#I'm so sorry to the person who submitted this ask they were probably not looking for a post of this length

[martianbugsbunny]

Personally i doubt thor knows loki loves him

U know what I'm gonna take the challenge on this one. Now, this post will only discuss their relationship in the movies before Ragnarok, because I don't really like that movie and I think it did a great disservice to both the characters and their relationship; the brightest and best of them comes from Thor, Avengers, and Dark World in my opinion, so I will be talking about what I love rather than what I have at best apathy for. Sticking it under the cut (it got looooong because I love to think about their dynamic), so if you want my opinion, read on, and if you've seen enough opinions for a lifetime and don't want any more, scrumble away and have a lovely day

Okay so let's start with Thor. In the beginning of that movie, there is absolutely no doubt in Thor's heart that Loki loves him, and here's why: Thor is an arrogant man who is largely blind to the things he doesn't agree with or understand. He has this mentality of other people just being made to love and adore him, because he's the future warrior king of Asgard, he's the golden boy, and because Asgard's people really do love and adore him, so his arrogance is only being confirmed by other people's actions. And of course, there's nobody who should love and adore Thor more than his brother, right?

Now, here's where I want to digress for a minute to talk about how incredibly unhealthy their relationship is. Thor kind of has the same outlook that Loki expresses in Avengers, that people are beneath him, and that's why they should all be looking up to him with awe and praise, and that extends even to his own brother. He tells Loki to mind his place and kind of brushes off his advice, because even though they're brothers and that's the closest anyone could get to being his equal, it's still not enough. Thor views Loki as another person who is beneath him, but who ultimately can't do anything but look up to him and love him.

This is an illusion.

Loki does love Thor. Their relationship, with how complicated and messy it is, only works if they truly love each other, and they do. But it's not the blind, adulating love that Thor expects. It's a jealous, aching love. Loki craves being equal to Thor, a problem that's only exacerbated by the way Thor denies him that position. He craves to be loved as he's assumed to love. And the problem with a love like that is how quickly it can turn. If Thor won't give Loki the affection he needs, then Loki isn't going to show Thor affection the way Thor wants him to, either.

That first movie is in multiple ways a brutal awakening for Thor. He's not the man his father wants him to be. His entire life he's been training to be king and then that future seems like it's been ripped away from him. He has his power and then it's all gone. And his brother, this person around whom he's constructed a narrative of almost reverent adoration, suddenly turns against him, tries to keep him in exile and then to kill him, tries to take the life that was promised to Thor. That looks absolutely nothing like the love Thor has believed Loki feels for him.

I would feel some doubt at that point. I think anyone would. My sibling tried to kill me. Does he still love me? Did he ever love me?

And to add to that natural doubt, Thor doesn't understand Loki. He never really has. He doesn't know what it's like to be, as Loki says later, living in the shade of someone else's greatness, the trickster brother who's never really trusted, let alone lauded. And correct me if I'm wrong, but even by the end of Thor, he doesn't know what really tipped Loki off the deep end. He doesn't know that Loki's just found out he's a Jotun in a land of Asgardians, that he's the very thing he's been brought up to hate and fear, so Thor doesn't understand why Loki is acting so erratically, which must compound the doubt for him. From his point of view it's like a light switch flicked and now Loki's trying to kill him, which increases the did he ever? question. Was it always a facade? And I don't think Thor ever quite realizes the illusion he built around Loki, the difference between his expectations and reality to begin with, so he also wouldn't be seeing that it's not quite instantaneous, that there were years of building resentment and longing that contributed to the tipping point of Loki's changed behavior.

So by the end of Thor, yes, he's got to be wondering if Loki loved him.

But when Thor appears in Avengers, do you remember what plea he makes? He says I grieved for you, I want you to come home. That's not the kind of thing you say to someone you think doesn't care about you. That's a plea to the heart. That's Thor trying to get to the love he knows is in there somewhere, behind everything else that's built up around Loki's heart; that's Thor saying I know you still love me, I don't know what changed, but please let our bond be enough to fix it. Whatever he's been thinking about between the events of those two movies, he's moved past that doubt enough to think maybe Loki's love for him will be enough to bring him home, even if some part of him expects Loki to say no anyway. We know that in the interim he learned of Loki's status as a Jotun, so maybe Thor's even begun to try to understand. Maybe he's been thinking about the fact that life got very hard and very confusing for Loki very suddenly, and he wonders if now that some time has passed, there's a chance Loki wants to come back and work through it with him and their parents. When he says "we were raised together, we played together, we fought together," he's not just trying to convince Loki that he's loved, he's trying to remind Loki of his own love.

Again, during the Battle of New York itself, Thor makes a similar plea. He offers that he and Loki stop the fight together, and his eyes are so incredibly soft when he says it, you know he believes it can still work. That belief comes from knowing there's something in Loki that wants to say yes, something that loves Thor enough to give up his dream of kingdom and stop the invasion. His use of together is interesting not just because he's offering Loki a way out, putting it on the table that Loki can exercise his heart and choose a better path, but also because he's finally putting Loki on the same level he is. We can do this, we can return home, you just have to find some part of you that loves me enough to choose equality with me in this fight over equality with me in having thrones. He also holds back when he's dueling Loki, which is a horrible idea if you actually believe a person has the capacity to kill you, but if you don't believe that, it's an ultimate show of trust. Thor kind of puts his life in Loki's hands by not using his full strength, and only after Loki rejects his offer and stabs him does he finally use more brute force, although it's still not enough to kill Loki or even knock him out. Thor really believes, not just wants to believe, that Loki will not kill him given the chance, that there is something in him that wants to go home, and it's all because Thor, after all his shattered illusions, still believes there is love for him in Loki's heart, even if it has been touched and twisted by anger and pain.

In Dark World, Thor is much more pessimistic when he breaks Loki out of jail. He basically says that his brother is no longer in there, that he won't hesitate to kill Loki if he steps out of line. I think this is important to note because Thor isn't saying I don't believe you love me anymore, he's saying the person who loved me is dead and this shell is all that remains. Thor says he no longer has hope, but he's still clinging to that belief that Loki did love him, in his own way, and he would rather view Loki as dead than let go of it.

But beyond that, there's the fact that he not only lets Loki out of the handcuffs, he gives Loki a knife. Once again, you don't give a weapon to someone you wouldn't trust not to kill you, and you don't trust someone you've had so much tension with not to kill you unless you believe they love you. Loki says "trust my rage" re: Frigga being killed, but I would argue that actually wouldn't go in his favor. Thor has seen what Loki resorts to when he's not processing his emotions in any way other than rage: he attacks Thor, he falls into perfidy, he just lashes out at the closest target. And even despite that, despite having fought Loki in Thor and in Avengers, having witnessed firsthand what destruction Loki was willing to either cause or help facilitate, Thor still gives him a weapon and trusts that Loki isn't going to kill him. There is clearly still a part of Thor that is saying he loves me, he's not going to kill me.

Of course, by the end of that movie, Thor is rewarded in his faith. Loki stabs Kurse to save Thor, and it appears to cost him his life, and as he's dying, what does Thor say? Stay with me. In essence, loving me so much you'll die for me isn't enough, love me so much you'll stay alive for me. It's not a rational thing to say to someone who appears to be bleeding out; a person can't generally stave off death on willpower alone when they've been stabbed in the gut. Thor always ends up speaking to Loki's heart, because he knows that heart is bitter and full of rage and grief but also love, even though Loki is absolutely horrible at expressing it most of the time. I want to talk about why Loki might've faked his death and taken Odin's place at the end of that movie in another post, but part of me really thinks he chose that specific way to fake his death because he wanted Thor to see that Loki did love him, and that was the only way he could think of to reach out without actually having to confront his own pain and the enormity of the breach between them. Now, the "I didn't do it for him" could be taken one of two ways: it was actually for Frigga, or it was actually for Thor. I'm very much inclined to believe the latter, as Thor is the one present in the scene. Also, the expression on Thor's face when Loki says that is so frozen, like yes, I wanted more than anything to be told that you still care, but not like this. And it feels like Loki is doing his best to communicate that he does love Thor, but his communication skills, especially with Thor, are severely distorted, partially by that unhealthy relationship they had early on where he most likely never felt entirely welcome to speak his true feelings, and partially by the chasm that opened between them when Loki went into his downward spiral of destruction, both of himself and of others. I genuinely think Loki doesn't know how to just say it. To quote myself from an earlier post I made about Loki, he feels like "there’s no way he can possibly repair the relationships he’s broken," so he doesn't try to apologize and make up for it. Like someone else (I forget who) has already said, sacrifice is the way Loki makes up for things. So he gives Thor this image of a sacrifice, the ultimate expression of love and devotion, because he doesn't know how else to say it.

What's the point of all this? Thor knew Loki loved him. That's the whole point of their story. Their love for each other is the cornerstone on which that immense cosmic narrative is built. Even with doubt, anger, bitterness, frustration, grief, pain all complicating their relationship and getting in the way of actually expressing love to each other, the fundamental truth of Thor and Loki is love. Is faith. Is hope. Is saying maybe you don't know how to say it, maybe you're trying to shut it down, but I know there is something in you that loves me and that's the part I choose to believe in.

Thor knew Loki loved him.

[nats-bottom]

NR - Photos

Summary: Nat posts a photo online and gets teased about her and Reader's height difference

Pairings: Natasha Romanoff x Reader

Warnings: Teasing, bullying

Notes:

I also have accounts on Wattpad and AO3! The users there are @ paige_vers

Please give me requests! You can submit them here or on my insta, @ scarlettsoutset

ᨖᨖೱᨖ⧗ᨖⴵᨖ🕷️ᨖⴵᨖ⧗ᨖೱᨖᨖ

Y/n POV

"Hmmph" I hear my girlfriend, Natasha groan as she scrolls on her phone. We were sitting on a couch in the main living room area in the Avenger's Compound. There was no one else in the room with us, they were all doing their own thing. Both me and Natasha were on our phones, sitting next to each other. Well, more like she was sitting on top of me, cuddling into me. 

"What's wrong baby?" I ask knowing that something is up. She still doesn't look up from her phone and continues to scroll. 

"Why do people have to be so mean? I just posted a new photo on instagram of the two of us, and so many of the comments are about how short I am compared to you." She complains.

I look down at her and brush her hair with my fingers. Sure she is only 5'3" and I am 5'9", but that didn't cause any problems in our relationship. I found it very cute when she asks me to grab something off the top shelf, or when she had to reach up to kiss me. "It's ok. Just ignore what they're saying. It doesn't matter. All that matters is what you and I think. They're all just haters who just have something mean to say. They probably just have something that they don't like about themselves, so they just take it out in the easiest way possible. Don't listen to them. I love you just the way you are."

"Thanks y/n. I love you too. You always know how to help me." She says as she snuggles into me even more.

"Now let's turn that phone off and just cuddle, okay? How does that sound."

"That sounds good." She says, handing me her phone. I take our phones and put them on the side table next to the couch. As she tucks her head into my neck, Wanda walks in, laughing. 

"Oh my god! Natasha, you look so short next to y/n! Hahahaha! Shorty!" Wanda says while laughing her ass off. She comes over and sits down on a chair across from us. She is looking at her phone, presumably at the photo Nat posted earlier of the two of us. I feel Nat shift next to me,  obviously uncomfortable. Before I can say anything, Wanda shows her phone to us, pointing to the height difference. 

"See! Even the camera captures just how short you are Natasha. You're like the shortest on the team. Everyone just towers over you." Wanda says as she laughs some more.

"Wanda, would you stop? This isn't funny." I say sternly, giving Wanda a harsh look. 

"But Natasha is so fun to tease. It's so funny when she gets mad and she stomps around because she's so small and it's just like watching a little kid." Wanda says.

Wanda should be scared now. Not only has she made fun of my girlfriend, but she made fun of the kindest, best, most amazing person in the world. Nat sits there, looking at Wanda with shock, obviously hurt, but too scared to cry in front of anyone else besides me. I move Nat's legs off my lap, give her head a quick kiss on her forehead, and stand up from the couch. 

"Wanda, take back what you said." I say, standing in front of her, my hands in fists.

She looks down at my hands and back up at my eyes. I'm taller than her so she has to look up at me. She steps closer to me. "And what if I don't?" She questions.

"Then you'll regret it." I say, my hands starting to glow white a little and my eyes starting to turn purple. 

"Ok ok, I take it back. I don't mean anything I said." She says, but mumbles the last part.

"And" I say, expecting an apology.

"I'm sorry" She says sarcastically and rolls her eyes.

"Wanda." I say seriously.

"I'm sorry ok! I really didn't mean it! I'm just bored and Vision is busy and I need something to do." Wanda said. "So I went online and found this and thought it'd be funny to come and tease Natasha. I really actually do like the photo. It's a really good pic of the two of you."

I can tell that she really means it. I'm not quite ready to forgive her yet, but I say my thanks and stand in front of the couch that Nat is on. I offer her my hand and she takes it. I led her up to our shared bed room silently. There we stayed for the rest of the night, watching movies and eating snacks. Nat is being really soft today, which is a side of her that I don't normally get to see.

A/N: I have nothing against Wanda, I just needed someone to be in the story for this. Wanda is one of my favorites.

[zzprompto]

Hello, Hello!!

You said your requests are open, yes? Well, im here to submit one if it's not a burden <33

Can I request Fyodor Dostoevsky x Male reader who is a religious cult leader? (You can choose it's it's yandere, platonic, romantic, etc)

For example, the reader is a priest but is super nice, a little too nice-- Fyodor happens to run across him during in what the start of season four would be(when the ADA didn't listen to Ranpo's starting point) and deemed m/n as just: "a feeble priest" who invited him to church, however, when Fyodor decides to go to the church out of curiosity he finds out m/n is insane for whatever god he worships, instead of his soft and caring personality he had when he first met Fyodor; he now has a more crazed and insane one, "reaching the holy words" and screaming obscenities to the rest of the church members in the pews?

And possibly for an interesting touch(only for the drama because im quite obsessed with dramatic stories where characters get surprised when m/n does something), the reader usually keeps their eyes closed, eventually leading people into thinking that he is blind, only for him to open his eyes when he's doing cultist meetings?

I know this is such a strange ask 😭😭 and if it makes you uncomfortable I understand 100%, this is actually a storyline for one of my ocs, and I thought it would be neat to see this sort of storyline in your style and as a fanfic!!

(P.S I HAVE READ SOME OF YOUR WRITING AND I LOVE IT SO MUCH 😭❤️❤️ I don't request often either so I wanted you to know this is how much I appreciate your writing style)

thanks for requesting!

☆ the wolf in sheep's clothing

fyodor dostoevsky x male reader [he / him]

sypnosis: above!

the lowercase is intentional !

you were going about your day, on your way to your work as a priest before bumping into a man. this man was no ordinary man, it was fyodor dostoevsky, a member of the decay of angels. but you didn't know that yet, and neither did he know about your secret profession.

"i'm so, so sorry!" you stutter out with a bow, keeping a nice, caring persona on to lure fyodor in. your eyes are closed, so you can't make out what the man infront of you looks like, but you take a quick peak at him before closing your eyes again. "it's alright," he smirked. "don't worry about it." his accent was thick and heavy. you were now more curious about him. you were definitely going to try and lure him into your cult.

"my name's [name]. i am truly sorry for bumping into you.." your eyes are closed and fyodor can now understand why you bumped into him. you were probably blind, so he felt a little sympathetic towards your case, which was a surprise from him. "it's okay, don't worry about it truly. i'm fyodor." he smiled, even though you wouldn't be able to see.

you bowed at him again, still muttering a string of apologies before he takes your shoulder in his hand. "please stop apologising, i've already forgiven you." the contact made you shiver, but in a good way. you looked up at him again. "okay, okay. sorry. would you like to come over to come over to my church? i was just on the way now before bumping into you. it'll be my way of showing gratitude and forgiveness." you smile, but there's a hint of evil about your smile that fyodor doesn't seem to catch on to.

"oh, well i don't see why not." fyodor smiled in response. "if you're insisting, i'll come along. i guess it is really the only way you could repay me." the black haired man continued smiling. fyodor was geniunely curious about your church. what god did you worship? etc, etc. those questions were running through his mind. he also liked how sweet you were, it was like he could take advantage of you if he'd like to later. but he was wrong, of course. you didn't show him how you truly were. a cruel, evil cult leader. you simply acted all sweet to lure more people into your trap.

the two of you then arrived at the church. it was lively as people were waiting for the next session to take place and they were waiting for [name] to lead it. you had a smirk on your face as you faced fyodor again. "you just sit where you like and have a little listen to my ceremony, okay?" you smile sweetly at him, but your intentions are far from sweet.

the atmosphere of the church was also quite sinister.. but fyodor couldn't tell what was off about the whole place just yet. he decided to go along with whatever you had planned. he sat down in a seat near the back and waited for you to start.

you walk to the altar and get your things ready to prepare your next speech for your followers. you enjoy the feeling that you have a new guest today - fyodor. maybe you'd convince him to join your 'true' religion in the end and get him to praise your 'true' god.

"greetings, guests!" you call out, finally opening your eyes to scan the eyes of the audience. fyodor was a little startled at first. he didn't think you could see.. but maybe that was just a slight misjudgment on his behalf, so he tried to brush it off and not seem ignorant.

everyone was already shouting praises at you, even though you had only said two words. everyone sitting in the rows at the church were all familiar faces that you knew. you took your time usually to greet each individual once you entered the church, but today was different. you were running late due to fyodor, so you'd leave all the friendliness with your followers to later.

"i assume everyone knows why we're gathered here today?" you ask and people in the crowd yell back a string of 'yes'es or just screams. "oh but of course, there is someone new here today!" an evil grin grows on your face as you turn to look at fyodor. "I hope everyone will be nice to our hopefully new follower!" your grin then turns into a sweet smile, hints of evil still around it. your voice was sickeningly sweet as well, starting to creep fyodor of all people out a little bit too.

"today we are gathered yet again to praise the true god!" you yell out, your voice starting to grow more and more menacing as you praised this false god. "not the ones those so called real worshipers follow.. our god!" everyone started cheering your name, they seemed to be just as brainwashed, or even worse than you.

fyodor was starting to get a little creeped out. he wanted to leave, and fast. he didn't intend on meeting a cult leader in the first place. he just thought he had bumped into a sweet, innocent and blind man. but oh how he was so wrong.

your words started to linger in fyodor's mind. everything you said about this god stuck out to him. some of his curiosity was peaked, maybe it was because of you - not the person you decided to worship. something about you seemed so interesting, fyodor forgot his intentions on leaving now. he wanted to stay and listen to your voice forever.

maybe it was your voice, the way you spoke about this idol you worshipped. or maybe it was how captivating you were, the way you faked your sweet charm just to lure him in. whatever it was, fyodor was definitely interested. he was definitely going to be coming back for more talks.. mostly because he wanted to be by your side though.

once the 'prayer' meeting was over and you had said goodbye to each of your guests, you decide to go back to fyodor and have a chat with him. he had a surprised look on his face the entire time you spoke and you were certainly amused by that. "well hello, fyodor." you spoke, a smirk on your face. it the exact one you had playing on your face when fyodor first came into the church. "i see you enjoyed your time here, yes?" you asked, leaning close to him. he immediately nodded, captivated by your alluring voice.

"yes, i did enjoy it. for more reasons than you may think, however." fyodor laughed lightly, looking at you. "it is safe to say, i will be returning.. only if i am not busy with my own plans you see." he smiled at you, slightly returning the smirk you had on your lips. "of course, of course! you are welcome to join us anytime. i will be delighted." you chuckled back, pleased to hear that the ravenette will be returning.

fyodor had practically forgotten who you were - a cult leader that just spewed obscenities to his followers. he had completely zoned out.. but he wasn't that innocent of a man either, so he couldn't blame you. fyodor was truly fascinated about your act, maybe he could learn a thing or two from the wolf in sheep's clothing...

☆ requests ▪︎ masterlist

☆ author's note: i don't know shit about religion or anything about church / priests, so i hope this was good... but seriously thanks for requesting and saying you love my work! i try my best. keep requests coming!! they may be a little slow due to school but i'll try get them out asap.

[dduane]

Hi!! So, this has probably been answered in interviews, but as somebody in my late 20s who like JUST watched TNG: is there a reason the show dealt so often with themes of the sci fi equivalent of transracial adoption? There's Worf's whole arc, "Suddenly Human", and several other episodes where the theme of being adopted by someone whose experience in the world does not match one's own is explored with great depth. Was this in the news a lot when the show originally aired? Was there someone in the writer's room who was living this experience?

First of all: when Michael Reaves and I wrote "Where No One Has Gone Before" for ST:TNG in 1987, the formal "writer's room" concept was only just beginning to coalesce, here and there, out of the old producer/senior writer/staff writers structure. As was usual for freelancers of that time, our screen agent simply called the TNG offices and got us an invitation to go in and pitch our idea to Roddenberry and one or more of the senior producers. When they liked what we had, we were asked to submit a written outline. Then, after some notes from Roddenberry and Herb Wright (our story's producer), we were told to go to script. But there was no group/cooperative “breaking out” of the script’s scenes, or idea-sharing, such as you’d routinely see in a room today. Michael and I just went home and wrote the script, turned it in a couple of weeks later, and got paid.

In the seasons that followed, something corresponding to a room did begin to come together at TNG—mostly because it had no choice but to do so. Within its first couple of seasons, TNG had acquired such an awful reputation for the way it treated its pitching freelance writers—including wildly arbitrary notes and even uncredited, secret rewrites from Roddenberry's lawyer—that almost no one with Guild qualifications wanted to bother trying to write for Trek any more. (This is why ST:TNG became one of the very few series operations in Hollywood to start accepting pitches from non-Guild members. See the article here for some background on the situation.)

All of the above being the case, I have no real idea of what the staff writers / nascent ST:TNG room might have been thinking about transracial adoption, or when... especially since later in 1987 I relocated to the UK and then to Ireland, to live with @petermorwood. The move took me somewhat out of the US TV loop, and turned my attention more toward film and TV work (and books, of course) in Europe.

The right person to ask about this—and it's a pity he has no presence here—would be Ron Moore. If anybody has an answer to your question, I'm betting Ron would. It's possible the subject's come up in some interview with him, though, so you might want to look into that.

Anyway, sorry not to be able to be of more help.

[teyamloving12]

Sub neteyam pleaseeeeee 🙏

Mighty Warrior has gone soft

Warning: NSFW content, bondage, oral ( f receiving), sub!Neteyam(19), dom!reader (21), tit worship, inexperienced!Neteyam

Read More:

Many thought you were fierce, a challenge, some even said you were like your late uncle, Tsu'tey, that passed a few years back. You submitted to no one or showed them mercy, for a challenge is a challenge.

Even though you were 2 years older than Neteyam, he always found you attractive in everything you do. Unlike girls his age, you were tough and dangerous while they are begging for his attention like whores.

"Neteyam get your act together!", you shouted from your ikran above him. "Yes ma'am, I'm sorry!", he responded. You smirked. Young boys were always so fun to tease and Neteyam might act like he was tough but deep down inside you knew if you told him to kneel before you, he would.

For a so called mighty warrior, he was easy to persuade or maybe he would just do anything for you.

You finally finished patrolling the sky with Neteyam who has been shamelessly looking at you on the way back. Tuk ran you to Neteyam and hugged him. You couldn't help but smile, after all she is a cutie. She jumped in your arms, you spins her around causing her to Tuk. " Well hello there, Angel. Could wait to see me, huh?", you said chuckling. "How was the patrol? Was it fun? Can I come with you guys tomorrow?", you smiled at the little girl and placed her on her feet. " One day I will when you are old enough.", you ruffle her braids which immediately caused her to pout and ran to her mother who was calling her.

You quickly turned to Neteyam and changed your demeanor. "What the fuck was that out there, huh? ", you shouted as you pulled into your tent to patch him up. He looked at the ground, ashamed of himself. He never wanted to disappoint you. You were the perfect definition of how he wanted to be but your beauty distracts him. Your harshness towards him made him horny. He would jerk off thinking of you dominating him and give him many praises of what a good boy he was. He knew it was wrong because you were probably not into young boys and you were older than him by 2 years.

He was envious of the older guys and how they always surround you. He was jealous of that fact you allowed them to touch anywhere they please while if he inhaled around you, he would be scolded. He was Neteyam, son of Toruk Makto and yet, you still pushed him away.

He watched as you mixed an ointment made of leaves, grinding it aggressively. "I do not wish for you to feel like nothing, Neteyam.", you said breaking the silence. He sat beside you in salience. "I dont wish for the sky people to take another person's life, especially the ones I care about.", his ears perked up immediately. You cared about him. That made his poor little heart flutter. He glanced at you lovingly.

"The Sky people killed my uncle, he was the definition of a mighty warrior made by Eywa.", you continued. " Tsu'tey, my father never stop talking about him.", Neteyam said. You smiled mournfully at him looking at the paste you finally finished. You sighed loudly, staring at Neteyam for a while.

" Lay in my lap so I can apply the ointment.", you say plainly. His eyes widened instantly. "W-wait I should what? No it is f-fine I can do it myself!", he rambled on and on and stop after seeing you glaring at him. He immediately dropped to his knees and laid your head on your thighs. Your breasts blocked his view out of your stoic yet beautiful face. They were so full and were begging to be praised and sucked on. He stop staring after hearing you chuckle.

"What's wrong?", he asked as if he wasn't started at you inappropriately. " You've been staring at them all day, Neteyam.", you said suggestively while the Sully boy still in your lap. Neteyam froze. You noticed, you probably were going to tell his entire family and the village, he would be exiled, Toruk Makto's son or not.

"Is this blocking your view, sweet boy?", you asked fiddling with your top. Neteyam nods shyly. You smiled as pull your top revealing your breasts.

Neteyam immediately attacks at them suckling on them like a hungry newborn. He licked your sensitive nipple causing you to moan. "Good boy Neteyam! I love it when you actually listen.", you praised him causing him to suck it harder than before.

"Mama your breasts are so beautiful, wanna suck on them forever!", he said. You pulled your nipple out of his mouth, causing him whine. You got up to grab some rope. Neteyam looked confused. What were you going to do with the rope?

" Don't cum until mama tells you so, okay baby?", he nods his head trying to suppress the moans from you stroking his cock roughly. His dick was twitching. He thrusted his hips into your hands as you rub the sensitive tip. And then you suddenly remember, Neteyam was pure. He was a virgin. For an inexperienced boy, he sure knew how to please a woman.

You sit on his lap, grinding on his hard-on as you tied his arms to your bedpost while he comfortably laid on the bed. "What is this for? Did I do something? I've been a good boy, right?", he questioned. "Don't question mama. And no! You have NOT been a good boy. You almost got yourself killed today so I punish you.", he looks afraid and pitiful. He sat on his face, he buried his tongue inside you and gave your puffy clit kitten licks. You grabbed your aching cock making him flinch.

"Mama please make me cum, I beg You!", you laughed hearing the mighty warrior begging. "Mommy please stroke it harder! I am so sensitive! Please Mama, let me cum!", he continued to beg. "Go on. Cum for Me .", as you said so, his jizz squirted all over your hand and your back. "Did I do good Mama?I am better than the other guys, right?

"Yes that is right. But I can't tell them the mighty warrior has gotten soft, now can I?", you replied. Neteyam shakes his head. You crawled down to his cock and give the tip a kiss.

"Be a good boy and Mama will reward you well."

[heeseung-min]

Hey! I have an idea you can try out like a drabble or thought or a full fic when the s/o act like they got the sherlock syndrome but they do not and that was their plan to escape but did they escape or not it up to you decide it it just a thought of mine i think you will able to write. i think this idea would suit more on enhypen sunghoon or jay but i think it can also be for txt.

Hi hi thanks for the request🤗 I hope you enjoy this

[21:39]

"If you listen to me, you will never be like this."

"I don't like hurting you. So, you better be good before I killed your sister in front of you."

"You asked for it, y/n."

Those were the words you would hear everytime you cause a trouble. Everytime you try to run from the house, he eventually caught you before you can even go far. Each time that happened, he will punished you badly. Whether it is physical or mental, he will make sure you learn the lesson.

And that's why you decided to stop doing it. Stop trying to find a way. Stop causing a trouble. At first, your sick husband being skeptical thinking that you tried to fool him. However, it's been months you acted like that. You listened to him and being affection towards him and that made him believed that you finally submit to him.

"Y/n, what do you want to eat for dinner?"

"Can we get Chinese foods, Hoonie?"

"Sure, my angel. Come here. We can watch movie while waiting for it to arrive."

"You know, I'm glad that you finally listen."

You stared at Sunghoon who was eating his meal. He gulped the food before talking again.

"I'm happy that you finally understand me."

Your boyfriend looked really happy. His expression reminded you from the first year you guys being in relationship. You wondered how can he changed to this personality.

"I realized you are right. About the world is more dangerous and I could get hurt if I go outside. I'm sorry for not listening to you earlier."

Sunghoon's heart couldn't be more happier when you said that. He watched you smiled fondly at him and continue enjoying your food.

"I will leave and be back before dinner. Do you want me to buy anything?"

"Nope, I'm good. Be safe."

"I will and you be good. Okay?"

"Yes, my love."

Sunghoon kissed you before he went out of the house. You smirked when he finally left the house. You will use this opportunity to run away from him.

Before this when Sunghoon goes out, you will go out from the house and search a way for you to run without easily get caught. Then, you will be back immediately before Sunghoon back to make sure he didn't feel any suspicious. You had planned this for months and now finally you can use the route.

You changed your clothes to more casual so you can move easily since the area you need to go is the forest.

You started your journey with some snacks and water for your energy. The walk was a bit dangerous since there might be some wild animals and you still aren't familiar with the area. You keep walking for hours and rest for few minutes in between before you saw an inn meters away from you. You ran immediately to the place thinking that you finally escape from Sunghoon.

The inn looked empty since you didn't see any cars or travelers around. You walked closer to a young man that just came out from a room. He looked attractive even though his attire just ordinary. His sharp jaw made him more handsome.

"Um, excuse me?"

He turned to you. Looking confusely. Probably because he didn't expect anyone at this time.

"Yeah, how can I help you?"

"Well, I have a problem and I need a ride to town. Can you please send me there?"

"Hmm, I don't have any vehicle that can be used now. How about this, you stay at my inn for a night and tomorrow you can share ride with one of my customers. He often send home essentials every morning so I can ask for him to send you."

Well, it's not really bad even though you hope you can go to the town now. You agreed with his suggestion before following him to your room.

"Can I borrow your phone too?"

"You...don't have a phone?"

"Ye-yeah. It's broken before I came here."

He stared weirdly at you before shrugging. He showed the old phone that was located inside your room.

"You can use that phone."

"But...it looks old."

"So? It still can be used. Don't worry."

You sighed and just went inside. The room is not big but good for staying for a while. You rested your body on the floor. You can't wait to finally out from this place and Sunghoon. You have been waiting for this to happen. Before you completely sleep, you tried to call your sister. You felt awkward using the old phone at first but you got it eventually.

You groaned after the you failed to connect with her few times. You tried to think positive maybe the line here is not really good so that's why it's hard for you to reach her.

You sleep peacefully that night thinking you finally can be free.

You woke up when you felt someone was caressing your hair. Your eyes slowly opened up as you still felt sleepy. You saw someone sitting beside you. You blinked once again before started to see the clear picture.

When you recognized the person was Sunghoon, you shockingly woke up and backed away from him until your back touched the wall.

"Ho-how..."

"You really make me angry, Y/n."

Sunghoon just stared at you. There was no expression showing on his face. But, you knew better that he will not let this matter down just like that. Since you betrayed his trust, you will face harder punishment than before.

"Sunghoon- oh, you finally woke up."

You turned to the inn owner. He looked at you with bright smile.

"I'm sorry I didn't recognize you yesterday. When Sunghoon called and asked me, I finally remember who you are so I called him here."

You wanted to throw up. Panic started to increase and you felt suffocating. You can't move since you were still in daze so Sunghoon pulled you up and brought you out from the room. His hold on you was very tight that you could felt it started to bruise.

"Thanks for taking care of her, Jay."

"You are welcome. Make sure she will not run away this time."

"Oh, I am sure she can't go anywhere anymore."

_____

Sunghoon brought you to the basement. You smell a very strong smell when you entered the place. He didn't say anything from the time both of you were in the car until now and that's really scared you. You rather he shouted at you than being silent.

He stopped moving when both of you reached in front of punchbag. Two punchbags to be exact. You glancing confusely at Sunghoon before watching him took something from a drawer. A knife. He took out a knife and put your hand on the handle.

"I want you to choose between these bags."

"What...what do you mean?"

"Choose Y/n. Don't make me more angry at you."

He left you stood alone between the punchbags and went to sit on the couch near you. You still stood clueless and you looked to Sunghoon demanded details.

"Choose one of the bags and I want you to stab on it."

You didn't like where is this going. This is not how he usually do when he wanted to punish you. Why...why he looked so calm? You didn't like this situation.

"Hoon....I still don't understand."

Sunghoon sighed and decided to go behind you and hugged your body while his hands holding yours at the same time. You can felt his breath behind your ear.

"Let me help you then. Now, choose y/n. Left or right?"

"Hoon, I- I can't do this. You can hit me or do anything like what you used to. Please."

"Choose. I'm serious this time, y/n. Choose."

You were already in sobbing state but your boyfriend ignored it and still waiting for you to speak. You calm yourself down before staring at the punchbags in front of you. Why would he made you do this? Did he asked you to choose what type of punishment you will get? You gulped down your nervous and stated what have you decided.

"The...the right one."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

"You made a good choice then."

Without saying more, he jerked forward your right hand to stab the punchbag that you chose. However, as you focused more you saw liquid dripping from inside. You dropped the knife when you realized the liquid was blood. When Sunghoon took his hands off, you fell down to the floor with your hands shaking badly. Your boyfriend smirked and whispered to you.

"Should we take a look what's inside, Y/n?"

You wanted to say no but all the courage inside you has gone. You watched Sunghoon took the knife and sliced the punchbag until something or more to someone fell on top of you. You screamed and closed your eyes when the blood hit your face.

"Open your eyes baby. See it."

Slowly, you opened your eyes and saw a pair of very familiar eyes staring at you. You screamed again and threw the body to the floor beside you when you recognized it was your sister. Your dead sister was in front of you right now. You suddenly threw up and felt the tightness on your chest. You crawled to your sister and sat beside her body while holding her head.

"Unnie. Please, wake up. I'm sorry I didn't mean it. Unnie, please. WAKE UP PLEASE AAARGHHH"

You tapped her cheeks few times trying to help regain her concsciousness back. Even though you knew, there was no pulse nor slow breath from her.

"WAKE UP!!! I'm- I'm sorry I didn't mean to do it. I don't want to do this."

You turned to Sunghoon with full of rage. He didn't react and just waited for you to do or say something.

"You...you asshole. How dare you? HOW DARE YOU KILL MY SISTER!!!"

"I killed her? Are you forgot that you were the one who chose it. You made the choice, Y/n. You killed your own sister with your hands"

"NO! I DID NOT! YOU MADE ME KILLED HER."

"Look at your hands now, baby. It's your sister's blood and look at me, it's clean unlike you."

Once again, you started to hyperventilate and started to hit your head and chest trying to get rid of the tightness. You suddenly heard voices talking.

'You killed her'

'You shouldn't betray Sunghoon'

'This is your fault'

'Now suffer the consequence'

"Ahhh stop talking!! I didn't kill her!"

You hit yourself many times to protect yourself from the voices. You screamed and sobbing when it became worse. You moved to Sunghoon while still on your knee and hugged his leg begging for help.

"Make it...make it stop Hoon..I- I can't hold it. Please."

Within few seconds, you passed out after Sunghoon jabbed the needle he was holding on your neck. He called someone to clean the mess and carried you upstairs.

_____

You woke up from the sleep after few hours. You felt like you just had a worst nightmare ever. But then, when you looked on your clothes and hands you realized it's not a dream. The blood stain is still there and you felt like shitty remembering what happened back in the basement.

You sat on the bed quietly until you saw Sunghoon came in with small towel and bowl of water. He didn't say anything and just clean your face and hands from the blood. He also changed your dirty clothes to a new one and sat in front of you after finished doing it.

Both of you didn't talk. You looked down to your fiddling fingers and Sunghoon just stared at you. As like he knew you wanted to say something but you are afraid to do so. At last, you lifted your head and looked at him.

"What...what do you do to my sister?"

Oh, how soft your voice. Sunghoon melted at the sound of it. He caressed your face and leaned closer to you so he can kissed you.

"Bury her, of course. I would not keep corpse in this house, y/n."

It was a dumb question but you somehow really need assurance from Sunghoon that your sister finally not suffering anymore. You hope that he at least bury her at good place.

Sunghoon finally stood up. Before he walked away, he tied a cloth on your mouth and your hands to the bed. Again, you felt confuse with the act. He went to the front bed and facing you. He stared at you or more to your legs.

"You will run away again."

He tapped on your left leg.

"I don't want that to happen."

He tapped on your right leg.

"So, I should prevent you from moving."

You screamed out loud when you felt your bone on the right foot broken. You were trashing on the bed trying to let yourself off from the rope. It hurts so much and you started to cry because of the pain.

"Now, you can't run away anymore."

-----

Wow, did i wrote that😱😲 i hope you guys enjoy tho😁😁😁

Taglist: @stacey-stonem @duolingofanaccount @cyberpinkx

[xsweetcatastrophe]

You Broke Me First

Part 25

"What time will you be home? I want to show you this house I made an offer on today," Cillian said into the phone as he drove down the street. "Then we can pick up dinner on the way back? Wanna try that sushi place that opened up a couple blocks away?"

Zoe smiled. "Look at you getting the lay of the land and knowing new neighborhood restaurants opening up," She teased.

"I like food." Cillian said simply. "Anyways, what time?"

"I'll be done at 4"

"Soooo I'll see you at 4:05?"

"Cillian," Zoe said, laughing. "with traffic, maybe 4:30."

Cillian pouted, and Zoe could swear she could hear it through the phone, if possible.

"Fine. I'll see you then."

"Don't be a pouty baby," Zoe said.

"I'm not... I just miss you," Cillian replied.

"Cill, you saw me 3 hours ago," Zoe giggled.

"So?"

This was unchartered territory for Zoe. She was never on the receiving end of this type of infatuation. She was usually the one to give it, and it never ended well for her.

She had mixed feelings about how the meeting with Heather went. She loved how Cillian stood up for her and didn't take no for an answer. She was almost turned on by the way he took control of the situation, and they laughed about it on the way home making bedroom jokes the entire way.

As annoying as it was, something still felt off about the meeting. Cillian swore everything was fine, and they were going to be together and everything was going to be just like how it was. But something was eating away at Zoe, was it intuition? conscience? but something felt off with the way Heather carried herself in the meeting.

Maybe she was just paranoid.

"Hey, do you have the outlines done for next week?" Mia said, walking into Zoe's office.

"Uh.. what?" Zoe said, quickly hanging up the phone. She'll text Cillian apologizing later.

"The outlines. They were due on Friday but we got an extension."

"Oh. Uh, shit. I didn't finish them, I can have them by the end of the day today," Zoe said, only being half sure of what she was talking about. Outlines sounded familiar, but she couldn't remember exactly.

Mia sighed and bit her lip. "Donna's gonna flip. Can you have them by the end of the day for real? I personally don't care, but I'm the one who has to break the bad news to Donna and she wasn't happy when I asked for the extension last week for you, and I don't feel like getting the brunt end of that again."

Zoe smiled. "They'll be in her inbox by 4. I promise. Sorry Mia, next time I won't put you in that position."

"Thanks Z," Mia said, turning around to walk out the door. "Let me know if you need help with anything."

Mia closed her door and Zoe sighed as she slumped against her chair. She couldn't remember anything about outlines.... maybe there was a conversation last week that she missed?

She took out her phone and there was already a text from Cillian.

Cill: :(

Zoe rolled her eyes.

Zoe: Sorry, boss walked in. Let me get some work done so I can be home sooner. I'll text you when I'm on my way home.

Cill: See you later, Bunny.

"Keep your eyes closed!" Cillian said, finally pulling the car to a stop.

Zoe had rushed through an outline that turns out she never started to begin with and submitted it by 3pm. She tied up some loose ends at work and left promptly at 4. She pulled up to Cillian waiting outside, meeting her at her car door and practically pulling her out of it to give her a kiss and pull her into his car.

"They've been shut!! I'm thinking about what my neighbors might think if they saw you drag me out of my car and shove me into your car, they probably think I got kidnapped" Zoe laughed.

There was a moment of silence, then "Ok yea maybe that was a little aggressive," Cillian said, coming to the realization of how it might have looked to someone just casually walking down the street and witnessing it.

They both burst out laughing and Cillian reaches over and squeezes Zoe's thigh, leaving it there for the remainder of the drive.

"Ok, we're here. Wait here I'll help you," Cillian said, pulling the car over and putting it in park. he shut it off and hopped out and ran to the passenger side, opening the door and helping Zoe out.

"Can I open my eyes yet?" She said, getting anxious.

"One second, one second," He said, standing behind her and putting his hands over eyes. "Just take a couple steps more... okay. perfect. Ready?"

"Ready for what??"

Cillian removed his hands Zoe opened her eyes. She waiting for her eyes to adjust as she squinted to what stood in front of her. A huge house, with hydrangeas along the front of the pristine white brick of the exterior. Large trees stood tall on the sprawling lush green lawn, which made the red brick walk to the front door stand out. Black double doors with gold hardware shined in the evening sun, matching the black shutters that surrounded the exterior windows.

"Wow," Zoe said, looking around. There was a good distance between the neighboring houses, with trees lining the street along with old fashioned gas lamps as street lights.

"I... feel very broke," Zoe said, still looking around in childlike awe.

"You? Ha, i'm the one who just wrote the check for the deposit," Cillian said, smiling.

Zoe spun around and stared him down. "Is this... Cil, is this yours?"

Cillian smiled. "Made an offer on a couple today, this was the last one. I fell in love, offered more than asking, they accepted right away, I wrote the check and immediately called you," he said.

"Oh my god!" Zoe exclaimed, running into his arms, throwing hers around his neck. He caught her, picked her up and spun her around.

"I couldn't wait to tell you, do you see why I was bugging you all day?!" He said laughing, pressing his lips to hers. He put her down, lips still on hers, holding her as close to her as possible. "Let me show you inside," He whispered against her.

He took her hand and guided her through the front door, which opened to a big lobby with a sprawling stair case. Everything was open concept, fresh and clean. The sellers kept it in pristine condition so it was move-in ready.

"I want to show you my favorite part," He said, guiding her past the staircase into the gourmet kitchen.

"Wow," Zoe exclaimed, her voice echoing and bouncing off the walls. Half of my apartment can fit in this kitchen." She said, looking around and running her hand along the white marble countertop.

"This place is very... clean. I feel weird being in here. I'm too dirty," Zoe joked.

"Yea you are," Cillian said, wiggling his eyebrows. Zoe rolled her eyes and Cillian walked to her and hugged her from behind. "I saw this kitchen and I thought about being in here, cooking and dancing around with you," He said, half mumbling into her neck. "I see me and you in every room here. And maybeeee......" He drew out, kissing her neck and squeezing her tighter, "When your lease is up... you can NOT renew and, maybe, move in here... with me."

Zoe's eyes went wide; she spun around in his arms and looked at him.

"What?? Seriously?!" She said, half excited and half in shock.

Cillian nodded. "Only if you want to. I just... I want to be close to you," He said, resting his forehead against hers. Zoe sighed and rested her hands against his chest. "We're crazy," She said, shaking her head.

"No, we're not," He replied, placing his hands over hers on his chest.

"Cill, we contractually dated for 3 months and you're asking me to move in!" She laughed.

"I don't care. I don't care about any of that. I want you. I want to be with you. You make everything better, you make me better," He said, taking her hand and bringing it to his lips and kissing her knuckles. "And, Scout is gonna miss you. He told me," He added.

Zoe laughed. "Well... Tell Scout that I'm month-to-month"

Cillian raised an eyebrow. "Scout doesn't know what that means."

Zoe rolled her eyes. "I'm not in a year long lease. If I want to leave I just have to give a month or two notice."

Cillian's eyes lit up. "Really?"

Zoe sighed. Internally, she was screaming. This was a HUGE step, for a relationship that was only 3 months old. Moving in and giving up her safe space, the one place she can call hers, made her feel nervous. But she never felt like this before. She felt so happy. She was so incredibly infatuated with Cillian. She'd do anything to chase this high.

And yet, there was still a pesky alarm still going off in the back of her head.

Just ignore it. Right?

tags: @lau219 @borntodiemp3 @shopgirl6us @cillianmurphyvevo

[saintsenara]

Thoughts on tomarry

thank you for the ask, anon!

tomarrymort was one of the first ships i ever read, and it remains a firm favourite of mine. certainly, it's my preferred pairing for harry [sorry to all the hinny girlies i'm friends with now], and it's up there among my preferred pairings for voldemort [along with riddledore and snapemort].

[i have a current tomarry wip, as well... just in case you were looking for something to read...]

but why do i like the pairing?

firstly, a couple of facetious - but still extremely important - points:

harry does not stop banging on about how hot tom riddle is. he simps for him shamelessly, which i respect, and he's clearly physically attracted to him, which is important in a relationship. tom is a bit more demure, but he does point out that he and harry look alike, so clearly he's been checking him out.

their mind connection is also hot, as generations of smut writers know.

thinking about how all harry's friends react to the revelation that he's banging the dark lord entertains me endlessly. ron, a stoic, can handle it; hermione, very much not a stoic, cannot. my guilty pleasure is the idea that dumbledore secretly ships it.

the pairing lends itself really well to a vast variety of themes and genres. darkfic, villain-redeeming fluff, time travel, stockholm syndrome, crack, horror, pwp? yes, all yes.

and then the main, and much more serious one:

harry is, canonically, the only person to believe in the possibility of voldemort's redemption.

the complexity of grief, anger, and atonement is something i like to explore in my reading and writing, and voldemort being someone whose obvious damage has led him down very dark paths is my preferred way of seeing him. i love an outrageous villain voldemort as much as the next girl, but i definitely would rather write him as slightly more fragmented and, therefore, slightly more capable of doing something with his life beside killing and being immortal.

harry gives him that space, and the pairing has so much potential for being a genuinely beautiful meditation on the power of forgiveness and love.

i'll try most things once, but i have developed some tomarrymort dislikes:

the forgiveness point is the reason that i don't like the subgenre of tomarrymort in which voldemort has all the power. the prophecy said the dark lord shall mark him as his equal, but that seems to be absent from lots of fics.

the canonical harry does not respect the canonical voldemort as he behaves in the series - and he certainly does not and would not submit to him, even in the face of torture [he refuses to bow to him in the graveyard when he's fourteen, he's not letting him run rings around him as an adult].

similarly, while harry is prepared to be morally flexible in pursuit of the things he wants, i don't think he would ever accept a relationship with voldemort in which voldemort actively refuses to change even a little. this doesn't mean writing voldemort as suddenly becoming a meek little lamb, but it does mean harry fighting him on his worst instincts and, very probably, winning. that isn't to say that i don't like dark stories with the pairing, but i much prefer those fics if harry stays defiant and aggro until the very end in them.

on a similar point, i'm not fond of harry when he's written to be fragile, delicate, or stereotypically feminine [he's a jock who wants to become a cop!].

i'm a member of ham nation, but i'll happily read fics in which harry bottoms, but i would like it if authors could move on from equating that with a hyper-submissive personality, completely subsumed and controlled by voldemort. maybe they do have dom/sub vibes in the bedroom - i love that for them! - but that's not the same as top/bottom and it doesn't mean it spills out into everyday life.

i very rarely read fem!harry stories for a similar reason.

and then, in general, i don't read non-magical aus, and i prefer fics without dumbledore bashing, which can be hard to find.

[smokersbaby]

Sixth submitted request for the July Event, enjoy! 💕 SUBMISSIONS ARE OPEN (CLICK HERE TO SEE THE MAIN POST)

Request text: Hi! How are you going? I love your work. Can I ask for prompt n.11 (sfw) and with Law and female reader? Law is on an island visiting his girlfriend (who is not part of his crew to keep her safe). The two of them are reflecting, talking about what could’ve been if Law stayed with Doflamingo (but was cured) if they never met, etc while watching the stars or looking out at the ocean at night. While talking she falls asleep and Law confesses/says something that shows she’s the only person he can be this way with (like something out of character for our usually stressed out cranky surgeon that Penguin and Shachi would do make fun of him for). Sorry it’s a lot. Thank you and have a great day/night! 💙💙 Written for: @trafalgardvivi Character: Trafalgar Law Reader: female reader Prompts:  SFW: #11 - falling asleep on your partner's shoulder Total word count: +700 Author's note: Thank you for the request! I actually do appreciate A LOT detailed requests, it helps me when my imagination is slightly off! Anyway this scenario was so cute and I loved writing it, I hope you like it, enjoy! 💕 -Every reblog is highly appreciated!-

It was such a calm night, different from most of the times when the two of you were involved in fights or dealing with other pirates, a little moment with Law that felt surreal because of what you were accustomed to. That place was a slice of heaven: no one else except you and Law on the tiny abandoned island, the sound of the waves breaking on the pointy rocks in the distance, as you were sitting one beside each other without saying a word, just admiring that endless water expanse in front of you. "I wonder where I'd be now if I stayed" Law broke the silence. You tilted your head with an interrogative expression, trying to understand what he was talking about. He continued. "With Doflamingo I mean, if I decided to not run away and live my own life. Probably I'd be like Baby 5 and Buffalo, another Doflamingo's henchman" he chuckled saying that, the image in his head felt so weird as he tried to imagine how his life would have been. "Probably I wouldn't even have met you," you said to him, making Law look at you as the full moon's light was reflecting on your faces. His expression frowned, Law didn't think about that possibility, it was only an imaginary scenario but the idea of not having you by his side in a different reality of events made him feel a void in his chest. He overlooked that detail and kept talking about how it would have been his life in a different scenario, without citing the fact that you wouldn't have been by his side because it hurt him too much. As he continued, you placed your head on his shoulders, looking at the dark sea in the night shining under the moonlight, a feeling of tiredness took over your body as you were listening to your boyfriend's talk. Soon you fell asleep on him without realizing it, Law kept going on with his hypothesis until he realized you weren't listening to him anymore because you weren't replying. "Y/N-ya?" he whispered, looking at your sleeping cute face, you had such a calm expression and that made Law smile, knowing you were comfortable enough to fall asleep on him thanks to the sound of his voice. "I'm so glad I met you. If you weren't with me I…" he stops for a second to think about how he will feel if he'd never met you. That void in his chest consumed him from the inside just at the thought.

"…I couldn't have done it without you, Y/N-ya". Law pulled you closer to him, his hand caressing your hair and moving them away from your face to plant a soft kiss on your forehead. "The way you make me feel loved and you care for me… it's something I haven't felt in years." he chuckled, thinking about how Cora-san took care of him when he was a child, it was a different situation and another kind of relationship for sure, but somehow you made him feel at ease just like Corazon did. He started combing your hair with his fingers in a relaxing way, seeing how your lips turned into a light smile. That was a thing he always loved to do since you were the one falling asleep first when cuddling in bed. Law was the kind of person with a lot of sleep deprivation and that wasn't a secret, but since you two started to spend the night in the same bed, he gained a bit of his lost sleep back because of how your presence made him feel calmer than usual. "You're my favourite person Y/N-ya" he said planting another kiss on your forehead, that was his way to tell how much he loved and cared for you. "I love you too Law" you mumbled, snuggling against the crook of his neck and making his cheeks turn to a dark shade of red as he realized that you probably heard every single cheesy word of his. That blush on his face made you laugh a bit and giggle at the same time because of how happy you were because of the words he dedicated to you. "Y-you heard everything?" he seemed to panic, looking at you with that flustered expression of his. "Every single word" You smiled and booped his nose and a faint smile appeared on his face, he was still embarrassed but somehow glad that now you were aware of how he truly felt with you, knowing that he had a special person he could trust and love without measure.

[ettawritesnstudies]

Hi Etta! Sorry if you already mentioned this, but where/how did you find your editors? (If you don't mind sharing)

Don't mind at all!

I know there are companies like Reedsy and the Writers Digest which have databases of editors, but that seemed really overwhelming. At the end of the day, the best way to get resources is to network (make friends, and hope their mutuals like you too).

Last year, I did an interview for Amanda Auler on Instagram and she boosted my account, so months later I ended up doing an interview for Addison Horner. He does editing for indie authors, so I asked him for a sample edit and liked it, but I wanted to get other points of comparison first, so I asked around and came up with a short list of editors. I contacted them, and when I had enough to compare, I ended up deciding I liked Addison best and drew up a contract with him. God moment that I found him so quickly.

But if I had to give this advice to someone else I'd recommend following these steps:

Read books in your genre. Read INDIE AUTHORS in your genre. Review their books. Follow them on social media. Be a friendly fan but don't make it weird.

Indie authors are one person publishing teams desperate for engagement and positive attention. They will thank you for your help and be willing to pay it forward when the time comes.

Once you have a handful of books you like that have similar vibes to your book, flip to the acknowledgements and find the editors name.

Google the editor, find their site, submit your inquiry, email works better than a form.

If you can't find the editor online, DM the indie author and ask "hey I really liked your book and it's a good comp title for my WIP. Who's your editor and what was your experience with them like? Do you mind pointing me their way?" Follow the author's advice. Repeat as needed.

(I've only ever received nice responses to this, don't be anxious. If they don't reply they're probably just busy, not annoyed).

When you contact editors, ask about their availability, rates, and be specific about what type of editing you need. Ask for a free sample edit. Mine were 250-2500 words.

Supply details about your WIP. Mine looked like this:

Title: Runaways

Genre: Middle Grade Portal Fantasy. I'm not labeling it as "Christian Fiction" as religion isn't a focus point of the story, but there are significant underlying Catholic themes.

Premise: When Cecelia goes missing one stormy Halloween night, her older sister, Hannah, must venture into the faerie courts to learn the truth about their past and bring her home. (Linked WIP Page with additional information)

Length: About 86,000 words, 180 pages (Times New Roman, 12pt, double spaced, standard 1in margins formatting). 21 chapters with an epilogue

Style: 3rd person limited, present tense. 3 POV characters: primarily Hannah at first, and then Cecelia and the third added later, alternating.

Status/Timeline/Availability: Currently with a 2nd round of beta readers, and I'll be getting feedback by March 31st. After editing the draft to reflect their feedback and doing my own line edits, I'll be looking for a line/copy edit around April/May or early summer.

Types of edits needed: As I understand, every editor uses "line" and "copy" edit slightly differently, but I'm looking for a combination of both styles if possible: checking for internal consistency, logical choreography, adequate descriptions, minor plot or worldbuilding errors, as well as language concerns like cutting crutch words, making sentence structure more dynamic, choosing the right verbs, etc. Developmental editing not needed. Waiting to do proofreading at the moment

When perusing at the editors site, look for credentials/certifications, their backlog of works, and testimonials

If you don't have enough options following this method, join some discord servers! I'm in a local NaNoWriMo group and a Catholic Writers Guild called Inkwells and Anvils which were both useful. I think there might be some writeblr ones as well. Find the critiques channel and send the same information there^^

Compare sample edits. Who respects your voice? Who supplied the most insightful comments? Do you vibe over email? Are they willing to do a stylesheet? Do they like your book? Can you set up a 15 minute zoom call to see if you vibe and discuss details?

Look at prices. My rate is $.015 a word but that's pretty cheap for the industry. Most of the rates I saw publicly were between $.02-.03/word for line editing.

Pray/sleep on it

Once you pick your best option, set a date to send them the manuscript, sign contracts, and make payment.

Send a polite email to the other editors and say "I regret to say you're not quite the right fit for this book, but I appreciate all your time, help, and advice! I hope to work with you in the future" or something along those lines. Don't burn your bridges.

Celebrate!

This whole process took me a couple weeks, everyone was very punctual and professional and friendly. I ended up going with Addison not only because he was the cheapest but also because he made 3X the number of comments as any other writer, and his comments were specific and useful. He understood my characters immediately, I think in part because his writing style is similar to mine, based on his debut novel, Marrow and Soul. We're both Christians who like YA dark fantasy. It's a good match. He's still taking clients for later in the year if that's your vibes. I also worked with Amber Burdett and Sariah Solomon, who were both lovely.

I wish you the best of luck finding an editor who fits your story! I hope this was helpful and not overly long.

[kanmom51]

Kanmom, I haven't seen this moment talked about - correct me if I'm wrong - so I'm submitting it to you, for your objective opinion and to check my delulu-ness.

It's one of Jimin's welives on the go, in the car. The 16-minute one on or about March 28. It's still daytime and he's got his grey hood up and make-up still on (and looking gorgeous).

Around 10:18, he says that this is fun and now he gets why JK does welives like this. Then the driver and/or manager asks, is [the welive] over? JM says no, laughs heartily, says it's fun, and then seems to assure manager-nim, it's ok, it's ok.

This got my jikooker antennas tingling. Why would the mention of JK signal to his manager that the welive is over? Because he's not supposed to talk about JK unless specifically referencing a comment from JK himself or an ARMY comment about JK? Or because he's always talking about JK in his downtime?

Anyway, I dunno if I'm reaching but this moment was fascinating for me because we NEVER hear a manager in a live. Even when they came into JK's hotel room when he was getting stalker calls, they entered and took the phone out of the situation in silence. And, of course, there are those old, sus vlives where JM has said it's a manager moving, but not talking, in the background.

Even if this was not a thing, JM being so kind and reassuring to Mr. Manager who was probably going, oh shit, I'm so sorry! You weren't done?! was so cute to see. He is really the sweetest.

Yes @jiminsthighsfr, I did notice the whole manager/driver thing that went down. And no, I have no idea why he started talking.

Now, it's not like they arrived at their destination. We can still see the car bouncing around. So why did the manager or driver say that (not sure which it was)?

He says that and he giggles.

And continues:

And then again, looks at the person and giggles some more.

And then calms them:

Now, that could be him calming them because they spoke while he was still live, or that could be him calming them because of whatever the reason was for that person to ask if it was over, cough JK cough.

It's a little hard to think it didn't have something to do with JM mentioning JK seeing that's exactly when the manager/driver saw fit to ask the question...

Could the manager have thought it was over because JM mentioned his name or more so talked about JK's lives?

Went back to watch the whole thing. To see if this is the first time JM mentions JK's name out of context, meaning if this is the first time he says his name not reading a comment or reacting to one...

So up to that point JK hadn't commented yet, and although JM did mention JK it was always by reading a comment and answering it.

That statement about it being fun, that came out of no where.

Perhaps the person thought he was commenting about the live, or more like it being over, especially because he brings up JK independently.

If he wasn't fully paying attention he could have thought JM was done and talking to himself or to him kind of saying : "this was fun, now I see why JK does this".

I do have thoughts about certain guidelines they were given with regards to interactions and mentions. Let's not be naive here. For two members whom we all know were considerably the closest with each other in the group, inseparable would be the word to describe them, to go dead silent, not to be seen together, not to be paired together, not to be interacting with each other even when they are with others, like not at all, that's not a choice.

I keep repeating this time and time again. There is a reason JK did what he did with his IG account. Not everything is about them being a couple, obviously, but definitely some of it is.

Do we remember this happened in this live?

This one JM:

I didn't even remember that JM was asked this during the live, lol.

And the way JM had to think out his answer to the question if he saw JK's photos that came out... adding Tae into the mix, even if he wasn't asked about him. Man had to think strong and hard before coming up with handsome? Saying he saw the video. Handsome? Really JM? I can think of other words that were probably floating up there in his mind. Probably also the reason it took him so long to come up with handsome, lol.

Really enjoyed watching this one again. Thanks you for making me, lol.

[kachikirby]

GranEssex Chronicles: Chapter 1 - Unmasked Origins

It was supposed to be another standard-issued mission: Head to a planet known for its high crime rate and eliminate a notable criminal group. What Kurabe wasn't expecting to find was that her target was already eliminated, by, of all things, a child. The child was clearly a Star Warrior just from appearances alone. He was dark blue in color, had piercing white eyes and was wielding a stick with a stone tied to it.

"This gang was a class-A planetary-level threat. Did he seriously defeat all of them by himself?" Kurabe thought to herself as she approached this unknown person.

"My name is Kurabe. I'm with The Organization. I was sent here to deal with this group, but I see you already dealt with them." She said diplomatically.

The child just stared at her.

"I'll need to take you in for questioning. Come along peacefully and-"

Kurabe was cut off as the child dashed at her, swinging his makeshift club. She quickly blocked it with her left sword, Rubis, but was surprised by how powerful the attack was, even being pushed back a bit by the force. Though she noticed one thing: he had very little skill in combat and most of his attacks were slow and sloppy. Still, he had incredible potential. Potential that excited her. Just as she had that thought, her other sword, Grenat, was knocked out of her hand by another blow. Thinking fast, Kurabe quickly traced a rune and teleported behind the child, knocking him out with one quick karate chop to the head.

"I'm sorry, but this was the only way." She whispered as she wrapped the child in her cape and began to carry him back to her battleship.

As she stopped to pick up the sword Grenat, Kurabe noticed he was covered in cuts and bruises. Most likely from the fight with the gang. None of the injuries seemed fatal but they would need to be treated quickly to prevent a potential infection.

"Should I have Bukiset...? No, it would probably be better if I treated him myself..." She thought.

There's no doubt that the child would be intimidated if too many people crowded around him at once, making him much more difficult to deal with.

---------

Soon they reached the ship and was greeted by the GranEssex's vice captain, Mercury.

"Welcome back, captain. How did the mission...go? What's with the kid? Are they alright?" The woman uttered in surprise upon seeing the bundle.

"Outside of a few cuts and bruises, he's fine. Actually, he's the one who eliminated the mission targets, so you can submit it as completed."

Mercury just looked at her in shock, but quickly regained her normal expression. "I'll get the med kit."

"Yes, please do. And take it to my room."

As her subordinate began to leave, Kurabe began to think back on the emotions she felt from the child while fighting and carrying him back. At first glance, it was a mismatch of unsure feelings, but she could now pick out a single one: fear.

"Who would leave a child on a planet like this?" She wondered. She could always ask him when he awoke, but she doubted that would be much help.

Kurabe walked to her room and set the child down in one of her chairs. Mercury quickly arrived with the med kit in hand.

"Do you want me to handle it, Captain?"

"No, I can handle it. Besides, I think having too many people around him will make it more difficult to talk to him."

"Understood, I'll leave you to it then." The woman said and left, leaving Kurabe alone with her thoughts and the child. Quickly she walked over to the sink and filled a bowl with water.

"...alright, first is to clean the area with mild soap and water to prevent infection..." She thought, attempting to recall what she remembered about first aid.

---------

While cleaning him up, Kurabe felt... off for lack of a better term. Why was she so concerned for this child? Sure, she didn't like seeing children hurt, but this was different. Could it be because they were the same species? Her mentor had once told her about how Star Warriors tend to feel a certain closeness to each other. Before she could question that feeling more, the child began to wake up.

"Good morning." Kurabe said as kindly as she could.

The child's eyes widened in fear, likely due to not knowing where he was. Then his eyes focused on Kurabe, and they became sharp again.

"Calm down, there's no need for any of that." She said with a glare, causing the child to loosen up, but still on guard.

"Where am I?" He asked.

Kurabe was caught off guard by his jaded tone.

"A child shouldn't sound like that..." She thought and then cleared her throat.

"You are on my battleship, the GranEssex. I brought you back here to treat your wounds and ask you a few questions."

There was a brief moment of silence.

"And you are?"

"Kurabe. I doubt you've heard me. And what's your name?"

He was hesitant to reply to her for a moment, but then decided to give in.

"...Meta." The child quietly replied.

"Meta..." Kurabe repeated with a slight hum.

"The name suits him..." She thought to herself as she began to put away the med kit.

"What were you doing on this planet, Meta? I sincerely doubt it was by choice." She then asked in a soothing voice.

He gave a questioning gaze towards her. "I live here."

"What about family?" She asked, dreading the obvious answer.

"...what's that?"

"You mean you don't have any parents? Not even a guardian of some kind?"

The child shook his head after thinking for a moment. "...I don't know. I live on my own."

"Then he's an orphan..." She thought with a slight sigh.

"Let's change topics then. Meta, why were you fighting those men and why did you attack me?"

"...they attacked me first and I didn't want to die. And you looked like you would hurt me, too..."

"Well, I wasn't going to."

The child slightly gritted his teeth before speaking. "I've heard that before. My entire life I've struggled to stay alive. Many people have pretended to be kind just to hurt me."

Hearing that broke the warrior's heart. Gently, she took one of his stubs in her hand, as if to comfort him. Then, she removed the visor that covered her eyes, showing a gentle, sympathetic expression.

"I'm sorry to hear that. What about now? Do you feel like I'm threatening now?"

She began to feel a warm, trusting feeling in her hand as he looked at her silently.

"No, but why? I attacked you. Why are you being kind to me? Do you just pity me?"

Admittedly, even Kurabe didn't have an exact answer for that.

"It's because I saw potential in you as a warrior."

"What does that mean?" He asked, all of his previously shown hostility replaced with confusion.

"I am one of the greatest warriors in the galaxy. The fact that you impressed me with your strength says enough."

Despite those words coming out of her mouth, Kurabe knew there was more to it than that. There was this other, alien feeling she was starting to develop, and she didn't know why.

"...I could tell you were powerful when we clashed." Meta admitted. "Stronger than me."

The warrior gave a nod in understanding. "Meta, do you wish to become stronger?"

"I need to become stronger. Living on this planet taught me one thing: only the strongest thrive. That's why I named myself Meta. To be strong and durable like metal."

"But even metal can break and bend without reinforcement, no?" Kurabe responded quickly.

The child became silent upon hearing this, as if acknowledging that she was right.

"And my training would be the reinforcement to your metal."

There was a moment of silence.

"Can... I have time to think, please?" Meta asked, quietly.

Kurabe was pleasantly surprised by the sudden politeness.

"Take as much time as you need to think." She replied with a smile.

Then she heard a slight growl coming from the blue puff, whose cheeks seemed to redden in embarrassment.

"You must be starving. Wait right here." Kurabe said, leaving to grab something for the child to eat.

Meta looked around at the room he was in. It alone was nicer than anything else on this planet. Could he obtain something like this if he stayed with Kurabe?

"Do you like sweets?" The warrior suddenly asked.

Meta looked at her curiously. "Sweets? Is that like jerky?"

"No, it's quite the opposite of jerky, actually. It's... well... try it for yourself." She placed a plate in front of him at the table.

While Kurabe knew it was chocolate fondant, the child clearly had no idea what it was. Meta took a hesitant bite and his eyes widened. It was without a doubt the best thing he'd ever eaten. Almost immediately, he began to scarf down the rest of it quickly... by inhaling it. Kurabe chuckled at this.

"So, I take it you enjoyed it?"

She received an enthusiastic nod in response. Kurabe smiled. Underneath the initial antagonism was a sweet kid, though it pained her to know that such a kid was abandoned in the first place. Maybe... even if he didn't want her to train him, he could still stay here. At least he would be safe on the GranEssex. Then her thoughts turned back to what she was thinking about earlier. Why exactly was she acting like this? While yes, she was interested in Meta's potential as a warrior, but that doesn't explain all of her actions. Usually, she would just drop them into training instead of doing everything she just did.

"Miss Kurabe..." Meta said snapping her out of her thoughts.

"I think I would like to stay here. If that's fine with you..." He uttered, averting his gaze shyly after asking that.

"Of course." She simply replied.

It was then that a thought crossed her mind: did she want to be his mother? No, that can't be it. That's when she noticed something: Meta was crying. However, it wasn't out of sadness, rather it was tears of joy. Acting completely on instinct, Kurabe wrapped him up in a hug.

"...Miss... Kurabe...?" The child uttered in confusion.

"Not "Miss". It's "sensei" … and think of this as me welcoming you into my family."

The blue puff managed to wipe away a few of his tears while in her grip.

"Sensei, is this... what family is?"

"That's something you'll need to decide for yourself, Meta. But, I'd like to try being your family."

The child became silent for a few minutes.

"I don't know what family is but... ok..."

The warrior gave a slight sigh. "To put it simply, a family is a group of people that trusts, supports, and loves each other."

"But what is love?"

Admittedly, Kurabe didn't really know how to answer that at first. How would you explain something as complex as that to a child? That was when she thought of it.

"Love is... something that's different for everyone, Meta. It's not something that can be taught. Only learned in time."

The child only pouted.

"For someone who's really powerful, you're awfully clueless about a lot of things..."

Meta then felt Kurabe tighten her grip and quickly looked at her eyes in response. She was still smiling but her eyes were promising something else. Something very painful.

"What was that, Meta?" She asked in a sweet but deadly tone.

The child shrank back with fear. "N-nothing..."

"That's what I thought." She said, loosening up her grip.

"She's really nice, but she's also really scary when she's angry..." He thought to himself.

---------

For the next few hours, Kurabe showed Meta around her room. While she didn't have many things for the child to play with, there were a lot of things he seemed to be interested in looking at. Her desk. The various photos on the walls. Even the soft, cushiony sofa. But the thing that seemed to interest him the most was the large bookcase.

"It's probably because he never saw anything here on that planet..." She thought as Meta admired the wall of books before immediately pulling him away when he attempted to climb it.

"It's dangerous to climb that, Meta. If you're interested in reading something, I'd be happy to grab it for you."

It hadn't crossed her mind until now. Was he even able to read?

"Meta, not to be rude, but can you read?"

The child shook his head in response. "No. Never learned how, never saw a need for it."

She should've known.

"Would you like to learn how?"

Admittedly, there was probably no real choice in the matter if he wanted to become her student. The Organization wouldn't want an illiterate warrior on the battlefield.

"I'd rather not bother you, sensei."

"You say that, but you want me to teach you, don't you?"

Hearing that made the child avert his eyes as a slight blush appeared on his face.

"Y... yes..." He squeaked.

The warrior gave him a pat on the head.

"We'll start after dinner then."

The child gave a nod in understanding.

As Kurabe began to make dinner, she felt Meta silently watching her from the table. It appeared that he had mellowed out quite a bit since they first arrived on the ship, but his guard still seemed very much up.

"What's wrong?" She asked, getting a slight jump from the child in response. He then said... something. It was more of a mumble than anything.

"Please don't mumble. I can't understand you otherwise." The warrior gave a sigh.

A moment of silence.

"Sensei... what is family to you?" The puff asked.

"This crew for starters. Especially my second in command, Mercury. We've had each other's backs for a long time. Then there's my mentor, who is like a father to me. Even if he's a stubborn old fool. I guess in simple terms, family is the people I refuse to let go of. People I wish to protect."

Meta nodded in understanding. "Then what is love to you?"

"Love is when you'll do anything for the person you love. Regardless of if it's romantic or platonic. You'll understand more when you're older."

Her student then pouted at that. "But how do I know if I feel love? This is really hard..."

"Love is a complicated feeling, Meta, and it's something that just doesn't happen overnight. Trust me, when you feel love you'll know what it is."

After hearing that, the child seemed to understand. Then there was a knock at the door.

"I'll be right back." She said while opening the door. "What is it, Mercury?"

"I just came to check in on you. How's the kid?" The woman asked, looking into the room.

"He's doing fine. In fact, he's my new student." She said with a strange sense of pride.

"What? He agreed to becoming your student already?" She then gave a slight whistle. "That was quick. So, anyway, what's for dinner?"

"Actually, if you don't mind, Mercury, could you-"

"Give you some space? Yeah, I figured. I'll just eat with the Bukisets." The woman gave an understanding nod.

"Thank you." Kurabe replied with a smile.

"No problem. I'll check up on you two later. You two have fun then!"

With that, Mercury walked away.

"Was that the Mercury person you mentioned?" Meta asked.

"Yes, that was her."

"I see." He said, clearly curious about the silver woman.

Kurabe gave a smile. "I'll introduce her to you another time. For now, I should finish making dinner."

The child nodded, excited to see what food she was making. Hopefully, it was as good as what she made for him before.

---------

A half hour later, Kurabe placed a plate in front of Meta.

"Sensei, what is this?" He questioned after sniffing it.

"It's called chicken parmesan."

He then picked up the long noodles on the side and stared at them in curiosity.

"And that's spaghetti. I hope you enjoy it."

She then sat down at the table and began to eat her own plate of food, noting that the child was now staring at her. He then took two of the utensils and began to copy her movements with them to eat. As Kurabe watched Meta eat, she noticed he was on edge, like he was used to being on high alert. While it would be useful for the missions he'll no doubt take, it didn't make it any less sad.

"Meta, you can relax. This ship is incredibly safe, so please relax just a little."

Upon hearing that, the child seemed to understand, as he began to loosen up a bit. Then, to her own surprise, he inhaled the rest of the food on his plate.

"...Meta, I'm glad that you seem to enjoy my cooking, but please use utensils and take your time when you're eating." She said with a sigh.

"...can't you inhale, too, sensei?"

"I can, but I prefer not to. I'll have to teach you about table manners it seems." She said in amusement.

The child nodded and continued to do his best to copy her movements while eating.

Then, he seemed to speak up again. "That red sword you have..."

"Interested in swordplay, are you? Don't you worry, Meta, I'll be teaching you in the art of swordplay."

His eyes instantly lit up upon hearing that. "Really!?"

"Of course. You are my student now. It's my duty to make you as strong as I can. Both in body and mind."

"Thank you so-" The puff cut himself off, as if realizing something.

"Wait, I didn't I say I would think about becoming your student?"

"You agreed to it already, haven't you?" She replied with a slight smirk.

There was silence, as if Meta was thinking about everything that had been said and retracing every conversation. Suddenly, his cheeks began to turn red again in embarrassment.

"Can... can you really teach me about swords, sensei...?" He uttered shyly.

"I won't just teach you about swords. I'll teach you everything."

The child tilted his head in curiosity. "Everything?"

"Everything."

Before he could make a response, she spoke up again. "Well, we should probably make this a formal decision. However, I'll warn you about this now, Meta. My training can get pretty intense. Some of my previous students quit because of it. A few have even died. Are you sure you would like to become my student?"

The child seemed to hesitate.

"Don't worry. You can still live on this ship if you have second thoughts."

After hearing Kurabe say that, he then became quiet once again.

"You said that I'll become even stronger after your training, right?" He asked. "I've lived on this horrible planet long enough. I'm sure that nothing you throw at me can make me quit."

The warrior replied with a chuckle. "Brave words. But something tells me you'll be able to back them up. Well then, Meta, allow me to formally make you a member of my crew. Welcome to your new home."

The child gave a smile, the biggest that Kurabe had ever seen up to this point. "Thank you so much, sensei!"

"You're welcome, Meta." She replied warmly, noticing that Meta was now struggling to stay awake.

"Perhaps we should start our lessons tomorrow. Let me go set up a bed for you."

Seeing a nod, she hopped down from her chair and began to clear off the table.

"I believe we have an open room next to mine. I'll let him stay there..." She mused as she headed towards the room. "It's usually reserved for guests, but I think he can keep it..."

---------

When Kurabe returned, she saw that Meta was already asleep. Not having the heart to wake him, she picked him up and carried him to the bed she set up in the room next to her personal cabin. Though when she tried to walk away after placing him down and pulling a blanket over him, he unconsciously grabbed her.

"Don't want me to leave, do you?" She uttered with a slight chuckle. "Alright then, I guess I'll stay here with you for a bit."

Kurabe removed her eye visor and laid down in bed with Meta, making sure not to disturb him.

"Good night, little knight."

There was no verbal response, but the quiet, satisfied sigh was all she needed to hear as the child leaned closer to her.

---------

A short time later, Mercury was looking for her superior. She was slightly worried due to not finding her in her personal cabin like she said she would be. Then, she noted the extra room positioned close to said cabin. It looked like the door was unlocked.

"Hey, captain, are you in here?" She asked quietly while opening the door.

The only thing Mercury could hear was the soft breathing of the sleeping Kurabe and Meta. Opening the door a bit more, she noticed that the child was curled up close to her superior, who had laid an arm over him as if to reassure and protect him. At first, Mercury was surprised at this scene. But then, she gave a slight smile.

"Never in a million years would I think that she of all people would have something like a motherly instinct..."

Quickly, she grabbed an extra blanket from the closet and laid it over them with a slightly excited humming.

"Things are definitely going to get more interesting around here..."

---------

Extra: Character Toyhouse Pages

Kurabe

Mercury

[inevitablysomber-dark]

Shackled (Chapter 13)

Dark! Rafe Cameron x Pogue! Reader

Warning: There are some intense, dubiously consenting and nonconsensual sexual themes in this series, MATURE AUDIENCES ONLY. MINORS DNI.

Summary: You hate Outer Banks with a passion and are working hard to get out despite all the obstacles in your way. Rafe himself eventually becomes one of those obstacles after a night of low impulse control. Will you be able to overcome him or with you have no choice but to submit.

Slow Burn

Series Masterlist

Pain 

You were in so much pain.

Your face was throbbing, your eyes were swollen shut, and it hurt to breathe.

You couldn't feel your left leg, and the intense pain from your right arm was fading in and out.   

Despite being visually impaired, after a brief moment of concluding that you were still alive, quick insight from the sounds and smells surrounding you made you realize you were probably in the hospital. 

Outside of the beeps from the machines, and chatter from the nurses, what really got you was the robust and antiseptic smell most hospitals exuded. 

You were exhausted. 

A brief moment of relaxation forced the memories of last night to fill your head. 

Your father, unhinged and high as he took years of deranged aggression out on you, his confession that only confirmed the suspicions you've had all of these years, his awareness of your plans to flee Outerbanks. 

Only one person would have been able to give him that information, and if you ever saw him again, you would kill him. 

What the hell possessed Rafe to run to your father anyways. Was that supposed to convince you to stay? 

It didn't matter. 

A painful sigh forced a sharp up your spine, causing you to wince. 

"Why, hello there." you try to turn your head toward the motherly voice. "Now, Now you shouldn't be forcing yourself to move too much,"

You sensed her body move around you before her hands began fixing what you assumed were blankets covering your body. You open your mouth to ask what happened, but a sharp, bruising pain only allows a squeak to escape. 

"Charlie really did a number on you." the more you heard her speak, the more you realized it was Nurse Annie Rose, a practitioner who had been taking care of just about everyone at The Cut for the last 45 years, give or take, or at least that was her M.O. "I'm sorry to say, but I always expected that man to blow up, never thought it would be on his poor daughter,"

You squeak, wanting to say it wasn't him, to defend him. When you realized what you had planned to do, you couldn't help but feel disgusted with yourself. Why were you still trying to protect this man?

"Oh, hush up, sweetheart, now can you hear me, raise one finger for Yes and one for No" She touches your arm, and you raise one finger. 

"Good. Now can you understand what I'm saying?" You raise one finger for yes. "Good, now I'm going to explain what happened, ok. Do you think you'll be able to keep up?" 

You put up one finger. "Alright, if it does get to be a bit too much for you, just pinch my hand, ok." she slid her hand under your hand you could feel the wrinkles and veins throughout it. 

"So it looks like you have a bruised Larynx, which is why you can't speak, and we did give you a small cervical brace just in case you may have sustained any neck injuries."  you feel her move her clipboard around " You also have a dislocated shoulder and a few fractures in your right arm."

You try to fill your lungs, but your breath hitches from the pain.

"Careful, you also have several broken ribs, one of which punctured your lung and forced it to collapse, and you also have a sprained ankle. We've given you a few meds to help with the pain. The swelling in your face should go down enough for you to see tomorrow." 

Fuck, you were damaged. How were you supposed to leave now? 

"Your voice should also be returning tomorrow, albeit not without issues, so I would take it easy for a bit." she took another breath. Even though you couldn't see, you could tell that she was contemplating your state. "Now, you have a few guests who wanted to see you, but seeing as how you're under strict observation at the moment, I had to send them away, but they'll be coming in tomorrow evening to see you."

You could guess who it was. How did Rafe find out so quick? Was he the one that found you in the middle of the road? Was he waiting to play knight in shining armor?

"Now, are you ok?" Nurse Annie gently pulls your hand into her, rubbing the back of your hand with her thumb. You squeeze her hand back and lift one finger. 

"Good, so we can't give you any food now because we have a few tests to run that require you to fast for at least 8 hours, but if you do need some water, just push this button here," she slides what you assume is the nurse call button under your hand, "and they'll know what you need, they will also assist you when you need to use the facilities."

"Im off, but I will be checking in on you periodically, alright, sweetheart?"

You lift a finger, and she moves to leave. 

As you hear her footsteps disappear, one thought invades your head. 

You needed to get out of there.

***

You woke up with your eyes open for a start. You could see, and you couldn't be happier. The swelling in your face went down, and even though it hurt to speak, your voice had a foundation. 

Your morning was irritating, getting pricked and poked, medicated, and examined. Waiting over an hour to use the bathroom because they needed a waste sample. 

Finally, lunchtime hit, and you could put something in your stomach. You'd never thought you'd be so grateful for soft meatloaf, soggy mashed potatoes, and overcooked veggies. It was also time for your planned escape. 

You didn't need to go back home. One of your nurses showed you where your clothes were in the patient closet. You had enough money to catch a ride on the ferry to the mainland. There you would go to the bank to withdraw funds and buy a ticket out of North Carolina. You didn't need to stay, something in your gut was telling you to run, and you intended to listen to it.

When the coast was cleared, you got up as quickly as possible to get ready for your grand escape. It was challenging to breathe, and every step shot a burst of pain through you.

It took 30 minutes to put your clothes on. The struggle was imminent as you had to pace yourself. 

Leaving the hospital was a bad idea, but staying could be worse. 

You moved carefully through the small hospital, ensuring no one saw or heard you. It wasn't as difficult as you thought, considering they had other patients to attend to. 

The trek to the ferry was long and arduous as you felt your body getting weaker and weaker. Getting worse as you hit the waves to the mainland. The stares of those around you didn't help. It was as if they were watching a dying puppy struggle to survive. 

When you got to the bank, your credentials weren't working through the atm, so you were forced to go in. You first notice that Kelly isn't there, and you don't want to put any trust in any of these other tellers, so the first thing you do when it's your turn is ask for her. 

The teller is taken aback by your face, but she slowly gets back into her groove.

"Oh, I'm sorry, Kelly no longer works with our company, but maybe there's something that I can do?" 

"What happened?" you asked, voice scratchy and weak. 

"Unfortunately, we are unable to discuss the details of her termination with outsiders. In the meantime, is there anything I can help you with?"

"Ok," you say, unsure of yourself because you always worked with Kelly. Still, you were also desperate, so you gave the teller your credentials. 

"I'm sorry, it looks like your account has been frozen and seems to be in the process of being seized" she looks at you expectantly, but all you feel is confusion. "I can go ahead and put in an appeal if you'd like, but if you want more information on this process, I can only provide this number." 

She hands you a card with a number written on it. You decide to file the appeal to keep up appearances and head back to the ferry. 

There was no way this was a coincidence, and you were not getting that account back. You buy a ferry ticket using the last of your money and regret it as soon as you hit the waters.

Coming back was an admission of defeat. If you had stayed, you could've gone back to the strip club. You were sure Sam would be willing to help you till you got back on your feet, not without a price, but you at least wouldn't be heading back to the fucking island. 

Fatigue and weakness overtake your body once more. It had been rolling through you in waves all day.

If you went back to Barry, you could get some product, sell enough to pay him back and get another ferry ride back to the mainland. Get Sam or maybe one of the other girls to help you out. 

As you reached the dock, you could feel a migraine pressure forming in your head. It was late, and it would take forever to get back to Barry in this condition, but you had to try, you needed to get away.

[whoishotteranimepolls]

I’m sorry I know you’re buried but I gotta ask, did somebody really just request Toji 30 times? I thought you were exaggerating but now I’m concerned

I've deleted all the requests so I can't go back and check but there was I think five full requests with five matchups of toji v random character. So that's 25. Plus whatever other random requests have come in and there have been several. So we're definitely pushing over 30 polls at this point. My best guess is those original five all toji came from one person because they were all grouped together so they were submitted one after the other. If not it had to have been a coordinated group effort.

But this might be a good time to warn everyone. JJK has kind of taken over the queue because of the toji request incident. So for everyone who was sick and tired of One Piece The good news is queue is mostly now Jujutsu Kaisen so hopefully I don't get as many complaints about that anime. But I would also like to remind people I'm at the mercy of the request box and whatever trend is popular when it's open. This is just going to happen sometimes.

However, if you requested a non-jjk or one piece match up. I have good news for you because you're probably going to see it sooner now. Because I am going through the entire request box seeking them out so the queue can have some variety. That's also one of the reasons for the 6-way poll experiment so everyone wouldn't just be spammed with nothing but JJK and one piece. (Still not sure if it's going to be a permanent thing though. Might be a special thing when the queue is looking bleak)

But the jjk fandom is entertaining to the point where you guys are one of my favorite fandoms due to the pure entertainment value and the unhinged crazy. I mean have you read what these people put in the tags with no shame (I'm actually working on a post of my favorite things you all have put in the tags because some of them are just too good not to share). So never changed JJK fandom never change

[mcytblraufest]

Hi hi!! I'm very excited to see a reverse-bang is happening! I'm already in way too many fandom events but oh well what's more lmao

ANyway! I wanted to ask, for the artists, does the AU we draw have to be something completly new, or can it be one we've drawn for before? If we've drawn it before does it matter if those drawings have been posted elsewhere? (I just want to be sure 'cos I have a few ideas and some are for AUs I've played with in the past and others are for AUs I haven't really touched yet)

Also! Once we're paired with our writer, can the artist share ideas for story or whatever that they might have had for the au? Or is it just like 'here's my art, good luck!', giving the writer free-reign. And can we do more art for our writer than just the original drawing?

Okay I think that's everything, sorry for the rambly questions😅

Hello! No problem, we're happy people are excited!

The question of if you've posted about the AU before hits two snags, kind of.

The first one is anonymity. If you think that anyone who sees this AU will automatically know who submitted it, because it's a famous named au that people know from your blog— that would probably not be best to submit. I know art styles are often identifiable, but sign ups are still supposed to be reasonably anonymous. But if you've barely talked about it, go for it!

And the second one is the question about if a person has to consume like fifteen pieces and an essay to understand your art— that's not gonna work. The art pieces have to stand alone, whatever piece(s) you submitted. So if you have fifteen sketches in your drafts about this, but you can just make an awesome finished piece, then again, go for it!

So as long as your art will not immediately de-anon you and can stand along, submit away!

Once you're paired with the writer, you can share more ideas for story and brainstorming if you want, that would be awesome, but from a modly stance they're considered non-binding. The only information the person has to work with is the submitted information on the sign-up form. We want to make sure that the writer is jumping off of the art the artist provided, and any work they do is following from it and inspired by it, but after that point the writer does still have creative control over their own work. In the same way that last year we didn't want writers to be doing like— art orders that they'd only be happy with specific art— we want to make sure that artists are not doing fic commissions where they're basically ordering a fic to their specifications.

Which is way out beyond the edge of what you asked, I know you were just like "omg if I have extra ideas can I share them", and the answer to that is yes, but I just wanted to share the like end point rule of that from a mod standpoint, if you have creative differences. While you are absolutely free to share the ideas, we love the idea of collaborative brainstorming and that's one of the purposes of a big bang and the joys of working in teams, the writer can come up with their own ideas too if they want to, cause they're the one posting the work. So like in practice probably your writer will love to hear more ideas and work with them, in the same way that artists working with writers were happy to get extra details about what people looked like and what they were wearing (that happens with most events that I've seen). But at the end of it the person posting the fic gets final call about what goes into the fic, as long as they're adhering to the information posted in the sign-up. So yes absolutely you can be a brainstorming partner— but you're not a creative director— but being a brainstorming partner is awesome, go for it! Any amount of extra collaboration you can do with your partner rocks.

And absolutely you can do more art for your writer than your original piece! I know I've heard some artists talking already about how they intend to submit art, get matched to a writer, and then draw art based on the fic based on their art. We're gonna get nested art. Which absolutely rocks. If you want to do something like that, fill your boots, I can't wait to see what you come up with.

The baseline is that a big bang is about collaboration and working together with people. If you want to do *more* collaboration and working together with people, that's absolutely awesome and go for it.

[utilitycaster]

I know you've touched on it in the past, and sorry for using your inbox as a sounding board, but as someone who wants to believe Marisha and Laura when they say Laudna and Imogen love each other...I'm a bit disappointed that like...3 or 4 days have gone by in game since Laudna's resurrection and neither has even attempted to make it a point to seek out the other. I could understand if they tried and got spoken over or the plot got in the way, but damn...if someone who I was traveling with and I loved, platonically or romantically, died, id probably make it a point to pull them aside and check on 'em at some point, and the otherside if id died and came back id look to the person I love for comfort.

Hi anon,

So, I am going to answer this as seriously and as respectfully as I can but I do want to note you’ve asked perhaps one of the people in the fandom most skeptical towards this ship; with the least amount of patience just like, in general; among the most willing to get into analyzing fandom response and not just what’s onscreen; and among the louder voices clamoring for more Yios content. So I want to set the expectation that I greatly enjoyed this episode and am a somewhat unsympathetic ear. I am truly honored you wanted me as a sounding board, but also very confused. Unless you want a perspective you know will be very different than yours, in which case, genuinely, mad respect.

(below a cut because this is like a page and a half long)

This was a fast-paced episode that skewed heavily towards logistics, and there were very few opportunities for serious one-on-one conversations of any sort. I also am just guessing here, but I think that Laura is somewhat cognizant of how up front Imogen has been in this campaign in general and specifically (and understandably) during the most recent few episodes, and is trying to be thoughtful about taking up more screen time. Similarly, as Marisha said on this week’s 4-Sided Dive, Laudna feels almost embarrassed at how much work her friends had to go through to bring her back, and is unlikely to ask for more help right now.

Imogen and Laudna’s relationship has always, in my opinion, been marked by their mutual terror of getting too real and actually revealing their feelings to each other; they are, as of yet, wholly unwilling to submit to the mortifying ordeal of being known. It feels entirely in character that Imogen’s more than willing to snipe at Ashton or FCG for their good-faith attempts to help Laudna that don’t line up with her own understanding, or to force a potato-based meal on the whole party without even asking Laudna if she’ll be upset by a lobster dinner, but won’t, well, actually ask Laudna if she’ll be upset by a lobster dinner. 

These are two desperately lonely people who found each other and cling to each other, but who cannot have an honest emotional conversation. They apologized for the gnarlrock fight, but never addressed the underlying issues. And with Delilah seemingly gone, there goes that excuse, and if there’s another fight? It’s just going to be between them, and they will need to grapple with it. 

For what it’s worth, I hope they do. I actually would be thrilled to find something that makes me care about Imogen and Laudna as a romantic ship, and I think that if a catalyst (conflict, probably) were to happen to force them both to be even a little honest with each other, it could absolutely blossom into a love both compelling and wonderful. But Laudna’s death is not that thing. They still both see themselves as the protector of the other - in fact that’s likely to have worsened, not improved, what with their respective feelings of guilt -  without ever actually articulating it to each other. They can only talk about their pasts in terms of the immediate actionable items (get rid of Delilah, find your mother). They’ve never, in almost 40 episodes, really talked about how they feel (they've each said more to FCG and Ashton; it's telling that Imogen's greatest moments of honesty are in Imahara Joe's basement in the immediate aftermath of Laudna's death). And without something to force the issue, I think as time goes on it will get harder, rather than easier, because how do you say “hey, Laudna? I hate how my powers make me feel and I’m drowning here and you keep telling me I’m so capable” after 2+ years of tightly smiling and letting it pass? Honestly, it’s telling that the fandom saw Laudna as cheerful in the past, instead of almost manic at times; I suspect Imogen is making this same mistake.

I also know that a significant portion of the fandom is obsessed with this ship, and Laudna has some very…passionate fans, shall we say. But I don’t actually think the cast is terribly obsessed with this ship. Which isn’t to say they do or don’t like it or that it will or won’t happen in canon! But it is to say that the cast is well aware that this is Critical Role and not the Imodna Show. The fandom may forget, but the cast is quite aware that there are five other characters and twenty other one-on-one PC relationships that exist, not to mention that Imogen and Laudna do in fact exist as individuals with lives that do not solely revolve around each other.

I should also for that matter just note that I outright detest the dual and probably intertwined fandom trends of “My ship characters ONLY care about each other and no one else in the party” and “The plot should stop short and everyone should focus on my favorite character,” and here’s the thing: the plot did, in fact, stop mostly short and everyone did focus on Laudna for most of the last four episodes. And to be clear, focusing on bringing back Laudna makes perfect sense, and I'm not saying that you're doing this. But it does mean my patience for “but what about Laudna” is, right now, at something of a nadir. I would like to see the focus shift to other characters for a bit and, as mentioned, I think the cast is also cognizant of that.

The last thing I want to cover is that look, you’re on anon, and I don’t know you, and I am not positioning myself as a paragon of 100% healthy coping mechanisms and radical emotional honesty, and the fact that my favorite characters per campaign have been, respectively, Vex, Fjord, and Ashton is fairly revealing. But: would you reach out to your closest friend after a wildly traumatic and destabilizing event if you explicitly saw yourself as trying to make their life better than yours had been? Would you do this in the wake of a second tragedy with a permanent dead body just before you got on a long distance flight to Math Orc City, after having been tasked to kill your murderer? Or would you perhaps be kind of subdued withdrawn? Because I’d be the latter, and, having been openly frustrated with Laudna in the past, I love Marisha's choice to play Laudna this way and think it feels very real and interesting.

So to sum it all up: if you don’t have Imodna-colored shipping goggles onto which you have glued horse blinders to block out the rest of the party, this episode was great. I think that the choice to neither have Laudna reach out to Imogen, nor Imogen reach out to Laudna, nor for any real Laudna-centric conversations with anyone to have happened yet is very understandable for many in and out of game reasons. (This is already too long so I’m not even going into depth about how Bells Hells is very closed off as a group but: they are and that’s relevant) It’s absolutely valid if you’re disappointed, but I do not share this disappointment, even a little bit.