a debt of gratitude. Name it and if it’s in the power of this alpha it will be yours.”

Brian and Barb looked at each other and then they both shook their heads.

“You continuing to advocate for us will be a far great boon then any other thing you could do for us, alpha,” Barb said sternly.

Steve nodded.

Brian reach out and took Barb’s flipper in his hand. “Plus, there’s this, too.”

Gareth and Eddie let out wolf whistles.

Brian blushed, but Barb smiled softly.

“Yes, this is a good reward as well,” she murmured. She removed her hand from her skin and took his hand.

Brian smiled up at her. They both transformed again. She slipped under the water as Brian flew over it, humming to himself.

Steve turned back to the remaining four. He walked up to Gareth.

“What is it the gwyllgi want?” Steve asked, getting down on one knee so he could look the large black dog in the eye. No preamble. Just straight to the point. He knew the Graveyard dogs had a lot of grievances against his pack and he was going to change that starting now.

“Agree to meet with my father to work out restitution for our pack,” Gareth said seriously.

“Done,” Steve said, bowing his head. “I will make sure Robin contacts him for a meeting.”

Gareth shuffled forward and hugged Steve with his neck. “You’re a good alpha and a better man.”

Steve pinched his nose and then rubbed the end. “Thank you, Gareth.”

Gareth loped over to Eddie. “You take good care of him, won’t you? He tends to get caught up in his head sometimes.”

Eddie nodded, giving a watery chuckle. “Just whose friend are you, mine or his?”

Gareth tilted his head to the side.

“Both.”

The dog turned and vanished into the tree line.

Wayne turned to Steve. “I’m thinking of retiring from this whole supernatural guardianship. I’m going to let Eddie take over. I’m getting too old for this shit.”

Sam let out a sound that was combination between a whine and clearing his throat. “If I–I mean, if I haven’t completely ruined things between us. I–”

“Just spit it out, Sam,” Wayne growled.

“This was my last investigation for the Society,” Sam said, looking down at his feet. “I told them after our last meeting. I hate lying to you. It kills me every time. So I want to spend my time with you. If you’ll have me.”

Wayne huffed and then grabbed him by the wrist, pulling him in close. “You’ve got a lot grovelling to do. And I have a long list of ways you can start making it up to me.”

Sam eyes went wide at the low sultry tone. “Oh. I am very willing.”

Wayne transformed and flew off with his arm securely around his waist.

“Gross,” Eddie sniffed.

Steve pulled him into his embrace. “I too have a list of things, but mine is more about the lovely things I want you to do me.”

“Ooh, I do like the sound of that, big boy,” Eddie said with a feral grin. “And I’m pretty sure my uncle won’t be at the trailer for awhile.”

“I like the way you think,” Steve pulled him in for a long kiss. “I’ll meet you there. I just have make sure Robin hasn’t set the compound on fire and then I’ll be right there.”

“Are you sure you want her as your alpha?” Eddie asked with a chuckle.

“Yeah, she’ll be fine once she gets over her nerves,” he said with a smile. “Plus no one will be asking if we are going to mate. Having a lesbian best friend really does have its perks. You don't have to come with.”

Eddie through his head back and laughed. “Nah, I’ll come with. I want to see their faces.”

Steve smiled and took Eddie’s hand.

They walked past Lucas, who was on guard duty, hand in hand, a werewolf and a vampire. Both once outcasts even in their own communities, now leaders in their own right.

Steve smiled.

The future never looked brighter.

Tag List: COMPLETE

1- @mira-jadeamethyst @rozzieroos @itsall-taken @redfreckledwolf @zerokrox-blog

2- @swimmingbirdrunningrock @gregre369 @a-little-unsteddie @chaosgremlinmunson @goodolefashionedloverboi

3- @fullpoetrybread @messrs-weasley @val-from-lawrence @carlyv @wonderland-girl143-blog

4- @bookworm0690 @littlewildflowerkitten @just-a-tiny-void @potato-of-the-lord @thelittleclare

5- @goosesister @tinyplanet95 @she-collects-smut @irregular-child @y4r3luv

6- @fairytalesreality @anaibis @papergrenade @ravenfrog @blondie1006

7- @thedragonsaunt @sadisticaltarts @kultiras @blackpanzy @disrespectedgoatman

8- @kal-ology @w1ll0wtr33 @townseleven @dreamercec

#my writing #stranger things #steddie #ladykailtiha writes #werewolf steve harrington #vampire eddie munson #supernatural creatures

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goddessofroyalty · 7 months

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Fandom: One Piece

Pairing: Zoro/Sanji

Tags: omegaverse, discussed-future-mpreg

Someone shared a bit of non-omegaverse art in the ZoSan server of Zoro showering affection on Sanji’s stomach and it inspired me to write them talking about their future child in a verse where they agreed no pups until after they and Luffy achieve their dreams.

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Sanji lets out a huff as Zoro lays his head down against his stomach, one of the swordsman’s callused hands resting against what might one day become the peak of it as the other supports Sanji’s back as he enjoys his cigarette, blowing a puff of smoke out over the alpha’s head. The break in Sanji’s heat is nice even if they both know it will only last for a moment.

“There isn’t anything in there moss,” Sanji says as Zoro’s thumb tickles against his skin. The necessary steps have been taken to ensure that for all their fucking no pup will result from this heat.

“I know,” Zoro grunts, twisting his head and pressing a kiss against Sanji’s hip bone.

“Once Luffy’s the Pirate King and I’m the world’s greatest swordsman and we’re living on your ocean,” Zoro continues, trailing kisses along Sanji’s hips as he recites the dreams they swore to achieve. “You’ll give me pups then right?”

“I didn’t realise we agreed to pups plural?” Sanji jokes, more to try and keep himself from giving into the fantasy of it.

“You know I could never be satisfied with just one. Not when it’s with you.” Zoro says, resting his forehead directly onto Sanji’s stomach, leaving him looking almost as if he’s praying over it. “You’ll even let some get my green hair right? And they’ll all get your eyebrows.”

Sanji doesn’t know the last time he heard Zoro that excited. It reminds him of the headstrong alpha second in command on the pirate crew he decided to throw his lot into who had matured into his steadfast mate.

“Maybe if you’re lucky.” Sanji hopes they do inherit the alpha’s hair. Oh he’ll bitch about it when it happens. Can’t let the mosshead’s ego get too large. But he now can’t think about his future children without at least one of them having coarse green hair and a stubborn attitude.

Zoro grins up at him.

“You will,” Zoro says, ducking his head back down to press a kiss against Sanji’s stomach, his hands grabbing at the omega’s hips. “You’re gonna’ look so fucking hot while you’re growing them as well.”

Sanji does laugh at that.

“I’m going to look like a waddling land-whale.” He doesn’t have the delicate curves of a lady which are only accentuated by pregnancy. Lacks their soft plump skin that glows with the life they are carrying.

Zoro snorts at that.

“You will not,” he says with a nip at Sanji’s hip. “You are going to look so good. So strong. Fuck I don’t know how I’m gonna’ keep my hands off you. All full with my pup. Hell I’ll fuck another one into you before you’re even finished growing the first.”

“That’s-“ Impossible. And the idea of having pregnancies that overlap giving his body no time without one of Zoro’s children growing in him should be almost repulsive. Sanji is going to blame his heat for the fact he finds it weirdly insanely hot.

“You’ll be great with them,” Zoro continues, uncaring of Sanji’s broken-off attempt at interruption. One of his hands coming up to grope at Sanji’s chest. “Gonna’ be feeding them from the moment they’re born. They won’t know shit food until they move out to take the world for themselves.”

Of course they will. No matter what they decide their dream to be their children are bound to achieve it. Will have grown up learning from the best in so many fields. Never once doubting on their parents support for them.

“Moss-“ Sanji says, running a hand through Zoro’s hair. He can feel his heat stir back to life under his skin and he’s pretty sure it’s affecting the alpha too.

“Shit. I’m going to fuck you so good. Fill you with knot and my pups. Our strong healthy pups,” Zoro continues to babble.

Strong pups that will be trained by the world’s greatest swordsman and fed on the abundance of fish in the All Blue. Who will never know real hunger and know that love and care is as important as training at being your best. Will learn to cook at Sanji’s side and take afternoon naps with Zoro.

“Fuck – I need you to shut up now,” Sanji says, his grip on Zoro’s hair tugging the alpha up off him.

Zoro gives a questioning hum like he isn’t aware of what he’s fucking doing.

Sanji pulls him up by the hair for a kiss before he can open his stupid mouth again.

“You need to shut the fuck up and fuck me,” Sanji orders. Because if the bastard keeps going Sanji might not be able to stay strong on their agreement that they weren’t going to have pups until all their dreams were achieved.

Zoro grins at him like he knows but his hands grab at Sanji’s thighs as he does as he’s commanded.

#One Piece #ZoSan #roronoa zoro #zoro x sanji #vinsmoke sanji #blackleg sanji #omegaverse #One Piece omegaverse #mpreg #One Piece mpreg #black leg sanji #I accidenly a ficlet

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impulsivesuperrobin · 1 year

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i saw a post talking about neverafter slander on twitter so i went to check it out

here are some thoughts: (keep in mind, i’m not calling anyone out or saying your opinion isn’t valid if you agree with one of these points. try to read this as a light hearted discussion, like talking about a book with a friend)

a lot of it is people saying the season wasn’t horror enough and while i agree it’s not exactly as straightforward horror as the marketing suggested i think that that’s a take that is fundamentally misunderstanding what this is. it’s the horror season of dimension 20 which is a d&d show first and foremost. it’s not going to be following the beats of a horror movie because that’s not what they’re doing. when you run a horror campaign you fold in horror elements which they have been excellent at doing especially in the eldritch and existential categories

not to make assumptions but it seems to me that a lot of people making a big fuss about this haven’t played d&d for themselves. the things i have seen suggested the most for making the season more in line with the horror people were expecting involves turning the campaign into a more dm vs players situation (which is joked about a lot in fandom but in more of a meta humor way than is being suggested). this is something that anyone who has ever played in a bad campaign knows makes it a hell of a lot less fun to play and, i’m assuming, not so fun to watch either. the point of playing d&d is to work together to tell a story, if you go into to making a campaign with the goal of making your players lose, everyone is going to be miserable and your story is going to suck.

following that, some people are ragging on brennan for forgetting details and not having the lore entirely fleshed out. as someone who does unnecessary worldbuilding for homebrew campaigns every single time, i would just like to say on behalf of dms everywhere: it’s hard! there’s so much stuff to keep track of and so little time to keep the lore straight if you want the session to keep moving smoothly, i’m sure it’s even harder when you have a limited time to film the episodes/season

and maybe it’s just me, but i love horror movies (and other media) and neverafter is about as scary as most horror movies i’ve seen. it’s definitely better written than a lot of horror movies, we get to know the characters and are fully invested in them when bad things happen. it’s sort of on the level as the hellraiser reboot imo. some people make the point that besides the body horror, there’s not enough gore/blood kinda stuff, but i think gore isn’t truly horror, especially in a spoken format. it’s more of a shock factor thing, like a verbal jumpscare

and i’ve seen people saying that the pcs are too much like heroes/they’re too capable to be in any real danger, but in a horror movie, most of the bad things happen around the protagonist(s), they’re still thrown into the shit but most of the time they make it out. horror as a genre is so ill-defined anyway that people still debate if slashers and thrillers even count. plus, how many times in a movie has a side character been forgotten or something about the lore has been off? and that’s with multiple people overseeing the production.

jumping away from the “it’s not like the horror movie i envisioned” complaints, i’ve also seen a lot of people say it’s confusing??? and tbh i’m more confused about that than the campaign. to me it’s pretty straightforward, no more confusing than starstruck at the very least.

for the big picture: it’s different factions of people with conflicting (but occasionally overlapping) goals than all need to get to macguffin in order to reach whichever goal they’re aligned with

the pcs have their own character arcs which are very clearly laid out throughout the season

the minute details are there because that’s how you make your world feel lived in

and yeah, there’s a lot of potential in the stuff they could’ve done but didn’t. but i feel like that’s the whole point, y’know? this is the story they did tell, and the thousands of other ways they could’ve told the story live on like every retelling of a fairytale.

#tbh a lot of the criticism feels like people nitpicking to find stuff to hate but you can’t please everyone ig #feel free to disagree and tell me why! just please don’t turn my notes into a rage-bait discussion #dimension 20 #d20 #neverafter #dimension 20 neverafter

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she-karev · 2 months

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Trying to Get Pregnant (Smut) (Andrew DeLuca x Alex Karev’s Sister)

Previous Part Here

Age Rating: 16+

Chapters: Five of Five

Fandom: Grey’s Anatomy

Ship: Andrew DeLuca x Amber Karev (Alex Karev’s Sister)

Canon Episode: Season 18 Episode 17

Warning: Smut

Summary: Amber comes home to find out what Andrew has planned for them this evening.

Words: 1177

February 18th, 2022

Amber waits in the living room of her and Andrew’s house while her husband sets up the bedroom for their second attempt at having a baby. They both tried to get through the day as normally as they could without giving away their plans for tonight.

It was hard for Andrew to keep his emotions to himself since he helped Link with his dying patient who’s wife is heavily pregnant after years of trying. It made him extremely grateful that he and Amber were both healthy enough to try to have a baby. It also made him want to go the extra mile on his part tonight like she did last night. Andrew comes out of the bedroom and stands in front of Amber with a loving grin that she shares.

“Okay I’m ready. Close your eyes.”

Amber looks taken back but does so causing him to grab her hands and be her guide. He holds her hips behind her and walks them both down the hallway leading to their bedroom. He stops her outside the door, opens it and walks her inside making sure her eyes were still closed. He stops both of them in the middle of the bedroom.

“Okay now open them.”

Amber opens her eyes and is awestruck by the sight. Their blue bedspread is covered with red rose petals. There is a line of candles on the drawers providing a dim light in the dark room. The record player on her left is on with Italian Love Songs by Dean Martin playing against the needle. The entire setting makes Amber’s heart flutter at how her husband took the time to make their plain bedroom romantic for their second attempt at getting pregnant.

“Wow.” Amber says with a smile and turns to Andrew who has a proud grin, “This almost ties up with my date.”

Andrew chuckles, “I know it’s not a rug by the living room or The Ritz in Paris and it’s probably a fire hazard but still I put a lot of thought into it.”

Amber puts her palm over his chest and grins, “It’s perfect.”

Andrew smiles at that before leaning down to kiss his wife who holds his face in her hands as she kisses him deeply. He closes the bedroom door with his foot not taking his attention away from her as his hands move from her hair to her back to her jean clad bottoms that he squeezes gently before lifting her up. She giggles against his mouth wrapping her legs around his waist as he lifts her.

He moves them to the rose petaled bed laying her on her back as he continues to kiss her moving from her lips to her neck before lifting her shirt up and kissing her flat stomach. She sits up so he can take off her shirt exposing her in her white lace bra before doing the same thing for him taking off his shirt and exposing his ripped physique that she never gets tired of seeing and exploring.

He breathes heavily as he leans down to take her jeans off kissing her calf causing her to grin and breathing heavily as well overcome with lust. After taking her bottoms off he does the same for his own leaving him in his black boxers and her in her white lace bra and panties set.

He moves them to the middle of their bed so she can prop her head against the pillow while her husband hovers above her exploring her taut and soft body with his hands. He squeezes one of her breasts that perfectly fits his hand before pulling the cup down and gently biting her nipple. She responds with a moan, arching her back towards his talented mouth.

He chuckles lightly at her reaction before coming back up and kissing her overlapping his tongue with hers. She glides her hands over his muscular back pulling him towards her before moving to his boxers and grabbing his perfect ass that he clearly likes as he moans against her mouth. She unhooks her bra while kissing him and he takes it off her before moving his hands down to her panties lightly rubbing her sensitive area over the white lace before removing them.

He takes his boxers off throwing them on the floor with the rest of their clothes and they both lay on the bed naked with him on top of her. They enjoy each other as their hands explore the parts they know so well as their lips collide in heated passion with the romantic Italian music filling the room.

He enters her easily as she’s ready for him and she moans as his lips move to her neck. He moves inside her slowly enjoying the feeling of her and treasuring this moment with her. She pants against his ear and holds his back against her small hands as he continues to move his hips against her slowly that she revels in with every thrust. While he kisses her neck his hands grip her curvy and pale hips pulling her towards him lightly squeezing her flesh as he picks up the pace causing her to moan and pull his head back up to hers so she can kiss him as he moves.

Andrew can’t get enough of her silky softness and sweet scent as he drives deeper into her body, and she feels the same with his muscular form against hers. Her cries grow louder moaning inside his mouth as she nears her completion. He pants against her mouth as he’s near the end and fastens the pace causing her hips to rise off the bed reaching her peak and gasp as she stops kissing him and puts her face against his broad shoulder. Her contractions are the last straw for him as he jerks and pulses in release grunting his pleasure next to her ear. He collapses on top of her feeling the aftershocks panting next to her ear as does she while she lazily strokes his back with her fingers.

After a minute he holds himself up above her with his elbows and looks deep into her eyes seeing the same satiated look he has as well before kissing her tenderly and rolling off her. He covers both of them with the blanket letting the petals scatter on the floor. His wife looks at the ceiling with a dazed look as she still feels the aftermath of their recent love making. A smile slowly crosses her face that he sees.

“I take it back; this beats my date night.”

He chuckles at her competitive side before pulling her against him and kissing her before laying on his back with her lying on his side. She eagerly presses herself against him, putting her head against his chest and draping her arm across his ribcage while he wraps his arm around her back pulling her towards him. They let the soft lull of sleep take them as they drift off in each other’s arms.

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shipmistress9 · 2 months

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Fool me once... - A 'made to Order' story

The rating for this one changed!

Rating: M

Fandom: The Empyrean - Fourth Wing

Pairing: Riorgail - Xaden/Violet

Summary: This is a follow-up to my fic 'Made to Order'. I recommend reading that one first as this is basically just an epilogue/extra to that story.

Six months have passed since 'the wedding'. Violet and Xaden are happy together, have grown into their relationship, and are about to take the next step. Then another formal even brings back bad memories for Violet, and she finally confides into Xaden about what happened all those months ago.

. o O o .

“Tell me again,” I mutter as I try for the fifth time to bind this cursed bow tie. “Why do we have to go to Dain’s wedding again?” Honestly, this is ridiculous. How hard can it be to bind one stupid knot?

With her lips pressed together to keep herself from grinning, Violet steps in front of me and reaches to do the tie for me. “It’s not—there you go—not his wedding again. It’s the six month anniversary of their wedding.”

There’s a snort coming from the living room, and I can only agree with Liam’s assessment. “This is ridiculous,” I grumble. “Who celebrates their wedding day with an equally big party as the wedding itself, let alone an even more formal one? Let alone the six month anniversary?”

Violet sighs, and I can’t blame her. It’s not like we didn’t have this conversation a few times already. I just… still don’t get it.

“Well… basically, it’s not the anniversary we’re celebrating, I guess,” Violet explains with admirable patience, especially since I know how annoyed she is about today’s event, too. “It’s a charity event and they just picked this reason to make it more interesting, make it stand out.”

Okay, that does make sense. Kind of. A little bit.

“And why do we have to go, then? It’s not like I have any money to donate.” Besides, there’s a lot of things I’d prefer instead of going to a stuffy pompous black tie event. Even though I have to admit… the last time I attended one of Dain’s ‘weddings’, it didn’t end so badly.

Violet stretches onto the toes of her high heels to place a quick kiss onto my lips. “Because as Dain’s Best Woman, I’m expected to make an appearance, and as the great boyfriend you are, you agreed to accompany me even though we both know it’ll be boring as fuck.”

A sly smile spreads across my face and I wrap an arm around her waist to keep her close. “I don’t think fucking is boring. In fact…” I let my hand glide down to her sweet ass and squeeze.

For a moment, Violet’s eyes spark with interest, her hips grinding against me. But then she sighs and pushes herself away from me. “Tempting. But that’ll have to wait for later. We really should get going now.”

A shame, really. But she’s right. And I even get why she has to go to this party. Family ties can be complicated, and the least I can do is support her.

We leave my bedroom—or does it count as our bedroom with how much time she’s spending here?—and enter the spacious living area. Liam is lounging on the sofa, a gaming controller in his hands, and I feel a pang of envy at his comfortable clothes. Stupid bow tie and smoking…

At the sound of Violet’s ridiculous shoes, he looks up and lets out an impressed whistle. “Wow, you look amazing in that dress.”

“I’ll try to not take that as an insult.” She mock-purses her lips, then grins. “But thanks. I certainly think this dress suits me much better than the one I wore to the last wedding.”

Liam smirks. “Very true. Hopefully, it won’t suffer the same fate.”

“Yeah, that would be a shame. I like this dress.”

I roll my eyes. They’re never going to let me live that down…

But I have to give Liam this much, Violet really does look abso-fucking-lutely amazing. In contrast to the ugly bridesmaid dress she was roped in to wear even as Dain’s Best Woman—and that didn’t survive that night—today, she wears an elegant black gown. The backless top is designed to look like overlapping leaves—as if just begging me to peel the whole thing off her—and the lower part is a skirt made of the finest silk—which I know for a fact would be entirely see-through if it weren’t for the countless layers used here. Her hair looks gorgeous, too, but it always does. Today, she wears it not in some intricate crown, though. Instead, it hangs freely down over her back and shoulders, and one could think she didn’t put any effort into her hairstyle. But I know that she spent over an hour in the bathroom earlier to get it to look smooth as silk like this. Personally, I prefer this over the braided crown. It further highlights the bladelike silver her hair fades into—and I know she wears it like this to stick it to her vain mum just as much as for my sake.

There’s so much I learned about her during these last months, and every tiny detail has made me love her even more. She hasn’t said it back yet, but that's okay. I don’t know what exactly happened between her and Dain before his wedding, but I know it left her deeply hurt. And if she needs time to heal and to settle into her new life—our new life—then I don’t mind giving her this time. After all, she decided to move in with Liam and me to occupy one of the many additional rooms when she just as easily could have afforded another flat on her own. She wants to be here, be with me. That’s all I need to know.

“Let’s leave,” I sigh, taking my coat and handing Violet hers before I forget all obligations and maybe break in her future room again. “After all, we mustn’t miss the stupidity of celebrating the six month anniversary of the wedding of the decade.”

“Speaking of stupidity,” Liam pipes up, mirth saturating his voice. “Do you remember that one time you spent two months moping around because you didn’t think of asking one simple question?”

Oh, Dunne, help me. This is another point he’s never going to let me live down, and… I can’t even blame him for it. Or for bringing it up today as it’s not just the anniversary of the wedding itself. But at least this one isn’t my fault alone.

“How was I supposed to know she wasn’t organising her own wedding?” I throw my hands up.

Violet snorts, but she really played her own part in that misunderstanding. “How was I supposed to know you were actively avoiding the very public headlines about Dain’s wedding? They were on the front page of every social magazine, on the radio, and all over the city, as well. For weeks!”

I grimace. “I… didn’t want to hear or read anything about you marrying someone else,” I mutter. Fuck, who would have thought that my utter lack in interest in any social gossip would ever fuck me over like that.

Violet snorts again, shaking her head, but I see the soft smile she gives me, see the emotions brimming in her eyes. And from one moment to the other, I don’t mind the teasing any more. Because she’s worth every moment of suffering.

Over on his place on the sofa, Liam groans and very pointedly picks his gaming controller back up. “You two really deserve each other.”

With a subtle motion, Violet leans her head against my arm, maybe in response to Liam’s words. And honestly? I really hope he’s right.

. o O o .

On the way to the town hall, Violet’s mood shifts. The closer we get the quieter she becomes, her lips press into a thin line, and her knuckles stand out white from how hard she’s gripping the steering wheel.

“Is… everything okay?”

Violet makes a little distressed noise in the back of her throat. “Later.”

Swallowing, I lean back into my seat. I can accept that, let her work through it until she’s ready to talk to me. That doesn’t mean I have to like it.

It doesn’t get better when we enter the town hall, Violet’s hand trembling as she shows off our invitation. She’s practically clinging to my arm. But at least she doesn’t need to focus on the road anymore. Once inside, we mingle a bit, Violet slipping into the role her mother drilled into her, chatting amicably with wealthy businessmen, high-ranking military, and even some members of the nobility. But even though she doesn’t let anything show, I can still feel the tension in her, growing with every minute. And it gets worse when the rumour spreads that the ‘wedding couple’ finally arrived.

Violet grows pale and quiet, even more so than before. And then she bolts.

She murmurs a quick “I’m sorry!”, then she slips through a side door and it’s all I can do to muffle a low curse and go after her. Following her harsh breathing, I find her around a corner. She’s leaning against a wall, eyes closed and visibly shaking.

Slowly, I approach her. “Vi? What’s up? Talk to me, please.”

“It’s nothing,” she sobs. “I’m fine. I… I’m not hurt or ill or anything. I just… just need a minute?”

With my lips pressed into a thin line, I nod. From how she looks, I guess she’ll need more than just one minute, but I know exactly where she can get as much time as she needs.

“Come.” I hold out my hand and pull her along when she takes it. I’ve been here often enough by now to at least remember the rough outlay of the servant routes. So it only takes me a minute to locate who I was looking for, her pink hair standing out where she directs her subordinates.

“Imogen?”

She finishes giving an order to a group of waiters, then turns toward me. At first, an expression of suppressed exasperation crosses her face, thinking I’m just a guest who got lost. Then she recognises me. “Xaden! On the other side of the fun for once? How’s it going?”

I grimace and ward off her attempt at brief small talk with a shake of my head. “I’m sorry, but could you give me the key to the preparations room? She needs a few minutes.”

The smile on Imogen’s face falters as she looks at Violet behind me and sees how she’s still shaking. “Of course.” She pulls the key from her pocket. “Take as much time as you need. We won’t be needing that room today anymore.”

I nod. “Thanks.”

Another minute or so later, I close the door to the preparations room and lock it. “Okay,” I murmur as I turn towards her. “We’re alone. What do you need? Just a little time? Should I leave as well?”

Violet is still shaking and clearly having a hard time focusing on anything. But she still shakes her head. “Don’t leave me alone,” she gasps and wraps her arms around my torso, her face buried against my chest.

“Alright.” I close my arms around her. “It’s okay. I won’t go anywhere. Just… just breathe. Calm down. We have all the time in the world.”

For a little while, we just stand like this. Just her in my arms, her shoulders heaving from her erratic breathing. Just me soothingly rubbing her back, her shoulders, and murmuring calming words. But then, she shakes her head, frantically. “I can’t. Calm down. My head just keeps whirling.” She sucks in a shaky breath, her hand tightening at my back. “Can you… distract me?”

She looks up at me and I see it in her eyes, the plea, what she means.

I suck in a breath, but nod. I’d do anything for her. Looking around, I guide her over to the sitting area at the far side of the room, sitting down on a cushions sofa and position her on top of me, one leg on each side of mine, her skirts pushed up to her waist and fanning out over our legs.

“Like this?” I murmur as I guide her head to rest against my shoulder, and she nods wordlessly.

I start simple, just further caressing her bare back, then her neck, her sides. When she starts to relax, I grow bolder and run my hands down to her waist, the small of her back, her ass. Violet gasps but only pushes into my touch, wanting more. So I wiggle one arm between us to lightly caress her through her underwear, then press a little harder when she mewls for more. I build her up slowly, gradually, thoroughly taking her mind away from whatever is bothering her until she can focus on nothing but what my fingers do to her. Only when she can’t stop mewling, her fingers digging tightly into my shoulders, I slip my hand beneath the fabric of her panties and touch her like she needs me to. With two fingers hooked inside her, I grind my palm against her, pushing her higher as Violet rolls her hips into my touch. Then she breaks, beautifully, her moan muffled against my neck.

I push her through it and only when she stops quaking in my arms do I pull my hand away, careful not to stain her dress or my fancy trousers.

“Better?” I murmur once her breathing evened out again.

Violet hums, cuddling against my shoulder. “Yeah. Thank you. Do you want me to…”

I chuckle. “I’m more than okay with waiting until later.” I place a soft kiss against her forehead. “So, what was this all about?” I ask, my fingers running calmly up and down her spine after I cleaned them on a paper tissue from a nearby box.

She tenses, but only a tiny bit, not enough to raise my alarms again. “I… didn’t want to see Dain and Amber again. Couldn’t at that moment.”

I nod. So it really was about him. “Do you still have feelings for him?” I wouldn’t blame her if she did. She’d been in love with Dain for nearly her entire life. Such feelings don’t just evaporate overnight.

Letting out a little snort, Violet shakes her head, then sits up straighter to look at me. “No, I don’t have feelings for Dain anymore,” she says, and the expression on her face as her eyes keep me prisoner, so full of warmth and emotions, makes something inside me melt. “I… I’m more than happy with how things are now. Between us, you and me. With… where it’s going, moving in and everything.”

Her fingers absentmindedly trace along my jaw, my lips, leaving a tingling trail in their wake. I close my eyes to enjoy her soft touch, but then wrap my hand around hers, making her pause. “But?” I probe gently. I need to know what upset her so much, if only to help her avoid it in the future.

Sighing, Violet lets her forehead rest against my own. “But… the idea of seeing him again—seeing them again—after their six month honeymoon, it brought back everything that happened eight months ago, everything I felt back then, what happened before that. And it just… it was just too much.”

She grows tenser again, but I don’t do or say anything, just hold her, and after a few seconds, she relaxes again.

“Did I ever tell you what happened?”

I shake my head. “Do you want to tell me?”

Violet lets out a sigh. “Yeah, I think I should. It might take a while, though.”

At that, I grin. “I’m in no hurry to get back out there.”

We get more comfortable on the sofa, Violet with her legs tugged to her side as she leans onto the low headrest and me sitting sideways to face her, one knee angled towards her. Her shoes are on the floor, my jacket is hanging over a nearby chair, and I even found a couple of glasses and cool water for us to drink.

“So… I told you that Dain and I have known each other since we were little, yes?” she begins, running her finger through the condensed water on her glass.

Taking a sip from my own, I nod. “Yeah, since you two were five and six, wasn’t it?”

“Yeah.” She gives me a small smile. “And we’ve been inseparable ever since. Always sticking together, during classes and our free time alike. We went on ‘adventures’ around where his parents and my mum were stationed, always finding some places to swim or climb or caves to explore. My body is prone to giving out on me, as you know, stupid joints and ligaments, so every time I sprained an ankle or something, he was the one to escort me to the closest paramedic, carrying me there as soon as he was strong enough for that. He always looked out for me and in return I helped and explained whenever he had a problem in school. We… we were a good match.

“When I was around eight years old, I think, some other kid tried to be mean and made a comment about how Dain should marry me, the weakling, with how pathetic we both were. And, well, that thought got stuck in my head. It made sense, didn’t it? I didn’t know anything about love or sex, but just spending my life with my best friend—like how my parents also seemed to be such good friends—seemed like the way to go. So, yeah, it made sense. And I… knew that would be where we were heading, the only possible conclusion.

“It became even clearer when I realised he felt the same. For my tenth birthday, he gave me that ring. Apparently, he’d seen it in a shop and the ‘silver’ look of the stainless steel and the diamond-like glass stone reminded him of me. Or that’s what he said later. That it made him think of my hair and of how I could be and do so much more than our parents and the doctors insisted upon. So much more capable than just the sum of my weak body. Anyway, he fulfilled a few extra duties for his father to ‘earn’ himself the money to buy that ring and then gave it to me as a birthday gift. I liked it a lot, but Mira just laughed. You know how she’s never one to mince her words. So in all her teenager grandeur, she explained to us what it means when someone gifts someone else a ring. She meant to embarrass Dain and me. But unflappable and practical as he was—even at eleven years old—he didn’t let her make fun of him and instead went down on his knee and made a big show of proposing to me. It was a lot of fun, especially when Mira rolled her eyes and stomped away. We laughed and I think I made some comment about how that was a great joke. ‘Who said it was a joke?’ That was his reply. I still have it memorised, still hear him say it in my head.

“In the years after that, it came up again every now and then—the occasional amused comment about how we were already engaged, after all. We were each other’s first kiss when I was fourteen, and each other’s first time two years later with many more afterwards, even though we never talked about it, never used terms like boyfriend and girlfriend, never even decided to be exclusive. We both had crushes on other people, occasionally, but it never lasted long. Either because they felt weirded out by our close friendship or because we found that we were drawn to each other more than to that other new person. After all, we were already engaged. We could fool around and gather experience, but would always end up together anyway.

“We ‘took the next step’ so to speak when we moved to this town after high school to attend college. He even waited a year so we could do this together. We didn’t quite move in together, but we got apartments right next to each other, and with how much time we spent together, it felt very much like living together. We still never talked about the state of our relationship, but it wasn’t necessary. Not when I stopped sleeping with others, felt comfortable and at home with Dain. And he never had any visitors, either, I would have noticed that with the thin walls between our apartments. We’d spend most nights together, most of our free time, too. We even went on vacations together, and…” Her voice falters for the first time since she started her story, and she has to swallow before she can go on. “And it was clear that there was only him and me. Or that’s what I thought…”

Violet takes a sip from her water, probably to cover up how she’s blinking away the moisture in her eyes, but I see it anyway. And I feel the urge to go out there and punch Dain in the face. I don’t know yet what exactly happened, but can make a guess.

“At that point,” Violet continues after a short pause. “We never talked about being engaged anymore. It was childish on the one hand and unnecessary on the other. Because it was clear, wasn’t it? Even the friends we made during that time clearly saw what was between us. Cianna, Nyra, Amber. They would always tease us about how we already acted like a married couple, ordering food for the other or completing each other’s sentences. We just knew each other in and out. Which is why I also knew why he never actually said that he loved me or why I never said those words to him, either. His father had taught him that talking is worthless, only actions count. And we showed that we were special to each other every day, so that was enough.” Violet sniffles, and when I reach for her hand, she takes it, squeezing me tightly. “Gods, in hindsight, I was such an idiot.”

I grunt, anger simmering beneath the surface. “He let you go. So, evidently, he’s the idiot.”

Violet lets out a weak chuckle, shaking her head, then continues. “It was after we both graduated. I… expected that we would get married soon then and start our shared life for real. But I also got this offer to work abroad, a fantastic chance to gather experience and build connections. I talked about it with Dain, that I wanted to do it but was worried, too. It would be the first time we’d be separated for more than a couple of days. And he was so sweet. He encouraged me to not waste this chance. That it would be fine. That he would always be there for me, that we could continue like before once I came back. Besides, we could make phone calls, every day if that was what I wanted. So that’s what we did. We talked every day, at least in the beginning. We tried phone sex but dropped that after only one try. It didn’t feel right for him.”

I grit my teeth. From what I already learned about Dain and his… preferences, this doesn’t even surprise me. But still, fuck him.

“After the first month, or so, the phone calls grew gradually less frequent until we only talked once a week by the end. It wasn’t like much happened, anyway, it was always just the same. Just me talking about my work while he listened, too tired from his day to say much. I was more looking forward to finally seeing him again, to start our shared life. Especially since he’d teased that there was something important he had to tell me once I was back. Something important to ask me.”

“Let me guess,” I say through gritted teeth. “It wasn’t the official proposal you expected?”

Violet laughs, short and humourlessly. “No, it wasn’t. He told me that he’d proposed to Amber. Apparently, they’ve been more or less together for two years already. She’d told him that they didn’t need to be entirely exclusive, that she didn’t mind him still fucking me on the side when she was too busy for him to come around. Better for him to take the edge off with me than someone else, right? And that as my ‘closest female friend’, she would tell me about their relationship, no need for him to get involved in that girl-talk. Too bad she apparently forgot to do that.”

I should punch them both. Would I get into trouble if I did it now? Probably. But it wouldn’t be uncalled for, would it? No, surely not.

“So I came home after half a year, full of excitement for our bright future—only for him to ask me to be his Best Woman instead.” She snorts, shaking her head. But the bitterness and pain I’d expected isn’t in her voice, not anymore. Instead there’s… some dark amusement? That’s something to work with, I guess.

“I can’t believe you agreed after they did that to you. After he did that to you.” I try to make the words light, or at least lighter as the seething fury I feel. But this is not about me, it never was, and making her now deal with my reaction to what happened to her wouldn’t be fair. She’s already endured enough. And if she’s taking it with a grain of salt now that she’s got it out of her system, then that’s way better than the anxiety attack earlier.

“Oh, I still wonder about that myself,” she snorts. “I guess… I was in too much of a shock to fully comprehend what happened. It felt like a bad dream, and even now it’s… difficult to remember those days.”

Then a smile tugs at her lips, small but true. “A few things, I do remember, though. After I accepted being his Best Woman, he also asked me to do him a huge favour. He wanted me to organise the wedding cake. Yeah, it was rather late for that but he knew I could do it; I’ve always been so good at organising things.” She huffs another laugh. “I was so… so angry and hurt and just… baffled, I guess. I didn’t even think about declining. That day—the very day my flight landed and before I even got the chance to unpack my bags and take a shower—I rattled off one bakery after the other. It’s all a blur, but… I remember reading about some insider tip. And the weird baker I met there, younger than all others I’ve met that day, with his arms and half of his visible skin covered in tattoos and that dry sarcastic comment that pulled me out of my stupor.”

I blink, sitting up straighter. “That was on that day? When you first came into the shop?”

She nods, one corner of her mouth pulled up in a crooked smile. “I must have been such a mess…” She heaves a sigh and shuffles into a new position, stiff from sitting still for so long. “That night, I couldn’t sleep. It slowly sank in that my entire life, all my plans for the future lay in shambles. I was shaking and felt like I couldn’t breathe and…” She takes another deep breath. “It was so much worse than just now.

“When the morning came, I tried to pretend it wasn’t real, I think. That it was just a bad dream and that… I don’t know. That I was organising the wedding for someone else entirely? Or that it was my wedding, after all? Just… anything to not completely lose it. Which worked out perfectly.” She rolls her eyes.

“That’s why you ran away that day,” I remember, dimly. “So, you were crying.”

Grimacing, Violet nods. “I realised that I couldn’t ignore it until it went away. And it wasn’t just that day, either,” she admits. “I went straight to Rhiannon. I told you we met in college, but she was only in a few of my courses back then and had nothing to do with Dain or the others. We stayed in contact when I worked abroad, and… I crashed at her place. For a whole week, I stayed with her, unable to return to my apartment, still the one right next to Dain’s. I slept there, cried all day and night, watched stupid rom-coms that made me cry even more, and lived on a diet of ice cream straight from the tub and entirely too much alcohol.”

And I wondered whether she’d even been real during that time, I remember. Guess I hadn’t been too far off; during that week, she’d been barely more than a ghost.

“Eventually, I felt ready to move on, at least a little. I was still hurting but I got the worst of it out of my system during that week. And Dain… I would stick to my word, would be his Best Woman if only for the sake of our long friendship, and even organise that damned cake. But he wasn’t worth any more of my tears, not after all that.”

Finally something I can agree with.

“But even though that was what I told myself… I didn’t truly accept it. Not until…” She trails off, a faint blush on her cheeks.

“Not until…?” I probe.

Her blush deepens as she looks at me. ”Not until the night the rain caught me off guard. Until you looked at me that night. Like… like I meant something to you. Something more.”

I suck in a breath. That first slip-up. “You did mean something to me,” I admit. “It made no sense, I’d only met you three times, but it was still true.”

Smiling, she nods. “I know. But it wasn’t just how you looked at me, how my heart skipped a beat and all the splinters of my life suddenly seemed to rearrange themselves into a new picture. It was also that… Dain had never looked at me like that. Not once. That’s when it truly clicked. That he never… never truly wanted me for more than just convenience.”

I snort. “So… what? I was your getaway car then? A distraction?” I try not to let that thought sting, that I was little more than a means to an end. Even if it started that way, it became so much more by now.

But Violet shakes her head, smirking. “No, not really. My getaway cars were the three guys Rhi and Tara tried to set me up with during three consecutive nights at the club. It was fun, but didn’t truly work, never went further than some making out in a shadowy corner. Because… well, there was this other guy I couldn’t get out of my head.” She leans forward, practically climbing onto my lap, and pecks my cheek.

On reflex, my arms close around her, pulling her tighter against me. “I couldn’t get you out of my head, either,” I murmur. “Even though I knew I shouldn’t. Or thought I shouldn’t.” I shake my head. It’s still surreal to think about how much I tormented myself for nothing.

“Yeah,” Violet snorts. “Meanwhile, I was flirting my little heart out for weeks and couldn’t understand why you wouldn’t react when you were obviously interested. Me being your customer was the only reason that made sense to me, and holding back until all business relations were dealt with was so hard.”

I chuckle and skim along her cheek and jaw with my nose, my lips. “I wouldn’t have cared about that. It wouldn’t have looked good, but I wouldn’t have cared, especially not with how it wasn’t you who paid me, anyway. You were just the middleman. But even if you hadn’t been, I was too crazy for you. I was even contemplating crashing your wedding, for Amari’s sake.”

Violet giggles as I reach a ticklish spot on her neck. “I know. I know you’d fight for me, and that I can always count on you. You would never go behind my back like that. Which is why I—” She breaks off, blushing. She shuffles to kneel across my lap again, her hands cupping my face, her eyes wide and clear. “Which is why I love you, Xaden. I do. I’m even glad by now how it all went down, including their betrayal, the headache, and all the tears. Because all that led me to you. There’s nowhere else I’d rather be than with you, looking out to a life with you.”

My eyes grow wide. During the six months we’ve been together now, she’d never said those words, and after she told me her story just now, I understand why. To her, these three little words must hold so much more meaning. Which makes her saying them now even more precious.

I lean forward with her hands still cupping my jaw and kiss her. As always, the moment our lips meet feels like a rush, getting me high on everything that is her. Her taste, her scent, the little noises she makes in the back of her throat, and the way our lips move together so perfectly. It’s not too gentle but not too harsh, either. It’s raw, filled with emotions, tender and passionate alike.

My arms wrap around her, one around her waist holding her close as the other hand glides up her back, savouring every bit of skin I can touch before cupping the back of her head. Holding her, cradling her.

Violet sighs and parts her lips, her tongue brushing against me, begging for entrance. As if I could ever deny her anything. A low groan rumbles in my chest as I let her in and her tongue glides along mine, like a promise.

With her hands still on my jaw, she angles us to deepen the kiss, and I’m all too happy to oblige, sucking on her tongue until a moan makes her tremble. Gods, I want her, need her, everything. I’ll never get enough of her, of this, of us.

Soon, our bodies follow, moving together the same way our lips do, sliding and grinding, giving and taking. I love her so fucking much.

Her mouth moves across my cheek, nibbling at my earlobe for a moment before wandering further down my neck, laving at that spot on my throat that always makes me lose control. I jerk beneath her, gasping, my hands on her hips now tightening.

“Violet!” It’s a warning, a plea, a promise, I don’t know. All I know is that this isn’t the right place to continue this—but also that I won’t care if she keeps this up for only a few seconds more. And I honestly don’t know whether to feel relief or regret when she pulls away, breathing heavily and with her forehead resting against my own.

“We should get out of here.” The happy smile and contentment in her voice couldn’t be more different from the near panic that had been there earlier.

Swallowing, I nod. “And then? Do you want to leave? To go home?”

“No, not yet,” she chuckles, breathily. “I… I want to go back out there. If that’s okay with you. I’d… like to dance with you, for us to enjoy this party, and…” She bites her lip, a blush on her cheeks, and I understand.

“You want something similar to the last time we were here? What were your words? That you wanted me to get you drunk and then fuck you until you forget your own name?”

Her blush deepens. “I… don’t think those were my words.”

“Same meaning, though.” I shrug, grinning.

She flashes me a look, full of wicked promises. “But yeah, something like that. With… maybe only one alteration.”

“Oh?” I raise an eyebrow at her. “And what would that be?”

Violet leans in to breathe into my ear, still a little shy about keeping eye contact in certain moments. “I want us to go to my apartment this time.” Her hot breath tickling down my neck makes me shiver. “One last time before I move out, tonight, when they are back next door. And… I want you to make me scream.”

A shudder runs through my entire body, the stupidly tight dinner jacket trousers getting even tighter. Chuckling to have an outlet for the tension building inside me, I turn my head and bring my lips to her cheek. “I fucking love you, Violet.”

Next Chapter

#Riorgail #violet sorrengail #xaden riorson #the empyrean #fanfiction #Modern AU #Bakery AU #fluff #mild emotional hurt/comfort #mild smut

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amethystfairy1 · 9 months

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Hello and welcome to...

✨Amethyst's Scribbling Corner✨

Also known as "I wanna practice writing short/get new ideas and this seems like fun, and I'm curious to see where it goes so let's give it a shot."

I've always wanted to try writing prompts/requests for the sake of trying new things and stretching my writing style a bit, it's always seemed like a ton of fun. I participated *cough* am participating almost done 😭 *cough* in Whumptober for the first time this year, and recently with TTSBC and Traveling Thieves, as well as this blog picking up steam, I figured it was a good time to give it a try!

SO HERE'S THE DEAL

Once a week(ish I promise nothing my brain is a pinball machine with a bunch of AUs and fandoms slamming into each other like demented bumper cars) I will make a poll tagged 'Amethysts Scribbling Corner' and I'll put in the poll a handful of requests/prompts that I've either dug up on my own or that I've received from anyone who would like to send one in! Whichever prompt wins the poll, I'll write it and post it! I'll probably make a new series on my A03 account just for fics that come out of this titled 'Amethysts Scribbling Corner' as well!

Use reblogs, replies, asks, messages, I'm not picky!

They can be as broad as a simple one-word prompt, or you can even give a brief description of a couple sentences!

Requests for certain ships or characters are encouraged for sure! Just know I'm more likely to use the ones that're for ships I already write for...but I mean...looks at TTSBC notes...there's plenty to choose from!

Also feel free to submit asks or requests for other fandoms, I'm currently living my best Hermit/Traffic/Empires fanfic gremlin life, but I've also written a ton for Haikyuu and Jojos, if those interest anyone! Pretty much any fandom that I've posted for on my A03 account is fair game!

Last thing: Feel free to request where you want the fic to take place! Especially when we're taking Hermit/Traffic/Empires stuff, if you want it to be within the Minecraft server world of that specific series, within a certain one of the Life Series, a modern AU, a fantasy AU, or even TTSBC or Traveling Thieves if you have ideas for them! Just know that if anything requested for TTSBC or Traveling Thieves contradicts or maybe overlaps with any future plans for those AUs, I might not be able to accept them 😓

As far as rules go...I do not write NSFW. I am happy to write romance and let things get a little spicy 🔥 but keep in mind I'll always end up fading to black...also no heavy gore, violence, body horror, things of that nature. I am very much a fan of writing whump and hurt/comfort though, so please send those ideas my way!

I think that's all...I hope for this to be something fun to give me a way to try out some new things in my writing and give everyone who has so kindly supported my stories so far something fun to engage with!

Requests are open now! Reply to this post, reblog, or send me asks or messages! I'm excited to see what we end up creating together!

💖💖💖

TL:DR: I'm opening prompt requests for short writing/short story practice! Rules in the post above!

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biblioflyer · 1 year

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Picard s3e10 "The Last Generation"

I laughed, I cried, I cheered, but I'm not free of conflicts.

The artificial constraints of a 10 episode season are something I really feel acutely. So I'll start off with an acknowledgment: if OG Picard fans are furious, I get it. I don't share your anger, but I do understand it.

Spoilers ahead.

I broadly agree with the creaky older fan sentiment that in many ways Season Three is what Season One should have been. Primarily in that the absence of the rest of the main characters and centering Picard and Picard only and, to some extent, Data, was a disservice to the rest of the TNG ensemble.

A flaw that was rectified in Season Three. However, by rectifying it in Season Three and then committing to the story they were going to tell in the amount of minutes they were going to tell it in, a grim sort of triage inevitably was going to take place. The victims overwhelmingly were the characters and storylines of Seasons One and Two.

That was neither kind nor fair.

I won't pretend I didn't love this season. But I also was aware of and frustrated by what was missing because I am committed to the ideals I started this blog on: these are my self conscious reactions, reflections, and introspections rather than objective truths I live and die by and demand others validate, lest they be deemed "not real fans."

Now I myself will not be buying a ticket for the Matalas hate train. I think there was an awareness that a lot was being left on the cutting room floor to cater to fans like...well, me, and an attempt was made to offer an overture to a possible sequel series not unlike a "sorry for your loss" bouquet.

Should you view that as a fair consolation prize for only addressing Seven and Raffi's relationship with a couple of quips and an action movie one liner? Or literally forgetting Elnor?

Were I in your place, I probably wouldn't. But I sincerely hope we get that sequel show so that proper amends can be made.

Hopefully it will also include Worf so that the DS9ers can get justice for Jadzia.

Although, I am a bit pessimistic that its going to happen even with the overwhelmingly positive reception. Two overlapping ship focused shows seems unlikely unless Enterprise-G is a metaplot driven narrative show while Strange New Worlds is episodic with light sprinkles of meta. A prospect that I am kind of meh on. Season Three proves that you can do a season long narrative and it not get too bloated or convoluted and deliver a satisfying finish, but I don't know that its enough for me to trust the concept of the 10 episode version of a classic Trek two parter going forward. Five times burned, twice shy.

For those keeping score, that's seven seasons of serialized Trek with five that I think were not well executed overall, not unforgivably so, but they definitely had a clumsy adolescence as their shows matured. I liked Discovery season 4 quite a bit. I'm not on the "Discovery sucks" anti-hype train either, but I think the show has rather clearly been showing its work as it has struggled season after season to figure out its own unique identity and to balance that identity with the expectations of the broader Star Trek franchise, navigating the hellscape of the fandom and trying to figure out which parts have valid criticisms and which are misanthropes who are allergic to other people experiencing joy: and its been a messy process.

What also steals some of my euphoria from the ending of Picard is the announcement of the Section 31 movie.

I love Michelle Yeoh, I even like the character of Georgiou, but I don't trust anyone who has been involved in Trek to date, not even Ron Moore or Robert Hewitt Wolfe, to not resuscitate vile late 90s to mid-oughts nihilism and uncritical worship of "hard men making hard choices because the good are too effete and squeamish to do what must be done."

I know, I know, its negative for a Star Trek apologia blog but I hate Section 31. That's the only thing I'll ever gatekeep. Its a violent refutation of the core premises of Star Trek: that reason and decency win in the end and the endless fascination with constructing scenarios where characters have no other choice but to do near genocides, assassination, and other grimderp shenanigans really infuriates me. There are multiple franchises where I would accept that with zero qualms: Babylon 5, Star Wars, Farscape, Stargate, Battlestar Galactica*, the Expanse etc. but they don't have that same core premise that good wins because good is actually how you win.

*Although it got REAL tedious REAL quick because of how excessively Moore's Galactica leaned into this. Which is incidentally kind of why even though I admire the man, I kind of want to see him and Star Trek keep 500 feet from each other at all times. The guy is way too into torturing series leads. Save that for O'Brien, he lives on pain.

So, to recap.

Dear S1/S2 fans. I adored this ending: it was everything I love about TNG right down to Picard saving the day through warmth and decency. But I'm sorry you got screwed. This is not a zero sum game to me. I think there was a way we could have all been happy and it sucks that wasn't a priority.

#star trek picard #first reactions #picard season 3 #picard spoilers #fandom commentary

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spinnertop · 1 year

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I feel like Wally and Barry superspeed stress clean/organizing when they don't want to deal with anyone or are avoiding a situation. Kinda like how speedsters go into Flash Time or whatever it's called when they're panicking or trying to hide their feelings from their friends.

I see it being similar to the Young Justice comics (at least I think it was YJ, but correct me if I'm wrong) where Bart went into Flash Time ignored the other members of the Core Four when they came to see him, and was just... reading all the books in the library. Like my dude was so fast, they couldn't see him. You can get a better understanding of it from this post by @givemewallywestorgivemedeath where they have specific comic panels showing just how bad speedsters are at healthy coping.

Like imagine for a second that they do this. Barry Allen, at least my understanding of him which is partially based off a lot of headcanons (and projection but shush), is fairly organized. I think back to one of the animated comics (which might not be canon, I'm not sure but I liked the story) from a couple years ago, where he'd just come back to his job as a forensic scientist and was shoved into the archives for a while to organize everything. He seemed happy doing it, even using a little superspeed to hurry along the process. And I feel like a forensic scientist has to be somewhat organized and clean if they want to keep all the facts of a crime straight. I know it's a fandom (I think) interpretation that Barry takes cases when he's stressed to keep his mind off things, but imgaine him, when he's alone in the house and can't rant to Iris for whatever reason, he just goes full malewife mode and obsessively does a deep clean of the house, going as far as to reorganize the plates and glasses in the cupboards and taking meticulous care that it looks comepletly imacculate. Once he's done, he's probably hungry so he cooks himself a meal. He then has to put everything back in exactly the same way. Then he looks at the time, and knows Iris should be home soon, and speedruns setting up a romantic little date for the two of them.

And then Wally. There is no doubt in my mind that the man compartmentalizes everything. In the comics I don't think he's all that neurotic, but I still feel like everything has a place in his mind, however odd it might be. Especially when he was younger with the fab five. There was home, where he had to be quiet and obedient or else fear for his safety at the hands of his father, and his "job," if you can call it that, where he's a quippy extroverted kid. When he grows up, I think it starts applying more to time periods in his life than aspects of his present life. Most of it would be due to the overlap between his personal and superhero life, so it would be near impossible to seperate the two at this point. I mean, the guy works for his Justice League coworker when their both civilians, and one of his best friends, who used to be a super villian, works in the same building. Instead of a here and there situation, it would be a before and after. Before and after he got his powers, before and after he met Linda, before and after escaping the speedforce, and so on.

This might just be me projecting, but sometimes organizing or cleaning in one area of my life, can help make sure I can seperate everything evenly (for lack of a better word), and I can definetly see Wally doing the same, happening mostly before he got trapped in the speedforce when it was there vs here, but occasionally now when he gets overwhelmed. Sometimes when he stayed with the titans, they'd walk into the kitchen to see it comepletely reorganized. Sometimes Barry or Iris would visit him and see his room looking like it was a memorial rather than a 14-year-old's room that was actively lived in. As an adult he reorganizes and painstakingly cleans everything. Kids left their toys out? What are you talking about, they're neatly put in the bins like they should be. Stains on some the the clothes? Might as well do all the laundry. Oh, and don't forget to perfectly fold, match, and put them all away. Finished some leftovers and needs to clean the tupperware? No problem, while he's at it, he'll match the lids by size and reorganize the plates and bowls to save more room. Sometimes he completely changes the wat something is normally put away and leaves detailed notes to everyone who might, who just maybe, might have the slimmest possibility of being affected, telling them where he put everything.

Are they legible? Perhaps, on a good day. Probably not. It entirely depends on how he decided to write said notes. Did he decide to bullet point everything, skipping lines for each new point for visibility, or did he decide to write it like a fanfiction author who has never heard of an enter key? Does he use proper punctuation and grammar, or does he write like a seven year old during English? Is the handwriting even readable or is it just chickenscratch that only a pharmascist can read? Who knows? Wally West does what the vibes demand, and right now the vibes demand dyslexics to suffer! Or that a speedster halfway across the world responding to his stress and just perked up like a cat who has been awoken from a nap? Who knows? Not him! It's probably fine.

It was, in fact, not fine, as Linda broke into her own house instead of using her keys and speed talked at Wally to make sure her husband was okay. She then smacks him upside the head for making her worry so much.

#dc comics #the flash #barry allen #wally west #is most of this projection and headcanon?#absolutely #do I care? kinda #character analysis #-ish #this is probably ooc #but i think its a fun idea #headcanon

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rmd-writes · 11 months

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Hello Rae!! - this is for nice ask week! Is this a thing that 911ls fandom does often? Because it seems to sweet and fun 💗

My question for you is what are the 5 beauty products you couldn’t live without? For me I’m a skincare girlie and thus don’t know much about makeup but still interested in your answers! And since you’re Aussie too, where’s your favourite place to get your products? Mecca, Sephora, Priceline, elsewhere? 🛍

I’m gonna send you a 911 based ask next 🚒🤠

Hi D! Nice ask week started as nice ask day about a month ago, but because of timezones and people just needing time to get to asks it went for about 3 days 😅 @celeritas2997 kicked off nice ask week this week just for fun! It’s not limited to LS fandom because so many of us are in overlapping fandoms but it’s fun!!

But omg, this ask! I am absolutely a skincare girlie who dabbles in being a makeup girlie (I used to wear a lot more makeup but I don’t wear as much anymore).

I buy a lot of my products at Mecca - my love of a beauty loop box keeps me loyal, plus there’s one very close to my office so it’s too easy to pop down on my lunch break! Having said that, I buy things from all over the place, it depends who stocks the brand, who’s got good freebies and how soon I need something!

Okay, five products I can’t live without, in no particular order:

- Sunday Riley Good Genes - it’s exy but does wonders for my skin

- Mecca Cosmetica To Save Face 50+ SPF/Ultra Violette Clean Screen 50+SPF - SO SO important to wear spf every day! I’ve been using the Mecca sunscreen for years and even have my partner using it daily because it’s just so good. But @welcometololaland recently put me onto the Ultra Violette (I’d been meaning to try it for ages and she sent me a sample) and I love it a lot. I think it feels nicer on my skin than the Mecca one does going on, but I haven’t had the chance to really test it out in the sun all day

- MCo Xtend lash mascara - tubing mascara is life changing, particularly in the humidity where I live and also because I cry easily. I buy this one at Woolies and stock up when it’s on sale (frequently). Have been using it for years because it’s just that good - holds a curl, doesn’t smudge, washes off easily with warm water

- concealer - I’m not wedded to any particular product, I was using a Kosas one which was excellent, am currently using an MCo one that I picked up to try because it was half price at Woolies 😅 and it’s surprisingly good! It’s not always easy to get a match for my skin tone in supermarket/pharmacy brands so I was pleasantly surprised!

- my last product would either be a Vit C serum (LOVE Sunday Riley CEO which feels so nice and smells good but more importantly is effective but Mecca put the price up so I’m currently using the Paula’s Choice Vit C booster and it’s good!) or my beloved MAC Girl About Town lipstick which might be the only colour I’ve worn consistently for 15ish years. It’s the perfect hot pink! I don’t wear it every day but it’s my go to lip colour when I go out.

What are your must haves? I’m always happy to chat skincare!!

PS. I have your other ask, it’s gonna take me a minute to think about and get links and I’m not home tonight but I will answer it!

#nice ask week

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sleepless-crows · 2 years

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hey! same anon :)

I think the thing with shipping is that being told the characters love each other or not isn’t often the point, at least for me! like its the dynamic that’s interesting and especially in fandom stuff you can just see its development from there. like most non canon ships don’t ever get to being *explicitly* in love anyway.

so to that purpose it doesn’t make much of a difference to me that alina loves mal. I was trying really hard to root for malina and I did like it a lot for most of book one. but him being really cruel to her when she sees him at the fete, paired with how unwilling to treat her with like any good faith or understanding in book two.

I ended up really enjoying their dynamic in the third book actually, and the tragedy of mal sacrificing his life. but the ending, paired with the earlier stuff did mean that my negative feelings still outweigh the positive. and like at the end of the day, I just find other alina pairings more interesting.

the ending is mostly the crux of it tbh. because like the first book has alina holding back and refusing to be her own person because of mal. and while her being under the darkling’s influence is bad, it’s narratively implied that some degree of letting go is necessary for her to grow. and the conflict of having mal vs having her powers is first introduced. and then by book two we keep getting acknowledgement that they’re making each other miserable and would probably be happier apart. and the main conflict driver is alina’s power and position. then by book three, even though they have reached (a really sweet imo!) sort of acceptance and synergy, the narrative question of mal vs alina’s power comes back in full force where she has to kill him to get more power, and how that then becomes reversed to him being resurrected and her losing her power entirely. and while in-universe the loss of her power isn’t treated like a trade off, and I really don’t think bardugo meant it that way, narratively it feels like one because of how it’s been built up as an either/or question for so long. and juxtaposed next to the beginning of her arc in book one: where she was refusing to become her own person because of mal, it just ends up feeling like a large scale regression. which again I don’t think that was the intent! but it ends up leaving a bad taste in my mouth. and it’s just too analogous with like quitting your job/ending all career dreams for a high school boyfriend. so I just personally can’t get into it. which is why, to me, it’s like alina sure does love mal, but at what cost lol.

with zoyalina I think it’s kind of just the hyper focus on each other that a rivalry implies? and also that alina spends SO MUCH page time talking about how hot zoya is. like it’s probs leigh bardugo trying to make sure the reader objectively knows. but with a 1st person pov it just ends up like alina is just stopping to stare at zoya every time she steps into the room and just constantly internally monologuing about just how hot she is. and I think the arc of disliking each other a lot —> falling in love is again just fairly interesting. there’s more ground to cover so it’s fun!

and to an extent I agree a lot with your point about nikolai being allowed to give up artifice and just live his life! I think thematically I just *personally* felt like alina embodied that more as a character. because wanting nothing to do with the performance of court life is like half her personality. and I think nikolai could learn from that?

zoya absolutely represents this for him too but I think with her also being rather ruthless about strategy and willing to sacrifice happiness (ie being with nikolai herself) to make the more politically expedient decision, she just ends up overlapping with him a little? like they go through very similar arcs. and there’s nothing wrong with that and I absolutely see the appeal there too! I just tend to personally prefer the starker contrast I see with nikolina.

I’m sorry this got so long 😭😭 anyway again, I did like zoyalai a lot! they’re very fun and I love them! 🤍🤍

OMG THANK YOU <33 i loved reading this

but i feel like i need to correspond with a long reply too so here goes

oh i think we differ in views of shipping. for me, i usually ship something when i like the content shown right in front of me. especially since it's a book, i tend to prefer ships whose dynamic and relationship give me quotes and scenes i like, if that makes sense. but it is very interesting to think of what could've been if the author did something differently and how that may be appealing. i just don't ship that way! if i like what's in front of me, i'll take it. if i don't, then i don't. and i don't particularly see anything wrong with malina. can't you tell i'm a canon shipper, it's awful

again, you ship non canon, i don't tend to, and that's alright! also, i don't recall their relationship in book two, i feel like there are people who could defend them more than i can. so i won't comment on it. but i will say that i saw this post somewhere, i'd like to give credit but i can't find it, saying that mal suffers from ptsd. he watched his friends mikhael and dubrov die. and he could have been suffering from survivor's guilt. i think it's important to acknowledge this because his trauma affected him so much, and many people just ignore that. and it's hypocritical when we acknowledge kaz's trauma and how that affects his relationship with inej but we don't really talk about mal's. and mal is a teenager, and he's gone through horrible stuff, his way of dealing with it wasn't the best, but what should we expect? he shouldn't have had to deal with any of that, especially at such a young age.

i respect that.

i mostly agree with this. how do i word this? she did need to let go of mal to let her powers grow and develop but i think the hesitancy towards it was because she loved mal and didn't want to be separated from him. this was, after all, what hindered her from being found out a grisha when they were kids. it was definitely because of mal but it wasn't his fault. i don't have a strong liking towards their dynamic but this shows alina truly loves him (i've said this argument so many times already but it's true) and i just want for her to be happy. i'll continue this down below.

and the conflict of having mal vs having her powers is first introduced.

yep.

and then by book two we keep getting acknowledgement that they’re making each other miserable and would probably be happier apart. and the main conflict driver is alina’s power and position.

i don't recall that part about them making each other miserable, i must have forgotten it. what i do remember is that mal gave so much to be with and support alina. and they're both teenagers, we know how teenagers are. i think it's valid that they experienced some negative emotions, because they've both been through so much, and they shouldn't have had to deal with the situations they were facing. but they still stayed together and made up in the end. so i think if we account for the circumstances, i don't really see a big issue with it. but again, this hugely depends on perspective and just how you see it.

then by book three, even though they have reached (a really sweet imo!) sort of acceptance and synergy, the narrative question of mal vs alina’s power comes back in full force where she has to kill him to get more power, and how that then becomes reversed to him being resurrected and her losing her power entirely. and while in-universe the loss of her power isn’t treated like a trade off, and I really don’t think bardugo meant it that way, narratively it feels like one because of how it’s been built up as an either/or question for so long. and juxtaposed next to the beginning of her arc in book one: where she was refusing to become her own person because of mal, it just ends up feeling like a large scale regression. which again I don’t think that was the intent! but it ends up leaving a bad taste in my mouth. and it’s just too analogous with like quitting your job/ending all career dreams for a high school boyfriend. so I just personally can’t get into it. which is why, to me, it’s like alina sure does love mal, but at what cost lol.

the topic of alina giving up her powers is sort of a sore spot for the fandom. many people hate that decision. but i personally agreed with it? i think it was the best course of action to take, imo. i think alina was getting greedy with her power, she wanted more. and she did need more to defeat the darkling, but we also did read about her internal struggle fighting the temptation of power. how she didn't think she would ever stop wanting more if she had it. i personally agree with leigh that alina needed to lose her powers. it isn't choosing between mal and becoming her own person for me. i think it was more of teaching that power is addicting. once you have it, you'll always want more. we can see this reflected in society. and that no one should ever have so much power alone. because even the most kind-hearted people will struggle. the bittersweet part for me was how they had to live in secret, but i really think it was for the best that she lost her powers.

(i just realized while proof-reading this that i didn't counter you and basically just said what we both probably thought. so on brand for me. but i never really perceived it that way. i think it was more of doing what was necessary and giving her a happier ending (for choosing to do the right thing? idk). but i do get where you're coming from. leigh probably didn't intend to make it seem that way but it does.)

i guess that makes sense. i personally don't see the appeal but again, it's preference!

hmmmm... i agree.

i agree. i guess i've never really thought of that.

my arguments still stay the same with what i said in my last post but now i feel so, so informed about this. it was so nice reading all this!! thank you for sharing your opinion, again <333 i appreciate it so much, this must've taken very long. also, if i said anything wrong or in a mean, less collected way, please tell me! i swear i don't mean it, i'm just super grateful. plus, i haven't been in this fandom as long as many of you and i'm at that age where i'm still trying to form my own opinions, so that may have affected my replies. so please, please don't be afraid to call me out! i just really want to learn.

previous ask

#i feel like i may have said something stupid #in which case please call me out on it #i just want you to know that i'm so grateful for this ask #i feel like i learned so much from you #THANK YOU SO MUCH #just disregard whatever i said in reply if its dumb #anon asks #nikolina #zoyalina #zoyalai #nikolai lantsov #zoya nazyalensky #alina starkov #grishaverse #leigh bardugo #shadow and bone #siege and storm #ruin and rising

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the-bi-space-ace · 2 years

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@echoleo @saturn-sends-hugs @floundrickthewayfarer

Aaaahhhhhhhh okay I decided to do this in one post because there was a lot of overlap in the emojis each of you sent in for the ask game so I hope that’s alright 😊

🕯️was there a fic that was really hard on you to write, or took you to a place you didn't think it would take you?

In all honestly A Matter of Trust as a whole was difficult for me. I think mainly because it was my first multi-chapter undertaking and I pretty much refused to plot it out before I started writing. It feels disjointed to me whenever I go back and read it and honestly? It deserves a rewrite… but I don’t see that happening any time soon 😅

Another thing that was really hard for me was chapter 8 of “You’re Calling Me Home”. I stewed over that chapter. I wrote and rewrote huge portions of that chapter. I am still (on the low) kind of disappointed with that chapter. But I can be overly critical of myself. So I can recognize that it really isn’t that bad and plenty of people liked that chapter and that it is probably just my own self doubt. But it has made me reevaluate why I get like that over my own stories.

🕯️how do you think engaging with each other through tumblr, twitter, comments, kudos, creates healthy fandom experiences? How do you deal with that if you're not a social person/experience social anxiety?

I think collaborating and enjoying each other’s ideas and content and lifting each other up and even having healthy discussions and differing opinions all really help contribute to a healthy fandom space. We are all here because we love this show, right? And part of engaging in fandom is making sure we lift each other up when we see people making things. Fic, Art, head canons etc. We may not always agree and that’s okay! We can also have criticisms of the thing we love and that’s okay! But at the end of the day I think if we remember that there is a live person on the other end of the screen then we can keep fandom spaces healthier. Also as a person who has really bad social anxiety I find it difficult to understand/deal with communication and things like sarcasm. I struggle to know when to comment on something, dm someone, how to respond to a comment, etc. it’s like knowing how/when to make eye contact. I don’t get it but I really really want to. And I do love chatting with everyone and engaging in discussions I just really struggle to understand how if that makes sense.

I’ll be honest with you. My partner reads most of my posts before I post them. Sometimes I have my partner read a message I send if I’m unsure if I’m coming across well. I’m much better at it now and can do it myself most days but sometimes I still feel a crippling sense of anxiety when I’m participating. Everyone here is really nice so it’s a lot easier to deal with than in person situations in my opinion. I have always felt super welcome and I try to make sure the space I engage with is positive. I just have really bad social anxiety but I’m working on it I promise.

🍭why did you start writing?

Originally I started writing… 13 years ago? I had so many words in me and I didn’t know how to get them out. Writing became a great way for me to express my emotions and thoughts and it was easier than talking.

I started writing and posting fanfiction because of the same reasons. I have a lot of words and a lot of ideas in me and I don’t always know what to do with them. When writing Echo in particular I get a sense of catharsis from giving him support and unconditional love. Overall writing itself is a coping mechanism but it is also so. much. fun. And super relaxing. I love putting these characters into situations. I love it so much.

💌share something with us about an up-and-coming work (WIP) that has you excited!

You have no idea how excited I am to talk about this. So, I’m writing a sequel to “You’re Calling Me Home” and I described it the other day as a more mature older sibling to the first one. It’s darker. The pain hurts a lot more. There’s conflict that is certainly not easy to overcome. But it still will have those bright moments in the midst of a darker time that I tried to include in the first one. It answers a lot of the questions I left unanswered in the first one. But one of my favorite things about it is that although there is a lot of hardship, a lot of angst, and it has fairly sorrowful moments it still surrounds a very positive idea. That caring is not a weakness but their greatest strength. And it is that care and love for one another that makes the sorrow worth it and means they’ll come out of this not only surviving but stronger. It is exciting for me in a lot of ways, one of them being that I’ve fully plotted it out (first time ever woo woo), but also that I really like the concept. And who doesn’t want to experience a world of hurt before a boatload of comfort 😅 I’m practically buzzing about it and am planning on Chapter 1 to be posted on May 4th (because I’m a nerd and can’t resist) so that I can finish the backlog of fics I’ve been avoiding finishing lol

🌈is there a fic that you worked *really fucking hard on* that no one would ever know? maybe a scene/theme you struggled with?

Liability is a fic I really really love but I struggled writing. I wasn’t super familiar with writing Tech and I spent AGES rewatching episodes to try and capture his character and I wrote and rewrote and rewrote AGAIN for ages. Absolute ages. Do I still feel like it needs work? Yes. But I worked SO HARD on it and I am still kind of proud of it. I’m glad I still decided to post it I almost didn’t.

💘Is there any posted fic you want to rework/re-edit/re-write?

YES ABSOLUTELY YES.

In Their Own Ways is one I would choose to rewrite in a heartbeat. I love the concept, I really do, but it lacks a lot of what I look for now when I am writing. It was still really early on in my posting days and I was still terrified of how people would react to my writing so I played it safe for the most part. I’d love to rewrite it one day and really amp up the themes, especially since I’ve gotten more comfortable with writing since then. I think we all grow as we keep writing and working at it and I’d like to revisit it at some point.

Also A Matter of Trust like I mentioned in another answer 😊

#thanks for asking!#I hope the one post is easier so I didn’t have to split it up :)#ask game response

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zigwouldnever · 1 year

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Hiii, welcome back. I missed u and ur Blog so much. Glad to hav u in this fandom. It was sooo long ago since before u left.

Lemme keep u updated...

WEH... i agree. So much angst, but definitly a good book of the new ones. Poor Dakota

I see u are reading RWB. Haven't read that.

Very popular and to recommend are Crimes of Passion, Kindred and Guinevere

Fans decided to give books which deserve a sequel a sequel in form of a real Choices game. So a fanmade Choices game which can be played like a game for FREE. Honestly they are making a much better job than PB because the Choices matter, Customizing MC, accessoires, tattoos, collecting points, relationship matters means there are consequences if you try to cheat or something like that. Some examples: @itlivesproject with ItLives3 is fully released, @nightboundfanfiction with the Nightbound 2 game coming soon (first demo releases on Halloween 2023) and @thedistantshoresproject with DS in work...

The Tumblr Choices Book Club @choicesbookclub is back and currently the books are Crimes of Passion 2 and soon BladesofLight&Shadow2 ... don't know what they will do later (maybe an upcoming new choices sequel on the app or maybe an choices book sequel for an upcoming choices project game sequel, idk)

This month #choicesfanficappreciation2023 is beeing hosted to appreciate all fic writers by reading their fics no matter what pairings.

Pixelberry sadly deleted their old games HSS and HollywoodU, instead we got Storyloom :(

... that's it, i think

hiiii tysm for these updates!!

yeah now that some time has passed i appreciate WEH a bit more. it was well written for sure

don't read it it's terrible and apparently it's going to be a series. not a RWB 2 but a similar concept with overlapping characters according to the message at the end of the book so you can just try the new one if you want but i probably won't

i have actually been playing the fan made it lives sequel! long but loving it so far. however i had NO IDEA ABOUT THE FAN MADE NIGHT BOUND 2 BOOK!! tagging @cloudywithachanceofdiscourse because she'll want to play that too. tysm for these updates!!

the rest of the bullet points are great to know thanks for updating me. appreciate you!

#asks

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vicioux · 3 years

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MODERN AU DARKLINA FIC RECS

yeah...another one lol this time inspired by bin bon’s new music video. tried something new for this one by putting fics in categories but i will say they're pretty loose categories since there's quite a bit of overlap (i'd say 90% of modern darklina fics have plenty of smut 👀 and mal bashing) and i got lazy by the end. here are some of my recs for darklina modern AUs & as always thank you to all the lovely writers in the fandom for feeding us during the off season 💛💛 p.s you can find all my fic rec lists here.

come for the smut stay for the plot

ABSOLUTE by twilighttomidnight “Good.” Genya hummed, unrepentant. “I hope I’m ruining all your virginal fantasies. They never live up to your expectations so why not have a skilled older man induct you into the world of sin and be paid handsomely for your time while you’re at it?”

GAMES by persephoneselene Alina gets more than she bargained for with Wall Street tsar Aleksander Morozova. (or: Astrology GF Alina, Stockmarket BF Sasha)

GUDENE SKRATTET by madismen You don’t need love to get married. Alina marries Mal as part of the peace deal between their families. After a year of misery and a stubbornly flat stomach, Uncle Sasha steps in to rectify the situation.

ROYALS OF NEW YORK by starwarringavengers Alina Starkova is leverage in Aleksander Morozov's war against the Starkov Family. She is leverage, and nothing more. They both get emotionally attached.

workplace romance

SUITS!AU series by secretsarenotforfree An authoritative voice, lightly accented and full of power even when kept low for secrets sake, his back to her. A briefcase so neatly made it had to be bespoke. The tall bob of the top of just criminally beautiful hair. Puzzle pieces. Alina’s favorite. Especially when she was given the chance to assemble them into a whole.

MOROZOV PUBLISHERS!AU series by lrcee Alina Starkov is rising in the publishing world. Singlehandedly responsible for rewritingediting the hottest book of the year, she lands a coveted spot at Morovoz Publishers. It's the position she's always wanted, at the biggest publishing house in the country. That crush on her boss though, that's gotta go.

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS by lrcee “So then what are you accomplishing?” Alina snaps. “What, tangibly, is the UN? An umbrella that comes down when it rains?” Alina has cut her teeth on war zones and crises. She can decipher multiple languages; she can get people to divulge precious information with ease. So why, then, can she not handle Ambassador Morozov?

these crack me up

A VAMPIRE'S GUIDE TO THE 21ST CENTURY by bedpostsongs + clowsan In which Aleksander is a literal millennial and Alina might have bitten off more than she can chew taking him home for the night.

THE FIGHT WE NEVER HAD by poethrotsvitha For the first time in her life, Mal has gone somewhere that Alina can't follow. She has no one left in the world- or so she thinks, until Aleksander Morozova shows up on her doorstep with an offer she would be a fool to refuse. (In which Aleksander oh-so-helpfully steps in to assist newly widowed Alina with anything that she might need, even if she doesn't know she needs it yet)

srynotsry mal

GOOD WIFE by sugarshakes Alina tries to be a good wife, she really does.

DON'T KEEP LOVE AROUND by larry_hystereks She wishes it was his fault, but really she only has herself to blame. (or: Alina cheats on her boyfriend with the hot bartender she can't seem to stay away from)

NEEDY by macdav It starts out small, simply wanting to save what’s left of her marriage, and with Dr. Morozova, she feels as though she’s making progress. Until he suggests she leaves her husband. Suddenly the hand he so graciously extends to her starts finding its way into places it doesn’t belong.

NO REST AT THE KINGDOM by kneeinjury This is Mal's fault. This is his fucking fault, and she’s just trying to be a decent wife, but ever since she got laid off he only seems to think of her as his personal errand girl and if he insists on treating her that way then he should at least be where he says he’s going to be and why won’t he answer his phone goddammit?

MILLION DOLLAR MAN by amplifierverse "Yes, but not from my best friend. He's my—” Alina stops, bites her tongue. Genya snorts, and says oh so innocently, batting her unfairly long eyelashes at Alina, “Your new daddy?” (Alina's foster mother brings home her new boyfriend. Things get a little complicated for Alina, after that)

romance movie vibes

THAT'S WISHES ONE, TWO, AND THREE by starlessmistake Aleksander is a famous musician. He's also hopelessly in love with his personal assistant, Alina.

A CONSTELLATION TO STIR MY HEART by littleloststar “Alina, listen,” he sighs, “the fact is, I’ve got way too much money and I’d like to spend some of it on you. If you want." (or: A super indulgent good-times-only Darklina sugar daddy AU)

SUGARFULL by silberias He’d heard her curse, the little gasp she gave as the wind nearly took her off her feet, and hesitated for only a moment before dashing back into the rain with his umbrella already halfway open again. “Keep it,” he’d said with a warm smile, taking her old ratty umbrella from nerveless fingers and wrapping her hand around the handle of his.

CEREBRAL by lord_janley "Mama fell down," says his son's voice, small on the phone. Had put it on speaker initially, thinking it would be his usual babbling about dinosaurs. Or planes. Or space. Anything but this.

AS WE KNOW IT by larry_hystereks A horrible accident leaves Alina and Aleksander to raise their friend's baby as their own. The only problem? They’re not even together.

THE PRAYER OF GOING NOWHERE by kneeinjury "Just friends. I promise. There'll be an open bar." It’s been almost six months since they started sleeping together and she hasn’t fallen hopelessly in love yet; she supposes one outing together won’t undo her completely (or: The FWB au)

1-800-MISS-UR-GUTS by kneeinjury It’s been over two years since Aleksander moved to Seattle, which means it’s been over two years since he dumped her in her apartment and broke her heart (or: The breakup makeup fic)

PLAY by inky_pens When Alina's preschool is forced to shut down at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Aleksander propositions Alina, in more ways than one, to stay with him and his son during lockdown.

IT'S A DANGEROUS GAME by ohwastelandbaby Left as the only witness to a heist, Alina Starkov is in need of protection from a band of criminals out to get her. What Agent Kirigan offers her, is far more complicated. bodyguard!AU

PAST LIVES (SHADOWS & PROMISES) by stargurl28 She hasn’t seen him for years. This number probably isn’t even in service anymore. She’s not even certain why she calls. She sobs when he says her name, that way, the way only he can. Between her sobs, she manages to whisper, "I should have waited for you, Sasha."

THE BREADTH OF HIS DOMAIN by sexypicard Alina tapped her foot impatiently as she waited in line. As her own boss, she set her own hours, but it was the principle of the thing. She demanded no less of herself because she happened to be self-employed — and that was perhaps why she was so annoyed with the man in front of her.

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